Ministry of Defence (Bangladesh)

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) (Bengali: প্রতিরক্ষা মন্ত্রণালয়; Protirakha Montronaloya) is a Bangladeshi government ministry. The MoD is headed by the Minister of Defence, a civilian and member of cabinet; the post is usually held by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, who also serves as the President's second-in-command of the military. In contrast to practice in other nations, the MoD does not exercise command authority over the Bangladesh Armed Forces, which is instead subordinate to the Armed Forces Division (AFD). ^[2]

Organisational structure

Even though the Ministry of Defence bureaucracy is predominantly civilian, the military exerts substantial influence over its operations. Through the appointment of military retirees and active-duty officers to the Ministry of Defence the military indirectly controls the ministry. Parliament is constitutionally responsible for working with the president and the service chiefs in ensuring the nation's defence. In practice, however, members of Parliament have never played a significant role in either national defence planning or defence budgeting.^[3]

Departments

The Inter-Service Public Relations Directorate (ISPR), is a department under the MoD. It is situated at Dhaka Cantonment. The organisation works as the spokesman of military of Bangladesh. It has four wings: Army, Navy, Air Force and Inter-Service. After the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, ISPR was founded in 1972 with an aim to strengthen relations between the media and the military.^[4]

Role and Working

The functions of the MoD are:^[5]

• Defence of Bangladesh.
• Defence Services of Bangladesh and Armed Forces attached to or operating with any of the Armed Forces of Bangladesh excluding planning, co-ordination and arrangement of mobilisation of the defence services on declaration of national emergency/war and co-ordination and control of the activities of the defence services when deployed in aid of civil administration.
• Army, Naval and Air Force Works
• Production of cypher documents
• Bangladesh Ordnance Factories (Produce Ammunition and Arms for Bangladesh Army)
• International Red Cross and Geneva Conventions in so far as these affect belligerents
• Gallantry awards and decorations in respect of forces under its control
• Military Lands and Cantonments
• Meteorological Observations
• Pardons, reprieves and respites, etc., of all personnel belonging to armed forces
• National Services and Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC)
• Matters relating to Cadet Colleges
• Matters relating to Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO)
• Civil Services paid from Defence Estimates
• Hydrographic Surveys and preparation of navigational charts (excluding Hydrographic surveys in the inland water of Bangladesh and preparation of charts for inland navigation)
• Survey of Bangladesh
• Budget legal and statutory matters of the Armed Forces
• Secretarial administration including financial matters
• Administration and control of subordinate offices and organisations under this ministry
• Liaison with International Organisations and matters relating to treaties and agreements with other countries and world bodies relating to subject allotted to this ministry
• All laws on subjects allotted to this ministry
• Inquires and statistics on any of the subjects allotted to this ministry.
• Fees in respect of any of the subjects allotted to this ministry except fees taken in courts

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/.

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