The first sitting of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday drew a large number of invited guests, including family members of prime minister Tarique Rahman, diplomats and July uprising participants.
Among those present in the VVIP gallery were also past interim government’s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, former law adviser Asif Nazrul and the incumbent chief election commissioner, AMM Nasir Uddin.
The inaugural sitting of the House began at 11:00am.
The Jatiya Sangsad secretariat invited a wide range of distinguished guests to the opening session, including diplomats, senior government officials and representatives from different professions.
Members of the prime minister Tarique Rahman’s family were also present to observe the proceedings.
At the gallery to the right of the speaker’s chair, the prime minister’s spouse Zubaida Rahman was seated alongside her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu, daughter Zaima Rahman and sister-in-law Sharmila Rahman, widow of Arafat Rahman Koko.
Also present in the second row were Khaleda Zia’s brother Shamim Iskander and his wife Kaniz Fatema, along with Shahina Khan Bindu, the elder sister of Zubaida Rahman.
Senior state officials were also in attendance, including the prime minister’s defence adviser ATM Shamsul Islam, Chief of Army Staff Waker-Uz-Zaman, Chief of Naval Staff M Nazmul Hassan and Chief of Air Staff Hasan Mahmood Khan.
Nur Muhammad, a rickshaw puller who helped carry wounded martyr Golam Nafiz to hospital during the July 2024 uprising that ousted the authoritarian regime of Awami League on August 5, 2024, was also seen among the invited guests in the visitors’ gallery.
Diplomats were seated in the gallery on the left side of the chamber.
Among them were United States ambassador Brent Christensen, British high commissioner Sarah Cooke, Chinese ambassador Yao Wen, Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma and Pakistan’s high commissioner Imran Haider, along with several other heads of diplomatic missions based in Dhaka.
