34 Jamaat MPs on 17-day foreign tour, many with families

Thirty-four Jamaat-e-Islami lawmakers are currently on a 17-day overseas trip as the party-led 11-party alliance carries out a long march over an eight-point set of demands, including calls to address gas and power shortages and other government issues.

The delegation comprises 71 people, including family members, according to Jamaat-linked sources.

Some 25 to 26 of the MPs are travelling with relatives.

The group also includes Jamaat central Majlis-e-Shura member and Dhaka North city unit Ameer Mohammad Selim Uddin, former MP Major (retd) Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman and writer Ziaul Haque.

The group arrived in Malaysia in two batches on September 13 and 14, stayed there for three days and travelled to Singapore on September 17 before reaching the Philippines on Saturday. They are scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia on September 24, with a stopover in Bahrain, to perform Umrah and are expected to return home on September 30.

In Malaysia, the MPs met former education minister and Parti Keadilan Rakyat international affairs bureau chief Maszlee Malik. They also visited the International Islamic University Malaysia. In Singapore, they visited Nanyang Technological University and attended a symposium on the country’s development and global position.

The delegation is scheduled to meet political figures and other prominent individuals in the Philippines before travelling to Saudi Arabia.

Dhaka-4 MP Syed Zainul Abedin, who is part of the delegation, said the lawmakers travelled with the permission of Jamaat Ameer and that the National Parliament Speaker had been informed. He said the trip was intended to give MPs, many of whom had limited opportunities to travel abroad, first-hand exposure to the history, economic development and political systems of developed countries.

Jamaat leaders have described the trip as a planned study or training programme rather than an official political tour. The party says it is part of a broader effort to expand the international knowledge and experience of its lawmakers.