Posters have been put up in the capital demanding the removal of several government bureaucrats. These posters are on the walls of the capital's Topkhana Road, Secretariat and Segunbagicha areas.
These posters, printed under the banner of anti-fascist students, have pictures of five government secretaries and three top officials of three departments.
After investigation, it was learned that out of the eight administration officials who have been put up in the capital demanding the removal of the posters, five secretaries of five government ministries are - Secretary of the Internal Resources Division under the Ministry of Finance and Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Abdur Rahman, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, Secretary of the Financial Institutions Division under the Ministry of Finance Nazma Mubarak, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Farhina Ahmed, Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Nazmul Ahsan.
Besides, the three top officials of the other three organizations are - Mohammad Shamim Akhtar, chief engineer of the Public Works Department under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Dr Md Fakhrul Islam, secretary of the Bangladesh University Grants Commission, and Dr Mohammad Nasir Uddin, director (acting) of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery under the Ministry of Health.
It is learned that the poster printed under the banner of anti-fascist students demanding the removal of these eight government officials says: "Remove the trusted bureaucrats of the autocratic Sheikh Hasina, who are the main culprits of the failure of the state reform work."
The poster also has the pictures of these eight officials. Locals said that these posters under the banner of anti-fascist students were pasted on various walls of the capital, especially around the Secretariat, in the dark of night.
A large number of posters were seen around the Bangladesh Secretariat station of the metro rail and on its pillars. However, although the posters were put up under the banner of anti-fascist students, no one associated with it could be identified.
When one of the posters was put up in the capital's Topkhana Road area, the person doing the work was asked to identify himself. He said that his name was Rabiul, and he lives in the capital's Lalbagh area. He said he is putting up the posters in exchange for remuneration. Rabiul said that if he can put up 500 posters, he will get Tk1,000.
Rabiul said that a person named Md Alam, who lives in the capital's Paltan area, asked him to put up these posters. Four more people have taken up the work of putting up posters in different areas of the capital with him. Rabiul said that each will be paid at the same rate.
The people on the poster
One of the officials whose removal was demanded by the posters is Md Abdur Rahman Khan. He joined the Ministry of Finance on August 15, 2024 as secretary of the Internal Resources Division and chairman of the National Board of Revenue.
Before that, he served as secretary of the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance. This BCS 13th batch officer joined the Bangladesh Civil Service (Tax) cadre on April 25, 1994. He served as assistant commissioner (tax), deputy commissioner (tax), joint commissioner (tax), deputy director general of the Directorate of Taxes Inspection, director of BCS tax academy and first secretary of the NBR.
He has served as deputy secretary to the government in the internal resources department and as deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary in the finance department.
While working in the finance department, he has held important positions in the budget, implementation, administration and treasury and debt management departments. Besides, outside the confines of the civil service, he has worked on petroleum tax as an international adviser to the United Nations and a consultant to the World Bank in East Timor.
As a professional accountant, Md Abdur Rahman Khan has served as the council member, treasurer, secretary and president of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh for a long time. He is currently serving as the chairman of the non-profit organization and cooperative committee of the South Asian Federation of Accountants and the chairman of the public sector advisory group of the Confederation of Asia and Pacific Accountants.
Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian also served as the member (secretary) of the Planning Commission. He was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture on August 14 this year. He joined the Ministry of Agriculture as the secretary on the same day. Before that, he was a member of the Planning Commission. Before that, Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian was the director general of the planning, monitoring, evaluation and inspection division of the local government department.
Najma Mubarek is the secretary of the financial institutions division under the Ministry of Finance of the government. She joined as the secretary of the financial institutions division on October 31 last year. Before joining this department, she served as the secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. She was promoted to secretary on June 5, 2023 and served as secretary in the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs from June 6 to October 30, 2024.
Before joining as secretary, she was working as additional secretary in the finance department. Najma Mobarek is an officer of the 13th batch of BCS administration cadre. On April 25, 1994, she started her career as assistant commissioner in the office of the deputy commissioner, Gazipur and later she served as assistant commissioner in the office of the deputy commissioner, Jamalpur. She served as assistant commissioner (land) in Kapasia upazila of Gazipur.
She served as the assistant secretary in the Ministry of Textiles. Later, she served in the finance department for a long time as assistant secretary, senior assistant secretary, deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary. She was involved in the formulation of the national budget in the Ministry of Finance and was the first woman additional secretary to successfully formulate the national budget.
She served as the director of the board of directors of the Army Welfare Organization, Life Insurance Corporation. She was a member of the 'Online Land Development Tax Payment' system implementation team implemented by the Ministry of Land. She played an important role in the establishment and successful implementation of that system. She won the 'Digital Bangladesh Award 2022' as a team for this system.
Farhina Ahmed is the secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. She joined the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as secretary on May 22, 2022. In her 30-year career in government service, she served as additional secretary, joint secretary and deputy secretary in the finance department.
In addition, he has served in various positions in the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, and field administration, including the director of the BCS administration academy and the project director of the capacity building project of the academy. Dr Ahmed is an officer of the 11th batch of the BCS administration cadre.
Nazmul Ahsan joined the Ministry of Water Resources as secretary on December 15, 2022. Before joining this ministry, he was working as the chairman of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla). He joined the administration cadre in the 13th batch of the Bangladesh Civil Service on April 25, 1994 and worked at various levels of field administration.
He worked as assistant commissioner in the office of the deputy commissioner of Brahmanbaria and Bandarban hill districts, as assistant commissioner (land) in Gosairhat, Netrokona Sadar and Monohardi upazilas of Shariatpur district and as Nezarat deputy collector (NDC) in Comilla district.
As an upazila executive officer, he worked in Muradnagar of Comilla district and Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong district. He also served as a metropolitan magistrate in the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate of Chittagong.
Nazmul Ahsan served as the deputy commissioner and district magistrate of Satkhira and Khulna districts in the field administration. He worked as senior assistant secretary, deputy secretary and joint secretary in the energy and mineral resources department and as deputy secretary and joint secretary in the power department.
He also served as the director (administration) of Petrobangla before joining as the chairman of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla).
Mohammad Shamim Akhtar is serving as the chief engineer of the public works department. He received a BSc engineering (civil) degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 1991. Later, he obtained a postgraduate diploma in ICT from BUET in 2002 and an MBA in finance from Dhaka University in 2007.
He is an officer of the 15th (1995) batch in the BCS (public works) cadre. He was promoted to the post of sub-divisional engineer in 1998, executive engineer in 2008, supervising engineer in 2016 and additional chief engineer in 2018. He joined the Housing and Building Research Institute as director on May 8, 2018 and was promoted to director general in the same institution. He assumed charge as the chief engineer of the public works department on December 14, 2020.
Dr Md Fakhrul Islam is serving as the secretary of the University Grants Commission. Fakhrul Islam, director of the research support and publication department of the Bangladesh University Grants Commission, was transferred to the post of secretary of the UGC on August 11 last year.
He served in various important positions including joint secretary and director of the commission. He earned his master's, MPhil and PhD degrees from the English department of the University of Dhaka.
Dr Mohammad Nasir Uddin, director of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. This specialist in burn and plastic surgery is serving as the director (acting) of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. He was earlier working as an associate professor in the department of burn and plastic surgery of Dhaka Medical College (DMCH) Hospital.
This information was revealed in a notification signed by Mohammad Saiful Islam, deputy secretary of the health services division (part-1) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on February 13 last year.
When asked about the poster demanding removal, NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman said: “I am not aware of the matter. As long as the government keeps me in this position, I will perform my duties. There is nothing more to say.”
Financial Institutions Division Secretary Najma Mubarak said: “As an employee of the republic, I will perform my duties wherever the government posts me. If the government transfers me elsewhere, I will work there. There is nothing more to say.”
Environment Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed said: “I am not aware of the postering issue. I will work wherever the government removes me from this ministry. She also said that she has nothing to worry about.”
