Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday expanded her cabinet inducting three new faces into it and promoting a state minister to a full one.
They all took oath at Bangabhaban in the evening. President Abdul Hamid administered oath to them at 6:30pm.
Of them, Narayon Chandra Chanda, AKM Shahjahan Kamal, an MP from Laxmipur-3 constituency, and IT expert Mustafa Jabbar were sworn in as ministers while Rajbari-1 MP Kazi Keramat Ali was sworn in as a state minister.
Narayon Chandra was made full minister from State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury were present at the oath-taking ceremony conducted by Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam.
However, the new ministers and the state minister are yet to be given portfolios.
Contacted, the Cabinet Secretary said a notification on the distribution of portfolios will be issued on Wednesday.
With this, the cabinet has turned into a 53-member one. Of them, 34 are ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers.
The cabinet was last expanded on July 12, 2015 when three ministers – Nurul Islam BSc, Asaduzzaman Khan and Yeafesh Osman –- and two state ministers — Nuruzzaman Ahmed, an MP from Lalmonirhat-2 constituency, and Tarana Halim, an MP from reserved women seat, were worn in.
Of them, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan and State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman had been elevated to the rank of ministers.
Narayon Chandra was made State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock after Awami League formed the present government through the January-5 election in 2014.
Born on March 12, 1945 at Ula village in Dumuria upazila of Khulna, Narayon Chandra passed BA in Political Science in 1966 and MA in 1967 from Rajshahi College.
He served Dumuria Secondary School as its headmaster from 1973 to 2005.
After being elected chairman of Bhandarpara union parishad in Dumuria for six times, he was first elected MP from Dumuria-Fultala constituency in the by-polls in 2000 following the death of then Health Minister Salahuddin Yousuf.
Later, he was elected MP from the same parliamentary seat in 2008 and 2014.
Meanwhile, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque passed away on December 16 last.
AKM Shahjahan Kamal was elected MP twice – first in 1973 and then in 2014 — from Laxmipur.
Born on January 1, 1950, Shahjahaj Kamal actively took part in the Six-point Movement in 1966 and the Mass Upsurge in 1969 when he was a Dhaka University student, and the Liberation War in 1971.
A member of central Awami League, he also served as the district council administrator of Laxmipur in 2011.
Born on August 12, 1949, Mustafa Jabbar is the President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS). He is best known for being the creator of software Bijoy, and he published the Bijoy first Bengali heyboard in 1988. He is also leading the ICT industry as the President of Bangladesh Computer Samity.
He was sworn in as a technocrat minister as he is not an MP.
Kazi Keramat Ali was born on April 22, 1954 at Sajjankanda of Rajbari and passed BA and MA from Dhaka University. He has been serving as the general secretary of Rajbari Awami League since 1990.
He was elected MP from Rajbari-1 constituency in 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2014.
