Bangladesh cabinet gets three new ministers, a state minister

Four new members joined the cabinet after the president swore them in on Tuesday.

State Minister Narayon Chandra Chanda, MP AKM Shajahan Kamal and IT entrepreneur Mustafa Jabbar have taken oath as ministers while MP Kazi Keramat Ali as a state minister. 

With a little more than a year left of the government’s term, President Md Abdul Hamid swore the three in at a ceremony at the Bangabhaban, which was also attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

MP Kazi Keramat Ali took oath as a state minister at the Bangabhaban on Tuesday. Photo: Kazi Sajidul Haque/bdnews24.com

Chanda, 72, elected MP from Khulna-5 three times, had been serving as a state minister since 2014, when the Awami League took office for the second term.

IT entrepreneur Jabbar is a technocrat minister as he is not elected to parliament.

The 68-year-old now heads the Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services or BASIS and is well known for developing the first Bangla keyboard ‘Bijoy’.

Keramat has been elected from Rajbari-1 for the fourth time in 2014. The 63-year-old presided over the parliamentary standing committee on government assurances.

Laxmipur-3 MP Shajahan is serving as the president of the ruling party’s district unit.

With the latest inclusion, the Awami League government has now a cabinet of 53 members with 33 ministers, 17 state minister and two deputy ministers.

Changes in Hasina’s cabinet  

In past two years, speculations on a cabinet reshuffle were heard several times, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina brought no major changes to the council of ministers.

The Awami League government started its second term by forming a cabinet of 49 members on Jan 12, 2014.

This 2014 file photo shows swearing in of cabinet members, when the Awami League took office for the second consecutive term.

Among them, 29 were ministers, 17 state ministers and two were deputy ministers.

After another one and a half months, AH Mahmood Ali was sworn in as foreign minister. Mohammad Nazrul Islam became state minister for water resources at the time.

In October the same year, Abdul Latif Siddique lost his place in the cabinet for his comments on the Hajj.

On July 9 the next year, Hasina fired the then Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam as LGRD minister.

Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, in charge of expatriates welfare and overseas ministry at the time, became LGRD minister.

The next week, Chittagong Awami League leader Nurul Islam BSc was made a minister while Tarana Halim and Nuruzzaman Ahmed became state minister.

The then state ministers Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Yeafesh Osman were elevated the same day. 

Hasina gave Syed Ashraf the charge of public administration ministry after two more days on July 16 that year.

Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohsin Ali died undergoing treatment in Singapore on Sept 14 the same year.

State minister for Social Welfare Promod Mankin died in a hospital in India on May 11, 2016.       

On June 19 that year, the government moved State Minister Nuruzzaman from the food ministry to social welfare ministry.

After the death of Fisheries Minister Sayedul, Hasina’s cabinet had 30 ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers.

Besides them, Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad and the five advisers to the prime minister enjoy the status of minister.