Tawfique Nawaz

Tawfique Nawaz (1949/50 – 18 August 2026) was a Bangladeshi lawyer and director of Transparency International Bangladesh. He was a senior advocate of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. His uncles, Ahmad Jaan and Mohammad Khararul Rehman, had been residents of Midnapore.

Career Nawaz was a research associate to Kamal Hossain while studying at the Wadham College, Oxford. Nawaz published The New International Economic Order in 1980 with the University of Michigan. From 1979 to 1981, he served as a director of Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA). In 1993, he became an honorary director of the organization and served as the coordinator of human rights project. He was a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association, International Law Association and Oxbridge Society of Bangladesh. His co-council in the case was advocate Mohsen Rashid. He said that Hasina was being deprived of her right to a telephone under the jail code. He appeared as friend of the court in the 2011 case against staff of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on contempt charges after they refused to upgrade the economy seat of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik to business class. He was critical of the report, "Biman's flight delayed for altercation on plane", by The Daily Star which he said had damaged the judiciary. In 2013 Niko tried unsuccessfully to get the case dismissed through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

In 2014, Nawaz represented Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka and Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee under the Ministry of Education in a lawsuit by a student asking for a recheck of her exam papers. In April 2014, he and his fellow lawyer SM Munir, were summoned by the High Court who found their comments in a reply to the student as contemptuous of the court. He was an executive committee member of Shiropa Development Society. Nawaz wrote the entry for Alaap, a traditional form of music in Bangladesh, in Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh. He was a trustee board member of Transparency International Bangladesh.

According to Zafar Sobhan, the editor of Dhaka Tribune, Nawaz was responsible for driving a wedge between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Nobel Laurate Professor Muhammad Yunus. In 2010, Nawaz accompanied Moni to an official visit to Tripura, India. Together they had a son, Tawquir Rashaad Nawaz, and a daughter, Tani Deepavali Nawaz.

Nawaz died from complications of a stroke on 18 August 2026, aged 76, at Continental Hospital. His wife, Moni, was granted 12-hour parole to attend his funeral.