One of the two Gano Forum MPs-elect, scheduled to swear in by the Speaker on Thursday (Mar 7), says he will not take the oath to his office.

Mokabbir Khan, who won the Sylhet-2 seat with the party’s ‘rising sun’ symbol, told Bangla Tribune on Wednesday (Mar 6) that the move came per the decision of his party's leadership.

“I have been adhering to the party’s decision from the very beginning. I wrote to the Speaker to take oath on Mar 7 as the party was positive about it. But now I have decided not to as per instructions by party President Kamal Hossain and General Secretary Mostofa Mohsin Montu,” he said.

The Gano Forum leadership has said that the deadline to take oath as MP is yet to end and a decision can be taken later, according to Khan.

The Kamal Hossain-led party’s other MP-elect Sultan Md Mansur, however, confirmed of taking oath.

“I will be sworn in by the Speaker at 11am on Mar 7,” he told Bangla Tribune on Wednesday.

A former vice-president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union or DUCSU and president of Bangladesh Chhatra League, Sultan Mansur had risen as high as to the position of organising secretary in the Awami League.

He went under the fold of Gano Forum chief Kamal after he faced the wrath of the Awami League leadership for seeking reforms during the 2007-08 military-controlled caretaker government.

He later joined a loose political group, the Jatiya Oikya Prokriya led by Kamal Hossain and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury.

Speaking to Bangla Tribune on Feb 27, Monsur said, ““I joined the Jatiya Oikya Front as a representative of the Jatiya Oikya Prokriya. Since it’s mandatory to be a member of a registered party to contest the election, I vied as a Gano Forum candidate.”

Mansur said then he “doesn’t care”, if the Gano Forum decides to oust him.