New National Press Club committee dismisses previous panel’s statement as undemocratic

The National Press Club’s new committee, which was formed in a general meeting without election, brushed aside a statement of the previous committee as ‘undemocratic and beyond its jurisdiction’.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 29 May 2015, 07:41 PM
Updated : 29 May 2015, 07:41 PM

In a statement on Thursday night, expired committee’s General Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmad had claimed itself “legal” and dubbed the new body as “illegal and unconstitutional”.

He had said a committee could only hand over responsibilities to another elected committee as per the club’s constitution.

New committee President Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman and General Secretary Kamrul Islam Chowdhury issued a joint statement on Friday in response.

“The statement of the past committee on the biennial general meeting and election of the executive committee is fully undemocratic, devoid of morality and beyond its jurisdiction.

“As per the constitution, the previous committee has no jurisdiction to issue any statement, call any meeting or make any decision to run the club,” it said.

Signed by new committee’s Joint General Secretary Ilias Khan, the statement hoped all confusions created by the ‘past committee’s statement would be cleared by ‘this statement’.

It said: “Let’s make the National Press Club a neutral, national institution by keeping its unity. We expect cooperation from all in this regard.”

Meanwhile, 40 permanent members of the club in another statement called for dissolution of the new committee.

The statement signed by Mahfuzul Haq Khan and Nazmul Ahsan said: “Our clear position is that general members of the club do not want extension of the tenure of the present executive committee and they are completely against announcement of any new committee without vote.”

They demanded end to the crisis by holding a fresh election.

Amid constitutional complicacies over its election, a group of the club members installed the executive committee in a sudden meeting on Thursday.

Members of the current committee were absent in the 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 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.