ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal is set represent Pakistan at the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rehman.
In light of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s foreign engagements, Iqbal will represent the Government of Pakistan at the oath-taking ceremony, the planning ministry shared on X.
The minister departed for Dhaka via flight from Islamabad on Monday morning. Representing PM Shehbaz Sharif and the government, the federal minister will also hold important meetings with senior Bangladeshi officials during his visit.
The visit is expected to further strengthen the friendly relations between the two countries and help pave new avenues of progress in political, economic and trade sectors, the ministry added.
Bangladesh’s prime minister-in-waiting Rahman will take the oath on Tuesday, following his landslide election win last week. Invitations have been extended to the heads of several South Asian and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Malaysia.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alliance won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance, according to the Electoral Commission.
Rehman, 60, the chief of BNP and the scion of one of the most powerful political dynasties, is set to lead the South Asian nation of 170 million people after sweeping elections on Thursday. He will take over from an interim government that has steered Bangladesh since the student-led uprising ended the iron-fisted rule of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
The success of BNP chief Rahman marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.
