Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has said parliamentarians can gather positive experiences through intensified inter-parliamentary communication. The Speaker said this at a meeting with Secretary-General of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Stephen Twigg at a hotel in London, the United Kingdom, said a Jatiya Sangsad release here on Thursday. Read: Development touches entire country: Speaker During the meeting, they discussed different issues including democracy, poverty alleviation, gender equality, climate changes, CPA activities and the 50 years of Bangladesh’s National Parliament. Dr Shirin said Bangladesh National Parliament wants to take stronger activities with CPA on various issues including climate changes, gender equality, poverty alleviation and democracy. Bangladesh has been working to increase the involvement of its parliamentarians, she said. Bangladeshi High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem was present

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Tuesday said the entire country has got the touch of development thanks to the able leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The development activities were not halted for a single moment even during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said. The Speaker was addressing a function at her parliamentary constituency --Rangpur-6 (Pirganj), said a press release. As part of the development spree, different development activities continue in every union of Pirganj upazila, she said. In the event held on the premises of noted poet Kazi Hayat Mamud's Mazar, 100 bicycles, 22 sewing machines, 20 wheelchairs and 20 spray machines were distributed among the beneficiaries of Chaitrakol and Vendabari unions. Read: Bangladesh enjoying a golden age of information flow: Speaker Pirganj Upazila Awami League acting president Prof Nurul Amin Raja presided over the function moderated by Pirganj Upazila AL general secretary and Pirganj Municipality Mayor ASM Tajimul Islam Shamim. Dr Chaudhury said work on a master plan is underway to make Pirganj a model upazila. She later exchanged views with local AL leaders at the Upazila Parishad Auditorium.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury left Dhaka for Rome on Thursday to participate in the pre-COP26 parliamentary conference. The Speaker will lead a delegation of Bangladesh Parliament in the two-day conference scheduled to begin in Rome on Friday. The other delegation members are Whip Iqbalur Rahim, MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Food, Dipankar Talukder MP, Jafar Alam, MP and Secretary of the Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat KM Abdus Salam. Read: Hasina’s climate leadership lauded at CVF-COP26 dialogue After wrapping up her visit to Rome, the Speaker will join the 3rd Eurasian Women's Forum at Saint Petersburg in Russia on October 13-15. Whip Iqbalur Rahim, MP, Adiba Anjum Mita, MP, and Khodeza Nasrin Akhter Hossen, MP will also participate in the forum. Read: Dhaka, London discuss shared priorities ahead of COP26 The Speaker is expected to return home on October 17, said a handout.

The fourteenth session of the 11th parliament was prorogued on Thursday, after only seven sittings as it was another short session amid the Covid pandemic. Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury read out the prorogation order of the President. Earlier, Leader of the Parliament and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Parliament GM Quader delivered their concluding speeches. Nine bills were placed in the session that began on the first day of this month. During the brief session, 31 important notices under section 71 of the rules of procedure were received, but none of them was discussed. Read: Medical Degrees (Repeal) Bill goes through Parliament Twenty-four questions were received for prime minister’s question-answer session and she replied to 16 of them. The session also received 584 questions for different ministers with the minsters answering 389 ones. Only a limited number of MPs joined the parliament session maintaining health safety rules due to the pandemic. There was a parliament sitting of this session on Friday, which is unusual as the day is a public holiday.    Before reading out the prorogation order, the Speaker thanked all the MPs of treasury and opposition benches and all other officials concerned for their cooperation in holding the session smoothly.

Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Sunday left Dhaka for Vienna, the capital of Austria, to attend the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament. She will also join the13th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament (13SWSP) and the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on Counter-Terrorism. The Speaker is accompanied by three Awami League MPs --Bodruddoza Md Farhad Hossain (Brahmanbaria-1), Rumana Ali (Women Seat-14) and Gloria Jharna Sarker (Women Seat-30). Read: Norwegian envoy meets Speaker Shirin Sharmin Secretary of Parliament Secretariat KM Abdus Salam and high officials saw the Speaker off at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday morning, said a handout. The 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, the world's largest gathering of the highest level of parliamentary representation, is being jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Austrian Parliament on September 7 and 8. This conference will be preceded by the 13SWSP on September 9 and be followed by the Parliamentary Meeting on Counter-Terrorism on September 9. Over 110 Parliament Speakers from around the world are expected to arrive in Vienna for the first in-person large-scale inter-parliamentary meeting since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury gave a shoutout to Centre for Research and Information (CRI) policy magazine WhiteBoard during her remarks at the 13th session of the current Parliament. She echoed WhiteBoard's editorial note written by Radwan Mujib Siddiq, grandson of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which states that Bangladesh's development discourse needs to be framed as a model. Bangladesh's development story is a result of rigorous policies and governance innovation, making it a new model for developing countries, think-tank CRI said in a Facebook post on Monday while sharing a video of the speaker's remarks. The thirteenth (budget) session of the 11th parliament was prorogued on Saturday after only 12 sittings with the presence of parliament members amid the ongoing countrywide lockdown – put in place to tackle the widespread Covid-19 transmission. READ: Speaker announces 5-member JS panel of chairmen Radwan said, "It is time to move on from referring to the 'Bangladesh Miracle' and start focusing on the 'Bangladesh Model' as the country seeks to consolidate its position as a middle-income country." In his editorial note of the fourth issue of WhiteBoard, the country's first-ever policy-based magazine, Radwan said, "As embodied by Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh, this model is anchored on people-centric policies that ensure the much-needed trickle-down effect to produce distributive justice." "We will strive to provide a space where voices, both old and new, can continue debating the most pressing policy choices in Bangladesh," Radwan also said. WhiteBoard is published by CRI to generate ideas for a comprehensive debate on critical national issues. The fourth quarter issue of this magazine was released recently marking one year of its journey. READ: Speaker pays tribute to Matin Khasru

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Thursday paid tributes to former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru MP (Cumilla-5), also the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law Justice and Parliamentary affairs. She paid the homage by placing a wreath at his coffin draped with the red-green national flag on Thursday after a namaz-e-janaza of the valiant freedom fighter. Also read:Ex-law minister Abdul Matin Khasru dies On behalf of the Speaker, the serjeant-at-arms of Parliament placed the wreath on the coffin of Matin Khasru, also the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president, at the premise of the Supreme Court, said a release from Parliament secretariat. Besides, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah paid tributes to Awami League’s presidium member Abdul Matin Khasru. On his behalf, an assistant deputy serjeant-at-arms placed a wreath on his coffin there, said another release. Following his namaz-e-janaza, Abdul Matin Khasru was given the state guard of honour there by the district administration. Then people paid their last respect to the valiant freedom fighter. Matin Khasru, the five-time MP, died of Covid-19 on Wednesday afternoon at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka at the age of 72. Also read:Ex-law minister Abdul Matin Khasru on life support He had been receiving treatment at the CMH since March 16 the day he was tested positive for Covid-19. He served as the law minister during the Awami League-led government of 1996-2001. He was elected the SCBA president on March 16 last.

Thirteen women were awarded the "Woman of Inspiration Award 2021" Saturday (March 27, 2021) on the occasion of International Women's Day. Global nonprofit organisation JCI Bangladesh organised the programme at a Dhaka hotel to honour the exceptional women "who inspire others to be more and do more." The inspirational women received the award in different categories including entrepreneurship, banking, legal affairs, business innovation, medical innovation, defence, art and culture, fashion and beauty, media, and corporate leadership. Read Legendary Women in Bangladesh with Pioneering Contribution in Diverse Fields.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Sunday said that women leadership is crucial in dealing with the adverse effect of Covid-19 in Bangladesh.

The 11th session of the 11th Parliament was prorogued on Tuesday soon after the House unanimously adopted the thanksgiving motion on the President's speech in the first session of the new calendar year of 2021.