The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Ameen Madani is due in Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day official visit. He will lead a five-member delegation on his first visit to Bangladesh after taking office as the new Secretary General recently, the foreign ministry said. During the visit, the Secretary General will hold meetings with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and the Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque at their offices on Sunday. He is also expected to call on President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, apart from visiting some institutions. The visit is aimed at deepening and widening the existing cooperation between Bangladesh and OIC, the foreign ministry said in a media release. Madani, a former Minister of Saudi Arabia, assumed office as the tenth Secretary General of OIC on Jan 1 after his election in the 12th OIC Summit in Cairo in Feb last year. Bangladesh is among the first few countries that the Secretary General decided to visit after taking over the responsibilities of the General Secretariat of OIC, second largest international organisation. To protect interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony is the main objective of the 57 Muslim countries grouping. It was established through a decision of the Summit in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on Sep 25 in 1969 in response to an act of criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem in Palestine. – bdnews24.com
