Dr. SM Ziauddin Haider Swapan, a former senior health and nutrition expert at the World Bank, a descendant of Jhalakathi, has been nominated as the BNP Chairperson’s Advisor. Jhalakathi, and greater Barisal, are hoping that the lack of a true soldier of the Zia ideology and a worker-friendly leader is going to be filled today.

Dr. Ziauddin Haider, who came from a respectable family in Naikathi, Sadar Upazila of Jhalakathi, was initiated into nationalist ideology. His father, the late Hormuz Ali, was a senior assistant secretary. Zia Haider
was the joint convener of the first committee of Dhaka College Chhatra Dal and was the vice-president of Barisal District Chhatra Dal in the eighties and the president of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Chhatra Dal.
In his long career, he has worked for thirty years in improving health, nutrition and development in thirty-five countries in Asia, Africa and South America as a professional health expert and development figure.

He also has experience working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Commission. He most recently retired as a Senior Health and Nutrition Specialist at the World Bank in February.
After graduating from Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, he earned a Masters in Food and Nutrition Planning from the University of the Philippines and a PhD in Nutrition and Epidemiology from Umea University, Sweden. Currently, Zia Haider is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he harshly criticized the then fascist Awami League government’s failure to deal with COVID-19 and wrote in national and international media about the urgent need to improve the health system.

Zia Haider is the eldest of seven siblings. Three brothers are doctors and former students of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College. Another is a teacher and all three sisters are highly educated. Middle brother Professor Kamal Uddin Haider Shaheen is the controller of examinations of the Dhaka Education Board.
Second brother Professor Dr. Khalid Mahmud Shakil is a professor of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Dhaka Children’s Hospital. He was the VP of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Student Union and the president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.
Fourth brother Dr. SM Anwar Parvez was the president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and the GS of the college student union.

Zia Haider is an ideal soldier of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal. Keeping a personality like him in the advisory council of the chairperson is a message for future brothers. This is an indirect indication of the evaluation of leaders and workers with a clean image, good career and long-tested work in the coming days.

This position of a personality like Haider is a blessing for Jhalokati.
He will repay Tarique Rahman’s trust, the locals claim that this can be fully expected from a person like him.