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Standing Committee on Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment

parliamentary_committee · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
—
Role
Chairman
Annual budget
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Staff
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Established
2001
Legal basis
Constitution of Bangladesh, Article 76(1) -- parliament shall appoint standing committees for each ministry; Rules of Procedure of Jatiya Sangsad (Rule 190), which mandates a standing committee for every ministry and prescribes a minimum of nine members elected by the House.

The committee has not yet been constituted for the 13th parliament (first session ended April 30, 2026 without ministerial standing committee formation, consistent with historical practice). Key oversight issues that will face the committee once formed: (1) Malaysia crisis -- hundreds of workers subjected to wage theft, passport confiscation, and forced deportation; ministry engagement with the Malaysian High Commission is ongoing but no compensation has been paid; (2) Middle East dependency -- 4.5--5 million Bangladeshis concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf face flight disruption risk from the Iran-Israel conflict; (3) 10-million-jobs-in-five-years target -- the government's 180-day action plan commits BMET and the ministry to weekly progress reporting, which the committee will be expected to scrutinise; (4) Remittance flows -- with 15 million workers abroad, the remittance channel is a major macro variable; any bilateral labour market access restriction (as in Malaysia) has direct fiscal impact. The budget session begins June 7, 2026, and standing committees on ministries are expected to be constituted then or shortly after.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

Committee chairman and member list for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad could not be confirmed from accessible primary sources as of 2026-05-17. The first session (March 12 to April 30, 2026) closed after 25 sittings without constituting ministerial standing committees; a 14-member special committee was formed to handle bill scrutiny in their absence, consistent with historical practice. The budget session (second session) begins June 7, 2026 -- ministerial standing committees are expected to be formed then. current_head is null; verification_status is 'partial' pending formal committee constitution and announcement of chairman. The Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (cabinet, distinct from committee chairman) is Ariful Haque Choudhury MP (BNP, Sylhet-4 constituency), sworn February 17, 2026; confirmed by BSS gazette notification. State Minister is Md. Nurul Haque Nur. The standing committee chairman, once appointed, will by convention be a BNP backbench MP, not the minister. established_year 2001 reflects the year the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment was itself established (December 20, 2001), as the specific standing committee mandate post-dates the ministry's creation; the constitutional authority for standing committees traces to Article 76 of the 1972 Constitution. parliament.gov.bd committee members page (ID 147) could not be accessed during verification -- connection refused. The Bangla name is confirmed from BSS Bangla and parliament.gov.bd historical pages for the 11th parliament.

Sources