Murshid was one of two women to be directly elected to the Provincial Legislative Assembly of East Bengal in 1954 on a United Front ticket. As an accredited deputy of the Mujibnagar Government in exile she sought the recognition of Bangladesh from the Indian government, essentially to raise support for the Bangladesh Liberation war. That prompted the Pakistani military junta to sentence her to 14 years rigorous imprisonment in absentia. In independent Bangladesh, she was appointed in 1972 as state minister for health and social welfare in the cabinet of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She was elected to the country's first parliament in 1973. She left politics after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the jail killings of four key cabinet ministers, including Tajuddin Ahmed, prime minister of Bangladesh in exile, and Syed Nazrul Islam, former acting president of Bangladesh, in exile in 1975.