The Awami League, the oldest and largest political party in Bangladesh, is set to celebrate its 70th founding anniversary in a befitting manner on Sunday.
The party started out on June 23 in 1949, when a young, secular and progressive section of the Muslim League formed the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League, at a meeting in the historic Rose Garden on KM Das Lane in Dhaka’s Tikatuli.
Maulana Abdul Hamid Bhashani was elected as the founding president, and Shamsul Hoque was named the general secretary. The party was later renamed Awami League.
In July 1953, during the Second National Council of the party, Bhashani was re-elected president, and Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was named the new general secretary. The party grew to become the biggest political party in the country, playing crucial roles in a number of democratic movements, including the Language Movement and the Liberation War.
Sunday’s program
The anniversary programs will begin at Dhaka’s Dhanmondi Road 32 on Sunday morning, with the hoisting of the national and party flags at Bangabandhu Bhaban and the Awami League central office.
The Awami League and its affiliate organizations will pay homage to the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, by placing wreaths at his portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, and the ruling party will hoist the national and party flags at all of its offices across the country.
A delegation from the Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC), led by presidium member Lt Col (retd) Muhammad Faruq Khan, will place wreaths at 11 am at the mausoleum of Bangabandhu in his birthplace of Tungipara in Gopalganj.
The party will pay homage to all of its founding leaders, including Bhashani, Shamsul Hoque, and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, among others.
Month long programs
The party will hold month-long programs across the country to celebrate its 70th founding anniversary.
A three-day program will be arranged in Dhaka, and meetings, seminars, processions, cultural functions, and the publication of souvenirs and essay competitions, will be organized at the district and upazila levels.
A discussion chaired by Awami League President and the country’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, will be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) on June 24. A cultural function will also be arranged at the party’s central office on June 25.
Awami League General Secretary and Roads, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader called upon party units across the country and their associates to observe the founding anniversary of the party in a befitting manner.
