The government yesterday appointed two new secretaries to the top level of the civil service following the expiry of contractual jobs of the cabinet secretary and the prime minister's principal secretary last Thursday.
Economic Relations Division Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan now holds the position of the cabinet secretary while Water Resources Secretary Sheikh Md Wahid-uz-Zaman has taken over as the principal secretary to the prime minister.
The two posts have been vacant since September 29 following the expiry of contractual appointments of cabinet secretary M Abdul Aziz and principal secretary Md Abul Karim.
The government also changed portfolios of five other senior secretaries working in different ministries and divisions.
Of them, Iqbal Mahmood, secretary of public administration, has been made economic relations division secretary while home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder has taken over the post made vacant by Mahmood. Planning division secretary Monzur Hossain was transferred to the home ministry.
Meanwhile, Fazle Kabir, director general of BCS Administration Academy, has been made the railway division secretary and chairman of Rural Electrification Board Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam has been made the acting secretary of the planning division.
Sources in the administration said the reshuffle plan was waiting for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's approval. She returned home from the US Thursday night.
Officials in the public administration ministry said more changes in the top-level of the civil service are likely as the government has decided to promote 13 additional secretaries, currently working as acting secretaries, to the rank of secretary.
New cabinet secretary Musharraf, of 1981 batch, had served as the private secretary to former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria during the last Awami League-led government.
New principal secretary to the prime minister Wahid is a freedom fighter and of 1979 batch. He is the senior-most civil servant. Last year, he got two years' extension in service under the freedom fighters' quota.