DHAKA, June 23, 2021 (BSS) - Veteran politician and Awami League leader
Tofail Ahmed MP has said he decided to donate all his property for welfare of
particularly the poorer people as aging process dwindled his materialistic
demands.

   "I have reached an age limit when I don't have any materialistic demand or
necessity . . . I am not a filthy rich man but I have decided to donate all
my landed property and wealth for the benefit of ordinary people," the
politician told BSS yesterday, announcing his decision.

   Ahmed said that previously he was carrying out philanthropic activities,
also drawing supports from friends and admirers, under a trust and now
decided to run them in a broader spectrum through 'Tofail Ahmed Foundation'
donating his property.

   "My daughter stood by me donating her property as well to the Foundation,"
said Ahmed, a close aide to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.

   Ahmed, who previously served as a minister in several portfolios and
currently a lawmaker from Bhola-1 constituency, was born in the southwestern
coastal district in 1943.

  He became a legendary student leader in late 1960s when Bengali nationalist
movement reached to its peak under Bangabandhu's stewardship, resulting in
independent Bangladesh's 1971 emergence through a nine-month long Liberation
War, when Ahmed also played a key-role.

   Asked if he was led by any example in taking the decision, Ahmed referred
to a sense of spiritual feeling that nobody could ever leave the world taking
with any wealth.

   "You perhaps know, Alexander the Great had asked his men to carry him to
the grave keeping both his hands dangling out of my coffin as he wished
people to know that he came empty handed into this world and empty handed he
went out of this world," Ahmed said.

   He also referred to Bangabandhu's example saying "just see, what
materialistic wealth he (Bangabandhu) personally had possessed throughout his
life".

   Ahmed said the Foundation would mainly work to provide the underprivileged
with hospital, old home, and stipend facilities.

   "I have earlier established schools, colleges, a mosque with aesthetic
look and an orphanage while the Foundation will now expand the welfare
activities," he said.

   The political figure said he possessed some landed property at his village
home, a farmhouse on 180 bigha land and a house in Dhaka's Banani area owned
by his wife, all of which would now be possessed by the Foundation.

   Ahmed said previously he had donated few apartments to run his
philanthropic activities.

   One of most regarded vice president of Dhaka University Students Union
(DUCSU) in pre-independence period, Ahmed was one of leading Liberation War
organizers and became Bangabandhu's political secretary in post-independent
Bangladesh.

   He served as Commerce and Industries minister from 1996 to 1999,
Industries Minister up to 2001, Housing and Public Works and Industries
minister in 2013-2014 and again Commerce minister from 2014 to 2019.