Renowned lawyer Barrister Rafique-ul-Huq has passed away. He was 85.
He breathed his last at 8:30am today while undergoing treatment in ICU in Ad-Deen Hospital in Dhaka, Dr Nahida Yeasmin, director of the hospital confirmed to The Daily Star.
Expressing grief at the demise of Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq, Attorney General and Supreme Court Bar Association President AM Amin Uddin told The Daily Star that his namaz-e-janaza will be held at the SCBA premises at 2:00pm today and he will be buried at Banani graveyard.
On October 15, the eminent jurist was admitted to the hospital with urine infection and old-age complications.
On Saturday, he was released from the hospital as his condition improved.
However, he was again admitted to the hospital on Sunday as his condition deteriorated.
In the early hours of Wednesday, he was put on life support as his condition further deteriorated.
Barrister Rafique-ul-Huq left behind a son — Barrister Fahim-Ul Huq, now in Canada — and a host of admirers to mourn his death, Barrister Abbas Uddin, a junior lawyer told The Daily Star.
Law Minister Anisul Huq also expressed deep shock and sorrow at the demise of Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq and prayed for the salvation and eternal peace for his departed soul.
The law minister also expressed profound sympathy to the bereaved family members.
Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1935, Rafique-Ul-Huq obtained his law degree in 1960. He completed MA and LLB degrees from Calcutta University. He became a Barrister-at-Law in 1961 and called to the Lincolns Inn in 1962.
Barrister Rafique-Ul-Huq joined the High Court, Dhaka in 1962. In 1965 he became an Advocate, the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
In 1975, he was made Senior Advocate, Appellate Division, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
He became the Attorney General of Bangladesh in 1990.
While in the Government legal service, he served as chairman at Bangladesh Bar Council Tribunal and Bar Council Election Tribunal (1975-76) and Bar Council of Bangladesh (1990). He was an elected member of the Executive Committee on International Taxation of the World Association of Lawyers, World Executive Committee, Foreign Trade and Investment (Washington) and Bangladesh Delegate to the UN General Assembly (1990).
He was a member of the National Commission on Money, Banking and Credit and Chairman of Sub-Committee on Banking Laws under the Commission which wrote the current banking laws of Bangladesh (1984), chairman of Corporate Laws Committee (1990), member of the Company Law Reforms Committee (1977) and of the Committee for Improvement of the Stock Exchange Market in Bangladesh.
Barrister Rafique-Ul-Huq was the writer of various other laws for Bangladesh.
Barrister Rafique-Ul-Huq was active in social work. He was life member and vice chairman of Diabetic Association of Bangladesh and member of its National Council (since 1976), life member of Bangladesh National Society for the Blind, chairman of Society for Education and Care of Hearing impaired Children of Bangladesh, chairman of Management Committee of BIRDEM Hospital and Secretary General of the management board of Dhaka Shishu Hospital.