Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is embarking on a new beginning Thursday by introducing a batch of fresh faces with many old ones in her new cabinet, after coming to power for the fourth consecutive term following the huge victory in the 12th parliamentary elections held last Sunday.
Despite the ongoing economic crisis, she has shown the dream of a rich future in the manifesto before the national polls. And now her new cabinet is hinting that major changes are coming in the country's economic management.
Many of the outgoing government’s veteran and senior ministers did not have a place in the new cabinet. Like last time, members of Sheikh Hasina's new cabinet are all from Awami League.
The new cabinet, including the prime minister, will have 37 members, with 25 full ministers and 11 state ministers, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told a press conference at the secretariat in Dhaka on Wednesday night — after President Mohammed Shahabuddin asked Sheikh Hasina to form the new government.
He also announced the names of the new cabinet members. Their portfolios will be known after the distribution of the ministries following the oath-taking ceremony of the new cabinet.
The swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet members will be held at Bangabhaban at 7pm on Thursday.
President Shahabuddin will administer the oath and the cabinet secretary will conduct the ceremony at Durbar Hall of the Bangabhaban, the President's Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin told BSS on Wednesday.
On the occasion, the Bangabhaban has taken preparation to arrange the ceremony with as many as 1,000 guests will attend.
According to a Cabinet Division statement issued Wednesday night, the 25 ministers will include AKM Mozammel Haque, Obaidul Quader, Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Dipu Moni, Muhammad Tajul Islam, Muhammad Faruk Khan, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Anisul Huq, Hasan Mahmud, Md Abdus Shahid, Sadhan Chandra Majumder, RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, Abdur Rahman, Narayan Chandra Chanda, Abdus Salam, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, Farhad Hossain, Md Faridul Haq Khan, Md Zillul Hakim, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Nazmul Hassan Papon, Yeafesh Osman, and Samanta Lal Sen.
Yeafesh and Samanta will be the only two technocrat ministers who are not MPs.
The 11 state ministers will include Simeen Hussain Rimi, Nasrul Hamid, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Mohammad A Arafat, Muhibur Rahman Muhib, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Zahid Faruk, Kujendra Lal Tripura, Rumana Ali, Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, and Ahasanul Islam Titu, showed the statement.
Meanwhile, government transport pool officials have said that they have already kept 40 vehicles ready. The vehicles will be handed over to the Cabinet Division on Thursday and ministers and state ministers will be brought in these to Bangabhaban in the evening, officials told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader had told reporters that the new cabinet will have both veterans and freshers.
“New and old ones will be included in the new cabinet. The speaker and the Leader of the House will decide who will be the Leader of the Opposition in parliament after discussion,” he said after the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected MPs at the Jatiya Sangsad.
Invitation to form cabinet
President Shahabuddin earlier in the day had appointed Sheikh Hasina as the prime minister, the Cabinet Division said in a gazette notification.
“In accordance with clause (3) of Article 56 of the Bangladesh Constitution, the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh decided to appoint Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister,” said the notification, issued shortly after Sheikh Hasina called on him in the afternoon.
It said the decision was made as the “majority of the parliament members laid their confidence on her”, a reference to the Awami League Parliamentary Party's decision to make her the Leader of the House after the swearing-in of the MPs.
The president also gave his consent and invited Sheikh Hasina to form a new cabinet under her leadership, the president’s press secretary told reporters.
The notification also noted that with the formation of the new cabinet, the incumbent one would be deemed annulled.
President Shahabuddin also conveyed sincere greetings and warm congratulations to the prime minister for having absolute victory in the national polls, said the press secretary.
Of the 24 ministers in the new government, 13 are going to be brand new. Sheikh Hasina has brought back four people who were not in the outgoing government but have served before in the cabinet as full ministers. Besides, two deputy ministers and one state minister of the last administration have been promoted to ministers.
More than half of the ministers and state ministers of the new cabinet are coming to perform government duties for the first time. As many as 14 ministers, 12 state ministers and two deputy ministers of the outgoing government were not included in the new cabinet.
Among the ministers, who have been in office for the last five years, Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi, Health Minister Zahid Maleque are not in the new cabinet.
The outgoing cabinet’s Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed, Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin, Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Minister Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing, Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan and Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Minister Imran Ahmad also are not in the new cabinet.
In the new cabinet, Sheikh Hasina did not keep five senior ministers who were in charge of five important portfolios related to economic management in the outgoing administration. The matter is being seen as a signal to shake up the country's economic system.
Due to age and illness, Finance Minister Kamal had very much struggled to deliver the last two national budgets and was helped by Planning Minister Mannan. Neither of them will be in the new cabinet.
There were two unelected (technocrat) ministers in Sheikh Hasina's last administration. She has kept one of them in the new cabinet and brought in a new technocrat minister.
Although there were three deputy ministers in the cabinet formed after the 11th parliamentary elections, no one has been appointed this time.
