One person should not hold key posts in govt, party

Says Obaidul Quader

2 July 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

A person should not hold important positions in the government and the party at the same time as it hampers activities of both the organisations, Awami League Presidium Member Obaidul Quader has said. "Many leaders hold key positions in the government and the party's central and district committees affecting both. They should keep only one position," he told The Daily Star yesterday. Referring to the resignation of veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as the president of party's West Bengal unit, he said if important leaders except party President Sheikh Hasina hold only one post, both party and the government would be benefited. It will allow the person to concentrate more on the duties for a position. AL Presidium Members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Matia Chowdhury, Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, Abdul Latif Siddique and Shahara Khatun, General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, joint general secretaries Dipu Moni, and Jahangir Kabir Nanak and departmental secretaries AHM Mustafa Kamal, Syed Abul Hossain, Abdur Razzaque, Abdul Mannan Khan, Hasan Mahmud, Yeafesh Osman, and Col (retd) Faruk Khan, among others, hold key posts in both the government and the party. "The way politics is practised now, it will bode ill for democracy," Quader said earlier at a discussion organised by Bangabandhu Academy at Dhaka Reporters' Unity. He said public confidence in political leaders has gone down. People don't believe politicians now. "We [politicians] have damaged our credibility over the years," said Quader. The AL leader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had set a good political example by welcoming the opposition-backed mayoral candidate's triumph in the Chittagong City Corporation polls. But the main opposition BNP ruined the nice gesture by calling hartal, he said. He also stressed the need for strengthening the local government. The administration must be made more dynamic to this end, he said. On BNP's backing for Jamaat-e-Islami's programmes against the arrest of three top Jamaat leaders, Quader said, "It's not new that BNP will support Jamaat. It's a reality for BNP to give all-out support to Jamaat as they are the same."