Mohammed Nasim, the Awami League stalwart who served Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in four different cabinet roles, has died in hospital care at the age of 72.
Nasim, who had been on life support after suffering a stroke, passed away at the Bangladesh Specialised Hospital in Shyamoli on Saturday morning, Awami League Office Secretary Biplab Barua confirmed.
He leaves behind his wife and three children.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader have expressed their condolences over Nasim’s death.
“The prime minister has spoken to his son Tanvir Shakil Joy,“ Biplab said.
Nasim was hospitalised with a fever on Jun 1 and later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
With underlying health conditions, he had undergone brain surgery after suffering a stroke during treatment.
Nasim was put in intensive care and later on life support, doctors said. Although he later tested negative for COVID-19, his condition showed no signs of improvement over the following days.
Nasim had initially tested negative for the coronavirus but his wife and a house help had been confirmed to have caught COVID-19.
But as his fever, cough and other health conditions began to worsen, the family got him admitted to the hospital on Jun 1 and a second test confirmed he had contracted the virus.
The veteran politician will be laid to rest at the Banani graveyard on Sunday.
Nasim is the son of M Mansur Ali, one of the four national leaders slain inside Dhaka Central Jail in 1975 after the assassination of founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Nasim became the post and telecommunication minister when the Awami League returned to power in 1996. Hasina gave her the charge of housing and public works ministry as well the next year.
After handling both ministries until March 1999, he became the home minister.
Hasina did not keep him in her cabinet after sweeping the 2008 elections, but made him health minister in the next term after the 2014 polls.
Zahid Malik, who had been the state minister for health during Nasim’s stint at the helm, is the health minister now.
A presidium member of the ruling party, Nasim has been working as the coordinator of the 14-Party Coalition led by the Awami League.
Born to Mansur Ali and Amena Mansur in Sirajganj’s Kazipur on Apr 2, 1948, Nasim represented the Sirajganj constituency for the fifth term.
One of the key organisers of the 1971 Liberation War and Bangabandhu’s close confidants, Mansur Ali had also served as prime minister after independence.
Nasim became active in politics after the killing of his father.
The first election Nasim won was in 1986 when he was the publicity secretary of the party. He served as the opposition chief whip at the time. He was elected MP in 1996, 2001, 2014 and 2018.
He has also founded a number of educational institutions in Dhaka and Sirajganj. — bdnews24.com
