Abu Sayeed Chowdhury

Abu Sayeed Chowdhury (1921-1987) was a jurist and the President of Bangladesh (1972-73). Abu Sayeed Choudhury was born on 31 January 1921 in a landed family of Nagbari in Tangail district. His father Abdul Hamid Choudhury was the speaker of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly.

Early life

Abu Sayeed Choudhury completed his graduation in 1940 from the Presidency College in Calcutta, obtained his Masters in History (1942) and Law degrees from Calcutta University and Bar-at-Law from London (Lincoln's Inn) in 1947. He joined the Calcutta High Court Bar in 1947, and after the partition of India he came over to Dhaka and joined the Dhaka High Court Bar (1948). While in Presidency College he became the General Secretary of the Presidency College Students Union in 1939, and while in London for his Bar-at-Law he became the President of All India Students Federation in the UK in 1946.

Political career

In 1960, he was appointed advocate general of East Pakistan and was made a judge of the high court in July 1961. He had been a member of the Constitution Commission (1960-61) and chairman of the Bengali Development Board (1963-1968). Justice Choudhury was appointed vice-chancellor of Dhaka University in 1969. In 1971, while in Geneva he resigned from his post as vice-chancellor as a protest against the genocide in East Pakistan by the Pakistan army. From Geneva he went to the UK and became the special envoy of the provisional 'Mujibnagar' government. An umbrella organisation, 'The Council for the People's Republic of Bangladesh in UK' was formed on 24th April 1971 in Coventery, UK, by the expatriate Bengalis, and a five member Steering Committee (central committee) of the Council was elected by them. The Steering Committee members were: Sheikh Abdul Mannan, Monowar Hussain, Azizul Haq Bhuyan, Shamsur Rahman, and Kabir Chowdhury. Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury was the Adviser to the Steering Committee. Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury and his colleagues achieved tremendous success in mobilising world opinion in favour of Bangladesh liberation war.

President of Bangladesh

After liberation, Justice Choudhury returned to Dhaka and was elected the President of Bangladesh on 12 January 1972. On 10 April 1973, he was again elected the President of Bangladesh, and in the same year (December) he resigned to become special envoy for external relations with the rank of a minister. On 8 August 1975, he was included in the cabinet of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as minister of Ports and Shipping. After Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was assassinated he became the minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad (August 1975), a position which he held till 7 November 1975.

UN Committee

In 1978, Justice Choudhury was elected a member of the United Nations Sub-committee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In 1985, he was elected chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission. He was honoured with the insignia of 'Deshikottam' by Visvabharati University. Calcutta University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. His book Probasey Muktijuddher Dingooli (1990) is a valuable contribution to the understanding of Bangladesh War of Liberation. He died in London on 2 August 1987 and was buried in his village, Nagbari of Tangail. [Banglapedia, and 'Smriti Sattaie Abu Sayeed Chowdhury' by Mahbub ul Azad Chowdhury, 1988]