Enayet Karim

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ambassador Enayet Karim with the US President Richard Nixon in 1972.

Enayet Karim (Bengali: এনায়েত করিম) (1927-1974) was a Bangladeshi diplomat who passed away at an age of only forty seven while he was holding the position of Foreign Secretary of the country. A brilliant student in his youth, Karim secured the first position in Matriculation examination and later studied economics at University of Dhaka. After a brief teaching career with the same University, Karim joined the Pakistan Foreign Service in 1952. Karim served the Pakistani Missions in both Calcutta and New Delhi before assuming the key post of Director (India) in the Pakistan Foreign Ministry. In early 1970, Karim left Islamabad and took up the post of Counselor at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC.

In the initial stage of Bangladesh Liberation War, Karim propagated the cause of the independence of Bangladesh in the US diplomatic arena. But immediately afterwards Karim suffered two consecutive heart attacks within months and was hospitalized. In August 1971, the Bengali officers at the US Embassy formally announced their allegiance with the provisional Bangladesh Government. Karim joined them, risking the well-being of his family, in spite of his poor health conditions.

After the independence of Bangladesh, Karim was nominated as the first Ambassador from Bangladesh to USA. But after a very short time, he was asked to assume the role of Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. Despite his delicate health conditions, Karim accepted the challenge and started working day and night to safeguard and promote the national interests of Bangladesh. With a minimum human resource support, he embarked on the mission to bring about recognition of Bangladesh by as many countries as possible. He also maintained international efforts to reconstruct war-ravaged Bangladesh under the UN Relief Operations, and to secure bilateral assistance from US and other major donors. His other major tasks were: reaching accords with New Delhi and Islamabad for the release of Pakistani POWs and war crime trial, repatriation of the stranded Bengalis from Pakistan and the Pakistanis from Bangladesh, and the distribution of assets and liabilities of the former federal government of Pakistan.

In February 1974, while working at his office, Karim suffered his third heart attack which later proved fatal. In 1977, the Government of Bangladesh, honored him by posthumously awarding him the Independence Day Award, the highest civilian award of the country.