Abbas replaces Khoka:Daily Star

Mirza Abbas has been made the convener of Dhaka city BNP, a crucial unit of the party, replacing Sadeque Hossain Khoka, former mayor of the capital. Khoka was made one of the four advisers to the unit. President of Swechchhasebak Dal Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel was made the member-secretary of the convening committee while BNP chief Khaleda Zia's adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo was made joint convener. BNP
Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed announced the 56-member convening committee for the unit at the party's headquarters in Nayapaltan last night. He said the committee was formed with the advice of the party chief Khaleda Zia. The committee would form at thana- and ward-level unit committees within a month and then hold a council for the formation of a final committee of the city unit. In practice, however, the convening committee ends up forming the final committee and the council is held just for the sake of procedure. The last convening committee did not even bother to hold the council. The last convening committee for the city unit was formed six years ago with Khoka as the convener and Abdus Salam as member secretary. Salam too was made an adviser to government in the capital last year between October and December. On February 10, Khaleda had said she would disband the Khoka-led committee and announce a new committee within a day or two. However, the parity's internal conflict resulted in a long delay. Khaleda had at first planned to give the charge of Dhaka city unit to either Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah or Rafiqul Islam Mia, standing committee members of the party. “But madam could not proceed on with the plan due to opposition from Mirza Abbas, a BNP standing committee member, and Sadeque Hossain Khoka, among others,” a BNP insider had said. Hannan and Rafiqul were made advisers to the convening committee yesterday. Khoka on March 12 had announced that he would step down from the post convener of the city BNP. It is widely believed that the BNP-led 18-party alliance's movement for holding a national election under a non-party administration did not succeed as it had failed to wage strong movement in the capital.