Mohammad Ali Bogra

Sahibzada Syed Mohammad Ali Chowdhury (সৈয়দ মোহাম্মদ আলী চৌধুরী; Urdu: سید محمد علی چوہدری), more commonly known as Mohammad Ali Bogra (মোহাম্মদ আলী বগুড়া; Urdu: محمد علی بوگڑا) (19 October 1909 – 23 January 1963), or as Mohammad Ali of Bogra, was a Pakistani Bengali politician, statesman, and a career diplomat who served as third prime minister of Pakistan, appointed in this capacity in 1953 until he stepped down in 1955 in favour of Finance Minister Muhammad Ali.

Mohammad Ali was born in Backerganj (now Barisal), East Bengal, British India, on 19 October 1909.

He was born into an elite and wealthy aristocrat family who were known as the Nawabs of Dhanbari, traditionally very close to the British monarchy.

The prefix, Sahibzada (lit. Prince) is added before his name to represent the Bengali royalty which is customary to give to individuals in India.

His father, Nawabzada Altaf Ali Chowdhury, educated at the St Xavier's College in Calcutta, was a prominent figure in Dacca and was also a local politician who served as the Vice-President of the Muslim League's East Bengal faction.

His father, Altaf Ali Chowdhury, was fond of Derby horse race, dog show, and physical sports.

His grandfather, Nawab Ali Chowdhury, was also a politician who served as the first Bengali Muslim to be appointed as minister, and played a pioneering role in founding the Dhaka University along with Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur of Dhaka.

Mohammad Ali Bogra grew up in Bogra, having studied first at the local Hastings House and then educated at the local madrassa in Calcutta.

After his matriculation, Bogra went to attend the Presidency College of the Calcutta University where he secured his graduation with a BA degree in political science in 1930.

He was married twice: his first wife was Begum Hamida Mohammad Ali, with whom he had two sons.

Before his entrance in the politics, the Bogra family were influential Nawabs active in Bengali politics and Muslim League as a party worker in 1930.

He contested in the general elections on a Muslim League's platform held in 1937 from Bogra constituency and sat in the Opposition in the Bengal Legislative Assembly.

His uncle, Hasan Ali Chowdhury, also won the election who ran against the Muslim League'e platform.

His father, Altaf Ali Chowdhury also successfully defended his constituency and was a member of the ruling Krishak Praja Party.

In 1938, he was elected as chairman of Bogra District which he served until 1942.

After his education at the Presidency College at the University of Calcutta, he started his political career on Muslim League's platform and joined the Bengal's provincial cabinet of then-Prime Minister H. S. Suhrawardy in the 1940s.

He served in the opposition until 1943 when the Muslim League had gained political support and he was made parliamentary secretary to then-Chief Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin.

Bogra supported the Muslim League's call for creation of Pakistan through the partition of British India and successfully defended his constituency in the general elections held in 1945.

In 1946, he was asked by Husyn Suhrawardy to join his cabinet and subsequently held ministerial portfolio of health, finance, and local government.

As health minister, he founded the Dhaka Medical College and the Calcutta Lake Medical College.

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he joined the foreign ministry as a diplomat and briefly tenured as Pakistan's ambassador to Burma (1948), High Commissioner to Canada (1949–1952), twice as ambassador to the United States, and as ambassador to Japan (1959–1962).

In 1947, he joined the first Constituent Assembly.

While in Dacca in 1948, he received Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah and reportedly dissented on the issue of populist language movement being excluded as an official state language of Pakistan.

He strongly advised Chief Minister Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin to restrain Jinnah from announcing the measure, but was rebuked.

In 1948, Bogra was asked by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to be appointed him as the Pakistan ambassador to the Kingdom of Egypt to head the Pakistani diplomatic mission in Cairo, which Bogra declined.

Instead, he chose the diplomatic assignment in neighboring Burma and presented his credentials in Rangoon in 1948.

Soon after becoming Pakistan Ambassador to Burma, his political philosophy reflected a conservative mindset and took an anti-communist stance when he supported the Burma's military operations against the communists.

In 1948, he showed concerns of communist expansion in Pakistan when he reportedly told Pakistani journalists that: "even [sic] if the Burmese Government succeed in suppressing the communists, it is possible they may shift the centre of communist efforts to Pakistan."

In 1949, he left Burma when he was appointed as High Commissioner of Pakistan to Canada which he headed the diplomatic mission until 1952.

In 1952, he was made Ambassador to the United States.

Watching the campaign for the 1952 United States presidency, Bogra conjectured, according to Husain Haqqani, that Pakistan could obtain economic and military aid from the United States by casting itself as a front line state in the battle to contain Soviet communism.

He vigorously lobbied anticommunists in Washington, D.C. to that end.

After he was recalled in 1953 from his services to Pakistan from the United States, he replaced Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin as Prime Minister in an appointment approved by then-Governor-General Sir Malik Ghulam.

His foreign policy strongly pursued the strengthening of bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United States, while downplaying relations with the Soviet Union.

He also pushed for a stronger military to achieve peace with India and took personal initiatives to prioritize relations with China.

He later married Aliya Saddy in 1955.

His second marriage led to widespread protests against polygamy by women organizations in the country.

At home front, he successfully proposed the popular political formula that laid the foundation of the constitution in 1956 which made Pakistan a federal parliamentary republic.

Despite his popular initiatives, he lost his support to then-acting Governor-General Iskander Mirza who re-appointed him as Pakistani Ambassador to the United States which he served until 1959.

In 1962, he joined President Ayub Khan's administration as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan until his death in 1963.