 In the interim period, before independence on 30 November 1967, he was a member of the "Supreme Popular Committee" which was formed by the revolutionaries to run Hadhramaut province.Bin Shamlan was charged with the day-to-day running of the province.After independence and the unification of South Yemen by the National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen (NLF), he was the first Minister of Public Works and Transport in the first cabinet of the independent People's Republic of South Yemen (President Qahtan Al-Shaabi's government).