Ambassador MM Rezaul Karim passes away in Cairo

Dhaka, Oct 29 (BDNEWS) – Bangladesh's Ambassador to Egypt and Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's foreign affairs adviser MM Rezaul Karim passes away in Cairo Saturday, family sources here in Dhaka said.

"He died following a heart attack at 4pm Bangladesh time and Egyptian time at 1pm," Rouf Chowdhury, a cousin of the career-diplomat told BDNEWS in Dhaka.

Karim went to Cairo on August 23 this year with his last assignment of life as Ambassador on a contractual basis.

Karim was born in 1935 at Mirzanagar village in Mirpur police station in Kushtia.

He was the acting High Commissioner in London during the War of Liberation.

Razab Ali, secretary of Karim here in Dhaka, said his (Karim's) son and daughter left Dhaka for Cairo after hearing the news of his death.

Rezaul Karim served as High Commissioner and Ambassador to a number of countries, including UK and Sri Lanka, China, Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq.

He attended a number of UN and international conferences, including UN General Assembly Sessions, Commonwealth Head of the Government Meetings, Non-aligned Summits, Organisation of Islamic Conference Meetings, South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation Summit and others.

Karim acted as an international observer during the parliamentary election in Sri Lanka in 1994, in the Cameroon in 1997 and in Pakistan in 2002. He delivered lectures at Oxford, Cambridge, London, Tufts and other Universities as well as at the Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies in several countries.

Karim had obtained BA (Hons) in Economics from Dhaka University, Master in Public Administration from Karachi University and another MA degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, which runs in collaboration with Harvard University.

He was a multi-lingual and was fluent in English, Bengali and French, and acquired working knowledge in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Farsi and Russian. He was also a newspaper columnist and written books on contemporary political developments.

He was chairman of the PKSF, the apex micro-credit provider in the country, and President of the Rotary Club of Gulshan.

Rezaul Karim was the President of the Commonwealth Society of Bangladesh as well as Honorary Advisor to the UNCHR of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh-China People's Friendship Society, the Russia-Bangladesh Federation of Chamber of Commerce, the Democracy Watch and the South Asian Forum of Bangladesh.

BDNEWS/1939 hrs