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Published : 13 Nov 2015, 01:13 AM
Convenor of the council organising committee Prof Maniruzzaman Bhuiyan told bdnews24.com that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate the session at Suhrawardi Uddan in Dhaka at around 10am.
The forum backed by the ruling Awami League has over 13,000 voters, but whether there will be elections to the council is unclear.
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.
“We’ll wait for our leader’s (Awami League chief Hasina) directive at the inaugural session. We have taken preparations for holding elections, if necessary,” Convenor Bhuiyan said, when asked.
“We are prepared to sell nomination papers immediately if we get instructions. But in our (BMA) EC meeting and later in the extended meeting it has been decided that we’ll wait for the prime minister’s announcement and do what she says.”
The Awami League’s General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam will also be present at the council, though Swachip is not officially an affiliate of the party as it is barred by the Election Commission law.
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 while inaugurating the council.
The number of total executives is 101, though there is a proposal this year to expand it to 151.
“It’ll (expansion) be decided at the council which will begin at 3pm at the Institution of Engineers,” the convenor said.
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.
