President-elect Sahabuddin set to take oath Monday

President-elect Mohammed Shahabuddin will take the oath of office on Monday.

He will be the 22nd president of Bangladesh. He succeds President Md Abdul Hamid whose second succesive five-year term is due to end Sunday.

Under Bangladesh parliamentary system the president is a figurehead with the prime minister holding the executive power.

President's Press Secretary Joynal Abedin said swearing-in ceremony of the new president will be held at 11am Monday at Bangabhaban under the supervision of Cabinet division.

He also informed that Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will administer the oath of the President while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, cabinet members and hundreds of distinguished guests will attend the event.

Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain will conduct the programme. After the swearing-in ceremony, Md Sahabuddin will sign the oath documents of the office of the President.

New President Md Sahabuddin and outgoing president M Abdul Hamid will officially alter the seat after the oath, said Jaynal.

Alongside, family members of the new President, including his wife Dr Rebecca Sultana and son Arshad Adnan Rony will attend the function.

Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Members of Parliament, Chief Election Commissioner, Supreme Court judges, political leaders, chiefs of the three services, diplomats, senior journalists, including editors, and high-ranking civil and military officials will witness the event.

Shahabuddin, 73, was elected as president unopposed on February 13 this year as a candidate of ruling Awami League. Born in Pabna in 1949, Shahabuddin fought valiantly in the 1971 War of Liberation.

During his student life, he served as an activist and president of Pabna Chhatra League and later took over the responsibility of Pabna Jubo League as its president. In 1971, he was the convenor of Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad of Pabna and also actively participated in the Liberation War.

He was imprisoned following the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. He was later appointed as the Law Ministry's coordinator in the Bangabandhu assassination case.

In 1982, he joined the BCS (Judicial) Department, and in 1995, he was elected general secretary of the Judicial Service Association. He served as the law ministry's coordinator in the Bangabandhu assassination case.

He also served as the chairman of the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which investigated murders, rapes, thefts and other crimes by BNP-Jamaat alliance's activists and leaders following the 2001 general election.

He also worked as a district and sessions judge before retiring in 2006. He was a commissioner at the Anti-Corruption Commission from 2011 to 2016.

In the latest National Council of Bangladesh Awami League, he served as election commissioner.

He earned his LLB from Rajshahi University in 1975 and later completed his MSc from the same institution.

Shahabuddin's wife, Prof Dr Rebecca Sultana, is a former joint secretary of the government.

The current president, Abdul Hamid, is leaving Bangabhaban on April 24 becoming the longest-serving president in the history of Bangladesh.