Majid-ul-Haq

Majid-ul-Haq
State Minister of Industries
In office 6 June 1991 – 7 February 1996
Prime Minister	Khaleda Zia
State Minister of Water Resource
In office 7 June 1993 – 7 February 1996
Prime Minister	Khaleda Zia
Member of Parliament for Magura-1
In office 1 March 1991 – 10 June 1996
Preceded by	M. A. Matin
Succeeded by	Muhammad Serajul Akbar
Personal details
Born	19 October 1926 Magura, Jessore District, Bengal Presidency, British India (now, Khulna, Bangladesh)
Died	25 March 2013(2013-03-25) (aged 86) Dhaka, Bangladesh
Relatives	Shamsun Nahar Ahmed (sister)
Military service
Allegiance	British India (Before 1947) Pakistan (Before 1973) Bangladesh
Branch/service	British Indian Army Pakistan Army Bangladesh Army
Years of service	1946-1982
Rank	Major General
Unit	Corps of Engineers
Commands	Commander of 14th Independent Engineers Brigade Commander of 26th Infantry Brigade Director of Engineers at Army Headquarters GOC of 11th Infantry Division
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Major General Majid-ul-Haq (Bengali: মজিদ-উল-হক; 1926 - 25 March 2013) was a Bangladeshi Army officer and a minister of the Government of Bangladesh.

Early life

Haq was born in Magura in 1926. He grew up in Delhi where his father was working in the Indian Central Government. After completing his schooling from Raisina Bengali High School, he went on to do his Intermediate at the Hindu College. He then enrolled in BA (Honours) in English at the same college. However, the death of his father forced him to rethink his career and he switched to engineering at the Bengal College of Engineering, Shibpur. In 1946, he joined the British Indian Army and underwent training at the Indian Military Academy. In 1947, he was transferred to Pakistan and commissioned as a Regular Officer in the Pakistan Army, subsequently joining the Corps of Engineers. He had various field and staff postings in both East and West Pakistan: Sialkot, Mardan, Risalpur, Kashmir, Rawalpindi, Dhaka, Quetta, Karachi and the Karakoram Heights. He was also briefly deputed to the Planning Department at Dhaka. He attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States, but was recalled when the 1965 War broke out between India and Pakistan. He was also posted to the Pakistan Navy in Karachi.

After the declaration of martial law in 1969, he was posted as Deputy Martial Law Administrator in East Pakistan. A disagreement with one of his erstwhile West Pakistani colleagues led to his being sent back to General Headquarters in Rawalpindi before the 1970 elections. In September 1971 he and his family were moved to detention camps, first in Kohat then in Mandi Bahauddin.

Life in Bangladesh

Repatriated to independent Bangladesh in 1973, he served in various capacities: Chairman Bangladesh Steel Corporation special Secretary with the rank and status of State Minister, Minister for Industries, establishment, Water Resources, Port and Shipping. Jute and Textiles, and Agriculture under various governments. He played an active role in the movement for the restoration of democracy against President Ershad. In June 1996 he resigned from the Standing Committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and in 2001 from the party. Majid-ul-Haq published a memoir, Unknown, Unhonoured and Unsung in 2012.

Major General Majid-ul-Haq died on 25 March 2013. His wife, Mumtaz Jahan Zeb-Un-Nisa Majid, died 10 days before he did.