The Jatiya Party will not attend the current session of the parliament until a gazette notification is published naming the party chairman, Ghulam Muhammed Quader, the leader of the opposition, dropping Raushan Ershad from this post.

The parliamentary party of the Jatiya Party, at a meeting on Sunday, chaired by GM Quader, took the decision, said a party press release.

At a meeting on September 1, the JP parliamentary party decided to remove Raushan from the post of opposition leader and make GM Quader the opposition leader in parliament.

After that meeting, a letter signed by opposition chief whip Mashiur Rahman Ranga was submitted to speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, urging her to implement the party decision.

At present, Quader is the deputy leader of the opposition.

In a new letter to the speaker on September 20, however, Mashiur sought to withdraw his previous letter against the backdrop of his expulsion from the party positions.

JP sought to make Quader opposition leader after chief patron Raushan, on August 31, convened the party’s 10th council for November 26.

The decision of Raushan, wife of the party’s late founder HM Ershad, renewed the conflict between her and Quader over their control of the party.

Before deciding not to join the parliament until the issue was resolved, the JP parliamentary party was initially in favour of raising the issue in the house.

After emerging from an earlier meeting of the parliamentary party on Sunday, JP secretary general Mujibul Haque Chunnu told reporters that they would raise the issue of making GM Quader the opposition leader, dropping Raushan from the post.

‘We had sent a letter to the speaker for taking action in this regard. Two months have passed, but no decision has been taken on this issue,’ he said.

He added that he would ask the speaker why she had not decided on their letter.

Chunnu added that the JP would also raise the issue of dismissing the opposition chief whip, Mashiur.

On October 28, JP decided to remove Mashiur from the post of opposition chief whip in parliament.

He was also expelled from the party, leaving his position as a lawmaker uncertain.

Mashiur was also relieved of the party’s primary membership.

The action against Mashiur came after he sided with Raushan in the party’s leadership struggle.

Quader took the action, exercising special power bestowed upon him in the party charter.

Twenty-one of JP’s 26 lawmakers attended the meeting of the party’s parliamentary party on Sunday.

Raushan, her son Rahgir Almahe Ershad, Mashiur, AKM Salim Osman, and Rana Mohammad Sohail did not attend the meeting.

JP sources said Salim Osman was undergoing treatment in Bangkok and Rana had been outside Dhaka.