Focus on GS as AL council session begins today

The ruling Awami League is set to begin its 21st national council session today amid highest focus on the post of general secretary as there was no possibility of changing president posts while the number of young and female members us likely to be increased in the party’s central committee.

The council session would expand the central working committee and presidium amending the party constitution and elect new leaders for the next three years.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, also prime minister, will inaugurate the two-day council session at 3:00pm at Suhrawardy Udyan, where the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s delivered his landmark March 7 address and the Pakistani occupation army surrendered on December 16, 1971.

The party general secretary Obaidul Quader will place the report of the general secretary and organising secretaries will place reports of eight divisions at the inguinal session after adopting obituary references.

Any possible change in the position of general secretary became matter of curiosity among the party leaders and activists and there is no chance of change in the position of president, the post which Sheikh Hasina holds for 38 years.

Some names already came in discussions and the party insiders think that the general secretary would likely be picked from them.

They are incumbent general secretary Obaidul Quader, presidium member Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, joint general secretaries Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, organising secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury and publicity and publication secretary Hasan Mahmud.

Several presidium and working committee members told New Age that a number of leaders and activists are on hectic lobby to ensure leaders of their choice in desired posts in the next central committee.

The party’s central working committee, in its last meeting on Wednesday night at Ganabhaban, has prepared a proposal for amendments to its constitution to be placed before its council session seeking abolishment of the post of assistant secretary for its subcommittees and expansion the size of its advisory council from 41 to 51.

Several members attending the meeting said that the structure of the 81-member central committee would remain unchanged while of Awami Matsyajibi League would be included as an associate body in the party constitution.

The party insiders said that the senior leaders want to pick a full-time general secretary for Awami League who will be able to invest his total time for the party.

The party’s general secretary should not be allowed to lead the party and run a ministry at a time, they added.

They said there are chances of reshuffling in the cabinet after holding the council session as the party high command wanted to distinct the party and the government.

They said the council session is likely to witness a surprising change in the party leadership as a good number of young politicians would be picked for important posts.

They said that a good number of presidium members are trying to influence the party president Sheikh Hasina for retaining Obaidul Quader for another term as general secretary while a good number of sectaries lobby for a change in the post.

They said that there would be a visible reflection of the recent drives against illegal casinos and money makers in the council session as Sheikh Hasina wanted to pick some faces having no controversy.

They said that number of women in AL central committee would be increased as the Representation of the People Order 1972 stipulates that all registered political parties have to increase the proportion of female representation in their committees to 33 per cent by 2020.

Over 7,000 councillors from across the country would attend the council session on December 21 at Institution of Engineers drawing a day after its opening at the Suhrawardy Udyan.

The main stage of the council is prepared which is 102 feet in length and 40 feet in width and looks like a boat floating on Padma River.

Stage and decoration sub-committee convener Jahangir Kabir said this time decoration will be simple and there will be no decoration outside the venue. Fifty thousand people including councillors, delegates, leaders and activists will participate in the council session, he said.

Stringent security measures are enforced in the capital coinciding with the council while Awami League and some 2,000 trained party volunteers were mobilized to ensure discipline and security on and around the venue, said discipline and volunteer affairs sub-committee convener AFM Bahauddin Nasim.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police declared different roads leading to Suhrawardy Udyan off limits to traffic for the two days.

The party was founded in Rose Garden in Dhaka on June 23, 1949 at a convention of a breakaway group of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League as Awami Muslim League electing Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani president, Shamsul Hoque general secretary and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad and AK Rafiqul Hussain joint secretaries.

The party had experienced so many ups and downs as in its 70 years. It was dissolved, faced split, got top leaders killed and remained out of power for 21 years at a stretch, according to party documents and Banglapedia.

The party held its first council session in Mymensingh in 1953 when Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani retained his post while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was made general secretary.

In the later part of that year, the party held its second (special) council session that resolved to form the Jukta Front (United Front), a combine of opposition parties.

Jukta Front got an overwhelming majority in the 1954 general elections and formed government. Dropping the word ‘Muslim’ from its name, the party became Awami League in the third council session in Dhaka in 1955.

In the 24 years of Pakistan, the Awami League was in power in the province for only about two years and at the centre for 13 months as a coalition government.

In 1957, the Awami League faced an organisational crisis as Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy and Maulana Bhasani differed fundamentally on the issue of Pakistan foreign policy.

The division came to surface at the fourth conference of the party at Kagmari in Tangail in 1957, when Maulana Bhashani and Sheikh Mujib both retained their positions. As Moulana Bhashani later left the party, Maulana Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish was made acting president.

Then Pakistan’s president, Iskandar Mirja, imposed martial law in 1958 and banned politics.

During general Ayub Khan’s autocratic regime (1958-1969), Sheikh Mujibur Rahman consolidated his grip on the party and started earning popularity by organising nationalist movement and Suhrawardy’s death in 1963 enabled Mujib to become the sole leader of the party.

In the fifth council session in Dhaka in 1964, the party was revived and Maulana Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish and Sheikh Mujib were made president and secretary respectively.

Mujib was made party president and Tajuddin Ahmad general secretary in three councils in a trot in 1966, 1967 and 1970, when the party activists participated in all democratic and nationalist movements in the then East Pakistan which ended through the war of independence in 1971.

Mujibnagar government was formed by Awami League in 1971 with Sheikh Mujib, who was in jail in Pakistan, as president and Tajuddin Ahmed as prime minister. The government in exile led the war of liberation. The party formed the first government following parliamentary democracy as Sheikh Mujib was made prime minister.

After the liberation, AL held its ninth council session in 1972, when Sheikh Mujib retained his position and Zillur Rahman was made general secretary.

The 10th council session in 1974 amended the party constitution to keep the prime minister out of the party and Sheikh Mujib vacated the position of the party president. The council session made AHM Qamaruzzaman party president Zillur general secretary.

State of emergency was proclaimed on December 28, 1974 by the AL government as political situation deteriorated. The country was transformed into presidential system and the Awami League merged into the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, the single party that replaced multi-party parliamentary democracy in 1975.

Taking the opportunity of these negative developments, a group of army officers assassinated Sheikh Mujib, along with all but two of his family, on August 15, 1975, and killed four of top AL leaders – Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin, M Mansur Ali and Qamaruzzaman – inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.

AL, however, was revived in 1976, under the Political Parties Regulations promulgated by the martial law government of Ziaur Rahman. The party suffered a split. In the 11th council session in April 3-4, 1977, Johra Tajuddin, wife of Tajuddin, was made convener of the 44-member convening committee of party.

The 12th council session made Abdul Malek Ukil president and Abdur Razzque general secretary. Sheikh Hasina, the eldest daughter of Sheikh Mujib, after six years of self-exile since the 1975, returned home in May 1981 and took the helm of the Awami League as she was elected party president in the 13th council session in February 1981 while still abroad. Abdur Razzaque was made the general secretary as he left the party in 1982, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury was made acting general secretary.

Since 1981, Hasina, was made party president in 14th to 20th conferences in 1987, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2012 and 2016.

Syeda Sajeda Chowdury was made general secretary in 1987, Zillur Rahman in 1992 and 1997, Abdul Jalil in 2002, Syed Ashraful Islam in 2009 and 2002 and Obaidul Quader in 2016.

In the general election in 2001 the Awami League suffered a smashing defeat to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance and the AL-led alliance came out victorious in the next elections under the military-controlled interim regime in 2008.

The party retained its power by winning the January 5, 2014 general election boycotted by all opposition parties and December 30, 2018 general election which earned huge controversy locally and internationally.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net