17 individuals from varied backgrounds to lead Bangladesh’s transition

NEW DELHI — The newly formed interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus comprises 17 members, who come from varied backgrounds ranging from former central bank’s governor to ex-election commissioner to law professor to human rights activists and so on.

Here is a brief profile of all the members of the interim government.

Muhammad Yunus

A well-known social entrepreneur, banker, and economist, Muhammad Yunus is also hailed as the ‘father of microfinance’ for founding the Grameen Bank in 1983 and becoming the pioneer of microcredit and microfinance concepts.

In 2006, he and the bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to create economic and social development from below.

Although Yunus was a well-known figure in Bangladesh, he had largely stayed away from the political arena, save one short-lived stint in February 2007, when he founded ‘Nogarik Shakti’ (citizens’ power) before announcing his exit from politics in May 2007.

He also shared a tumultuous relationship with Sheikh Hasina, whom he accused of destroying the legacy of her father and Bangladesh founder, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Born on June 28, 1940, in Chittagong district, Yunus did his schooling at the Chittagong Collegiate School before earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dhaka University.

He later obtained a PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University in the USA on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1969.

Upon returning to Bangladesh in 1972, Yunus became the head of the economics department at Chittagong University.

From 1993 to 1995, Yunus was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women.

He was also a prominent member of the Global Commission on Women’s Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development, and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

Salehuddin Ahmed

Salehuddin Ahmed served as the 9th Governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, from May 1, 2005 to April 30, 2009. According to media reports, Ahmed implemented reforms aimed at fostering discipline in the banking sector and modernising the central bank’s operations.

He started his career as a lecturer at the University of Dhaka in 1970 and a year later, joined the Civil Service of Pakistan.

Ahmed also served as Director General of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development from 1993 to 1995. He was the Director General of the NGO Affairs Bureau at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Brigadier General (retd) M. Sakhawat Hossain

M. Sakhawat Hossain was the Election Commissioner of Bangladesh between 2007 and 2012. He was a brigadier general in the Bangladesh Army and has written more than 32 books. He also serves as a columnist and freelance commentator on national and international television as a security and defence analyst.

According to Bangladeshi media, he served on the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank, the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh for two years. He attended NATO exercise in Germany.

Md Nazrul Islam (Asif Nazrul)

Also known as Asif Nazrul, Md Islam is a law professor, researcher and civil society activist. He wrote a number of book chapters and research papers on constitutional, and international legal issues in leading journals and books.

He presented papers at conferences held in the US, Europe and South Asia on constitutional reform, election integrity and good governance issues.

Adilur Rahman Khan

A lawyer by profession, Adilur Rahman Khan is a human rights activist and former Deputy Attorney General for Bangladesh. Since October 2022, Adilur Rahman Khan has been one of the Secretaries General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

He has Masters in Law degrees from the University of Dhaka and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

A.F. Hassan Ariff

A.F. Hassan Ariff held the office of Attorney General for Bangladesh from October 2001 to April 2005. He has been practising in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh since 1970.

He was the Law Adviser (Cabinet Minister) of the caretaker government of Bangladesh from January 2008 to January 2009.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta High Court, West Bengal, India in 1967.

Md Touhid Hossain

Md Touhid Hossain is a former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.

He was born on February 1, 1955, and had completed his master’s degree in history from the University of Dhaka.

He joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1981. From January 1999 to February 2000, Hossain served as the Principal of the Foreign Service Academy.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan

Syeda Rizwana Hasan is a Bangladeshi lawyer and environmentalist. She is the Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) and a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, and the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Additionally, she is a member of the board of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE).

Supradip Chakma

Supradip Chakma serves as the chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB). He previously worked as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Vietnam and Mexico.

According to Dhaka Tribune, Chakma, a foreign cadre of the BCS 1985 batch, also served in the Bangladesh Embassy in Rabat, Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo, Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels and Bangladesh Embassy in Ankara in various capacities.

Farida Akhter

Farida Akhter, the executive director of UBINEG (Policy Research on Development Options), has carried out extensive research in agriculture, marine fisheries, population, and development issues.

She has written several books and is a regular columnist in national dailies.

Bidhan Ranjan Roy

Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar is a Psychiatrist in Mymensingh. His qualifications are MBBS, DPM, and MPhil (Psychiatry). He is the Director cum Professor, Psychiatry at National Institute of Mental Health & Hospital.

Sharmeen Murshid

Sharmeen Murshid, Chief Executive Officer of the election observation group ‘Brotee’.

A.F.M. Khalid Hossain

Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain is a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar, educator, writer, researcher, editor, international Islamic speaker and social reformer.

He was the professor and head of the Department of Islamic History and Culture at Omargani MES College and central president of the Islami Chhatra Samaj, the student wing of the Nizam-e-Islam Party.

Farooq-e-Azam

Naval commando Farooq-e-Azam is a freedom fighter who was awarded Bir Pratik.

During the liberation war, he was the deputy commander of the team formed under ‘Operation Jackpot’ to attack the Chittagong port.

Nurjahan Begum

Nurjahan Begum was one of the earliest associates of Professor Muhammad Yunus when the latter started the Grameen Bank Project in 1976 in the village Jobra in Chittagong district of Bangladesh.

A student of Chittagong University, Nurjahan played an important role in organising poor rural women in Grameen Bank’s grassroots groups in the bank’s earliest and most challenging days when rural women were hardly allowed to go out of doors and speak to non-relative males, let alone take a loan from an institution.

Nujahan was awarded the Susan M Davis Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 by the Grameen Foundation, World Summit Millennium Development Goals Award 2009, and Vision Award 2009.

Nahid Islam

Nahid Islam is a Bangladeshi student activist who was one of the main leaders of the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement, which later turned into the Non-cooperation movement, leading to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government.

He was born in Dhaka in 1998 and is a sociology student of the 2016-17 batch at Dhaka University. His father is a teacher and his mother is a homemaker.

Asif Mahmud

Asif Mahmud is one of the key coordinators of the Students Against Discrimination Movement.

Hailing from Comilla, Asif is a Linguistics Department student of the 2017-18 batch at Dhaka University.

He was also the president of the Chattra Odhikhar Parishad of DU.

Read: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus returns to Bangladesh from Paris to take charge of interim government