Khwaja Habibullah

Who was Khwaja Habibullah?

Nawab Khwaja Habibullah Bahadur was the fifth and last Nawab of Dhaka. He was the son of his more prominent father, Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur. Under his rule, the Dhaka Nawab Estate went into decline until its actual relinquishment in 1952 by the East Pakistan Estates Acquisition Act.

Nawab Habibullah had repeatedly tried to carry on his father's political legacy by himself but had failed due to the strong political power base of other family members such as Khwaja Khairuddin and Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin. Nawab Habibullah contested the assembly election of Bengal as an independent candidate but suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of his relative, Khwaja Khairuddin who was on a Muslim League ticket.

In his closing days he gave up politics due to broken health. He left the Ahsan Manzil Palace and resided in another of the royal residences, Green House, in Dhaka's Paribagh area. On 21, November, 1958 Nawab Habibullah died and was buried alongside his father at the royal family graveyard in Begumbazar in Dhaka.