New party committee, equal number of leaders from both platforms

The number of members of the founding committee of the new political party has not been finalised yet. However, the committee will have an equal number of leaders from the Jatiya Nagorik Committee and Anti-Discrimination Student Movement regardless of the size of the committee.

Names of leaders nominated for the top posts (at least six or more) of the new party will be announced in the inaugural ceremony to be held on Friday at the Manik Mia Avenue of the capital, a reliable leader confirmed adding, “Names of other members of the committee will be announced later.”

However, there have been reports that Nahid Islam and Akhter Hossain have been finalised as the convener and member secretary respectively. Besides, it is almost confirmed that Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah will serve the new party as the chief coordinator and spokesperson respectively.

Meanwhile, the name of Ali Ahsan Zonayed, former president of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir Dhaka University Unit, was in discussion for the post of senior joint convener of the new party. However, on Tuesday he declared in a Facebook post that he won’t be in the new party.

Sharing that post, another former president of the DU unit of Shibir Rafe Salman Rifat also announced to be out of the new party.

It has been learned that another former Shibir leader Arefin Mohammad Hezbollah won’t be any part of the new party to be formed either. He has already resigned from the post of the assistant spokesperson of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee. However, several other former Shibir activists are going to join the new party despite those three leaders omitting their names, a reliable leader of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee said.

Meanwhile, names of Jatiya Nagorik Committee convener Nasiruddin Patwary and spokesperson Samantha Sharmin are in discussion for the posts of senior joint convener and senior joint member secretary respectively. Besides, Jatiya Nagorik Committee leaders Sarwar Tushar, Tasnim Zara and Ariful Islam Adeeb and Anti-discrimination student movement leader Abdul Hannan Masud and a few others are likely to get significant posts.

The Jatiya Nagorik Committee has appealed to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) for permission to hold the inauguration ceremony. As part of the preparation for this programme, several sub-committees have been formed to distribute tasks, Nagorik Committee spokesperson Samantha Sharmin.

The Jatiya Nagorik Committee is leading the process of forming the new party. The platform will exist even after the formation of the new party. The activities of the platform will be conducted from its current office in the capital’s Banglamotor. The new party will take office somewhere else.

The Nagorik Committee held a meeting at their Banglamotor office yesterday. There were discussions regarding the future of the platform in the meeting. Several decisions were taken in the meeting, including dissolving all the organograms of the platform – executive committees, cells and search committees except the posts of convener, member secretary, spokesperson and chief coordinator.

The membership of all central committee members who are going to join the new party will be in effect till declaration of the new party on Friday. The membership of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee will be revoked as soon as the new party is formed. However, those who will not join the new party will continue to be the member of Jatiya Naghorik Committee.

Besides, the convener, member secretary, spokesperson, and chief coordinator will serve unofficially for 15 days from 28 February. A three-member official forum will be formed at their initiative, which will finalise the future organogram of the platform.

The Nagorik Committee will accomplish a historic task of forming a new political party on 28 February. The committee will remain as a civil-political platform after the formation of the new party. However, it won’t take any initiative to form another party.

A relevant leader said the Nagorik Committee also has prepared a list of 120 persons for different posts. The committee will be restructured with members outside the new party, sources said.