BNP Dhaka city unit soon with Mintoo at the helm

The BNP is likely to announce its Dhaka city unit convening committee soon putting Abdul Awal Mintoo and Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel in charge of the committee, said party insiders.

At present Abdul Awal Mintoo is the adviser to the BNP chairperson and Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel is the president of the party’s volunteer organisation Swechchhasebak Dal.

Apart from the convening committee there will be an 11-member advisory committee that will time to time advise the convening committee to form thana and ward level committees, senior leaders said.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia took the decision on Tuesday night after a meeting with the senior leaders in presence of Mintoo at the party Chairperson’s Gulshan office.

The new convening committee will be assigned to form all thana and ward committees and hold council of the Dhaka city unit in three months.

A senior leader seeking anonymity said when the process of reconstituting the city committee was initiated Khaleda Zia asked Mintoo to take over the responsibility but he denied due to intra-party feud. Moreover, convener of the city unit Sadeque Hossain Khoka was behind bars at that time.

Again a few days ago Khaleda called Mintoo and asked him to take the charge of the convening committee of the Dhaka city unit and Mintoo this time agreed but requested the chairperson to announce the new committee in presence of Khoka.

Khoka, who was in the helm of Dhaka city BNP for the last 17 years, tried his best to cling to the post and to this end he held a meeting with the BNP chairperson but eventually he failed to manage the party chief, sources said.

On March 12, Khoka at a sudden press conference said he did not want to stay in the committee and requested the BNP chairperson to reconstitute the city committee.

The city unit was formed on May 14, 2011 with Sadeque Hossain Khoka as its convener and Abdus Salam the member secretary