Rehabilitation in Independent Bangladesh
In 1978, then Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman allowed Azam to return to Bangladesh. Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh on a temporary visa with a Pakistani passport. But he had been living in Bangladesh from 1978 to 1994 as a Pakistani national without any valid visa to stay in Bangladesh, refusing to leave a country he considered his home by birth-right.
Azam became the unofficial Ameer of the party while remaining in Bangladesh illegally, as he was denied Bangladeshi citizenship and had overstayed his visitors visa on his Pakistani passport. However, no attempt was made to restrain him, and he moved around openly due to the anomalousness of his case. His citizenship was granted in 1994 by a decision of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, as the panel of Judges, with Muhammad Habibur Rahman as the Chief Justice (later chief of the Caretaker government of 1996), decreed that by virtue of his birth he had right to Bangladeshi citizenship.
Ghulam Azam announced his retirement from active politics in late 2000. He was succeeded by Motiur Rahman Nizami.
Read more about this topic: Ghulam Azam
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