Awami League announces committees for newly formed Dhaka North and South units

The ruling Awami League has spit its Dhaka metropolitan unit into North and South and formed the committees of the new bodies.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 April 2016, 07:39 AM
Updated : 10 April 2016, 03:10 PM

Its General Secretary Syed Asharful Islam made the announcement in Dhaka on Sunday.

Dhaka-11 MP AKM Rahmatullah will lead the North unit, while Abul Hasnat the South body.

Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, the immediate past general secretary for the unified Dhaka unit, has not been retained in any of the two new committees.

Maya was initially been reluctant to accept a post in a split Dhaka metro unit, but later expressed his desire to head the North unit.

Sadek Khan and Shahey Alam Murad were named as general secretaries for the party’s Dhaka North and South units respectively.

The previous undivided metro unit was formed in June 2003 with former Dhaka mayor Mohammad Hanif at its helm and Maya as the general secretary.

MA Aziz took charge as acting president after Hanif's death in 2006.

The last council to the Awami League’s Dhaka city unit was held in 2012. The committee led by Maya was asked to run the show until the formation of a full-fledged new committee.

Aziz was believed to be the ultimate choice to lead the Dhaka South chapter. But he died on Jan 23 this year and party chief Sheikh Hasina put Hasnat at the helm of the unit.

Hasnat had been president of the Lalbagh Thana unit of the Awami League since 1986.

Murad, the second-in-command of the South chapter, was born in Barisal but became involved in the party’s politics in Dhaka city in mid-'80s while he was a student of Jagannath College (now university).

He was made the organising secretary of the undivided city unit in 2003.

Rahamatullah, new president of the North unit, joined the Awami League in 1994 and became an MP from the then Dhaka-5 constituency. He has been  a member of the Awami League Central Working Committee since 2002.

Now a lawmaker from Dhaka-10, Rahamatullah heads the parliamentary committee on the information ministry.

He also is on the boards of several businesses as chairman and managing director.

The unit’s general secretary, Sadek Khan, was a ward commissioner of Mohammadpur. He had also been the president of the extended Mohammadpur Thana unit since 2002.

In the press conference, Syed Ashraful Islam also announced the names of presidents and general secretaries of 49 Thanas and 103 ward units of the city.