Sheikh Hasina takes oath for third consecutive term as prime minister

Sheikh Hasina has taken her oath as prime minister for a third consecutive term.

President Md Abdul Hamid administered the oath for the prime minister at the Bangabhaban at 3:40 pm on Monday.

It is the Awami League president’s fourth term in office.

The president then administered the oaths for the new ministers, ministers of state and deputy ministers who will form the cabinet.

The oath-taking ceremony was moderated by Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam, who on Sunday, announced the names and offices of the 47 members of the new cabinet at a media briefing.

Photo: PID

Photo: PID

Photo: PID

The prime minister will lead a cabinet of 24 ministers, 19 ministers of state and three state ministers.

The announcement came as a surprise as it is customary for the list of ministers to be disclosed after they have been sworn in.

After taking her oath, the prime minister hugged her sister Sheikh Rehana.

Awami League Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury embraced Hasina.

The prime minister then waved to the crowd.

Hasina has formed a cabinet mostly made up of new faces after the Awami League’s landslide victory in the 11th national parliamentary election.

The new administration has dropped 36 members from the previous cabinet. Thirty-one members of the new cabinet are first-timers.

Hasina, who had included representatives from the Awami League’s allied parties in the previous cabinets, has not picked any of them in her new cabinet.

Instead, the new cabinet exclusively consists of members of the Awami League.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, CEC KM Nurul Huda, diplomats and various representatives from social and cultural organisations attended the event.

Neither Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad nor his wife and former Leader of the Opposition Raushon Ershad were seen at the event.

But Awami League allies such as Bikalpadhara President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Bikalpadhara Secretary Genreal Abdul Mannan and Joint Secretary General Mahi B Chowdhury and Jatiya Party Presidium Member Fakhrul Imam were in attendance.

Awami League leaders, such as AMA Muhith, AH Mahmood Ali, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Nurul Islam Nahid and Qamrul Islam, who had been in the previous cabinet but will not be in the new one, were also present.

Advisers to the prime minister HT Imam, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and Gowher Rizvi also came to the Bangabhaban for the event.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was greeted at the Bangababan by President Md Abdul Hamid upon her arrival. She entered the Darbar Hall around 3:30 pm.

After the event, the guests took tea and snacks at the Bangabhaban field. The prime minister was seen mingling with the crowd.

The term of the government that came to power on Jan 12, 2014 officially ended with the completion of the oath-taking ceremony. The prime minister will later appoint her new advisers for the coming term.

RECORD FOURTH TERM

Born on Sept 28, 1957 in Tungiparha, Gopalganj, Sheikh Hasina is the eldest among the five children of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Begum Fazilatunnesa.

Hasina, who had actively engaged in politics throughout her student life, completed her bachelors from Dhaka University in 1973.

She was a member of the Dhaka University unit of Chhatra League and secretary of its Rokeya Hall unit. In 1968, she married nuclear scientist Dr MA Wazed Miia.

When Bangabandhu and his family were massacred on Aug 15, 1975, Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana, who were both abroad at the time were the only ones to survive. They spent the next six years exiled in London and Delhi. 

After returning to the country, Hasina took her place as president of the  Awami League on May 17, 1981. Within five years, she was elected to parliament and engaged as the leader of the opposition during the military rule of HM Ershad.

Under her leadership, the Awami League in concert with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party toppled the despotic government of Ershad in 1990. After losing the general election in 1991, the Awami League once again engaged as the main opposition in parliament.

After securing a huge win in the Jun 12, 1996 national elections, the Awami League, headed by Sheikh Hasina, formed government.

Her government successfully negotiated the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord and the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty with neighbouring India, which were widely regarded as its finest accomplishments.

Following the BNP-Jamaat coalition’s win in the 2001 general elections, Sheikh Hasina found herself as the leader of the opposition for a third time.

During the BNP-Jamaat coalition’s term in government, she survived a deadly grenade attack on Aug 21, 2004 which was designed to take her life.

After the military-led government came to power in January 2007, Hasina, along with a number of her political contemporaries, was placed under arrest. Two years later, the Awami-League-led alliance swept the ninth parliamentary elections on Dec 29, 2008 to form government. Hasina became the prime minister of the country for a second time.

In the next elections on Jan 5, 2014, which was boycotted by the BNP and its allies, the Awami League retained power with a landslide win.

At the end of the government’s term, all the registered political parties contested in the national polls on Dec 30. The Awami League won 257 of the 298 parliamentary seats in the election. The Awami League-led Grand Alliance won a total of 288 constituencies.

After the swearing-in ceremony of Awami League MPs on Jan 3, the party’s parliamentary committee elected Sheikh Hasina as its leader in parliament.

She met President Abdul Hamid that same day and received the president’s formal approval to form government.

Sheikh Hasina is set to begin her fourth term as prime minister after taking her oath of office on Monday.

She is currently the third longest-serving female head of government in the world.