Even as Bangladesh’s Environment, Forests and Climate Change Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan has struggled to push policy initiatives in her own ministry, she has earned the distinction—albeit a controversial one—of becoming the first member of Mohammad Yunus’s 16-member advisory council to visit Pakistan.

Rizwana Hasan, who also holds concurrent charge of the Water Resources Ministry, traveled to Pakistan on November 4 for a three-day official visit, returning to Dhaka only in the early hours of November 10.

No other member of the Yunus-led interim advisory council, which took charge on August 8, 2024, has so far visited Pakistan. Interestingly, the flow of official visits has been mostly one-sided, with Pakistani ministers, bureaucrats, and senior military officers visiting Bangladesh instead.

Conference on sustainable development

According to official documents, Rizwana Hasan attended a conference on “Sustainable Development in the Emerging World Disorder” as a distinguished speaker on November 4 in Islamabad.

Two days later, on November 6, she served as session chair for a discussion titled “Advancing SDG 7 in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Climate Resilient Renewable Energy, Regional Cooperation and Pathway.”

The conference was reportedly organized by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), headquartered in Kanagawa, Japan. However, there is no official record of what she spoke about during these sessions.

Expenses and extended stay raise eyebrows

Though Rizwana Hasan’s visit was official, documents indicate that IGES bore the airfares for her and her accompanying family members. The order further stated that if any additional costs arose in line with her official entitlements, they would be met from the Cabinet Division’s budget.

An official directive from her ministry clearly stated that “she will not stay abroad beyond the approved period, except for necessary travel time.” Yet, immigration records reveal that Rizwana Hasan, her husband Abu Bakar Siddique, and three relatives extended their stay in Pakistan beyond the official dates, departing Islamabad for Doha before flying back to Dhaka on November 10 via Qatar Airways.

Previous controversy over stone mining

Rizwana, a well-known environmental activist, had earlier faced criticism when reports emerged that stone mafias in Bholaganj, Sylhet—under her ministry’s watch—had stripped the banks of the Dholai River of its famed “white stones.”
The revelation had sparked a political storm in Dhaka, and her recent extended visit to Pakistan—along with family members and at an NGO’s expense—has once again drawn attention to questions of propriety and transparency in Bangladesh’s interim administration.

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