Shawkat Ali | |
---|---|
শওকত আলী | |
Deputy Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad | |
In office 25 January 2009 – 24 January 2014 |
|
Prime Minister | Sheikh Hasina |
Preceded by | Md. Akhtar Hameed Siddiqui |
Succeeded by | Fazle Rabbi Miah |
Personal details | |
Born |
Shariatpur, British India, now Bangladesh |
January 27, 1937
Political party | Bangladesh Awami League |
Residence | Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Alma mater | University of Dhaka |
Profession | Army officer, politician |
Military service | |
Allegiance |
Bangladesh Pakistan (before 1971) |
Service/branch | |
Years of service |
|
Rank | Colonel |
Commands | Director of Ordnance Services |
Col. (retd.) Shawkat Ali MP (Bengali: শওকত আলী; born 27 January 1937) is a Bangladeshi politician and former deputy speaker of the National Parliament. He is a member of Awami League and a freedom fighter.
He was born in Shariatpur, British India (now Bangladesh), to Munshi Mobarak and Maleka Begum. He was the eldest son among nine children. He is married and has three children - two sons and a daughter. Their names are Firoze Shawkat Ali, Khaled Shawkat Ali, and Marina Shawkat Ali. Shawkat Ali completed his LL.B. from Comilla Law College under Dhaka University in 1958 before he joined the Pakistan Army as a commissioned officer the following year.
Shawkat Ali was a captain in 1968 when he was Accused No. 26 of the 35 implicated in the Agartala Conspiracy Case as a conspirator to secede East Pakistan from Pakistan. Initially he was supposed to be tried before a court martial, but the Government of Pakistan felt they would benefit more from a civil trial. The charges were dropped the next year amidst public protest; Shawkat was still forced to retire in 1969.
Although it was largely thought that the case was only meant to frame Sheikh Mujib and others, in 2010, and on the anniversary of the withdrawal of the case on 22 February 2011, Shawkat Ali confessed to the Parliament at a point of order that the charges read out to them were accurate, stating that they formed a Shangram Parishad under Sheikh Mujib for the sedition and secession of East Pakistan.