Barrister Amir\\\'s Bar Council quit call

Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam has announced his intention to walk out of Bangladesh Bar Council after Abdul Baset Majumder was elected vice-chairman. Majumder was unanimously chosen for the office, for a second time, in the new 15-strong council’s first meeting on Tuesday.
Barrister Amir, who did not attend, said late in the evening that he would quit his council membership. The pro-Awami League lawyers had lost the last election to BNP-backed advocates because of their internal feuds.
But the factions, which were led by Baset Majumder and Barrister Amir, closed ranks during this year’s election held on August 26, enabling them to sweep 11 of the 14 seats. Since then, the names of the two were doing the rounds for the vice chairman’s post. And Barrister Amir’s announcement that he intends to resign following Majumder’s appointment has exposed a fresh schism within lawyers close to the ruling party.
He said, “A meeting chaired by Awami League Presidium Member Shahara Khatun yesterday (Monday) had decided to elect me as the vice chairman. Then the law minister called her over phone at the time and said, ‘He who got the most votes will be the vice chairman’.”
“Since the Bar Council’s inception, the person who led the panel in the election has been made vice chairman. At this stage, I’ve decided to resign,” he said.
The senior lawyer also said he had written to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, seeking her approval before stepping down. Baset Majumder had bagged 15,109 votes while Amir-ul Islam fetched 14,043 in last month’s vote.
Both of them had served as vice chairman of the Bar Council and the president of Supreme Court Bar Association.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam is the chairman of the Bar Council by the dint of his official position, according to bdnews24.com.
- biplab