Muhiuddin

Dr. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir

Hon’ble Chairman
Dr. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir (born 1942) is a former Bangladeshi Minister of Home Affairs (2011–2013).He is also a prominent economist, civil servant, writer, and political leader in Bangladesh.

He taught at the university until 1965. Joining the civil service that year, he served in numerous positions, for a total of 32 years. He held several positions with the Finance Ministry, in addition to regional posts. Beginning in the late 1990s, he was appointed to political positions when the Awami League was in power. He was detained without charges and tortured during 2002. An international effort helped obtain his release. He was arrested, charged and convicted in 2007 under a military caretaker government, and imprisoned until October 2008. He was elected as an MP in the December 2008 election, in which the Awami League won two-thirds of the seats. In addition to writing and publishing development economics textbooks and numerous articles on this topic, Alamgir published his memoir My Days in Jail (2003), which sold out three editions through the following year.

Education
Alamgir completed his master’s in economics from the University of Dhaka. Later he earned his master’s and Ph.D. in development economics from Boston University.

Career
Alamgir started his career joining the faculty of the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka in 1962.

Civil service
In 1965 Alamgir joined the Civil Service of Pakistan. Among other posts prior to the independence of Bangladesh, he served as the subdivisional officer at Naogaon. He was serving the Pakistani government as deputy commissioner of Mymensingh when the 1971 war of liberation broke out.[4]

After Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971, it established its civil service independently as well. Alamgir was assigned to the new Finance Ministry, where he contributed significantly to drafting the initial budgets of Independent Bangladesh. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the district commissioner of Jessore.

Later he served in various capacities in the Finance Ministry. In 1993 Alamgir was appointed as Secretary for the Ministry of Science and Technology. He later was appointed as a member of the Planning Commission.

From 1996 to 1997 he served as Secretary to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Bangladesh Awami League. During that time, he led the negotiations with India to renew the historic Ganges Water Sharing Treaty. He also helped negotiate a Peace Treaty with separatists in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, signing the final treaty. He retired in 1997 after 32 years of civil service.

Appointee with the Awami League
During Awami League rule in 1997, Alamgir was invited to join the cabinet as the State Minister for Planning. He also served stints in charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry. He was the initiator of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, which shaped Bangladesh’s development policy from 1997 to 2002.

On 13 September 2012, during the administration of Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League, Alamgir accepted a ministerial post.

Personal life
Alamgir’s son Jalal Alamgir, an educationist in Massachusetts, died in a tragic accident on 3 December 2011 at Pattaya, Thailand.