REMEMBRANCE
Published: 01:13 AM, 28 July 2018 Last Update: 01:16 AM, 28 July 2018
Kazi Zafar Ahmed . . . my friend
Of late I have been receiving requests over phone from an influential contemporary political leader to write an article on Kazi Zafar Ahmed, reminiscing on my lifelong friendship with him. He is a former prime minister and now his Jatiya Party is in the 20-party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
On July 1, 2018 Doa (seeking blessings of Allah for the departed) was held in Kazi Zafar's remembrance after Asr prayers in the mosque near my residence at Uttara simultaneously with prayers at Gulshan Azad Mosque as intimated by our dear assistant Golam Mostafa.
Later I was stunned at the partisan reactions, which showed the ignorance of post-liberation generations about our bright political period that ended with the expiry of the leader of the oppressed Maulana Bhashani and the tragic killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Our friendship was sustained in a traditional spirit because it was not for share politics, pelf or power.
In 1957 Zafar and I were admitted in Dhaka University as resident students of S M Hall as per rules and discipline under the control of the Provost. We were together for four years, completed studies in Honours and Masters, participated in annual Hall Union elections as well as Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU) elections and other activities.
We left university as 1961 batchmates and remained so despite the vicissitudes of life. Zafar was in the General History Department and I was in the Economics Department.
Zafar and I were born in Comilla in undivided Bengal when British rule was about to end in the 1940s. In 1947 India and Pakistan, the latter with two wings separated by a thousand miles of foreign territory, came into being.
We were in the eastern wing, East Bengal, in Pakistan. His father settled in Khulna and had a flourishing business. My father, Advocate Muezzul Islam B.L., along with his family had lived in Kolkata since 1944 but returned to East Bengal after partition, resumed practice in Comilla.
Zafar studied in Rajshahi Government College, while I was in Comilla Victoria College. We studied in in an excellent academic environment and cultural and democratic practices during 1955-57. We observed immortal 21st February 1952 under the guidance of Hindu and Muslim teachers.
There was communal harmony, notwithstanding partition 1947, till 1965 when the Indo-Pakistan second war centering on Kashmir in the western wing destabilized the eastern wing through the Defense of Pakistan Rules, Enemy Property Act, etc.
We met in S M Hall and became close friends in no time, belonging as we did to Cumilla and erstwhile East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU), the biggest student organization that was on friendly terms with all other organizations.
It was an organization for cultural and democratic exercises consistent with academic pursuits, not a front of any political party. Our dear batchmates Mohiuddin Ahmed of Rajshahi and Enayetullah Khan Mintu were our learned companions. The batchmates of 1961 need no introduction as many of them became well known personalities in their later careers.
Our 1961 batch thus turned out with high spirits, joined professions, contributed from respective positions to socio-political and cultural development and towards independence in the spirit of Bengali nationalism. I was in public service as an economist in 1962, Deputy Director Finance at erstwhile East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) from 1964.
We regularly met in the evening during the 1960s, and the group came to be known as 'Paltan Stadium Group'. We were joined by seniors and juniors, exchanged views on current affairs and participated in various activities.
Zafar joined direct politics. He was on the rise politically and came to be known as a popular and strong labor leader, especially in the Tongi and Tejgaon areas. He spared no pains, braved warrants of arrests, organized labor and connected with people countrywide. At such times we secretly met him, arranged by Abdul Jalil at his Dhaka Mugdapara residence.
There were Serajuddin and others. In the midst of the division of the world socialist camp into Moscow and Peking groups, which communist leaders of this country toed, Zafar forged ahead pragmatically. But some leaders called him ambitious.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared a Six Point program in 1966 and thus came politically closer to his former leader Bhashani. We participated in the 1969 mass upsurge ignited by the martyrdom of Asaduzzaman, a Bhashani follower close to us. The upsurge led to the release of Sheikh Mujib.
Then the December 7, 1970 elections gave a landslide victory to the Awami League --- 167 seats out of 169 in the National Assembly and 305 out of 310 seats in the Provincial Assembly. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib became the leader of the majority party, the undisputed leader of the country, to whom Bhashani extended support.
But Pakistan President Yahya Khan and People's Party leader Z. A. Bhutto did not accept the electoral verdict and unleashed a genocide on Bengalis on March 25, 1971 in East Pakistan which was resisted by the people from their respective positions and people's war ensued. Zafar, Mannan Bhuiyan and others fought within the country and across the border under the guidance of Bhashani.
Awami League leaders crossed the border and formed a Bangladesh government-in-exile. The government of India extended help to it. The world's sympathy poured into the relief camps. After a nine-month long bloody war, Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign country.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, after release from Pakistani imprisonment, returned to his homeland on January 10, 1972, addressed huge rally at Ramna Race Course, applauded by all. But divisive politics disappointed people.
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) appeared on October 31, 1972 and spread like wildfire, fielded 237 candidates in the national election of March 1973. Corruption and the famine of 1974 and the growth of NGOs working on foreign donations baffled us.
Bhahsani was sad at the sordid state of affairs and launched a constitutional opposition movement. Zafar was given responsibility of General Secretary of National Awami Party (NAP) in 1972. Bhashani liked us and said he had no time at the end of life to see us established. Zafar met Bangabandhu, who expressed his satisfaction over his appointment, but was worried about how long he would be able to stay in this post due to intra-party feuds.
Awami League / BKSAL Minister Khandaker Mushtaq hatched a conspiracy, killed Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975, and became a self-proclaimed President.
MPs, high level civil and military officials expressed allegiance to him. It pained us and we prayed that divine justice would prevail before traitor Mushtaq completed three months as President and Chief Martial L aw Administrator. Justice Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem took over as President on November 6, 1975 and continued up to April 20, 1977.
In this trail of affairs and upheavals General Ziaur Rahman was placed in power on November 7, 1975. He assumed the office of President on April 20, 1977 but was killed on May 30, 1981 through a conspiracy, the perpetrators and beneficiaries of which are yet to be punished.
Zafar took the befitting step of joining as Adviser to President Zia on June 29, 1978. He was given the important portfolio of education and ought to have remained there instead of resigning on October 11, 1978. The opportunists in the United Peoples Party and the beneficiaries of University Ordinance 1973 induced him to resign. Enayetullah Khan was Adviser from December 9, 1977 to October 19, 1978.
After the killing of President Ziaur Rahman, constitutionally Justice Abdus Satter took over as acting President. In a new election in November 1981, Justice Sattar became President in his own right and was in office till March 24, 1982, when General Ershad staged a coup, assumed power and declared a fight corruption, which promise was hollow and was felt in no time countrywide. I left public service in 1987 and joined the Unity drive of the different factions of NAP to make it a mainstream party as before.
The effort ended in failure and was put to an end in 2006. Zafar's efforts to make his Jatiya Party an alternative third party to make multiparty democracy meaningful did not materialize, on which we had enough differences of opinion. Finally, Kazi Zafar had to join the alliance led by the BNP, where his party is in the core and surging forward.
The writer is an elderly economist, advocate and social activist
