Quader, Hawlader given JP co-chair, gen secy charges

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad today said he has appointed GM Quader the party’s co-chairman as he and his wife have become too old to run the party.
“I have taken opinion of people of Rangpur, the stronghold of the party, and I have appointed GM Quader its co-chairman after taking the opinion into consideration,” he said.

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“I have appointed him to the post as we will have to contest the next national elections after three years,” the JP chief added.
Ershad yesterday removed party secretary general Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, who opposed the JP chief's decision to appoint GM Quader as co-chairman.
Ershad accused Bablu of negligence in discharging duties, and replaced Bablu with his loyalist Ruhul Amin Hawlader, who was JP secretary general for 12 years since 2002. Hawlader lost the post to Bablu in mid-2014.
The JP chief was speaking at a programme organised at his Banani office in Dhaka this afternoon to formally give charges to Quader and Hawlader as co-chairman and secretary general of the party respectively.
In their immediate reactions, Quader and Hawlader said they will work to turn JP into a “real opposition party”.
Within two hours of Ershad's announcement, the JP Parliamentary Party comprising 40 MPs held an emergency meeting with Presidium Member Raushan Ershad in the chair. Ershad and Hawlader attended the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
JP lawmakers loyal to Raushan opposed Ershad's “unilateral” decision, and asked him to convene meetings of the party's presidium and parliamentary party to discuss the issue.
Ershad and Hawlader walked out of the meeting halfway through.