Published : 17 Feb 2026, 08:28 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 03:22 PM
Speculation is mounting over whether Khalilur Rahman, national security advisor to Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, is set to join BNP chief Tarique Rahman’s cabinet as he prepares to form the next government.
Amid Tuesday’s dramatic developments surrounding the oath-taking of MPs and members of the Constitution Reform Council, reports circulated in several media outlets that Khalilur was being appointed as a technocrat minister. Some reports suggested he could be named foreign minister.
When contacted by bdnews24.com, Khalilur declined to comment directly.
“We should not talk about this right away,” he said.
Asked whether he had received a call to take oath as a minister, he said it would be better to speak at 4:30pm, when members of the new cabinet are scheduled to be sworn in.
Khalilur was appointed on Nov 19, 2024, a month after the interim government took office, as ‘High Representative’ on the Rohingya issue and priority matters, with the rank of advisor.
A career diplomat from the foreign cadre, he previously served in various roles at the United Nations. In 2001, he worked as private secretary to chief advisor Justice Latifur Rahman during the third caretaker government.
A graduate in economics from Dhaka University, Khalilur worked at American Express International Bank in 1978–79 before joining the foreign cadre through the first BCS in 1979. Between 1980 and 1983, he studied at Tufts and Harvard universities in the United States, earning a master’s degree in law and diplomacy and a PhD in economics.
He served as a special advisor at the UN Secretariat during the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva in 1991. Over the next 25 years, he held several senior positions at the UN in Geneva and New York.
One of the founders of East West University in Dhaka, Khalilur later retained the rank, salary and privileges of an adviser while serving as High Representative.
On Apr 10 last year, he was additionally appointed national security adviser, formalising his designation as ‘National Security Advisor and High Representative on the Rohingya Issue’.
