Mohammed Ali Bogra


Political Leader

Designation: Third Prime Minister of Pakistan
Institution / Org:


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Mohammed Ali Bogra (1909 - 1963) was a Pakistani statesman of Bengali origin, who served as the third Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1953 until 1955.

Born at Bogra to a Muslim family descended from the Nawabs of Bengal, he attended theUniversity of Calcutta and followed his education with a career in politics. In 1937 he began to receive prominence when he was elected to the assembly of Bengal. He would move up within the government of Bengal, serving under Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy as the Health Ministerand later Finance Minister.

Upon the formation of Pakistan in 1947, Bogra was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan but after disagreement with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Governor-General, over the issue of the Bengali Language, he was sent abroad as an Ambassador and served in Burma,Canada, and eventually as a two-time Ambassador to the United States.

In 1953, he was selected by Governor General of Pakistan Ghulam Muhammad to replace Khawaja Nazimuddin as the Prime Minister. Bogra was a relatively unknown personality to the national political scene of that time. He was serving as Ambassador to the US when he was recalled to take the office of Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, he set out to form a constitution.

In order to complete this, he outlined his famous "Bogra Formula" that sought to form a bicameral legislature. An Upper House would have contained 50 seats, 10 from each province, i.e. with 10 from East Pakistan and 40 from West Pakistan. A Lower House would have contained 300 seats. The lower house seats would be determined by population of province, and East Pakistan would have 165 seats, while the four provinces of West Pakistan would have a combined 135 seats, but would be split among the provinces. A provision was also put in place that stated that if the President of Pakistan were from West Pakistan, then the Prime Minister would have to be from East Pakistan, and vice-versa. The plan was very popular, but was killed when Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the Pakistani Assembly later in 1953.

Bogra was forced to resign in 1955 by the new Governor General, Iskander Mirza. He returned to his post as ambassador to the United States. In 1962 he became the foreign minister of Pakistan, until his death in 1963. He was buried in the family grave of Nawab Palace in his hometown of Bogra in present day Bangladesh.

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