Senior Awami League leader Syed Ashraful Islam has asked to be given more time to take oath as a lawmaker of the 11th National Parliament.
The former general secretary, who now sits on the party’s policymaking Presidium, made the request in a letter addressing Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Thursday (Jan 3).
“He wants to take his oath after returning to the country. In any case, he has 90 days to be sworn in,” the speaker said.
The 68-year-old politician is undergoing treatment at the Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand after taking sick leave from parliament on Sept 18 last year.
Even though Ashraf was absent during the election, he emerged the winner at Kishoreganj-1.
Bangladesh observes Jail Killing Day to commemorate the killing of four national leaders, including Syed Ashraf’s father Syed Nazrul Islam, the acting President of Bangladesh during the Liberation War, in jail in 1975.
After the death of Syed Nazrul, Syed Ashraf had been in the UK for a long time. He was elected MP from Kishoreganj-1 seat in 1996, 2001, 2008 and 2014 after returning home.
Ashraf was entrusted with the duties of Awami League general secretary when central leaders including party chief Sheikh Hasina was put behind bars during the 2007-8 emergency rule. He proved his mettle when the military-controlled government sought to punish politicians and banish the two top leaders Hasina and Khaleda Zia.
The leaders and activists of the party still remember the role he played in strengthening the party.
Hasina, however, removed him as the local government minister in 2015 only to hand him the portfolio of public administration day later. He also lost the party’s number two post, general secretary, in its last council. He is a member of the Awami League’s presidium now.