New ministers to take oath at 3pm

Dhaka, Sept 13
Seven senior leaders of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance will take oath as new ministers and statement ministers at Bangabhaban Thursday afternoon.
The chief justice will administer the oath at 3:00pm in the presence of the prime minister, Bangabhaban sources confirmed.
Of the seven, Tofail Ahmed, Rashed Khan Menon, Hasanul Haque Inu, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, and Whip Mujibul Haque are set to be sworn in as ministers.
Awami League lawmakers Omor Faruk Chowdhury of Rajshahi-1 constituency and Abdul Hyee of Jhenidah-1 will take oath as state ministers.
With only a year left for the government before its term ends, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to reshuffle the cabinet by incorporating the seven new faces.
She finalised the names after consulting with a few senior leaders and ministers of her party and the government. As in earlier times, Sheikh Hasina talked about the cabinet expansion with President Zillur Rahman on Monday evening, said sources.
Menon and Inu are presidents of the Workers Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal respectively. They are also lawmakers from the AL-led alliance and have been vocal against the government on some major issues such as the stock market and Hall-Mark scams.
Sources said the five senior leaders would be made ministers while Faruk and Hyee would be inducted as state ministers.
After all the seven take the oath of office today the size of the cabinet, including the prime minister, will be 51.
This will be the third expansion of the cabinet. The premier last expanded her cabinet on November 28, 2011 by incorporating Suranjit Sengupta, now minister without portfolio, and Obaidul Quader, minister for communications and railways.
After the AL's landslide victory at the 2008 parliamentary election, Hasina formed her cabinet with 31 members -- 23 ministers and eight state ministers. On January 24, 2009, she included six more fresh faces -- a minister and five state ministers -- in the council of ministers and reshuffled 10 portfolios.