Former finance minister Abdul Muhith passes away

Dhaka: Bangladeshi economist, writer, diplomat and Former Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has passed away. He was 88.  

As per reports, he breathed his last at 12:50am on Saturday (April 30) while undergoing treatment there. He served as Bangladesh's Finance Minister from January 2009 till December 2018.  

Muhith’s first namaz-e-janaza will be held at 10am at Gulshan Azad Mosque and the second one at Parliament premises at 11am. Later his body will be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar at 12pm for the people to pay their last tribute to the veteran politician. 

He will be laid to eternal rest in Sylhet. 

He retired from politics after serving as the finance minister of Sheikh Hasina’s government from 2009 to 2018.

After joining Pakistan Civil Service in 1956, he served in different capacities in the East Pakistan government, the central government of Pakistan, and then Bangladesh. 

Muhith was the first diplomat of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington who transferred his allegiance to Bangladesh in June during the Liberation War of 1971.

During his service as the chief and deputy secretary of the Pakistan Planning Commission, he made a report on the disparity between East and West Pakistan in 1966, and that was the first report submitted on that issue in the Pakistan National Assembly (NA) in fulfilment of the constitutional obligation. 

Muhith went for early retirement in 1981 from his service and started the second chapter of his career as a consultant on economic and development matters at the Ford Foundation, IFAD, UN, UNDP, ADB and World Bank.