Nurul Amin

Patriot Nurul Amin নূরুল আমীন نورالامین
Nurul Amin, (1893-1974)
8th Prime Minister of Pakistan
In office 7 December 1971 – 20 December 1971
President	General Yahya Khan
Vice President	Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (appointed, never took this office)
Vice PM	Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (appointed, never took this office)
Preceded by	Sir Feroz Khan Noon
Succeeded by	Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
1st Vice President of Pakistan
In office December 7, 1970 – 20 December 1971
President	Yahya Khan
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Post abolished
1st Chief Minister of East Pakistan
In office 14 September 1948 – 17 October 1951
Governor General	Khawaja Nazimuddin
Prime Minister	Lyakat Ali Khan
Governor	Muhammad Ali Bogra
Preceded by	Khawaja Nazimuddin
Succeeded by	Fazlul Haq
Personal details
Born	Nurul Amin 15 July 1893(1893-07-15) Shahbazpur, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	2 October 1974(1974-10-02) (aged 81) Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, Pakistan
Resting place	Ralwapindi Cemetery
Citizenship	British Subject (1893-1947) Pakistan (1947-1974)
Nationality	Pakistan
Political party	Muslim League
Alma mater	Calcutta University
Occupation	Statesman
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Islam

Nurul Amin (Bengali: নূরুল আমীন, Urdu: نورالامین, July 15, 1893 - October 2, 1974), was a prominent Bengali leader of Pakistan's Muslim League who served as the 8th Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the only first and the last Vice President of Pakistan from 1970 till 1971. Having started his career as Chief Minister of East Pakistan in 1948, Amin was one of the leading activist in Pakistan Movement and close associate of Liaqat Ali Khan and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. In Pakistan, he is respectable Bengali figure and considered, by many, the patriot who opposed the movements that eventually led to the severing of ties between his Bengali people and the concept of a Muslim homeland in South Asia.

Early life

Amin was born in the village of Shahbazpur, in what was then undivided Bengal's Brahmanbaria District, he grew up in Mymensingh District. He passed entrance examination in 1915 from Mymensingh Zila School, I.A and B.A from Mymensingh Ananda Mohan College in 1917 and 1919 respectively. Having obtained his B.L degree from Calcutta University he joined the Mymensingh Judge Court Bar in 1924.

Political career

Amin started his public career as a member of Mymensingh Local Board (1929). He became a member of Mymensingh District Board (1930), commissioner of Mymensingh Municipality (1932), and had been the chairman of Mymensingh District Board from 1937 to 1945. For a long time, Amin was the president of Mymensingh district unit of Muslim league, and was elected the vice president of Bengal Provincial Muslim League in 1944. Amin was elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946 and was elected its Speaker. He took active part in Pakistan Movement. He was the Minister of Civil Supply in the provincial cabinet headed by Khawaja Nazimuddin. He was also a member of the Pakistan National Assembly (1947–1954).

Language Movement

Amin was elected as the Chief Minister of East Pakistan in September 1948 when Khawaja Nazimuddin was appointed Governor General on the death of Qaid i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. During Amin's term as Chief Minister, Governor General Nazimuddin reiterated the federal government's position that Bengali, the language of the overwhelming majority of East Pakistanis in addition to the majority of Pakistanis as a whole, was not to be considered a national language on par with Urdu. This position was highly unpopular in East Pakistan, and subsequently led to what is now known as the Language Movement, as well as a general loss of power for the ruling Muslim League.

In the 1954 elections, the Muslim League was comprehensively defeated by the United Front, an alliance between the Awami League (led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy), the Krishak Sramik Party (led by A. K. Fazlul Huq), the Nizam i Islam Party (led by Maulana Athar Ali), and the Ganatantri Dal (led by Haji Muhammad Danish and Mahmud Ali Sylheti). Amin lost his assembly seat to a veteran student leader of the then East Pakistan and language movement hero Mr. Khaleque Nawaz Khan and the Muslim League was effectively eliminated from the provincial political landscape.It is worth to mention Mr. Nurul Amin lost only one election in his whole political carrier and that was in 1954 Jukto front election while he was in office and it is still a record in political arena of Indo Pak bangla subcontinent.When Mr. Khaleque Nawaz Khan unseated Mr. Amin he was only 27 years old young fresh university graduate.

Pakistan Democratic Party

Amin joined National Democratic Front (NDF) headed by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1962, and was thus associated with the movement against autocratic rule of President General Ayub Khan. After the death of Suhrawardy he was elected president of NDF in 1964. He was elected member of the National Assembly in 1965, and was the leader of the combined opposition Parliamentary Party (1965–1969). Nurul Amin was made the chairman of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) formed in 1967 as a united platform of National Democratic Front, Jamaat-e-Islami, Nezam-e-Islam, Council Muslim League, and Awami League (pro 8-point). He played an important role in floating the Democratic Action Committee (DAC) in 1969, and as one of the top leaders of the forum participated in anti-Ayub movement. As a representative of NDF he attended Round Table Conference at Rawalpindi (1969) convened by President Ayub Khan with a view to mitigate the political crisis between the government and the opposition parties. A new political party was floated by him as Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP) in 1969, and he was made its president. Nurul Amin was elected member of the National Assembly in 1970.

Civil war in East Pakistan

In the 1970 elections, Amin was elected to the National Assembly as one of only two non-Awami League members from East Pakistan. During this time, the Pakistani authority in East Pakistan had already become highly unpopular as the struggle to promote Bengali as a national language was further suppressed. Civil unrest ignited by the Language Movement and fuelled by alleged discriminatory practices against Bengalis eventually led to East Pakistan's declaration of independence.

The Bangladesh Liberation War, as it is now known, further escalated as India formally declared war on Pakistan in 1971. As the situation in his home district of East Pakistan worsened under civil war, Amin was appointed Prime Minister by President General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan on December 6, 1971. On December 20, 1971, however, Yahya Khan resigned, leaving the Deputy Prime Minister (and Foreign Minister) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to be sworn in as the new President. Two days later, Amin was appointed as Vice President of Pakistan, the only person to have held this post. He continued to hold this post until the lifting of martial law on April 21, 1972.

Postwar

While his political career lasted through war and civil unrest, Amin is considered by many Pakistanis to be a patriot, as he opposed the movements that eventually led to the severing of ties between his Bengali people and the concept of a Muslim homeland in South Asia. Many Bangladeshis, however, view him as a traitor and collaborator with a genocidal occupation force.

Disappointed and frustrated with the apparent indifference portrayed by the Pakistani government when it was clear that East Pakistan had been lost, Amin is said to have remarked to President Yahya and his military advisers, "So Dhaka has fallen, and East Pakistan is gone, and you are enjoying yourselves..."^[1]

Amin continued to deliberately stay in West Pakistan, while his home region of East Pakistan won its independence as the People's Republic of Bangladesh following a bloody civil war and the deaths of between 1 and 3 million people. Following the war, Amin did not return home and died in Rawalpindi on 2 October 1974, less than three years after the dissolution of the united Pakistan.

References

1. ^ Nurul Amin - The story of Pakistan

Political offices
Preceded by Feroz Khan Nuon	Prime Minister of Pakistan 1971	Succeeded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Preceded by Office created	Vice President of Pakistan 1970-1971	Succeeded by Post abolished indefinitely
Preceded by Khawaja Nazimuddin	Chief Minister of East Bengal 1948–1954	Succeeded by Fazlul Haq

Persondata
Name	Amin, Nurul
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	15 July 1893
Place of birth	Shahbazpur, Bengal Presidency, British India
Date of death	2 October 1974
Place of death	Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan