Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday finally approved committees for Dhaka city north and south AL units.

However, she only named the presidents and general secretaries of the units and approved top two office bearers of thana, ward and union units under the jurisdiction of the two city units.

The AL chief's approval came 39 months after the AL's city unit council asked Hasina to pick new leaders. After 2003, this is the first time the city AL got new leadership.

AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday announced the new committees of AL Dhaka city north and south units during a press conference held at party president's Dhanmondi office. This is the first time the Dhaka city committee has been split in two.

Dhaka-11 lawmaker and former vice-president of city AL AKM Rahmatullah and former Lalbagh thana AL unit president Abul Hasnat were made presidents of Dhaka north and south units of the party respectively.

Former Mohammadpur thana unit president Sadek Khan has been made general secretary of north and former city AL organising secretary Shahe Alam Murad of south.

Ashraf claimed that the newly-formed committees were powerful and hoped that they would play an important role in the next general elections.

The last council of Dhaka city AL was held on December 27, 2012, and its three-year tenure had expired three months ago. In the last council, nearly 2,000 councillors and 3,000 delegates of Dhaka city AL gathered to elect new leadership through voting but it ended without any vote being cast.

The council left the decision to the AL chief.

The 2012 council was held nine years after the previous council which was on June 18, 2003, where Mohammad Hanif was made president.

After Hanif passed away on November 28, 2006, MA Aziz was made acting president. Aziz died on January 23 this year.

On having a fully-fledged committee, Shahe Alam Murad told The Daily Star that they would announce full committees after consulting with party chief Sheikh Hasina.