DHAKA: Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister who rose to power in 1991 and went on to share a decades-long and bitter political rivalry with Sheikh Hasina, passed away on Tuesday following a prolonged illness. She was 80.
Her party, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), confirmed her death, saying she had been suffering from multiple health complications. According to her doctors, she battled advanced liver cirrhosis along with arthritis, diabetes, and heart and chest ailments.
Earlier this year, Khaleda travelled to London for medical care, where she remained for about four months before returning to Bangladesh.
Although she had not held office since 2006 and spent several years either imprisoned or under house arrest, Khaleda remained a powerful political figure, with the BNP continuing to enjoy widespread public backing.
The party is widely regarded as the leading contender in the parliamentary elections scheduled for February. Her son, BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, 60, returned to Bangladesh last week after nearly 17 years in self-imposed exile and is seen as a strong prospective prime ministerial candidate.
Since August 2024, Bangladesh has been governed by an interim administration led by Nobel Peace Prize winner and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus, following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina after a student-led uprising.
In November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia over her violent crackdown on the protests.
Widely known simply as Khaleda, she was initially described as reserved and focused on raising her two sons until her husband, army chief and later president Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated during a failed coup attempt in 1981.
Three years later, she assumed leadership of the BNP, a party founded by her husband, pledging to fulfil his vision of “liberating Bangladesh from poverty and economic backwardness”.
She later joined forces with Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father and leader of the Awami League, in a mass pro-democracy movement that brought down military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1990.
Battling begums
Their alliance soon collapsed, giving way to an intense rivalry that earned them the nickname “the battling Begums”, using an Urdu honorific for influential women.
Supporters viewed Khaleda as courteous, traditional and softly spoken, yet firm and resolute in defending her party. In contrast, Hasina was known for her assertive and outspoken style. Their sharply different personalities helped define Bangladesh’s political landscape for decades.
In the landmark 1991 election, widely considered the country’s first free vote, Khaleda defeated Hasina with backing from Jamaat-e-Islami, becoming Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister and only the second woman to lead a democratic government in a predominantly Muslim country after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.
During her first term, she restored the parliamentary system, shifting power from the presidency to the prime minister’s office. She also eased restrictions on foreign investment and made primary education free and compulsory.
After losing to Hasina in 1996, she staged a dramatic comeback with a landslide victory five years later. However, her second term was overshadowed by the emergence of militant groups and widespread corruption allegations.
In 2004, a grenade attack targeted a rally addressed by Hasina, killing more than 20 people and injuring over 500. While Hasina survived, Khaleda’s government and its allies were broadly blamed.
Detention and freedom
Although her administration later moved against extremist organisations, her second tenure ended in 2006 amid political turmoil, when an army-backed interim government assumed control.
Both Khaleda and Hasina were jailed for about a year on corruption and abuse-of-power charges before being released ahead of the 2008 election.
Khaleda never returned to office. As the BNP boycotted the 2014 and 2024 polls, her hostile rivalry with Hasina continued to dominate national politics.
Clashes between their supporters frequently led to strikes, unrest and fatalities, slowing development in Bangladesh, a low-lying nation of around 175 million people that is vulnerable to severe flooding.
In 2018, Khaleda, Tarique Rahman and close aides were convicted of misappropriating about $250,000 in foreign donations linked to an orphanage trust established during her premiership. She maintained the case was politically motivated.
She was imprisoned but transferred to house arrest in March 2020 on humanitarian grounds as her health worsened. Following Hasina’s removal from power, Khaleda was released in August 2024.
In early 2025, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court overturned the convictions that led to her 2018 imprisonment, while Rahman had earlier been acquitted in the 2004 grenade attack case.
Condolences
Leaders in Pakistan, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, expressed profound grief over Khaleda Zia’s passing, acknowledging her political legacy.
In a message posted on X, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was deeply saddened by her death and praised her lifelong service to Bangladesh, saying it would be remembered as a lasting contribution to the nation.
“Begum Zia was a committed friend of Pakistan. My Government and the people of Pakistan stand with the people of Bangladesh in this moment of sorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends and the people of Bangladesh during this difficult time. May Allah SWT bless her soul. Ameen!” he said.
President Zardari also conveyed his condolences to Khaleda Zia’s family and the people of Bangladesh, adding, “May Allah SWT grant her a high place in Jannah and patience to the bereaved family.”
