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

Prime Minister of Bangladesh The Prime Minister of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের প্রধানমন্ত্রী, translit=Bangladesher Prodhanmontri), officially Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( bn, গণপ্রজা ...

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

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

against the struggle to Independence of Bangladesh.

Early life

Shah Azizur Rahman was born in Kushtia, 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 All Bengal Muslim Student League from 1945 to 1947. As a student political leader, 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 Dacca on 2 March 1912. Its official language was Bengali. The party played an important role i ...

and the

Pakistan movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the p ...

. After the partition of India he served as joint secretary of East Pakistan Muslim League. He was opposed to the Bengali Language movement of 1952. He would remain active in Bengali and national politics in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, becoming a vocal opponent of Bengali leader

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...

and his

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for ''Awam Awam ( ur, ) is the Urdu language word for common people or general public. In the early 20th century, the word was extensively used in the Indian subcontinent to refer to the general po ...

, which advocated greater autonomy for

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

Political career

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. At the outbreak of the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...

, 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 the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the L ...

. In 1971, following the defeat of Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War, Rahman was arrested under the collaborators act but was released in 1973 under a general amnesty by President 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. 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 ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল, Bangladesh Jātīyotābādī Dol; BNP) is a centre-right to right-wing nationalist, political party in Bangladesh and one of the maj ...

of President

Ziaur Rahman Lt. General Ziaur Rahman (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981), was a Bangladeshi military Officer (armed forces), officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from Presidency of Ziaur Rahman, 1977 to 1981. He was Assassinat ...

in 1978 and was made the minister of labor and industry in Rahmans 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's sudden death on 12 March 1979, Shah Azizur Rahman was appointed to the 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 the 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 In legal terms, an Act of Indemnity is a statute passed to protect people who have committed some illegal act which would otherwise cause them to be subjected to legal penalties. International treaties may contain articles that bind states to abide ...

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 Sattar and Rahman were overthrown in a military coup led by army chief Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1982.

Death

Rahman died in Dhaka on 1 September 1989 at the age of 63.

References

External links

*
Bangladesh Observer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahman, Shah Azizur 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

Early life

Political career

Death

References

See also

External links