Mohammed Shahabuddin is set to administer the oath of office to a new cabinet led by BNP chairman Tarique Rahman on February 17 at the South Plaza of the National Parliament complex, departing from the usual practice of holding the ceremony at Bangabhaban, the presidential palace.
PTI reported that a Bangabhaban official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Saturday, said: “We have been informed that the President will administer the oath of office (to the new cabinet) on Tuesday at the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) complex.”
According to PTI, newspapers Prothom Alo and Ittefaq said the ceremony would be followed by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin administering the oath to newly elected members of parliament, instead of Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury as stipulated in the Constitution.
The Third Schedule of the Constitution lists the CEC as the third option to perform the duty in the absence of the outgoing speaker and deputy speaker.
The Constitution requires that the swearing-in of the cabinet be immediately followed by the oath-taking of new parliament members.
PTI also reported that Cabinet Secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid had earlier indicated that the President would conduct the oath ceremony at Bangabhaban in accordance with constitutional provisions, but did not specify a date.
“If we are instructed or indicated that it will be held on a certain date and at a certain time, we will work accordingly. Even if it is tomorrow, we will have to prepare for tomorrow,” the top bureaucrat said.
Earlier on Saturday, a senior aide to Rahman, who declined to be named, told PTI that the prevailing circumstances had complicated the process.
“The speaker of the last parliament is supposed to administer the oath of office to the MPs, but she resigned and is living in an undisclosed location while the deputy speaker is in jail,” he said.
“In these circumstances, he said, the President might select someone to administer the oath and the Constitution kept a provision for that”.
Separately, the public administration ministry announced that Muhammad Yunus’s interim government had cancelled Rashid’s contractual appointment and named Siraj Uddin Mia, currently serving as Yunus’s principal secretary, as his replacement.
Rashid told reporters that he had stepped down several days earlier and that his resignation was formally accepted on Saturday.
Yunus’s interim administration had appointed Rashid, a retired additional secretary, as cabinet secretary on October 14, 2024, for a two-year term.
