Abu Sayeed Chowdhury: Difference between revisions

{{EngvarB|date=March 2022}}

| name               = Abu Sayeed Chowdhury

| native_name         = আবু সাঈদ চৌধুরী

| native_name_lang   = bn

| image               = Abu Sayeed Chowdhury at the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Dacca University, November 1970.png

| office             = 41st Chairman of the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]]

| term_start         =  

| term_end           =  

| predecessor         = [[Pieter Kooijmans]]

| successor           = Héctor Charry-Samper

| office1             = 3rd [[Foreign Minister of Bangladesh]]

| president1         = [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]]

| term_start1         = August 1975

| term_end1           = November 1975<ref>{{cite web | title = List of Former Ministers/ Advisers | url = http://www.mofa.gov.bd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=97|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717120230/http://www.mofa.gov.bd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=97|archive-date=17 July 2015|access-date=1 November 2017|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs}}</ref>

| predecessor1       = [[Kamal Hossain]]

| successor1         = [[Muhammad Shamsul Haque]]

| office2             = [[President of Bangladesh]]

| primeminister2     = Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

| term_start2         = 12 January 1972

| term_end2           = 24 December 1973<ref>{{cite web |title=Leaders of Bangladesh |url=http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/bangladh.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728183807/http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/bangladh.htm |archive-date=28 July 2022}}</ref>

| predecessor2       = Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

| successor2         = [[Mohammad Mohammadullah]]

| office3             = 1st Bangladesh High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

| term_start3         = 1 August 1971

| term_end3           = 8 January 1972

| president3         = Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

| successor3         = S.A. Sultan

| office4             = Vice Chancellor of the [[University of Dhaka]]

| term_start4         = 2 December 1969

| term_end4           = 20 January 1972

| successor5         = [[Syed Sajjad Hussain]]

| predecessor5       = [[M Osman Ghani]]

| parents             = Abdul Hamid Chowdhury

| education           = {{ublist|[[Bindu Basini Govt. Boys' High School]]|[[Presidency University, Kolkata]]|[[University of Calcutta]]|}}

| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1921|1|31}}

| birth_place         = [[Kalihati Upazila]], [[Tangail District]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]

| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1987|8|2|1921|1|31}}

| death_place         = London, England

| party               = [[Bangladesh Awami League|Awami League]]

Chowdhury was born on 31 January 1921 in a Zamindar family of Nagbari in [[Tangail District]].<ref name=bpedia/> His father Abdul Hamid Chowdhury apart from being a Zamindar become the speaker of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly later on in his life. He was given the title "Khan Bahadur" by the British Empire, a title which he later renounced to give his voice to the movement against British atrocities and the British Empire.{{Citation needed|date= June 2022}}

Chowdhury 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 in 1948.<ref name=bpedia/> In 1960, he was appointed as the advocate general of [[East Pakistan]]. He was elevated to the post of Additional Judge of the Dhaka High Court on 7 July 1961 by the then [[Ayub Khan (President of Pakistan)|Pakistani President Ayub Khan]] and was confirmed as judge of the Dhaka High Court after two years. He had been a member of the Constitution Commission (1960–61) and chairman of the Bengali Development Board (1963–1968).

Chowdhury was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the [[University of Dhaka]] in 1969.<ref name=bpedia/> In 1971, while in Geneva he resigned from the post as a protest against the genocide in East Pakistan by the Pakistan army.<ref name=death/> From Geneva he went to the UK and became the special envoy of the provisional [[Provisional Government of Bangladesh|Mujibnagar Government]]. An umbrella organisation, ''The Council for the People's Republic of Bangladesh in UK'' was formed on 24 April 1971 in Coventry, UK, by the expatriate Bengalis, and a five-member steering committee of the council was elected by them. He was the High Commissioner for the People's Republic of Bangladesh, London from 1 August 1971 to 8 January 1972.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bhclondon.org.uk/list%20of%20HE.htm |title=List of the High Commissioner |website=High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, London |access-date=3 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707131628/http://www.bhclondon.org.uk/list%20of%20HE.htm |archive-date=7 July 2022}}</ref>

Chowdhury died of a heart attack in London on 2 August 1987 and was buried in his village, Nagbari of Tangail.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/03/obituaries/abu-sayeed-chowdhury-66-was-president-of-bangladesh.html|title = Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, 66; Was President of Bangladesh|date = 3 August 1987|newspaper = The New York Times|agency=AP|issn = 0362-4331|access-date = 21 March 2022}}</ref>