Bangladeshi senior diplomat Muazzem Ali passes away

Bangladesh’s former Foreign Secretary and immediate-past High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali passed away on Monday morning at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the capital city Dhaka.

Muazzem Ali (75) had been suffering from old-age complications and breathed his last around 11:45am (GMT 5:45am), United News of Bangladesh reported citing family sources as saying.

He is survived by two sons and grandchildren.

Born on July 18, 1944 in Sylhet, he joined the Pakistan Foreign Service in 1968, and retired in December 2001.

While serving in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC in 1971, he declared his allegiance to the government of Bangladesh.

Ali served as Bangladesh High Commissioner to New Delhi from September 2014 to November 2019. The government appointed Muhammad Imran as the new High Commissioner to India last month.

As a founding member of the Bangladesh Mission in Washington DC, Ali was active in the lobbying process for political support for Bangladesh’s independence movement.

After the independence, he was directly involved in working towards US recognition of Bangladesh as well as the US, World Bank and UN participation in the massive reconstruction efforts in war-ravaged Bangladesh (1971-1975).

He also served in Bangladesh Embassies in Warsaw (1975-1978) and New Delhi (1986-1988) and in the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (1982-1986).

He was Consul General in Jeddah (1988-1991) during the Gulf War, and later served as Bangladesh Ambassador to Bhutan (1991-1992), Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Turkmenistan (1995-1998), France and Portugal (1998-2000).

In Paris, he was also Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO. In that capacity, he tabled a draft resolution on behalf of Bangladesh for the proclamation of February 21 as the International Mother Language Day.

He spearheaded the lobbying efforts and its unanimous adoption by the UNESCO General Conference in 1999.

As Foreign Secretary, Ali worked for the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the South Asian region and beyond.

Since Bangladesh was the Chairman of the LDC group at that time, he coordinated the move that led to duty- and quota-free access of LDC exports to the EU at the Third UN LDC Conference.

He also worked for the emergence of Bangladesh as the largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations.

Specialising in multilateral diplomacy, he has represented and led Bangladesh delegations to various Senior Officials’, Ministerial, and Summit-level meetings of the UN, UNESCO, Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Commonwealth, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Group of 77, and World Bank’s Development Forum (earlier know an Consortium) Meetings.

Family background

Ali came from a distinguished literary family of Greater Bengal. His father, late Syed Mustafa Ali, and uncle late Syed Murtaza Ali, served in the Assam Civil Service prior to 1947, and also wrote several books and articles.

His youngest uncle late Syed Mujtoba Ali is a distinguished writer of Bengali literature. His eldest brother Late SM Ali (Syed Mohammad Ali), founder-editor of the leading Bangladeshi English newspaper ‘The Daily Star’, was one of the most well-known Bangladeshi journalists in the international arena.

His father-in-law late Chowdhury Imamuzaman served in the Assam Engineering Service prior to 1947. His wife Tuhfa Zaman Ali obtained her MA from Dhaka University and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

President's condolence  

President M Abdul Hamid on Monday mourned the death of Syed Muazzem Ali. In a condolence message, President Hamid expressed deep shock and sorrow at his death.

The head of the state said, at his death nation lost an efficient diplomat.

“His death is really irreparable for the country [...]. The nation will remember him for long with due respect,” he added.

The President also conveyed sympathy to the bereaved family and prayed for the eternal peace for the departed soul.

PM at last glimpses

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the CMH on Monday afternoon to have her last glimpses of Ambassador Ali.

“The prime minister went to the CMH around 2pm, when she talked to the family members of Muazzem Ali including his wife and consoled them as well,” quoting premier’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency report said.

He said, the Prime Minister also prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, army chief General Aziz Ahmed, PM’s Principal Secretary Md Nojibur Rahman and PMO’s Senior Secretary Sajjadul Hassan were present as the premier visited the CMH.

Earlier in a condolence message, Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep shock and sorrow at Ali’s death and recalled his outstanding contributions to the diplomatic front during the country’s 1971 Liberation War and afterwards.

Kamruzzaman