United News of Bangladesh

A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to former Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in an attempted murder case linked to the 2024 July uprising. Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain passed the order on Tk 50,000 on bond considering her illness and gender, said Public Prosecutor M Omar Faruq Faruqi. There is no legal bar to the release of the former Speaker as she has not been shown arrested in any other cases, said court sources. A Dhaka court on April 7 sent her to jail in the case following her arrest the same day. According to the case statement, Ashraful alias Fahim suffered bullet injuries to his left eye in the Azampur Bus Stand area of Uttara on July 18, 2024 during the mass uprising, which ultimately led to the fall of the Awami League government on August 5. Later, he filed a case against 25 named individuals, including Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, and 120 unnamed ones. Following the fall of the Awami League government, she resigned on September 2, 2024. Abdul Hamid was elected Speaker after the Awami League came to power through the 2008 general election. Following his election as President, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was elected Speaker on April 30, 2013. Since then, she had been serving as Speaker until the government’s fall. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was a Member of Parliament from Rangpur-6 constituency.

Former speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury who was detained from capital’s Dhanmondi area early on Tuesday has been shown arrested in a case  over July Movement. Based on a secret information, a special DB team conducted  a drive and arrested her. Joint Commissioner (Detective Branch-North) of DMP Rabiul Islam Bhuiyan told UNB that Shirin Sharmin was wanted in several cases filed with different police stations in the capital after August 5 in 2024. She would be produced before a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court today, he said. Former Speaker Shirin Sharmin resigned on September 2, 2024, 27 days after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. Abdul Hamid was elected Speaker after the Awami League came to power in the 2008 elections. Following his election as President, Shirin Sharmin was elected Speaker on April 30, 2013. Shirin Sharmin was a Member of Parliament from Rangpur-6 constituency.

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.

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

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid a courtesy call on President Abdul Hamid on Monday evening.

The Parliament and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh on Tuesday virtually launched the country’s first ‘My Constituency’ data platform, web and mobile-based application for Members of Parliament to measure the progress of SDGs.