ABDUS SATTAR, EX-LEADER OF BANGLADESH, DIES (Published 1985)
- ️Sun Oct 06 1985
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- Oct. 6, 1985
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Abdus Sattar, the only elected civilian president in Bangladesh's 13-year history, died yesterday in the Suhrawardy Hospital in Dhaka. He was 79 years old and was admitted to the hospital last month with heart and kidney problems.
Mr. Sattar was buried with full military honors by the Government of President H. M. Ershad, the general who deposed Mr. Sattar five months after his landslide election victory in November 1981.
A political centrist, Mr. Sattar, who was born in Dhaka and graduated form Calcutta University in 1929, began his career as an attorney of the Calcutta High Court. At that time, Britain ruled India, and what is now Bangladesh was part of United Bengal Province.
In his youth, Mr. Sattar served as an aide to two prominent Bengali politicians, Fazul Haq and H. S. Suhrawardy, who worked for the autonomy of the Bengal region.
Pakistan's First Election
After the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan as an independent nation in 1947, Mr. Sattar returned to Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, and joined the city's high court. He was named Minister of the Interior in 1956, and the next year was appointed a judge of the East Pakistan High Court. Later, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
In 1969, President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan appointed Mr. Sattar Pakistan's chief election commissioner to prepare for the country's first general election, which was won by Sheik Mujibur Rahman.