Solaiman Chowdhury, a former cabinet secretary who is now the chairman of the Privatisation Commission, dissolved the executive committee under Section 20, Clause A of the sports federations' constitution, the so-called 'black law' that has never been used previously.

His attempt to disband the committee failed when he could not get the consent of ex-sports adviser CM Shafi Sami but the BTTF chief finally managed to convince sports adviser Shafiqul Haque Chowdhury.

The move has surprised all concerned as this section of the constitution, even not used by partisans in the past, saw light during the tenure of the neutral caretaker government. Many raised eyebrows about the existence of this law and asked the inevitable question -- If the president can dissolve an elected body on his own then what is the necessity of elections? In the past, in case of replacement of committees, the EC used to take decisions.

It can be mentioned that the federation activities all but stopped for the last one and a half years after its president failed to hold the election according to a 'controversial' voter-list that excluded the outgoing vice-president and general secretary.

The National Sports Council (NSC) did not endorse the voter-list and asked the president to send a revised one. Since then, the relationship between the EC and the president deteriorated, leading to cessation of all major domestic competitions. Not only that, the national team's camp for the 10th South Asian Games last year was hampered when a section, most of whom are included in the 13-member ad-hoc committee, influenced a number of players' withdrawal from the camp.

The ad-hoc committee has been given the task of holding an election within 90 days and one of its vice-presidents defended the president's decision saying that 'it had to be done because there had been no elections' at the federation.

It can be noted that polls are due at the Bangladesh Olympic Association for over two and half years but the organisation has decided to go for elections once the new government takes over.

The temporary body has already asked the outgoing general secretary to hand over charge. With the BTTF office at the Bangabandhu National Stadium under renovation, the new committee had its first meeting at Solaiman Chowdhury's office on the New Year's Eve.