After the resignation of Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury in December 1973, Mohammad Mohammadullah became the Acting President of the Republic on 24 December 1973. He was elected President on 24 January 1974 and took oath of office as President of the Republic on 27 January 1974. The Chief Justice of Bangladesh SC, Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, administered the oath of office at Bangabhaban. He remained President till 25 January 1975.
Mohammadullah was born on 21 October 1921 at village Saicha under Raipur Upazila in the district of Lakshmipur. His father Munshi Abdul Wahab was a social worker. Mohammadullah graduated with honours in History from the DU in 1943, and obtained LL. B. degree from Ripon College, Kolkata and again from DU in the same year (1948). He joined the Dhaka Bar in 1950 and the High Court Bar in 1964.
Mohammadullah was actively associated with AL politics from 1950. He was elected office secretary of EP Awami Muslim League in 1953 and held the same position for twenty years till 1972. He took active part in the Six Point Movement in 1966 for which he was jailed for a long time. Mohammadullah was elected to the EP Provincial Assembly on the AL ticket in 1970. He was political advisor to the Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam during the War of Liberation in 1971. After independence, he was elected Deputy Speaker of the Bangladesh Constituent Assembly (Ganoparishad) on 10 April 1972. In the same year when Speaker Shah Abdul Hamid died, he became the acting Speaker. Later, he was elected Speaker on 12 November 1972. In 1973, he was elected to the JS from the Raipur-Lakshmipur constituency, and was re-elected Speaker of the House. After his resignation as President in January 1975, he was made Minister of Land Administration and Land Reforms in the Cabinet of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 26 January 1975. He was appointed Vice President of the Republic after Mujib's assassination.
Mohammadullah left AL and joined the BNP in 1980. President Abdus Sattar appointed him Vice President in March 1982 but the tenure lasted barely twenty-four hours before General Ershad took over the reigns of administration of the country. Mohammadullah was elected a member of the JS once again in 1991 on BNP ticket but left the party to rejoin the AL before the 1996 JS elections.
It was during Mohammadullah's tenure of Presidency that the Fourth Constitutional Amendment Bill that changed the form of the country's government from parliamentary to presidential System was passed.
Mohammadullah died on 11 November 1999 at the age of 78. He left behind his wife, three sons and two daughters. He was buried at Banani graveyard.
Justice Abdus Sattar became the acting President of Bangladesh after the assassination of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman on 30 May 1981. On becoming the President, Justice Sattar declared a countrywide state of emergency. As a nominee of BNP, he contested the presidential election, and was declared elected to the post on 15 November 1981. Justice Sattar took oath of office in the afternoon of 20 November 1981 at Bangabhaban. Justice Kamaluddin Hussain administered the oath of office.
Justice Abdus Sattar
Justice Abdus Sattar became the acting President of Bangladesh after the assassination of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman on 30 May 1981. On becoming the President, Justice Sattar declared a countrywide state of emergency. As a nominee of BNP, he contested the presidential election, and was declared elected to the post on 15 November 1981. Justice Sattar took oath of office in the afternoon of 20 November 1981 at Bangabhaban. Justice Kamaluddin Hussain administered the oath of office.
Justice Sattar was born in 1906 in a respectable family of Bolpur in Birbhum district. After obtaining M. A. in political science and B. L. degree from Kolkata University in 1928 and 1929 respectively, he became a lawyer at Alipur court in Kolkata. Abdus Sattar was councillor of Kolkata Corporation in 1939, and assessor member, Kolkata Improvement Tribunal from 1940 to 1942. He was appointed deputy executive officer of Kolkata Corporation and officiated as its chief executive officer twice. After Partition, he came to Dhaka and joined the Dhaka HC in 1950. Sattar was a working committee member of Fazlul Huq's Krishak Sramik Party, and was elected member of the Second Constituent Assembly in 1955. He became Minister for Interior and Education, GOP in 1956; a Judge of the HC of EP in 1957; and of the SC of Pakistan in 1967. He was appointed Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan in 1969.
On repatriation from Pakistan in 1973, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bangladesh Life Insurance Corporation in 1973, Chairman of the Bangladesh Journalists Wage Board in 1974-75 and President of Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA). Justice Sattar was appointed Special Assistant to the President in 1975 and held the charge of the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs. He became Vice President of the Republic on 3 June 1977.
As President of the Republic, he tried hard to resist the ascendancy of the Army in civil administration. However, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General H. M. Ershad staged a coup-d'etat and usurped state power by removing the elected President on 24 March 1982. Justice Sattar died on 5 October 1985.
