Dhaka is all set to host the eight-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) for the first time.
Foreign delegates will start arriving here on Wednesday to join the event beginning on Sunday.
The meetings of different committees and sub-committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) are set to be held from Thursday to Saturday before the official inauguration of the 63rd CPC 2017 on Sunday, reports UNB.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is vice patron of the 63rd CPC, will officially open the CPA annual conference at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
This year, the CPC is being held with the theme 'Continuing to Enhance the High Standards of Performance of Parliamentarian' with the participation of some 550 representatives, including parliament speakers, deputy speakers and parliament members, from nearly 144 national and provincial assemblies of 44 commonwealth countries.
Earlier, the 62nd CPC was scheduled to be held in Dhaka in September 2016 but it was postponed due to Gulshan terror attack.
Ahead of the eight-day CPA conference, various billboards with the portraits of the President, Prime Minister, Bangladesh Parliament as well as parliaments of different commonwealth countries have been hanged surrounding the conference venues -- Jatiya Sangsad Complex, Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, Radisson Blu Water Garden hotel -- and the ways to and from the venues.
Portraits of Queen Elizabeth-II are being displayed in the venues as she is the patron of the 63rd CPC.
Some 56 speakers and 23 deputy speakers from different national and provincial assemblies are scheduled to participate in the conference, according to a CPC fact-sheet.
CPA executive committee chairperson Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will act as the president of the CPC 2017, while a Jatiya Sangsad delegation, led by Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, is set to participate in the event.
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad are jointly organising the conference.
Bangladesh expects that the current Rohingya crisis will be focused at a workshop of the conference on Monday next, though the CPC agenda was finalised before the Rohingya crisis began.
There will be a workshop on 'What Factor Fuel the Rise of Different Kinds of Nationalism' in the conference when the Rohingya issue will usually come up for discussion, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, MP, a member of the 63rd CPC media supervision committee, has recently said at a press briefing.
He said the Ronhingya issue will be discussed as the Bangladesh Parliamentary delegation will place the Rohingya crisis in the workshop.
The General Assembly, Election of Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee and eight workshops will be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) after the official inauguration of the CPC 2017 on Sunday.
But meetings of CPA main executive committee, different committees and sub-committees, including Commonwealth Parliamentary Steering Committees, Coordinating Committee and CPA regional secretaries are set to be held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel from Thursday to Saturday.
In October 2014, the Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was elected Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee for a three-year term.
The theme of the CPA is Democracy, Diversity and Development, which has 180 branches (national and provincial assembles) in 52 commonwealth countries.
The CPA was founded in 1911 as the Empire Parliamentary Association and its affairs were administered by the UK branch.