the new vice-president. Later that day Ershad resigned and Ahmed took over as the acting President of the country. Ahmed was chosen by all political parties including Ershad to hold the interim government that would oversee the neutral election to parliament. He administered the oath of office to his council of advisors at Bangabhaban on 9 December 1990 and held the first meeting on 15 December 1990. After the Fifth National Parliamentary Elections held on 27 February 1991, Ahmed handed over the parliamentary ruling power to the newly elected Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. He resigned from the presidency on 9 October 1991 and the next day returned to his previous post of chief justice from which he eventually retired on 1 February 1995. President of Bangladesh (1996–2001) Ahmed was elected president unopposed on 23 July 1996 after having been nominated by the Awami League government and sworn in on 9 October the same year. He retired from the office on 14 November 2001. When the Awami League lost the Parliamentary Elections in 2001 he was dubbed a "betrayer" by Sheikh Hasina. He lamented "I am an angel if anything is done according to their desire, otherwise I am a devil." Philanthropy Ahmed was chairman of the Bangladesh Red Cross Society, from August 1978 to April 1982 in addition to his duties as a Judge of the Supreme Court. He set up a number of rural hospitals maternity centres, in particular, the Teligati Red Cross Hospital (Netrakona) which was financed by the Swiss Red Cross. He was a member of the Bangladesh Government delegation to the 10th Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Islamic countries (OIC) held in Fez, Morocco in 1979 where the question of setting up an International Islamic Red Crescent Society was debated. On his initiative the Family Planning and Population Control was included in the main function of the Bangladesh Red Cross. Personal life and legacy Ahmed was married to Anowara Begum (1937 – 2018) . Together they had two sons and three daughters. In 2008, a lake in Gulshan, Dhaka was named Rastrapati Bicharpati Shahabuddin Ahmed Park after Ahmed. In February 2022, Ahmed was taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) due to an aging-associated disease. He died on 19 March 2022 at the Combined Military Hospital at the age of 92. References 1930 births 2022 deaths People from Netrokona