Mohammad Ali Bogra

Mohammad Ali Bogra was a Pakistani Bengali politician, statesman, and a career diplomat who served as the third Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1953 to 1955. He was the grandson of Nawab Ali Chowdhury, a prominent leader of the Bengal Muslim League. He studied at the Calcutta University and started his career as a politician in the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1937. He served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Khawaja Nazimuddin and later as the Health and Finance Minister of Bengal under Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. After the partition of India in 1947, he joined the foreign service of Pakistan and served as the ambassador to Burma, Canada, and the United States. He was appointed as the Prime Minister of Pakistan by Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad in 1953, after the dismissal of Khawaja Nazimuddin. He faced several challenges during his tenure, such as the language movement in East Pakistan, the anti-Ahmadiyya riots, and the Cold War pressures. He tried to resolve the constitutional deadlock by introducing the Bogra Formula, which proposed a bicameral legislature with equal representation for the two wings of Pakistan. He also improved the relations with China and the Muslim world. He was dismissed by Iskander Mirza in 1955 and replaced by Chaudhry Muhammad Ali. He then resumed his diplomatic career and served as the ambassador to the United States and Japan. He also briefly served as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan under Ayub Khan in 1962. He died of a heart attack in Dhaka in 1963. He was considered a moderate and pragmatic leader who tried to bridge the gap between the two wings of Pakistan.