BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been entrusted with the important responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives in the 13th national parliament led by the BNP.
However, he first entered electoral politics by contesting the election for the post of Chairman of Thakurgaon Municipality in 1986. Subsequently, in 1988, he was elected as the Municipality Chairman in very local election in Thakurgaon.
Fakhrul was first elected as a Member of Parliament by winning the national election in 2001. Later, from 2001 to 2006, he served in the cabinet of the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, first as state minister for agriculture and later for the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Earlier, Mirza Fakhrul completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Economics Department of Dhaka University. Before independence, he was active in left-leaning Chhatra Union politics.
After independence, he joined the teaching profession after passing the BBS examination. In 1986, he quit his government job to contest the election for the post of Chairman of Thakurgaon Municipality. During the anti-Ershad movement, he joined BNP and became the president of its district chapter in 1992.
In 2009, Mirza Fakhrul was appointed as the Senior Joint Secretary General of the BNP. In 2011, when the then BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain passed away, party Chairperson Khaleda Zia entrusted him with the responsibility as Acting Secretary General. In 2016, Fakhrul was elected as the Secretary General of the BNP. Throughout his long political career, he has earned special renown in the political arena of Bangladesh for his amiable demeanor and measured speech.
Although he was elected as a member of parliament from the Bogura-6 constituency in the 2018 national election, he did not subsequently take oath as a member of parliament according to party decision.
His father, Mirza Ruhul Amin, was a member of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. Later, he served as a minister in multiple ministries during the Ershad government and the government of Ziaur Rahman. His uncle, Mirza Golam Hafiz, was the Speaker of the National Parliament from 1979 to 1982 and served as the Minister for Law and Justice in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet in 1991.
