Bangladesh President Shahabuddin likely to resign amid unease over Hasina ties

Dhaka,UPDATED: Jul 23, 2026 14:46 IST

Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin is likely to resign soon, nearly two years before the end of his tenure, according to political sources and media reports on Thursday. Shahabuddin was elected by the previous parliament and is the only person still in his constitutional post after the violent student-led protests of July-August 2024 that brought down prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government.

The reports gathered pace over the past two days, with several mainstream Bangladeshi media outlets suggesting that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's government was no longer comfortable with Shahabuddin. Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, and has been living there since then.

"It is likely that he (Shahabuddin) will resign soon," a senior leader of the ruling Bangladesh ist Party told PTI without giving further details. Newspaper Prothom Alo quoted a high-level government source as saying that the government was unhappy with reports that Shahabuddin had recently tried to re-establish contact with Hasina. A senior BNP leader also told The Daily Star that a recently reported telephone conversation between Shahabuddin and Hasina was not the only reason behind his expected resignation and that the issue was "more complex" as Bangladesh's political situation had become more sensitive after Hasina announced that she would return home.

Earlier this month, Hasina said she would return to Bangladesh in December. Bangladesh said it "welcomed" her plans to return home, but asserted that she must face justice. On November 17, 2025, Bangladesh's Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina and her former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death after trying them in absentia for their superior role in suppressing the protest, which is now being described as the 'July Uprising'.

A veteran of the 1971 Liberation War and a former lower judiciary judge, Shahabuddin took oath in April 2023 for a five-year term. Under the Bangladesh Constitution, if the president resigns, parliamentary Speaker Hafizuddin Ahmed will serve as interim president until a new head of state is elected. The tribunal was originally set up in 2010 by the Hasina-led government to try collaborators of Pakistani troops during the 1971 Liberation War. After Hasina fled to India, the Muhammad Yunus-led interim regime, which took charge three days later, amended the tribunal law to allow it to try leaders and officials of the Awami League government on charges of crimes against humanity. As speculation over Shahabuddin's future grows, the expected resignation has become part of a wider political situation shaped by Hasina's possible return and the cases against her.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends