Pro-Awami League doctors' forum Swachip waiting for Hasina’s decision to pick new leaders

The pro-Awami League doctors’ platform, Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad (Swachip), is stuck midway into its council to pick new leaders.

Though Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at the inauguration on Friday morning to pick up the new leaders through election, the pro-government doctors decided to leave the decision to her.

They postponed the council in the afternoon without going for an election as suggested by Hasina.

Convenor of Swachip’s 4th national council Professor Maniruzzaman Bhuiyan told bdnews24.com, “We have postponed the council. We all have reached a consensus that we will accept the leader’s (Hasina’s) decision to pick the leaders.”

Bhuiyan said the Annual General Meeting and the meeting of the executive council also took the decision to wait for the prime minister’s directives.

There is no formal way of announcing candidatures. But former Swachip leader Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, and Secretary General of the present committee Dr Iqbal Arslan have been openly soliciting votes for the post of president.

Swachip leaders Dr MA Aziz, Dr Uttam Kumar Barua, and Dr M Nazrul Islam have been seeking campaigning with the doctors for secretary general.

The forum backed by the ruling Awami League has over 13,000 voters.

The council is mandated every two years, but the last one was held in 2003 when Awami League was in the opposition. Hasina had announced the name of the president, AFM Ruhal Haque, while inaugurating the council.

The number of total executives is 101, though there is a proposal this year to expand it to 151.

Swachip was established in December 1993 following the formation of pro-BNP doctors’ wing, Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (DAB), first such organisation in Bangladesh.

The BNP-leaning doctors set it up after the party came to power in 1991.

There is strong criticism that these forums are being used only for political gains, not to further professional interests of the doctors.