Despite being the most fertile part of the Gangetic delta, our beloved country, Bangladesh, once submerged into the abysmal abyss of hopelessness and misery due to the enormous population, poverty, illiteracy, social inequality, and the directionless misrule. The assassination of Bangabandhu and other family members, including Bangamata Fazilatunnessa Mujib and their three sons, and the subsequent military-ruled autocratic governments made the situation worse. Jononetree Sheik Hasina has constantly been fighting to rescue the country from that dungeon of destruction. Sheikh Hasina, the true heir to Bangabandhu’s ideal and bloodline, has recovered and reoriented the country to the illuminated avenues of education, comfort, and development. In this epic venture, the few dedicated soldiers of Bangabandhu’s ideal whom she has got beside her as companions, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, MP, is one of the most prominent among them. Mahbubul-Alam Hanif, a tremendously popular public figure, has been elected the honourable member of the Parliament time and again from the Kushtia-3 (KushtiaSadar) constituency as a recognition of his love and respect towards the people of his locality. Being earnestly dedicated to the honourable Prime Minister and obliging her leadership and vision, Mr. Hanif has excellently been serving the noble purposes of Jononetree Sheikh Hasina as the joint general secretary and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Awami League. Mr. Hanif, indeed, deserves such recognition. As the joint secretary and as a spokesman of the party, Mr. Hanif has successfully retained the prime minister’s trust with his excellent organizing ability and proven courage. At the time of national crisis and chaos especially created by the opposition parties and Pakistan-backed militant groups, Mr. Hanif is consistently valorous and meticulous in passing his judgments filled with political wisdom.

Under the leadership of Jononetree Sheikh Hasina, the whole country is certainly in a march of development. As a member of the parliament, Mr. Hanif has not kept himself separate from Sheikh Hasina’s genuine effort of changing thesocio-economic condition of the people of Bangladesh. He wholeheartedly believes that he alone cannot change the country’s whole, but he can certainly improvethe life standard of the people of his constituency. He also believes that if the members of the parliament, keeping the dream of Bangabandhu’s golden Bengal and the vision of Jononetree Sheikh Hasina’s developed Bangladesh by 2041, contribute their best to improving the socio-economic, educational, and infrastructural scenario of their constituencies, the whole country eventually will get expanded as expected by Sheikh Hasina led Awami League Government. Mr. Hanif is found very much ready to invest the same enthusiasm and energy in the development efforts of his constituency—Kushtia, famed as the cultural capital of Bangladesh–with which he indulges himself in promoting the current development process of Bangladesh as a whole. 

Consequently, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, a people’s man, has tirelessly been trying to change the picture of the overall development of Kushtia district at the behest of his leader, Jononetree Sheikh Hasina. With Mr. Hanif’s dynamic leadership and steadfast dedication, the Kushtia district has turned out to be one of the most modern and advanced districts of the country. He has appeared to be the chief architect of all the infrastructural and socio-economic changes taking place in today’s Kushtia. Let us look at how he has taken Kushtia forward in the 4th term of the present government following the visionary dreams of Sheikh Hasina and Bangabandhu—

Development work worth several thousand million is now underway for the development of Kushtia Municipality. A much-coveted public Medical College has been established. Construction of the 500-bed hospital is also underway. Haripur Bridge and Kushtia Bypass Road have been constructed to materialize long-cherished expectations of the people around. The most eye-catching swimming pool in the Khulna division has been built in Kushtia. The Kushtia stadium has been renovated. Student hostels have been constructed for the Kushtia Government College. Kushtia city-protection dam has been constructed at a cost of many millions. Kushtia-Rajbari highway has been upgraded to four lanes. Work is underway to upgrade the Jhinaidah-Kushtia North Bengal highway to four lanes to ensure uninterrupted faster connectivity with North Bengal. A new government college has been established in Kushtia town. At least one college has been established in each Upazila in the district. Construction of a 1000 MW power landing station has been completed. A 350 MW power plant has been added to the power station at Veramara. Construction work of a children’s park in the name of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman encompassing around 35 acres of land on the Gorai River has been undertaken. Many more steps have also been taken to enhance the beauty of Kushtia town. We cannot but say that under the authentic leadership of Mahbubul Alam Hanif, all the development works in the Kushtia district are going smoothly and rapidly. Due to his relentless efforts as an emissary of the people’s leader Sheikh Hasina in her development efforts, this district in the southwest of Bangladesh is becoming a neatly developed and magnificently administered model district.

Mahbubul Alam Hanif, an MP, has taken a fruitful initiative by his efforts to reopen the closed mills and factories in Kushtia to enhance the economic flow in the area. Because of his strong leadership, 500 acres of land have been acquired in Veramara to establish a special economic zone. Gas pipelines have been set up to improve the quality of life of the people living in Kushtia. The connection will be provided soon. Mahbubul Alam Hanif has always been a tool of encouragement in setting various agro-based industries in the Kushtia area. The foundation stone of an IT park has also been laid next to the medical college to invigorate the young generation of Kushtia and the country. Establishing an IT park is indeed an extensive development effort undertaken by the current government. The inhabitants of Kushtia must feel indebted to Mr. Mahbub’s success in developing an IT park in Kushtia, making the thousands of unemployed youths of the area dream of a promising future.

With his assiduous effort, Mahbubul Alam Hanif has put in his utmost sincerity in seeking the highest support from the government to build the necessary infrastructure for the socio-cultural development of Kushtia. Construction of a centrally air-conditioned Fine Arts Academy and auditorium is underway in the district at the cost of Tk. 320 million. The foundation stone of the largest mosque in the Khulna division has also been laid at the district headquarters at the cost of Tk. 300 million. Besides, Mahbubul Alam Hanif has always been making his sincere efforts to get approval for the mega project of a second Padma Bridge at Daulatdia-Paturia which is the long-standing dream of the people of the south-western part of the country, to give the people of the region the opportunity to join the mainstream of development with doubled energy.

Mr. Hanif, as the joint general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, has been working vigorously day and night at home and abroad to uphold the ideals and implement the dreams of the Father of the Nation, and at the same time, to carry out the program of Bangabandhu’s daughter our beloved Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Over time, Mr. Hanif has grown into a renowned and unique national leader with remarkable personality characteristics, invincible determination, unwavering confidence in Bangabandhu’s ideals, straight-forwardness, unquestionable honesty, great eloquence, intense love for the people of the country, and more so. People in the south-western region of the country are proud of a political figure like him. He hails from a highly educated, cultural, and sophisticated family full of compassionate and patriotic members earnestly dedicated to the ideals of liberation and democracy propagated by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. All of them are established in their respective fields and are working diligently for the country’s people from their respective positions.

With a Master of Marketing degree from the University of Dhaka to his credit, Honourable Member of Parliament, Mr. Hanif has also developed a deep concern for the spread of education and learning in his area. As an education lover, he has been making an outstanding contribution to promoting education at all levels, including higher education in the region. He keeps a regular inquiry into the establishment and the smooth functioning of educational institutions. He also extends his support to ensure that deserving but needy students are not deprived of educational opportunities. His worthy wife, Mrs. Fouzia Alam, graduated in English from the University of Dhaka, continuously gives him tremendous support in all his constructive endeavorsand is personally involved in many other public welfare activities. Their children – two sons and one daughter, currentlyreceiving higher educationfrom reputed universities and institutions in Canada,are also getting themselves prepared to contribute to the country’s development journey shortly. They are young scholars and assets of the country. 

People’s leader Mr. Hanif has a strong passion for literature, music, and cultural activities. He takes immense pride in all the artistic seats at Kushtia: Lalon’sChheuria, Tagore’s Shilaidaha, Mir Mosharraf Hossain’s Lahinipara, and others. He remains perennially prepared to have them properly maintained. His sincere patronage hasled to a renaissance in the cultural sphere of Kushtia.

Mr. Mahbubul Alam Hanif’s work area is not limited to the circumference of his constituency only. As the spokesperson of the Bangladesh Awami League, the leading political organization of Bangladesh, he has to promote the ideals and policies of the party all over the country and around the world. He has to face the media and explain the party’s stand over different issues. He has to shoulder carrying out Prime Minister and party President Sheikh Hasina’s instructions and directives to implement the government’s development plans. To serve this purpose best, he has to travel around the nooks and corners of the country and go to the doorsteps of general people, and there is no stopping in this business. Even in this morbid outbreak of Covid-19 disease, he has to work relentlessly keeping in close contact with people to give them aids and support so that they can fight the pandemic bravely. While doing this, Mr. Hanif has also been prey to the contagious disease. However, by the grace of the almighty, he has recovered and returned to his regular office of working for the well-being of the general people.

Today, by the auspices of the skillful and visionary leadership of the architect of democracy and uncompromising protector, true heir to Bangabandhu’s politics and blood, visionary of a modern Bangladesh, mother of humanity, people’s leader Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has posted such milestones as achieving food sufficiency, alleviating poverty, removing job-scarcity, establishing and protecting democracy and good governance, war criminals’ trials, winning the marine border, and putting an end to electricity deficit and by way of these has become one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.The way Bangladesh is moving forward with tremendous speed through exponential development in food, clothing, housing, agriculture, education, economy, science and technology, and medicine, similarly, under the ideological affection and guidance of the Honourable Prime Minister Jononetree Sheikh Hasina, Mr. Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Honourable MP of Kushtia-3 (KushtiaSadar) constituency, is leading Kushtia, and the country as a whole, like a skilled driver along the avenue of development with tremendous speed towards the procreating of a happy and prosperous nation.Mahbubul Alam Hanif has, therefore been a prominent purveyor of Deshrotno Jononetree Sheikh Hasina’s development policies and missions across the country in the true sense of the term.

(Author is the writer, columnist, folklorist, academic, Professor of English & former Pro-VC, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh)