Yunus-era move to appoint Lamia Morshed, Dr. Niaz and Selim Uddin as ambassadors put on hold

BD Digest Reports

The current elected government has finally suspended the process of appointing three high-profile individuals as ambassadors, which was initiated for political reasons during the previous interim government. The names of Lamia Morshed, a close aide of former Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Dr. Niaz Ahmed Khan, former Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University, and former Secretary Salim Uddin, are on the list. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this month.

The previous government had started preparations in November last year to appoint Lamia Morshed, a long-time colleague of Dr. Yunus and former Chief Coordinator for SDGs, as Bangladesh’s ambassador to the Netherlands.

In view of Lamia Morshed’s interest, a proposal (Agreemo) was sent to send her to this important European country. However, the Yunus administration did not receive a positive response (green signal) from the Dutch government to that proposal until the last working day.
After the current government came to power, it canceled this proposal and appointed Fayyaz Murshid Kazi, a professional diplomat posted in Thailand, as the new ambassador of Bangladesh to the Netherlands. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already received a positive response to the Agreemo from the Dutch government.

He will join The Hague after the election of the President of the United Nations General Assembly in May-June.
Although the recently former VC of DU, Dr. Niaz Ahmed Khan, was initially proposed to be sent to Denmark, the process of appointing him as ambassador to Iran was later initiated due to political considerations. Although the Iranian government gave its consent (green signal) to this appointment, Dr. Niaz was reportedly not interested in going to Iran.

According to sources, he contacted high-level officials of the previous government and the current ruling party to keep the recruitment process moving, but it did not move forward due to the current government’s policy decisions.

The previous administration had sent a proposal to make Salim Uddin, known as a beneficiary of the Awami League era and who retired as Commerce Secretary during the interim government, the ambassador to Egypt. Although Cairo had been waiting for the ‘green signal’ since October last year, no decision was made for a long time. The current government has now completely suspended this appointment process.

Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Humayun Kabir said in a written statement that the current elected government has no plans to consider the proposals for the appointment of ambassadors that were considered politically during the previous government. It is believed that this decision has been taken primarily to give priority to professional and experienced diplomats.