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Dhaka, December 30: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) president and the country’s first woman Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has left behind a strong political legacy. He died this morning during treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka. BNP’s Facebook page said, “Khaleda Zia passed away at around 6:00 am, just after Fajr prayers.” BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also confirmed her death.
Khaleda, 80, was admitted to Evercare Hospital on November 23, The Daily Star reported. She was suffering from heart and lung infection. She was also suffering from pneumonia. Since returning from London after receiving advanced medical care on May 6 this year, Khaleda has been undergoing regular checkups at Evercare Hospital. Khaleda took over the leadership of the country after winning the 1991 general elections.
She left behind her son Tariq, his wife and their daughter. Tariq Rahman returned to Bangladesh on 25 December after 17 years in exile. Khaleda’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko died in Malaysia a few years ago. The former Prime Minister was sent to jail on February 08, 2018 in a corruption case. During the Corona period, he was given temporary release on March 25, 2020 on certain conditions. Khaleda was born in 1945 in Jalpaiguri. She initially studied at Dinajpur Missionary School and later matriculated from Dinajpur Girls School in 1960.
Khaleda’s father Iskandar Majumdar was a businessman and mother Tayyaba Majumdar was a housewife. Khaleda, popularly known as Putul, was the second of three sisters and two brothers. In 1960, she married Zia-ur-Rehman. Rehman was a captain in Pakistan Army. In the liberation war of 1971, Zia-ur-Rehman rebelled and took part in the war. After Rahman’s assassination on May 30, 1981, BNP was in serious trouble. In this difficult time, Khaleda joined the party and became the vice president on January 12, 1984. He was elected Speaker on May 10, 1984.
Under the leadership of Khaleda Zia, BNP formed an alliance of Lok parties in 1983 and started a movement against Ershad’s dictatorial government. Khaleda continued the movement against Ershad without fear. In the 1991 elections, BNP emerged as the sole majority party. Khaleda contested from five seats in three consecutive parliamentary elections and won all of them. On March 20, 1991, Khaleda was sworn in as the first woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
Khaleda became Prime Minister for the second consecutive time after winning the general elections held on February 15, 1996. However, all major opposition parties boycotted the elections. Responding to demands from opposition parties, the then government amended the Constitution to provide for an impartial caretaker government to conduct parliamentary elections. After this, Parliament was dissolved and on March 30, 1996, Khaleda handed over power to the caretaker government. The BNP lost to the Awami League in the elections held on June 12, 1996 under the caretaker government headed by Justice Mohammad Habibur Rahman. Khaleda was the leader of the opposition in the Jatiya Sangsad during the 1996–2001 tenure of the Awami League government.
In the next parliamentary elections held on October 1, 2001, under the caretaker government headed by Justice Latifur Rahman, the four-party alliance led by the BNP won more than two-thirds of the seats in the Jatiya Sangsad. On October 10, 2001, Khaleda took oath as the country’s Prime Minister for the third time. When the army-backed caretaker government took power in 2007, Khaleda was jailed along with several other political leaders, including Awami League chairperson Sheikh Hasina. He was later released from prison and ran in the 2008 parliamentary elections, but his party did not win.
The BNP did not participate in the 2014 parliamentary elections, leaving the party out of Parliament for the first time since 1991. On February 08, 2018, a special court in Dhaka sentenced him to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. On October 30 this year, the High Court increased his jail sentence to 10 years. Later he was also convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.
During the Corona period, the then Awami League government temporarily released Khaleda through an executive order on March 25, 2020. Her sentence was suspended on the condition that she would live in her Gulshan house and not leave the country. The BPN chief was completely released on 06 August this year.