Full Name: Tofail Ahmed

Affiliation: Bangladesh Awami League

Current Position: Member, Advisory Council

Date of Birth: October 22, 1943

Place of Birth: Bangladesh

Home District: Bhola

Constituency: 115, Bhola-1

Term: Seventh (1st-1973, 3rd-1986, 5th-1991, 7th-1996, 9th-2008, 10th-2014, 11th-2018)

Nationality: Bangladeshi

Profile:

Tofail Ahmed (born 22 October 1943) is a Bangladeshi politician, Former Minister and incumbent Member of Parliament of Bhola-1 constituency, an island district situated at southern-western part of Bangladesh. Late Moulovi Azhar Ali is his father and Late Alhaj Fatema Khanam is his mother.

He is one of the most influential political leaders in the history of Bangladesh and as an ideal follower of the “Father of the Nation” Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One of the organizers of Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and acts as one of the chiefs of Bangladesh Liberation Front (Mujib Bahini).

Ahmed passed the Matriculation Examination (Secondary Certificate) in 1960 from Bhola Government High School. He got his Higher Secondary Certificate from science group as a student of famous Broja Mohon (BM) College of Barishal in 1962 and got Bachelor Degree in science from the same college in 1964. He did his Master’s Degree in Soil Science from the University of Dhaka in 1966. During his academic career he maintained a persistent recoded of good merit.

Ahmed joined the Awami League and in support of the 1966 Six point movement of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and was involved in the 1969 mass uprising in East Pakistan as a student leader. He was the vice-president of Dhaka University Central Students' Union. In 1970, Ahmed was a political secretary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Besides that, after 1975, he spent about 5 years in jails of Dhaka, Mymensing, Sylhet, Comilla, Barishal, Kushtia and Rajshahi. His only offence was to wage movement for establishing democratic rights of the people.

He is a veteran Parliamentarian and earned love and respect of Parliament Members and people from all walks of life for his speeches in parliamentary debate on various national issues.

A widely traveled public leader, Ahmed accompanied Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in UN General Assembly conference in New York, NAM summit in Algiers, Common-wealth Conference in Canada, Jamaica and OIC Conference in Pakistan. He visited most of the countries of Asia, Europe, Africa, Nordic and Latin America and developed personal acquaintance with a number of world luminaries including Marshal Tito, Anwar Saa’dat, Piera Trudeau, Julias Nyere, Emperor Hirohito, Leonid Illych Brzhnev, Tunku Abdur Razzak. He attended the World Peace Conference in 1988.

In 2007, while the country went under emergency rule Ahmed was one of the leaders who proposed a reform proposal of Bangladesh Awami League which proposed by the military backed caretaker government and the removal of party chief Sheikh Hasina After the 2008 general election Awami League formed the government, but Ahmed was dropped from the cabinet despite being the one of the influential member of Presidium.

He was the Minister for Commerce and Industries from June1996 to December, 1999. He Continued as the Minister for Industries up to 2001, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Industry from 2009-2013. He was also Minister for Housing & Public Works and Industries from November 2013 to January 2014. He Continued as the Minister for Commerce Ministry from January 2014 to December 2018.

He visited many countries of Europe and Asia. He participated in first 2nd and 3rd WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore, Geneva and Seattle. He was the spokesman and coordinator of LDCs in these conferences. He presided over the LDCs preparatory meeting for WTO conference in Geneva.

He is married and blessed with a daughter, who is a physician. His wife Mrs. Anwara Ahmed preferred to stay at home with the house hold. Both of them performed Hajj in 1988.

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