Jamaat chief quits on health grounds

The leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Prof. Ghulam Azam, has stepped down from the party leadership on health grounds.
The octogenarian leader, who sided with the Pakistani regime in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war and stayed back in West Pakistan for a long time, told the party's policy-making body, Majlis-e-Shura that he wanted to resign .
"Accepting his request, the Majlis-e-Shura has formed a three-member panel for electing a new Emir," a party leader told Gulf News on Wednesday night.
Dropping Prof. Azam's name from the contest for the post of Emir, the Shura on October 20 elected the panel with incumbent Secretary General, Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, Moulana Abul Kalam Mohammad Yusuf and Moulana Delwar Hossain Saidee in the running for the pivotal post.
"The electoral process will take some time and the result is expected to be announced by the Majlis-e-Shura on November 16," said Mohammed Qamaruzzaman, Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat.
The post-independence Awami League government stripped him of his citizenship on the charge of collaboration with the Pakistan Army and for his alleged involvement in genocide.
Prof. Azam returned to Bangladesh with a Pakistani passport during General Ziaur Rahman's time in 1978 to see his ailing mother and did not return.
Following a movement initiated by the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee after his appointment as Jamaat Emir, Prof. Azam was arrested by the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party government in 1992. He got back his citizenship after a legal battle in 1994.
Prof. Azam was General Secretary of Dhaka University's Central Students' Union in 1948.