Born on July 1,1946 at Mapprom in Malappuram District to Shri. Moosakutty and Smt.Fathima, Shri. E.T. Mohammed Basheer, renowned Muslim League leader, brings with him a long political and trade union experience spanning over three decades.

A good orator even at school level, he had also won 1st prize in elocution in State Youth Festival. Entering politics through the MSF, he became actively engaged later, in the trade union field and got elected as State Secretary of STU. He also worked as President of various trade unions affiliated to STU, in industrial firms like Mavoor Gwalior Rayons, Malabar Cements, Palakkad, Malabar Spinning Mills, Kozhikode and Steel complex, Kozhikode.

Shri. Basheer became elected to the 7th KLA in a bye-election from Peringalam held on 28.2.1985, and was subsequently elected to the 9th ,10th and 11th KLA from Tirur constituency as a Muslim League candidate. Shri. Basheer was the Minister for Education in the Ministry headed by Shri. K. Karunakaran from 29.6.1991 to 16.3.1995, and again from 20.04.1995 to 09.05.1996 in the Ministry headed by Shri. A.K. Antony.

On September 5, 2004 in the Ministry headed by Shri. Oommen Chandy he took charge as the Minister for Education for the third time. Presently, the State Secretary and Deputy Leader of the IUML, he was a member in the Janardhanan Reddy Commission, Veerappa Moily Commission and Minority Education Monitoring Committee. He is also serving as Malappuram District Committee Secretary and State Secretariat Member of Muslim League.

He was the recipient of a number of awards including Silver Elephant Award for conducting Jamboori Meet at Palakkad, Sir Syed Award and Karma Sreshta Award for Best Administrator, Seethi Sahib Award for best Parliamentarian and Special Award by Anti-Narcotic Council for eradicating narcotics from School premises.

In his literary pursuits, he published a number of articles and short stories in periodicals and has won the award for best short story writer in the competition conducted for Legislators in connection with Legislature day celebrations.

Shri. Basheer has attended a three months’ workshop conducted by Indian Social Institute, Bangalore, World Malayalee Conference at Berlin and presented a thesis on ‘21st Century Development Options’ in the N.G.O. International Seminar at Oslo.

Married to Smt.Rukkiya, they have 3 sons and 1 daughter.