However, Hasina, also president of Awami League (AL), has decided not to visit the president.

"Our party chief (Sheikh Hasina) wanted to meet the president when he was sick. But as he is doing quite okay now, there is no need to meet him," Obaidul Quader, AL joint general secretary, told The Daily Star last night.

The president's return put a lid on speculations about his illness and not returning to work.

A Bangabhaban press release yesterday said the president went to his office at 11:55am and did a number of routine work for more than one hour before leaving for his residence.

Press Secretary to the President Mokhlesur Rahman Chowdhury said the president signed a number of government files and a message on the World Population Day and diplomatic documents.

AFM Solaiman Chowdhury, secretary to the president, and Mokhlesur welcomed the president back to his office with bouquets.

High military and civil officials of Bangabhaban were also present on the occasion.

The press secretary to the president said in line with the doctor's advice the president has to take adequate rest and medication and the number of visitors is limited.

Senior officials of the presidential office, family members of the president and people who are involved with his treatment are in the list of visitors in the coming days, he added.

He requested other intending visitors to wait until the president fully recovered.

The 75-year-old head of state attended his office last on May 23, the day when he fell sick and was admitted to Dhaka Combined Military Hospital (CMH). He was flown to Singapore the following day and he returned home on June 20 after a bypass at Mount Elizabeth Hospital there.

But he had to stay four more days at the CMH for checkups before he could return to Bangabhaban, where he had been resting until the resumption of his office yesterday.

SPEAKER'S CLARIFICATION
Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, who discharged as the acting president for 44 days due to illness of President Iajuddin Ahmed, yesterday came up with a new explanation in parliament claiming that he was the constitutional president during the period.

"There is no post of acting president or president in charge in the constitution. So anybody who discharges duties in the post of the president either elected or temporarily is the constitutional president," the Speaker explained in the House.

The speaker also defended use of protocol, flag and symbol of the president even from the day of return of President Iajuddin Ahmed from Singapore.

“The president and in case of anybody who discharges duties to the post of the president will be provided with the protocol, flag and symbol," the Speaker claimed.