Difference between revisions of "Abdus Sattar" - New World Encyclopedia
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| − | He supported the army chief [[Ziaur Rahman]]'s elevation to the presidency in 1977 and was subsequently appointed vice-president of Bangladesh. Vice President Sattar established the organisation of the [[Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal]], a political party composing of Zia's political allies. After Zia's victory in the 1978 elections, Sattar organised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which became one of the largest political parties in the nation winning parliamentary election that year. In 1976, Zia lifted the ban on multi-party politics imposed earlier by Mujib and began a process of transforming his own regime from a military to a cilivilian government. Initially, the [[Islam|Islamic]] parties hoped to form the main opposition to the Awami League, which they criticized for its secularism but Zia played an astute move by introducing some Islamic reforms that appealed "to more devout voters" without shifting his polices from the center ground. He created a ministry for religious affairs, made Religious Studies a compulsory subject and changed the constitution to enshrine "absolute faith and trust in Almight Allah" a guiding principle of the state, replacing secularism.<ref "name=Shastri">Shastri, page 72.</ref> Partly, this was to sideline the Islamist parties. Partly, it helped to attract petro-dollar aid from the oil rich Muslim states but Zia was also interested in improving relations with Pakistan and with the West as well. On the one hand, he wanted to legitimaize his Presidency and establish a civil power base. On the other, he appears to many commentators to have had a genuine desire to democratize. His "reputation for personal honsesty", too, aided this process.<ref "name=Shatri">Shastri, page 72</ref>. The fact that his civilian Vice-President was officially leader of the BNP also suggests a genuine desire to shed his military image, although his own status as a hero of the independence struggle did much for his personal popularity. | + | He supported the army chief [[Ziaur Rahman]]'s elevation to the presidency in 1977 and was subsequently appointed vice-president of Bangladesh. Vice President Sattar established the organisation of the [[Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal]], a political party composing of Zia's political allies. After Zia's victory in the 1978 elections, at Zia's request, Sattar organised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which became one of the largest political parties in the nation winning parliamentary election that year. In 1976, Zia lifted the ban on multi-party politics imposed earlier by Mujib and began a process of transforming his own regime from a military to a cilivilian government. Rathet than align himself with an existing party, Zia chose to found his own. He criticized the existing parties for being out of touch with the masses, promising to "make politics different" by involving the large rural population in his party.<ref "name=Mitra">Hossain, Golam "Bangladesh National Party: From Military Rule to Champion of Democracy", pp 196-219 in Mitra, et al, page 199.</ref>Initially, the [[Islam|Islamic]] parties hoped to form the main opposition to the Awami League, which they criticized for its secularism but Zia played an astute move by introducing some Islamic reforms that appealed "to more devout voters" without shifting his polices from the center ground. He created a ministry for religious affairs, made Religious Studies a compulsory subject and changed the constitution to enshrine "absolute faith and trust in Almight Allah" a guiding principle of the state, replacing secularism.<ref "name=Shastri">Shastri, page 72.</ref> Partly, this was to sideline the Islamist parties. Partly, it helped to attract petro-dollar aid from the oil rich Muslim states but Zia was also interested in improving relations with Pakistan and with the West as well. On the one hand, he wanted to legitimaize his Presidency and establish a civil power base. On the other, he appears to many commentators to have had a genuine desire to democratize. His "reputation for personal honsesty", too, aided this process.<ref "name=Shatri">Shastri, page 72</ref>. The fact that his civilian Vice-President was officially leader of the BNP also suggests a genuine desire to shed his military image, although his own status as a hero of the independence struggle did much for his personal popularity. |
| − | Under Zia and Vice-President Sattar, Economic progress was made. Zia and his vice-president also attempted, with some success, to tackle corrution.<ref "name=Obesrt">Oberst, page 255.</ref>. Under Sattar's oversight, the BNP became a effective political machine | + | Under Zia and Vice-President Sattar, Economic progress was made. Zia and his vice-president also attempted, with some success, to tackle corrution.<ref "name=Obesrt">Oberst, page 255.</ref>. Under Sattar's oversight, the BNP became a effective political machine, it "spread its branches and affiliated bodies among students, youths, labor, women and peasants."<ref "name=Mitra>Hossain in Mitra, et al, page 199</ref>. |
| + | |||
| + | According to Hossain, this effective party organization under Sattar delivered Zia his victory in the 1979 elections, which he consideres to have been free and fair. The authoritarian record of the Awami League was contrasted with the promise of genuine participation and democracy under a BNP government. The "soldier turned politican advocated unfettered democratic rights, participation of the masses at all levels of government, production-oriented exonomy, peace and security".<ref>Hossain in Mitra, et el page 201</ref> | ||
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Revision as of 23:15, 9 August 2008
Justice Abdus Sattar (1906 - October 5, 1985) was a Bangladeshi jurist and politician who served as the 9th president of Bangladesh following the assassination of Ziaur Rahman from May 30 1981 until March 24 1982. He had previously served as Zia's vice-president from June 3rd, 1977. Elected to the Pakistan parliament in 1955 he was briefly minister for home affairs and education before his appoitment as a Judge of the High Court of East Pakistan in 1957. In 1967 he was promoted to the Supreme Court. When Pakistan's military ruler, Yahya Khan called election in 1970, Sattar played a key role as chief election commissioner. East Pakistan's Awami League emerged as the single largest party but was prevented from forming a government, precipitatying East Pakistan's secession as Bangladesh. After several years within the private sector, Sattar became Special Assistant to the President in 1975 responsible for the ministry of law and parliamentary affairs. Sattar organised, then led, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) although "Zia was the real leader"[1] which won the parliamentary election of 1979, which has been described as "mostly free and fair"[2][3]
Automatically acting president after Zia's assassination, Sattar stood for the presidency as the nominee of the BNP against the Awami League candidate and won with a majority of 65.5 percent.[4]This peaceful transition of leadership via the ballot box by which a military ruler was succeeded aby a civikian nominated by his own party has been described as "a unique development in the political-military systems in Bangladesh as well as in the Third World".[5]Unfortunately, his health was failing, the BNP was rife with internal squabbles and the chief of the army, Hossain Mohammad Ershad was demanding a role in governance. When Sattar refused to oblige, accusing the government of corruption and inefficiency, Ershad seized power. In doing so, he followed a tradition of military intervention inheritted from Pakistan. Sattar died in 1985, so did not live to see Ershad imprisoned for corruption followed by the election of a BNP government led by Khaleda Zia. Committed to peace and stability for his young nation, Sattar may have been better suited to running a department of government than to the role of head of state. Arguably, however, he played an important part role in Bangladesh by helping to establish a party that has subsequently played a key role in the democratization process.[6]Sattar spent his life in public-service and, though briefly, rose to his nation's highest office. Unlike others, he did not line his own pockets, or attract accusations of corruption.
Early life
Abdus Sattar was born in 1906 in the village of Daraka in the Birbhum District of the province of Bengal (now in West Bengal, India). Sattar obtained a master's degree in political science and a law degree from the University of Calcutta and joined the bar at the court in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He entered politics by joining the Krishak Praja Party of Bengali politician A. K. Fazlul Huq. He entered the bar of the Kolkata High Court in 1941. He served as councillor of the Calcutta City Corporation (1939) and a member of the Calcutta Improvmeent Tribunal (1940-42) and the chief executive officer of the city corporation (1945). He also joined the Muslim League and supported the Pakistan movement.
Political career
After the partition of India, Sattar moved to Dhaka in East Pakistan in 1950 and joined the Dhaka High Court. He joined the Awami Muslim League of Fazlul Huq and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1953 and was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1955. Sattar was appointed minister of home affairs and education in the short-lived cabinet of prime minister Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar (1957). After the dismissal of the government, Sattar was appointed justice at the Dhaka High Court, serving from 1957 to 1968. In 1968 he was appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of Pakistan and became the chief election commissioner of Pakistan from 1969 to 1972. Appointed to the key post of Chief Election Commissioner, Sattar was responsible for supervising the 1970 elections, which led to a major political crisis between East Pakistan's Awami League, the Pakistan Peoples Party of West Pakistan and the military ruler Yahya Khan. The Awami League emerged as the single largest party but with no seats in West Pakistan, where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's PPP was the largest party with no seats in the East. Yahya Khan refused to allow Mujib to form the government, which would have ended the historical hegenomy and exploitation of East Pakistan by West Pakistan and, when Mujib in turn refused to compromise by accepting a power-sharing arrangement with Bhutto, Bangladesh began its war for independence.
As the war began (March, 1971) Justice Sattar was called in Islamabad in May 1971. He refused to serve the government of Pakistan and was immediately put under house arrest. He and the family remained under house arrest until his escape to Bangladesh, via Afghanistan, in 1973. Upon his arrival, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman now Prime Minister of the new state asked him to join the Awami League government, which he respectfully declined. Upon the Prime Minister's request to serve the newly independent country in some fashion, he agreed to serve as chairman of the Bangladesh Jiban Bima Corporation (Bangladesh Life Insurance Corporation), the Journalist Wage Board and the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs for the next two years. Following the military coup on November 7, 1975 Sattar was appointed special adviser to the president Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, later succeeding to the ministry of law and parliamentary affairs.
Vice-Presidency
He supported the army chief Ziaur Rahman's elevation to the presidency in 1977 and was subsequently appointed vice-president of Bangladesh. Vice President Sattar established the organisation of the Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal, a political party composing of Zia's political allies. After Zia's victory in the 1978 elections, at Zia's request, Sattar organised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which became one of the largest political parties in the nation winning parliamentary election that year. In 1976, Zia lifted the ban on multi-party politics imposed earlier by Mujib and began a process of transforming his own regime from a military to a cilivilian government. Rathet than align himself with an existing party, Zia chose to found his own. He criticized the existing parties for being out of touch with the masses, promising to "make politics different" by involving the large rural population in his party.[7]Initially, the Islamic parties hoped to form the main opposition to the Awami League, which they criticized for its secularism but Zia played an astute move by introducing some Islamic reforms that appealed "to more devout voters" without shifting his polices from the center ground. He created a ministry for religious affairs, made Religious Studies a compulsory subject and changed the constitution to enshrine "absolute faith and trust in Almight Allah" a guiding principle of the state, replacing secularism.[8] Partly, this was to sideline the Islamist parties. Partly, it helped to attract petro-dollar aid from the oil rich Muslim states but Zia was also interested in improving relations with Pakistan and with the West as well. On the one hand, he wanted to legitimaize his Presidency and establish a civil power base. On the other, he appears to many commentators to have had a genuine desire to democratize. His "reputation for personal honsesty", too, aided this process.[9]. The fact that his civilian Vice-President was officially leader of the BNP also suggests a genuine desire to shed his military image, although his own status as a hero of the independence struggle did much for his personal popularity.
Under Zia and Vice-President Sattar, Economic progress was made. Zia and his vice-president also attempted, with some success, to tackle corrution.[10]. Under Sattar's oversight, the BNP became a effective political machine, it "spread its branches and affiliated bodies among students, youths, labor, women and peasants."[11].
According to Hossain, this effective party organization under Sattar delivered Zia his victory in the 1979 elections, which he consideres to have been free and fair. The authoritarian record of the Awami League was contrasted with the promise of genuine participation and democracy under a BNP government. The "soldier turned politican advocated unfettered democratic rights, participation of the masses at all levels of government, production-oriented exonomy, peace and security".[12]
President of Bangladesh
Ziaur Rahman was assassinated on May 30, 1981 in an abortive military coup instigated by Major General Abul Manzur in Chittagong. Sattar assumed the presidency and suppressed the coup as he was able to retain the support of the Bangladesh Army. He led the BNP to a major victory in the elections held in 1982. However, dissatisfaction amongst senior military officers led to a coup by the army chief Lt. Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad on March 24. Sattar was briefly arrested by Ershad's regime but released after a few months. He died in Dhaka on October 5, 1985.
See also
| Preceded by: Ziaur Rahman |
President of Bangladesh 30 May 1981–24 March 1982 |
Succeeded by: A.F.M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury |
Template:BangladeshPresidents
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Chowdhury, Mahfuzul H. 2003. Democratization in South Asia: lessons from American institutions. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754634232
- Mendis, Dushyantha. 2008. Electoral processes and governance in South Asia. New Delhi: Sage Publications. ISBN 9780761935773
- Mitra, Subrata Kumar, Mike Enskat, and Clemens Spiess. 2004. Political parties in South Asia. Political parties in context. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 9780275968328
- Oberst, Robert C.; Kennedy, Charles H.; Malik, Yogendra K.; Lawoti, Mahendra. 2008. Government And Politics In South Asia: Sixth Edition. Westview Press. ISBN 9780813343891
- Shastri, Amita, and A. Jeyaratnam Wilson. 2001. The post-colonial states of South Asia: democracy, identity, development, and security. Richmond, Surry: Curzon. ISBN 9780700712922
- Wolpert, Stanley A. 1977. A new history of India. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195021530
External Links
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- ↑ Oberst, page 277.
- ↑ Mitra, page 202.
- ↑ Other sources refer to widespread allegations of vote rigging;see Mendis, page 57; see Shastri, page 72 and Chowdhury, page 37 but there is no evidence that Sattar was personally involved in this.
- ↑ Chowdhury, page 37.
- ↑ Mitra, page 202.
- ↑ Mitra, page 21.
- ↑ Hossain, Golam "Bangladesh National Party: From Military Rule to Champion of Democracy", pp 196-219 in Mitra, et al, page 199.
- ↑ Shastri, page 72.
- ↑ Shastri, page 72
- ↑ Oberst, page 255.
- ↑ Hossain in Mitra, et al, page 199
- ↑ Hossain in Mitra, et el page 201
