Mohammed Shahabuddin was sworn in as the 22nd president of Bangladesh on April 24 at a state ceremony attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet colleagues. The veteran politician was elected unopposed as the President of Bangladesh in February as a candidate of the ruling Awami League.
Bangladesh Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury administered the oath to 73-year-old Shahabuddin at the Durbar Hall of Bangabhaban. Several politicians, Supreme Court judges, and senior civil and military officials attended the event.
Born in 1949 and hailing from the northwestern Pabna district, Shahabuddin is a retired district judge. In his early life, he was a leader of the Awami League’s student and youth wings and took part in the 1971 Liberation War. He was imprisoned after the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In 1982, he was inducted into the country’s judicial service. He also served as one of the commissioners of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission. He later joined politics and became a member of the Awami League Advisory Council that has senior party leaders and technocrats as members.
