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Mohammad Ali Bogra (1909-1963)
Mohammad Ali Bogra was born on 19th October 1909. He belonged to an aristocratic family of Bogra, East Benga. He was the grandson of Nawab Ali Choudhry. He studied at the Calcutta University of United India and started his career as a politician. In 1937 he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly and after six years, in 1943, Bogra was selected as the Parliamentary Secretary to the then Chief Minister of Bengal, Khawaja Nazimuddin. Later on, in 1946, serving under Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, he was made the Health Minister and then the Finance Minister of Bengal.
After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly. But soon was posted to Burma as an Ambassador in 1948. After that in 1949, he was appointed as High Commissioner to Canada and as Ambassador to the United States, in 1952. He was then, appointed as Prime Minister in April 1953, after the dismissal of Khawaja Nazimuddin by the Governor-General, Ghulam Mohammad. Bogra, immediately, started concentrating on the task of formulating a constitution for the state of Pakistan; however, he approached the issue as a technocrat, rather than as a politician. To complete his task, he introduced the famous “Bogra formula,” which required the creation of a bicameral legislature. Even though the plan gained popularity, any progress on it was halted in 1954 when Gulam Mohammad dissolved the first legislature of Pakistan.
Bogra was again invited to continue his post of Prime Minister and to form a new cabinet that came to be known as the “Cabinet of Talents.” Iskandar Mirza, the then acting Governor-General, dismissed Mohammad Ali Bogra from Prime Minister Ship, after the creation of the second Legislative Assembly, and replaced him with Chaudhry Mohammad Ali in August 1955. Mohammad Ali Bogra was once again posted to his previous assignment, as Ambassador to the United States. Later on, in 1962, he became the foreign Minister of Pakistan and remained in that position until he died in 1963.