Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday finalised names of 26 executive members of the party's working committee in consultation with the AL presidium members.
Hasina finalised the names at the first meeting of the newly formed party presidium at her official residence Jamuna. However, the names are awaiting announcement. Moreover, the names of the party's joint secretary and the information and research secretary were not announced yet.
Awami League announced its 73-member new central committee on Thursday leaving veteran politicians Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzaq, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta who were members of the Presidium, and bringing in many fresh faces.
Talking to the press after the oath-taking ceremony of new minister and five state ministers at Bangabhaban, Sheikh Hasina said they had to make path for the future leadership.
She said, "Awami League is 60 years old and we are aging too. So we have to create new leadership for the future. We have done what is acceptable to our grassroots level leaders and party councillors."
Those who have been made new leaders are well tested, she said, adding, "I think they will perform their duties properly."
Briefing the reporters at Jamuna AL General Secretary Ashraful Islam said the names of the working committee members would soon be announced.
Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said after announcing the names of the working committee members the full-fledged central committee would sit and start collecting primary party members.
The meeting also finalised party programmes for August 15, national mourning day, and August 21, the day of barbaric grenade attack on an AL rally that killed 25 party leaders and workers in 2004.
The new presidium members exchanged greetings with the AL chief at the meeting.
Wishing anonymity, a presidium member told The Daily Star that the presidium yesterday empowered both the party chief and the general secretary to finalise the names of 26 members.
The AL general secretary said the members of the central working committee would be drawn from different regions with inclusion of both new and old faces.
He said the presidium decided to hold council of all unit committees.
Ashraf said the party's central working committee would make the final decision on the matter soon. AL has over 46,000 grassroots committees across the country, he added.