Mohammad Abdul Hamid

Mohammad Abdul Hamid (born 1 January 1944) is a Bangladeshi retired politician and lawyer who served as president of Bangladesh from 2013 to 2023, the longest tenure in the office's history. A lifelong Awami League man, he was elected to parliament seven times and served as speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad in 2001 and from 2009 to 2013 before succeeding Zillur Rahman as president. ^{1 2}

Hamid was born at Kamalpur village, Mithamain Upazila, Kishoreganj District, to Mohammad Tayebuddin and Tomiza Khatun. (The Arabic article's infobox gives Dhaka as his birthplace; its own lead, like the English article, gives Kamalpur, and the structured value is not followed.) He was educated at Bhairab K.B. Pilot High School and Gurudayal Government College in Kishoreganj, took an LL.B. from Central Law College, and practised as an advocate at the Kishoreganj bar, whose association he presided over five times. ^{1 2}

He joined student politics with the East Pakistan Chhatra League in 1959 and the Awami League in 1969, was elected to the National Assembly in 1970 — its youngest member — and organised for the Liberation War in Kishoreganj. After independence he was elected to parliament in 1973 and again in 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008, was imprisoned after the coup of 15 August 1975 until 1978, and held the deputy speakership from 1996 to 2001 and the deputy leadership of the opposition from 2001 to 2006. He received the Independence Award in 2013 for his contribution to the Liberation War. ¹

As speaker, Hamid became acting president on 14 March 2013 when President Zillur Rahman was hospitalised in Singapore; Rahman died six days later. Hamid was elected unopposed on 22 April 2013 and sworn in on 24 April. He was re-elected in 2018, the first Bangladeshi president to win a second term, and served ten years and forty-one days in all, until Mohammed Shahabuddin succeeded him on 24 April 2023. The article notes his simple lifestyle at the Bangabhaban, his popular, humorous speeches as chancellor of the universities, and the criticism that he signed controversial bills of the Hasina governments and commuted some serious sentences. ¹

On leaving office Hamid announced his retirement from active politics. After the July Revolution of 2024 he was named in cases filed against figures of the former government, including a murder case, and his house was vandalised in February 2025. His departure for medical treatment in Thailand on 8 May 2025 caused a public controversy; he returned on 9 June 2025, and the government stated that no innocent person would be prosecuted. These post-presidency events are reported here as the article recounts them; the charges are allegations, not findings. ¹

Hamid has been married to Rashida Hamid since 1964; they have three sons and one daughter, among them Rejwan Ahammad Taufiq, a former member of parliament for Kishoreganj-4. ¹

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