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| Sunday, 8 September 2002 |
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Bangladesh's new president starts work DHAKA, Sept 7 (AFP) - Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh's fourth president in 10 months, Saturday started his first day of work as the new ceremonial head of state by inspecting an honour guard. "The president started his day by reviewing an honour guard presented by a contingent of the president's guard regiment," a presidential palace source said. Ahmed, 72, a US-educated retired university professor, was sworn in Friday for a five-year term as Bangladesh's 14th president. He was nominated by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Islamist ruling alliance. "I appeal to all to forget all kinds of differences and work unitedly so that we can better the lot of Bangladesh, which is a small country," he told reporters at the Bangbhaban presidential palace Friday. "I will prove through my work what I can do." Ahmed replaces Badruddoza Chowdhury, who was forced to resign after a row with the ruling party. The BNP had accused Chowdhury of disrespecting party founder Ziaur Rahman, a former president and the prime minister's late husband, by not attending a function marking his 1981 assassination. Chowdhury, who was the foreign minister before becoming president, had replaced Shahabuddin Ahmed at the end of his term soon after Zia's Islamist-allied coalition swept to power October 1 last year. After Chowdhury's resignation, Parliament Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar served as the acting head of state. Iajuddin Ahmed took his oath in the presence of Zia, parliamentary deputies, officials and diplomats. But the main opposition Awami League, headed by former prime minister and Zia's arch-rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed, boycotted the ceremony along with smaller opposition parties. Ahmed, the first educator to become head of state, is considered close to the BNP, although he has largely shied away from partisan politics. Bangladesh returned to democracy in 1991, before which the country was ruled by the military directly or indirectly since the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a putsch. |
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