Four days after the announcement of the schedule for the 12th National Assembly elections, three technocrat ministers and all five advisers to the prime minister have submitted their resignations.
The technocrat ministers who tendered their resignation on Sunday are Science and Technology Minister Architect Yafes Osman, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Planning Minister Shamsul Alam, according to the Cabinet Division.
Apart from the premier, there are now 25 ministers and 19 state ministers in the cabinet. The number of members of the cabinet including the Prime Minister is 48 people. The resignation of three brought the number down to 45.
Earlier, the then technocrat ministers submitted their resignations before the national elections in 2018. However, they resigned before the schedule was announced.
The ministers who resigned in 2018 were - then Religion Minister Matiur Rahman (deceased recently), Science and Technology Minister Yafes Osman, Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Minister Nurul Islam and Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar.
Mashiur Rahman, the prime minister’s economic affairs advisor, said the ministers and advisors who are not MPs had been asked to resign.
Apart from Mashiur, the other advisors are Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Gowher Rizvi, Tarique Ahmed Siddique, Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Salman F Rahman. Of them, only Salman F Rahman is a member of parliament.
