ABSTRACT
This chapter is organized into four major sections. With a view to assessing the extent to which the external environment has been congenial for the parliament to thrive, the first delineates the broader context of the Bangladesh parliament within which it works. The second section reviews the historical accounts of the development of parliamentary committee system in Bangladesh from its inception to date. This is essential in order to determine the trajectory of committees’ development and performance with regard to holding the government accountable for its performance and checking the government on the right track, which might have consequences for the functioning of the present committees. The evolution of committees has been depicted systematically in tune with the tenure of different (Jatiya Sangsad – Bengali name of the parliament in Bangladesh) JSs (first JS, second JS and so on). This section is followed by a brief sketch of the institutional arrangements of the committee system in Bangladesh to review whether the prevailing rules of the committees are in conformity with the features of a strong committee system or not. The fourth section analyzes the extent to which the formal arrangements of the committee system in Bangladesh have been able to ensure government accountability based on the empirical data generated from numerous sources.
