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Nobel Prize winning economist Mohammad Yunus took oath as the interim government of Bangladesh on Thursday. At this time a 16-member advisory committee was formed with him. It is noteworthy that amid the anger of the protesters, Sheikh Hasina resigned from the post of Prime Minister on Monday and left the country. The swearing-in ceremony of the new committee was held on Thursday. So know who are these 16 members.
1-Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed
Salehuddin Ahmed is a former governor of Bangladesh Bank and currently a professor at BRAC Business School. Ahmed was the governor of the Central Bank from 1 May 2005 to 30 April 2009. He also served as managing director of the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation and Bangladesh Rural Development Academy, Kamila, and director general of the NGO Affairs Bureau under the Prime Minister's Office.
2- AF Hassan Arif
AF Hasan Arif is a senior Supreme Court lawyer and has been practising in Bangladesh since 1970. From October 2001 to April 2005, he served as Attorney General under the four-party coalition government led by BNP and Jamaat. From January 2008 to January 2009 he worked as legal adviser to the government. Hasan Arif started his career in 1967 at the Calcutta High Court in West Bengal, India. Moved to Dhaka in 1970 and started practising as a lawyer in the High Court, Hasan Arif is a Court Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He is currently an adviser to the Dhakeshwari National Shrine Complex.
3. Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hussain
M Sakhawat Hossain is a retired Brigadier General of the Bangladesh Army and a former Election Commissioner. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance at North South University. He was appointed as a Commissioner in the Election Commission under ATM Shamsul Huda in 2007 and served until 2012.
4-M Tauheed Hussain
70-year-old Mohammad Tauhid Hossain is the former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. He joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1981. Hossain was the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Kolkata from 2001 to 2005 and served as the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh from 2006 to 2009. Hossain is a regular commentator on international affairs in the media.
5. Farida Akhtar
Farida Akhter is a well-known rights activist who has been raising her voice for women's rights since the 1980s. She is also a supporter of biodiversity-based ecological agriculture and has done extensive research in this field. She strongly opposed the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Dinajpur by members of the Bangladesh Police in 1995. The case led to widespread protests. Farida is also a supporter of direct elections for reserved seats in Parliament.
6-Sharmeen Murshid
Sharmin Murshid is a renowned election expert and the Chief Executive Officer of the election monitoring organisation 'Broti'. She has long advocated for free and fair elections as well as strengthening democratic institutions in the country. During the 1971 Liberation War, Murshid was a member of the 'Bangladesh Mukti Sangram Shilpi Sangstha'. It was a cultural troupe that visited refugee camps and various liberated areas (also called 'Mukta Anchal'), singing patriotic songs and holding puppet shows. They performed plays to inspire freedom fighters and boost the morale of war-affected people.
7-Syeda Rizwana Hasan
Syeda Rizwana Hasan is a Supreme Court lawyer and the chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). Rizwana has been vocal about environmental issues in the country. She has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered Asia's Nobel Prize, for her campaign for environmental justice.
8-Noor Jahan Begum
Noor Jahan Begum is one of the early associates of Muhammad Yunus during the establishment of Grameen Bank in Jobra village of Chittagong district in 1976. An alumnus of Chittagong University, Noor Jahan played a key role in organising rural women into village groups during the early and most challenging days of Grameen Bank. This was the period when rural women were not allowed to step out of the house, talk to non-related men, take loans from institutions and live alone. She worked as the deputy managing director of the Nobel Prize-winning organisation and after Yunus retired in 2011, she became the acting MD.
9-Dr. Asif Nazrul
Asif Nazrul is a faculty member of the Law Department of Dhaka University. Nazrul actively supported the recent anti-quota discrimination student movement and participated in various programs in support of the protesters.
10-Adilur Rahman Khan
Adilur Rahman Khan is a Supreme Court lawyer and prominent human rights activist in Bangladesh. He is also the secretary of the human rights organisation RIGHT, which monitors human rights violations in the country. Adilur founded RIGHT in 1994 along with several other members of civil society. In 2022, the government cancelled the registration of RIGHT.
11-Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar
Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar is the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital in Dhaka. Psychiatrist Bidhan now practices in Mymensingh. He told the Daily Star, 'I [पिछली रात] I was out of town, so I could not take oath with other councillors. I will take oath later.
12-Farooq-e-Azam
Farooq-e-Azam, who was awarded the Veer Prateek for his heroic role in the freedom struggle, was a naval commando. Born in Hathajari Upazila of Chattogram, Farooq was the deputy commander of 'Operation Jackpot', a three-team raid on the port on August 16, 1971. One team did not reach Chittagong, but two other teams comprising 37 members took part in the raid, captained by AW Chowdhury.
13-AFM Khalid Hussain
AFM Khalid Hossain is a professor in the Department of Quranic Sciences and Islamic Studies at the International Islamic University, Chittagong. He is the Naib-e-Amir of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh and an advisor to Islamic Movement Bangladesh.
14-Supradeep Chakma
Former ambassador and current chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board. He has previously served as Bangladesh's ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico. According to the Daily Star, Supradip said, 'When the Cabinet Secretary called me, I told him that I will not be able to take oath today as I am currently in Rangamati. If the process permits, I am ready to take oath at a later date.
15-Nahid Islam
Nahid Islam is the main organiser of the student movement that led to the departure of Sheikh Hasina. Nahid, a postgraduate student in sociology at Dhaka University, is one of the two youngest advisers to the government. Another adviser, Asif Mahmud, is also the member secretary of the Democratic Students' Power formed by members of the Students' Rights Council led by Nurul Haque Noor. When student protests were at their peak in 2018, Nahid participated in the quota-reform protest that shook the country and was detained by the police's detective branch along with five other protesters. At the time he received threats from the university administration and teachers, he contested for the post of cultural secretary from the Nurul-Rashed-Faruque panel in the Dhaka University Central Students' Union under the banner of Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Adhikar Students' Union Council. He lost the election and later parted ways with the council.
16- Asif Mahmood
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuya is one of the coordinators of the quota reform protests, which later turned into an anti-government movement and eventually toppled the Sheikh Hasina-led government. He was active during the quota reform protests in 2018. He was elected president in the first conference of the Students' Rights Council in 2023.