Cabinet gets three new ministers
Special Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expanded her Cabinet yesterday by inducting three new faces. The three new inductees are Laxmipur-3 MP AKM Shahjahan Kamal, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) president Mostafa Jabber, and Rajbari-1 MP Kazi Keramat Ali. Of them, Kamal and Jabber took oath as ministers, while Ali took oath as a state minister. Jabber is the second technocrat minister in the Hasina Cabinet. State minister for fisheries and livestock, Narayan Chandra Chanda, was promoted to the post of minister. The portfolio of the fisheries and livestock minister had been lying vacant since the death of Sayedul Hoque in December last year.
The inductees took oath under President Abdul Hamid in a simple ceremony at Bangabhaban Darbar Hall at 6.30 pm yesterday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and senior Cabinet members attended the ceremony. This is the fourth time Hasina has expanded her cabinet after assuming power in 2014. On January 12, 2014, a 49-member Cabinet, headed by Hasina, was sworn in. Within 45 days, the PM expanded her cabinet to 51 members.
With these new faces, the Hasina cabinet is now 53-member strong, including 33 ministers, 18 state ministers and two deputy ministers. Besides, there are six advisers and a special envoy
to the PM with the status of minister.
