AL MP Shubid Ali calls ‘urgent’ news conference after ‘calling Zia first president’

Awami League MP Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, who is facing intense criticism after claiming ‘Ziaur Rahman is the first president of Bangladesh’, has rushed a news conference.

The conference will be held at the media centre of Parliament building on Thursday afternoon, a statement said.

“Retired major general Mohammad Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, the chief of the parliamentary standing committee on defence ministry, has noticed how his statement in a meeting of a parliamentary committee held yesterday has been distorted by the mass media,” the statement said.

Labanya Ahmed, a director at the public relations department of the Parliament Secretariat, signed the statement.

In a meeting of parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings on Wednesday, Shubid said BNP’s founder Zia was the first president of Bangladesh.

bdnews24.com published the news following confirmation by more than one MP who attended the meeting.

Shubid was the Principal Staff Officer (PSO) at the Armed Forces Division at the Prime Minister's Office from 1991 to 1996 when Zia’s wife BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was prime minister.

After retirement, he was denied BNP nomination for 2001 election and later fought the polls as an independent candidate but lost.

Shubid managed an Awami League ticket in 2008 and defeated top BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain to become an MP.