Sixteen more parliamentary standing committees were formed on Monday, most of which are headed by ruling Awami League MPs.

Out of sixteen, only one Committee is headed by an independent MP Mohammad Huchamuddin Chowdhury from Sylhet-5 who was made chief of the parliamentary standing committee religious affairs ministry.

Earlier twelve out of total 50 standing committees were formed on Sunday, the second day of the first session of 12th parliament formed through January 7 national election.

Chiefs of all the 12 standing committees except for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were made from the ruling AL MPs.

Chief of 15 other standing committees are: JS body on Education Ministry (Nurul Islam Nahid), Youth and Sports (Zahid Ahsan Russel), Cultural Affairs (Asaduzzaman Noor), Health (Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim), Women and Child Affairs (Begum Sagufta Yasmin), Liberation War Affairs (Rafiqul Islam), Primary and Mass Education (Aftab Uddin), Labour and Employment (HM Ibrahim), Commerce (Tipu Munshi), Fisheries and Livestock (SM Rejaul Karim), Agriculture (Abdur Razzaque), Environment (Dipankar Talukder), Disaster Management (ASM Firoz), Petition Committee (Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury) and Library Committee (Shamsul Haque).            

Chief Whip of parliament Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton placed the chiefs and members of the parliamentary standing committees following approval by the Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Jatiya Sangsad later unanimously formed the parliamentary standing committees.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury who was presiding over the House sitting at that time, gave approval of Petition committee which is headed by her.

Parliamentary standing committees are vital to ensure accountability and transparency of activities of different ministries.