Bangladesh entered a new chapter in its history after President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oaths of the members of the interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner and noted economist Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Advisor, Thursday night.
Fourteen members—including two student representatives—of the 17-strong body of the new interim government were sworn in at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban in the presence of Chief of Army Staff General Waker-uz-Zaman.
Better known for championing microcredit through Grameen Bank and his social business model, Dr Yunus earlier served as an advisor to the 1996 caretaker government. He won the Nobel Prize with Grameen Bank in 2006.
Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain conducted the ceremony with the permission of the president.
The president administered the oaths after the ceremony began around 9:15pm, with the recitation of the Holy Quran, the national anthem of Bangladesh, and remembering the martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War and the martyrs of the quota reform movement through a one-minute silence.
Senior leaders of most of the political parties—except for the Awami League, military officials and civil bureaucrats, civil society members, diplomats, and student leaders were present.
The transition followed the resignation of the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, in a citizen’s uprising led by the students on Monday.
Dr Yunus reached Bangabhaban around 8:25pm. He was greeted by the crowd waiting outside since afternoon. They cheered and chanted slogans upon his arrival.
The other members of the interim government are student leaders Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Dr Md Nazrul Islam (Asif Nazrul), Adilur Rahman Khan, AF Hassan Ariff, Md Touhid Hossain, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Sharmeen Murshid, Farooq e Azam, Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, Supradip Chakma, Bidhan Ranjan Roy, AFM Khalid Hossain, Farida Akhter, and Nurjahan Begum.
Significantly, this is the first time in Bangladesh that two fresh graduates got key roles as advisors in the government.
However, three advisors–valiant Freedom Fighter Faruk-e-Azam, Chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB) Supradip Chakma and Psychology Specialist Prof Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar–did not take the oath as they were out of Dhaka, according to the cabinet secretary.
The other advisers of the new government have a stellar profile in their respective fields—a former governor of Bangladesh Bank, a Dhaka University professor, human rights activists, former civil and military officers, environmentalists, agriculturists, a health expert, a valiant freedom fighter, an Islamic scholar, and a representative of the minority communities.
After 17 years, Bangladesh again witnessed the swearing-in of an interim government following the abrupt end of the Awami League regime.
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Nazmul Hassan and Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan and other high officials of three services were present in the ceremony.
Among the politicians, BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Mosharraf Hossain, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Dr Shafiqur Rahman, Kader Siddique of Khrishak Sramik Janata League, ASM Abdur Rob of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), Andaleev Partha of Jatiya Party (JP), Mahmudhur Rahman Manna of Nagorik Oikya attended the ceremony.
Diplomats from the UK, Japan, China, the Philippines, Iran, Argentina, Qatar, the Netherlands, and the UAE were present as well.
Earlier, Dr Yunus arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 2:10pm after winding up his France tour to join the Olympics opening ceremony, where he was one of three distinguished guests invited from across the world.
The Nobel laureate was received by army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, student leaders, and civil society members. During the meeting, Dr Yunus hugged the student leaders and Dr Asif Nazrul.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the meeting decided the names of the other advisors.
Who are the advisors?
Nahid Islam is the key coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination, which spearheaded the quota reform movement on July 1. He is also the member secretary of Ganatantrik Chhatra Shakti, a national political group formed on October 4, 2023. He earlier contested the election to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union in 2019 and participated in the quota movement in 2018.
Asif Mahmud is another key coordinator of the movement. He is a student in the Linguistics Department’s 2017-18 batch at Dhaka University. He earlier served as the president of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad’s DU unit. Last year, he became the president of Ganatantrik Chhatra Shakti’s DU unit.
Dr Salehuddin Ahmed is a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank. He served as the ninth governor of the Bangladesh Bank, from May 1, 2005 to April 30, 2009.
Dr Md Nazrul Islam, popularly known as Asif Nazrul, is a professor of Dhaka University’s Law Department.
Adilur Rahman Khan is the founder of Odhikar, a human rights organization. He also served as a deputy attorney general for Bangladesh.
AF Hassan Ariff is a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court and has been practicing since 1970. He served as the attorney general and advisor to the caretaker government from January 2008 to January 2009.
Md Touhid Hossain is a former foreign secretary. He also served as the high commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan is the chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). She is a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, and the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She was named one of the 40 Environmental Heroes of the World by TIME magazine, and also received the Goldman Environmental Prize (2009), the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2012), the Tang Prize (2020), and the International Women of Courage Award (2022) by the US Department of State.
Sharmeen Murshid is the chief executive officer of the human rights organization Brotee. Since 2001, the organization has been working for the rights of marginalized groups, especially indigenous people.
Naval commando Farooq-e-Azam Bir Pratik is a freedom fighter. At the beginning of the Liberation War, he passed high school. He was the deputy commander of “Operation Jackpot” formed to attack the Chittagong Port.
Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain is a former election commissioner (2007-2012). He also served as an advisor to the caretaker government. An author of many books, he is now working as a senior fellow at the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG), North South University (NSU).
Supradip Chakma is the chairman of the CHTDB and previously worked as the Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico.
Prof Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar is a psychology specialist in Mymensingh. He is the director-cum-professor of the Department of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital.
Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain, popularly known as Dr AFM Khalid Hossain, is a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar and former top leader of Hefazet-e-Islam, a platform of Qawmi madrasa-based organizations and clerics.
Farida Akhter has carried out extensive research in agriculture, marine fisheries, population, and development issues. UBINIG, the organization she founded, runs a biodiversity-based farming system involving over 300,000 farming families.
Nurjahan Begum was one of the earliest associates of Dr Yunus during the establishment of Grameen Bank in 1983. She served as the acting managing director of Grameen Bank soon after Dr Yunus left the bank in 2011.
