Saifur acting BNP chief Hafiz secy gen
Courtesy New Age 30/10/07
In a dramatic development, Saifur Rahman was made the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and vice-chairman Hafizuddin Ahmed was named the acting secretary general of the party on Monday night.
The decision was made at a meeting of the BNP standing committee chaired by Saifur Rahman at his Gulshan residence. Seven of the 12-member highest body of the party attended it.
After the nearly four-hour meeting, Saifur read out a statement on the lawn of his residence after midnight and declined to answer any question.
It was, however, not known whether the detained party chairperson Khaleda Zia had given her consent to the decision.
The standing committee meeting also did not approve the expulsion of former secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, joint-secretary general, Ashraf Hossain, and office secretary Mafiqul Hasan Tripti.
Mannan Bhuiyan and Ashraf were expelled from the party by order of Khaleda Zia on September 2 and it was announced by her lawyers after her arrest on September 3.
Monday’s meeting was also attended by former secretary general Mannan Bhuiyan, RA Ghani, former information minister Shamsul Islam, Mahbubur Rahman and Khandakar Mahbubuddin Ahmed.
Khandaker Delwar Hossain was relieved of the responsibilities of acting secretary general considering the existing political situation and his health condition, Saifur told reporters.
‘After evaluating the prevailing political situation, the standing committee according to article 5(C) of the party constitution, decided not to approve the expulsion order in the interest of the party,’ he said.
Without reinstating Mannan Bhuiyan as the secretary general, the meeting decided that he should continue as a member of the party’s standing committee, Saifur said.
‘But everyone will accept any decision the party chairperson makes in this regard after she is released,’ he added.
The meeting also called for immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency, lifting of the ban on politics, holding of free and fair polls by December 2008 and measures to control price hike of essential commodities.
The meeting expressed deep confidence in the leadership of Khaleda Zia.
Mannan Bhuiyan, after holding a brief meeting with his supporters at his house, went to Saifur’s residence at about 7:45pm. He was followed by RA Ghani, known as a conformist.
Apart from Mannan Bhuiyan, each of the BNP leaders was accompanied by an unknown person, witnesses said.
When asked if the unknown persons accompanying the leaders were members of any law enforcement or intelligence agency, a guard at Saifur’s residence said he did not know any of them and that he had never seen them before.
Intelligence sources said they were asked to monitor the movement of all the members of the BNP standing committee since Sunday night.
A close associate of Khaleda Zia, asking not to be named, said those who went to the meeting betrayed the party.
Meanwhile, Delwar Hossain’s family said he was admitted to
Of the other BNP standing committee members, Obaidur Rahman is dead while Barrister Moudud Ahmed and Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain are in jail and Abdul Matin Chowdhury is ill.
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