A career politician in Bangabhaban, after a long time

As many as 15 persons have become the President of Bangladesh in the last four decades since independence, but Mohammad Zillur Rahman is the only one after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was a full time politician-cum-President.

A veteran politician who was an Awami League Presidium Member, Zillur took to politics during his student days.

After holding different important posts of the Awami League, he took over as the country's 19th President on Feb 12, 2009 after being elected uncontested.

He breathed his last at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on Wednesday afternoon after fighting for life for 11 days.

Rahman was a close associate of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu, a family friend, and one of the organisers of the country's Liberation War.

Bangabandhu’s elder daughter and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina used to call him "Zillur chacha (uncle)”. He acted as a mentor of the Awami League party.

In fact, he was a father figure for the entire political class.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia positively responded to a call from Zillur for talks on reorganisation of the Election Commission – a rare example of bi-partisan agreement and action.

Rahman was also an example of loyalty to his party leadership. He always stood by the Awami League during its tough days at great personal sacrifices. The Awami League President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman picked up Zillur as the party’s General Secretary after independence in recognition of his commitment.

Two decades later, Hasina also placed her confidence in him after the Awami League won the 1996 general election.

It is Zillur Rahman who led the Awami League during its critical time after the 1/11 political changeover in 2007 when the then military-installed emergency government imprisoned Hasina.

In a condolence message, Prime Minister Hasina stated that countrymen would always remember his contributions at every stage of the nation's life after its emergence in 1971.

“It’s Zillur Rahman who steered the party during the 1/11 crisis period, and in the end the Awami League freed me from jail under his dynamic leadership.”

Zillur was born in a respectable Muslim family in the present Bhairab upazila of Kishoreganj district on Mar 9, 1929.

A lawyer by profession, Rahman won five parliamentary polls in independent Bangladesh from his Kishoreganj (Kuliarchar-Bhairab) constituency. Apart from the ninth parliamentary polls he had also won in 1973, 1986, 1996 and 2001.

His son Nazmul Hasan Papon was elected MP from the constituency in the by-polls after Zillur was elected President in 2009.

Rahman passed Matriculation from Bhairab KB High School in 1945 and later obtained Intermediate of Arts certificate from Dhaka Intermediate College, now renamed as Dhaka College.

In 1954, he got his MA with Honours in History and LLB degree from the University of Dhaka. He played an active role in the Language Movement of 1952.

Though he was a lawyer by profession, his interest lay in politics. He was elected the Awami League President of Kishoreganj Mahkuma (present district unit).

Rahman was elected General Secretary of the Dhaka District Lawyers’ Association in the early 1960s, but he preferred the streets to strengthen the anti-Ayub Khan movement.

He was seen wearing the lawyer’s gown instead of his trademark ‘Mujib coat’ in the makeshift special court set up in the parliament complex to free Hasina from jail in 2007.

His active involvement in anti-martial law movement in 1962, the Six-Point movement in 1966 and mass uprising in the streets of Dhaka in 1969 helped him secure nomination from the Awami League during the 1970 general election.

Later, Rahman actively took part in the Liberation War that began in March 1971. He was involved with the broadcast activities of ‘Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra’ and publication of the ‘Joy Bangla’ newspaper.

After independence Zillur was elected as the General Secretary of Awami League for the period 1972-74 in the first general council of the party in 1972.

After discharging different duties, he was again re-elected Awami League General Secretary. He was the party’s Presidium Council Member for long.

He became the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister after Sheikh Hasina formed government in 1996. Apart from being a minister, he was also the Deputy Leader in Parliament until 2001.

He was also Deputy Leader in Parliament in the ninth Parliament in January 2009. Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury replaced him after he was elected President.

His personal life was also linked to politics. He met Ivy Rahman, his wife coming from an aristocrat family, through party activism and romance bloomed. It was Bangabandhu who played the matchmaker.

Ivy was also known as an active politician and a front line leader in the women’s movement. Ivy, then Women Affairs Secretary of Awami League, died from injuries sustained in the gruesome grenade attack on a Awami League rally in Dhaka on Aug 21, 2004, leaving behind only son Papon and two daughters Tania Rahman and Tonima Bakht.

Zillur was devastated at Ivy’s death, but he did not give up active politics.

Though many senior politicians changed their stance during the political crisis and state emergency period at the end of 2006, Zillur’s commitment to the party never wavered.