The interim government’s advisory council is set to expand as more advisers will be sworn in today.
The oath-taking will take place at the Darbar Hall of the Bangabhaban at 4:00pm, according to a press release from the Bangabhaban yesterday.
Last night, people close to economist Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, who was an adviser to caretaker government in 1996, said he got the invitation to take oath as an adviser of this interim government.
Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus was also an adviser to the 1996 caretaker government.
Sources said Ali Imam Majumdar, former cabinet secretary, who was appointed as special assistant to this interim government’s chief adviser on August 12, and Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, former power secretary, also received the invitation.
Officials of the Cabinet Division and the Bangabhaban could not disclose the number and names of new advisers.
“I don’t know the new advisers’ names,” Joynal Abedin, press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin, told The Daily Star.Â
However, state-run news agency BSS reported that “four to five more advisers” are set to take oath.
The interim government is going to expand its advisory council a week after its advisers took the oath of office.
Besides Prof Yunus, 16 advisers are now in this government. Prof Yunus and 13 other advisers — Salehuddin Ahmed, Asif Nazrul, Adilur Rahman, Hassan Ariff, Touhid Hossain, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Sharmeen Murshid, Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hossain, AFM Khalid Hossain, Farida Akhter, Nurjahan Begum, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud — were sworn in on August 8, four days after the fall of Hasina-led government amid an uprising.
Supradeep Chakma and Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar took oath as advisers on August 11 and Farooq-e-Azam the next day.
Chief Adviser Prof Yunus himself is overseeing 24 ministries and divisions, including Cabinet Division, and ministries of defence, education, and road transport and bridges.
