Study before making promises in parliament: Speaker tells Minister

Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed publicly admonished Energy, Power and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud on the floor of the Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday (June 7), after a pledge the minister had made to parliament — that gas would be supplied to the Ashuganj Fertiliser Factory by 1 May — passed more than a month without fulfilment.

The rebuke came during the supplementary question session of the second session's opening sitting, when MP Rumin Farhana reminded the minister of his earlier commitment and pressed him on why the deadline had been missed by over five weeks.

Responding to the question, the minister cited the country's ongoing gas shortage, explaining that in the current supply constraints, priority had been given to power plants over fertiliser factories. He argued that diverting gas to Ashuganj at this stage would compromise electricity generation, which he characterised as the more urgent national need.

The minister also claimed that no new gas wells had been drilled in the preceding 17 years, and said the current government had already restarted drilling operations. He expressed hope that once new reserves come onstream, supply to Ashuganj and other industrial consumers would be increased.

"You told parliament that gas would flow from a specific date — that did not happen. Before making any commitment in this house, ministers must thoroughly examine drilling capacity, supply availability, and all related factors so that promises made here can actually be kept," Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed said.

The Speaker's public intervention was notable both for its directness and its timing — delivered on the opening day of the second session, it set an early tone of accountability that parliament's presiding officer expects from the executive. The remarks were addressed not only to the energy minister but to the broader council of ministers, as a standing instruction on the standards expected when the government speaks from the floor.

The Ashuganj Fertiliser Factory, one of Bangladesh's major state-run fertiliser producers, has long been sensitive to gas supply disruptions, which directly affect fertiliser production and, by extension, agricultural input availability across the country.