Askari, Nawab Khwaja Hasan

Askari, Nawab Khwaja Hasan (1921-1984) army officer, politician. Hasan Askari was born in 1921 in the nawab family of dhaka. He was the eldest son of Nawab Khwaja Habibullah. He obtained graduation in 1942 from Aligarh University. He joined as commissioned officer in the Tank Brigade of the Indian army in 1944 and was posted in the Burma sector. Having been seriously wounded in a battle in Burma he left the service. After the partition of India in 1947 Askari joined the Pakistan army. On his retirement from service in 1961 he entered public politics. Hasan Askari was elected a member of the National Assembly in 1962 under the Basic Democracies system, and was included in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Works and Communication. Consequent upon his defeat by the candidate of combined opposition parties in the 1965 elections he resigned from the cabinet.

Khwaja Hasan Askari was elected president of the East Pakistan provincial committee of the ruling Convention muslim league in 1968. During the 1960s he had been the chairman of Dhaka Wanderers Club, member of the executive committee of Pakistan Cricket Control Board, member of the East Pakistan Sports Federation, chairman of governing body of Sir Salimullah Orphanage, and chairman of managing committee of Dhanmondi School.

His antagonistic attitude towards the war of liberation (1971) and his collaboration with the Pakistan army, made Askari highly controversial. After liberation of Bangladesh he went to Pakistan and settled there permanently. He died in Karachi on 9 August 1984. [Riaz Ahmed]