Abdul Quasem

Mohammad Abul Quasem was a Bangladeshi politician and lawyer. He was a member of the 3rd National Assembly of Pakistan and the Finance Minister of East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Early life Abul Quasem was born in 1913 to a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Sodurtilla, Mankachar Thana, Goalpara District in the then Assam Province of British India. In 1950, three years after the partition of India, he left Assam (which became an Indian state) Two years later, he became a member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Four years after obtaining his LLB from the University of Karachi in 1956, he completed a master's degree in political science from the same university. He was appointed deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan. He was a member of the Council Muslim League serving as the finance minister of East Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh, on 24 December 1971, the Government of Bangladesh arrested him for collaborating with Pakistan during the war. On 30 November 1973, he was released after the government declared a general amnesty for detained cabinet members.