Ex-Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia passes away at 80

DHAKA: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has passed away, here on Tuesday.

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia has passed away at the age of 80. She was suffering from multiple ailments including liver, diabetes, and heart disease. She was on a ventilator for several days and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka.

According to hospital sources, she died at 6 am local time. Doctors said that her condition was declared critical the previous day.

According to Medical Board member Dr. Zia-ul-Haq, Khaleda Zia was kept on life support and was being given regular dialysis. According to him, if dialysis was stopped, the patient’s condition would have deteriorated rapidly, while due to her advanced age and complex diseases, it was not possible to treat all the diseases at the same time.

Khaleda Zia was born in 1945 in Dinajpur district of Bengal. Khaleda Zia married Zia-ur-Rehman in 1960. She was elected as the Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 1984. After winning the 1991 elections, Khaleda Zia was elected Prime Minister.

She was one of the prominent political figures of Bangladesh. She served as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. She was re-elected in 1996 but resigned a month later after opposition protests.

Khaleda Zia served as the country’s Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the second female Prime Minister in the Muslim world after Benazir Bhutto.

During her political journey, she faced corruption charges and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018. His long political struggle with Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Wajid was a major chapter in Bangladeshi politics.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed his condolences on the death of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and said that our prayers are with Khaleda Zia’s family and the people of Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that may Allah Almighty grant Khaleda Zia a place in the realm of mercy, Khaleda Zia’s services for the development of Bangladesh will always be remembered.