Finance minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday indicated that he might continue as finance minister in the new cabinet if the Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina desires.
The minister said he may remain as the minister for one more year if the Prime Minister wants him to do so, whereby he may be included in the new cabinet as a technocrat minister since he will not be a lawmaker anymore.
He was an elected lawmaker in the previous two terms of the Awami League government.
The veteran politician is the first finance minister in the history of Bangladesh who presented 10 budgets in a row in the Awami league’s government.
Muhith said he would retire after polls and hence did not take part in the election, instead his brother AK Abdul Momen contested from his constituency Sylhet-1.
According to cabinet division information, the new cabinet is likely to be formed by 5 January after the Election Commission’s gazette notification regarding polls results and the oath taking of elected lawmakers.
Previous history
Altogether, Muhith’s total national budget tally is 12, including the two he placed during the military regime of HM Ershad.
Former BNP finance minister Saifur Rahman, also placed 12 budget proposals before parliament.
Born in Sylhet in 1934, AMA Muhith joined the Pakistan Civil Service in 1956 and served in different positions in the government of East Pakistan, the central government of Pakistan, and then Bangladesh.
He served as the secretary of the Ministry of Planning in January 1972 and as the secretary of the External Resources Division under the Ministry of Finance and Planning in May 1977.
He went into early retirement in 1981 and served as a consultant on economic and development matters in the Ford Foundation and at IFAD, UN, UNDP, ADB and the World Bank.
The following March he re-entered mainstream national politics as the finance and planning minister for the Ershad government, holding the post until December 1983.
He joined the Awami League in 2001 and was appointed as a member of its Advisory Board in 2002.
After being elected as a member of parliament for Sylhet in January 2009, Muhith took the oath as finance minister and has been in position ever since, even holding his seat unopposed in the 10th parliamentary election in 2014.
