Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed (16 January 1932 – 12 July 2003) was a Bangladeshi lawyer and constitutionalist. He was a former attorney general of Bangladesh.[1] He served as an adviser of law to the non-party caretaker government in two successive terms.[2]
Ahmed joined The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn and became a barrister in 1958.[2][8] He then taught in a secondary school in London until he returned to Bangladesh in 1960.[6] He worked at the Chamber of Barrister ATM Mustafa at Ramkrishna Mission Road in Dhaka.[3] He started practicing law at the East Pakistan High Court.[4]
Ahmed was appointed additional attorney general in 1972 and attorney general in 1976. He was the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in 1978.[9] He was recruited as a member of the International Election Observer Group and monitored national elections of Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives.[6] He served as an adviser to the Caretaker government of Bangladesh in 1991 and again in 2001.[7] He was twice elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, during 1978–79 and 1989–90.[6]
Ahmed taught law at the University of Dhaka as a part-time teacher from 1961 to 1968 and served the university as a senior legal adviser from 1972 to 1991.[6] He established "Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed & Associates (SIA&A)".[10]
Ahmed married Sufia Ibrahim in June 1955. Sufia is an academic and the first female National Professor of Bangladesh.[11] Together they had one son Syed Refaat Ahmed (born December 1959), a justice, and a daughter, Tasneem Raina Fateh, a physician.[3][1]
Ahmed had been suffering from diabetes, anaemia and encephalopathy. He died of old-age complications at BIRDEM Hospital in Dhaka on 12 July 2003.[9]
On July 18, 2004, Sufia established a trust fund titled "Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Foundation" at the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.[12]
