Masuda Bhatti, Shahidul Alam appointed as information commissioners

The government has appointed journalist-columnist Masuda Bhatti and retired judge Shahidul Alam Jhinuk as information commissioners.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin appointed them to the post under Section 15(1) of the Right to Information Act, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry also issued an official notification confirming their appointments.

Masuda, the senior executive editor at Amader Orthoneeti, will replace Suraiya Begum, while Alam has been selected to fill the position that became vacant when Abdul Malek was appointed Chief Information Commissioner on Mar 21.

Masuda and Alam will be information commissioners for five years or until they turn 67, whichever happens first.

Alam, a judiciary cadre of the 10th batch of BCS, worked as a senior assistant judge in Cumilla, Dhaka and Feni and was promoted to joint district judge in 2003 and became an additional district and sessions judge in 2007.

He was deputy secretary at the Law and Justice Division and became a district judge in 2015.

He also worked as a registrar of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2015. Later, he worked as a district and sessions judge in Sunamganj and Manikganj.

Alam took post-retirement leave in January from his role as Inspector General of Registration.