Syed Ashraf stripped of portfolio Mosharraf made LGRD minister.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has finally remove LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam from the ministry, ending two days of speculations, according to a gazette notification issued by the Cabinet Division. Within two days of expressing her discontent at the repeated absence of Ashraf from crucial meetings, the prime minister on Thursday made him a minister without portfolio. The prime minister reshuffled her cabinet as per rule 3(4) of the Rules of Business 1996 and gave the charge of the LGRD ministry to Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, who is also responsible for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry, said the order signed by cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. The removal of Ashraf, who has been holding the portfolio of the local government ministry for the last seven years, came after the prime minister on Tuesday at an ECNEC meeting ordered the Cabinet Division to prepare a summary to remove him from the post. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, also a close relative of the prime minister, would now hold the portfolios of the expatriates’ welfare ministry and the local government, rural development and cooperatives ministry. This is the first reshuffle in the cabinet since the present government of Awami League assumed office following the January 5, 2014 elections boycotted by all the opposition political parties. Party insiders said Ashraf on Thursday visited the prime minister’s office and had a one-to-one meeting with Sheikh Hasina before the circular was issued. After being removed as LGRD minister, Ashraf showed up at an iftar party organised by Juba League at the party’s central office at the city’s Bangabandhu Avenue. He, however, did not comment on his removal from the ministry. The prime minister at the meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council on Tuesday expressed her displeasure at the repeated absence of Syed Ashraf from crucial meetings. ‘The prime minister has said it will be better to remove him [Ashraf] since he does not attend meetings,’ an official quoted her as saying at the ECNEC meeting with Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The Cabinet Division later on the day sent the summary to the Prime Minister’s Office. After the meeting, there were rumours throughout the day that Ashraf would be removed from the cabinet. Syed Ashraf, however, later on the day ‘advised’ journalists not to pay heed to rumours, following media reports about his removal. Ashraful, son of Syed Nazrul Islam who was the president of the government in exile during the 1971 war of independence and was killed in jail on November 3, 1975, was elected the party’s general secretary in 2009 after being sworn in as the local government minister. He went to Britain after the killing of four top Awami League leaders, including his father, in jail on November 3, 1975 following the assassination of founding president of the country Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Returning home in 1996, he contested the parliamentary election and won from Kishoreganj-1 constituency.

- See more at: http://newagebd.net/137190/syed-ashraf-stripped-of-portfolio/#sthash.VBpLn8Jf.dpuf