Long wait for AL city committees

Even though presidents and general secretaries of Dhaka city Awami League (north and south) got the jobs over two years ago, they are yet to announce fully-fledged committees for their units.

The last three-yearly council of Dhaka city AL was held on December 27, 2012, and new committees were not elected.

The names of presidents and general secretaries of the units were declared on April 10, 2016, over four years after the council.

Conflict between leaders, nepotism and AL top leaders' interference are the main reasons for the delay in declaring the committees, according to sources.

City AL sources said as there were no complete committees, the south AL unit was being run under the leadership of its General Secretary Shahey Alam Murad and the north AL unit was being run under the leadership of its President AKM Rahmatullah and General Secretary Sadek Khan.

City leaders held councils in most of the thana, ward and union units, but could not elect complete committees.

Presidents and secretaries of these units were announced in 2016. 

At this point, no city AL leader can say when the next council of Dhaka city AL (north and south) will be held. The council is due since 2015.

Party sources said some of the AL leaders did not want fully-fledged committees at this moment, thinking that announcement of the committees would create more intra-party conflicts ahead of the national election and it would adversely impact the party's electoral activities.    

“We don't know when the next council will be held. Only our leader [Sheikh Hasina] knows it well. When she asked us to hold the council, we will go for it,” Dhaka north AL General Secretary Sadek Khan told The Daily Star.    

There are 26 thanas, 103 wards and 17 union units under Dhaka city AL. Their councils are held like city unit councils except for voting to elect the new leadership.

Dhaka city north AL President Rahmatullah and General Secretary Sadek declared full committees of 26 thana units on December 27 last year. The announcement drew huge criticism as it was alleged that infiltrators were named in the committees, depriving devoted activists.

On January 2, frustrated AL activists met AL President Hasina over the matter, prompting her to suspend the committees.

Sadek, however, claimed that their announced committees had not been suspended. “Our leader [Hasina] gave us the signal to go ahead with the committees.”

Things are different in south.

The south unit did not declare the complete committees of thana, ward and union units due to the conflict between its General Secretary Murad and South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon, said sources.

President and general secretary of the south unit prepared lists of committees. But before those were made public, Councillor of ward-38 Abu Ahmed Mannafi, who is close to Khokon, met party high-ups and raised allegations of nepotism and the move was halted.  

Later, AL chief Hasina asked party presidium members Faruk Khan to sit with the leaders of north AL unit and Abdur Razzaque with the leaders of south AL unit to mediate in forming committees.

Asked, Murad told The Daily Star that they prepared lists of fully-fledged committees and would announce them soon.

“We didn't sit with Abdur Razzaque, but we have close contact with him. We prepared lists of committees. We verified the lists after consulting presidents and general secretaries of thana units. We will declare these soon,” he added.