ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal will attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Bangladesh government this week, foreign office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi confirmed on Monday. 

Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a landslide victory in the elections on Thursday, the first since a deadly 2024 uprising ousted the iron-fisted rule of former premier Sheikh Hasina. The BNP won at least 209 seats out of the 299 contested, according to results released by Bangladesh’s Election Commission on Friday, paving the way for Rahman to become the country’s next prime minister.

According to Rahman’s office, the swearing-in ceremony will take place at the South Plaza of the National Parliament Building in Dhaka at 4:00pm on Tuesday. Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin is expected to administer oath to members of the new cabinet. The prime minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from India will attend the event along with other foreign dignitaries.

“Yes, Ahsan Iqbal will represent Pakistan there,” Andrabi told Arab News when asked whether the planning minister will attend the ceremony. 

Iqbal will represent Pakistan as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in Austria on an official visit, the first by a Pakistani prime minister in 30 years to the country, to review bilateral trade, investment and economic ties. 

Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved bilateral ties amid a recent thaw in relations. Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of the same country until Bangladesh’s secession following a bloody civil war in 1971, an event that long cast a shadow over bilateral ties.

Both countries have moved closer since August 2024, following the ouster of Hasina who was considered an India ally. While Pakistan-Bangladesh ties warm up, relations between Dhaka and New Delhi remain strained over India’s decision to grant asylum to Hasina.

The success of BNP chief Rahman, 60, marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December 2025 after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.

Rahman is the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and former president Ziaur Rahman. He returned to Bangladesh late last year after nearly two decades of self-imposed exile in the UK, and assumed BNP’s leadership days later, following his mother’s death from a prolonged illness.

In an interview with Arab News last week, the 60-year-old pledged to pursue accountability for the former leadership and meet the political and economic expectations of the youth movement that brought about the change.

Additional input from AFP