All-party interim cabinet sworn in

Three Jatiya Party leaders, two Awami League stalwarts and the chief of the Workers Party have been sworn in as ministers in the all-party interim cabinet headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

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All-party cabinet Monday

Two Jatiya Party leaders have taken oath as ministers of state.

The ministers in the new cabinet are Awami League’s Tofail Ahmed and Mohammed Amir Hussain Amu, Jatiya Party’s Rowshan Ershad, Anisul Islam Mahmud and Ruhul Amin Hawlader and Workers Party’s Rashed Khan Menon.

The state ministers are Mujibul Haque Chunnu and Salma Islam.

President Md Abdul Hamid administered the oath to ministers at the Bangabhaban's Darbar Hall on Monday.

Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and Jaitya Party Chairman HM Ershad were present during the oath-taking ceremony.

Among those who secured cabinet berth from the Jatiya Party, Ershad’s wife Rowshan, Anisul and Chunnu are the party’s presidium member.

It was not yet clear who among the 31 existing ministers and 19 state ministers would be included in the all-party interim cabinet. Opposition BNP already refused to join the government.

Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan conducted the oath administering ceremony.

The Prime Minister later exchanged pleasantries with the new cabinet members.

Deputy Leader of the House Sajeda Chowdhury, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Awami League General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Commerce Minister GM Quader and senior leaders of the Awami League and Jatiya Party were present.

The swearing-in ceremony turned out to be a bit festive.

Some of the Cabinet members sought blessings from the Prime Minister and President Abdul Hamid.

A host of political stalwarts had joined the ceremony held at the Darbar Hall of the presidential palace.

After taking oath as state ministers, Mujibul Haque Chunnu and Salma Islam touched the PM’s feet in a traditional gesture to seek her blessings. They also sought blessings from their party Chairman HM Ershad sitting next to the PM.

Salma, who is the Editor and Publisher of the Daily Jugantor, a Bengali newspaper owned by her husband, was in her designated seat for a while before the swearing-in started.

Eight new faces

Senior Awami League leaders Tofail and Amu, both members of the Awami league advisory council, were kept out of the regular cabinet for the last five years.

They were ministers in the 1996-2001 Sheikh Hasina cabinet but were not included when she came back to power in 2009.

They had called for greater reforms and more 'inner party democracy' within the Awami League when the military-backed caretaker was in power.

Both leaders faced huge criticism from supporters of Hasina and were later left in the cold.

However, Tofail and Menon, chief of the Workers Party, a component of the 14-Party Alliance, were offered cabinet berths last year, which they refused.

Rowshan, once the first lady, was elected Member of Parliament in 1996 from Mymensingh, in 2001 from Gaibandha and in 2009 from Rangpur.

Anisul, a Jatiya Party lawmaker from Chittagong, was a foreign minister during HM Ershad's autocracy.

Ruhul is a lawmaker from Barisal, while Chunnu, a former state minister for land, is a legislator from Kishoreganj, and Salma, the editor and publisher of Jugantor newspaper, is from reserved seats for women.

Portfolio distribution after gazette

Cabinet Division Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the Prime Minister would distribute portfolios to the new cabinet members after the division would issue a gazette.

He earlier said the Prime Minister would hand over the resignations of those left out of the new cabinet to the President.