Constitution says resignation needs to be placed to PM for submission to president
Two ministers and two state ministers of Jatiya Party have submitted letters to their party chief for resigning from the cabinet.
“The president of our party will submit our resignation letters to the president,” Ruhul Amin Hawlader, civil aviation and tourism minister, told journalists in the afternoon.
Secretary General of Jatiya Party ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader holds a press briefing at party chief’s Baridhara residence in the capital this evening. A minister and two state ministers of the party have submitted letters to party chaiman HM Ershad for resigning from the cabinet. Photo: TV grab
The three other ministers are Commerce Minister G M Quader, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for youth and sports; and Salma Islam, state minister for women and children affairs, our reporter covering the events at Ershad’s house in Baridhara, reported.
“Many of my colleagues including myself — the secretary general — have submitted resignation letters to our party chairman HM Ershad,” Howlader told reporters.
Our former senior presidium member and health minister Rawshan Ershad also have expressed her will to submit resignation and will do it shortly, he said.
“Since the president is currently staying abroad, a decision has been made just now that our party chief will meet the president and place our resignation letters to him as soon as the president returns home,” he added.
According to Section 58 (1) of the constitution, the office of a minister shall become vacant if he resigns from office by placing his resignation in the hands of the prime minister for submission to the president.
The move came hours after Howlader, Chunnu, and health minister Rawshan Ershad met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in the wake of the party’s decision to break away from the government.
A constituent of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance, JP disclosed yesterday that its leaders in the cabinet and adviser to PM would quit as they found the next parliamentary election was not going to be participated by all.
The party leaders told newsmen yesterday that the ministers would resign this morning.
When the three — Howlader, Rowshan and Chunnu — went to meet the PM this morning with the national flag of their cars taken off, party sources also said they went there to tender resignation.
But emerging from the meeting, Howlader, JP secretary general, said: “We came here to talk with the prime minister. We haven’t submitted our resignation yet.”
“We will decide whether to quit or not after talking to our party chief Ershad,” he added.
After the trio left, the premier sat in a separate meeting with her adviser Ziauddin Bablu and water resources minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, both JP Presidium members of the party, and held meeting for a long time.
State Minister Salma Islam also joined the three when they sat with the party chief at ‘President Park’ at Baridhara diplomatic zone later.
The developments followed series of events centring JP’s participation in the next general election.
The first one came on November 18 when Ershad finally quitted the Awami League-led grand alliance and declared that would he join the “all-party” polls-time government.
On the same day, he also took a U-turn on his previous decision and announced that his party will contest the next general election slated for January 5.
The political arena of the country saw another change, when Ershad on Tuesday declared that he will not participate in the 10th parliamentary election citing the absence of an inclusive atmosphere.
He also asked his party aspirants to withdraw their nominations to stay away from the next general election.
Following the development, the law enforcers last night cordoned off his Baridhara house in the capital adding flavour to the drama as Ershad threatened to commit suicide if any attempt was made to arrest him.
Asked about his decision to stay away from the election, he declared that he would stick to it.
Source: The Daily Star
