Shah Azizur Rahman

Shah Azizur Rahman (Bengali: শাহ আজিজুর রহমান) (1925 - 1988) was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. However, he was the subject of considerable controversy for his collaboration with the Pakistan Army against the struggle to establish Bangladesh.

Early life

Shah Azizur Rahman was born in Kushtia of the province of Bengal (now in Bangladesh). As a student political leader, Rahman participated in the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and the Pakistan movement. He would remain active in Bengali and national politics in Pakistan, becoming a vocal opponent of Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League, which advocated greater autonomy for East Pakistan.

Political career

At the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War, Rahman supported the Pakistani state forces and denounced the Bengali nationalist struggle, joining Bengali politicians such as Nurul Amin, Golam Azam and Motiur Rahman Nizami. He would lead 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. In 1971, following the defeat of Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War, Rahman continued to reside in Pakistan. 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.

Return to Bangladesh

Shah Azizur Rahman was permitted to return to Bangladesh after liberation war, but arrested. While he was in prison, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1973 freed him and provided his family 3,000 taka each month.^[1]

When Major General Ziaur Rahman became the President of Bangladesh, he allows Aziz to take part in national election and appointed him to the post of prime minister. Rahman also helped Zia organise the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won the 1979 parliamentary elections. Both Zia and Azizur Rahman have received fierce criticism for including the khondokar Mostak Ahmed created Indemnity Act ordinance, within the 5th constitutional amendment which gave amnesty to the killers of Sheikh Mujib and legalised the military coups of 1975. 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.

See also

• Bangladesh Nationalist Party
• Bangladesh Liberation War
• Ziaur Rahman
• Shaikh Mujibur Rahman
• Indemnity Act

References

1. ↑ Daily Prothom Alo newspaper 26-03-2008 online issue showing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman freeing Shah Azizur Rahman

External links

• New Age
• Bangladesh Observer

v t e Prime Ministers of Bangladesh (List) Tajuddin Ahmad Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Muhammad Mansur Ali Shah Azizur Rahman Ataur Rahman Khan Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury Moudud Ahmed Kazi Zafar Ahmed Khaleda Zia Muhammad Habibur Rahman Sheikh Hasina Latifur Rahman Khaleda Zia Iajuddin Ahmed Fazlul Haquei Fakhruddin Ahmedi Sheikh Hasina (i) interim