Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed her 49-member new Cabinet taking the oath of office on Sunday.
The new Cabinet has 29 full ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers. Among the council of ministers, a total of 33 new faces are in the Cabinet while the rest are from her previous Cabinet.
Sheikh Hasina has dropped 35 ministers of her previous cabinet for their poor performance or involvement in corruption. But this time she has included some seasoned politicians with relatively good image and some new faces in the cabinet in view of the critical political situation prevailing in the country.
The old faces in the Cabinet include Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, LGRD and Cooperative Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and Agriculture Minister Begum Motia Chowdhury.
The new faces in the Cabinet include Anwar Hossain Monju, Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, advocate Anisul Haque, Engineer Mosharaf Hossain, Asaduzzaman Noor and AKM Mojammel Haque.
The Cabinet was sworn in by President Abdul Hamid at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban. The swearing-in ceremony conducted by Cabinet Secretary Mosarraf Hossain Bhuiyan, began at 3:30pm at and ended at 3:58pm.
Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina took oath first from the President as the prime minister of the country for the second consecutive term reaching Bangabhaban at 3.28pm. She was accompanied by her sister Sheikh Rehana and son Sajib Wajed Joy.
Later, 29 cabinet ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers were sworn in by the President.
Most of the ministers are from ruling Awami League (AL) while the rest are from Jatiya Party (JP), Workers Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) and Jatiya Party (Manju). The JP has become the second largest party in the parliament bagging 33 seats. Earlier, ruling Awami League clinched a landslide victory in the 10th parliamentary election on January
5 by bagging 231 seats in the face of a boycott of the polls by the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance.
JP chairman HM Ershad also attended the swearing-in ceremony as a guest.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who was in the list of 1000 invited guests, did not join the event.
Foreign diplomats based in Dhaka also joined the oath-taking ceremony of the new cabinet.
US Ambassador Dan Mozena, British High Commissioner Robert Gibson, Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran, Head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Bangladesh William Hanna, Australian High Commissioner Greg Wilcock and UN Resident Coordinator Neal Walker were, among others, present at the function.
The ministers of the new cabinet are — Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofael Ahmed, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Nurul Islam Nahid, Hasanul Haq Inu, Khondokar Mosharaf Hossain, Syed Ashraful Islam, Shahjahan Khan, Mohammad Nasim , Syed Mohsin Ali, Prof Motiur Rahman , Motiya Chowdhury, Obaidul Quader, Rashed Khan Menon, Asaduzzaman Noor, Abul Kalam Azad, Advocate Anisul Haque, Anwar Hossaion Monju, Mostafizur Rahman Fizar, Engineer Mosharaf Hossain, Mojibul Haque, Shamsur Rahman Sharif, Emajuddin Pramanik, Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Sayedul Haque, Quamrul Islam, Abdul Latif Sidiqui and AKM Mojammel Haque.
The state ministers are —Meher Afroz Chumki, Shahriar Alam, Mirza Azam, Junayed Ahmed Palak, Ismat Ara Sadek, Moshiur Rahman Ranga, Nasrul Hamidul Haque Bipu, MA Mannan, Zahid Malik, Bir Bahdur, Yeafes Osman, Narayan Chandra, Biren Sikdar, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and Promod Mankin.
The deputy ministers are — Arif Khan Joy and Abdullah al Islam Jacob.
