Shahabuddin Ahmed

Shahabuddin Ahmed (1 February 1930 – 19 March 2022) was a Bangladeshi jurist and statesman who served as chief justice of Bangladesh from 1990 to 1995 and as president twice: as acting president in 1990–91, heading the interim government that held the February 1991 general election, and for a full term from 1996 to 2001. ^{1 2}

Ahmed was born at Pemai village, in what is now Kendua, Netrokona District, the son of Talukdar Resat Ahmed Bhuiyan, a philanthropist. He entered the University of Dhaka in 1948, taking a bachelor's degree in economics in 1951 and a master's in international relations in 1952, and attended a special course in public administration at the University of Oxford. ¹

He joined the Civil Service of Pakistan in 1954, trained at the Lahore Civil Services Academy and at Oxford, and served as a magistrate and sub-divisional officer before transferring to the judicial branch in 1960. He sat as a district and sessions judge, served as registrar of the High Court at Dhaka from 1967, was elevated to the High Court bench on 20 January 1972, and joined the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 1980. He chaired the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society from 1978 to 1982 and set up rural hospitals and maternity centres under its auspices. ¹

Appointed chief justice on 14 January 1990, Ahmed was made vice-president on 6 December 1990, the day the mass uprising against President Ershad culminated; Ershad resigned the same day and Ahmed became acting president, chosen by all political parties to head a neutral interim government. After the election of 27 February 1991 he handed power to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, resigned the presidency on 9 October 1991 and returned to the chief justiceship, retiring on 1 February 1995. ¹

Elected president unopposed on 23 July 1996 as the Awami League government's nominee, he was sworn in on 9 October 1996 and retired on 14 November 2001. When the Awami League lost the 2001 elections, Sheikh Hasina dubbed him a "betrayer"; he replied, as the article quotes him, "I am an angel if anything is done according to their desire, otherwise I am a devil." ¹

Ahmed was married to Anowara Begum; they had two sons and three daughters. A lake park in Gulshan, Dhaka, was named the Rastrapati Bicharpati Shahabuddin Ahmed Park in his honour in 2008. Admitted to intensive care at the Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka, in February 2022 with an age-related illness, he died there on 19 March 2022, aged 92. ^{1 2}

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