Khaleda Zia (Bangla: খালেদা জিয়া) (born August 15, 1945) is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996, the first woman to do so, and then again from 2001 to the present. She is the widow of assassinated president Ziaur Rahman, and leads his old party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Life before politics

Khaleda Zia was born to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder at Dinajpur District in 1945 in what is now north-western Bangladesh. She studied in Dinajpur Government Girls High School and later in Surendranath College. In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman. Her husband later became the President of the Republic and formed

Until the assassination of Khaleda Zia's 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 Even when her husband was propelled to power after the political changes in 1975, she remained a shy and withdrawn housewife spending most of her time raising her two sons.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 1981 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 in 1981.

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 the same year, 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. Khaleda was detained seven times during

Prime Minister

First term

The BNP restored the parliamentary system through the 12th amendment to the Constitution in 1991. A neutral caretaker government oversaw elections on 27 February 1991. Khaleda Zia was elected as Bangladesh's first woman Prime Minister in elections that were broadly considered to be free and fair.

When in power, the government of Khaleda made some headway in the education sector, introducing compulsory free primary education, free education for girls up till the 10th grade, stipend for girl students and food for education programme. It also increased the age-limit for entry into government services from 27 years to 30 years and made highest budgetary allocation in the education sector.

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. The short-lived parliament 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.

Third term

Aiming to return to power, the BNP formed a four-party opposition alliance on 6 January 1999 with the Jatiya Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jot and launched several agitation programmes against the ruling Awami League.

The alliance then participated in the 1 October, 2001 general elections and won the election with a two-third majority and Khaleda Zia was once again sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

See also

• Ziaur Rahman
• Bangladesh Nationalist Party

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