DHAKA: Thousands of newspaper readers across Bangladesh were surprised on Wednesday morning as they did not receive their copy of Ittefaq, one of the leading Bangla dailies published from Dhaka. The paper has been facing serious problems for some time because of a dispute between two brothers who own the 52-year-old newspaper that surfaced again on Tuesday in the form of a court verdict.

It was Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, a vice president of the erstwhile Awami Muslim League, who founded the paper, initially as a Bangla weekly from Dhaka in 1949, to propagate the political ideology of the party vis-à-vis that of the Muslim League.

Bhashani remained the editor of the weekly until Tofazzal Hossain, popularly known as Manik Mian, replaced him as editor in August 1951.

Manik Mian, a reputed confidant of former Pakistan premier Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy, eventually took over the ownership of the paper and made it a daily in December 1953.

The paper actively served the nationalist politics of the then Awami League until Bangladesh emerged as a nation-state in 1971.

However, after the death of Manik Mian, his sons and daughters took over the daily. But there has been a dispute among the owners, particularly the two sons of Manik Mian, over who will exercise editorial control. It is usually the younger brother, Anwar Hossain, a politician, who manages the paper. But the elder brother, Mainul Hossain, a legal practitioner, did not find it legal, and subsequently he went to court.

Mainul Hossain had filed three writ petitions in 1996, 1997 and 1999, challenging the holding of the offices of editor, publisher and executive director of the daily by Anwar Hossain.

Two judges of a High Court division bench on January 29, 2003, delivered a split judgment, contradicting each other.

The matter was then sent to another judge of the High Court and the third judge delivered his verdict on July 15, 2003, declaring that Anwar Hossain had ceased to hold those offices by virtue of his appointment as a minister in the erstwhile Awami League government.

Before serving the government of Sheikh Hasina as communications minister for five years between 1996 and 2001, Anwar was the communications minister in the cabinet of General H. M. Ershad. He also served as secretary-general of Gen. Ershad’s Jatiya Party for some time.

Anwar Hossain moved the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the High Court’s verdict.

The Appellate Division bench, comprising Justice Ruhul Amin, Justice M M Ruhul Amin and Justice Tafazzul Islam, allowed Anwar Hossain to hold the offices of editor, printer and publisher and executive director.

As the journalists were producing the issue, Mainul Hossain’s son stood in the way and the paper did not come out.

The unions of journalists and employees of the newspaper have now taken the responsibility of persuading the feuding brothers to settle the issue.