Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, lawyers’ platform of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has removed senior lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon from his post of senior vice-president of the forum.
The forum accused Khokon, who also holds the joint secretary general post of the BNP, of taking the charge as Supreme Court Bar Association’s president dealing underhand with the ruling Awami League, violating the forum’s decision.
The unanimous decision to remove Khokon was taken at a meeting of the forum’s senior leaders, advisers and the association’s former secretaries and presidents, held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office on April 6, said a press release issued by the forum on Sunday morning.
Khokon told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that he would formally clear his position through a press conference on Monday.
The forum removed Khokon, stating that he took the charge on April 4 ignoring the forum’s request although the forum-nominated three leaders refused to follow him respecting the decision of the forum.
The forum also accused Khokon of breaching the party discipline by making derogatory remarks against the high-ranking party leaders at a recent discussion organised by a group of former BNP leaders, who participated in the January 7 ‘dummy’ parliamentary elections forming different parties dealing underhand with the Awami League.
The Awami League-backed panel won 10 posts, namely those of the secretary, five office bearers, and four executive members, in the March 6–7 Supreme Court Bar Association election hit by violence, while the BNP-backed panel obtained four posts, the president and three executive members.
The forum sent separate letters to Khokon and three office bearers M Shafiqul Islam, Fatema Akher and Syed Fazle Elahi Ovi, on March 27 asking them to refrain from taking their charges.
The forum said that it took the decision after consulting with senior leaders on March 24, decided to continue its movement for a fresh election rejecting the ‘manipulated election results’ that was announced on March 10 detaining BNP-nominated candidate Ruhul Quddus Kazal in police custody in a case of AL factional clashes during the vote counting.
The letter further said that Khokon took the charge breaching the decision of senior members of the forum, compromising with the association secretary Shah Monjurul Hoque, who contested the election from the AL-backed platform.
On March 27, the Forum asked BNP leader Khokon to refrain from taking the charge as the forum would wage a movement for a fresh election.
The forum said that the results of the association’s election was declared on March 10 with a ‘staged drama’ of counting votes with looted ballots, keeping BNP-supported candidate Ruhul Quddus Kazal and his followers in jail.
