Zakaria Taher Sumon
Profile
- Party
- BNP
- Constituency
- Cumilla-8
- Terms
- 2
- Disclosed wealth
- —
- Criminal cases
- 0
- Education
- —
- Cabinet role
- Minister of Housing and Public Works
Cabinet minister (Housing and Public Works) driving anti-corruption and service-delivery reform across RAJUK and NHA; Bangladesh's housing portfolio is one of the largest in the cabinet.
Recent activity
- 2026-05-14 statement Directed National Housing Authority officials to ensure hassle-free citizen services and announced plans to digitize NHA land management systems. ↗
- 2026-04-28 international Received Turkish Ambassador Ramis Sen at the Secretariat; invited Turkish companies to invest in Bangladesh's construction and renewable energy sectors and was invited to Turkiye Construction Summit in June 2026. ↗
- 2026-03-11 constituency_visit Met REHAB (Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh) delegation led by President Wahiduzzaman; called for affordable housing for all socioeconomic segments and a more livable Dhaka. ↗
- 2026-03-04 statement Addressed RAJUK officials; pledged zero tolerance for file delays and harassment, warned that negligent officials would face consequences, and called for transforming RAJUK into a people-friendly institution. ↗
- 2026-03-01 statement Declared no room for corrupt officials in the Housing Ministry; directed officials to complete development projects on time, maintain quality, and refuse unlawful directives. ↗
Provenance & notes
Constituency number 256 confirmed by three independent sources: Wikipedia List of constituencies of the Jatiya Sangsad, Wikipedia List of members of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad, and the Comilla-8 Wikipedia article (which erroneously states 257 in its own infobox -- that is a Wikipedia editing error; the constituency list and member list both give 256, consistent with Comilla-8 = 249+8-1 = 256 in the sequential Comilla block 249-259). EC official district spelling is 'Cumilla' (matching 2022 administrative renaming). Upazila: Barura only; prior to the 2014 delimitation the constituency also included Comilla Dakshin Municipality and five union parishads from Comilla Sadar Dakshin Upazila; boundary_redrawn_2024 = false (last change was pre-2014 election). Winner vote count: BSS primary source (official result despatch) gives 169,178; secondary sources (Wikipedia, search snippets) give 169,278 -- a 100-vote discrepancy likely from transcription. BSS is used as primary. Runner-up: Md Shafiqul Alam Helal (Jamaat), 45,091 votes per BSS; margin 124,087 votes. Total valid votes not confirmed from primary source (at least 8 candidates contested; two-candidate sum 214,269 understates total). Registered electorate: 380,833 (196,098 male, 184,732 female, 3 third-gender) per viewsbangladesh.com pre-election data. Vote_share_percent and margin_percent left null because total valid votes not confirmed. Term count = 2: first term was Comilla-7 by-election (19 Dec 2004 to 27 Oct 2006), triggered by death of his father Abu Taher (banker and former MP). Wikipedia confirms his father's identity. No cabinet committee memberships confirmed from primary source -- as a full minister he chairs the Ministry's parliamentary consultative committee by convention but this is not individually confirmed. Criminal cases: none mentioned across BSS, TBS, Wikipedia. Education and occupation_pre_politics: not confirmed from any primary source. Age 60 computed from confirmed birth date 15 December 1965 (Wikipedia) relative to verification date 2026-05-17.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comilla-8
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakaria_Taher_Sumon
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constituencies_of_the_Jatiya_Sangsad
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_13th_Jatiya_Sangsad
- https://www.bssnews.net/national-parlament-election-2026/360783
- https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh-election-2026/bnp-wins-8-seats-cumilla-jamaat-and-independents-take-3-1360401
- https://www.bssnews.net/news/365017
- https://www.bssnews.net/news/365948
- https://www.bssnews.net/others/367980
- https://www.bssnews.net/others/382307
- https://www.bssnews.net/news/387132
- https://viewsbangladesh.com/13th-national-parliamentary-election-cumilla-district/