Dhaka – Tarique Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh following his party’s landslide victory in last week’s general election.
The election was the first to be held since a violent uprising ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, bringing an end to her 15-year rule.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin on Tuesday administered the oath of office to the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, and ministers of state at a crowded ceremony held on the south plaza of the parliament building.
Among the attendees were Chief Adviser of the interim administration Muhammad Yunus and his cabinet colleagues, South Asian leaders, Bangladeshi politicians, foreign diplomats, and senior civil and military officials.
The ceremony was broadcast live on television.
Rahman, 60, will lead a 49-member cabinet and is mandated to run the country for the next five years. The Yunus-led interim administration, installed following the 2024 unrest, organized the general election alongside a referendum seeking constitutional reforms.
Rahman’s assumption to office marks the BNP’s return to power after 20 years.
His mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, led the party to office from 2001 to 2006, and previously from 1991 to 1996.
The party was founded in 1978 by army-chief-turned-president Ziaur Rahman, Tarique Rahman’s father, and remained in power until 1982, when the army seized control in a bloodless coup—less than a year after Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in May 1981.
Tarique Rahman became party chief in January, days after his mother passed away on December 30.
Among the international dignitaries present at the ceremony were Speaker of the Indian Parliament Om Birla, Prime Minister of the Maldives Mohamed Muizzu, Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay, and Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary.
Representatives from the United States, China, Turkey, Japan, and Nepal were also in attendance.
Earlier in the morning, Tarique Rahman was elected Leader of the House by his party’s lawmakers after they took their oaths as Members of Parliament.
