Bangladesh News

The embattled BNP national standing committee might witness a few important changes soon as some of its members are under tremendous pressure from the party men to quit the committee.

Party leaders said some senior members of the committee might follow their colleague Saifur Rahman, who on Saturday stepped down as committee member.

BNP Joint Secretary General Abdullah Al Noman told The Daily Star, “The party men were expecting such a decision from Saifur Rahman as he could not give enough time for the committee because of illness.”

Party insiders said Saifur’s announcement of retiring from active politics posed challenges for other senior committee members who are now under pressure from the party men to quit from the party’s highest policy-making body.

The standing committee led by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is comprised of 10 members including Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Abdul Matin Chowdhury, RA Goni, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Mahbubuddin Ahmad, Mahbubur Rahman and M Shamsul Islam.

Of them, Matin, Mahbubuddin and RA Goni have been suffering from old age complications for a long time.

Moreover, Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, who recently faced wrath from a group of unruly party men, refrained from attending the last few meetings.

Those, who are widely known as corrupt and controversial leaders in and outside the party, should not be allowed to remain in the standing committee, party insiders said.

“Those who threw the party into deep crises by misguiding Khaleda Zia when BNP was in power should be ousted from the standing committee,” said a central party leader wishing anonymity.

Against this backdrop, a four-member special committee led by Khaleda Zia is working on the process of reorganising the district committees.

The other members are Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Moudud Ahmed.

Party leaders said BNP’s efforts to reorganise its district committees stumble due to the controversy surrounding its national standing committee.

Even the standing committee failed to announce the names of the conveners and joint conveners of district committees although it sat several times to finalise the names.

Standing committee members, however, claim that they have already completed the task of choosing the conveners and joint conveners and will announce the decision any time.

Party leaders, however, said some party leaders known as ‘corrupt’ are responsible for slowing down the process of reorganising the party as they want to see those who are in their good books as conveners and joint conveners of district units.