Fazlul Quader Chowdhury (1919–1973) was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

politician who served as the 5th speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan from

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wi ...

. He belonged to Ayub Khan's

Convention Muslim League The Convention Muslim League (CML) was a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that split-off in 1962, in support of the military regime of the President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan. The opposition party was known as the Council Muslim League ...

. He was also the

Acting President An acting president is a person who temporarily fills the role of a country's president when the incumbent president is unavailable (such as by illness or a vacation) or when the post is vacant (such as for death, injury, resignation, dismissal ...

of Pakistan from time to time when Ayub Khan left the country. His elder brother Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury was the leader of the opposition in East Pakistan assembly. Quader was preceded by

Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan (M. T. Khan; March 1889 – 19 August 1963) was the Speaker of Pakistan's Constituent Assembly from 1948 to 1954 and National Assembly of Pakistan between 1962 and 1963. Early life Khan was born to a farmer with only thre ...

of Awami League.

Early life and family

Chaudhury was born on 26 March 1919 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

'' family in Gahira, Raozan, located in the Chittagong District of the Bengal Province. His father, Khan Bahadur Abdul Jabbar Chaudhry, was descended from Bakhsh-e-Ali Chaudhry, and his mother, Begum Fatema Khatun Chaudhrani, was a housewife. His mother's grandmother was the 18th-century poet Rahimunnessa. Chaudhury's brother Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury was also a parliamentarian.

Education

Chaudhry graduated from Calcutta Presidency College and earned B.L degree from Calcutta University Law College. In 1941 he was elected general secretary of All-India Muslim Student Federation. He joined the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcont ...

and was elected the secretary of Chittagong district unit of the party in 1943.

Career

In 1947, Fazlul Qadir Chaudhry supported the United Bengal pact of Sarat Bose and

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্‌রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...

, but when Suhrawardy agreed to form

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, he failed from presenting the matter to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Chaudhury was elected member of the Pakistan National Assembly in 1962. In Ayub Khan's cabinet he served in the Ministry of Agriculture and Works, the Ministry of Education and Information and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. He played an important role in floating the

(1962) and was elected a member of the central committee of the party. He facilitated the foundation of

University of Chittagong The University of Chittagong ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়, caṭṭagram bishwabidyalay) is a public research university with multidisciplinary faculties situated across a 1754-acres hilly landmas ...

, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology,

Chittagong Medical College Chittagong Medical College (CMC) is situated in the port city of Chattogram, Bangladesh and is the oldest medical college in the south-eastern part of the country. It is affiliated with a tertiary level hospital where clinical students are tra ...

, Chittagong Marine Academy, Chittagong Marine Fisheries and the Polytechnic Institute.

Personal life

Chaudhry married Syeda Selena Akhtar, the second daughter of Syed Azizullah and Syeda Ammatul Ela Raziya Khatun. They had six children. Their eldest son,

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury (13 March 1949 – 22 November 2015) was a Bangladeshi politician, minister and six-term member of Jatiya Sangsad and member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Standing Committee, who served as the adviser o ...

, was a six-time Bangladeshi parliamentarian and adviser to

Khaleda Zia Khaleda Zia (; born Khaleda Khanam Putul in 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Ba ...

. Their second son, Saifuddin Qadir Chaudhry, was a businessman and their third son,

Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury is a Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician and a former Jatiya Sangsad member from Chittagong-6 and Chittagong-7 constituencies. Career Chowdhury's candidacy in the 2008 election was cancelled by the returning offi ...

, was also a parliamentarian. Their fourth son, Jamaluddin Qadir Chaudhry, was an industrialist and the names of their two daughters are Zubayda Qadir Chaudhry and Hasina Qadir Chaudhry. Fazlul Qadir Chaudhry's elder sister-in-law, Syeda Roqeya Akhtar, was the wife of former Finance Minister

Murtaza Raza Choudhry Murtaza Raza Choudhry was a Member of the 1st National Assembly of Pakistan as a representative of East Pakistan. Early life and family Choudhry was born into an aristocratic Bengali Muslim family known as the ''Zamindars'' of Monakosha in Naw ...

Arrest and death

In 1973, after the independence of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

(former

), he was jailed in Bangladesh for war crimes as collaborator of Pakistan Army during 1971. He died in

Dhaka Central Jail Dhaka Central Jail was the largest jail in Bangladesh, located in the old section of Dhaka, the country's capital. The jail has been used to house criminals as well as political prisoners, especially during the Language Movement of 1952, the 6 ...

on 17 July 1973.

Legacy

Chaudhury's elder son

was a politician. He was elected member of the Bangladeshi Parliament six times. In October 2015, Supreme Court of Bangladesh upheld the death sentence awarded by international crime tribunal for the alleged crime committed by Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury during the

Liberation war of Bangladesh The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali n ...

in 1971. The death sentence was executed on early hours of 22 November 2015 inside

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhry, Fazlul Qadir 1973 deaths 20th-century Bengalis Bangladeshi Muslims Speakers of the National Assembly of Pakistan 1919 births Acting presidents of Pakistan Bangladeshi politicians convicted of crimes People from Chittagong District Pakistani MNAs 1965–1969 Bangladeshi male criminals Prisoners and detainees of Bangladesh