The role of Speaker: Can he be neutral?

State consists of three major organs, Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. If we conceive state as a structure it may be considered supported by three pillars as above. To ensure strength and stability of a structure it is necessary that the supporting pillars should be placed separately and be more or less of equal length and strength. So the three state organs -- executive, legislative and judiciary -- should be independent of each other and hold similar scale of authority and influence in the overall statecraft.

The head of Executive is the Prime Minister. The heads of the other two organs like Legislative and Judiciary are the Speaker of the Parliament and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The provisions of the constitution in respect of appointment of the said three heads of state organs are as the following:

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As regards appointment of Prime Minister, Article 56 (3) says, 'The President shall appoint as Prime Minister the member of Parliament who appears to him to command the support of the majority of the members of Parliament.' Naturally, the party or alliance which can win majority number of seats in Parliament would elect Prime Minister from amongst them. Generally, it is the leader of the majority party or alliance who is elected to take over as the head of the executive organ. As per the provisions of Articles 55 and 56 the government is formed to run the executive functions of the state.

Chief Justice is appointed as per Article 95 (1) as 'The Chief Justice and other Judges shall be appointed by the President.' How that appointment would be decided by the President is stated in Article 48 (3) 'In the exercise of all of his functions, save only that of appointing the Prime Minister pursuant to clause (3) of article 56 and the Chief Justice pursuant to clause (1) of article 95, the President shall act in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister:' The point here is that the President is free to appoint Chief Justice and he would not have to take clearance of the Prime Minister for doing that. Appointing authority of head of Judiciary is President and not Prime Minister who is the head of another organ of state that is Executive.

But, head of Legislative, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of Parliament, is elected by the single majority vote in the Parliament. Article74 (1) of Constitution is 'Parliament shall at the first sitting after any general election elect from among its members a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker, and if either office becomes vacant shall within seven days or, if Parliament is not then sitting, at its first meeting thereafter, elect one of its members to fill the vacancy.' Rules of Procedure of Parliament in article 8 and 9 provide the detail of that election process of Speaker and Deputy Speaker in line with the constitutional guideline. It is evident that in the absence of any other provision the ruling party or alliance due to their majority number in the Parliament would be in a position to fill up both the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker from amongst them.

The positions are decided in practice by the leader of the government party or alliance that is the Prime Minister in the context of present Bangladesh. It may be mentioned here that any decision taken at that level becomes binding for the rest of the MPs of the ruling party (who constitute the majority number in Parliament) as per article 70 (1) of the constitution which prohibits Member of Parliament of a party to go against his/her party line.

Article 161 of Rules of Procedure of Parliament has stated in detail the process for removal of Speaker or Deputy Speaker from office. It is seen that the same can be decided by simple majority vote of the house. This clearly makes the positions vulnerable to the wish of the government party (which has majority in Parliament) specifically that of its leadership or Prime Minister in the present day context of Bangladesh.

So there should not be any doubt that Government Party leader or Prime Minister in case of Bangladesh is the appointing authority for the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The same authority also holds the power of removal of the above two persons from their office any time as per desire. .

As such, the head of Legislative is not in a position to perform free of influence of head of Executive organ who decides his/her appointment and has the authority to oust him/her any time as per wish.

The present government has utilised their numerical superiority in Parliament to remove a veteran party MP elected by them as President virtually accusing him to be behaving neutrally. Under the circumstance and in the prevailing political scenario is it possible for Speaker or Deputy Speaker to make any effort to function independently free from the control or influence of the ruling party leadership or Prime Minister without the perpetual fear of being thrown out of office? It is surely very difficult if not impossible.

Speaker and Deputy Speaker are selected from amongst the government party MP's. In most cases they seek re-election from the same party in the next general election and as such remain active members of the party. As party members they must have allegiance to party leadership and accept the Prime Minister who is also the head of the party (in the present case) as their boss. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that they need to seek nomination from the same authority for contesting the election in order to be elected again. Is it possible for them not to consider government party closer to them compared to the opposition and behave accordingly? Is it possible for them to behave neutrally? It is felt that if some body tries to claim neutrality under the existing circumstances there would always remain a doubt and the same may not be considered genuine.

It is natural that Speaker and Deputy Speaker would put their own party (government party in present case) before Parliament. They would try to see the interest of the treasury bench and would follow the dictates of the ruling party leadership specially the Prime Minister. As a consequence in Bangladesh Legislative fails to become independent and acts subservient to Executive. As such, the state is not supported by all three pillars of equal size and strength in Bangladesh. The structure of Bangladesh State may not be considered stable or strong for that reason.

The solution lies in making the Legislative independent and functional. Speakers must perform neutrally and earn the confidence of the opposition bench as non-partisan. To ensure that, in many parts of the world Speakers are elected and removed by two third or three fourth majority votes of Members of Parliament in place of simple majority as exists in Bangladesh. There remains a possibility that in most cases, this amendment might provide opportunity for the opposition bench members to play some role in the election or removal of Speakers. Also, this might create a scope for sharing the two positions of Speakers between the treasury bench and opposition. In case this provision is made, treasury bench and its leadership would not be able to make appointment or ouster of Speakers as per their whim. Moreover, this may balance the running of Parliament due to the fact that sessions would be chaired periodically by Speakers from both treasury and opposition bench respectively.

In some countries, there is a convention that the Speaker's constituency is not contested by other political parties. This allows the Speaker to be free from the worry of re-election and thus makes space for behaving non-partisan.

In order to achieve functioning of Speaker as independent and neutral the position of Speaker must be made more stable and strong. Speaker must also be ensured of a safe political future free from the scope of arm twisting by party leaderships.

G. M. Quader is an MP.