Mirza Abbas

Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed
Born	(1951-02-07) February 7, 1951 Shahjahanpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Occupation	Politician
Years active	1990–present
Known for	Mayor of Dhaka City Corporation (1990–1994), Member of Parliament (2001–2006), Minister of Housing and Public Works

Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed (; born 7 February 1951) is a politician affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and serves on its national standing committee. He held the office of Mayor of Dhaka City Corporation from 1990 until 1994, represented Dhaka-6 as a Member of Parliament from 2001 to 2006, and was appointed Minister of Housing and Public Works during the Third Khaleda Cabinet.

Early life and career

Born on 7 February 1951 in Shahjahanpur, Dhaka, Abbas is the son of high school teacher Abdur Razzak and Kamla Khatun. He completed his secondary education in Kishoreganj and obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College in 1972, graduating with a second division.

Political career

Abbas’s political journey began alongside the formation of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, where he collaborated closely with President Ziaur Rahman. He was appointed as mayor of Dhaka City Corporation in 1991 and served in this role until December 1993. In the 2001 general election, Abbas secured a parliamentary seat representing Dhaka and was subsequently named Minister of Housing and Public Works.

During his ministerial tenure, he prioritized the rigorous implementation of the Wetland Protection Act to safeguard environmental stability and mitigate flooding risks. His leadership saw amendments to the Building Construction Rules in December 2006 and the development of Private Housing Land Development Rules aimed at regulating real estate developers engaged in filling wetlands and flood flow zones.

At the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s 5th National Council in 2009, Abbas was appointed to the national standing committee in recognition of his service. He later took on the role of convener for the party’s Dhaka city unit in 2014 and submitted his nomination to contest the mayoral election for Dhaka South City Corporation in 2015.

Charges and convictions

On 25 February 2007, Abbas was detained while submitting his asset declaration to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), being among the initial group of fifty individuals accused of corruption.

The ACC filed charges against Abbas on 15 July 2007, alongside former BNP MP Ali Asgar Lobi and Mahfuzul Islam, concerning the unlawful allocation of an industrial plot in Tejgaon Industrial Area to Pacific Chemicals Ltd—owned by Lobi—in 2006.

On 12 May 2008, Abbas received an eight-year prison sentence for tax evasion spanning from 1990 to 2007 and for providing false information on tax returns.

A further corruption case related to plot allocation during his ministerial period was brought by the ACC on 6 March 2014. Following a Supreme Court decision, Abbas was granted bail in April 2016. In 2025, he was acquitted of these corruption allegations.

Abbas surrendered on 6 January 2016 concerning two cases involving violence filed between late 2014 and early 2015, resulting in imprisonment. He was released from custody in 2024.

Personal life

Abbas is married to Afroza Abbas, who serves as president of Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal, a women's wing of the BNP.

Social service

To support women's education within his community, Abbas established Mirza Abbas Mohila Degree College. Additionally, he has contributed donations to SEID Trust, an institution dedicated to educating children with autism.