Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has poured cold water on rumours and wild speculations of her ‘strained’ relations with Syed Ashraful Islam, a week after removing him from the LGRD ministry.
She has given the Awami League general secretary another politically important portfolio of public administration.
The Cabinet Division issued a circular on Thursday announcing the new ministerial job for him.
“It’s a matter between a brother and a sister. Better not talk about this,” a Central Working Committee member of the ruling party told bdnews24.com.“It means that the leader (Hasina) has kept him at an important place at last,” another Awami League leader said, also preferring to remain unnamed.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith met Syed Ashraf earlier in the day.
“I meet him whenever I need to,” Muhith said.
The announcement was made within hours of Muhith indicating a change in the Cabinet.
Senior Awami League leaders were silent on the stripping of Syed Ashraf’s portfolio, but party supporters were not happy with the decision.
The latest development suggests Hasina has gone back on her earlier decision to sack the party’s virtual number two.
On July 7, media had speculated about the removal of the Kishoreganj MP from the LGRD ministry after the prime minister expressed her “anger” over his absence at an ECNEC meeting.
Reports had it that she had ordered the removal of Syed Ashraf as the LGRD and cooperatives minister amid allegations of his “almost regular” absence from such important meetings, but there was no official confirmation that day.
Known to be a trusted lieutenant of party chief Hasina, Syed Ashraf was removed from LGRD ministry on July 9 and reduced to a minister without portfolio.
He had come under some flak within his party for absence in important meetings and his removal triggered widespread speculations.
Following a meeting with Hasina on Monday, Syed Ashraf cancelled his trip to London. He was set to leave Dhaka on Wednesday to spend the Eid with his family.
After the chop, Syed Ashraf had said, “I’m not in politics to make a fortune for myself…My father was an honest politician and gave his life for the leader (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman).”
Syed Ashraf is the son of Syed Nazrul Islam, who was Bangladesh’s acting president during the 1971 Liberation War.
