Presidents

List of

President

Late Mr. Md. Abdus Samad Azad

Founding President (1972-1976)

He was elected to Bangladesh’s Parliament five times from 1970 to 2001 and was the political advisor of the Provincial Government of Bangladesh at Mujibnagar during the liberation war. He led the Bangladesh Government delegation to the World Peace Conference in Budapest, Hungary in 1971.He became Honorary President of World Peace Council and also was elected as Chairman of the Commission Peace and security in Asia of the Council in 1973.

Late Mr. Justice Abdus Sattar

President (1977-1983)

Mr. Justice Abdus Sattar was a Bangladeshi statesman and jurist, who served as the 9th President of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the 2nd Vice President of Bangladesh. He had earlier been elected to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1955 and then served as the Home Minister of Pakistan and Education Minister of Pakistan in 1957. Later he was appointed as a Justice in the Dhaka High Court, where he served between 1957 and 1968 and then presided over cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In 1969, President Yahya Khan appointed Mr. Sattar as Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner to prepare for the country’s first general election. Justice Sattar died at the Suhrawardy Hospital in Dhaka on 5 October 1985, at the age of 79 and was buried with full state honours.

Late Mr. Justice Abdus Sattar

President (1977-1983)

Late Mr. Justice F.K.M.A Munim

President (1984-1991)

Late Mr Fazle Kaderi Mohammad Abdul Munim was an eminent Bangladeshi jurist and lawyer, who served as the Chief Justice of Bangladesh (1982-1989) and Chairman of the Law Commission. He was appointed Advocate General of East Pakistan in 1970. In the same year he was elevated to the position of a judge in the Dhaka High Court. After the emergence of Bangladesh Munim was appointed a judge of the High Court but was soon appointed as Secretary of the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and was closely associated with the drafting of the Constitution of Bangladesh. In 1973 he returned to the High Court Division as a judge and was made the Chief Justice of Bangladesh in 1982 and retired from his post in November 1989. On 6 August 1996, he was made the chairman of Bangladesh Law Commission.

Mr. Mirza Ghulam Hafiz

President (1991-1994)

Mirza Ghulam Hafiz (2 January 1920 – 20 December 2000) was a Bangladeshi statesman, politician, and philanthropist. Hafiz was an active organizer of the Bengali Language Movement and in 1954, he was elected to the provincial assembly in Bengal as a representative of the Panchagarh district. He would serve in government positions until Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, a revolution in which he was personally involved (as an honorary colonel in the Bengal Rifles State Guard). Mirza Hafiz was one of the founding members of the Committee for Civil Liberties and Legal Aid which was established to protect the opposition politicians and members of civil society who were facing the persecution from then government of Bangladesh 1974. In 1979, Hafiz was elected to the new Parliament of Bangladesh and was appointed the Minister of Land Management. From 1978 to 1982, he served as the Speaker of the Parliament and was reelected to the Parliament in 1991 and was appointed as the Minister of Law and Justice.

Mr. Mirza Ghulam Hafiz

President (1991-1994)

Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman

President (1994-2014)

Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman was a Bangladeshi educationist, lawyer, jurist and writer. He played a key role in The Bengali Language Movement and later went on to become the Chief Justice of Bangladesh in 1995 and Chief Adviser of the 1996 Caretaker Government which oversaw the seventh parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. He was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1976, and judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 1985. His juristic competence is demonstrated in his opinions and interpretations as pronounced in many of the Bangladesh Supreme Court’s decisions concerning vital issues, such as, admiralty jurisdiction, amendment of the Constitution, citizenship, habeas corpus, administrative tribunals and court jurisdictions. He authored ninety one books authored which cut across a wide array of topics, ranging from law, philosophy and anthropology to language, literature and translations of the holy Q’uran.

Dr. Kamal Hossain

President (2014-present)

Dr. Kamal Hossain is a prominent statesman, politician and lawyer. After the independence of Bangladesh, he served as the Minister of Law (1972–1973), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1973–1975) and Minister of Petroleum and Minerals (1974–1975). One of his earliest tasks as the Minister of Law was the drafting of the Constitution of Bangladesh for which he is regarded as the Father of the Bangladeshi Constitution. Between 1998 and 2003, he served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. He is currently a member of the UN Compensation Commission, Vice Chairman of the International Law Association in London, Chairman of both the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) and Advisory Council member for Transparency International.