8 new ministers take oath; job distribution, fate of old ones to be disclosed today
Former dictator and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad talks to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the oath taking of six ministers and two state ministers for a polls-time cabinet at the Bangabhaban yesterday. Photo: Sk Enamul Haq
The prime minister yesterday inducted five Jatiya Party leaders into her cabinet and appointed another as her adviser, in a clear manifestation of her strategy to bank on former military dictator Ershad’s party to overcome the crisis centring on the election.
Through the induction, Sheikh Hasina has begun forming the election-time cabinet to be known as polls-time government that has so far eight new faces.
Two of the other three are from the ruling Awami League and one from the Workers Party, a ruling party ally.
Earlier in the morning, the JP quit the AL-led grand alliance and announced that it would contest the general election independently.
Asked to comment about the development, an AL presidium member termed it most natural. “Nothing happened out of the blue. It was to happen.”
The new ministers, however, were not given their portfolios because the process of forming the polls-time cabinet is not over yet. Hasina has yet to finalise the names of ministers who will remain in the cabinet, government sources said.
The polls-time cabinet will be “moderately big” and may have around 30 members, the sources said, adding that almost all the senior ministers would retain their posts.
A gazette notification will be issued today regarding the re-distribution of portfolios. The gazette will also clarify who would not be in the election-time government, Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters yesterday.
This latest development is almost certain to face strong resistance from the BNP-led 18-party alliance. The opposition has all along maintained that it would not take part in the election if it is not held under a non-party caretaker government.
Of late, the BNP has even threatened to resist any polls held under Sheikh Hasina’s administration.
To frustrate the opposition plan, the government and AL policymakers have along been trying to forge an “alternative” opposition alliance led by HM Ershad, the deposed military ruler.
After a meeting between Hasina and Ershad on October 21 at the Gono Bhaban, AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told journalists that the JP would compete against the AL if the BNP boycotted the polls.
But the grand alliance would remain intact if the BNP takes part in the election, he added.
As pert of the strategy, Ershad yesterday quit the AL-led grand alliance and announced to participate in the election. And he has already moved to forge an alliance with some Islamic and some other small parties.
Ershad’s meeting on Sunday with Hefajat chief Ahmed Shafi was also part of his plan to obtain support of the Qwami madrasa-based organisation that Shafi heads.
“Since we have decided to participate in the polls, we are joining the polls-time government,” Ershad said when asked why his party joined in the cabinet despite quitting the grand alliance.
All these may remind many readers of the 1986 parliamentary election when Ershad did everything under his powers to hold an election to gain legitimacy. The BNP and some other parties boycotted the election in efforts to intensify the movement against Ershad’s autocratic rule. But the AL and several small parties took part in it. Ershad’s JP won the election.
The parliament formed through that election passed the constitution’s seventh amendment bill, validating all actions of the regime. This parliament lasted two years.
Political analysts say, in case the BNP boycotts the upcoming polls, JP’s participation in it would lend some kind of legitimacy to the election, which the government so badly wants. But all these government efforts will go in vain if the JP refuses to go to the polls at the eleventh hour.
On February 15, 1996, the BNP-led government held a one-sided election that the AL, JP, Jamaat and other parties boycotted.
The election suffered from credibility and the House lasted only two weeks.
Towards the end of the last BNP-led four-party government, the BNP desperately tried to bring JP in its alliance. To secure a deal, Ershad was acquitted of a number of cases pending against him. But Ershad did not finally join the BNP-led alliance as his demands were not fully met.
This time, Ershad bargained with the government for more seats in the election-time government. The government offered the JP three posts, but Ershad kept pressing for more. The ruling party eventually had to give in to his demand, said sources in the AL.
The five JP MPs inducted in the cabinet are Ruhul Amin Hawlader, Rawshan Ershad, Anisul Islam Mahmud, Mujibul Haque Chunnu and Salma Islam. Of the five, the first three took oath as ministers and the last two as state ministers.
JP Presidium Member Ziauddin Bablu was appointed the PM’s adviser with a minister’s status. Including him, Hasina now has eight advisers.
Two senior AL leaders — Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed — and Rashed Khan Menon of Workers Party also took oath as ministers.
Tofail and Menon had earlier declined to be inducted in the cabinet.
Source: The Daily Star