Former Finance and Planning Minister and BNP National Standing Committee member M Saifur Rahman. File Photo

SYLHET, Sept 4, 2025 (BSS) – The 16th death anniversary of former Finance and Planning Minister and BNP National Standing Committee member M Saifur Rahman will be observed tomorrow with due respect.

The veteran politician died in a tragic road accident on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway on September 5 in 2009.

Marking the occasion, various programmes have been chalked out by the district and metropolitan BNP units as well as the M Saifur Rahman Smrity Sangsad and his family.

According to the programmes, Sylhet District BNP will pay homage at the late leader’s grave in Moulvibazar at 12 noon. 

A special prayer and doa mahfil will be offered after Maghrib prayers at the Jame Mosque on the premises of the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) in Sylhet.

Sylhet Metropolitan BNP will also visit his grave in Moulvibazar at 11 am and offer a special prayer at the same mosque premises after Asr prayers.

Former Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury has arranged a doa mahfil at Bandarbazar Jame Mosque after Jummah prayers. 

A discussion will also be held at 3 pm at Sylhet Shilpakala Academy, where BNP Standing Committee member Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan will attend as the chief guest.

Additionally, the M Saifur Rahman Smrity Parishad and the deceased’s family will host a Quran Khatam at his ancestral home in Moulvibazar, followed by milad, doa-mahfil and distribution of 'shirni' after Zahr prayers.

Born on October 6, 1932, in Baharmardan village of Moulvibazar, M Saifur Rahman was the eldest among three brothers. 

He completed his early education at local maktabs and schools before enrolling at Jagatsi Gopalkrishna High English School in 1940. He passed his matriculation with distinction in 1949.

After completing his I.Com (Intermediate Commerce) from MC College in Sylhet, he graduated from Dhaka University in 1951.

Then he went to London to study barrister. After reaching there, his mind changed. Instead of studying barrister, he studied chartered accountancy. After studying from 1953 to 1958, Saifur Rahman obtained the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales Fellowship in 1959. In addition, he received specialized education in finance and principles and development economics.

Following the formation of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he responded to the call of the party’s founder Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and became an active organiser. 

Saifur Rahman served as a Member of Parliament from both Moulvibazar and Sylhet constituencies multiple times.

On June 8, 2006, he presented the twelfth budget in parliament, setting a record for presenting the largest number of budgets in the country's parliamentary history.

In addition to serving as the country's Finance Minister for a long time, he also served in various important organizations in the country and abroad.

On September 5, 2009, while going to Dhaka from his home in Baharmardan in Moulvibazar, he was killed in a tragic road accident at Khariala on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway in Brahmanbaria.