Khaleda Zia
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| Khaleda Zia | |
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| In office 20 March 1991 – 30 March 1996 10 October 2001 – 29 October 2006 |
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| Preceded by | Kazi Zafar Ahmed (1990) Sheikh Hasina (2001) |
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| Succeeded by | Sheikh Hasina (1996) Incumbent |
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| Born | 15 August 1945 Dinajpur District, British India Present-day Bangladesh |
| Political party | Bangladesh Nationalist Party |
| Spouse | Late President Ziaur Rahman |
Khaleda Zia (Bangla: খালেদা জিয়া) (born 15 August 1945) was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, the first woman in the country's history to hold that position, and then again from 2001 to 2006. She is the widow of assassinated president Ziaur Rahman, and leads his old party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. She was elected as one of the "ten greatest living Bengalis", by the voting system led by Muktadhara, New York. After 35 years of independence of Bangladesh she has rule the country for about 10 years (longest period). She has been elected to five separate parliamentary constituencies in the general elections of 1991, 1996, and 2001, a feat unachieved by any other politician in Bangladeshi history.
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[edit] Life before politics
Khaleda Zia was born to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder at Dinajpur District on the 15th August,1945 (the other dates of birth Khaleda Zia used: August 5, 1944 - Marriage certificate; September 5, 1946 - transcript; August 19, 1947 - record of prime ministerial oath; August 15, 1947 - press secretary; August 15, 1946 application form - electoral candidacy. She started celebrating 15th August pompously as her birthday after she lost power to Sheikh Hasina in 1996 election. The critics say she deliberately chose this date just to hurt her opponent since it is a great day of mourning for Hasina when most of her family members were brutally murdered by some members of Bangladesh Army). The family originally hails from Feni, a southeastern district of the country. She studied in Dinajpur Government Girls High School and later in Surendranath College (strong evidence also suggests that she did not study beyond 8th grade). In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman. Her husband later became Chief of the Armed Forces and subsequently assumed power as Chief Martial Law Administrator following a series of military coups; he attempted to move toward a civilian administration by forming the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and becoming democratically elected as President.
Until the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in an abortive military coup in Chittagong on 30 May 1981, Khaleda Zia had taken little interest in either politics or public life. Even when her husband assumed power after the political changes in 1975, she remained a shy and withdrawn housewife spending most of her time raising her two sons.
After the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman, Vice-President Justice Abdus Sattar took over as the acting President and also as Chairman of the BNP. Army Chief of Staff General Hossain Mohammad Ershad overthrew Justice Sattar on 24 March 1982.
[edit] Entry into politics
In March 1983, Justice Sattar appointed Khaleda Zia vice-chairman of BNP. On February 1984, she became the chairperson as Justice Sattar retired from politics. On 10 August 1984 the party elected her the chairperson.
Meanwhile, BNP formed a seven-party alliance in September 1983 to step up movement against the autocratic regime of General Hossain Mohammad Ershad. Like Zia before him, Ershad attempted to give his rule a civilian and democratic face, but Khaleda Zia boycotted all elections during his rule. Khaleda was detained seven times during almost nine years of autocratic rule under President Ershad before his resignation on 6 December 1990.
[edit] Prime Minister
[edit] First term
With a unanimous vote cutting across all political lines, the BNP-led government restored the parliamentary system through the 12th amendment to the Constitution in 1991. A neutral caretaker government oversaw elections on 27 February 1991 that were broadly considered to be free, fair and truly democratic. Khaleda Zia was made as Bangladesh's first woman Prime Minister by the support of the majority of the members of the parliament.
Once in power, Khaleda Zia's government made substantial changes in education policy, introducing compulsory free primary education, free education for girls up to the 10th grade, a stipend for female students, and food for education programme. It also increased the age limit for entry into the civil service from 27 years to 30 years and made highest budgetary allocation in the education sector.
[edit] Second term
She became Prime Minister for the second consecutive term after the BNP had a landslide victory in 15 February 1996 general election to the sixth Jatiya Sangsad. The election was, however, boycotted by all other major parties who were demanding that the elections be held under a neutral caretaker government, following allegations of rigging in a by-election held in 1994. Turnout was estimated at around 25%, though the government at the time claimed it to be much higher. The short-lived parliament hastily introduced the Caretaker Government through 13th amendment to the Constitution, and then was dissolved to pave the way for the parliamentary elections. In the 12 June 1996 polls, BNP lost to Sheikh Hasina's Awami League but emerged as the largest opposition party in the country's parliamentary history with 116 seats.
[edit] Third term
Aiming to return to power, the BNP formed a four-lliance on 6 January 1999 with its former political foe the Jatiya Party, and the Islamic party of Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jot and launched several agitation programmes against the ruling Awami League.
The four-party alliance then participated in the 1 October 2001 general elections and won the election with a two-third majority of seats in parliament and 46% of the vote (compared to the principal opposition party's 40%) and Khaleda Zia was once again sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
Khaleda Zia's third term was plagued by rising religious militancy, terrorism, continued spiralling of corruption (including successive damning reports by Transparency International), a rise in alleged attacks on minority groups (such as Hindus and Ahmadiyas as documented by the US State Department and Amnesty International) and an increasingly explosive political environment. A particularly controversial piece of legislation introduced by the government was the banning of Ahmadiya publications in January 2004, which attracted considerable concern from international observers.
On October 27 2006, Khaleda Zia's term in office ended. The following day rioting broke out on the streets of central Dhaka following uncertainty over who would succeed her as Chief Advisor (Chief of Caretaker Govt). On the same day evening, a presidential statement declared that former Supreme Court chief justice K.M. Hasan (who had been due to take over as Chief Advisor) would not be assuming the role due to ill health. [1] Subsequently, Iajuddin Ahmed, the current president, was sworn in as Chief Advisor on October 29. Zia's son, Tareque Rahman, was arrested in March 2007 for corruptions.
