Hossain Mohammad Ershad
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Hossain Mohammad Ershad (b. 1 January 1930) is a Bangladeshi politician who previously served as army chief of staff (1978-82) and president of Bangladesh (1982-90). He is the current leader of the Jatiya Party.
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[edit] Early life and military career
Hossain Mohammad Ershad was born in Rangpur city in the Rangpur District of Bengal (now in Bangladesh). He graduated from the University of Dhaka in 1950 and was commissioned into the Pakistan Army in 1952. Between 1960 and 1962, he was an adjutant in the East Bengal regimental depot in Chittagong. He also completed advanced courses from the Command and Staff College in Quetta in 1966. After a brief period serving with a brigade in Sialkot, he was given command of the 3rd East Bengal Regiment in 1969 and the 7th East Bengal Regiment in 1971. During the Bangladesh Liberation War, he remained in West Pakistan and did not leave the service of the Pakistan Army, contrary to many other Bengali officers. However, he was transferred to the new state of Bangladesh in 1973 and appointed Adjutant General of the Bangladesh Army. After attending advanced military courses in India, Ershad was appointed deputy chief of army staff in 1975.
Ershad remained loyal to Ziaur Rahman, who had been appointed army chief by president Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's founding leader on 15 August 1975. Although Zia was overthrown in a counter-coup on November 3, he was restored to power in a coup led by Col. Abu Taher on November 7. When Ziaur Rahman assumed the presidency, he appointed Ershad as the new army chief, promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general. In his tenure as army chief, Ershad helped Zia suppress several attempted coups and mutinies.
[edit] Presidency
After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman on 30 May 1981 Ershad remained loyal to the government and ordered the army to suppress the coup attempt of Zia's killers, led by Major General Abul Monjur. He maintained loyalty to the new president Abdus Sattar, who led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to victory in elections in 1982. However, pressure increased from high-ranking army commanders for the military to take over the reins of state. Ershad toppled President Sattar on 24 March 1982 and proclaimed himself chief martial law administrator. He took over as president on 11 December 1983 by replacing A. F. M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury.
As president, Ershad included the Indemnity Act into the constitution of Bangladesh, which legalised the military coups led by Zia and himself and granted amnesty to the killers of Sheikh Mujib. He also amended the constitution to declare Islam the state religion, abandoning state secularism. To improve rural administration, Ershad introduced the upazila and zila parishad system and held the first democratic elections for these village councils in 1985. In an election held in 1986, Ershad was nominated by the Jatiya party, which had been created by him and his supporters. All other major political parties boycotted the election, but Ershad was declared its winner. The Jatiya Party also won an absolute majority in the Jatiyo Sangshad.In 1987 Bangladesh’s Land Ministry launched the Land Reforms Action Program, an initiative to distribute khas – unoccupied state-owned land – to landless families. A novel element of the land reform was the establishment by the Ministry of Land.
A wide umbrella of political parties united against Ershad's rule. Zia's widow Khaleda Zia now led the BNP, which allied itself with the Awami League, led by Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina. The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and other parties also joined the opposition ranks. The strikes and protests called by the opposition groups paralysed the state and its economy. Under pressure, Ershad dissolved the parliament on 7 December 1987 but the fresh elections were again boycotted by the opposition. An intensifying opposition campaign forced Ershad to step down on 6 December 1990.
[edit] Later political career
Ershad was briefly arrested and kept confined. He contested the 1991 elections from jail through 5 different constituencies in the Rangpur District, winning all of them. The new government led by the BNP's Khaleda Zia instituted a number of corruption charges. Ershad was convicted of some of the charges. In the 1996 elections, Ershad again won election from the jail and aligned his party with the Awami League against the BNP. He was released from jail on 9 January 1997 by the government of Sheikh Hasina, but he lost his membership in parliament owing to his conviction on charges of corruption. In 2000, the Jatiya Party divided into three factions, although Ershad's bloc remains the largest.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Lt.Gen. Ziaur Rahman |
Chiefs of Army Staff, Bangladesh | Succeeded by Lt.Gen. Nuruddin Khan |
| Preceded by A.F.M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury |
President of Bangladesh December 1983–6 December 1990 |
Succeeded by Shahabuddin Ahmed |
