Cabinet set to expand with three ministers, one state minister

The president will swear in three new ministers and a state minister on Tuesday.

“One will be promoted to a full minister. Two more will be new ministers and a fourth will be a state minister,” said Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam confirming media reports.

The confirmation came, hours before the oath-taking ceremony in the evening at the Bangabhaban.

An official with the president’s office told bdnews24.com earlier on Tuesday that the Cabinet Division has asked them to arrange an oath-taking ceremony for four persons.

On Monday, the Cabinet Division contacted four persons and asked them to be present at the Bangabhaban for the swearing-in ceremony.

Narayon Chandra Chanda

Kazi Keramat Ali

State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Narayon Chandra Chanda will be promoted to minister.

Speculations were rife that the government would tap AKM Shajahan Kamal and Kazi Keramat Ali as a minister and a state minister, while IT entrepreneur Mustafa Jabbar would be sworn in as a minister.

Mustafa Jabbar

AKM Shajahan Kamal

Jabbar, 68, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services or BASIS, will be made a technocrat minister as he is not elected to parliament.

Chanda, 72, who has been elected MP from Khulna-5 three times, served as a state minister after the Awami League formed the government for the second consecutive term in 2014.

Keramat has been elected from Rajbari-1 for the fourth time in 2014. The 63-year-old currently presides over the parliamentary standing committee on the cultural affairs ministry.

Laxmipur-3 MP Shajahan has been serving as the president of the ruling party’s district unit for long.