Amid protests: Hasina invited to form government

Hours before newly elected MPs take oath of office.

DHAKA:

Hours after newly-elected lawmakers took their parliamentary oath on Thursday, Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Wajid was invited by Bangladesh’s president to form the government following her party’s controversial triumph in the January 5 elections.

“President (Abdul Hamid) invited Sheikh Hasina to form the government as leader of the house when she called on him at the presidential palace,” the president’s spokesman Ihsanul Karim told the Press Trust of India.

Hasina, 66, was unanimously elected as leader of the Awami League parliamentary party.



Led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, members of parliament from the ruling Awami League and lawmakers from her allies were sworn in, parliament’s spokesman Joynal Abedin told AFP.

According to officials, several ministers of the outgoing Bangladesh government are expected to be dropped for their poor performance or corruption as Hasina forms her new cabinet on Sunday.

The new cabinet will have 30 members but Hasina is likely to drop ministers accused of poor performance or corruption, the mass circulation Prothom Alo newspaper quoted its sources as saying.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2014.