Profile of Candidates: Dr Baharul Islam—Man with UN assignment

By TCN Staff Reporter,

Guwahati: Yes, he is on diplomatic assignment with United Nations, but now probably he is the most educated of 485 candidates in the Phase 1 poll for Assam Assembly. He is Dr K M Baharul Islam – candidate of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Karimganj South assembly constituency.

Electoral debut
This is his second stint in electoral politics. He debuted in the last assembly poll (2006) in the state when he contested on AIUDF ticket for Patharkandi seat. Though he got 35000 votes he was defeated by BJP’s candidate. Just 41, Dr Baharul Islam is now trying his luck in Karimganj South.

Baharul Islam

He is the spokesperson and a high profile candidate of AIUDF. He may be contacted at drbahar@gmail.com. Cell (India) 094350-72356.

Karimganj South
In Karimganj South, which roughly comprises about 60% Muslim voters, he is taking on 24 candidates – 18 of them are Muslims. These 18 include candidates from three major parties including ruling Congress and opposition AGP, and 15 Independents. The voting will take place on 4th April. Will he win this time? Result will be out on 13th May.

Academic and Professional Profile of Dr Baharul Islam
Dr K M Baharul Islam has been working in the area of Information Technology policy and legal issues, teaching and researching information society and emerging knowledge economy for more than a decade. He has studied for his first Bachelors' and Masters' degrees at the Aligarh Muslim University (India). He completed his 2 nd and 3rd post-graduate degrees in Education (B.Ed) and Law (LLB) from Assam University (India). He did his PhD on New Technologies from Tezpur University (India) and finished his post-doctoral studies on Internet-based instructions at Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand). He has completed his LLM (IT & Telecom Law) at the University of Strathclyde (UK) and worked as off-campus scholar on the Master of Populations Studies program at the International Institute of Population Science, Mumbai. He is a licensed advocate registered with the Bar Council of India. His areas of legal specializations are Information Technology Law, Cyber Crimes, and Intellectual Property Rights of software and Liability in Information Society.

Starting career as a university faculty, he has taken keen interest in broadening the ICT implications for mass access and developmental use. As an institution builder, he initiated and headed the Center for Educational Technology at the National Institute of Technology (Deemed University), Silchar, India where he taught for more than eight years. He was part of the UNDP deputed faculty establishing the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology & Management (KIST) in post-genocide Rwanda in 2000. In 2002-2003, Dr Islam was seconded to the Addis Ababa University on a UNDP capacity building program as an Associate Professor. He received a Certificate of Recognition from The World Bank in December 2003 for his work on education of disabled children in Ethiopia.

Presently Dr Islam is on diplomatic assignment with United Nations and working as a specialist on ICT policy and e-Government with the UN Commission for Africa (UNECA). He is one of the few Asian experts trained by UNICEF as master trainer on emergency education sector reconstruction in the region. He has been involved in various UN projects in Asia and Africa in countries like Cambodia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt, Tanzania, Djibouti and Sierra Leone. His latest publications includes eGovernment Strategy for the Gambia (Published by UNECA) and National ICT Policy called NICI Policy and Plans for The Gambia and the Regional e-Government Framework for the East African Community (just finished) commissioned by UNECA. He has written a chapter of the first Encyclopaedia of Digital Governance being published in 2006.

Dr Islam was working as a Reader in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in India and was the Chairman of State for State Rural Technology Promotion Council in the Government of Assam.