Inside the interim govt: Key members leading Bangladesh's transition

Dhaka, August 9: The members of the interim government led by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus have taken their oath as Bangladesh goes through an unprecedented crisis following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government.

The newly formed government will consist of 17 members.

Here is a brief profile of all the members of the interim government.

Dr Muhammad Yunus

Prof Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank. Dr Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.

He served on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to support UN causes, from 1998 to 2021.

Dr Yunus has received several other national and international honours, including from the US.

Dr Salehuddin Ahmed

Dr Salehuddin Ahmed served as the 9th governor of the Bangladesh Bank, from May 1, 2005 to April 30, 2009. During his tenure, he implemented reforms aimed at fostering discipline in the banking sector and modernizing the central bank's operations.

Dr Ahmed started his career as a lecturer in Economics at Dhaka University in 1970. Subsequently, he joined the erstwhile Civil Service of Pakistan in 1971 but returned to the University of Dhaka as a Lecturer in 1972. Over the years, he held various positions in Bangladesh's administrative landscape, including serving as the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Pirojpur.

Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain

M Sakhawat Hossain is a former election commissioner of Bangladesh (2007-2012). He was brigadier general (retired) in the Bangladesh Army. He wrote more than 32 books, and serves as a columnist and freelance commentator on national and international television as a security and defense analyst.

He served on the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank, the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh for two years. He attended NATO exercise in Germany. He led the first Bangladeshi military delegation to Germany to attend military exercises with the British Army on the Rhine.

Dr Md Nazrul Islam (Asif Nazrul)

Also known as Asif Nazrul, Dr. Islam is a law professor, researcher and civil society activist. He wrote a number of book chapters and research papers on constitutional, international legal issues in leading journals and books.

He presented papers in conferences held in the US, Europe and South Asia on constitutional reform, election integrity and good governance issues.

He was a Bureau Member of the South Asian for Human Rights from 2011-17. His book in international watercourse law is due to be published by the UPL in November, 2022.

Adilur Rahman Khan

Adilur Rahman Khan is a human rights activist and the founder of Odhikar, a human rights organization. He is a lawyer and former Deputy Attorney General for Bangladesh. Since October 2022, Adilur Rahman Khan has been one of the Secretaries General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

Adilur Rahman Khan studied law at the University of Dhaka. He was part of the democratic movement against Lieutenant General Hossain Mohammad Ershad. He has Masters in Law degrees from the University of Dhaka and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

AF Hassan Ariff

AF Hassan Ariff is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and has been practicing since 1970.

He held office of attorney general for Bangladesh from October, 2001- April, 2005. He was the Law Adviser (Cabinet Minister) of the caretaker government of Bangladesh from January 2008- January 2009.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta High Court, West Bengal India in 1967.

Md Touhid Hossain

Md Touhid Hossain is a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh. He is the former high commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa.

He joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1981. From January 1999 to February 2000, Hossain served as the Principal of the Foreign Service Academy.

From 17 December 2006 to 8 July 2009, Hossain was the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan

Syeda Rizwana Hasan is the Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela). She is a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, and the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Additionally, she is a member of the board of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE).

Supradip Chakma

Supradip Chakma serves is the chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB).

He previously worked as Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico.

As a foreign cadre of 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.

Farida Akhter

Farida Akhter has carried out extensive research in agirculture, marine fisheries, population, and development issues.

UBINIG, the organization she founded, runs a biodiversity-based farming system involving over 300,000 farming families.

She is the author of several books and is a regular columnist in national dailies, writing on biodiversity, environment, women, and other issues.

Bidhan Ranjan Roy

Prof Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar is a Psychology Specialist in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. He is Director cum Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at National Institute of Mental Health & Hospital.

Sharmeen Murshid

Sharmeen Murshid is the chief executive officer of human rights organization Brotee.

Since 2001, the organization has been working for the rights of marginalized groups, especially the indigenous people.

AFM Khalid Hossain

Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain ,popularly known as Dr AFM Khalid Hossain, is a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar, educator, writer, researcher, editor, international Islamic speaker and social reformer.

He is the former vice-president of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, education adviser of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, editor of monthly At-Tawheed and assistant editor of Balagh al-Sharq.

He was the professor and head of Department of Islamic History and Culture at Omargani MES College and central president of the Islami Chhatra Samaj, student wing of Nizam-e-Islam Party.

Farooq-e-Azam

Naval commando Farooq-e-Azam is a freedom fighter who was awarded Bir Pratik.

In 1971, at the beginning of the liberation war, Farooq-e-Azam passed high school. “Operation Jackpot” was the only coordinated campaign of the Liberation War. He was the deputy commander of the team formed to attack the Chittagong port.

Nurjahan Begum

Nurjahan Begum is one of the earliest associates of Professor Muhammad Yunus during the establishment of Grameen Bank.

She served as the acting managing director of Grameen Bank soon after the bank’s founder Prof Muhammad Yunus left the bank in 2011. She worked as general manager, Administration, Training & International Program of Grameen Bank for more than a decade and served as principal of the bank’s Central Training Institute. She has also worked as consultant, trainer and evaluator of microcredit programs around the world.

Nujahan was awarded Susan M Davis Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 by Grameen Foundation, World Summit Millennium Development Goals Award 2009, and Vision Award 2009.

Nahid Islam

Nahid Islam is a Bangladeshi student activist who was one of the main leaders of the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement, which later turned into the Non-cooperation movement, leading to Sheikh Hasina's government's fall.

He was born in Dhaka in 1998 and is a sociology student of 2016-17 batch at Dhaka University. His father is a teacher and mother a homemaker.

Nahid is married and has a younger brother.

Asif Mahmud

Asif Mahmud is one of the key coordinators of the Students Against Discrimination Movement.

Hailing from Comilla, Asif is a Linguistics Department student of 2017-18 batch at Dhaka University.

Asif, 26, went to Nakkhalpara Hossain Ali High School and passed his SSC in 2015. He passed his HSC from Adamjee Cantonment College in 2017. He was a former cadet sergeant for the college's BNCC platoon.

He was also the president of the Chattra Odhikhar Parishad of DU.

Copyright: Dhaka Tribune