Enam Ahmed Chowdhury (29 June 1937 – 3 February 2025) was a Bangladeshi civil servant who was secretary and chairman of the Privatization Commission. He was an

Awami League The Awami League, officially known as Bangladesh Awami League, is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played the leading role in achievin ...

politician and

Bangladesh Nationalist Party The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (), popularly abbreviated as BNP (), is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. It was founded on 1 September 1978 by President of Bangladesh, President Ziaur Rahman, wit ...

politician.

Early life

Chowdhury was born on 29 June 1937 in

Sylhet District Sylhet District (), located in north-east Bangladesh, is one of the four districts in Sylhet Division, which contains Sylhet, the regional capital. History Sylhet District was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Benga ...

Assam Province Assam Province was a province of British India, created in 1912 by the partition of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Province. Its capital was in Shillong. The Assam territory was first separated from Bengal in 1874 as the 'North-East Frontier' ...

, British Raj. He studied in Shillong, Assam. As a student he was a leader of the 1952

Bengali Language Movement The Bengali language movement was a political movement in East Bengal (modern-day Bangladesh) in 1952, advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as a co-lingua franca of the then-Dominion of Pakistan to allow its use in government ...

. He did his bachelors and masters in economics at the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (), also known as Dhaka University (DU), is a public university, public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1921, it is the oldest active university in the country. The University of Dhaka w ...

. He did another masters at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Career

Chowdhury joined the Pakistan Civil Service in 1960. He was the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce in 1972 and 1973. He was the Director General of the Export Promotion Bureau in 1974. Chowdhury was one of the founders of Union Capital Limited, formed after purchasing the local operations of

Peregrine Investments Holdings Peregrine (including Peregrine Investments Holdings Limited and Peregrine Infrastructure Investments Limited) was an investment company based in Hong Kong. It was liquidated following the downturn of the Indonesian economy during the Asian financ ...

. He was the first chairman of Union Capital and had previously served as vice-president of the

Islamic Development Bank The Islamic Development Bank (, abbreviated as IsDB) is a multilateral development finance institution that is focused on Islamic finance for infrastructure development and located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There are 57 shareholding member st ...

. He joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 1999. Chowdhury served as the Chairman of the Privatization Commission. He was injured in a crash of Bangladesh Biman Airlines flight BG-601 in 2004 at Osmani International Airport. By 2005, he had privatized 26 state owned enterprises and planned to privatize 16 more. He held road shows in Dubai, Karachi, Kualalampur, and Mumbai in an attempt to sell the state-owned

Rupali Bank Rupali Bank () is a Bangladeshi state owned commercial bank that operates across Bangladesh. Its headquarters is in 34 Dilkusha, Dhaka. Md. Nazrul Huda is the chairman of the bank. Kazi Md. Wahidul Islam is the managing director of the bank. H ...

. He supported the elections held by chief advisor

Latifur Rahman Latifur Rahman (1 March 1936 – 6 June 2017) was the 10th chief justice and the 2nd chief adviser of Bangladesh. Early life and education Latifur Rahman was born in Jessore on 1 March 1936. His father was the lawyer Khan Bahadur Lutfur Rahma ...

which returned the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power. He was the convenor of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. On 18 July 2006, his supporters and supporters of Syed Makbul Hossain, member of parliament, clashed resulting in the death of one Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist. In 2007, Chowdhury was a delegate of a conference on

Champaran Satyagraha The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first satyagraha movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in British India and is considered a historically important rebellion in the Indian independence movement. It was a farmer's uprising that took place in C ...

organized by the Indian National Congress. Other delegates from Bangladesh included

Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, and civil society leader who has been serving as the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, Chief Adviser of the Interim government of Muhammad Yunus, interim Yunus ministry, g ...

Dipu Moni Dipu Moni (born 8 December 1965) is a Bangladeshi politician and former minister of social welfare. She was a member of parliament for the Chandpur-3 constituency. She was minister of education in the fourth Hasina ministry and minister of f ...

, and Reaz Rahman. During the Fakruddin Ahmed led caretaker government he had sided with Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan led reform faction of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Chowdhury was elected president of Commonwealth Society of Bangladesh in 2010. He was elected to the advisory council of the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He called for foreign treaties to be ratified in parliament at an event at the Jatiya Press Club organized by Shujan. He was the managing director of Dahmashi Tours and Travels, local partner of

Air Asia Capital A Berhad (), operating as AirAsia (stylised as ''airasia'') is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline headquartered near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Established in 1993 and commencing operations in 1996, the airline is the largest in ...

. He spoke in favor of a caretaker government system for holding elections at an event of Sushasaner Jonno Nagorik along with other members of the civil society of Bangladesh such as

Ajoy Roy Ajoy Roy (1 March 1935 – 9 December 2019) was a Bangladeshi professor of physics at the University of Dhaka, but was best known for his prominent role in Bangladesh's human rights activism and freethinking. He was one of the eminent educationi ...

, Asif Nazrul, A. S. M. Shahjahan, Badiul Alam Mazumder, Emaz Uddin Ahmed, Kazi Ebadul Haque, Moniruzzaman Mia, Muzaffer Ahmad, Subhash Singha Roy, and Syed Abul Maqsood. Chowdhury met with

Marcia Bernicat Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat (born 1953) is an American diplomat who served as the 32nd Director General of the Foreign Service from 2022 to 2025. She is a former United States Ambassador to Bangladesh. She served as Ambassador to Senegal and ...

, the United States ambassador to Bangladesh, along with a delegation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party in May 2016 along with Abdul Moeen Khan. In 2018, Chowdhury joined the

and presented flowers to Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

at the Ganabhaban. He resigned from the post of vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and advisor to former Prime Minister

Khaleda Zia Begum Khaleda Zia (born August–September 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and the second fema ...

. He had sought the nomination of Bangladesh Nationalist Party from Sylhet-1 for the 1 1th Jatiya Sangsad election but the party had chosen to nominate Khandaker Abdul Muktadir, advisor to Khaleda Zia. He was appointed advisor to the Awami League. Sheikh Hasina would later claim Chowdhury and Morshed Khan were denied the nomination by Bangladesh Nationalist Party for not providing kickbacks to

Tarique Rahman Tarique Rahman (born 20 November 1965), better known natively as Tarique Zia, is a Bangladeshi politician and businessman who has been the acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since February 2018. He is the eldest son of fo ...

. In December 2020, Chowdhury was elected chairman of the board of trustees of Impact Foundation Bangladesh. In October 2023, he met a United States Pre-Election Assessment Team along with Muhammad Faruk Khan, Shammi Ahmed, and others.

Personal life and death

Chowdhury's parents were Ghyasuddin Ahmed Chowdhury and Rafiqunnesa Khatun Chowdhury. Chowdhury's brothers were Faruq Ahmed Choudhury,

Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is a former Bangladesh Advisor (Minister) of Foreign Affairs (2007-2009), a position he held after a long career in diplomacy and the Civil Service, starting in Pakistan in 1969, thereafter transferring to Banglade ...

and Masum Ahmed Chowdhury. He had two sisters, Nasim Hai who was married to the late Syed Abdul Hai and Nina Ahmed who is married to

Fakhruddin Ahmed Fakhruddin Ahmed (; born 1 May 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, civil servant, and a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank. He also served as the 4th Chief Adviser of Caretaker government of Bangladesh. On 12 Janu ...

. His cousins are Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury. Chowdhury died from a cardiac arrest on 3 February 2025, at the age of 87.

Bibliography

* Chiranjeeb Zia * Ziaur Rahman O Bangladeshi Jatiyatabad * Aposhheen Netri Begum Khaleda Zia O Bangladesher Ogrojatra

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Enam Ahmed 1937 births 2025 deaths Bangladeshi civil servants Bangladesh Nationalist Party politicians People from Sylhet District University of Dhaka alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Awami League politicians Pakistani civil servants