A BIOGRAPHY OF TOFAIL AHMED 

He has been active in politics since his college days. He acted as the sports secretary of the BM College Students’ Union as well as and he was elected vice president of the Ashwini Kumar Hall student council in 1962. Subsequently, he attended Dhaka University and earned a Master of Science in Soil Science. There he also acted as Sports Secretary of  Iqbal Hall (now Shaheed Sergeant Zahurul Haque Hall) in 1964. Later he was elected Students’ Union  Vice President of Soil Science Department in 1965 then Iqbal Hall Students’ Union Vice President in 1966–1967 and finally he became the Vice President of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) from 1967–1969. While serving as vice president of DUCSU in 1969 he orchestrated the mass uprising. He was one of the most influential student leaders back then. He participated in the election of 1970 by the nomination of the Awami League and won the election. He had a great contribution to the cyclone victims of the 1970s. He reminisced that while visiting the cyclone-affected areas, Sheikh Mujib urged him to do his utmost to take care of the victims under the official banner of the Awami League. 

During the Great Liberation War of 1971, he was one of the top level leaders of Mujib Bahini. He was in charge of the southern region comprising Kushtia, Barisal, Patuakhali, Pabna, Jessore, Khulna and Faridpur districts. After independence, he performed duties in various offices. On January 14, 1972 Ahmed was selected as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister with the rank of State Minister. He was in that position until January 25, 1975. In 1973 he won the election again and became a member of the Jatiya Sangsad. In 1975, all of the major groups in the country came together to form Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BaKSAL). Tofail Ahmed has been chosen as the general secretary of Jatiya Jubo League, the youth branch of Baksal. 

Bangabandhu took Tofail Ahmed with him on a number of important foreign state visits. He went to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, for one day on February 6, 1972, and to Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union on March 1, 1972. On July 26, 1973, he went to Belgrade, Yugoslavia’s capital, at the request of President Joseph Broz Tito. On August 3, 1973, he went to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit. On September 6, 1973, he went to Algiers, Algeria’s capital, to attend the 4th Non-Aligned Summit. On October 17, 1973, he spent seven days in Tokyo, Japan’s capital. Pakistan officially recognized Bangladesh on February 22, 1974, and on February 23, 1974, it joined the Islamic Summit in Lahore, Pakistan. 

Mr. Ahmed attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Organization of African Unity Summit in Algiers, the Common-wealth Conference in Canada and Jamaica, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Conference in Pakistan. During his travels, he met many notable people from all over the globe, including Marshal Tito, Anwar Saa’dat, Piera Trudeau, Julias Nyere, Emperor Hirohito, Leonid Illych Brzhnev, and Tunku Abdur Razzak. The 1988 World Peace Conference was attended by him. He traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. He attended the Singapore, Geneva, and Seattle meetings of the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference. At these gatherings, he represented the LDCs and coordinated with other delegates. At the WTO convention in Geneva, he presided over a gathering of the Least Developed Countries.

After the assassination of Bangabandhu, he spent about 5 years in the jails of Dhaka, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Comilla, Barisal, Kushtia, and Rajshahi. He became Commerce and Industries Minister in the 1996–2001 term. During his tenure, he led the LDC Group as coordinator in the first, second, and third WTO Ministerial Meetings and played a defining role in achieving the commitment to Duty-Free Quota Free Market access for LDCs.

He became Minister of Commerce (2014 – 2019) for the second time and held the office with the same dedication as the first time. After independence, he won in 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2008, 2014, and 2018. He was elected to two seats in 1991 and 1996. During all his tenure he dedicated himself for the development of Bhola, his election area. People of Bhola always remember him with great admiration.