New BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood joins office

Shahjahan Mahmood has taken charge as Chairman of telecoms regulators BTRC.

He joined on Monday morning, BTRC Secretary Md Sarwar Alam told bdnews24.com.

Mahmood first met the BTRC commissioners and then saw other officials, he said.

“The new chairman has urged the officials to be more enterprising in order to build Digital Bangladesh announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” Alam said.

Mahmood also announced what is being called ‘Performance Award’ to encourage officials.

The government had named the successor to Sunil Kanti Bose of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Sep 23.

Mahmood is the first BTRC chief from outside the government.

He was the head of the ruling Awami League’s Washington metropolitan unit, where he was known as Shah Mahmood.

Before Bose, army officer Zia Ahmed had led the regulators.

During the military-backed caretaker government’s term, another army officer, Manjurul Alam, was the commission chief.

Marghub Morshed and Omar Faruq, the BTRC chiefs before Alam, were government secretaries.