Shah Azizur Rahman (; 23 November 1925 – 1 September 1989) was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the

prime minister of Bangladesh The prime minister of Bangladesh (, : Bāṅlādēśēr Prôdhānmôntrī), officially prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh (, : Gôṇôprôjātôntrī Bāṅlādēśēr Prôdhānmôntrī), is the head of government of the Ba ...

. However, he was the subject of considerable controversy for his collaboration with the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

against the struggle for the independence of Bangladesh.

Early life

Shah Azizur Rahman was born in

Kushtia Kushtia () is a city located on the banks of the Gorai River in Bangladesh. It serves as the headquarters of Kushtia District and is considered the cultural capital of Bangladesh. The city is known for its Tiler Khaja (sesame sweets), kulf ...

, Bengal (now in Bangladesh), on 23 November 1925. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature from Calcutta University and went on to study at Dhaka University. He held the position of general secretary in the All Bengal Muslim Student League from 1945 to 1947. As a student political leader, Azizur Rahman participated in the

Bengal Provincial Muslim League The Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML) was the branch of the All India Muslim League in the British Indian province of Bengal. It was established in Dhaka on 2 March 1912. Its official language was Bengali. The party played an important rol ...

and the

Pakistan movement The Pakistan Movement was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

. After the partition of India, he served as joint secretary of the East Pakistan Muslim League. He opposed the

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 ...

of 1952. He would remain active in Bengali and national politics in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, becoming a vocal opponent of Bengali leader

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangl ...

and his

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 ...

, which advocated greater autonomy for

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 ...

Political career

Azizur Rahman was the general secretary of the East Pakistan Muslim League from 1952 to 1958. In 1962, he participated in the Pakistan National Assembly elections from Kushtia but lost. He joined the National Democratic Front led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1962. In March 1964, he joined the Awami League and was subsequently elected vice-president of the Pakistan Awami League. In 1965, he was elected to the National Assembly from Kushtia and served as the deputy leader of the opposition from 1965 to 1969. He was one of the defense lawyers in the

Agartala Conspiracy Case The Agartala Conspiracy Case was a sedition case in Pakistan during the rule of Ayub Khan (general), Ayub Khan against Awami League, brought by the government of Pakistan in 1968 against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then leader of the Awami Lea ...

. At the outbreak of the

Bangladesh War of Independence 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 ...

, Azizur Rahman supported the Pakistani state forces and denounced the Bengali nationalist struggle. He led the Pakistani delegation to the United Nations in November 1971, where he would emphatically deny that the Pakistan Army's Operation Searchlight had degenerated into

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

. In 1971, following the defeat of Pakistan in the war, Azizur Rahman was arrested under the collaborators act but was released in 1973 under a general amnesty by Prime Minister Sheikh Mujib. In the post-war period, authorities estimated that over a million people had been killed in Bangladesh by Pakistani state forces and collaborating militias. Azizur Rahman would continue to lobby Muslim nations in the Middle East to decline diplomatic recognition to Bangladesh. After the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, he joined the revived Muslim League in Bangladesh in 1976. He then joined the newly founded

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 ...

of President

Ziaur Rahman Ziaur Rahman (19 January 193630 May 1981) was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the sixth president of Bangladesh from 1977 until Assassination of Ziaur Rahman, his assassination in 1981. One of the leading figures of t ...

in 1978 and was made the minister of labor and industry in Ziaur Rahman's cabinet. When Ziaur Rahman had become the president of Bangladesh, he initially decided to appoint Mashiur Rahman Jadu Mia as prime minister, but after Mashiur Rahman's sudden death on 12 March 1979, Shah Azizur Rahman was appointed to office on 15 April 1979. It is believed that Ziaur Rahman preferred candidates such as Badruddoza Chowdhury or Saifur Rahman for the job. However, he also wanted the party's parliamentarians to choose their leader through a secret ballot, which Shah Aziz managed to win so that Ziaur Rahman could not ignore him. As prime minister, Shah Azizur Rahman helped ratify the infamous Indemnity Act promulgated by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmed. Shah Azizur Rahman also helped Zia organize the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won the 1979 parliamentary elections. After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman in 1981, Shah Azizur Rahman continued to serve as prime minister. Although he was retained in that post by the new President Abdus Sattar, both Abdus Sattar and Azizur Rahman were overthrown in a military coup led by army chief Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1982.

Death

Shah Aziz died in Dhaka on 1 September 1989 at the age of 63. After the fall of the

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 ...

led

government, the

Hall of the

Islamic University, Bangladesh Islamic University, Bangladesh (legally: Islamic University); (; ) commonly referred to as Islamic University, Kushtia (abbreviated as IU), is a public PhD granting research university in Kushtia, Bangladesh and the largest seat of higher educa ...

was renamed to Shah Azizur Rahman Hall.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Azizur Rahman, Shah 1925 births 1989 deaths Bangladesh Nationalist Party politicians Prime ministers of Bangladesh 2nd Jatiya Sangsad members Pakistani MNAs 1965–1969 20th-century Bengalis People from Kushtia District Politicians from Khulna Division

Early life

Political career

Death

See also

References

External links