Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expressed her desire to resign from the post of president of the Awami League (AL). “I have been the party president for a long time. I will be happy if someone asks me to quit and the party elects a new leader for the position in the upcoming council session,” she said during a press conference at her official residence Ganobhaban. The press meet was organised to brief the media about her visit to the US and Canada. Hasina’s comment, however, drew a huge disapproval from party leaders who were in the audience.
The national council of the party is scheduled to be held on October 22-23. Sheikh Hasina was unanimously elected the AL president in 1981  while she was forced to live in exile in New Delhi. She returned home on May 17 the same year. Hasina said party leaders would be elected on the basis of their performance in the next council, and a survey had been conducted to assess it. Replying to another question, the Premier said: “I took a break in the first five days during my visit to the US and Canada. But even then, I worked two hours daily and cleared as many as 51 files.” The Prime Minister expressed her gratitude to her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who, she said, had contributed immensely to the digitisation of Bangladesh. “I was able to work from abroad just because of Digital Bangladesh,” she said. Hasina left Dhaka on September 14, a day after Eid-ul-Azha, and returned home after 17 days on Friday.