As the resignation of four technocrat ministers has taken effect, their respective portfolios have been redistributed among the existing cabinet members including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A cabinet notice, undersigned by Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam, was circulated on Tuesday with immediate effect.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken up additional duties of science and technology ministry and the ministry of post, telecommunications and ICT.
Mosharraf Hossain has taken up the ministry of expatriate welfare and overseas employment while Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque has been given the additional duty of religious affairs ministry.
On Dec 09, 2018, the official order relieving the technocrat ministers of their duties was issued
On Nov 6, all four technocrat ministers resigned following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s orders.
They are Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar, Religious Affairs Minister Matior Rahman, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc, and Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman.
Nurul Islam from Chattogram and Matior from Mymensingh had been MPs but had to leave their seats to the Awami League’s allies in the 2014 elections.
Jabbar, a leading IT entrepreneur, was included in Hasina’s cabinet in the latest shake-up.
Yeafesh, who had served as state minister for seven years, was elevated in the first shake-up in July 2015.
The prime minister told the technocrat Cabinet members to resign as part of the process to reconstitute the cabinet ahead of the general elections.
The Constitution does not offer a clear explanation of the election-time government and its cabinet.
Currently, the ruling party or coalition remains in power during the polls. Parliament is not dissolved but it does only routine jobs once the three-month countdown to elections starts.
Before the last general elections in 2014, Hasina had formed a smaller cabinet with leaders from the ruling Awami League’s allies.