Kabir Bin Anwar (born 4 January 1964) is a retired Bangladeshi civil servant. He was the 23rd Cabinet Secretary of Bangladesh Government, serving for a short period of time from 15 December 2022 until he went to post-retirement vacation 3 January 2023. Prior to that, he was Senior Secretary of the

Ministry of Water Resources Ministry of water resources may refer to: * Ministry of Water Resources (Bangladesh) * Ministry of Water Resources (India) * Ministry of Water Resources (Iraq) * Minister of Water Resources (Nigeria) * Ministry of Water Resources (Pakistan) * Minis ...

. Anwar is the chairperson of the Board of Directors of Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services. He is the President of Bangladesh Administrative Service Association. He is the chairperson of non-profit Issabela foundation, named after his mother. He was appointed as a co-chairman of the Awami League's Election Administration Committee on 5 January 2023.

Early life

Anwar was born on 1 January 1964 in

Sirajganj District Sirajganj District ( bn, সিরাজগঞ্জ জেলা) is a district in the North Bengal region of Bangladesh, located in the Rajshahi Division. It is an economically important district of Bangladesh. Sirajganj district is the 25th ...

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Anwar's mother was

Syeda Issabela Syeda Issabela was a Bangladeshi writer and veteran of Bangladesh Liberation war. Early life Issabela was born in 1942 in Kolkata, West Bengal, British India. She studied at Sakhawat Memorial School. She moved to Sirajganj after the Kolkata rio ...

, a notable writer. He finished his schooling at Dhaka Residential Model College. He completed his LLB and Masters in political science from the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

Career

Anwar joined

Bangladesh Civil Service Bangladesh Civil Service ( bn, বাংলাদেশ সিভিল সার্ভিস ), more popularly known by its acronym BCS, is the civil service of Bangladesh. Civil service in the Indian subcontinent originated from the Imperial ...

in 1985 as an administration cadre. Anwar had served as the First Secretary at the Embassy of Bangladesh in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

, The Netherlands. In 2015 and 2016, Kabir was Project Director of

a2i Programme Access to Information () of the Prime Minister's Office (now redefined as "Aspire to Innovate" and the program moved under ICT Division) was a programme of the government's Digital Bangladesh agenda which specializes in introducing citizen-centric ...

. In 2015, he received an award from

World Summit on the Information Society The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. WSIS Forums hav ...

for the project in May 2015. He had been the Director General of Administration at the

Prime Minister's Office Prime Minister's Office may refer to: * Prime Minister's Office (Albania) * Prime Minister's Office (Australia) * Prime Minister's Office (Bangladesh) * Prime Minister's Office (Brunei) * Office of the Prime Minister (Cambodia) * Office of the ...

. On 22 March 2018, Anwar was appointed the Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources and the chairperson of the Board of Directors of Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services from the Prime Minister's Office. He was promoted to the rank of Senior Secretary on 22 June 2020. He is the President of the National Committee for the Development of

Bangladesh Scouts The Bangladesh Scouts ( bn, বাংলাদেশ স্কাউটস) is the national Scouting organization of Bangladesh. Scouting was founded in 1914 in East Bengal, now Bangladesh, as part of the British Indian branch of The Scout Associa ...

and was awarded the "Silver Tiger" medal by the scouts on 6 December 2020. Anwar was appointed President of Bangladesh Administrative Service Association at the annual general meeting and replaced Helal Uddin Ahmed. He spoke at the Climate Adaptation Summit in 2021. He is the chairperson of

Institute of Water Modelling Institute of Water Modeling or IWM, is a government trustee of Bangladesh Water Resource Ministry and think tank that carries out research, planning and technology transfer related to water management projects in Bangladesh and is located in Dh ...

. On 17 March 2021, he met the Water resource secretary of India, Shri Pankaj Kumar, to discuss water resource issues between the two countries. He provided food to people in Sirajganj District on 24 April 2021 during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh The COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Bangladesh in March 2020. The first t ...

. On 25 June 2021, he signed a performance agreement with

AKM Wahed Uddin Chowdhury The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior. Introdu ...

, Director General of Bangladesh Water Development Board. He called for the arrest of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, mayor of

Barishal Barisal ( or ; bn, বরিশাল, ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal Dis ...

and cousin of Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina Wazed (''née'' Sheikh Hasina ; ; bn, শেখ হাসিনা ওয়াজেদ, Shēkh Hasinā, , born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since January 2 ...

, following an altercation between the Upazila Nirbahi Officer Munibur Rahman and employees of the city corporation in August. He has been appointed as the 23rd cabinet secretary on effect from 15 December 2022 and retired just after 19 days. He was appointed as a co-chairman of the Awami League's Election Administration Committee on 5 January 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anwar, Kabir Bin Living people University of Dhaka alumni Dhaka Residential Model College alumni 1964 births People from Sirajganj District Bangladeshi civil servants Secretaries of the Cabinet (Bangladesh)