Muhammad Yunus-Led Interim Govt Sworn In — A Look At Key Members Leading Bangladesh's Transition

Muhammad Yunus has been appointed head of Bangladesh's interim government. He will be assisted by 16 advisors, including top leaders of a student movement that ousted the previous government.

Yunus took the oath during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Dhaka on Thursday night (Image: PTI)

Source : PTI

Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus has taken oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, as the South Asian country goes through an unprecedented leadership crisis after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. More than a dozen members of his cabinet were also sworn in at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Dhaka on Thursday night, which was attended by political leaders, civil society leaders, generals and diplomats.

In the caretaker administration, which will now seek to restore peace and prepare for new elections in Bangladesh, 84-year-old Yunus will be assisted by 16 advisers, not ministers. This 16-member advisory council include Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, top leaders of the Students Against Discrimination group, that led the weeks-long protests that ousted former Prime Minister Hasina.

Other members included Touhid Hossain, a former foreign secretary, Hassan Ariff, a former attorney general and Asif Nazrul, a top law professor and writer.

List Of Bangladesh's 16-Member Advisory Council

(1.) Syeda Rizwana Hasan--  An award-winning environmental lawyer, Hasan is the Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela). She is also a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a member of the board of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), according to a report by Dhaka Tribune. 

(2.) Farida Akhtar -- An author and columnist, Akhter is the founder of UBINIG, an organization that runs a biodiversity-based farming system involving over 300,000 farming families. She is credited with carrying out extensive research in fields of agriculture, marine fisheries, population, and development issues.

(3.) Adilur Rahman Khan -- A lawyer and human rights activist, Khan was the former Deputy Attorney General of Bangladesh. He has been one of the Secretaries General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) since 2022.

(4.) AFM Khaled Hossain-- Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain is a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar, educator, writer, researcher, editor, international Islamic speaker and social reformer. As per the Dhaka Tribune report, Hossain was the former vice-president of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh. He was also the education adviser of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, editor of the monthly At-Tawheed and assistant editor of Balagh al-Sharq.

(5.) Nurjahan Begum --One of the earliest associates of Professor Yunus, Begum served as the acting managing director of Grameen Bank soon after Prof Yunus left the bank in 2011. She worked for more than a decade with the bank, where she also served as principal of its Central Training Institute. 

(6.) Sharmeen Murshid -- Murshid is the chief executive officer of the human rights organization Brotee, which has been working for the rights of marginalized groups, especially indigenous people, since 2001.

(7.) Faruk-e-Azam-- Deputy Commander of 'Operation Jackpot' during the 1971 Liberation War, Naval commando Farooq-e-Azam is celebrated for his role in the country's independence movement. He was the deputy commander of the team formed to attack the Chittagong port and has been awarded Bir Pratik--the fourth-highest gallantry award in Bangladesh. 

(8.) Nahid Islam -- Islam is a student activist and one of the main leaders of the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement, which later led to the Sheikh Hasina government's fall.

(9.) Asif Mahmud -- Mahmud is also one of the key coordinators of the Students Against Discrimination Movement.

(10.) Salehuddin Ahmed -- The ninth governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed is credited for fostering discipline in the banking sector and modernizing the central bank's operations.

(11.) Prof Asif Nazrul -- A law professor, researcher and civil society activist, Asif Nazrul wrote extensively on constitutional, and international legal issues in leading journals and books. He was a Bureau Member of the South Asian for Human Rights from 2011-17 and spoke at several international conferences on constitutional reform, election integrity and good governance issues.

(12.) Hasan Arif -- A senior advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Ariff has been practising law since 1970. He served as attorney general for Bangladesh from October 2001 to April 2005. As per the Dhaka Tribune report, Arif was the Law Adviser (Cabinet Minister) of the caretaker government of Bangladesh from January 2008 to January 2009. He was also enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta High Court, West Bengal India in 1967.

(13.) Brigadier General (retired) M Sakhawat Hossain--  A former election commissioner of Bangladesh, Hossain was the brigadier general (retired) in the Bangladesh Army. He has written at least 32 books and serves as a columnist and freelance commentator on national and international television.

As per Dhaka Tribune, Hossain served on the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank, the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh for two years. He also led the first Bangladeshi military delegation to Germany to attend military exercises with the British Army on the Rhine.

(14.) Supradip Chakma -- An ex-Bangadeshi envoy, Supradip Chakma serves as the chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB). As a foreign cadre of the BCS 1985 batch, he also served in the Bangladesh Embassy in Rabat, Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo, Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels and Bangladesh Embassy in Ankara in various capacities and Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico.

(15.) Prof Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar --Prof Poddar is a Psychology Specialist. He is the Director cum Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital.

(16.) Touhid Hossain -- Another diplomat in the council, Hossain is a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh. He joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1981 and served as the former high commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa. Hossain was the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh from 17 December 2006 to 8 July 2009. 

As per a report by The Daily Star, three members – Chakma, Roy, and Azam – were absent during the oath-taking ceremony, as they were outside Dhaka.

Meanwhile, from India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sent his best wishes to Yunus on the ‘assumption of his new responsibilities.’