AL to announce two Dhaka city unit committees today

Three months after expiring of the three-year tenure, at last the ruling Awami League is going to announce its Dhaka City Unit committee, splitting it into two, Dhaka north and south.

Syed Ashraful Islam, party general secretary, would declare the new committees today at a press conference at party president's Dhanmondi office at 11:00 am, said Mahbubul Alam Hanif, AL joint general secretary.

Sources said, Abul Hasnat, Lalbagh Thana unit president, and Shahey Alam Murad, city unit organising secretary, are going to be president and general secretary of Dhaka South AL, while City unit Vice-President and Dhaka-10 MP AKM Rahmatullah and Mohammadpur Thana President Sadek Khan are going to be president and general secretary of Dhaka North AL.

City AL held the last three-yearly council on December 27, 2012 and the tenure expired on December 26, 2015. That council did not see any voting, hence no new leaders.

In the last council, nearly 2,000 councillors and 3,000 delegates gathered to elect new leadership but it ended without any voting.

At the council, the city AL left the decision to pick new leaders with the party president Sheikh Hasina.

Till now the AL has one committee for Dhaka city and the city leaders, who were elected in 2003, are still at the helm.

The city unit's December 2012 council took place nine years after the previous one, held on June 18, 2003, where Mohammad Hanif was made president and Maya general secretary. After Hanif's demise on November 28, 2006, MA Aziz was made acting president. Aziz died on January 23 this year.

There are 26 thana, 103 ward and 17 union units under Dhaka city. The city AL held councils at all units except two -- Jatrabari and Demra thanas -- but announced full committees only in four--Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh, New Market and Kalabagan.

After the Dhaka city corporation elections in April last year, Hasina gave responsibilities to party central leaders Faruk Khan and Abdur Razzak to prepare two lists for two committees of Dhaka city, and after consulting with city leaders they submitted two draft committees in December 2015.