On the day of Ishraq's resignation, his wife Nusrat Khan shares Martin Luther King quote on 'power'
On the very day he announced he was stepping down as State Minister for Liberation War Affairs, Ishraq Hossain's wife, Barrister Nusrat Khan, posted a message about 'power' on social media. On Monday (October 19), she shared on her Facebook account a famous English quote by US civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The shared quote translates as: 'Power properly understood is the power to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.' In other words, the quote explains power not in terms of any post or seat, but in terms of the ability to achieve a purpose and bring change.
The timing of the post is its most significant aspect. On the same day, Monday afternoon, Ishraq Hossain announced at a press conference at the National Press Club that he was stepping down as State Minister for Liberation War Affairs. He is also the Member of Parliament for the Dhaka-6 constituency.
At the press conference, Ishraq said he had taken the resignation decision after discussion with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. In other words, the decision was not taken unilaterally — his remarks indicated it was finalised after discussion.
Right after that announcement, Nusrat Khan's Facebook post emerged as the first visible reaction from the family's side. Without writing any statement of her own, she chose a passage from a speech more than half a century old — one in which the word 'power' is redefined.
The quote is part of a historic speech by Martin Luther King Jr. He delivered that speech on August 16, 1967, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the speech, given during that phase of the civil rights movement, King discussed the concept of power at length.
The speech was titled 'Where Do We Go From Here?' — itself a question about the movement's path ahead. And it was in that speech that this definition of power appeared.
An audio transcript of the speech is preserved at Stanford University. In other words, the lines shared by Nusrat Khan are not some obscure saying; they are part of a documented historic speech whose full text and recording are preserved for researchers.
The core message of the quote is simple: power is not an end in itself, but the strength to achieve a purpose. And that strength is needed to bring change in three fields — social, political and economic. Shared on the day of leaving office, the message reads to the reader as: even without holding a post, the strength to work for change does not run out.
In Ishraq Hossain's case, the context is even more direct. As State Minister for the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, he was part of the government; Monday's announcement brought that chapter of responsibility to an end. His wife's post defining 'power' came on the very day of that ending.
The post mentions neither the reason for the resignation, nor any political future, nor any person's name. What it contains is a single idea — power means the strength to achieve a purpose. The interpretation is therefore left largely to the reader.
All eyes are now on the next step. Once the formal process of the resignation is complete, what role Ishraq Hossain takes next, and how the message of this quote matches his political position, will become clear in the days ahead.
