Dr Kamal Hossain

I first came to know Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in the formative years of my education and legal career. Mr Suhrawardy was a mentor, a role model, and an inspiration, both as a lawyer and a politician.

I first met Tajuddin Ahmad—or Tajuddin Bhai, as I knew him—in the 1960s, during the pre-Liberation period. After I joined the Awami League, Bangabandhu told me to meet Tajuddin Ahmad, as he would answer all my questions on politics and the party, and that he possessed deep knowledge of both politics and people.

It was a privilege for me to work with professor Anisuzzaman in the drafting of the Constitution. I had the extraordinary good fortune of knowing him for more than 50 years, since our school days in St Gregory’s School, Dhaka. Since then we have travelled side by side towards the independence of the country and in the struggles for democracy.

On 28 December he [jail superintendent] came to me and said that I should pack up as he had received an order that I was to ‘shift to new location’. My immediate reaction was one of joy, at the prospect of leaving the jail after nearly nine months of solitary confinement.

The Constitution which we adopted on November 4, 1972 and which came into force on December 16, 1972 is unquestionably the outcome of our victory in the Liberation War, won at the cost of countless lives. It bears the signatures of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Syed Nazrul Islam and Tajuddin Ahmad.

The Constitution, adopted on November 4, 1972 and which came into force on December 16 that year is unquestionably the outcome of our victory in the Liberation war. We can derive satisfaction that the Constitution has survived for over four decades. We, thus, have the opportunity to now assess the extent to which the goals of the Constitution have been realised.

We are celebrating the 47th anniversary of our independence today. Our independence was won through the sacrifices of countless lives and untold sufferings.

We can recall with respect that Justice AB Mahmud Husain was the second chief justice of Bangladesh, immediately after the constitution of the Supreme Court.