Dhaka, Dec 30: Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister who restored democracy after a span of military rule and dominated the country’s politics for decades, died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 80.
Zia’s demise came less than six weeks before Bangladesh will vote in the parliamentary elections for the first time after a massive student-led uprising led to the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led government. Zia and Hasina were political rivals.
“My mother is no more,” Zia’s elder son and Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) acting Chairman Tarique Rahman said early in the morning.
Zia was a three-time prime minister and held the position of chairperson of BNP. Her personal physician, Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, said she breathed her last early on Tuesday while receiving treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.
Zia’s family members, including her elder son Tarique Rahman, his wife Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter Zaima, were present at the hospital. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was also at the hospital.
Bangladesh’s interim government Chief Muhammad Yunus described former prime minister Zia as a “great guardian” whose role in the country’s democratic journey would be “remembered forever”.
The BNP said she passed away at 6:00 am local time, “just after Fajr prayer”.
Zia’s funeral will be held on Wednesday after Zohr prayers at Parliament’s South Plaza and the adjoining Manik Mia Avenue, Law Advisor Asif Nazrul said.
She will later be laid to rest with full state honours beside the grave of her husband, former president and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, at Zia Udyan in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka, Nazrul told reporters after a special meeting of the interim government’s Advisory Council at the state guest house Jamuna.
Top leaders of several countries condoled the death of Zia.
“Our sincerest condolences to her family and all the people of Bangladesh. May the Almighty grant her family the fortitude to bear this tragic loss,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on social media. “We hope that her vision and legacy will continue to guide our partnership. May her soul rest in peace.”
In the evening, India announced that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Dhaka to attend Zia’s funeral.
In a televised address to the nation, Chief Adviser Yunus announced a three-day state mourning and a one-day general holiday.
“At the death of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, I declare three days of state mourning and a one-day general holiday tomorrow on the day of her Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayers),” he said.
Yunus urged people to maintain discipline and order during the funeral prayers and the observance of mourning across the country.
Zia had been suffering from multiple complex and chronic health conditions, including liver and kidney complications, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and infection-related problems.
She was admitted to Evercare Hospital on November 23 for routine tests, during which doctors detected a chest infection and decided to keep her under observation.
Her condition worsened on November 27, prompting her transfer to the hospital’s Coronary Care Unit (CCU).
In the early hours of Tuesday, Dr Hossain, who was also a member of the medical board overseeing her treatment, described her condition as “very critical”.
As her condition deteriorated, Rahman, along with other family members, rushed to the hospital.
Zia last appeared in public on November 21 when she joined the Armed Forces Day reception at Dhaka Cantonment.
Yunus said the nation had lost not just a political leader but a towering stateswoman who represented an important chapter in Bangladesh’s history.
“With her demise, the nation has lost one of its great guardians,” he said.
In a statement posted on social media, BNP acting chief Rahman reflected on his mother’s political legacy and personal sacrifices.
“To many, she was the leader of the nation, an uncompromising leader, the Mother of Democracy, the Mother of Bangladesh. Today, the country mourns the loss of a guiding presence that shaped its democratic aspirations.
“To me, Khaleda Zia was a tender and loving mother who devoted her entire life to the country and its people,” he wrote.
The US, Pakistan, China, Germany, Australia, and the European Union (EU) also expressed deep sorrow over the death of Zia and paid tribute to her political legacy and role in shaping the country’s democratic journey.
Party leaders, activists, supporters and Zia’s admirers crowded the Evercare Hospital premises soon after her death was announced, while the BNP said it would hold a week-long mourning.
BNP has emerged as the forerunner in the upcoming February 12 general election in the changed political landscape, with the absence of the disbanded Awami League of deposed premier Hasina. Its former ally Jamaat is now emerging as BNP’s main rival.
In a condolence message posted on the Awami League’s X account, her arch-rival Hasina, who is in exile in India, described Zia as a significant figure in Bangladesh’s political history.
“As the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh, and for her role in the struggle to establish democracy, her contributions to the nation were significant and will be remembered,” she said.
BNP had earlier said that if physically well, Zia would be the next prime minister if the party is voted to power in the February 12 election, otherwise Rahman is their nominee for the position.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Yunus’ advisory council, effectively the cabinet, has called an emergency meeting after Zia’s death, and he was invited to join the meeting.
Zia’s political journey, spanning over four decades, was one of tremendous highs and lows: from leading a major party and governing the country to being convicted on corruption charges and later receiving a presidential pardon.
Her rise as a public figure is widely viewed as accidental. A decade after becoming a widow at the age of 35, she assumed the role of prime minister, but her entry into politics was not planned.
She was largely unfamiliar with the political world until she was seemingly dragged into it following the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, a military strongman turned politician, in an abortive army coup on May 30, 1981.
Before this, she was merely regarded as the wife of a general and later the First Lady. However, she quickly made her mark as the top leader of the BNP, the party her husband had founded in 1978.
She was enrolled as a primary member on January 3, 1982.
By March of the following year, she became the party’s vice president, and in May 1984, BNP’s Chairperson – a position she held until her death. Her main rival throughout this period was Hasina, the chief of the Awami League.
After the 1982 military coup by the then Army chief Gen HM Ershad, Zia initiated a movement for restoring democracy.
After the fall of the Ershad regime in December 1990, a caretaker government headed by Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed conducted the elections in February 1991.
BNP emerged as the party with the majority to the surprise of many who believed the Awami League would win the polls. The new parliament amended the constitution, switching to a parliamentary system from a presidential form of government, and Zia became the first woman prime minister in Bangladesh and second in the Muslim world after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.
BNP was re-elected to power in 1996, but the government lasted only 12 days as the Awami League staged vigorous street campaigns. Zia’s government quit after introducing the caretaker government system.
Though BNP lost the fresh election in June 1996, the party won 116 seats, becoming the largest opposition in the country’s history.
In 1999, Zia formed a four-party coalition and launched agitations protesting the then-ruling Awami League government. She was re-elected in 2001. In 2006, she stepped down from office, passing power to a caretaker administration.
In September 2007, she was arrested on what her party claimed were “baseless charges of corruption”.
Zia’s electoral popularity can be gauged by the fact that she never lost in any constituency. “She was elected in five separate parliamentary constituencies in the elections of 1991, 1996 and 2001, while in 2008, she won in all three constituencies from where she contested,” a BNP leader said.
Zia was born on August 15, 1946, to Taiyaba and Iskandar Majumdar in Dinajpur district in undivided India. Her father migrated from Jalpaiguri, where the family ran a tea business, to what was East Pakistan after the partition. (PTI)
