Parliament ready for business.................

Architect Louis Kahn's magnificent marvel, the seat of Bangladesh's democracy, will return to business as usual after nearly two and a half years as the new parliament convenes Sunday afternoon.

The first sitting of the first session, slated for a 3pm start, will see election of a new speaker and deputy Speaker, and hear the President speak, according to convention.

"All preparations are complete. The day's agenda including those of the inaugural sitting have been finalised," parliament secretary Ashfaq Hamid told us.

"The agenda have been sent to all MPs."

The two major parliamentary groups will discuss their strategy in the afternoon before walking into the House.

Prime minister and leader of the House Sheikh Hasina will chair a meeting of the 228-strong AL Parliamentary Party (ALPP) at 2pm at the treasury bench conference room on the ninth floor of the parliament building.

Leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia will meet 27 fellow MPs at the opposition conference room on the same floor at 2:30pm.

The first sitting will be kicked off by the outgoing speaker, who has no seat in the ninth parliament, with a recitation from the Quran and then a welcome speech from the chair.

The next on the agenda is election of speaker and deputy speaker.

Jamiruddin Sircar will depart after a valedictory statement and adjourn the session.

The newly-elected speaker and his deputy will go to the president's chamber on the seventh floor to take oath.

Abdul Hamid, speaker in the seventh parliament and deputy leader of the opposition in the eighth, is all set to become the guardian of the House again, treasury bench sources say.

The new speaker will return to the House to restart the proceedings and make an introductory statement before listening to congratulatory remarks from colleagues.

The House will then name a panel of MPs who will chair in absence of the two presiding officers; adopt obituary references; see the 100-odd ordinances written by the emergency government tabled; form Business Advisory Committee, House Committee and some other important committees.

Then president Iajuddin Ahmed will address the House, and the chief whip will move a thank-you motion on the head of state's speech, drafted usually by the government of the day.

A promised amendment to the constitution will create a second post of deputy speaker, which will be offered to the opposition BNP.

But senior BNP leaders have already said they will not accept the second deputy speaker, a position that is likely to disturb the atmosphere.

The seat arrangements for the opposition MPs has already sparked off a row between the government whips and the speaker, with the latter overriding the former's plan based on ratio of MPs.

The 28-seat BNP is backed by allies Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party, with two and one respectively.

The H M Ershad-led Jatiya Party emerged as the third largest parliamentary group in the Dec. 29 general election, with 25 MPs.

JSD with three seats and Workers' Party with two add to the grand alliance total of 258.

Parliament last sat on Oct. 4, 2006.