The 150th birth anniversary of country’s great politician and renowned lawyer Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq, who is known as Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal) AK Fazlul Huq, is today (October 26).
Different socio-cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the birth anniversary of the longest Prime Minister of Bengal during the British period.
On the occasion, Sher-e-Bangla Smriti Parishad and National Committee for Sher-e-Bangla’s 150th Birth Anniversary will hold various programmes in Dhaka and some other parts of the country.
Members of the platforms will pay homage to the national leader of the undivided Bengal by placing wreath at his grave in the city in the morning. Later, a milad and doa mahfil will be held on the premises of the grave. A discussion will also be held in the city in the afternoon.
On this day in 1873, Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq was born at his maternal uncle’s house at Saturia village in the-then Bakerganj district, now Jhalakathi, in Barisal Division. He was the only son of Kazi Muhammad Wazed and Sayeedunnesa.
AK Fazlul Huq held important political offices in the subcontinent. He was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council and appointed as the education minister in 1924.
In 1935, with the backing of Congress, Sher-e-Bangla was elected mayor of Calcutta, the first Muslim mayor of the city.
In 1943, he was elected prime minister of Bengal during the British empire. He moved the famous Lahore Resolution in 1940. In 1955, AK Fazlul Huq was the home minister of Pakistan and from 1956 to 1958, governor of East Pakistan.
Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq passed the entrance examination in 1890 from Barishal Zila School and the FA Examination in 1892. He then obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree (with triple honours in chemistry, mathematics and physics) from Presidency College.
Later, he got admitted in Master of Arts (MA) in English at Calcutta University. Just six months before the final examination, a friend of his father teased him that Muslims were weak in Mathematics and that was why AK Fazlul Huq was studying English.
He opposed it strongly and challenged him that he would sit for Mathematics examination instead of English. With special permission to attend the examination he passed the MA in Mathematics from the university with distinction.
His formal education was completed with a law degree in 1897 from the University Law College.
AK Fazlul Huq died in 1962 and was buried on the grounds near Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka.
