Khawaja Nazimuddin

He died on October 22, 1964 and was buried next to the graves of Bangladeshi national leaders, FazlulHaq and Suhrawardi at the ‘SuhrawardiUdyan’, inside the premises of the Dhaka High Court.

This distinguished leader is the eponym of Karachi’s outlying districts of Nazimabad and North Nazimabad. Dhaka and Islamabad, the capital cities of Bangladesh and Pakistan, respectively, have the Nazimuddin Roads named in his honour.

Khawaja Nazimuddin was born on July 19, 1894, in Dhaka, present Bangladesh, to Khwaja Nizamuddinand Nawabzadi BilkeesBano, members of the Nawab family of East Bengal.

He pursued his primary education from the 'Dunstable Grammar School' in Bedfordshire, England. The young man then attended the ‘Aligarh Muslim University’ in Uttar Pradesh, and 'Trinity Hall' college of the 'University of Cambridge', in England, for higher studies.

He started his political careerin 1922, when hebecame the Chairman of 'Dhaka Municipality', and also held a position at the 'Executive Council' of 'Dhaka University'.

In the Barisal Muslim constituency, he became a 'Member of Bengal Legislative Assembly' on three occasions, from 1923-29.

In 1929 Sir Khawaja was appointed as the 'Education Minister' of Bengal. The same year he became a representative of the ‘Governor’s Executive Council’. As the 'Education Minister', this political leader passed the 'Compulsory Primary Education Bill', which aimed at bringing about educational equality amongst Hindus and Muslims.

Nazimuddin was made the 'Minister of Agriculture' in 1934, in the capacity of which he introduced major reforms like the 'Agriculture Debtors Bill' and the 'Bengal Rural Development Bill', which sought to stop the oppression of Muslim peasants by Hindu zamindars.

The ‘Muslim League’ in Bengal was reorganized by Khawaja, in 1935, and it included all Muslim political parties, barring the ‘KrishakPraja Party’ formed by FazlulHaq. Two years later the former lost to Haq at the general elections held in Bengal's Patuakhali constituency, but won the elections in North Calcutta.

Even though his tenure was prematurely shortened, Sir Khawaja will always be remembered for being one of the most dedicated Prime Ministers of Pakistan. Even today, his removal from the post is considered to have hindered democracy in the country.