Analyst who served in India is Sheikh Hasina's new adviser

A US-trained political scientist and security analyst who has served in India has been appointed adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Gowher Rizvi was the Ford Foundation's representative for South Asia, New Delhi office from 1998 to 2003 and deputy director, governance and civil Society at New York office from 1995 to 1998.

Rizvi's appointment breaks new ground. Prime Minister's advisers in Bangladesh are generally political aides or retired or serving bureaucrats.

Rizvi had recently twice met the prime minister. With the latest appointment, now the panel of advisers to the PM is seven, The Daily Star said.

Rizvi was the UN's Coordinator for Afghanistan, Geneva, Islamabad and Kabul 1988-90 and the immediate past director of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He will enjoy the rank and status, salary-allowances and other facilities similar to a full minister, an official announcement said Thursday.

He has authored a number of books and is the founding editor of Contemporary South Asia, an academic and policy studies journal published from Oxford.

Rizvi earned a double first in BA honours and MA from the University of Dhaka and did his DPhil from Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, the newspaper said.

Last updated on Jul 10^th, 2009 at 10:33 am IST--IANS