Hospitalised Syed Ashraf granted leave by Parliament

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Bangla Tribune Report
Published : 20:34, Sep 18, 2018 | Updated : 20:35, Sep 18, 2018

Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam. FILE PHOTOParliament has granted leave to ruling MP and Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, who is now being treated at a hospital in Thailand.
Chief Whip ASM Feroze filed a leave petition on behalf of the senior Awami League leader, on Tuesday, which was granted by a voice vote.
He has been granted a leave for the next 90 House sittings from Tuesday (Sept 18).
The House was told that former Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraf is now being treated at the Bamrungrad Hospital in Thailand.
After Tuesday’s question-and-answer session, Chief Whip Feroze raised the issue and said that the Parliament’s rules of procedure stipulates that if a member applies for leave of absence, the Speaker shall read out the application to the House and put the question, without debate, that leave be granted.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Choudhury read out the leave application and urged MPs to consider it on a humanitarian ground.
She said that there were five other such instances in Parliament since independence.
The leave of absence application said that Syed Ashraf is now being treated at the hospital’s Critical Care Unit and that it would take ‘several days’ for him to recuperate.
Syed Ashraf is the son of Syed Nazrul Islam, who was Bangladesh’s acting president during the 1971 Liberation War.
Syed Nazrul was brutally murdered inside Dhaka’s Central Jail on Nov 3, 1975 along with three other leaders.
His son proved his mettle when the military-backed emergency government sought to punish politicians and banish Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia from politics.
The 68-year-old served as the party’s general secretary for two consecutive terms and now sits on the party’s policymaking Presidium.
In 2017, his wife Sheila Islam lost her battle with cancer. She was 57.

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