Kabir Bin Anwar (born 4 January 1964) is a retired Bangladeshi civil servant and the 23rd

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

of the Bangladesh, serving for a short period of time from 15 December 2022 until he went to post-retirement leave on 3 January 2023. Prior to that, he was the senior secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources. Anwar is the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the

Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services The Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services is a government research center that is responsible for water system development and water capacity development and is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. History The Centre for Environ ...

. He was the 28th president of the Bangladesh Administrative Service Association. He is the chairperson of the non-profit Isabela Foundation, named after his mother.

Early life

Anwar was born on 1 January 1964 in

Sirajganj District Sirajganj District () is a district in North Bengal, Bangladesh, it is located in Rajshahi Division. It is the 25th largest district by area and 9th largest district by population in Bangladesh. It is known as the gateway to North Bengal. Its a ...

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

, Pakistan. Anwar's mother was Syeda Issabela, a notable writer. He finished his schooling at

Dhaka Residential Model College Dhaka Residential Model College (DRMC; ) is a public autonomous residential school on Mirpur Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The college offers primary, secondary education and higher secondary education, for students from third grade to t ...

. He completed his LLB and Masters in political science from the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (), also known as Dhaka University (DU), is a public university, public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1921, it is the oldest active university in the country. The University of Dhaka w ...

Career

Anwar joined the

Bangladesh Civil Service Bangladesh Civil Service (), popularly known by its acronym BCS, is the civil service of Bangladesh. Civil service in the Indian subcontinent originated from the Imperial Civil Service which was the elite higher civil service of the British Empir ...

in 1985 as an Assistant Commissioner of Administration cadre. Anwar had served as the first secretary at the Embassy of Bangladesh in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, The Netherlands. In 2015 and 2016, Anwar was the project director of the a2i Programme. In 2015, he received an award from the

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 served as a director general of administration at the Prime Minister's Office. On 22 March 2018, Anwar was appointed the secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources and the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the 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 was the president of the National Committee for the Development of

Bangladesh Scouts The Bangladesh Scouts () is the national Scouting organization of Bangladesh. Now The Chief Scout of Bangladesh is Mohammed Shahabuddin ( President of Bangladesh). Scouting was founded in 1914 in East Bengal, now Bangladesh, as part of the Bri ...

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

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 Dha ...

. 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 was a 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 firs ...

. On 25 June 2021, Anwar signed a performance agreement with AKM Wahed Uddin Chowdhury, director general of the

Bangladesh Water Development Board Bangladesh Water Development Board is a government agency which is responsible for flood control, drainage and irrigation i.e. water management in Bangladesh and its headquarters is located in Pani Bhaban, Dhaka. A.K.M. Tahmidul Islam is the r ...

. Anwar called for the arrest of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, the then mayor of

Barishal City Corporation Barishal City Corporation ( - in short: BCC) is a local government, local governing body that manages all civic services in the city of Barishal, in south-central Bangladesh. The BCC government is elected by popular vote every five years. It is h ...

and nephew of the former Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

, following an altercation between the Barishal Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Munibur Rahman and employees of the Barishal City Corporation in August. He was appointed as the 23rd cabinet secretary on effect from 15 December 2022 and retired just after 19 days.

Political career

On 10 January 2024, Anwar formally joined the

Bangladesh Awami League The Awami League, officially known as Bangladesh Awami League, is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played the leading role in achievin ...

. Former Prime Minister

, president of the Awami League, handed over the primary membership form to him at

Ganabhaban The Ganabhaban (, also spelt Gonobhaban) located in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, north of the National Parliament House, served as the official residence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh until the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabir Bin Anwar 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)