Mashiur Rahman (prime minister)

Rahman was an elected member of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1962 and led the assembly as deputy leader of the opposition. He was arrested in 1963 for his involvement in the anti-government movement.

Before the liberation war, in 1971, Rahman formally declared Bangladesh's independence and called for forming an all-party government at a public gathering at Paltan Maidan on 23 March. He became Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani's deputy leader in the National Awami Party in the same period.[3]

Mashiur Rahman in 1954 (centre at back row)

After Bhashani died in 1976, Rahman became the president of the Bhashani faction of the National Awami Party. And in 1978, when he joined the Jatiyotabadi Front (Nationalist Front) with a huge portion of the National Awami Party (Bhashani), the party was dissolved, and remained so until it was revived after almost three decades in 2006 by his eldest son, Shawfikul Ghaani Shawpan.[4] He was a founding convening committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and instrumental in the founding of the party. In the 1979 General Election, he ran and won in the Rangpur-1 seat becoming a Member of Parliament. Despite plans and Ziaur Rahman's wish to appoint him prime minister, following his sudden death on 12 March 1979, Shah Azizur Rahman was appointed to the office on 15 April 1979.[5]

After the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, the post of Prime Minister of Bangladesh was abolished. When Ziaur Rahman, who came to power in November 1975, became the President of Bangladesh on 21 April 1977, a ministerial system was re-established, and Mashiur Rahman served as a senior minister with the rank and status of prime minister in charge of the Ministry of Railways, Roads and Highways of Bangladesh from 29 June 1978 to 12 March 1979.[1][6]