Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to embark on a new journey with her government, forming an almost entirely new cabinet after the 12th national parliament election. Thirty incumbent members of the cabinet, including 15 ministers, 13 state ministers, and two deputy ministers, have been replaced out of the 48 cabinet members.
This time, Sheikh Hasina has excluded some prominent figures from her current cabinet, such as Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Foreign Minister AK Momen, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Health Minister Zahid Maleque, and Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.
The list of dropped ministers also includes Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad, Textile and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi, Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed, Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim, Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Md Shahab Uddin, Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Minister Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing, Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Rail Minister Nurul Islam Sujan, and Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar.
Their names were not included in the list of new cabinet members announced by Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain on Wednesday evening.
In addition, 13 state ministers and two deputy ministers from the incumbent cabinet were not included in the new list.
State Minister for Industries Kamal Ahmed Majumder, State Minister for Youth and Sports Md Zahid Ahsan Russel, State Minister for Social Welfare Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, State Minister for the Ministry of Housing and Public Works Sharif Ahmed, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatunnesa Indira were also dropped from the cabinet this time.
The list also includes Deputy Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Habibun Nahar and Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Water Resources AKM Enamul Haque Shamim.
Before the election, when the Awami League declared the party candidates' names, three state ministers were dropped, including the State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid, State Minister for Labor and Employment Monnujan Sufian, and State Minister of Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain.
In the 12th national parliamentary election, State Minister for Civil Aviation Mahbub Ali, State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Enamur Rahman, and State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Swapan Bhattacharjee were defeated by independent candidates.
Earlier, due to some controversial remarks, State Minister for Information Dr Murad Hasan lost his portfolio.
These seven state Ministers' names from the 11th parliament have also been dropped from the new cabinet list.
Who is in this new cabinet?
As a new cabinet is set to be sworn in on Thursday, members of the new Cabinet have been receiving phone calls from the Cabinet Division since Wednesday evening.
The new cabinet will have 36 members this time, Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain told the media.
There will be 25 ministers and 11 state ministers in this cabinet. Among them, there will be two technocrat ministers this time.
The ministers are: AKM Mojammel Haque (Gazipur-1), Obaidul Quader (Noakhali-5), Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun (Narsingdi-4), Asaduzzaman Khan (Dhaka-12), Dr Dipu Moni (Chandpur-3), Md Tajul Islam (Comilla-9), Md Faruk Khan (Gopalganj-1), Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali (Dinajpur-4), Anisul Huq (Brahmanbaria-4), Hasan Mahmud (Chittagong-7), Md Abdus Shahid (Moulvibazar-4), Sadhan Chandra Majumdar (Naogaon-1), Ubaidul Muktadir Chowdhury (Brahmanbaria-3), Md Abdur Rahman (Faridpur-1), Narayan Chandra (Khulna-5), Abdus Salam (Mymensingh-9), Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury (Chittagong-9), Forhad Hossain (Meherpur-1), Faridul Haque Khan (Jamalpur-2), Md Jillul Hakim (Rajbari-2), Saber Hossain Chowdhury (Dhaka-9), Jahangir Kabir Nanak (Dhaka-13), Nazmul Hasan Papon (Kishoreganj-6), Architect Yeafesh Osman, and Dr Samanta Lal Sen.
The state ministers are: Simin Hossain Rimi (Gazipur-4), Nasrul Hamid (Dhaka-3), Junaid Ahmed Palak (Natore-3), Mohammad A Arafat (Dhaka-17), Md Mohibur Rahman (Patuakhali-4), Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury (Dinajpur-2), Zahid Faruk (Barisal-5), Kujendra Lal Tripura (Khagrachhari), Rumana Ali (Gazipur-3), Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury (Sylhet-2), and Ahsanul Islam Titu (Tangail-6).
Who are the fresh faces?
The upcoming cabinet, to be sworn in on Thursday, will include several new faces. There will be nine new faces in the list of ministers in the cabinet. They are Maj Gen (Retd) Abdus Salam, Nazmul Hasan Papon, Abdur Rahman, Md Abdus Shahid, Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, Abdus Salam, Md Zillul Hakim, and Samanta Lal Sen.
Meanwhile, six new faces will take an oath as state ministers. They are Begum Simeen Hussain (Rimi), Mohammad A Arafat, Md Mohibur Rahman, Kujendra Lal Tripura, Begum Rumana Ali, and Ahsanul Islam Titu.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury was a cabinet member in the 1996 government of Sheikh Hasina, and Jahangir Kabir Nanak was in the 2008 government; after some years, they are back in the cabinet.
Who got promotions?
From the incumbent cabinet, two state Ministers and one Deputy Minister got promotions to full Minister, and they are State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain, State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Hoque Khan, and Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel.
Two technocrats ministers
There are two technocrats Ministers in the list of the new cabinet; one is Yeafes Osman, who previously served as the Science and Technology Minister as a technocrat, and the new name is Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, who served as the chief of the Burn Institute Hospital.
The other two incumbent technocrats Ministers and State Minister Post and Telecommunication Minister Mostafa Zabber and State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alm have been dropped in this new cabinet.
Oath-taking ceremony on Thursday
The oath-taking ceremony for the new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is scheduled to be held at Bangabhaban on Thursday evening.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin will administer the oath to the cabinet members, as confirmed by the President's Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin.
Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain will oversee the ministers' oath-taking ceremony at the Durbar Hall of Bangabhaban at 7:00pm.
The ceremony is expected to host around one thousand guests and dignitaries.
In the January 7 election, the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League secured 222 seats, the Jatiya Party won in 11 seats, and independent candidates bagged 62 seats. The Workers Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod), allies of the Awami League-led 14-party, secured one seat each. Bangladesh Kalyan Party also won one seat.
The Election Commission published the gazette with the list of 298 MPs on Tuesday.
