M.A.N. Siddique

M. A. N. Siddique is an former officer of the Bangladesh Civil Service who served as the first Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited. He was also the Secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division.

M. A. N. Siddique was born on 13 October 1957 in Narsingdi Thana, Narayanganj Subdivision, Dacca District, then Pakistani province of East Pakistan.^[2] He studied German at the Institute of Modern Languages, and earned a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the University of Dhaka, and a master's degree in social sciences and a post-graduate diploma in local government management from the University of Birmingham.^[3]

Siddique joined the 1982 special batch of the Bangladesh Civil Service as a public administration cadre. He served as the administrator of Sherpur District and commissioner of Chittagong Division.^[2] On 16 November 2011,^[2] he was appointed as the acting secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division. In 2013, he was promoted from acting secretary to secretary.^[4] He was scheduled to retire on 12 October 2016.^[5] But on 10 October 2016, the government appointed him as the secretary of the Roads Division on a contract for another year.^[2] He was replaced by Md. Nazrul Islam as the secretary of the Roads Division by a notification issued on 12 October 2017.^[6] On 26 October of the same year, Siddique joined Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) as the managing director.^[7] At that time, the construction progress of the MRT Line 6 project undertaken by the company was 1%. During his tenure as managing director, its construction was completed and operations started, which is the first metro line in the country.^[8] On 9 September 2024, a notification was issued, terminating his contractual appointment and appointing Mohammad Abdur Rauf as the company's managing director.^[9]

Munima Sultana of The Financial Express called Siddique as the "monarch of the Dhaka Metro Rail" and reported that he was appointed as the managing director without any specific tenure and was to remain in the post indefinitely until the termination of the contractual appointment in 2024.^[10] According to the DMTCL's articles of association, the managing director must have a degree in civil or mechanical engineering and 25 years of work experience. However, after joining the post, Siddique legitimized his appointment by amending the articles of association to specify a retired secretary as the qualification for the managing director.^[11] Although he was required to attend the meetings of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, he did not do so. In a meeting of the DMTCL board of directors, he cancelled the membership of professor Shamsul Haque of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), which was illegal under the Companies Act, 1994, and replaced him with professor Mizanur Rahman.^[10] According to the Daily Khaborer Kagoj, Siddique had a good relationship with former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and would contact her directly whenever necessary, bypassing senior officials. It is alleged that he used his political influence to suppress allegations raised against him in the Road Transport and Highways Division, and senior officials refrained from taking any action on the allegations.^[12] According to a report published by Manab Zamin, there are allegations of arbitrariness against him in DMTCL and that officials were not independent in making decisions. Company officials were unhappy with Siddique's management. Although the construction of the company's administrative building at Diabari Depot was completed in 2021, he did not shift the company's office from the Prabashi Kallyan Bhaban, located 700 meters away from his official residence on Bailey Road, which cost about ৳28.3 million in rent. However, according to Siddique, there was no additional cost involved, rather the office at the Prabashi Kallyan Bhaban has played a role in saving money by coordinating the supervision and work of a small number of officers and employees of MRT Line 1, MRT Line 5 and MRT Line 6.^[13] In addition, according to the newspaper, information obtained from DMTCL sources indicates that Siddique was indirectly involved in the strike of DMTCL employees over the issue of discriminatory salary structure at a time when the Dhaka Metro Rail, which was closed due to an attack by miscreants on 19 July 2024, was likely to be launched after the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, which led to uncertainty about the launch of the metro rail.^[14]