President Hamid’s last day at Bangabhaban today

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Today is the last day of President M Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban as he is scheduled to handover the charge of the office to President-elect Md Sahabuddin through an oath-taking ceremony at Bangabhaban tomorrow morning.

Bangabhaban is set to give farewell Abdul Hamid as his two-term tenure of the office of President ends today.

The President made a history in the Presidential palace as he served over 10-year in the country’s highest office in two-term.

Md Shahabuddin will become the country’s 22nd President while Abdul Hamid and his family will begin their transition back into their civilian life.

This may be Hamid’s last journey in a full motorcade and after this he will have to get used to stopping at traffic lights and intersections again.

Abdul Hamid will reside in his President Lodge at Nikanja in the capital as family utensils and other necessary materials were shifted there, said a family source.

Talking to BSS, President’s Press secretary Joynal Abedin said after the oath-taking ceremony, Abdul Hamid as the outgoing President will leave the Bangabhaban tomorrow noon.

In the evening, the new President will officially enter the Presidential palace. However, the new President will be given a gourd of honour the next day as part of the ceremonial part.

A smartly turned-out contingent of the horse-mounted President Guard Regiment (PGR) will give the outgoing President the ‘guards of honour’ as part of the ceremony.

The officers and employees of the Bangabhaban will give him farewell by showering flowers’ petal to his open jeep from Bangabhaban to its main gate. And from there he will be escorted to the place of Nikuja residence by a motorcade for the last time, he added.

Abdul Hamid will go on retirement after spending 10 years and 41 days as the President for two consecutive terms. A veteran politician and parliamentarian, Abdul Hamid appeared as the country’s 21st president a five years back in 2018 as the second term.

Earlier, for the first time, he took the responsibility of the President in-charge on March 14, 2013 while the then President Md Zillur Rahman was under treatment in Singapore. After the death of Zillur Rahman, he became the Acting President on March 20, 2013.

Later, he was elected president uncontested on April 22, 2013.

Md Abdul Hamid was born on January 1, 1944 at Kamalpur in Mithamain upazila under Kishoreganj district.

He started his political career in 1959 by joining the then student front Chhatra League. He joined the Awami League at the end of 1969.

Abdul Hamid was elected as Speaker in the Ninth Parliament and served the office from 2009-2013.

A veteran politician and parliamentarian, Abdul Hamid was earlier elected Member of Parliament (MP) for seven times since the country’s independence in 1971. (BSS)