Mohammed Shahabuddin

Mohammed Shahabuddin (born 10 December 1949), also known by his nickname Chuppu, is a Bangladeshi politician, former jurist and journalist who served as president of Bangladesh from 24 April 2023 until he stepped down on 24 July 2026 citing ill health. He is the only president to have administered the oath of office to three successive governments. ^{1 2}

Shahabuddin was born in the Jubilee Tank area of Shivrampur, Pabna District, in what was then East Bengal, Dominion of Pakistan, to Sharfuddin Ansari and Khairunnessa. He passed his school and college examinations at Pabna, took a master's degree in psychology from the University of Rajshahi in 1974 and an LL.B. from Shahid Aminuddin Law College in 1975. ¹

A student leader of the Awami League's student and youth wings in Pabna in the late 1960s, he fought in the Liberation War and was imprisoned for three years after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. He worked as a journalist for the Daily Banglar Bani from 1980 to 1982, then joined the judicial cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service, rising to district and sessions judge; he served as general secretary of the Bangladesh Judicial Service Association in 1995 and 1996. From 2011 to 2016 he was a commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, and from 2017 to 2023 an independent director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited. ¹

Nominated by the Awami League, Shahabuddin was the only candidate in the 2023 presidential election and was sworn in on 24 April 2023. After the Non-cooperation movement forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation on 5 August 2024, he dissolved parliament, ordered the release of Khaleda Zia from house arrest, and on 8 August swore in Muhammad Yunus as chief adviser of an interim government; a public dispute followed over whether he had ever received Hasina's resignation letter, which he first described as undocumented and later called a settled matter. He administered the oath to Tarique Rahman's cabinet on 17 February 2026 after the thirteenth general election. ¹

In July 2026, intelligence-agency reports, which Shahabuddin rejected as false, alleged backchannel contacts with the exiled former prime minister during a medical trip to London. On 24 July 2026, under mounting political pressure, he stepped down, citing incapacitation from autonomic neuropathy, heart disease and diabetes; the Speaker, Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, assumed the duties of acting president, and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was subsequently elected to the office. These events are reported as the article recounts them, with the contested allegations attributed. ^{1 2}

Shahabuddin has been married since 1972 to Rebecca Sultana, a former joint secretary of the government of Bangladesh; they have one son, Arshad Adnan. A park in Pabna was named in his honour in 2020. ¹

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