Ziaur Rahman
In 1936-1981 President
of Bangladesh, Chief of Army Staff, leading freedom fighter, who
declared the Independence of Bangladesh. Ziaur Rahman was born on l9 January
1936 at Bagbari in Bogra.
His father Mansur
Rahman was a chemist working in a government department in Calcutta. His early childhood was spent partly in the rural area of
Bogra and partly in Calcutta. After the partition of India (1947), when his father was transferred to Karachi, Zia had to leave the Hare School in Calcutta and became a student of the Academy School in Karachi. He completed his secondary education from that School in
1952. In 1953, he got himself admitted into the D.J. College in Karachi. In the same year he joined the Pakistan
Military Academy at Kakul as an officer cadet.
Shahid Ziaur Rahman was
commissioned in 1955 as a second lieutenant. He served there for two years, and
in 1957, he was transferred to East Bengal Regiment. He also worked in the
military intelligence department from 1959 to 1964. In the Indo-Pakistan War of
1965 he made his mark as a valiant fighter in the Khemkaran sector as the
commander of a company, and incidentally, his company was one of those which
were offered maximum gallantry awards for heroic performances in the war. He was
appointed a professional instructor in the Pakistan
Military Academy in 1966. In the same year he was sent to the Staff College in Quetta for attending a command course. In 1969, he joined the
Second East Bengal Regiment as its second-in-command at Joydevpur. He was sent
to West Germany for higher training. On his return home in 1970 Ziaur
Rahman, then a major, was transferred to Eighth East Bengal Regiment at Chittagong as its second in command.
After the military
crackdown since the night of 25 March 1971 sheikh mujibur rahman was arrested and the political
leaders dispersed. The people were at a loss. At this crucial moment when the
political leadership failed to give any direction, the Eighth East Bengal
Regiment under the leadership of Major Ziaur Rahman revolted against the
Pakistan Army and took up the Bangladesh flag as its mainstay on the night between 26 and 27 March 1971. Then he took up the momentous decision of declaring the
Independence of Bangladesh. Ziaur Rahman and his troops were in the forefront
of the War of Independence. Major Zia and the armed forces under his command
kept the Chittagong and Noakhali areas under control for a few days and went
across the border for further preparations.
Ziaur Rahman played a
brilliant role in the War of Liberation both at the level of planning and
execution. As the commander of Sector I up to June 1971, later on as the head
of Z-Force, Ziaur Rahman distinguished himself as a brave warrior and was offered
the gallantry award of Bir Uttam.
After the most
creditable performances during the nine-month war, he was appointed brigade
commander in Comilla. In June 1972, he was made Deputy Chief of Staff of the
armed forces of Bangladesh. In the middle of 1973, he became a Brigadier, and a Major
General by the end of the year. When Khondakar Moshtaq Ahmad assumed the office
of the presidency, Ziaur Rahman became the chief of army staff on 25 August 1975. When Khaled Mosharraf with the support of the Dhaka
Brigade under the command of Shafat Jamil staged a coup d'etat on 3 November 1975, Ziaur Rahman was forced to resign his command and was put
under house arrest. The Sepoy-Janata Biplob of 7 November, however, took
him to the centre of political power. In fact, he had to assume the
responsibility of managing the affairs of Bangladesh on the crest of the Sepoy-Janata Biplob.
On 7 November 1975, Ziaur Rahman was proclaimed the Chief Martial Law
Administrator. In a meeting at the army headquarters on the same day, a new
administrative set-up for the running of an interim government was arranged
with Justice Sayem as the Chief Martial Law Administrator and the three service
chiefs, Major General Zia, Air Vice Marshal MG Tawab and Rear Admiral MH Khan,
as Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrators. Ziaur Rahman became Chief Martial
Law Administrator on 19 November 1976,
when Justice Sayem relinquished his position and ultimately, the President of
Bangladesh on 21 April 1977,
when President Sayem resigned.
After assuming office
as head of the state Ziaur Rahman issued a proclamation order amending the
Constitution to insert Bismiliah-ir-Rahmanir Rahim (In the name of
Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful) in the Preamble of the Constitution. In
Article 8(1) and 8(1A) the principle of 'absolute trust and faith in the
Almighty Allah has been added. In Article 8(1), socialism has been defined as
'economic and social justice'. In Article 25(2) it has also been provided that
"the state shall endeavour to consolidate, preserve and strengthen
fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity."
Ziaur Rahman introduced
and popularised the new concept of Bangladeshi nationalism. He believed that in
a plural society like Bangladesh where people are of diverse ethnicity and where they
profess different faiths, have different cultural traits and various
lifestyles, nationalism should better be conceptualised in terms of territory
rather than language or culture. This is what he emphasised upon. Bangladeshi
nationalism took firm root and shape as a unifying force with its emphasis on
national unity and integration of all citizens of Bangladesh irrespective of caste, creed, gender, culture, religion
and ethnicity.
Assuming power, Zia
immediately moved to restore law and order in the country and for the purpose
strengthened the police force, practically doubling its size from 40,000 to
70,000 and arranging for their proper training. He also restored order in the
armed forces. For the purpose, he took certain steps for the development of
professionalism in them through rigorous training and restoring discipline. He
expanded their strength substantially from less than 50,000 in 1974-75 to about
90,000 in 1976-77. Although Zia was successful in restoring discipline within
the armed forces, he had to confront a number of mutinies and attempted coups
forcing him to adopt certain stern actions against those who had taken part in
those uprisings.
A believer in democracy
Zia moved as fast as he could to democratise the polity by re-instituting the
institution of election either for enabling a political party to assume power
or for transferring it to other political party peacefully. As a first step,
that is why, he allowed the disbanded political parties to be revived and
political activities to be carried on once again. Having that in view, he also
disallowed the ban on the newspapers and inaugurated the free flow of news by
making the news media free. For the same purpose, he re -instituted the
independence of judiciary as the bulwark of rights of the people. The
prevailing situation persuaded him to take part in active politics so that he
could establish democratic order in the country. In February 1978 he floated
Jatiyatabadi Ganatantric Dal with Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar as its
head. Zia himself became the nominee of the Nationalist Front consisting of six
political parties in the presidential election. He won a comprehensive victory
by securing 76.67% of the votes.
On 1 September 1978, a new political party, bangladesh nationalist party (BNP), was launched with
Zia as its chairman. The parliamentary elections were held in February 1979 and
BNP won 207 seats out of 300. On 1 April 1979,
the first session of the jatiya sangsad was
convened. On 9 April, martial law was lifted after the enactment of the Fifth
Amendment.
President Zia's dynamic
economic policy laid emphasis on private sector development. A new development
strategy designed to encourage the private entrepreneurs, both local and
foreign, and to promote agricultural development through massive subsidies to
the farmers was initiated. The process of handing over nationalised industries
to their former owners began. Promotion of export of conventional and
non-conventional goods became a national priority. Food production reached a
new height and Bangladesh began exporting rice.
To bring in dynamism in
his action plan Zia put forward a 19-point programme, and that was designed to
bring rapid socio-economic transformation in the country. The main thrust of
the programme was self-reliance and rural uplift through people's
participation. Its primary objectives were accelerated agricultural growth,
population control, self-sufficiency in food, decentralisation of
administration and greater incentives to the private sector. It was designed to
meet the basic needs of the people and special needs of women, youths and
workers, and it aimed at establishing a political order based on social
justice.
For bringing rapid
socio-economic transformation in the country, President Zia transformed the
politics of the country into a production-oriented one. He chalked out
programmes of action for the purpose, terming these as revolutions and motivated
his party men to realise those programmes through their devotion and
commitment. The first of those was canal digging, and it was designed to supply
adequate water to the farmers, especially during the lean season. The second
was to remove illiteracy from the society so that an air of enlightenment might
prevail all around using both formal and non-formal techniques all over the
country. Moreover, motivational programmes were set on for the enhancement of
productions both in the field and factories. The initiation of family planning programme, revolutionary as it was, was
designed to stabilise population at a level which might be termed as optimum
from the economic point of view. The institution of Gram Sarker aimed at
enlisting the support of the people for a self-reliant Bangladesh, which president Zia advocated. Zia began executing his
programme in right earnest and beneficial results were in sight. The excavation
and re-excavation of more than 1,500 canals in a year and a half, record
production of food grains in two successive years (1976-77 and 1977-78), an
average annual GDP growth of 6.4% during 1975-78, a vigorous mass education
campaign, introduction of village government (Gram Sarkar) and Village Defence
Party (VDP) made deep impression in the minds of the people.
Having the objectives
of establishing good neighbourly relations with India and other South Asian
countries on equal footing Zia started bringing in changes first at the
internal setting through resurgence of nationalistic aspirations of the people
and then by stabilising countervailing forces at the regional and international
levels.
The foreign policy
goals were thus devised anew, and dynamic international relations were set on with
a view to preventing Bangladesh from hurtling down to the abyss of dependence. At the
regional level, Bangladesh developed a pattern of mutuality with such states as Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Maldives along with India so much so that it ultimately led to the forging of
regional co-operation in the region for the first time in its history.
At the international
level, Bangladesh, then a lonely sojourner, picked up friends from both the
right, centre and left and established a kind of viable comradeship amongst
them. Bangladesh was lifted from the dead end of the Indo-Soviet axis and
Indian hegemonic circle. Bangladesh came closer to the Muslim world of more than fifty states,
which began to take fresh look at Bangladesh and its problems. One of the superpowers of the time
became a good friend of Bangladesh, though its role was not people-friendly during the
Liberation War. Bangladesh developed a good working relation with China. South East Asian countries were drawn closer. The distant
Europe remained no longer disinterested in the affairs of Bangladesh.
Through certain
creative moves, he drew Bangladesh into the world of the liberal west, the fraternal middle
East and West Asia, and the rising South
East Asia. He attended many
international conferences and visited dozens of countries to promote the cause
of the nation's multilateral and bilateral relations. The dividend was rich. Bangladesh was elected to the Security Council in one of its
non-permanent seats in 1978, and became actively involved in the activities of
the UN members. In the middle East and West Asia Bangladesh emerged as a
forceful actor. It was President Zia who conceived of the idea of, and
initiated actions for, regional co-operation is South Asia.
For the purpose, he visited these countries during 1979-80 to speak of the need
to develop a framework for mutual co-operation. south
asian association for regional cooperation (SAARC) was the
outcome of his efforts, which was formally launched in Dhaka in
1985. Zia did not survive to see his dream come true. He was assassinated in Chittagong on 30 May 1981 in
an abortive army coup. He lies buried at Sher-e-Banglanagar, Dhaka.
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