{{Short description|Pakistani-Bangladeshi lawyer and politician (1901–1992)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Use Pakistani English|date=June 2023}} {{infobox officeholder | native_name = {{nobold|{{lang|bn|হামিদুল হক চৌধুরী}}<br/>{{lang|ur|حمید الحق چودھری|rtl=yes}}}} | image = Hamidul Huq Choudhury.jpg | order = 4th Minister of Foreign Affairs | term_start = 28 September 1955 | term_end = 12 September 1956 | prime_minister = Chaudhry Muhammad Ali | predecessor = Mohammad Ali Bogra | successor = Feroz Khan Noon | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1901|08|25}} | birth_place = Ramnagar, British India | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1992|01|18|1901|08|25}} | death_place = Dhaka, Bangladesh | party = {{plainlist| * All-India Muslim League * Krishak Sramik Party * United Front }} | citizenship = {{plainlist| * British India (1901–1947) * Pakistan (1947–1978) * Bangladesh (1978–1992) }} | alma_mater = Calcutta University }} '''Hamidul Huq Chowdhury''' ({{langx|bn|হামিদুল হক চৌধুরী}}, {{langx|ur|حمید الحق چودھری|rtl=yes}}; 25 August 1901– 18 January 1992) was a Pakistani-Bangladeshi politician. He was the founder of ''The Pakistan Observer'', an English-language newspaper which changed its name to ''The Bangladesh Observer'' after the Bangladesh Liberation War. He was educated in Dhaka and Calcutta, and had a career as a lawyer, politician and newspaper proprietor.
==Early life== Hamidul Huq Chowdhury was born in Ramnagar village, Daganbhuiyan upazila, Feni District, (now Bangladesh) during the British Raj in 1901.<ref name="blpda">{{cite Banglapedia|title=Chowdhury, Hamidul Haq}}</ref>
Hamidul Huq was educated at the Dacca Collegiate School in Dhaka, Scottish Church Collegiate School and Presidency College in Calcutta and the Law College of the University of Calcutta.<ref name="blpda" />
He was admitted as an Advocate before the Calcutta High Court and served for a time as a Crown Prosecutor. Hamidul Huq also served as a Legal Remembrancer for the Calcutta High Court. Following Partition in 1947, he had a long and distinguished legal practice before the Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh High Courts, and celebrated his Golden Jubilee (50 years) as an advocate and member of the legal profession in 1987, at his residence, Neerala Garden House, Tejgaon, in Dhaka.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}
==Career== Hamidul Huq was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council in 1937 (serving as Deputy President of the council) and was re-elected to the body in 1946. During his tenure on the council, Hamidul Huq was a member of the Bengal Imperial Agriculture Council, Central Sugarcane Committee, Handloom Board, Textile Control Board and Industrial Development Enquiry Committee, and also a Fellow of Calcutta University. In 1947, Hamidul Huq represented the Muslim League before Sir Cyril Radcliffe's Boundary Commission.
Following partition in 1947, Hamidul Huq moved with his family to Dhaka, East Pakistan. Hamidul Huq started ''The Pakistan Observer'' on 11 March 1949.<ref name="blpda" /> He was elected to the Pakistan Constitutional Assembly and was also a member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly, during which time he served as the Minister for Finance, Commerce, Labour & Industries (1947–49). Subsequently, Hamidul was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1955 as a leader of the Krishak Sramik Party<ref name="blpda" /> and served as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in Chaudhry Muhammad Ali's cabinet.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zaman |first=Habibuz |year=1999 |title=Seventy Years in a Shaky Subcontinent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6phSu0SDeY0C |publisher=Janus Publishing Company |page=177 |isbn=978-1-85756-405-1 |language=en}}</ref> Hamidul Huq participated in the Round Table Conference of Pakistani government and opposition leaders in Rawalpindi in 1969. He moved to West Pakistan shortly before the Independence of Bangladesh and in 1972, the Government of Bangladesh cancelled his citizenship. He was allowed to return to Bangladesh in 1978 by the Bangladeshi Government led by Ziaur Rahman.<ref name="blpda" />
==Personal life== Hamidul Huq was married to Halima Banu.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Singh |editor-first=Nagendra Kumar |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Muslim Biography: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh |title=Choudhury, Hamidul Huq (1903 — ) |year=2001 |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |volume=II |location=New Delhi |isbn=81-7648-232-3 |page=190}}</ref> He died in Dhaka on 21 January 1992.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite web|url=http://www.personalities.page.tl/LAWYER.htm|title=Personalities of Bangladesh: Chowdhury, Hamidul Haq}} * {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pIjwRq24YYC&q=hamidul+huq+chowdhury+memoirs&pg=PA3|title=Memoirs - Hamidul Huq Chowdhury|last1=Chowdhury|first1=Hamidul Huq|year=1989}} * {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ol9jQwAACAAJ|title=Pakistan's foreign policy - Hamidul Huq Chowdhury|last1=Chowdhury|first1=Hamidul Huq|year=1956}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=Foreign Minister of Pakistan| years=1955 – 1956| before=Muhammad Ali Bogra| after=Feroz Khan Noon}} {{s-end}}
{{Foreign Minister of Pakistan}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Hamidul Huq}} Category:1901 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Scottish Church Collegiate School alumni Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:Pakistani MNAs 1955–1958 Category:Pakistani MNAs 1947–1954 Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Pakistan Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Category:Provincial ministers of East Pakistan Category:People from Feni District Category:Dhaka Collegiate School alumni Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Category:20th-century Pakistani lawyers Category:20th-century Bangladeshi lawyers Category:East Bengal MLAs 1947–1954 Category:Pakistani emigrants to Bangladesh Category:People from Daganbhuiyan Upazila