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. Following the defeat of Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, 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 when a military coup brought Major General Ziaur Rahman to power in 1975. When Zia became the President of Bangladesh, he appointed Shah Azizur Rahman to the post of prime minister. Rahman also helped Zia organise the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won the 1978 parliamentary elections. Both Zia and Azizur Rahman have received fierce criticism for issuing the Indemnity Act, which gave amnesty to the killers of Sheikh Mujib and legalised the military coups of 1975. With 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.

References

* [http://www.newagebd.com/2005/sep/19/edit.html New Age]
* [http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com/new/2006/06/06/editorial.htm Bangladesh Observer]

See also

*Bangladesh Nationalist Party
*Bangladesh Liberation War
*Ziaur Rahman
*Indemnity Act