Former Bangladesh President Ershad made special envoy to PM Hasina

DHAKA, Jan. 12 (NsNewsWire) — Former Bangladesh President Hussain Muhammad Ershad Sunday was appointed as a special envoy to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the rank and status of a cabinet minister.
The appointment came as Hasina, who became premier for the third time, formed her new cabinet taking the oath of office Sunday evening for the second consecutive term after last week’s controversial parliament polls.
In this connection, Bangladesh’s Cabinet Division has issued a gazette notification shortly after Hasina,eldest daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father and first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was sworn in on Sunday evening as prime minister of the country for the second consecutive term.
Apart from Hasina, forty-eight others comprising 29 ministers, 17 state ministers and two deputy ministers were also sworn in after dissolution of the polls-time cabinet and council of advisers.
The oath taking ceremony was held amid countrywide road, rail, waterways blockade enforced by the 18-party alliance led by ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party which boycotted the elections demanding polls under a non-party caretaker government.
Mired in controversy, Bangladesh’s parliamentary election was held for just 147 of 300 seats in 59 of 64 districts of the country on Jan 5 as 153 candidates had been elected uncontested.
According to results from the Election Commission, the ruling party Awarmi League won 232 seats – 127 uncontested, securing absolute majority in the election.
The Jatiya Party of former military strongman Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh for nearly nine years from 1982 to 1990, won 31 seats and others took 27 seats in the country’s 10th Parliamentary elections. Enditem