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Bangabhaban is geared up to welcome Mohammed Shahabuddin as the 22nd president of Bangladesh in a brief ceremony drawing the curtains on his predecessor Md Abdul Hamid’s tenure as head of state.
The oath-taking ceremony will be held at the Darbar Hall of the Bangabhaban at 11:00 am on Monday. Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain will moderate the ceremony, reports bdnews24.com.
“All preparations for the oath-taking ceremony are complete,” said the president’s Press Secretary Joynal Abedin.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will swear in president-elect Shahabuddin to his new office.
Hamid, the only person in Bangladesh who has held the post of president for 10 years in two consecutive terms, will also be onstage.
Shahabuddin, an Awami League candidate, was elected uncontested on Feb 13. Some people held the post multiple times. Hence, Shahabuddin is the 17th person to take the office.
The Cabinet Division and the President's Office are in charge of organising the oath-taking ceremony.
As part of the inauguration rites, after taking oath, the outgoing president will congratulate the new president. Then the mantle will be handed over by the swapping of their seats, said Joynal.
New president Shahabuddin will return to his Gulshan residence following his oath and shift to Bangabhaban in the evening, he said.
Hamid will stay at his home in Dhaka’s Nikunja, leaving the Bangabhaban after the end of his second term as president. After being elected MP in 1996, Hamid got a 2,160 square feet plot at Nikunja and built a three-storey house there.
Hamid will also introduce Shahabuddin to the Bangabhaban officials. The President Guard Regiment will give Hamid a guard of honour. The Bangabhaban officials will line up to see him off and sprinkle flower petals on him. A decorated car will carry Hamid to his new home.
He was sworn in as Bangladesh's 20th president on Apr 24, 2013 after the death of Md Zillur Rahman.
FROM STUDENT LEADER TO PRESIDENT
Born in Pabna in 1949, Shahabuddin was an active member of the Pabna District Chhatra League, the Awami League's student affiliate, in his early days. He would later go on to serve as the president of the unit.
He was a freedom fighter.
After the 1971 Liberation War, he achieved his LLB degree from Rajshahi University in 1975 after completing his MSc at the same university.
Shahabuddin joined the BCS judicial cadre in 1982. Having served in various capacities in the judiciary for 25 years, he retired as a district and sessions judge in 2006.
Shortly after the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami formed a coalition government in 2001, leaders and supporters of the Awami League and its affiliates, as well as members of minority communities, across the country came under attack, with various crimes, including murder, rape and looting being reported. After the Awami League returned to power in 2008, the government formed a commission headed by Shahabuddin to investigate those crimes. From 2011-2016, Shahabuddin served as a commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
He also served as a presidium member of the Awami League.
Shahabuddin has one son. His wife Rebeka Sultana is a former joint secretary.