Dhaka city AL hasn't seen new leaders since 2003

The Dhaka city unit of the Awami League has been without new elected leadership for more than a decade now, and there are no signs that it would get fresh blood anytime soon.

 AL held the last three-yearly council of the unit on December 27, 2012, but it did not see any voting, hence no new leaders. Today marks the end of that three-year tenure.

The city leaders, who were elected in 2003, are still at the helm.

When asked, the city leaders said they did not know whether the incumbent would run the city affairs or, as per a previous proposal, the existing committee would be split into two -- Dhaka north and south.

Sources within AL said two draft lists of committee members for two parts of Dhaka city were sent to the party president, Sheikh Hasina, for endorsement recently. The committees will be announced after her approval, but the central AL leaders do not know when the announcement will come.

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 voting.

At the council, the city AL left the decision to pick new leaders with the party chief, while the AL central working committee decided that MA Aziz and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya would continue as acting president and general secretary of the city unit until a new committee was announced.

Dhaka city was supposed to get a new committee after AL's central council that was held on December 29, 2012.

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.

After the council, the AL chief several times said the city committee would be announced after holding councils of all units under Dhaka city and asked city leaders to hold the councils immediately.

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 thanas following in the central AL's footsteps. The four thanas that got full committees were Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh, New Market and Kalabagan. The city leaders hope that Sheikh Hasina would announce the new city committee soon.

"As our leader Sheikh Hasina had to face several hurdles to run the state, she couldn't pay attention to the city Awami League. I hope she will declare the committee by January," said city AL acting president MA Aziz. He also said they did not have any plan to hold any council further as one was held in 2012.

After the Dhaka city corporation elections in April, Hasina asked central leaders Faruk Khan and Abdur Razzak to prepare two lists for two committees of Dhaka city after consulting with city leaders. "Recently we submitted two draft lists of committee members to party president for her approval. I hope soon she will announce the committees," said Faruk Khan. Asked about the delay, he said she could not do so because both the government and the party were busy fighting militancy and terrorism.