Mohammad Abul Quasem () was a Bangladeshi politician and lawyer. He was a member of the 3rd

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly of Pakistan, also referred to as ''Aiwān-ē-Zairīñ'', is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate of Pakistan, Senate. As of 2023, the National Assem ...

and the Finance Minister of

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

during the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

Early life

Abul Quasem was born in 1913 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

family in the village of Sodurtilla, Mankachar Thana,

Goalpara District Goalpara district is an administrative districts of Assam, district of the Indian state of Assam. History It was a princely state ruled by the Koch dynasty, Koch kings and the then ruler of the undivided kingdom. Today the erstwhile Goalpara d ...

in the then

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 India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

Education and career

He obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in philosophy from

Cotton College Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as ''Saint Wilfrid's College''. The school buildings were centred on Cotton Hall, a country house used by religious communities fr ...

in 1938. In 1946, he became a member of the Assam Legislative Council representing the South Dhubri constituency. In 1950, three years after the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, he left Assam (which became an Indian state) and resided in Ulipur Thana,

Rangpur District Rangpur District () is a district in northern Bengal, It is a part of Rangpur Division, Bangladesh. Geography Under the Rangpur Division (one of eight divisions) composed of eight districts of northern Bangladesh, the District of Rangpur is bo ...

East Bengal East Bengal (; ''Purbô Bangla/Purbôbongo'') was the eastern province of the Dominion of Pakistan, which covered the territory of modern-day Bangladesh. It consisted of the eastern portion of the Bengal region, and existed from 1947 until 195 ...

(part of Pakistan). Two years later, he became a member of the

Constituent Assembly of Pakistan The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was the supreme federal legislature of the Dominion of Pakistan. It was established in August 1947 with the primary tasks of framing Constitution of Pakistan of 1956, a constitution; and serving as an interim ...

. Four years after obtaining his

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

in 1956, he completed a master's degree in political science from the same university. In 1962, he represented Rangpur-1 as a member of the 3rd National Assembly of Pakistan. He was appointed deputy speaker of the

. He was a member of the

Council Muslim League The Council Muslim League was a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that divided from the Convention Muslim League that was supportive of the military regime of the President of Pakistan Gen. Ayub Khan. Sardar Muhammad Zafarullah, Mian Mu ...

and became the president of the East Pakistan Council Muslim League in 1964. On 17 September 1971, during the

, he was appointed a member of the cabinet of Abdul Motaleb Malik. He served as the finance minister of East Pakistan. After the

independence of Bangladesh The independence of Bangladesh was Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence, declared from Pakistan on 26 March 1971, which is now celebrated as Independence Day (Bangladesh), Independence Day. The Bangladesh Liberation War started on 26 March ...

, on 24 December 1971, the

Government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the ...

arrested him for collaborating with Pakistan during the war. On 30 November 1973, he was released after the government declared a general amnesty for detained cabinet members.

Death

Quasem died in the 1980s or earlier.

References

1913 births 20th-century deaths Provincial ministers of East Pakistan Pakistani MNAs 1962–1965 Pakistani MNAs 1947–1954 Assam MLAs 1946–1952 People of the Bangladesh Liberation War People from South Salmara-Mankachar district Cotton College, Guwahati alumni University of Karachi alumni {{Pakistan-MNA-stub