HBM Iqbal

HBM Iqbal is a Bangladeshi entrepreneur and the founder chairperson of Premier Group of Companies Ltd. He is also a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a former Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Dhaka-10 constituency during 1996–2001.

Career Iqbal was elected as a Bangladesh Awami League candidate representing the Dhaka-10 constituency in June 1996 and served as the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

On 13 February 2001, shots were fired from Iqbal's rally to the rally of the then opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in the Malibagh area of Dhaka. Photographs of the incident were published in newspapers. Iqbal, along with 23 others, were charged on 29 December 2002, by the Detective Branch. In August 2010, Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 dropped the case against him, MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury and 12 others after the Ministry of Home Affairs had recommended to drop the charges citing it as a "political harassment case" in 2009.

On 25 June 2007, Iqbal was charged with corruption by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). He was sentenced to 13 years in jail on 11 March 2008; 10 years for undeclared assets worth Tk 22.9 crore and 3 years for concealing information on property worth more than Tk 16 crore. His wife, Momtaz Begum, two sons, Moyeen Iqbal and Ikram Iqbal, and a daughter, Naurin Iqbal, were also convicted. The family members surrendered at the court in March 2017 and secured bail within a week.

In April 2010, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the public agency for urban development in Dhaka, sent a demolition notice to Momtaz Begum, the wife of Iqbal, for illegally building, Premier Square, a skyscraper in Gulshan area. She had failed to produce documents supporting building's approval despite repeated notices.

In February 2021, Iqbal sent more than 30 legal notices to bdnews24.com to remove past articles on criminal cases against him. Online articles regarding Iqbal's cases published by The Daily Star now shows the error "You are not authorized to access this page".

Post-August 2024 After the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government on 5 August 2024, Iqbal and his family fled from Bangladesh. The Anti-Corruption Commission launched an inquiry into Iqbal and his family for acquiring hundreds of crores of taka in illegal wealth. The ACC reported that Iqbal's assets the 5-star Renaissance hotel in Banani and the Royal University of Dhaka were built through illegal sources. Subsequently, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit froze the accounts of Iqbal, his two wives Anjuman Ara Shilpi & late Momtaz Begum, two sons Moin & Imran, and daughter Nawrin. After the fall of the Awami League government, the Interim Government of Bangladesh reopened the 2001 Malibagh murder case on a petition of former president of BNP's Khilgaon Thana unit and one of the members of the procession upon whom Iqbal fired his pistol at. In November 2024, the High Court of Bangladesh ordered Iqbal, ex-MP from Bhola Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon, and 13 others to surrender on the 2001 Malibagh murder case.

Personal life Iqbal was married to Momtaz Begum (d. 2022). She had served as the vice-chairman of Sheikh Hasina University of Science and Technology Board of Trustees and as the chairperson of the Royal University of Dhaka Board of Trustees.