Daijiworld Media Network – Dhaka
Dhaka, Feb 17: Tarique Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday, five days after the parliamentary elections.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at the South Plaza of the Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban, where President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Rahman and his council of ministers. Around 1,200 domestic and foreign guests attended the ceremony.
Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin administered the oath of parliament to the newly elected BNP members.
Rahman will head a cabinet comprising 25 ministers and 24 ministers of state. Senior BNP leaders including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chaudhury, Salahuddin Ahmed and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku were sworn in as cabinet ministers. Several executive committee members of the party also joined the cabinet.
The ministry includes technocrats, among them Mohammed Amir Ur Rashid and National Security Adviser Dr. Khalilur Rahman, who is expected to take charge as foreign minister. BNP ally Jonaid Saki of Gonosanghati Andolan was inducted as a state minister.
The transfer of power from the interim government led by Chief Adviser Prof. Mohammed Yunus began earlier in the morning when Rahman led BNP alliance members to parliament for the oath-taking.
During the parliamentary oath ceremony, BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed announced that party members would not take oath as part of the Constitution Reform Commission, stating that they were elected as lawmakers and not as members of the commission.
The twin-oath procedure was introduced to integrate the parliamentary election results and a referendum on constitutional amendments incorporating the July Charter, adopted by the interim government on October 17, 2025, following political changes after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in August 2024.
The BNP has maintained that while it signed the July Charter, the final version went beyond the party’s original agreement.