The rise and fall of jatiya party chairman hm ershad

From being the most powerful man in the country to the subject of jokes, he introduced many dark trends like usurping power. After his fall in a mass uprising in , he deftly played his cards to survive and thrive in treacherous political waters with a generous sprinkling of spectacle. While many generals in other countries reigned over military juntas only to fall by the wayside and suffer humiliation, or even assassination or death penalty, Ershad's transformation from a deposed military ruler to an elected politician enjoying government facilities for decades in an astonishing turn of events should spellbind the historians.

The Jatiya Party chairman, who has been on life support for the last 10 days, breathed his last at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka around am on Sunday, according to Sunil Subho Roy, the party chairman's political and press secretary. The year-old deposed military dictator has been suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome or a low-level of haemoglobin in his blood for long.

He was diagnosed with lung infection and kidney ailment.

The rise and fall of jatiya party chairman hm ershad: The politician was sued in over

Graduating in , he was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in Ershad was promoted to the rank of colonel in and then to brigadier in June The same year, he attended a defence course at National Defence College, India, where he stayed until after the Aug 15, assassination of Bangabandhu. Lt Col MA Hamid, who had once been close to Zia, wrote in his book that Zia had installed Ershad to the post next to his to thwart his rivals.

The verdict in a case over the killing of Gen Manzur is yet to be delivered.