Speaker accepts Latif Siddique’s resignation, Tangail-4 seat falls vacant

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has accepted the resignation of MP and former minister Abdul Latif Siddique.

His Tangail-4 constituency is now vacant in line with the Constitution, she told Parliament on Thursday.
 
Siddique had lost his Cabinet berth as post and telecommunications minister and was subsequently expelled from the ruling Awami League last year for his anti-Hajj remarks.
 
Two days ago, he announced on the floor of Parliament that he was stepping aside from the office. Later, he tendered the resignation letter to the speaker.
 
After the gazette declaring the vacancy is issued, the Election Commission will organise the by-polls in the constituency.
 
Siddique sparked a furore across Bangladesh and drew flak from different quarters including religious organisations after he decried the Hajj and Tablighi Jamaat as 'useless activity’ in September last year.
 
As criticisms mounted after a video clip of his speech went viral on the internet, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to remove the septuagenarian senior politician from her Cabinet.
 
After he lost the Cabinet berth, the Presidium member was expelled from his party.
 
He was in jail for almost nine months in several cases accusing him of ‘hurting religious sensitivities’ until he was released on bail in June this year.
 
Speaker Chaudhury on Thursday, after the Maghrib prayers break, told Parliament about accepting Siddique’s resignation.
 
She said his seat had fallen vacant according to the Constitution’s Article 67(2) right after she received it.

The EC was holding hearings to resolve the complications surrounding Siddique’s membership in Parliament after his expulsion from the party.
 
Commission officials, however, said his resignation set the matter to rest.
 
Latif Siddique, eldest among the brothers of the influential Siddique family of Tangail, was elected from that Tangail seat (Kalihati) four times.
 
He joined Awami League’s politics through Bangladesh Chhatra League.
 
He became the vice-president of Karatia Saadat College Student Council in 1964-65.
 
Siddique went to jail several times during the movements against the oppressive Pakistan rule before the Liberation War in 1971.
 
He was the textiles and jute minister of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government. 
 
He then got the post and telecommunication ministry when his party came to power for the second consecutive period in 2014.