Industrialist, filmmaker & student leader: Bangladesh names three more advisers

Bangladesh’s interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus inducted three new members to the council of advisers with President Mohammad Shahabuddin administering the oath of office at Bangabhaban presidential palace here on Sunday evening.

Industrialist Sheikh Bashir Uddin, filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, and anti-discrimination students movement leader Mahfuj Alam, who is also serving as a special assistant to Yunus, were administered the oath at the Darbar Hall of the presidential palace in the presence of other dignitaries including senior government officials, Bangabhaban officials said.

The official said that with these appointments the number of advisers in the interim government stood at 24.

The official said the new inductions would likely result in the reshuffle of portfolios in the council installed on August 8, three days after the ouster of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime in a mass upsurge led by the anti-discrimination students’ movement.

The protesters were initially waging a campaign against reforms in the quota system for government jobs but later the demonstrations turned into a mass movement demanding the resignation of Hasina. Alam was largely a behind-the-scenes key figure in the students’ movement.

Bashir Uddin is the managing director of the leading industrial conglomerate Akij-Bashir Group and a business community representative in the government while Farooki is a leading film director, producer and screenwriter.