Dr Kamal not to contest polls

Eminent jurist and Gono Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain won’t contest the 11th parliamentary election which is scheduled to be held on December 30. 

Dr Kamal, also the top leader of Jatiya Oikyafront, an alliance of the BNP and other political parties, told Jago News over phone. 

The eminent jurist said he won’t contest the national polls due to old age-complications illness.

He is now staying at his home on the Baily road in the capital and won’t attend the rally in Rajshahi on November 9 for illness. 

BNP, along with Jatiya Oikya Prokriya, Nagorik Oikya and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Rab) together on October 13 announced a new political platform titled Jatiya Oikyafront led by Dr. Kamal. 

Dr Kamal served in Bangladesh’s first post-independence government from 1972 to 1975, initially as law minister and chairman of the drafting committee in the Constituent Assembly. 

He led the process which produced the 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh. He then served as foreign minister, and led Bangladesh to join the United Nations in 1974. As energy minister, Hossain later enacted the Bangladesh Petroleum Act. 

In 1981, he ran as an opposition candidate for president against Abdus Sattar. Hossain fell out with Awami League president Sheikh Hasina during the 1990s, and formed the Gono Forum.