->Worldbruce: filled in ref

2021-11-12T16:33:12Z

filled in ref

New page

{{short description|President of Bangladesh}}
{{other people||Abdul Sattar (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[Judge|Justice]]
| name = Abdus Sattar
| native_name = আব্দুস সাত্তার
| native_name_lang = bn
| image = Abdus Sattar (president) portrait.jpg
| office1 = 2nd [[Vice President of Bangladesh]]
| term_start1 = June 1977
| term_end1 = May 1981
| vicepresident1 = [[Mirza Nurul Huda]]<br />[[Mohammad Mohammadullah]]
| predecessor1 = [[Syed Nazrul Islam]]
| successor1 = [[Mirza Nurul Huda]]
| office2 = Chairman of [[Bangladesh Nationalist Party]]
| term_start2 = 30 May 1981
| term_end2 = 30 May 1984
| predecessor2 = [[Ziaur Rahman]]
| successor2 = [[Khaleda Zia]]
| office3 = 6th [[Ministry of Interior (Pakistan)|Interior Minister of Pakistan]]
| term_start3 = 17 March 1956
| term_end3 = 12 September 1956
| predecessor3 = [[A. K. Fazlul Huq]]
| successor3 = Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|3|1|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Birbhum district|Birbhum,P.S - Labpur,Danrka/Dwarka]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|10|5|1906|3|1|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Dhaka]], Bangladesh
| party = [[Bangladesh Nationalist Party]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Calcutta]]
| office = 8th [[President of Bangladesh]]
| termstart = 30 May 1981
| termend = 24 March 1982
| predecessor = [[Ziaur Rahman]]
| successor = [[A.F.M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury]]
| primeminister3 = [[Chaudhry Muhammad Ali]]
| president1 = [[Ziaur Rahman]]
}}
'''Abdus Sattar''' (1 March 1906<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Ends & Beginnings: Anniversaries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5W3AAAAIAAJ&q=Abdus+Sattar |magazine=South |date=March 1985 |publisher=South Publications Limited |page=7 |issn=0260-6976}}</ref> – 5 October 1985)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rulers.org/indexs1.html|title=Index Sa|access-date=2 April 2019}}</ref> was a Bangladeshi [[politician|statesman]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bangabhaban.gov.bd/sattar.html|title=BANGABHABAN – The President House of Bangladesh|work=bangabhaban.gov.bd|access-date=10 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103023410/http://www.bangabhaban.gov.bd/sattar.html|archive-date=3 January 2008|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> A leader of the [[Bangladesh Nationalist Party]] (BNP), he served as the [[President of Bangladesh]] from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the [[Vice President of Bangladesh]]. A jurist by profession, Sattar held numerous constitutional and political offices in [[British Bengal]], [[East Pakistan]] and Bangladesh. He was a cabinet minister, supreme court judge, and chief election commissioner.

Sattar was one of the few [[executive president]]s in the country's history. Beset by health problems and old age, his short lived presidency was marked by growing political turmoil and interference from the military. Sattar was overthrown in the [[1982 Bangladesh coup d'état]].

==Early life and career==
Sattar was born in 1906 in [[Birbhum]] in the then [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]. He obtained his [[LLB]] and [[Master of Law]] from the [[University of Calcutta]] and joined the Calcutta High Court Bar in 1931 as a junior in the Chambers of [[A.K. Fazlul Huq]]. He specialised in Municipal Law. He became a protege of [[A. K. Fazlul Huq]], the first [[Prime Minister of Bengal]]. He served in various municipal bodies in [[Calcutta]] as an activist for the [[Krishak Praja Party]]. In 1950, following the [[Partition of British India]], Sattar moved to [[Dacca]] in the [[Dominion of Pakistan]]. He joined the [[Dhaka High Court]] Bar. He was elected to the [[Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]] in 1955. He served as the [[Interior Minister of Pakistan|Home Minister of Pakistan]] and [[Education Minister of Pakistan]] in the cabinet of Prime Minister [[Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar]] in 1957.<ref name=autogenerated4>{{cite book |last=Khan |first=Mofakkhar Hossain |year=2012 |chapter=Sattar, Justice Abdus |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Sattar,_Justice_Abdus |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> He was appointed as a [[Judge|Justice]] in the Dhaka High Court, which he served between 1957 and 1968.<ref name=autogenerated4 /> He also presided over cases in the [[Supreme Court of Pakistan]].<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news |last=Kolbert |first=Elizabeth |date=6 October 1985 |title=Abdus Sattar, Ex-Leader of Bangladesh, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/06/world/abdus-sattar-ex-leader-of-bangladesh-dies.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

In 1969, Sattar was appointed as the [[Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan]]. He organised the [[1970 Pakistani general election|first general election of Pakistan]] in 1970, in which the [[Awami League]] gained a historic parliamentary majority to form government. The League was denied the handover of power by the then [[military junta]] led by General [[Yahya Khan]]. As the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] erupted with a [[1971 Bangladesh genocide|genocide]] against Bengali civilians, Sattar was stranded in Islamabad, West Pakistan, removed from official positions and [[internment|interned]] by the Pakistani government. In 1973, Sattar returned to independent [[Bangladesh]] as part of the repatriation of stranded Bengali officials. He enjoyed rising prominence in [[Dhaka]], but lived a quiet life with his wife and had no children.<ref name=nytimes />

Sattar served as chairman of the board of Directors in the Bangladesh Life Insurance Corporation (1973–1974), Chairman of the Journalist Wage Board (1974–1975) and Chairman of the [[Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs]]. In 1975, he was appointed as an adviser to President Justice [[Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem]] and vested in charge of the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.<ref name=autogenerated4 /> In 1977, the new president and [[Chief Martial Law Administrator]], Lt General [[Ziaur Rahman]], appointed Sattar as [[Vice President of Bangladesh]]. With the reinstatement of multiparty politics, Sattar joined the newly formed [[Bangladesh Nationalist Party]] (BNP) in 1978. Speaking of Zia, Sattar said "He was like my son. I loved him too much. I loved him because he was trying to build this small country in a better way."<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite news |title=Acting President in Dacca Promises New Elections |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/05/world/acting-president-in-dacca-promises-new-elections.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=5 June 1981}}</ref>

==Presidency==
[[File:Heads of State Cancun Summit 1981.jpg|thumb|Sattar (seated third on left) with world leaders at the [[North-South Summit]] in [[Cancun]], Mexico, 1981]]
When [[Assassination of Ziaur Rahman|Zia was assassinated]] in May 1981, a frail Vice-President Sattar was in hospital and automatically became the [[acting president]] of Bangladesh.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> Speaking to foreign reporters in [[Bangabhaban]] on 4 June, he announced that elections within 180 days of the death of the former president were on schedule as per the constitution, to "foil any conspiracy to disturb the democratic process in the country." A [[state of emergency]] was imposed. The election date of 21 September was pushed back to 15 November, as opposition parties demanded more time to campaign. Violence occurred when 12 army officers were executed after being convicted of complicity in Zia's killing.

As the nominee of BNP, Sattar won the [[1981 Bangladeshi presidential election|presidential election]] in 1981, beating with a big margin his principal challenger [[Kamal Hossain]] from the [[Bangladesh Awami League]]. Hossain and other opposition groups alleged the polls were rigged. The emergency was lifted after the election. Sattar appointed a 42-member Council of Ministers. He let Zia's controversial prime minister [[Shah Azizur Rahman]] continue in the top job. Sattar personally held the Defence and Planning portfolios. He appointed economist [[Mirza Nurul Huda]] as the vice president. Violence against Bengali Muslims in [[Assam]] in neighbouring India flared during Sattar's presidency.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite book |editor-last=Preston |editor-first=Ian |date=2003 |title=A Political Chronology of Central, South and East Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5wcH0abSQcC&pg=PA18|publisher=Routledge |page=18 |isbn=978-1-135-35680-4}}</ref>

Sattar formed a [[Armed Forces Division|National Security Council]] to explore how the [[Bangladesh Armed Forces]] could contribute to the nation's development.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> He was elected unopposed as President of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in January 1982. Sattar then formed a new cabinet. Vice-President Huda resigned on 21 March 1982, claiming that he was the victim of a conspiracy within BNP. Sattar appointed [[Mohammad Mohammadullah]] as Huda's replacement.

===1982 military coup===
A bloodless [[coup-d'etat]] led by the [[Bangladesh Army]] chief [[Hussain Muhammad Ershad]] toppled Sattar's government in 1982. On the morning of 24 March, the heads of the [[Bangladesh Navy]], the [[Bangladesh Air Force]], the [[Bangladesh Rifles]] and the military secretary to the president entered Bangabhaban and forced Sattar to sign a statement relinquishing power.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Liton |first1=Shakhawat |last2=Halder |first2=Chaitanya Chandra |date=3 March 2014|title=Ershad wanted to grab power after Zia killing |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/ershad-wanted-to-grab-power-after-zia-killing-22484 |newspaper=The Daily Star |access-date=26 June 2015}}</ref> [[Martial law]] was declared. Sattar was replaced by the retired justice [[A. F. M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury]].

==Death==
Sattar died at the [[Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital|Suhrawardy Hospital]] in Dhaka on 5 October 1985, at the age of 79.<ref name=nytimes />

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{BangladeshPresidents}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sattar, Abdus}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Birbhum district]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Krishak Sramik Party politicians]]
[[Category:Chief Election Commissioners of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Bangladesh Nationalist Party politicians]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Presidents of Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Interior Ministers of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Pakistani MNAs 1955–1958]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Bengalis]]

Abdus Sattar (president) - Revision history

->Worldbruce: filled in ref