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.
Also READ: Rift in JP widens “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.
