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Nurul Amin (Bengali: নূরুল আমীন, Urdu: نورالامین , 15 July, 1893 - 2 October, 1974) was a prominent Bengali leader of the Pakistan's Muslim League, and served as Chief Minister of East Pakistan and both Prime Minister and Vice President of Pakistan.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 2.1 Language Movement 2.2 Bangladesh Liberation War 2.3 Post-liberation

Born in the village of Shahbazpur, in what was then East Pakistan's Brahmanbaria District, Nurul Amin grew up in Mymensingh District. After receiving his law degree from Calcutta University in 1924, Amin served as a lawyer in the Mymensingh Judge Court.

Nurul Amin was elected as the Chief Minister of East Pakistan in September 1948 when Khawaja Nazimuddin was appointed Governor General on the death of Qaid i Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. During Amin's term as Chief Minister, Governal General Nazimuddin reiterated the federal government's position that Bengali, the language of the overwhelming majority of East Pakistanis in addition to the majority of Pakistanis as a whole, was not to be considered a national language on par with Urdu. This position was highly unpopular in East Pakistan, and subsequently led to what is now known as the Language Movement, as well as a general loss of power for the ruling Muslim League.

In the 1954 elections, the Muslim League was comprehensively defeated by the United Front, an alliance between the Awami League (led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy), the Krishak Sramik Party (led by Moulvi A. K. Fazlul Huq), the Nizam i Islam Party (led by Maulana Athar Ali), and the Ganatantri Dal (led by Haji Muhammad Danish and Mahmud Ali Sylheti). Nurul Amin lost his assembly seat, and the Muslim League was effectively eliminated from the provincial political landscape.

In the 1970 elections, Nurul Amin was elected to the National Assembly as one of only two non-Awami League members from East Pakistan. During this time, the Pakistani authority in East Pakistan had already become highly unpopular as the struggle to promote Bengali as a national language was further suppressed. Civil unrest ignited by the Language Movement and fueled by alleged discriminatory practices against Bengalis eventually led to East Pakistan's declaration of independence.

The Bangladesh Liberation War, as it is now known, further escalated as India formally declared war on Pakistan in 1971. As the situation in his home district of East Pakistan worsened under civil war, Amin was appointed Prime Minister by President General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan on December 6, 1971. On December 20, 1971, however, 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, Nurul Amin was appointed as Vice President of Pakistan, the only person to have held this post. He continued to hold this post until the lifting of martial law on April 21, 1972.

While his political career lasted through war and civil unrest, Nurul Amin is considered by many to be a patriot, as he opposed the movements that eventually led to the severing of ties between his Bengali people and the concept of a Muslim homeland in South Asia. Disappointed and frustrated with the apparent indifference portrayed by the Pakistani government when it was clear that East Pakistan had been lost, Amin is said to have remarked to President Yahya and his military advisers, "So Dhaka has fallen, and East Pakistan is gone, and you are enjoying yourselves..."[1]

Amin and his family continued to live in West Pakistan as their home country, East Pakistan, won its independence as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Due to the hostile anti-Pakistani sentiment still persistent in Bangladesh's first few years as an independent nation, Amin was advised not to return home. Before the situation could improve, Amin died in October 1974, less than three years after the dissolution of a united Pakistan.

Prime Ministers of Pakistan
LA Khan  | Nazimuddin  | Bogra  | Ali  | Suhrawardy  | Chundrigar  | Noon  | A Khan  | Amin  | Z Bhutto  | ul-Haq  | Junejo  | ul-Haq  | B Bhutto  | Jatoi  | Sharif  | Mazari  | Sharif  | Qureshi  | B Bhutto  | Khalid  | Sharif  | Musharraf  | Jamali  | Hussain  | Aziz