Home
+
Published : 09 Aug 2024, 04:49 AM
A new interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has taken the reins of Bangladesh to fill the power vacuum left by the ouster of the Awami League and the departure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The newly appointed council has 16 members, including four women.
Three others could not attend the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday night because they were outside Dhaka.
They are Faruk E Azam, Bidhan Ranjan Roy, and Supradip Chakma.
Among the appointees are two leaders from the Bangladesh General Students' Right Protection Council, which played a crucial role in the quota reform and anti-government movements.
Salehuddin Ahmed
Salehuddin Ahmed began his career as a teacher before becoming a civil servant.
He served as an economic advisor both nationally and internationally.
On Nov 1, 2005, during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, he was appointed governor of Bangladesh Bank, a position he held until Apr 30, 2009.
Before becoming governor, Salehuddin was the managing director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, or PKSF, from 1996 to 2005.
He also served as the director general of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, or BARD, and was a long-time director general of the NGO Affairs Bureau at the Prime Minister's Office.
In recent years, he was involved in teaching at a private university.
Later he joined the Civil Service of Pakistan, or CSP, as a cadre officer.
He completed graduatuion and post-graduation in economics from Dhaka University in 1968 and 1969, respectively, and began his teaching career in economics department at Dhaka University in 1970.
He obtained his PhD in economics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, in 1978.
He was born in the Nabinagar Upazila of Brahmanbaria district.
Asif Nazrul
Asif Nazrul is a writer, columnist, political commentator, and professor of law at Dhaka University.
He is known for his incisive critiques of Bangladeshi politics.
He has authored over 10 novels and nonfiction books.
He completed his LLB and LLM at the University of Dhaka in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and obtained his PhD from the University of London in 1999.
He also pursued post-doctoral research at the Environmental Law Center in Germany.
Before joining Dhaka University as a faculty member, he worked with the weekly magazine Bichitra in 1991.
He also served as a magistrate for a short period.
Nazrul has authored several books on law, constitution, and human rights.
From 2011, Asif was a bureau member of 'South Asian for Human Rights' for six years.
In 1992, he worked with the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee but later distanced himself from it.
Adilur Rahman Khan
Adilur Rahman Khan is a Bangladeshi human rights activist, lawyer, and founder of Odhikar, a leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh.
He has been serving as one of the secretaries general of the International Federation for Human Rights, or FIDH, since Oct 2022.
Adilur studied law at Dhaka University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and obtained his PhD from the University of London.
He was actively involved in the pro-democracy movement against military ruler Gen HM Ershad.
He co-founded Odhikar in 1994 and has been an outspoken critic of government policies, particularly regarding human rights abuses.
He served as deputy attorney general under the BNP-led coalition government but resigned in May 2007.
His activism led to legal challenges, including a detention in 2013.
He has received several international awards, including the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights in 2014.
AF Hassan Ariff
AF Hasan Ariff is a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and served as the attorney general during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
Born in 1941 in Kolkata, he completed his secondary and higher secondary education at St Xavier's College.
He graduated in law from the University of Calcutta.
Ariff began his legal career in the Calcutta High Court in 1967 before moving to Dhaka in 1970, where he established himself as a leading lawyer.
He leads the law firm AF Hassan Ariff & Associates, which has branches in Dhaka and Chittagong.
He was attorney general of Bangladesh from Oct 2001 to Apr 2005.
He served as law, justice and parliamentary affairs advisor to the military-backed caretaker government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed from 2008 to 2009.
He is a panelist with the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre, or BIAC, and SAARC Arbitration Council, or SARCO, and a court member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
His areas of expertise include constitutional law, corporate and commercial arbitration, and public procurement.
Touhid Hossain
Md Touhid Hossain is a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh and former high commissioner to South Africa.
He completed his master's degree in History from Dhaka University.
Hossain joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1981.
He served as the principal of the Foreign Service Academy from Jan 1999 to Feb 2000 and again from Jul 2009 to Jul 2012.
He worked as deputy high commissioner in Kolkata from 2001 to 2005, where he addressed issues related to migration and bilateral relations with India.
He was foreign secretary of Bangladesh from Dec 2006 to Jul 2009 and later appointed high commissioner to South Africa in Jun 2012.
During his tenure in South Africa, he addressed issues related to the safety of Bangladeshi expatriates.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, born on Jan 15, 1968, in Dhaka's Dhanmondi, hails from Habiganj.
She is a Bangladeshi lawyer and environmentalist.
After completing her education at Viqarunnisa Noon School and Holy Cross College, she enrolled in the law department at Dhaka University.
She is the chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, or BELA, and has been with the organisation since 1993.
Rezwana is known for her work on various environmental issues, including deforestation, pollution, and illegal land development.
In 2007, she received an environmental award for raising awareness, followed by the Creative Statements and South Asia Partnership’s ‘Celebrating Womanhood Award’ in 2008.
In 2009, she was honoured with the Goldman Environmental Prize and was named a ‘Hero of the Environment’ by Time magazine.
She also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012.
Nahid Islam
Nahid Islam is a key coordinator of the quota reform and anti-government agitation known as the Anti-discrimination Student Movement.
He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in sociology at Dhaka University (2016-17 academic year).
Before that, he finished his higher secondary education at Government Science College.
Nahid has served as the central member secretary of the Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti, a student organisation led by Akhtar Hossain, former social services secretary at Dhaka University Central Students' Union, or DUCSU.
This organisation was introduced in Oct 2023 as an independent student group free from political party affiliations.
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan is one of the coordinators of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement.
He completed his graduation and post-graduation from the Department of Linguistics, University of Dhaka (academic year 2017-18).
Asif, a former student of Adamjee Cantonment College and a platoon sergeant of the college's BNCC club, hails from Muradnagar Upazila in Cumilla.
Asif is a member secretary of the Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti.
Sharmeen Murshid
Sharmeen Murshid, an election analyst, is the chief executive officer of Brotee, a private election monitoring organisation.
She is the daughter of the eminent educationist late Khan Sarwar Murshid and the late Nurjahan Murshid.
Sharmeen’s mother was a state minister in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s cabinet post-liberation.
Farida Akhter
Farida Akhter was born in the village of Harla of Chandanaish Police Station in Chattogram. An economics graduate from Chittagong University, Farida is a socio-economic researcher.
Her work entails conducting policy-based research to help understand the plight of the poor and alleviate them.
A writer as well as a columnist, Farida has worked on several development projects focused on women empowerment, health, agriculture, fisheries, textile industry, garment industry and workers, and population over the last three decades.
She is also the Executive Director of UBINIG, Policty Research for Development Alternative.
Nurjahan Begum
In 2010, Nurjahan Begum was appointed as the Chairman of Grameen Distribution. She also served as the acting Managing Director at Grameen Bank.
She was one of the first associates of Muhammad Yunus for the project when it started back in 1976.
Nurjahan has also worked as a consultant, trainer and evaluator of microcredit projects in several countries.
In 2009, she received the World Summit Millenium Development Goals Award and the Vision Award.
Bidhan Ranjan Roy
Bidhan Ranjan Roy is a mental health professional and a psychiatrist. He is the former director and professor of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Roy, who has MBBS, DPM and MPhil degrees in Psychiatry, was also the head of the Mymensingh Medical College, Department of Psychiatry.
Currently, he is training at Mymensingh’s Union Specialised Hospital.
Faruk E Azam
Freedom fighter and naval commando Faruk E Azam was conferred with Bir Pratik gallantry award for his contributions to Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan.
After graduating from high school in 1971, he went to India’s Palasi to undergo two months of training and was later chosen by the Bangladesh army to participate in Operation Jackpot, the only coordinated campaign of the liberation war.
He was made the team's vice-captain and assigned to attack the Chattogram port during the war.
M Sakhawat Hussain
M Sakhawat Hussain, is a former election commissioner who was a brigadier general in the Bangladesh Army.
Born in Barishal, Sakhawat has written over 32 books and is a freelance commentator for national and international television. He also writes columns.
After being commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1966, he later joined the Bangladesh Army in 1972 after it gained independence.
Supradip Chakma
Born in 1961, Supradip Chakma hails from Khagrachhari’s Kamakchhari. After completing his international marketing degree from Dhaka University, he joined the civil service.
A retired foreign cadre officer, Supradip is the chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board or CHTDB.
He has also worked as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Panama.
AFM Khalid Hasan
Former Hifazat-e-Islam Nayeb-e-Amir AFM Khalid Hasan is a Sunni Deobandi Islamic scholar.
Born on Feb 2, 1959 in Chattogram’s Satkania Upazila, this religious figure is the Education Advisor to Islami Andolan who also edits the Monthly At-Tawheed.
He graduated in Islamic History degree from Chittagong University.
In 2006, he completed his PhD on ‘Khutba of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH): A Socio-cultural Study’.
