Jatiya Party presidium for quitting cabinet [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Jatiya Party presidium for quitting cabinet

Local February 01, 2016

Most of the presidium members of the Jatiya Party, led by HM Ershad, on Sunday preferred that party leaders should quit the Awami League-led cabinet, but empowered Ershad to make the decision.
A meeting of the presidium also endorse the appointment of GM Quader as co-chairman and and Ruhul Amin Hawlader as secretary general of the party, Quader said at a briefing after the meeting.
He said that their appointments would be finally approved at the central conference of the party.
‘Many members at the meeting preferred that the party leaders should quit the cabinet to maintain the opposition characteristics of the party, but they gave the party chairman the absolute authority to make a decision in this regard,’ he said.
Amid growing internal conflict over his recent decisions, Ershad sat in a meeting with the party presidium at his Banani office.
The party will hold its national council session in the capital on April 16 and before that the district council sessions would be completed, a party release said.
It also formed a central committee for the coordination of the electioneering of the party in the upcoming union council elections and the district committees would be formed for the coordination of the electioneering.
Chaired by Ershad, the meeting was attended by GM Quader, party secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, presidium members Mohammad Kashem, Golam Habib Dulal, Sahidur Rahman, Sheikh Muhammad Sirajul Islam, M Rashid Chowdhury, Syed Abdul Mannan, Syed Abu Hossain Babla, Masud Parvej, Habibur Rahman, Sunil Shubha Roy, SM Faisal Chisti, Mir Abdus Sabur, Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury, Saifuddin Ahmed Milon, Mohammad Azam Khan, ATU Taj Rahman, Solaiman Alam Sheith and Masuda Begum.
Senior presidium member Raushan Ershad, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, and presidium members Anisul Islam Mahmud, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu and Mujibul Haque Chunnu, who are also in the cabinet, did not attend the meeting.
Party sources said 23 of the 37 ‘active presidium members’ joined the meeting.
Ruhul Amin Hawlader said that they mainly discuss the party’s next council session and other organisational issues.
Another presidium member said that party chairman’s recent moves, including making GM Quader the co-chairman and Ruhul Amin the secretary general removing Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, were discussed at the meeting.
Raushan told reporters at her parliament office that she had heard that the issue of resignation of the party-nominated ministers were discussed at the presidium meeting.
The dispute over leadership in the party surfaced after Ershad in Rangpur on January 17 announced that his younger brother GM Quader was made the party co-chairman.
A day later, the then party secretary general Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu and some leaders loyal to Raushan, also Ershad’s wife, announced her as the acting chairman of the party.
On January 19, Ershad at a press conference replaced Ziauddin Bablu with Ruhul Amin as secretary general, intensifying the dispute over party leadership.
On January 28, Raushan, after a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina ruled out any possibility of the party’s withdrawal from the present coalition government.
‘No decision has yet been made about resignation of Jatiya Party leaders as ministers and state statements,’ Raushan told New Age replying to a question on January 28.