The Sayem ministry led what eventually became the first interim government in independent Bangladesh and an unofficial model for future interim governments. It was formed on 8 November 1975, following the assassination of Major General Khaled Mosharraf on 7 November amid a nationwide soldier and public uprising against his 3 November coup d'état. After a three-day coup with support of some high-ranking officers and his Dhaka Brigade, Mosharraf had forced Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who, following the 15 August coup that assassinated the founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, replaced him as President of Bangladesh with support of the mid-ranking assassin officers, to resign. Chief Justice Sayem, with the constitutional requirement for the direct election of the president and role of the vice-president as acting president suspended by Mostaq under a martial law proclamation, had been installed in his place. With Mosharraf's death, the responsibility of CMLA fell on Sayem.