In Bangladesh Members of the parliament perform various executive roles apart from their legislative function and very often they are seen absent in the session of parliament which is their first and foremost constitutional obligation. In legislative process the body and contents of a bill is almost always prepared by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs or by the Law Commission whom people have not assigned with such duty and the MPs only give their votes supporting the stand of their political parties. No doubt this practice has made them reluctant to ponder over the entire legislative process of a particular bill. The weak participation of MPs in legislative process and their strong involvement in executive or other functions has created a bundle of problems behind the smooth growth of democracy and constitutionalism in Bangladesh.
In representative democracy like in Bangladesh people cannot take direct part in the legislative process and the MPs have the key role to play being the people's representatives. How properly country's democracy will function depends how properly the MPs represent the people of their respective constituencies. It should be remembered that anMP does not take part in any legislative process alone rather he represents thousands of voices from his constituency over any proposed bill. The effective participation of people in any legislative process will neverbe possible if the MPs do not keep regular communication with them and ignore their valued opinion vis--vislegislative issues in the parliament.Similarly his absence in the legislative process mutes all the voices of his constituency and any bill passed during his absence cannot be said to have got a judgment from the people of that constituency because absence of an MP from a legislative process is ultimately absence of people, whom he represents, from there.
The strong involvement of MPs in the executive functions hinders the proper functioning of the Constitution through paving the way of decentralizationof power. The Constitution of Bangladesh has entrusted the executive with the responsibility of implementing fundamental principles of state policy(more specifically the stipulations for the fulfillment of which people have formed the government)as laid down in the part II of the Constitution of Bangladesh. At the same time the executive is not independent to choose the manner of implementing its constitutional obligations.The parliament on behalf of the peopleis constitutionally entrusted with the power to legislate laws in order to provide the executive with guidelines or manner for the proper implementation of Part II of the Constitution. If the legislative function is performed by the executive that will turn the democracy into kingship. When MPs playing the role of executive take part in the legislative process they play the king's role eventually. Moreover MPs will not bring hard obligation in the law if ultimately they have to discharge the same obligations being the executive.Thus ithampers proper realization of constitutional duties of the executive towards the people.
The purpose of the Constitution to establish the Legislature is to enact laws for the betterment of the people and the purpose of electing MPs by the people as their representatives is todelegate such power to legislate laws.
The MPs are obliged under the constitutional obligation to serve that purpose. If the people cannot reach their opinion properly in the legislative process through their delegates, the aim of the constitution to establish the Legislature becomes futile.If the MPs do not concentrate entirely to the legislative functions or if they are not prevented from being involved in any other functions apart from their legislative function, it will not be possible for the parliament to enact pro-people laws which are essential for the turbulence of democracy in Bangladesh.
The writer teaches law at Northern University Bangladesh
