Shireen’s CV belies Quader’s claim

Screenshot of a section of Shireen Akhter's bio-data posted on the CU website.
Screenshot of a section of Shireen Akhter's bio-data posted on the CU website.

Bangladesh Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader on Thursday claimed that the president appointed no person affiliated with any political party as members of the search committee.

But the very biodata of one of the six committee members, Shireen Akhter, contradicts the claim of the ruling AL general secretary.

Shireen Akhter's biodata which remains posted on the website of the Chittagong University reads she is a member of Cox’s Bazar Mahila Awami League, the woman front of the ruling AL.

According to her biodata, Shireen Akhter’s late father Afsar Kamal Chowdhury was the founding president of Cox’s Bazar district Awami League.


“He [Afsar Kamal Chowdhury] was a close associate of Bangbandhu. He throughout his life was active to uphold the spirit of Bangabandhu in Ramu of Cox’s Bazar,” read the biodata.


Shireen Akhter joined the university in 1996 and since then she was involved with pro-Awami-League teachers yellow panel, Prothom Alo’s Chittagong University correspondent on Wednesday.


She was elected member of the executive committee of the Chittagong University Teachers’ Association from the yellow panel.

President Abdul Hamid on Wednesday formed a six-strong search committee making Appellate Division judge Syed Mahmud Hossain its head for the second consecutive time.

Five other members of the committee are: High Court division judge Obaidul Hassan, Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) chairman and former election commission secretary Muhammed Sadique, Comptroller and Auditor General Masud Ahmed, Dhaka University’s English literature professor Syed Manzoorul Islam and Chittagong University pro-vice chancellor Shireen Akhter.

Addressing a function in Jessore, AL general secretary Obaidul Quader thanked the president for forming a “neutral search committee,” reported our Keshabpur (Jessore) correspondent.

Referring to the inclusion of Syed Manzoorul Islam in the committee, Quader said, “The president deserves thanks for including an apolitical person like him in the committee. Other members of the search committee never did the politics of Awami League.”

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