Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, platform of main opposition pro-Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawyers, has removed senior lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon from his post of vice-president of the forum, for taking charge as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, violating the decision of the forum.
Khokon is also accused of breaching the discipline of the forum by making derogatory remarks against the high ranking party leaders at a recent discussion organised by a group of former BNP leaders who participated in the January 7 dummy parliament elections forming different parties under the influence of the ruling Awami League.
The decision to remove Khokon was taken at a meeting held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office on Saturday evening, said a press release issued by the forum on Sunday morning.
On March 27, the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum asked BNP leader Khokon to refrain from taking charge as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association as the forum would wage movement for fresh election.
The Awami League-backed panel won 10 posts, namely those of the secretary, five office bearers, and four executive members, in the March 6–7 election hit by violence, while the BNP-backed panel obtained four posts— those of the president and three executive members.
The forum sent separate letters to its senior vice-president Khokon and members M Shafiqul Islam, Fatema Akher and Syed Fazle Elahi Ovi, asking them to refrain from taking their charges as the forum, after consulting with senior leaders on March 24, decided to continue its movement for fresh election rejecting the March 10 election result.
The forum in a letter to Khokon on Sunday said that the three forum leaders except Khokon refrained from taking the charges.
The letter further said that Khokon took the charge breaching the decision of senior members of the forum, compromising with the association secretary Shah Monjurul Hoque, who contested the election from the AL-backed platform.
The forum said that the result of the association’s election was declared on March 10 with the ‘staged drama’ of counting votes with looted ballots, keeping BNP-supported candidate Ruhul Quddus Kazal and his followers in jail.
