by Staff Correspondent, Dhaka;

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has once again become the chief of her ruling Awami League party after holding the role for more than four decades.

Party spokesman Biplob Barua said the 22^nd triennial conference of the party on Saturday re-elected Hasina as its president for the 10^th consecutive tenure.  

She will serve the party, founded by her father among many other politicians in 1949, for the next three years.

Some 7,000 party delegates, who attend the conference in Dhaka’s Institute of Engineers Bangladesh auditorium, also reelected Obaidul Quader, a senior cabinet minister, as general Secretary of the party for the third consecutive tenure, Barua said.

The delegates also bestowed power to the party chief to choose members of the policymaking body presidium and the central executive committee.

Hasina, now 75, also the longest serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh, currently on her fourth tenure and third consecutive tenures since her assumption to office in 2009, holds the position of party chief for the last 41 years.

She was first elected the president of the party in February 1981 while in exile following her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassination in August 1975.

A military putsch overthrew the government headed by Mujibur Rahman, under whose leadership the Awami League led and won Bangladesh’s war of liberation against Pakistan in 1971. The party also led all democratic movements, including the 1952 language movement, in the then East Pakistan, which later become Bangladesh in 1971.   

Hasina, who was ranked 42^nd in the 19^th annual Forbes list of the World’s 100 most powerful women earlier this month, campaigned for “Digital Bangladesh’ by 2021 and remained steadfast in her pledges to create ‘Smart Bangladesh” by 2041 to show her vision to the people.

Among the eight presidents of the party since its inception, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, served the party as its chief for eight years from 1966 to 1974, the second longest, followed by its founding president Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani’s seven year from 1949 to 1955.

The new AL presidium:  

Following are the members of the AL policymaking body, presidium:  Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Kazi Zafarullah, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Pijush Kanti Bhattacharjee, Abdur Razzaque, Lt Col (retd) Md Faruk Khan, Shajahan Khan, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Abdur Rahman, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Qamrul Islam and Simeen Hussain Rimi and Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin. Three presidium members – Nurul Islam Nahid, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Abdul Mannan have been moved to the party’s advisory council.

Secretarial positions: There has been no change in the position of the joint general secretaries and the incumbents Hasan Mahmud, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Dipu Moni and AFM Bahauddin Nasim will discharge their duties for the next three years.

Organizing Secretaries are Ahmed Hossain, BM Mozammel Haque, Abu Saeed Al Mahmud Swapan, S. M. Kamal Hossain, Mirza Azam, Advocate Afzal Hossain, Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel and Sujit Roy Nandi. Nandi promoted from the relief and social affairs affairs secretary to the position organizing secretary. His position was replaced by Aminul Islam Amin.

Treasurer HN Ashequr Rahman, Finance and Planning Affairs Secretary  Waseqa Ayesha Khan, International Affairs Secretary Dr. Shammi Ahmed, Legal Affairs Secretary Advocate Najibullah Hiru, Agriculture and Co-operative Affairs Secretary  Faridunnahar Laily, Information and Research Affairs Secretary Dr Selim Mahmood, Publicity and Publication Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap, Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua, Religious Affairs Secretary Advocate Sirajul Mostafa, Forestry and Environmental Affairs Secretary Delwar Hossain, Science and Technology Affairs Secretary Engineer Md. Abdus Sabur, Liberation War Affairs Secretary Advocate Mrinal Kanti Das, Youth and Sports Secretary Harunur Rashid, Education and Human Resource Secretary Shamsun Nahar Chapa, Commerce and Industries Secretary Md Siddiqur Rahman, Cultural Affairs Secretary Asim Kumar Ukil, Health and Population Affairs Secretary Rokeya Sultana and Women Affairs Secretary Jahanara Begum. Sayem Khan retained his post of deputy office secretary

Labour affairs, and youth and sports affairs secretaries have been dropped and no one has been given responsibility in these two posts.

Prime Minister and Party chief Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 22^nd council of the party in the morning on Saturday at Suhrawardy Udyan. She called upon her deputies to take the party to nee height by serving people as she said the Awami League, ever since its inception, did everything possible to change the fate of the general mass in Bangladesh.