Bangladesh's 50-member Cabinet was today expanded with three lawmakers being inducted as ministers in the Sheikh Hasina government.
State Minister Narayon Chandra Chanda, MP AKM Shajahan Kamal and IT entrepreneur Mustafa Jabbar have taken oath as ministers while MP Kazi Keramat Ali as a state minister.
With a little more than a year left of the government’s term, President Md Abdul Hamid swore the three in at a ceremony at the Bangabhaban, which was also attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
With the latest inclusion, the Awami League government has now a cabinet of 53 members with 33 ministers, 17 state minister and two deputy ministers.
Chanda, 72, elected MP from Khulna-5 three times, had been serving as a state minister since 2014, when the Awami League took office for the second term.
IT entrepreneur Jabbar is a technocrat minister as he is not elected to parliament.
The 68-year-old now heads the Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services or BASIS and is well known for developing the first Bangla keyboard ‘Bijoy’.
Keramat has been elected from Rajbari-1 for the fourth time in 2014. The 63-year-old presided over the parliamentary standing committee on government assurances.
Laxmipur-3 MP Shajahan is serving as the president of the ruling party’s district unit.
In past two years, speculations on a cabinet reshuffle were heard several times, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina brought no major changes to the council of ministers.
