On the other hand, the government yesterday promoted 353 officials, including 10 to the rank of secretary, many of whom had been deprived of their promotion during last few years.

After a hectic meeting of the Council of Advisers at Bangabhaban, Information Adviser Mahbubul Alam told reporters that the council decided to transfer seven to eight secretaries in a bid to create a condition conducive to holding a credible election.

The 14-party has been demanding changing the secretary of some vital ministries, including the home and establishment, as well as secretary to the Local Government Division.

But no official notification was issued regarding transfer of "controversial secretaries" as of 9:45pm yesterday.

Officials of the Ministry of Establishment said the process was underway and the order may be issued late at night or this morning.

The latest change of secretaries is part of package proposals submitted by the advisers to the two major political alliances Sunday night.

The government last night promoted 10 secretaries, 61 additional secretaries, 108 joint secretaries and 174 deputy secretaries.

The promotion was announced after a superior selection board (SSB) meeting that took four sittings to conclude in the last 15 days.

The deprived officials in the administration had been demanding promotions during the caretaker government's term.

The officers promoted are from all batches of the BCS administration that include more than 600 deprived officials during the tenure of the immediate past BNP-led 4-party alliance government.

The newly promoted secretaries include Meer Shahabuddin Mohammad, vice chairman, Export Promotion Bureau, Mir Md Shakhawat Hossain, additional secretary, Parliament Secretariat, Shaheed Alam, acting secretary, Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, Badiur Rahman, acting secretary, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division and Abul Kalam Azad, chairman, Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation.

The other five newly promoted secretaries are AFM Matiur Rahman, acting secretary, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, SM Jafrullah, acting secretary, Housing and Public Works Ministry, Didarul Anwar, acting secretary, Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, Abdul Haq, acting secretary, Women and Children Affairs Ministry and Bhupendra Chandra Debnath, director general, BCS Administration Academy.

Establishment Secretary AFM Solaiman disclosed the SSB decision and said all officials including the regular and deprived ones have been considered during the SSB meeting.

The officials deprived during both BNP and Awami League governments in the last ten years were also considered in the promotion process, he added.

Chowdhury also said some aspirant officials could not be promoted as they did not have sufficient pass marks and a few had departmental proceedings against them.