Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul today said there is no scope for the current Speaker and Deputy Speaker to administer the oath to newly elected members of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad to be constituted through February 12 election.

“Under our current constitution, newly elected members of parliament are supposed to take oath from the Speaker or Deputy Speaker if the Speaker is absent. There are other provisions if neither is available. In our case, one of them is missing while the other is in jail, and both are facing serious cases. Under these circumstances, I do not see any scope for them to administer the oath,” he told newsmen at the ministry this afternoon.

Dr Nazrul, who is also a law professor, said under the law, if the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are unable to administer the oath, a person nominated by the President on the advice of the Chief Adviser will be able to do so.

“For example, our Chief Justice can administer the oath,” he said.

As a second option, he added, if the oath-taking does not take place within three days, the Chief Election Commissioner can administer the oath.

“The problem here is that in this case we would have to wait three days. We do not actually want to wait. We want to arrange the oath-taking as soon as possible after the election,” he said.

“But this is a policy decision of the government. I cannot give you any final comments on this matter at this stage,” he concluded.