The political career of convicted war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury is full of controversy since the anti-liberation elements and religion based parties regained the right to do politics after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975.
By then, Salauddin Quader had been back home from exile and started doing politics of Muslim League, which opposed Bangladesh’s birth but was revived in just four years of the liberation war during the period of military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman.
The known war criminal got elected as an MP in 1979 from Muslim League in independent Bangladesh in eight years of the nine-month Liberation War when Salauddin Quader had employed all his might to annihilate freedom-fighters. That was the beginning of his career as a parliamentarian. He changed his political identity several times and managed to get elected six times since then. Currently, he is an MP from main opposition BNP.
His political career, be it in parliament or outside, has always been marred by controversy often stemmed from his unguarded remarks and harsh comments along with trademark gesture about political opponents.
He even did not spare the chief of his party, BNP. With an oblique reference to Khaleda Zia and some of senior party leaders whom she relied on for decision making, Salauddin Quader once said, “I knew that the dogs move tail; now I see the tail moves the dogs.” In the 7th parliament, he proudly told the House that he was a pro-Pakistani man – a statement that sparked criticism. He also said he enjoyed to be controversial.
Often referred as Saka Chowdhury in the media, the BNP leader is known for his wits, which often turned out to be vulgar. But he bothered least about his public image.
He has got the rare quality of overcoming tough times with his own brand of humour, often mixed with vulgarity. Couple of weeks before his arrest, he described his situation in a media interview from his Goods Hill house in Chittagong, saying: “If rape is inevitable, why not enjoy it?”
He discovered a short-cut to election victory in his home constituency that covers Rangunia, Raozan and Fatikchhari areas in Chittagong. During the election campaigns, he used to visit the houses of the Hindu people and asked whether they would vote for him, the residents of the areas said. The intimidated Hindus, who traditionally voted for the Awami League, used tell him Ÿes.”
Then he reportedly told them: “As you have promised me giving votes, you need not go to the polling centres.”
Playing anti-liberation role and killing innocent people in 1971, Salauddin Quader inherited the anti-Bangladesh politics from his father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, who was the president of Convention Muslim League that opposed Liberation War.
In September 1971, he went to Pakistan and alter started living in London to complete Bar-at-Law. His father, who was speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly, died in jail after independence.
Salauddin returned to Bangladesh in 1974 and remained politically dormant, his friends said. Bangabandhu’s murder in 1975 opened his political avenue. He started his father’s politics of Muslims League. The mainstream Muslim League, led by Khan A Sabur, did not accept him properly.
He then created a faction of Muslim League ahead of the second general elections under military rule in 1979 and got elected for the first time.
After Gen Ziaur Rahman’s assassination in 1981, Salauddin Quader joined the military ruler HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party and got elected in the third polls in 1986 as its candidate. He later became the health minister. In the post-Ershad political arena, he formed a new front, the National Democratic Party (NDP), mainly comprising some leaders from his constituency, and got elected an MP for the third time. He resigned from the BNP-led fifth parliament in 1995.
The following year he joined the BNP and was elected a lawmaker again. In 2001 polls, he was elected MP and later got the post of the parliamentary affairs adviser to then prime minister Khaleda Zia and enjoyed the rank of a cabinet minister.
The military-led interim government arrested him in 2007 as part of its massive anti-corruption drive. He enjoyed creating controversy and making headlines.
Ahead of the 2008 polls, Salauddin wrote in the affidavit of the 9th parliamentary election that he had no educational qualification.
The Election Commission objected to it, but he teased the commissioners, saying he had much more reading of law books than them.
Though giving false information in the affidavit could cost him the candidacy, the EC did not proceed that way to avoid controversy.
The publications of the Jatiya Sangsad (8th and 9th) refer that Salauddin Quader was born on March 13, 1949 in Gohira village under Raozan upazila, Chittagong.
He completed his matriculation from Sadiq Public School (Pakistan’s Punjab), higher secondary education from the Notre Dame Collage in Dhaka and the graduation (honours) in Political Science from Punjab University.
In 2004, he competed as a candidate for the post of secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, but lost.
Salauddin blamed Sheikh Hasina, then leader of the opposition in parliament, for his defeat and made derogatory comments about her.
