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Cabinet to see new faces

Ashraf meets Hasina, takes up challenge to strengthen party

Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to induct some new faces into her council of ministers today as part of a plan to bring fresh blood in it, say sources.
On her advice, President Abdul Hamid would make the appointments and administer the oath of office at his official residence this afternoon, according to sources at the Bangabhaban, the Cabinet Division and in the ruling Awami League.
The number of new ministers could be four to five. Of them, two had served as ministers in the Hasina-led government in 2009-2014, while another was Hasina's close aide in her first term as PM in 1996-2001, said the sources.
The Daily Star yesterday talked over the phone to three of them, who said they were aware of the latest development.
Nurul Islam BSc, former vice president of Chittagong
district AL and an ex-lawmaker, is on the list.
"I got a phone call. I have been invited to the Bangabhaban tomorrow [today] evening," he said yesterday.
On the possible reshuffle in the cabinet. Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told The Daily Star, "It is her cabinet. If she wants, she can expand it by inducting new members into it."
Asked, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said he had also heard about a possible cabinet reshuffle.
Sources said the PM has taken the step to make her one-and-a-half-year cabinet dynamic. Two or three ministers, who have been mired in controversies and are unable to perform, might be shown the door.
This will be the first reshuffle in her cabinet formed through the onesided parliamentary elections on January 5 last year.
Hasina, president of the ruling AL, also plans to strengthen her party through its General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, said AL sources.
Ashraf, who was removed from the LGRD ministry and made a minister without portfolio on July 9, met Hasina at the Gono Bhaban on Sunday evening.
At the 90-minute meeting, they discussed several issues, including ways to enhance party's organisational capacity, said sources.
It was Ashrafs first meeting with the PM after his removal from the LGRD ministry.
Ashraf came out of the meeting with a smile on his face, said a source at the Gono Bhaban.
Hasina asked him to play a more active role in party activities, said sources close to the AL general secretary.
Ashraf told her that he would take initiatives to complete the long-due conferences of the party's district units.
It took the party several years to hold conferences of 53 of its 74 units.
According to the sources, he informed the PM that he would leave for London tomorrow and return on August 1.
Yesterday, Ashraf didn't attend the first cabinet meeting after his removal from the LGRD ministry.
Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the AL general secretary was absent at the cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office.
Asked whether the former LGRD minister was invited to the meeting, he said, "Try to understand ..."
"It is unclear whether he will attend the next meeting."