New, incumbent committees at loggerheads

The Jatiya Press Club is no longer quiet following an impromptu "election" of the managing committee Thursday.

The new management is likely to take over today with the incumbent terming it "illegal".

The 17-member new team comprising pro-Awami League and pro-BNP journalists was announced after an effort to form a committee on consensus failed. There has been a stalemate at the club for the last five months over formation of the new management.

The deadlock got a new twist when journalists leaning to two main political parties announced names of pro-government journalist Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman and pro-BNP journalist Quamrul Islam Chowhdury as president and general secretary respectively.

Only two of the incumbent managing committee office bearers attended the meeting while a small group of general members out of the total 1,000 were present, it was learnt. 

The election to the Jatiya Press Club was supposed to be held on December 30. However, the pro-government forum was not interested in the election, as the pro-BNP-Jamaat journalists were in the top leadership positions of the club.

A statement sent by Syed Abdal Ahmed, general secretary of the present committee, on Thursday said the club's constitution had a provision of handing over charge to the elected committee through an election.

"Members of the press club and the journalist community will not accept any deviation from this," the statement warned.

The present managing committee also called an extraordinary general meeting on June 27 where the two-yearly general meeting and election will be discussed. The statement said that before June 27, none had ethical and legal rights to call the two-yearly general meeting.

In a counter-statement yesterday, the Shafiq-Quamrul committee termed Kamal Uddin Sabuj-Abdal-led team the "immediate past committee". It also described Sabuj-Abdal committee as totally unconstitutional, devoid of ethics, and said its issuance of a statement went beyond its jurisdiction.

The new president, Shafiqur Rahman, said they might take over today or tomorrow.