Quader vows to work dedicatedly even if not made general secretary again

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Friday said he has both success and mistakes in his two terms in the post and will utilise the lessons from those failures.

"When it comes to work, I think I am not a completely perfect leader and it is natural that I have had some mistakes. There are many successes as well," he said at a press conference on the upcoming 22nd national council of the Awami League at the party headquarters in Dhaka.

The council scheduled to be held today in the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan is expected to announce new office bearers for the Awami League central committee for next three years.

Obaidul Quader, who has been serving the Awami League as the general secretary since 2016, said he will continue to work dedicatedly for the party even if he is not kept in the position any longer.

"I think the successful celebrations of the golden jubilee of the country's independence and the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are our greatest achievements. Moreover, we have arranged the highest number of public meetings at the grassroots levels," Quader, also the minister for road transport and bridges, said.

Awami League Presidium Members Abdur Razzak, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Abdur Rahman, Shajahan Khan, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Kamrul Islam, Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, Hasan Mahmud, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, among others, were present at the press conference.

Quader further added that they did not work for a year due to the pandemic. "However, we were not inactive at all. All the colleagues helped me a lot."

The senior leader said Awami League is moving forward in its own way. The attraction of people, especially the youth and the woman, towards the party has increased manifold.

"I did not see 10 women in any public meeting in my area earlier but hundreds of them are now actively participating in politics. The change is visible all over the country. Youngsters are now more interested in 'Smart Bangladesh'. They have enjoyed the facilities of 'Digital Bangladesh'."

On Saturday's council, he said that President of Awami League Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the programme at 10:30am.

There will be two sessions and the first session will be held in the morning at Suhrawardy Udyan, in which 7,500 councillors and 35,000 delegates are expected to attend.

The second session scheduled to be held at the Engineers Institute in the afternoon will elect new officer bearers with the presence of 3,500 councillors, the minister noted.

Awami League has not invited any foreign political party leader as delegates this time. Only high commissioners and ambassadors of various countries in Dhaka have been invited.