HBM Iqbal | |
---|---|
এইচ বি এম ইকবাল | |
Member of the
Bangladesh Parliament for Dhaka-10 | |
In office 14 July 1996 – 13 July 2001 | |
Preceded by | Abdul Mannan |
Succeeded by | Abdul Mannan |
Personal details | |
Nationality | Bangladeshi |
Political party | Bangladesh Awami League |
Spouses |
Momtaz Begum (died 2022) |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Website |
drhbmiqbal |
HBM Iqbal is a Bangladeshi entrepreneur and the founder chairperson of Premier Group of Companies Ltd. He is also a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a former Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Dhaka-10 constituency during 1996–2001. [1]
Iqbal was elected as a Bangladesh Awami League candidate representing the Dhaka-10 constituency in June 1996 and served as the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee at the Ministry of Science and Technology. [1] [2]
On 13 February 2001, shots were fired from Iqbal's rally to the rally of the then opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in the Malibagh area of Dhaka. [1] [3] Photographs of the incident were published in newspapers. [3] [1] Four people in the BNP rally were killed in the shooting. [4] Iqbal, along with 23 others, were charged on 29 December 2002, by the Detective Branch. [5] [6] In August 2010, Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 dropped the case against him, MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury and 12 others after the Ministry of Home Affairs had recommended to drop the charges citing it as a "political harassment case" in 2009. [5] [7]
On 25 June 2007, Iqbal was charged with corruption by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). [8] [9] [10] [11] He was sentenced to 13 years in jail on 11 March 2008; 10 years for undeclared assets worth Tk 22.9 crore and 3 years for concealing information on property worth more than Tk 16 crore. [12] [13] His wife, Momtaz Begum, two sons, Moyeen Iqbal and Ikram Iqbal, and a daughter, Naurin Iqbal, were also convicted. [13] HBM Iqbal was sent to jail in February 2010. [12]
The High Court acquitted Iqbal in 2011 but upheld the convictions of his family members. The ACC filed a petition against the acquittal but they dropped their petition in 2015. [14] The family members surrendered at the court in March 2017 and secured bail within a week. [14] [15]
In April 2010, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the public agency for urban development in Dhaka, sent a demolition notice to Momtaz Begum, the wife of Iqbal, for illegally building, Premier Square, a skyscraper in Gulshan area. [16] She had failed to produce documents supporting building's approval despite repeated notices. [16]
In February 2021, Iqbal sent more than 30 legal notices to bdnews24.com to remove past articles on criminal cases against him. [17] Online articles regarding Iqbal's cases published by The Daily Star now shows the error "You are not authorized to access this page". [3] [8] [11] [16]
As of 2010, Iqbal was a vice-president of the Awami League's Dhaka city unit. [16] He is the founder chairman of Premier Group of Companies Ltd, Premier Bank Limited, Premier Foundation and Premier Bank Foundation. [18] [2] [19]
Iqbal was married to Momtaz Begum (d. 2022). [20] [21] She had served as the vice-chairman of Sheikh Hasina University of Science and Technology Board of Trustees and as the chairperson of the Royal University of Dhaka Board of Trustees. [22]