New Delhi:
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia – seen as a leading contender in next year’s general election – died after a prolonged illness early Tuesday. Zia, 80, was being treated for infections in her heart and lungs, and was also suffering from pneumonia, national dailies said.
Begum Khaleda Zia was the first woman to become Prime Minister of Bangladesh; she served two full terms a decade apart – from 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006, and was Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. She is also credited with the replacement of the country’s presidential system with a parliamentary one – via a referendum in 1991 – so administrarive power rests with the prime minister.
Zia was one of two women to dominate Bangladeshi politics over the past three decades
The other is Awami League boss Sheikh Hasina, a five-time Prime Minister whose government was overthrown in August 2024 amid violent protests over a jobs quota system.
Zia and Hasina – who is now in exile in India and faces a death sentence if she returns home – differed in their approach to foreign policy, specifically when it came to the India question.
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