Tarique Rahman has been sworn in as Bangladesh’s eleventh prime minister together with his 49-member cupboard, 5 days after his Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP) swept to energy within the first elections since a 2024 student-led rebellion.
Among the many cupboard members are Nurul Haque Nur and Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki (popularly referred to as Zonayed Saki), first-time parliamentarians who have been outstanding within the rebellion that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Nur, who was catapulted to prominence within the wake of the 2018 antijob-quota motion, and Saki, a well-liked left-leaning chief, usually are not from the BNP, which has returned to energy after 20 years.
Rahman, the son of late former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was sworn in on Tuesday to the highest government workplace within the South Asian nation after 17 years in self-imposed exile in London.
Who’s Nurul Haque Nur?
Nur, who comes from a decrease center class household within the distant district of Patuakhali in southern Bangladesh was elected as a member of parliament within the elections on Thursday. The 34-year-old received his constituency as a BNP-backed candidate of the Gono Odhikar Parishad social gathering.
He first gained nationwide prominence as a pupil chief from the College of Dhaka through the antiquota motion in 2018, main demonstrations towards Hasina’s Awami League authorities.
College students and youth throughout Bangladesh protested to name for reform within the typical job quota system, underneath which greater than half of a lot sought-after authorities jobs have been reserved. Protesters accused the Awami League authorities of utilizing the quota system to reward its supporters.
The Hasina authorities was compelled to abolish the quota in 2018. However in June 2024, a courtroom reinstated the quota system, triggering the protests that quickly morphed right into a wider name for the removing of Hasina’s “autocratic” regime. Hasina’s 15-rule was marked by widespread human rights violations and suppression of dissent.
Nur backed the student-led rebellion and was a key mobiliser within the July 2024 revolution.
He cofounded Gono Odhikar Parishad, a rights-focused political social gathering, and positioned himself as a part of a youth-driven, antiestablishment motion in Bangladeshi politics. Nevertheless, the social gathering has been mired in frequent inner rifts and breakaways.
Within the post-2024 Hasina interval, Nur moved nearer to the BNP-led bloc on reform and governance insurance policies.
Who’s Zonayed Saki?
Saki turned concerned in politics as a pupil activist through the motion towards Common Hussain Ershad, who dominated Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990.
The 52-year-old received the presidency of the Bangladesh Pupil Federation, a progressive pupil organisation, in 1998.
Saki is the joint convener of the Ganosanhati Andolan, or Folks’s Solidarity Motion, a progressive social gathering that emerged within the late 2000s. He’s a number one left-leaning voice in Bangladeshi politics.
He ran for mayor of the Dhaka North Metropolis Company in 2015 and misplaced. Saki additionally participated within the 2018 Bangladeshi normal election from a Dhaka constituency however didn’t win.
He received the Brahmanbaria-6 constituency this time by a margin of 55,000 votes.
Addressing his supporters after the election win, Saki stated: “All events within the antiauthoritarian motion should stay united within the nationwide curiosity and respectful of democratic norms.” He thanked BNP leaders for his or her assist.
Why have been they appointed to the cupboard?
Very similar to the brand new parliament, Rahman’s cupboard doesn’t have a lot expertise governing. All his junior cupboard ministers, together with Nur and Saki, are first-timers.
Political analysts in Bangladesh stated Saki’s and Nur’s appointments usually are not sudden and are reflective of the BNP’s dedication to its alliance companions.
“Each of them characterize events that have been alliance companions of the BNP,” stated Asif Shahan, a professor at Dhaka College. “It’s extra about awarding the alliance companions.”
On the similar time, Shahan instructed Al Jazeera, each leaders are additionally “vital figures within the July [2024] rebellion and have an extended historical past of combating towards the final [Hasina’s] authoritarian regime.”
Their appointments to the cupboard are “a recognition of their contribution to the July rebellion”, Shahan stated.
Being junior ministers means Nur and Saki can have restricted powers in whichever ministries they’re assigned to within the coming days. “The BNP’s bench is sort of sturdy, and a full ministership [for Nur or Saki] would imply {that a} senior chief from the social gathering needed to be dropped,” Shahan stated. “Rahman needed to strike a stability.”
What occurred to the coed leaders from the 2024 rebellion?
The Nationwide Citizen Get together (NCP), the social gathering headed by the coed leaders from the July 2024 rebellion, entered an alliance with the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami social gathering.
It didn’t make a splash in its first electoral check. The NCP secured solely six of the 30 seats it contested. Its chief, Nahid Islam, 27, received, turning into one of many youngest MPs within the new parliament.
Now, will probably be a part of the opposition with Jamaat, a brand new area for each.
