Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the liberation of Bangladesh is Awami League’s biggest achievement and the party would always work for the welfare of the people.
“It is our commitment to father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that we would always work for the welfare of the people,” BSS quoted her as saying at an unscheduled discussion in parliament, marking the 71st founding anniversary of the Awami League.
"The achievement, that came through sacrifices of Awami League, is the Liberation of Bangladesh...today we have got a country of our own, we have got our dignity as a nation...this is the biggest achievement," she said.
"This political party, since its founding, has served humanity and people...it always speaks for the deprived people, it always struggles for establishing their rights," UNB quoted her as saying.
Hasina, also the president of Awami League, simultaneously said: “On this day, we are taking pledge that we would materialize the dream of the father of the nation by making the country a “Sonar Bangla” free from poverty and hunger.”
Talking about the coronavirus pandemic, she said Awami League cut short its celebration programs for Mujib Borsho and the party's founding anniversary due to this virus.
Briefly describing the founding history of Awami League, the party chief said this party always talked about the rights of people and fought in every movement, including Language Movement, to establish people's rights, since its formation.
She said the father of the nation led the country to its independence while people took up arms responding to his call for independence.
Hasina briefly described various activities of the party and the government to ease the sufferings of people caused by the coronavirus.
The prime minister said the sun of independence that had set with the defeat of the Siraj-ud-Daulah at Palashi Mango Orchard once again rose with the formation of the Awami League (on June 23 in 1949 at “Rose Garden” on KM Das Lane in Dhaka) as the country’s independence had been achieved under the leadership of the party.
She said the first independent government was formed on April 10 in 1971 with making the Father of the Nation as the maiden President, Syed Nazrul Islam as first Vice-President and Tajuddin Ahmed as the first Prime Minister of the country while the government took oath on April 17 the same year at Mujibnagar in Meherpur, a part of the Palashi Mango Orchard.
“That government had directed the Liberation War of 1971 and finally brought the victory,” Hasina said.
She said the leaders and activists of the Awami League, Chhatra League, Jubo League, Swechchhasebak League and its other front and associate bodies have been currently working round the clock to reach the relief materials to every doorstep and join the funerals (of Covid-19 patients).
The prime minister said Awami League men are now being engaged in planting trees on a larger scale as part of her government’s program of planting trees across the country marking the birth centenary of Bangabandhu.
She recalled with respect the greatest Bengali of all time, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Awami League’s founding president Mawlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, and general secretary Shamsul Haque and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
Sheikh Hasina recalled the contributions of the Awami League leaders and workers in all the democratic and progressive movements, and expressed her gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives and prayed for the salvation of their departed souls.
