Gias Uddin appointed PM’s special assistant

The government has appointed Gias Uddin as the prime minister’s special assistant for the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism as well as the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education on a contractual basis with the rank of secretary.

On Thursday, the public administration ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard.

According to the notification, the appointment is subject to the condition that Gias Uddin severs his employment relationship with any other profession, business, or government, semi-government, or private organisation.

Gias Uddin will remain in office until the end of the prime minister’s term, or until his appointment is terminated earlier. 

Other terms and conditions of the appointment will be determined by the contract.

The order was issued in the public interest, read the notification.

Gias Uddin, also known as Gias Uddin Rimon, is a barrister, academic and former police officer with extensive experience in policing, law and higher education in Bangladesh and the UK. 

He holds an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an LLB from the University of Northumbria (UK), a Bar Professional Training Course qualification from The University of Law (UK), and BA and MA degrees in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Dhaka. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in November 2013.

Gias Uddin served in the Bangladesh Police as assistant and senior assistant superintendent of police from May 2003 to December 2009. 

During his service, he worked in both metropolitan and rural areas and served as senior assistant commissioner of police for Uttara and Tejgaon zones under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. 

He subsequently practised law in the UK, working as a case worker, legal adviser and immigration team lead at several solicitors’ firms between 2013 and 2025.

Gias Uddin has a substantial academic career in professional policing in the UK. He served as principal lecturer in police education at Anglia Ruskin University from January 2022 to November 2024, where he led policing programmes for student police officers of Kent and Essex Police. 

He also served as senior lecturer in policing at the University of Portsmouth and held teaching, programme leadership and module leadership positions at several UK universities. At Anglia Ruskin University, he was responsible for curriculum development, academic quality assurance and assessment and line-managed six senior lecturers and 30 lecturers.

Gias Uddin began his career in journalism with The Daily Inqilab and later worked as a staff reporter at The Daily Jugantor. 

He presented the current affairs talk show ‘Shomoyer Sathe’ on NTV UK & Europe in 2012. He is the author of The Politics of Police Reform in Bangladesh and co-authored a 2020 publication on police education in the UK. 

He was awarded a Chevening Scholarship by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2008-09 and has served as a Bangladesh country expert for the V-Dem Institute of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.