National Press Club gets executive committee of 'compromise' without election

Amid constitutional complicacies over its election, a group of National Press Club members has constituted the executive committee in a sudden meeting.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 May 2015, 11:47 AM
Updated : 30 May 2015, 03:07 PM

Members of the current committee were absent in Thursday’s meeting which was attended by over 100 members out of nearly 1,000 members.

Many of the attendees were not even members of the apex journalist club.

The meeting was presided over by veteran member of the club and former president of Dhaka Union of Journalists Shahjahan Mia.

The new 17-strong committee comprised members from both the forums backed by the Awami League and BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance.

Awami League-backed Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman has been made the president while the general secretary is BNP-backed Kamrul Islam Chowdhury.

Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul has been made the senior vice president and Amirul Islam Kagoji the vice president.

Kartik Chaterjee is the treasurer while Ashraf Ali and Elias Khan have been made the joint general secretaries.

The 10 executive members are Amanullah Kabir, Khandaker Monirul Alam, Azizul Islam Bhuiyan, Saiful Alam, Shyamal Dutta, Shamsuddin Ahmed Charu, Molla Jalal, Sardar Farid Ahmed, Hasan Arefin and Shamsul Haque Durrani.

The new committee was announced by former president of BNP-backed Dhaka Union of Journalists faction Elahi Newaz Khan Saju.

Several members have alleged that they were not notified about the meeting, which took place at the press club auditorium in the morning.

Even the committee’s current President Kamal Uddin Sabuj and General Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmad, who had been leading the press club for the last two years, were not there.

But the expired committee claimed itself “legal” and dubbed the newly constituted one “illegal and unconstitutional”.

In a statement on Thursday night, Ahmad said a committee could hand over responsibilities to another elected committee as per the club’s constitution.

“The so-called meeting is in clear violation of the [club’s] constitution and runs contrary to the club’s tradition and culture,” he said.

Ahmad said they would decide about the club’s future work plan at an ‘additional meeting’ on June 27 as per the management committee’s decision.

“Nobody has the ethical and legal rights to organise a biannual general meeting before the June 27 meeting,” he added.

On Wednesday they issued a statement apprehending ‘illicit intervention’ in press club affairs.

Both of them are members of the BNP-backed faction of the journalists.

According to the organisers of Thursday’s meeting, the initiative was taken by general members of the club amid a crisis over the press club election.

The meeting decided to install portraiture of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the club premises.

It also agreed to investigate the previous committee’s ‘corruption and irregularities’ and publish a White Paper on it.

A proposal was adopted to amend the club’s article of association to increase the number of members to 1,500 from the existing 1,000.

Call for resignation

In the meeting, Prime Minister’s Information Adviser and leader of pro-Awami League journalists’ faction Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury said the press club had been a “den of a specific quarter and a political party over the last few years”.

“I want to make this clear that we did not accept autocracy in the country and our stance for the National Press Club is the same,” he told the meeting.

Labelling the current management as ‘illegitimate’, Chowdhury said that the committee, overstaying in office, was given a Mar 31 deadline to hold the annual general meeting and election.

“You are no more the office-bearers. If you still want to grab the leadership then we will take legal steps,” said Chowdhury.

He claimed that Thursday’s meeting was in line with the club’s articles of association and the committee was constituted upon ‘everyone’s consent’.

After the schedule of the poll was announced, a panel composed of members from all the factions was declared.

But some from both the Awami League and BNP-backed factions declared separate panels for the election.

The election was stalled later as the election committee said that there was ‘absence of favourable atmosphere’.

BNP-backed journalist union leader Amanullah Kabir blamed the problem on “one man running the club”.

“We want get out of the crisis through a panel [formed with everyone’s consent],” he said.

Kabir said everyone had agreed to reach an understanding.

“Those who disrupted the efforts didn’t attend today’s programme,” said the former president and general secretary of the undivided Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ).

He said he believed the Press Club should not be a place for political activities.

“This cannot be turned into some political party’s platform. It is a place for professional journalists to develop their qualities and for leisure,” the anti-autocracy journalist leader added.

Khandaker Monirul Alam, former president and general secretary National Press Club, alleged the committee elected in 2002 had increased the number of members of a particular group and created an imbalance of voters in the club, which led to the crisis.

“We want an end to this imbalance,” he said.

Alam, who served as the principal information officer during the BNP government, urged journalist leaders to reunite the divided.

Members greeted new the management committee at the cub's lounge after the meeting.

Former DUJ chief Shahjahan Mia, who presided over the meeting, dubbed Thursday’s meeting as “historic”.

"This will be considered as a milestone in the club’s history,” he said.