Hasina, Obaidul re-elected Awami League president, GS
Seventy-two-year old Sheikh Hasina was re-elected the president of the Bangladesh Awami League, one of the country’s oldest political parties, for the ninth consecutive term while Obaidul Quader the general secretary for the second term in a row on Saturday.
Like in the top two positions, no changes took place in the major posts of the party’s latest central committee, which was partially constituted at its 21st council session held at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on the day.
AL presidium member Abdul Matin Khasru proposed Sheikh Hasina’s name as the president while another presidium member Pijush Kanti Bhattacharya seconded the proposal.
AL outgoing committee’s joint secretaries Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman respectively proposed and seconded the name of Obaidul Quader as the general secretary.
Three-member election commission chairman Yusuf Hossain Humayun declared Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, re-elected as the AL chief and Obaidul Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, as the general secretary as none else contested for the posts.
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Other members of the commission were PM’s advisor Mashiur Rahman and Professor Saidur Rahman.
All of the presidium and advisory council members of the outgoing committee retained their posts in the new the committee.
Former shipping minister and labour leader Shajahan Khan was inducted into the new committee as a presidium member while two joint secretaries of the previous committee Nanak and Abdur Rahman were also promoted as presidium members in the new committee.
Outgoing committee’s publicity and publication secretary Hasan Mahmud and organising secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim were promoted as joint secretaries in the new committee while two other joint secretaries of the outgoing committee Mahbubul Alam Hanif and Dipu Moni retained the same posts.
Organising secretaries of the outgoing committee Ahmed Hossain, BM Mozammel Haque and Abu Sayeed Al Mahmud Swapan, too, remained in the same posts of the new committee while outgoing central committee members SM Kamal Hossain and Mirza Azam were promoted as organising secretaries in the new committee.
Office secretary of the outgoing committee Abdus Sobhan was made the publicity and publication secretary in the new committee while the previous committee’s deputy office secretary Biplib Barua was promoted as the office secretary.
Shammi Akter, Delwar Hossain, Engineer Abdus Sabur, Mrinal Kanti Das, Harunur Rashid, Asim Kumar Ukil, Shamsunnahar Chapa, Rokeya Sultana, Faridunnahar Laily and Sujit Roy Nandi retained their secretariat posts for international affairs, forest and environment, science and technology, liberation war affairs, youth and sports, cultural affairs, education and human resources, health and population affairs, agriculture and cooperatives, and relief and social welfare respectively.
The outgoing committee’s central members Nazibullah Hiru and Meher Afroze Chumki were made the law affairs and women affairs secretaries respectively in the new committee.
After the new committee was announced, Sheikh Hasina thanked the AL leaders and workers for re-electing her party president and urged them to sincerely work for further strengthening the organisation.
‘I have been leading the party for the last 38 years. So, you [the councillors] would have to consider my age in the future,’ she added.
Later the party leaders greeted Sheikh Hasina and Obaidul Quader with flower bouquets.
Sheikh Hasina also congratulated Obaidul on his re-election as the party general secretary.
None was elected to the posts of treasurer, finance secretary, labour and manpower affairs secretary, religious affairs secretary, commerce and industries secretary, three organising secretaries, deputy publicity secretary and deputy office secretary.
Sheikh Hasina’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana, son Sajeeb Wazed, daughter Saima Wazed and Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq were not seen in the party council session though they are active in AL politics in different capacities.
In the council session, the AL amended its constitution abolishing the post of assistant secretary for subcommittees and expanded the size of its advisory council from 41 to 51.
It also included the Awami Matsyajibi League as an associate body of the party in the constitution.
It extended the time by one year—from 2020 to 2021—to ensure 33 per cent participation of women in all its committees.
In the preamble of the party constitution, the party included the announcement of building a drug- and corruption-free country.
After being re-elected the general secretary, Obaidul told a press conference at the AL president office at Dhanmondi that his party wanted to give the opposition parties opportunities to hold rallies and bring out processions.
‘We [AL] want to make democracy stronger and we never treat the opposition as weak and we sympathise with the opposition,’ he said.
The previous party council session was held on October 21, 2016 when Sheikh Hasina was re-elected party president for the eighth term in a row and Obaidul Quader made general secretary.
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 the Awami Muslim League.
Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani was elected president and Shamsul Hoque general secretary while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Khondakar Moshtaq Ahmad and AK Rafiqul Hussain were made joint secretaries.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
