Bangladesh's First Female Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Passes Away at 80

A Political Legacy Ends

Dhaka: Khaleda Zia, the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh and a significant figure in the nation’s political landscape, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80 after battling a prolonged illness.

Her elder son, Trique Rahman, who is also the acting Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), confirmed her death, stating, "My mother is no more."

Dr. AZM Zahid Hossain, her personal physician, reported that she died early Tuesday while receiving care at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.

Zia served as Prime Minister three times and was the chairperson of the BNP.

According to BNP officials, her funeral prayer is scheduled for Wednesday at Dhaka's Manik Mia Avenue, near the parliament complex.

Family members, including her son Tarique Rahman, his wife Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter Zaima, were present at the hospital, along with BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital on November 23 for routine examinations, where doctors discovered a chest infection, leading to her hospitalization for observation.

Her health deteriorated on November 27, necessitating her transfer to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU).

In the early hours of Tuesday, Professor Hossain described her condition as "very critical."

Zia had been grappling with multiple chronic health issues, including complications related to her liver and kidneys, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and infections.

As her health declined, Rahman and other family members rushed to the hospital after 2 am.

Zia's political career, which spanned over four decades, was marked by significant achievements and challenges, including leading a major political party, governing the nation, and facing corruption charges that led to her conviction and subsequent presidential pardon.

Her rise to prominence was largely unplanned. After becoming a widow at 35, she unexpectedly entered politics following the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, during a failed military coup on May 30, 1981.

Initially seen as merely the wife of a general, she quickly established herself as a formidable leader of the BNP, a party founded by her husband in 1978.

She became a primary member of the BNP on January 3, 1982, and by March of the following year, she was the party's vice president. In May 1984, she ascended to the role of chairperson, a position she held until her passing. Throughout her career, her main political rival was Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League.

Following the military coup in 1982 led by Army chief Gen HM Ershad, Zia spearheaded a movement to restore democracy.

After the fall of Ershad's regime in December 1990, a caretaker government led by Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed oversaw elections in February 1991.

To the surprise of many, the BNP emerged victorious, and Zia became Bangladesh's first female Prime Minister and the second in the Muslim world, following Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto.

The BNP was re-elected in 1996, but Zia's government lasted only 12 days due to intense street protests from the Awami League. She resigned after establishing a caretaker government.

Although the BNP lost the subsequent elections in June 1996, it secured 116 seats, marking the largest opposition in the country's history.

In 1999, Zia formed a four-party coalition and led protests against the Awami League government. She was re-elected in 2001 and stepped down in 2006, handing power to a caretaker administration.

In September 2007, she was arrested on what her party claimed were unfounded corruption charges.

Zia's electoral success is evident as she never lost in any constituency, winning in five separate parliamentary constituencies during the elections of 1991, 1996, and 2001, and securing victories in all three constituencies she contested in 2008.

Born on August 15, 1946, in Dinajpur district, her father, Iskandar Majumdar, migrated from Jalpaiguri, where the family operated a tea business, to what was then East Pakistan after the partition.