Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal is set to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister-elect Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who won a landslide victory in last week’s elections, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday.
The election was the first since a deadly 2024 uprising ousted the iron-fisted rule of Sheikh Hasina. Rahman is a scion of one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties.
In a statement issued today, the FO said that Iqbal will represent Pakistan at the oath-taking ceremony, which is scheduled to be held on February 17 in Dhaka.
FO added that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was unable to attend “due to a prior overseas engagement.”
“Pakistan’s participation in the ceremony reflects its support for Bangladesh’s democratic process and underscores its commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries,” the statement added.
Rahman is the son of former Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman and the country’s former prime minister Khaleda Zia. He returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.
On Feb 13, BNP won an overwhelming two-thirds majority in the country’s general elections. The BNP alliance won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance, according to the Election Commission.
Following the election results last week, President Asif Ali Zardari and PM Shehbaz extended their felicitations to the BNP and its leader, Rahman, on securing a landslide majority.
President Zardari reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the sovereignty and democratic aspirations of Bangladesh. While PM Shehbaz said he looked forward to working closely with the new Bangladesh leadership and strengthening the two countries’ “historic, brotherly, multifaceted bilateral relations.”
