The expansion of the cabinet on Friday will not necessaritily enhance skills of prime minister Sheikh Hasina's council of ministers, senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed has said.

"Before the polls Awami League had said they would form a small and skilled government. But now it is being seen that the size of the cabinet is being expanded," he said after a discussion in the city. "A skilled government cannot be formed this way, rather they are displaying an amateurish attitude," said Moudud, a former law minister in the BNP-led government's 60-strong jumbo cabinet.

The replacement of the state ministers for home and energy reflects the deterioration of law and order and the failure to improve crippling power shortage, he said about the induction of a new minister and five state ministers.

He claimed that the AL "had always said that the BNP-led coalition government could not succeed because of a big cabinet". "But now they themselves are expanding the size," he said after a roundtable on maritime boundaries at the National Press Club. The roundtable was organised by the National Youth Forum.