Nurul Amin (15 July 1893 – 2 October 1974) was a Pakistani politician and jurist who served as the eighth prime minister of Pakistan from 7 December to 20 December 1971. His premiership term of only 13 days was the shortest served in Pakistani history.
Starting his political career in 1948 as Chief Minister of East Bengal, he headed the Ministry of Supply. Despite being a Bengali, Amin was against the Bengali language movement of 1952. After participating in the 1970 Pakistani general election, He was appointed as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was the first and only vice president of Pakistan, serving from 1970 to 1972, and also led Pakistan during the Bangladesh War of Independence.
Early life
Nurul Amin was born on 15 July 1893 in Shahbazpur, Sarail located in Tippera District of the Bengal Presidency (now in Brahmanbaria District, Bangladesh). He belonged to a Bengali Muslim family from the village of Bahadurpur in Nandail, Mymensingh District. His father was a zamindar, and his grandfather served as the Aʻlā Ṣadr (district judge) under the Nawabs of Bengal.
In 1915, Amin passed the college entrance examination from Mymensingh Zilla School, joining Ananda Mohan College two years later to obtain his Intermediate in Arts (I.A); he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1919. Amin took an active part in the Pakistan Movement, organising Bengali Muslims, while he continued to strengthen the Muslim League in Bengal.
Amin worked for the Muslim League in East Bengal, while continuing his relief programme for the population. As Chief Minister, his relations were significantly strained with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and the Governor-General of Pakistan Khawaja Nazimuddin. Soon after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Amin was appointed as Minister of Supply. He was elected as a member of the Pakistan National Assembly from 1947 until 1954. Amin assumed the office of Chief Minister in a few weeks. In response, the Bengali language movement developed, and the ruling Muslim League lost popularity in East Pakistan. Both Nazimuddin and Amin failed to integrate the East Pakistani population with that of West Pakistan, and eventually the East Pakistan Muslim League lost significant administrative control of the province. In early 1952, students protested against Prime Minister Nazimuddin's declaration in the provincial capital Dacca (now Dhaka) that Urdu would be the sole national language. During the unrest, the East Pakistan Police opened fire, killing student activists. This raised more opposition in the region to the Muslim League. PM Mohammad Ali Bogra (also a Bengali) visited East Bengal in early 1954 in an attempt to rally support for the League, but it was too late. It was in this turnover that Amin lost his assembly seat to a veteran student leader of East Pakistan, Khaleque Nawaz Khan, who had also been active in the Language Movement. The Muslim League was effectively eliminated from the provincial political landscape.
Amin served as the president of the East Pakistan Muslim League, and worked to improve its standing. During this time, the Pakistani authorities made reforms, including granting official status to the Bengali language in 1956 alongside Urdu. But after Army Commander General Mohammad Ayub Khan imposed martial law following the successful October 1958 Pakistani coup d'état against the government of President Iskander Mirza, Amin's political career was halted as Ayub Khan disbanded all political parties in the country.
Amin in June 1969 merged his National Democratic Front with a dissident group of the Awami League led by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the Nizam-e-Islam Party, and Air Marshal (Retd.) Asghar Khan's Justice Party to form the Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP). The new party was ideologically moderate. It strongly supported a united Pakistan. Amin was elected president of the PDP at its first convention.
1970 elections
In the 1970 Pakistani general election, the PDP fielded 21 candidates in West Pakistan and 81 in East Pakistan. Of all of them, only Amin won his seat, He was one of only two non-Awami League candidates elected to the National Assembly that year from East Pakistan.
Independence War of 1971
In March 1971, the Bangladesh War of Independence broke out. Amin, long dedicated to a united Pakistan, opposed the separatist movement in his home province of East Pakistan.
As an anti-war and principal Pakistan Movement activist, Amin is considered in Pakistan as a patriot who worked to retain Pakistan as a united nation, however he is considered by many Bangladeshis as a traitor who collaborated with an occupying force accused of genocide and other war crimes.
Premiership and vice presidency
thumb|Amin being sworn in as [[Vice President of Pakistan, by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.]]
Yahya Khan appointed Amin as Prime Minister on 7 December 1971. On 20 December 1971, however, Amin's term as prime minister was cut short as Khan resigned, leaving the deputy prime minister (and foreign minister) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to be sworn in as the new president. Two days later, Amin was appointed as Vice President of Pakistan, the only person to have held this post. He was sworn into the post again on 23 April 1972 after the interim constitution came into effect and martial law was lifted. He continued to hold the post until the office was abolished with the entry into force of the new constitution on 14 August 1973.
Death and legacy
Amin stayed in West Pakistan, while his home region achieved independence as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. He died of cardiac arrest aged 81 in Rawalpindi on 2 October 1974 and was given a public state funeral by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was buried in Jinnah Mausoleum, next to Jinnah. His tomb was specially designed, made of Italian white marble, with golden letters for his name and contributions. Anwarul Amin Makhon was married to the Ekushey Padak-winning writer and poet Razia Khan, the daughter of Pakistan Assembly Speaker Tamizuddin Khan, and had two children: banker Kaiser Tamiz Amin and journalist Aasha Mehreen Amin.
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