Interim govts in Bangladesh: A brief history

An interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in tonight at the Bangabhaban.
The formation of the government comes three days after Sheikh Hasina, who was in power for 15 years, resigned as prime minister and fled the country on August 5.
Bangladesh has a long history of caretaker or interim governments, with the first one formed in 1991.
The chief adviser of the interim or caretaker government enjoys the status of prime minister and a member of the advisory council gets the status of a minister.
In 1991, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed headed the first caretaker government, following the fall of military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s government due to a mass uprising.
In 1996, a caretaker government was formed with Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman as chief adviser.
Although the first interim government in 1991 was intended to help the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, this system was adopted as the 13th amendment to the Constitution in 1996 by the Sixth Parliament, formalising this arrangement.
It was introduced in the constitution in the face of a tumultuous movement spearheaded by the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina.
Justice Latifur Rahman was the head of the 2001 caretaker government.
Then president, Iajuddin Ahmed also served as chief adviser of the caretaker government from late October 2006 to January 11, 2007.
Fakhruddin, former central bank governor and economist, took charge as the head of the caretaker government on January 12, 2007, under the state of emergency amid political disorder.
In 2011, the Hasina-led government abolished the caretaker government system.
Prof Asif Nazrul, who took oath as an adviser of the present interim government, on August 6 said, “We are going to form the government in an extraordinary situation. There are different constitutional means and customs to legalise certain actions. We will follow those to do that.”
Shahdeen Malik, a Supreme Court lawyer and a noted commentator on legal issues, said it might not be possible to fully abide by the constitution in the context of such an extraordinary political upheaval in Bangladesh in recent days.
“This has happened in the past. Since it is not possible to follow the constitution to make reforms for national interest, these reforms could be legitimised by amending the constitution later,” he told The Daily Star.
All the general elections held under Shahabuddin, Habibur, Lutfor and Fakhruddin were comparatively acceptable to the people of the country.