Khaleda Zia: Three-time prime minister of Bangladesh passes away in Dhaka at the age of 80 after a protracted illness
Khaleda Zia: The first female prime minister of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia, passed away after a protracted illness while receiving treatment at Apollo Hospital in Dhaka. She was eighty years old. According to a Facebook announcement from her party, the former prime minister and chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) passed away this morning at six in the morning. Since being hospitalized on November 23 due to infections in her heart and lungs, she has been receiving therapy for the last 36 days. The Bangladeshi newspaper The newspaper Star said that she also had pneumonia. “The BNP Chairperson and former prime minister, the national leader Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6:00 am, just after the Fajr (dawn) prayer,” the party said in a statement.
“We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,” it said. Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, has long struggled with a number of health conditions, including as diabetes, liver cirrhosis, arthritis, and long-term problems with her kidneys, lungs, heart, and eyes. Experts from Bangladesh, the UK, the US, China, and Australia were supervising her care.Tarique, her older son, his wife Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter Zaima Rahman were all left behind. After living in exile for 17 years, Tarique Rahman returned to Bangladesh on December 25. Arafat Rahman Koko, Zia’s youngest son, passed away in Malaysia a few years ago.
Zia, the three-time prime minister of Bangladesh, has established a solid political legacy that began when she was elected to the position by the general public in the 1991 national election. In order to ensure a free and fair election, she proceeded to establish the caretaker government system and the parliamentary form of government in Bangladesh. Khaleda was born in 1945 in Jalpaiguri, British India (now West Bengal). Following the 1947 split, her family relocated to Dinajpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Her mother, Tayeba Mazumder, was a homemaker, while her father, Iskandar Mazumder, was a businessman. She was referred to as “Putul” and was the second of three sisters who had two boys. Zia matriculated at Dinajpur Girls’ School in 1960 after attending Dinajpur Missionary School after relocating to East Pakistan. Before moving to West Pakistan to be with her husband, she attended Surendranath College in Dinajpur till 1965. In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman, who was a captain in the Pakistani army at the time. When the Liberation War in Bangladesh began in 1971, Ziaur Rahman rebelled and fought for the country’s independence.
On May 30, 1981, Ziaur Rahman was killed. His passing caused a major issue for his BNP. Khaleda Zia, who had never held public office, joined the BNP and was elected vice-president on January 12, 1984, in an effort to keep the party together. On May 10, 1984, she was chosen as the party’s chairman. In 1983, the BNP, headed by Khaleda Zia, established a seven-party coalition and began a campaign against Ershad’s dictatorial government.