Tarique convenes 1st cabinet meeting at Cabinet Division Wednesday

Less than 24 hours after taking the oath of office at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will begin the real work of governing – not with ceremony, but with files, briefings and a first full cabinet sitting at the Cabinet Division on Wednesday.

According to senior officials at the Cabinet Division, the newly sworn-in cabinet will hold its special meeting in the cabinet room of Building 1 at the Bangladesh Secretariat on 18 February. 

It will mark the first formal step in translating a sweeping electoral mandate into policy direction.

A government steps into office

Wednesday’s programme is tightly choreographed yet symbolically loaded. 

The Prime Minister will begin the day at 10:00 am by laying a wreath at the National Martyrs Memorial in Savar, paying homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War – a gesture that has long signalled continuity with the state’s founding ideals.

By noon, he is expected to arrive at the Bangladesh Secretariat to assume office formally at the Cabinet Division. There, he will meet officials and staff, followed by an exchange of views - an early opportunity to set the tone of his administration.

At 3:00 pm, the Prime Minister will chair a special meeting of the newly formed cabinet. Though officials say there is no fixed agenda, the sitting is expected to serve as an introductory session, outlining priorities and expectations. 

An hour later, at 4:00 pm, he will hold discussions with secretaries of various ministries — the senior-most bureaucrats responsible for implementing government policy.

“This will primarily be an orientation meeting,” a Cabinet Division official said, “but it will carry important signals regarding governance style and coordination.”

Preparing the power corridor

Inside Building 1 of the Bangladesh Secretariat, preparations have been underway since Tuesday afternoon. The third floor – which had remained largely unused – has been transformed into a hub of activity.

Cleaning crews have worked through the day to ready the Prime Minister’s designated office. Furniture has been polished, walls and floors scrubbed, and the cabinet room arranged for its first high-level session under the new government. 

Employees of the Public Works Department were seen transporting flower pots by pickup trucks and vans to decorate the building’s entrances and corridors.

The quiet administrative building is, in effect, being reintroduced as the nerve centre of executive power.

From ballot to Cabinet Room 

The urgency follows a decisive outcome in the 13th national parliamentary election held on February 22. Results from 297 of 299 constituencies show the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led alliance securing 212 seats  – a two-thirds majority. 

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Nationalist Coalition Party (NCP) alliance won 77 seats, while independents and others claimed eight.

The landslide has returned the BNP to office for the fourth time – and for the first time in two decades. For Tarique Rahman, the party’s chairman, it is also a personal political milestone: his first tenure as Prime Minister.

He and his cabinet colleagues were sworn in on Tuesday afternoon in a high-profile ceremony at Parliament, signalling both a change of guard and a new chapter in governance.

Signals to watch

While Wednesday’s cabinet meeting may be formally introductory, political observers say the symbolism is unmistakable. The swift transition from oath-taking to administrative engagement suggests an emphasis on operational readiness.

Key questions loom: Will the government prioritise economic stabilisation? Institutional reforms? Anti-corruption drives? Foreign policy recalibration? Much may not be said explicitly on the first day – but tone, language and emphasis will be closely scrutinised.

For now, the message is one of movement. The flowers are being arranged, the files stacked, the corridors polished. And in the Cabinet Division’s freshly prepared rooms, Bangladesh’s 11th Prime Minister begins the business of governing — with expectations high and scrutiny even higher.