Iftekharuzzaman is the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.[1]
Iftekharuzzaman completed high school in 1968 under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Jessore.[2] did his undergraduate studies in economics from the University of Dhaka.[2] He completed his graduate studies in economics from the Wrocław University of Economics.[2] He earned his PhD from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics.[2] His did his post doc research from the University of Tokyo in international relations from 1988 to 1989.[3]
Iftekharuzzaman was a researcher and later research director at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies from 1982 to 1995.[2] From 1995 to 1999, Iftekharuzzaman was the executive director of the Regional Centre For Strategic Studies in Sri Lanka.[2]
From 1991 to 2004, Iftekharuzzaman was the executive director of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation.[2] After leaving Bangladesh Freedom Foundation, he joined as the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh in September 2004.[2]
In October 2007, Iftekharuzzaman defended Transparence International Bangladesh report on corruption in non governmental organizations after it was attacked by Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh.[4]
Iftekharuzzaman was elected to the international board of directors of Transparency International in 2008, 2012, and 2015.[2] In January 2008, he was a panelist in a conference, BBC Bangladesh Sanglap, organized by BBC World Service Trust and BBC Bangla Service.[5]
Iftekharuzzaman called the cancellation of World Bank loan for Padma Bridge an "acid test" for the government due to the Padma Bridge graft scandal in 2012.[6] In 2014, he warned Bangladesh was on the way to becoming a kleptocracy.[7]
In May 2015, Iftekharuzzaman was awarded the Global Partnership Forum for Social Accountability Award by the World Bank.[8] In 2019, he called for policy reforms due to the abuse of power by VIPs.[9] He called the murder of Nusrat Jahan Rafi in 2019 an "acid test" for the government.[10]
Iftekharuzzaman is a trustee of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation and Bishwo Shahitto Kendro.[2] He is a member of the International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission.[11] He is a member of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh. He wrote Nuclear Non-Proliferation in India and Pakistan: South Asian, Perspectives and South Asian Security, Primacy of Internal Dimension.[12] He has criticized the government for failure to prevent large scale money laundering.[13] In 2020, he criticized a provision of the budget that allowed black money (untaxed) to be legalized.[14]
According to Transparency International Bangladesh and Iftekharuzzaman, the Anti Corruption Commission was acting under the influence of the Awami League and not as an independent body.[15] He called for greater transparency in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.[16]