Former finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali passed away in Dhaka on Thursday.
He breathed his last at a hospital in the capital, said his family.
Born on June 2, 1943, in Doctorpara village of Khanasama upazila in Dinajpur, Mahmood Ali was the son of Hasan Ali, a former minister of the then Pakistan government.
He was elected a Member of Parliament four times from Dinajpur-4 (Khansama-Chirirbandar) constituency during the Awami League government’s tenure.
He served as the finance minister until from January 11, 2024 to August 5, 2024.
He also served as the foreign minister from February 2014 to January 2019 and earlier as the minister for disaster management and relief from 2012 to 2013.
Mahmood Ali, popularly known as H M Mahmood Ali, was a former diplomat.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Dhaka University in 1962 and completed his master’s the following year.
In 1964, he briefly taught at the same university before joining Pakistan’s Foreign Service in 1966.
While serving as a diplomat under the Pakistan government, he played a significant role in favor of Bangladesh’s independence during the 1971 Liberation War.
He lost his parliamentary seat after the dissolution of parliament in 2024, following the fall of the Awami League government in the student-led July Uprising.