• Also known as Shanti, named amid post-WWII peace rallies
• Joined BNP in 1982, became Chairperson in 1984
• Served as Bangladesh PM three times

TDS Desk:

Officially born on August 15, 1946 in Nayabasti, a small town in Jalpaiguri, then part of undivided India, BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s birth name is Khaleda Khanam, nicknamed Putul.

Notably, the exact date of her birth has been a subject of significant debate in political circles.

According to sources within the BNP and her biographies, her family also called her by other nicknames, including Tipsi and Shanti. It was Dr Aboni Guha Niyogi, a friend of her father Iskandar Majumder, who first referred to the newborn as Shanti.

The world had just emerged from World War II. The devastating atomic bombings by the US in Japan had occurred only days earlier. At that time, peace rallies were taking place across India and elsewhere. Amid this global yearning for peace, the newborn girl was named Shanti. Later, her middle sister Selina Islam nicknamed her Putul, which would become Khaleda Zia’s widely known nickname.

Khaleda Zia’s ancestral home is in Fulgazi upazila, Feni. Her father was Iskandar Majumder, and her mother was Begum Taiyaba Majumder. She was the third among three sisters (Khurshid Jahan Haque, known as Chocolate, Selina Islam Beauty and Khaleda Khanam Putul) and two brothers (Major (Retd) Sayeed Iskander and Shamim Iskander). Of them, one sister, Selina, and her brother Shamim are still alive.

She is the mother of two sons, Tarique Rahman and the late Arafat Rahman Koko.

CAREER IN POLITICS

Shairul Kabir Khan from the BNP chief’s press wing said Khaleda Zia had spent half of her life as Ziaur Rahman’s wife.

She joined the BNP on January 3, 1982 and became the party’s senior vice chairperson in March 1983. She delivered her first speech at an extended party meeting on April 1, 1983. When Justice Abdus Sattar fell ill, she served as the acting chairperson of the BNP.

On May 10, 1984, Khaleda Zia was elected as the party’s chairperson.

She was sentenced to five years in prison by a court in 2018 in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case and was sent to jail. She was kept under special arrangements in the abandoned Old Dhaka jail. Later, on April 1 of that year, she was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU). The High Court later extended her sentence to 10 years.

Nearly two years later, on March 25, 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Khaleda Zia was released on conditional bail for six months following a family petition.

This conditional release was extended several times, with the former government extending her freedom in six-month increments.

Since 2018, former prime minister Khaleda Zia had celebrated her birthdays in prison, hospitals or at home under house arrest. On Thursday, she celebrated her birthday in a freer environment as she had been finally released by presidential order on August 6, a day after Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister.

Previously, under a caretaker administration, Khaleda was imprisoned on September 3, 2007. She was later released on bail on September 11 next year.

Khaleda Zia was elected as prime minister in 1991, 1996 and 2001. However, her second term lasted only one month.

Shairul Kabir Khan said: “Khaleda Zia and the BNP won the general election in 1991, and she became the prime minister in the Fifth Parliament. Under her leadership, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, transforming the government system from a presidential to a parliamentary democracy.”

After the February 15, 1996 election, Khaleda served as the prime minister of the Sixth Parliament for a month. Following the establishment of a non-partisan caretaker government, the BNP lost the election in the country’s seventh general election, and Khaleda became the leader of the opposition.

In 1999, under the banner of a four-party alliance along with Hussein Muhammad Ershad’s Jatiya Party, Ghulam Azam’s Jamaat-e-Islami and Azizul Haque’s Islami Oikya Jote, Khaleda won the 2001 election and became prime minister for the third time.

Although the alliance included four parties, the BNP formed the government in partnership with the Jamaat-e-Islami.

After the 2008 election, Khaleda became the leader of the opposition once again.

She boycotted the 10th national election in 2014, as did most political parties.

During the next election on December 31, 2018, when Khaleda Zia was in jail, the BNP participated under the coordination of the Jatiya Oikya Front and the 20-party alliance.

However, as a convicted prisoner, Khaleda Zia could not contest the election. None of her family members participated in that election either.

Her party did not field any candidates in the 12th general election held on January 7 this year.

Shairul also mentioned that Khaleda Zia last travelled abroad in July 2017 and returned to Bangladesh on October 18, three months later.

“In the same year, she visited the Rohingya camps on October 30, distributing 48 truckloads of relief through the military.

“She last cut a birthday cake on August 15, 2015. In 2016, Khaleda Zia mentioned in a press conference her respect for national leaders.”