Bangladeshi Ambassador Osman Sarwar Alam Chowdhury says that when he retires this weekend he will go back to his people and resume the social work he had been involved in before his appointment.

Chowdhury, 63, is first leaving for Makkah and Madinah to perform Umrah and will return to Bangladesh the following week where he is expected to re-enter politics in Cox's Bazaar, his home district.

A respected political leader and social worker, Chowdhury was a student leader at the University of Dhaka in the 1960s. After receiving an M.A. in International Relations in 1961, he returned to Cox's Bazaar and engaged in social work.

For the next 35 years, until his appointment, he never worked as a salaried person or operated any business. Public service has always kept him on the move. He received a nomination from the ruling Awami League and was voted to the legislature in 1970 and 1973.

A close associate of Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he was a member of the constituent assembly and a signatory to the constitution in 1972. He also led Bangladesh's first Haj delegation to Saudi Arabia in 1973.

Chowdhury joined the Foreign Ministry in 1996 following the Awami League's victory in the June 1996 elections and was appointed Bangladesh Ambassador to the UAE the same year. He arrived in Abu Dhabi in January 1997.

He is expected to be nominated to the same seat in the next general elections, but Chowdhury remains non-committal. "The Prime Minister had entrusted me with the current responsibility to head our mission in the UAE after her formation of the government in 1996. If she gives me any other responsibility, I will be happy to take up the challenge."

He hinted that there is strong demand for his leadership among the people and the pressure is mounting. "I keep getting calls from the people in my constituency who want me to contest the polls. The pressure is growing. However, I will not commit myself without consulting the people. The ultimate decision will come from the Prime Minister and I will work accordingly."

Chowdhury leaves a legacy of hard work and extended service to his fellow countrymen, which many Bangladeshis feel will be difficult for others to duplicate. He has extended the reach of his embassy's services to the public.

His eventful tenure will also be remembered by his colleagues for the positive changes he brought to the mission in the past four years. Some highlights include transferring the mission's commercial wing to Dubai, which earlier was a part of the Embassy in Abu Dhabi. He also helped the consulate open a labour wing by appointing a Labour and Social Welfare Officer a few years ago.

As a continuation of this process, a First Secretary (Labour) was recently appointed. These decisions have helped the Bangladesh Consulate expand its services. Chowdhury frequently travels to remote areas where Bangladeshi labourers are mostly concentrated.

"I have this habit of meeting people, and used to walk miles in my locality to meet people and attend to their problems. So here too I couldn't change my habit. The only problem here was, being an ambassador and for other protocol-related reasons, I was advised not to walk that frequently. But I travelled almost every day to meet people and listen to their problems.

"Though we have a well-off business and professional sector, most Bangladeshi expatriates fall into the low-income group and they often complain about not getting proper community and consular services at our missions."

Chowdhury is one of those rare diplomats whose business card carries his cell phone number. When asked, he smiled. "I wanted to extend my services to reach every nook and corner of the UAE where my people are staying," he said.

"During my tenure, I have kept the door of my office and residence open. My people call me at any time during the day and night. I feel it is my duty to respond to their needs as I have been assigned to look after them.

"If they return empty-handed from the embassy, where else will they go? Most of them don't know where to go, whom to turn to and how to sort out their problems. It thus remains our responsibility to serve them."

In 1998 he launched a fund-raising campaign for the flood victims of Bangladesh. His initiative raised 20 million taka in cash and kind. A year later he honoured almost 200 donors, community workers and volunteers who helped in the fund-raising.