Dhaka, Bangladesh
AP
—
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced in a statement on Tuesday that Khaleda Zia, a former Bangladeshi prime minister whose archrival relationship with another former prime minister defined a generation in the country’s politics, has died. She was 80 years old.
Zia was elected as Bangladesh’s first female prime minister.
She faced politically motivated corruption cases, but in January 2025, the Supreme Court acquitted her in the final corruption case, allowing her to run in the February general elections.
After she was released from prison due to illness in 2020, her family asked the government at least 18 times to allow her arch-rival, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to receive medical treatment abroad, but the request was rejected, according to the BNP.
After Hasina was ousted in 2024, the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus finally allowed her removal. She went to London in January and returned to Bangladesh in May.
Bangladesh’s early years of independence, won in a bloody 1971 war with Pakistan, were marked by assassinations, coups and counter-coups, as military, secular and Muslim leaders jockeyed for power.
Zia’s husband, President Ziaur Rahman, took power as army chief in 1977 and formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party a year later. He was credited with bringing democracy to the country, but was killed in a military coup in 1981.
Zia’s uncompromising stance against the military dictatorship helped build a mass movement against the military dictatorship, culminating in the ouster of dictator and former army chief HM Ershad in 1990.
When Zia won his first term in 1991 and in several subsequent elections, his opponent was Hasina, the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a 1975 coup.
Zia was criticized for winning 278 of the 300 seats in the early 1996 election, amid a massive boycott by other major parties, including Hasina’s Awami League, which had called for an interim government. Zia’s government lasted only 12 days, a non-partisan interim government was established, and new elections were held in June of the same year.
Zia returned to power in 2001 by forming a joint government with Jamaat-e-Islam, the country’s main Islamic party, which has a dark past connected to Bangladesh’s war of independence.
Prime Minister Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party previously had close ties with the party, and Zia’s government maintained the confidence of the business community by following investment promotion and open market policies. Zia is known to be sympathetic to Pakistan and has made anti-India political speeches. India claimed that under the Zia regime, particularly during its second term from 2001 to 2006, militants were allowed to use Bangladeshi soil to destabilize India’s northeastern states.
During his term, Zia also faced allegations that his eldest son, Tariq Rahman, ran a parallel government and was involved in widespread corruption.
In 2004, Hasina blamed Zia’s government and Rahman for a grenade attack in Dhaka that killed 24 Awami League members and injured hundreds. Hasina narrowly escaped what she called an assassination attempt and went on to win the 2008 general election.
Zia’s party and its partners boycotted the 2014 elections in a dispute over an interim government, handing a unilateral victory to Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian government. Hasina’s party took part in national elections in 2018, but boycotted them again in 2024, allowing Hasina to return to power for the fourth consecutive term through controversial elections.
Zia was sentenced to 17 years in prison in two corruption cases for abusing her power by embezzling funds from a charity named after her late husband. Her party said the charges were politically motivated to weaken the opposition, but Hasina’s government said it had not intervened and the matter was a matter for the courts.
Hasina was heavily criticized by both the opposition and independent critics for sending Zia to prison.
Zia was released by Hasina’s government in 2020 and moved to a rented house, from where she regularly visited a private hospital. Her family has repeatedly asked Hasina’s government to allow Zia to travel abroad for treatment, but has been refused.
After ruling for 15 years, Hasina was ousted in a mass uprising in August 2024 and fled the country. Zia was granted permission to travel abroad by the transitional government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
Although Zia remained silent on politics for many years and did not attend political rallies, he remained the BNP chairman until his death. Rahman has been acting party chairman since 2018.
She was last seen on November 21 at the Bangladesh Army’s annual function in Dhaka Cantonment, where Yunus and other political leaders met her. She was in a wheelchair and looked pale and tired.
She is survived by her eldest son Rahman, who is seen as the heir to the political dynasty. Her second son, Arafat, died in 2015.
