The ruling Awami League and its front organisations will celebrate the party's 62nd founding anniversary across the country today
The organisations will hoist the national and the party flag, place wreaths at Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's portrait, hold discussions and cultural and other programmes marking the occasion
The Awami League was founded as the Awami Muslim League in Dhaka this day in 1949. The word 'Muslim' was later dropped from the name in 1953 to give it a secular colour.
The party actively participated in all democratic and nationalistic movements during the then East Pakistan which ended through the war for independence of the country in 1971.
The Awami League has planned daylong programmes to mark the occasion. It will hoist the national and the party flag atop all party offices at sunrise. It will place flowers at the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's first president, at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi at 7:30am.
It will hold a discussion at the Bangabandhu Internatio-nal Conference Centre at 11:00am which will be presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League's president.
The party's general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, urged all the party leaders and activists to observe the day by holding programmes.
The Awami League was founded by some breakaway Muslim League leaders in 1949 and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani was elected the first present and Shamsul Huq the first general secretary of the party.
Activists of the party later took part in language movement in 1952. The party became one of the members of the United Front government of East Bengal in 1954. The party also formed the central government of the then Pakistan in 1956. The Awami League president of the time, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, became the prime minister and resigned in 1957.
AL activists protested the military dictator Ayub Khan since his appearance in Pakistan politics in 1958. The party also took stern position against the Basic Democracy of Ayub Khan and his education policy in 1962.
AL leader Shiekh Mujibur Rahman launched his six-point political and economic programme in 1966, aiming at greater autonomy of the then East Pakistan.
Sheikh Mujib also faced the Agartala conspiracy case and the Awami League and Mujib reached the peak of their popularity in East Pakistani Bengali population. And the party led the mass uprising in 1969.
In the elections of 1970, the Awami League won 167 of the 169 East Pakistan seats in the national assembly and it also won 288 of the 300 provincial assembly seats in East Pakistan.
This was not acceptable to the political leaders of West Pakistan and led directly to the events of the war for national independence. The AL leaders successfully led the country's war against the Pakistani army throughout 1971.
The party formed the first government of independent Bangladesh and was in power till 1975. Mujib declared a state of emergency and later assumed presidency after the parliament had decided to switch from the parliamentary to the presidential form of government. Mujib also renamed the Awami League as the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BKSAL) and banned all other parties.
After 21 years, the Awami League formed government in 1996 with support from few small parties and the party won only 62 out of the 300 parliamentary seats in 2001 elections.
The Awami League won the national elections on December 29, 2008 with support from alliance partners.
Source : New Age
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