Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Monday thanked BNP leaders for the courtesy and sympathy as they visited ailing Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
“We pursue different politics, but we should show courtesy to each other. And I want to thank BNP senior leaders for their courtesy and sympathy,” he told the newsmen after attending a memorial meeting at the auditorium of Jatiya Press Club (JPC) in Dhaka, reports BSS.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) organised the meeting in the memory of late Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) Director General Shah Alamgir with DUJ president Abu Jafar Surya in the chair.
Hasan, also the publicity and publication secretary of the ruling Awami League, said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and its other senior leaders, including Moudud Ahmad and Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, went to BSMMU yesterday to see ailing AL general secretary Obaidul Quader.
“The fact remains that when the BNP senior leaders showed the courtesy but their party chief Begum Khaleda Zia had failed to show the same. Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to visit Begum Zia when her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko died. But none opened the door. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina waited there for 10 minutes. I thanked the BNP leaders for their courtesy,” he added.
The minister hoped that showing courtesy and sympathy will be continued in future in politics.
The ruling party leaders sought doa from the countrymen for the early recovery of AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.
In the memorial meeting, Hasan expressed deep condolence at the sudden demise of PIB DG Shah Alamgir.
The minister said, “So far I know Alamgir was a good human being, an eminent journalist, and a skilled administrator. He possessed all the good qualities a man should need to acquire.”
Hasan said Alamgir did a lot for PIB when he discharged his duties there. Even he embarked on plans for PIB, he added.
Describing journalism as the third eye of the society, the minister said journalism is aimed at pointing to shortcomings of the government and motivating public support to build various social movements.
Presently a massive revolution has taken place in the fields of both print and electronic media, he added.
Recalling Alamgir’s contribution to journalism through presenting constructive writings, Hasan said, “Now it is our responsibility to advance his works. The government has also taken some programmes to provide training at district level.”
Prime Minister’s former media advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, BFUJ former president Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, JPC general secretary Farida Yeasmin, BFUJ secretary general Saban Mahmud, JPC former general secretary Swapan Shaha, BFUJ former secretary general Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, DUJ former secretary general Kuddus Affrad, Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) president Ilias Hossain, DRU former general secretary Raju Ahmed and late Shah Alamgir’s relative journalist Shanaj Sharmin, among others, addressed the meeting. DUJ general secretary Sohel Haider Chowdhury conducted the programme.
Later, the minister joined a milad mahfil organised by AL city south unit at its office in Bangabandhu Avenue.