Khaleda Zia (Bangla: খালেদা জিয়া) (born 15 August 1945) was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, the first woman in the country's history to hold that position, and then again from 2001 to 2006. She is the widow of assassinated President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman, and leads his old party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. After 35 years of independence of Bangladesh she has ruled the country for about 10 years (longest period). She has been elected to five separate parliamentary constituencies in the general elections of 1991, 1996, and 2001, a feat unachieved by any other politician in Bangladeshi history. In 2006, Forbes ranked Khaleda Zia #33 in its list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world.

Khaleda Zia was born to Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder in Dinajpur District on 15 August 1945. The family originally hails from Feni, a southeastern district of the country. She studied in Dinajpur Government Girls High School and later in Surendranath College. In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman.

Her husband later became Chief of the Armed Forces and subsequently assumed power as Chief Martial Law Administrator following a series of military coups; he attempted to move toward a civilian administration by forming the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and becoming democratically elected as President.

Until the assassination of her 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 Even when her husband assumed power after the political changes in 1975, she remained a shy and withdrawn housewife spending most of her time raising her two sons.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 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 on 24 March 1982.

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 1984 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. Like Zia before him, Ershad attempted to give his rule a civilian and democratic face, but Khaleda Zia boycotted all elections during his rule. Khaleda was detained seven times during almost nine years of autocratic rule under President Ershad before his resignation on 6 December 1990.

With a unanimous vote cutting across all political lines, the BNP-led government restored the parliamentary system through the 12th amendment to the Constitution in 1991. A neutral caretaker government oversaw elections on 27 February 1991 that were broadly considered to be free, fair and truly democratic. Khaleda Zia became Bangladesh's first female Prime Minister with the support of the majority of the members of the parliament.

Once in power, Khaleda Zia's government made substantial changes in education policy, introducing compulsory free primary education, free education for girls up to the 10th grade, a stipend for female students, and food for education programme. It also increased the age limit for entry into the civil service from 27 years to 30 years and made highest budgetary allocation in the education sector.

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 who were demanding that the elections be held under a neutral caretaker government, following allegations of rigging in a by-election held in 1994. Turnout was estimated at around 25%, though the government at the time claimed it to be much higher. The short-lived parliament hastily 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.

Aiming to return to power, the BNP formed a four-party alliance on 6 January 1999 with its former political foe the Jatiya Party, and the Islamic party of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and the Islami Oikya Jot and launched several agitation programmes against the ruling Awami League. Khaleda Zia, like Ziaur Rahman has been criticized much for making alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which opposed the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and formed Razakar, Al-Badar and Al-Shams team to help West Pakistan to kill thousands of innocent people including the intellectuals of Bangladesh. Around 3 million people were killed by West pakistan army with the help of Razakars, Al-Badars and Al-Shams in 1971 within 9 months of war.

The four-party alliance then participated in the 1 October 2001 general elections and won the election with a two-third majority of seats in parliament and 46% of the vote (compared to the principal opposition party's 40%) and Khaleda Zia was once again sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Khaleda Zia's third term was plagued by rising religious militancy, terrorism, continued spiralling of corruption (including successive damning reports by Transparency International), a rise in alleged attacks on minority groups (such as Hindus and Ahmadiyas as documented by the US State Department and Amnesty International) and an increasingly explosive political environment. A particularly controversial piece of legislation introduced by the government was the banning of Ahmadiya publications in January 2004, which attracted considerable concern from international observers.

On October 27 2006, Khaleda Zia's term in office ended. The following day rioting broke out on the streets of central Dhaka following uncertainty over who would succeed her as Chief Advisor (Chief of Caretaker Govt). On the same day evening, a presidential statement declared that former Supreme Court chief justice K.M. Hasan (who had been due to take over as Chief Advisor) would not be assuming the role due to ill health. http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoStory.aspx?isSummitStory=false&storyId=a6fc6ae9830fe7d9dd52603770a59e49944d2e6d&WTmodLoc=%22Home-R2-Top+News-4 Subsequently, Iajuddin Ahmed, the current president assumed power as Chief Advisor on October 29.

After tremendous domestic and international pressure and amid Awami League claims of partisanship, Iajuddin stepped down as head of the caretaker government. Elections scheduled for January 22 were postponed. A new caretaker government in its fight against corruption has tageted many of Zia's BNP ministers.

Zia's son, Tareque Rahman, was also arrested in March 2007 for corruption. It was later reported that, beginning on April 9, the government barred other politicians from visiting Zia's residence due to the state of emergency, imposed in January, which prohibits political activity. Another son of Zia, Arafat Rahman, was arrested on April 16.

Since United News Bangladesh (UNB) carried unverified reports of Arafat's arrest on April 16, it cited unnamed 'family sources' as claiming Zia was considering exile. UNB said speculation was mounting Zia would relocate to Saudi Arabia. It also noted her brother, Major (Retd) Syeed Eskandar was attempting to negotiate her exit from Bangladesh with authorities from the interim administration. The New Nation newspaper carried a report on April 17 stating Khaleda had in fact agreed to go into exile in return for the release of her youngest son. The report said the Saudi government had expressed its willingness to accept Khaleda and her family members as royal guests. Meanwhile Bangladesh's The Daily Star quoted an unnamed source who claimed Zia's decision to leave the nation meant authorities would now force Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, Zia's bitter rival who was then in the United States, to also embrace exile. All these news about exile and government pressure on Zia were denied by the government.

On April 19 Khondker Babul Chowdhury, a member of the BNP national executive committee, filed the appeal urging the court to order the government not to send Khaleda abroad against her wish and challenging the reported confinement of Khaleda to her house. On April 22 the High Court (HC) issued a rule on the government to explain within five days why the court will not direct the government to produce Khaleda Zia before the court to prove that she is not confined to her house. On April 25, in what was viewed as a reversal, the government said that Zia's movement was not restricted and that she had not been under any pressure to leave the country; it also dropped its ban on Hasina's return.

On May 7, the government was ordered by the High Court to explain restrictions on Zia that were said to remain in place.

On July 17, the Anti-Corruption Commission sent notices to both Zia and Hasina, requesting that details of their assets be submitted to the Commission within one week.

Zia has been asked to appear in court on September 27 in connection with a case for not submitting service returns for Daily Dinkal Publications Limited for years. On September 2, 2007, a case was filed against Zia by the interim government for corruption regarding the awarding of contracts to Global Agro Trade Company in 2003, and on September 3 she was arrested. Her son Arafat Rahman along with 11 others was also detained after police recorded a corruption case against them involving irregularities at Chittagong port. A bribery case was also filed against ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina (rival of Khaleda), detained in a special jail. On the same day, Zia expelled party Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Joint Secretary General Ashraf Hossain accusing breaching party discipline.

On September 30, Zia was granted bail by the High Court, which also ruled that the trial should be stopped on the grounds that the emergency laws could not be applied to her actions before they were imposed in January 2007. The government appealed this decision, however, and on October 4 the Supreme Court ruled that she should not be granted bail and that the trial should continue.

*Ziaur Rahman *Bangladesh Nationalist Party *Minus 2 Formula

*Bangladesh Nationalist Party website *Biography from Bangladesh Mission, United Nations *Interview, Time, 3 April 2006