Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq appointed as Bangla Academy president

The interim government has appointed essayist, researcher, literary critic and social analyst Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq as the president of Bangla Academy for a three-year term, reports bdnews24.com.

The 84-year-old Huq taught at the Department of Bangla at Dhaka University for four decades. He is also an outspoken advocate for the use of the Bangla language at all levels as a convener of the Rashtrya Bhasha Bangla Rokkhya Committee.

Huq is replacing Selina Hossain in the post. Hossain, a fiction writer, was appointed as president of Bangla Academy on Feb 3, 2022 and resigned on Oct 17 after the fall of the Awami League government.

In his immediate response, Huq said: “I haven’t received the letter [of appointment] yet. They may have sent it to my office. But I give my thanks to those who nominated me for the post.”

“I would also like to say that, Bangla Academy is a national institution for intellectual thought, but due to its administration by a narrow-minded few, it gradually became a party institution. We must all try to ensure that it remains a national institution and that Bangla Academy can do the work it was meant for.”