New Jubo League chief Parash vows to spur youth into politics

Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash, the new chairman of Jubo League, has vowed to continue the war started by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on corruption.

Parash says he wants to make the organisation, which was founded by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with Parash’s father Sheikh Fazlul Haq Mani, an “attractive” destination for the youth who want to work for the country.

“People have trust in the daughter of Bangabandhu because they have seen how she has been working relentlessly for socio-economic development,” he said at the seventh national congress of the organisation in Dhaka on Saturday.

“Our duty is to strengthen public trust. I’ll will focus on making the youth work for the country with the ‘Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu’ slogan and get rid of the ‘I hate politics’ culture.”

Parash, 51, a Dhaka University graduate in English, who is working as a teacher now, was elected unopposed at the congress.

His younger brother Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh is an Awami League MP and a leader of a network of lawyers loyal to the party, but Parash stayed away from politics.

“I was away from politics because it has taken away many things, everything in one sense, from me and my brother Taposh when we were children,” Parash said, noting the killing of their father during the massacre, in which Bangabandhu was assassinated along with most of his family in 1975.

Jubo League names Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash, the son of the organisation's founder Sheikh Fazlul Haq Mani, as its new chairman during the council session at Dhaka's Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on Saturday.

“I draw courage from Sheikh Hasina’s love for the people. I will accomplish the duty with honesty. I will work as a Jubo League worker, not as the chairman,” he told the leaders and activists of the organisation.

Hasina targeted Jubo League in the crackdown on illegal gambling, extortion and other wrongdoings as allegations against the leaders of the Awami League and its affiliates, especially the youth front and student front, continued to pile up after the party returned to power over a decade ago.

“Now it will be the duty of all Jubo League workers, including me, to make Sheikh Hasina’s operation a success,” Parash said.