New Delhi: After a four-day vacuum, Bangladesh’s president swore in a 17-member interim government on Thursday (August 8) night.The newly appointed administration features a diverse array of prominent figures, including renowned human rights defenders, legal experts and influential NGO founders. The interim cabinet includes notable freedom fighters, student leaders involved in the recent movement and a former head of a far-right Islamist organisation.Muhammad Yunus, chief advisorA pioneer of microcredit and microfinance, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Now 84 years old, he founded Grameen Bank in the late 1970s.His relationship with the Hasina government became contentious after he announced the formation of a new party in 2007, leading to over 170 cases against him that he claimed were politically motivated.In March 2011, the central bank of Bangladesh removed him from his position at Grameen Bank, citing a law requiring public servants to retire at age 60. In 2013, the Hasina government passed a law that effectively nationalised Grameen Bank.In an article published in The Economist the day before his appointment, Yunus observed that India had drawn the ire of Bangladeshis for supporting Hasina. However, he also noted that there would be “many opportunities to heal these rifts and to restore bilateral alliances and close friendships soon”.Yunus (right) at the oath-taking ceremony. Photo: X/@SwissAmbBD.According to the Bangladeshi Daily Star newspaper, Yunus on Friday was given charge of ministerial portfolios that remained after his colleagues in the cabinet were allotted theirs. He will lead the defence, education, agriculture, science and technology, jute and textiles, road transport, and housing and public works ministries among many others.Salahuddin AhmedAhmed earned a doctorate in economics from McMaster University Canada in 1978 and served as governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, from 2005 to 2009.Before this, he was director general of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development in Comilla and had held the position of director general of the NGO affairs bureau under the Office of the Prime Minister. From 1996 to 2005, he was managing director of the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation, the apex funding agency for microcredit operations in Bangladesh.He was allotted the finance ministry and planning ministry portfolios, the Daily Star reported.Sakhawat HossainSeventy-six-year-old Brigadier General Hossain served as a member of the Bangladesh Election Commission from 2007 to 2012. His military career began in 1966 when he was commissioned into the Pakistan army after graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul.Following Bangladesh’s independence in 1972, he joined the Bangladesh army, where he led both artillery and infantry brigades in various terrains, including commanding an infantry brigade during counterinsurgency operations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. He has been a prolific writer and commentator on international issues.He was allotted the home portfolio.Asif NazrulA law professor at Dhaka University, 58-year-old Nazrul is also a prominent civil society activist. Following the ousting of Sheikh Hasina, army chief Waker-uz-Zaman requested him to issue a video appeal urging protesting students to end their demonstrations.He earned his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in 1999, focusing on the Farakka dispute between India and Bangladesh. He later received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Environmental Law Center in Bonn, Germany.He was allotted the law portfolio.Adilur Rahman KhanOne of the country’s most well-known human rights defenders, he leads Odhikar, the country’s premier human rights organisation that monitors extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.Last September, he was released on bail after being kept in jail for over a month in a cybercrime case after police claimed that Odhikar had inflated the death toll of a 2013 protest.He was allotted the industries portfolio.A.F. Hassan AriffEighty-three-year-old Ariff served as Bangladesh’s attorney general from 2001 to 2005. He also held the position of adviser (cabinet minister) in the caretaker government of Bangladesh from January 2008 to January 2009.A seasoned Supreme Court lawyer, his legal career began with his enrolment as an advocate in the Calcutta High Court in 1967, followed by his enrolment in the Dhaka high court in 1970.Ariff was given the local government, rural development and cooperatives portfolio.Md. Touhid HossainHossain served as foreign secretary of Bangladesh from 2006 to 2009. Prior to this, he was Bangladesh’s deputy high commissioner in Kolkata from 2001 to 2005.Following his tenure as foreign secretary, he became principal of the Foreign Service Academy, holding the position from July 2009 to July 2012. In June 2012, Hossain was appointed as high commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa.Hossain will lead the foreign ministry.Syeda Rizwana HasanA well-known environmental lawyer and activist, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her “uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people’s right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life.”At 56, Hasan serves as chief executive of the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association. She is widely recognised for her advocacy against environmental violations by the shipbreaking industry. In 2003, Hasan filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to prevent aging ships from entering Bangladesh without adhering to the Basel Convention.She was allotted the environment portfolio.Supradip ChakmaChakma was elected chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board in July 2023. Prior to this role, he served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico.A member of the 1985 Bangladesh Civil Service foreign cadre, Chakma held various positions in Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions, including the Bangladesh embassy in Rabat, the high commission in Colombo, and the embassies in Brussels and Ankara.Farida AkhterShe is executive director and founder of Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona, a non-governmental organisation also known as ‘Policy Research for Development Alternatives’. Her research has spanned agriculture, marine fisheries, population and development issues.She was given the fisheries and livestock portfolio.Bidhan Ranjan RoyA psychology specialist, he is serving as director of the Dhaka-based National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital’s psychiatry department.Sharmeen MurshidA human rights activist, Murshid leads the non-governmental organisation Brotee Samaj Kallyan Sangstha, which is dedicated to advocating for voting rights and fair elections.During the 1971 Liberation War, she was a member of the Bangladesh Mukti Shangrami Shilpi Shangstha, a cultural troupe that performed in refugee camps and other liberated areas.She was allotted the social welfare portfolio.A.F.M. Khalid HossainSixty-five-year-old Islamic scholar Khalid Hossain is a former nayeb-e-ameer of the far-right Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a position he held after elections in November 2020, and an education advisor for the Islami Andolan Bangladesh.He currently serves as a professor in the department of Quranic science and Islamic studies at the International Islamic University, Chittagong.He has the religious affairs portfolio.Farooq-e-AzamA naval commando and freedom fighter, he was awarded the Bir Pratik for his bravery. During the Liberation War in 1971, he served as deputy commander of the team responsible for executing “Operation Jackpot”, the only coordinated campaign of the Liberation War, which targeted the Chittagong port.Nurjahan BegumA close associate of Yunus since the late 1970s, she served as acting managing director of Grameen Bank after Yunus left the bank in 2011.She is currently managing director of Grameen Shikkha, a non-profit organisation within the Grameen family. Prior to this role, she was appointed chairperson of Grameen Distribution in 2010.Begum will head the health ministry.Nahid IslamBorn in Dhaka in 1998, 26-year-old Nahid Islam is a prominent student leader of the Bangladesh quota reform movement that led to the the fall of Hasina’s government. He is a sociology student from the 2016-17 batch at Dhaka University. He was given the information and broadcasting portfolio.Asif MahmudA key coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination Movement, 26-year-old Asif Mahmud is a linguistics student from the 2017-18 batch at Dhaka University. He was the president of the Chattra Odhikhar Parishad at the university. He was given charge of the youth and sports ministry.
