Bangladesh: Ahead of polls, former PM Kheleda Zia returns from London
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: To prepare for the upcoming parliamentary elections by the end of this year or early next year, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Begun Khaleda Zia, 79, returned to her country after medical treatment in the United Kingdom, the media reported on Tuesday.
Ailing for a long time, she had gone to London on January 8 for advanced medical care and was admitted to The London Clinic.
After being discharged from the clinic, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief moved to her eldest son Tarique Rahman’s residence, where she received treatment.
An air ambulance sent by the Qatari Emir, carrying Khaleda and her two daughters-in-law Tarique Rahman’s wife Zubaida Rahman and the late Arafat Rahman Coco’s wife Syeda Sharmila Rahman, landed in Dhaka around 10:30 am, bdnews24 reported.
The three-time PM has long suffered from liver cirrhosis, kidney disease, heart problems, diabetes, and arthritis.
Begum Khaleda Zia served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to February 1996, for a few weeks after February 1996, and from October 2001 to October 2006. She is remembered for her role in making education accessible and introducing some key economic reforms.
She was the first female PM of Bangladesh and the second woman PM in the Muslim world, after Benazir Bhutto.
Her political bete noire, the then PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed, is living in India after she fled Dhaka in the wake of the Islamist-led ‘students’ uprising in July-August 2024.
After her ouster, an Interim Government, led by Muhammad Yunus, 84, and supported by both the Islamists and the Army, came to power in Dhaka. The poor country, which became financially better in the last couple of decades, is now sliding back into poverty, as the Islamists call the shots and commit atrocities against the minorities, particularly the Hindus, and the economy has come to a standstill under Yunus, a microfinance pioneer and a Noble Peace Laureate.
In December 2024, he announced that Bangladesh plans to hold the next parliamentary elections in late 2025 or early 2026, claiming that he is implementing the full list of electoral reforms.
As he enjoyed political power and pelf for the first time, Yunus has moved away from India, and closer not only to China, but also to Pakistan. The former tormentor is now Bangladesh’s ‘mentor’ as Islamabad and Dhaka share military and business ties.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India on August 5, 2024, as thousands of protesters stormed the PM’s palace in Dhaka. Hasina still calls herself the elected PM.
Hundreds of people were killed in the weeks prior to her ouster, mostly by police gunfire. Dozens more died in the hours after her toppling, largely in reprisal killings against prominent supporters of her Awami League party.
Her government was also accused of politicising courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its power during 14 years in power.
Bangladesh last held general elections in January 2024 when Hasina celebrated victory, a poll denounced as neither free nor fair and boycotted by rivals after a crackdown during which thousands of opposition party members were arrested.
