Nurul Amin

Amin became a trusted lieutenant of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in East Bengal, fighting for the rights of Bengali Muslims in British India.[4] Amin took an active part in the Pakistan Movement, organising Bengali Muslims, while he continued to strengthen the Muslim League in Bengal.[4]

In 1946, Jinnah came to visit Bengal, where Amin assisted him. He promised the Bengali nation to build a democratic country.[4] In East Bengal, Amin promoted the unity of Muslims. By the time of creation of Pakistan, Amin had become one of the leading advocates and activists of the Pakistan Movement; he had wide approval ratings by the Bengali population.[4]

After the death of Jinnah, Amin was nominated as the Chief Minister of East Bengal in September 1948 by Khawaja Nazimuddin. Amin worked for the Muslim League in East Bengal, while continuing his relief programme for the population. As Chief Minister, his relations were significantly strained with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and Governor-General Khawaja Nazimuddin. Soon after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Amin was appointed as Minister of Supply. He was elected as a member of the Pakistan National Assembly from 1947 until 1954.

After the death of Jinnah, Amin was nominated as the Chief Minister of East Bengal in September 1948 by Khawaja Nazimuddin; who succeeded Jinnah as Governor General.[5] Amin assumed the office of Chief Minister in a few weeks.[5]

Historians have noted that Nurul Amin's government was not strong enough to administer the provincial state; it was completely under the control of the central government of Nazimuddin.[5] His government did not enjoy enough power, and lacked vision, imagination, and initiatives.[5] Amin failed to counter the Communist Party's influence in the region, which widely took the credit for turning the language movement in 1952 into large unified mass protest.[5]

During Amin's term as Chief Minister, Governor General Nazimuddin (also from East Bengal but bilingual) reiterated the federal government's position that while Bengali was the language of virtually all East Pakistanis as well as the majority of Pakistanis as a whole, it was not to be considered a national language on par with Urdu.[6] In response, the Bengali Language Movement developed, and the ruling Muslim League lost popularity in East Pakistan. Both Nazimuddin and Amin failed to integrate the East Pakistani population with that of West Pakistan, and eventually the East Pakistan Muslim League lost significant administrative control of the province.[6] Amin on other hand, held Communist Party responsible for this failure, accusing them as provoking the language movement.[6]

Public dissatisfaction with Amin had grown since October 1951, when Nazimuddin became Prime Minister. Amin expelled dissidents from within the ranks of the Muslim League, but doing so simply strengthened opposition to the party.[7] In early 1952, students protested against Prime Minister Nazimuddin's declaration in the provincial capital Dacca (now Dhaka) that Urdu would be the sole national language. During the unrest, the civilian East-Pakistan police opened fire, killing four student activists. This raised more opposition in the region to the Muslim League.[8] Prime Minister Bogra (also a Bengali) visited East Bengal in early 1954 in an attempt to rally support for the League, but it was too late.[7] Leading politicians in West and East Pakistan called for Amin's resignation, and the new elections were soon held.

In the 1954 provisional elections, the Muslim League was fully defeated by the United Front, an alliance between the Awami League (led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy), the Krishak Sramik Party (chaired by A. K. Fazlul Huq), the Nizam Islam Party (headed by Maulana Athar Ali), and the Ganatantri Dal (led by Haji Mohammad Danesh and Mahmud Ali), eventually becoming more and more influential in Pakistani politics.[9] It was in this turnover that Amin lost his assembly seat to a veteran student leader of East Pakistan, Khaleque Nawaz Khan, who had also been active in the Language Movement.[10] The Muslim League was effectively eliminated from the provincial political landscape.[11]

Amin served as the president of the East Pakistan Muslim League, and worked to improve its standing. During this time, the Pakistani authorities made reforms, including granting official status to the Bengali language in 1956 alongside Urdu.[12] But after Army Commander General Mohammad Ayub Khan imposed martial law following a successful military coup d'état against the government of President Iskander Mirza in 1958, Amin's political career was halted as Ayub Khan disbanded all political parties in the country.[11]

Amin ran as a candidate in the 1965 presidential elections, in East Pakistan, winning the majority vote in the Parliament of Pakistan. He declined to work with Ayub Khan. The same year, after the death of Fatima Jinnah, Amin succeeded Jinnah as Leader of Opposition, which he held until 1969, after General Yahya Khan imposed martial law again.

The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, as it is now known, escalated as India and Pakistan formally acknowledged the "existence of a state of war between the two countries", even though neither government had formally issued a declaration of war.[13]

As the situation in his home province of East Pakistan worsened, Amin was appointed Prime Minister by President General Yahya Khan on 6 December 1971. On 20 December 1971, however, Amin's term as prime minister was cut short as Yahya Khan resigned, leaving the Deputy Prime Minister (and Foreign Minister) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to be sworn in as the new President. Two days later, Amin was appointed as Vice President of Pakistan, the only person to have held this post. He continued to hold this post until martial law was lifted on 21 April 1972.

So Dhaka has fallen, and East Pakistan has gone and you are enjoying yourselves.....

— Nurul Amin scolding Yahya Khan, 1971., [14]

Amin is a controversial figure, considered by many Pakistanis to be a patriot for supporting unity of the country, but thought by many Bangladeshis to be a collaborator with an occupation force accused of genocide and other war crimes.

Amin is reported to have remarked to President Yahya and his military advisers, "So Dhaka has fallen, and East Pakistan is gone, and you are enjoying yourselves..."[14]