Mujib’s choice

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33753, 28 January 1975, Page 15

Mujib’s choice

(N.Z.P.A.Reuter—Copyright) DACCA, January 27.

The new Bangladesh President (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) has acted quickly to name a new Government under the constitutional changes that have made his country a one-party State with a Presidential form of government.

He has appointed as Prime Minister Mr Mansoor Ali, his former Minister of Home Affairs, who is widely considered to be a tough man, and was the author of the sweeping national emergency laws enforced earlier this month.

President Mohammadullah, who vacated his post minutes before Sheikh Mujib was sworn in as the new Head of State, also becomes a Minister.

All 11 Ministers in Sheikh Mujib’s old Cabinet have been retained in the new Council of Ministers, and Mr A. H. M. Kamaruzzaman, the former Minister of Commerce who resigned last year to become the head of the ruling Awami League Party, also becomes a council member.

Mr Syed Nazrul Islam, who was appointed VicePresident on Saturday, was sworn in yesterday. Both the President and the VicePresident will serve for five years.

The constitutional changes, overwhelmingly approved by Parliament, automatically dissolve all existing parties, including the Awami League, and the President is given power to sponsor a new national party to which all members of Parliament will have to belong. No citizen may join any other political organisation.