Mohammad Ali Bogra


Syed Mohammad Ali Chowdhury Bogra was a Pakistani politician and diplomat who served as the third prime minister of Pakistan from 1953 to 1955. He was appointed in this capacity in 1953 until he stepped down in 1955 in favour of his federal finance minister Chaudhri Muhammad Ali.
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. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he joined the foreign ministry as a diplomat and briefly tenured as Pakistan's ambassador to Burma, High Commissioner to Canada, twice as ambassador to the United States, and as ambassador to Japan.
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. 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 Iskandar Ali Mirza who re-appointed him as Pakistani Ambassador to the United States which he served until 1959.
In 1962, he joined President Muhammad Ayub Khan's administration as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan until his death in 1963.

Early life and education

Mohammad Ali was born in Backerganj, 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. The prefix, Sahibzada 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 horse races, dog shows, and 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. He later married Aliya Saddy in 1955. His second marriage led to widespread protests against polygamy by women organizations in the country.

Early political career (1930–1947)

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. In the 1937 Indian provincial elections he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly. His uncle, Hasan Ali Chowdhury was also elected to the assembly, but from an opposing party.
In 1938, he was elected chairman of the Bogra District Board, a position he retained until June 1942. 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. 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.
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 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.

Diplomatic career (1947–1952)

In 1948, Bogra was asked by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to be appointed 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 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 to become high commissioner to Canada, a position he held until 1952. In February 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. In Pakistan's political circle, he was seen as extremely having pro-American views and had fondness of the country, the United States. He also helped negotiate the United States' officer assistance advisory to be dispatch to Pakistan, in an agreement he signed with the United States government in 1952.
In the Foreign Service society of Pakistan, Bogra gained a reputation of "a man who was known for his excessive praise of everything American." Pakistani historians held him widely responsibly as one of the principal personalities putting Pakistan in the alliance of the United States against the Soviet Union. He was a little-known pro-American political outsider when Ghulam Muhammad chose him in 1953 to replace Khawaja Nazimuddin as prime minister.

Premiership (1953–1955)

The issue of the Bengali language movement in East in 1952, the rise of the Pakistan Socialist Party, and the riots in Lahore against the Ahmadi in 1953 were the defining factors that led to the dismissal of Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin by Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad on 17 April 1953.
Bogra was recalled to Karachi from Washington, D.C. for further consultation, but Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad moved to appoint him as the new prime minister and the President of the Muslim League, which the party had accepted. Under pressure he accepted the new appointment from Ghulam Muhammad. Initially, he kept the federal ministries of foreign affairs and defence until appointing a new cabinet. Upon taking over the government, Bogra dismissed the elected East Bengali government of A.K. Fazlul Huq on 30 May 1954 for "treasonable activities." He appointed then-defence secretary Iskander Mirza as the Governor of East Bengal, but this appointment only lasted a couple of months.
Bogra's new cabinet—known as the "Ministry of Talents"—included Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army Ayub Khan as Defence Minister and Governor Iskander Ali Mirza as Interior Minister and Minister of States and Frontier Regions.
After Bogra's appointment, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the shipment of thousands of tons of wheat to Pakistan. Bogra was eager to strengthen military ties with the United States; however, the U.S. moved cautiously to not damage their relations with India. He signed several agreement with the United States, most notably the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement in 1954, which provided U.S. military assistance to Pakistan. During Bogra's premiership, Pakistan also joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1955.
File:Nehru, Naguib and Bogra.jpg|thumb|Bogra with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Egyptian President Mohamed Naguib, 1954
His foreign policy was noted for strong "anti-Soviet agitation" because he viewed the Soviet Union as "imperialist", but did not label the same for China despite both being ideologically close. In 1955, Bogra helped organize and attended the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, expressing his approval for greater Afro-Asian cooperation and opposition to European colonialism.
File:Pakistani Prime Minister Bogra with Eisenhower.png|thumb|Bogra with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Oval Office, October 1954
Bogra sought to address and resolve the Kashmir conflict with India. In 1953, he met with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the sidelines of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. Bogra also received Nehru when he paid an official visit to Karachi, and Nehru reciprocated during Bogra's visit to New Delhi shortly after. Bogra enjoyed warm relations with Nehru, as both eventually agreed on a plebiscite in Kashmir. However, this plebiscite was not achieved due to Bogra losing support from the left-wing sphere in Pakistan.
As a part of his approach towards India, Bogra pushed for a stronger military to achieve peace in the subcontinent, arguing: "hen there is more equality of military strength, then I am sure that there will be a greater chance of settlement."