← Government Watch

Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs

parliamentary_committee · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
—
Role
Chairman
Annual budget
—
Staff
—
Established
1973
Legal basis
Constitution of Bangladesh, Article 76 (Standing committees of Parliament); Rules of Procedure of the Jatiya Sangsad (Rules 188-214, Committee on Ministries), as amended up to the 13th Parliament. Under Article 76, the Sangsad appoints standing committees to examine and report on legislative proposals and on the activities of ministries. Rules of Procedure require one ministry-shadowing committee per ministry; ministers are excluded from chairmanship.

The committee had not been formally constituted as of the prorogation of the 13th Parliament's first session (April 30, 2026); the first session formed only five procedural committees. Ministry-shadowing standing committees, including this one, are expected to be constituted in the second session. In the interim, MOFA accountability has proceeded through full-house question hour: FM Khalilur Rahman briefed Parliament on India extradition diplomacy, the 11.89 lakh Rohingya count, the ICJ genocide case nearing verdict, and deepened China partnership under the BNP's multi-vector foreign policy.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

verification_status set to 'partial' because: (1) current_head is null -- the Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not been formally constituted as of the end of the 13th Parliament's first session (prorogued April 30, 2026 after 25 sittings); only five procedural committees were formed in that session per BSS/UNB reports; no secondary source has published a 13th parliament committee chairman for this body; parliament.gov.bd returned connection errors on direct fetch; fabricating a chairman name would violate data integrity rules. (2) staff_count and annual_budget_bdt are not applicable to parliamentary committees. (3) established_year set to 1973: parliamentary committees under the Rules of Procedure first functioned with the 1st Jatiya Sangsad (elected March 1973, first sitting April 7, 1973); the committee system as currently constituted dates from the 1994 Rules of Procedure revision removing ministers as chairs. (4) recent_activity reflects verified MOFA/parliament-floor actions from the 90-day window, not formal committee meetings (none held), per data integrity rules. (5) The MOFA committee page on parliament.gov.bd carries ID 144; this ID and the committee's existence in prior parliaments are confirmed by multiple search results pointing to that URL, but the 13th parliament membership roster is not yet publicly indexed. (6) Rohingya count 11,89,213 is from UNHCR data dated April 13, 2026, cited by FM in full-house question hour April 28, 2026 (BSS/Arakan Now). (7) Hasina extradition request was formally reiterated at FM level on April 7-9, 2026; India confirmed it is under 'judicial and legal process' (The News International/MEA). (8) China visit May 5-7, 2026 confirmed by China MFA and BSS. (9) OIC-Rohingya engagement confirmed by Dhaka Tribune, BSS, and New Age BD (May 12, 2026).

Sources