Former law minister and senior Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Shafique Ahmed has passed away. He was 89.
He breathed his last at 5:45pm on Sunday at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, his son Mahbub Shafique confirmed to bdnews24.com.
“My father had been suffering from various age-related complications. We admitted him to the hospital yesterday, where he was being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU). He passed away this afternoon,” Mahbub said.
A prominent legal expert, Barrister Shafique served as the minister for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs from 2009 to 2014 during the Awami League administration.
Throughout his long and distinguished career, he also served as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and played a significant role in the country’s legal and political landscape.
Born on Jul 16, 1937, in Cumilla, Shafique completed his graduation and post-graduation in geography from Dhaka University (DU) in 1958 and 1959.
He later shifted to law, earning an LLB from DU in 1963 and an LLM from King’s College London in 1967.
He was eventually called to the Bar from Lincoln’s Inn.
Shafique worked as a part-time teacher in DU’s law department from 1969 to 1973.
He also served as the principal of City Law College in Dhaka for over three decades, from 1973 to 2005, and was a member of the Dhaka University Senate during that period.
Enrolled as a High Court lawyer in 1967, he went on to lead the SCBA as its president for two terms: 1999�"2000 and 2008�"2009.
He also served as the vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Bar Council.
In 1969, he married Mahfuza Khanam, a former vice president (VP) of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), who predeceased him in 2025.
He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
His eldest son and daughter are physicians, while his youngest son, Mahbub, follows in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer.- bdnews24
