Surprise Cabinet Picks: Heartbreak for heavyweights
AL President Sheikh Hasina has left most of her senior party colleagues out of the cabinet and brought some surprise picks to run several important ministries.
Presidium members Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Suranjit Sengupta and Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury could not make it to the new council of ministers.
Except Sengupta, all of them held vital portfolios in the AL government in 1996-2001. Sengupta was the parliamentary affairs adviser to the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Asaduzzaman Noor are among those who could not earn a berth.
Of the new cabinet members, AMA Muhith and Matia Chowdhury had served as ministers, Syed Ashraful Islam and Syed Abul Hossain as state ministers and Dipankar Talukder as a deputy minister in past governments. The rest are all new to the jobs.
The AL chief gave the helm of foreign ministry to Dr Dipu Moni and that of home affairs to Sahara Khatun.
She picked barrister Shafique Ahmed, Samyabadi Dal President Dilip Barua and architect Yafes Osman on technocrat quota.
Apart from Barua, two more ministers are from the minority community. They are Romesh Chandra Sen and Dipankar Talukder.
Hasina did not take anyone from Barisal division for her cabinet.
PORTFOLIOS
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: Armed Forces Division, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources (a) Power Division, (b) Energy & Mineral Resources Division, Ministry of Establishment, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Religious Affairs, and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
AMA Muhith: Ministry of Finance, (a) Finance Division, (b) Economic Relations Division & (c) Internal Resources Division).
Matia Chowdhury: Ministry of Agriculture.
Abdul Latif Siddiqui: Ministry of Jute and Textiles.
Barrister Shafiq Ahmed: Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (a) Parliament Secretariat.
Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandaker: Ministry of Planning (a) Planning Division, (b) Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation Division.
Raziuddin Ahmed Raju: Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
Advocate Sahara Khatun: Ministry of Home Affairs.
Syed Ashraful Islam: Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives. (a) Local Government Division (b) Rural Development and Cooperatives Division.
Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain: Ministry of Labour and Employment, & Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare & Overseas Employment.
Rezaul Karim Hira: Ministry of Land.
Abul Kalam Azad: Ministry of Information, Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
Enamul Haq Mostafa Shahid: Ministry of Social Welfare.
Dilip Barua: Ministry of Industries.
Romesh Chandra Sen: Ministry of Water Resources.
GM Quader: Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Col (retd) Faruk Khan: Ministry of Commerce.
Syed Abul Hossain: Ministry of Communications (a) Roads & Railway Division and (b) Bridge Division.
Dr Abdur Razzak: Ministry of Food and Disaster Management.
Dr Afsarul Amin: Ministry of Shipping.
Prof AFM Ruhul Haque: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Dr Dipu Moni: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nurul Islam Nahid: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Primary & Mass Education.
Abdul Latif Biswas: Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock
State ministers
Adv Mostafizur Rahman Fizar: Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Capt (retd) ABM Tajul Islam: Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.
Tanzim Ahmed Sohel Taj: Ministry of Home Affairs
Architect Yafes Osman: Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology
Dr Hasan Mahmud: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Begum Munnujan Sufian: Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Dipankar Talukdar: Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs.
Ahad Ali Sarkar: Ministry of Youth and Sports.
