A BIOGRAPHY OF SHEIKH HASINA WAZED

During the following time, Awami League MPs were sporadic in their attendance at Parliament. The Awami League launched its first major anti-government agitation in late 2003, culminating in party general secretary Abdul Jolil’s statement that the administration will collapse before April 30, 2004. This did not materialize, and it was considered as a setback for the party and Hasina, who had implied support for Jalil.

◉ 2004: Assassination attempt:

Political instability and violence worsened during her second stint as opposition leader. MP Ahsanullah Master died in May 2004 after being shot. Following that, on August 21, a grenade assault on an Awami League rally in Dhaka killed 24 party supporters, including Ivy Rahman, the party’s women’s secretary. In October 2018, a special court handed down verdicts in two cases relating to the incident, ruling that it was a well-planned plot carried out through the abuse of state power, and that all of the defendants, including BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman (in absentia) and former top intelligence officials, were found guilty.The court imposed a variety of penalties. Hasina’s previous finance minister, Shah A M S Kibria, was also murdered in a grenade assault in Sylhet the same year (2004).

In June 2005, incumbent AL Mayor A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury won a critical election in Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second-largest city. This election was viewed as a confrontation between the ruling party and the opposition.

◉ 2006–2008: 

Detention during the caretaker government and military intervention :

Political upheaval and controversy dominated the months leading up to the planned elections on January 22, 2007. Following the fall of Khaleda Zia’s administration in October 2006, there were protests and strikes, with 40 people dead the following month as a result of the uncertainty surrounding who would lead the Caretaker Government. The caretaker administration struggled to bring all parties to the negotiating table. The AL and its supporters objected, claiming that the caretaker administration was biased in favor of the BNP.

During the gap, there was a lot of violence and strikes. Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, the presidential advisor, worked with Hasina and Khaleda Zia and brought all of the parties to the planned parliamentary elections on January 22, 2007. Ershad’s nomination was later withdrawn. As a result, on the final day possible, the Grand Alliance withdrew all of its candidates. They requested that a voter’s list be made public.
President Iajuddin Ahmed was forced to proclaim a state of emergency later that month. As a result, the government was taken over by Lt General Moeen Uddin Ahmed. It was forbidden to engage in political action. With the help of the Bangladesh Army, Fakhruddin Ahmed was appointed top advisor.

The government prohibited Sheikh Hasina from returning on April 18, 2007, claiming that she had made inflammatory comments and that her homecoming would cause chaos. This was described as a short-term solution. Khaleda Zia was also being courted by the Caretaker Government to leave the country. [47] Hasina promised to come home, and a warrant for her arrest for murder was issued on April 22, 2007. Hasina described the case against her as “completely fraudulent and fabricated,” and stated that she intended to defend herself in court. The arrest warrant was lifted on April 23, 2007, and Hasina’s entrance restriction was lifted on April 25, 2007.Hasina returned to Dhaka on 7 May 2007 after spending 51 days in the United States and the United Kingdom, where she was greeted by a mob of several thousand people. She told journalists that the government should not have put her return on hold.

Police detained Hasina at her house on July 16, 2007, and she was transported to a municipal court in Dhaka. She was jailed in a facility transformed into a jail on the grounds of the National Parliament, accused of extortion and denied bail. The arrest, according to the AL, was politically motivated. The Anti-Corruption Commission sent letters to Hasina and Khaleda Zia on July 17, 2007, requesting that they give details of their holdings within one week.SajeebWazed, Hasina’s son, was out of the country and claimed he would try to organize a global protest. The military-backed interim government’s arrests of political figures were generally interpreted as an effort to push Hasina and Zia out of the nation and into political exile. MPs in the United Kingdom slammed the detention.

The caretaker government held mayoral elections, with the AL winning 12 of the 13 seats.

◉ 2009–2014: Second premiership:

Sheikh Hasina returned to Bangladesh on November 6, 2008, to run in the 2008 general election, which is set for December 29. She chose to run in the parliamentary election under the banner of the “Grand Alliance,” with Hussain Muhammad Ershad’sJatiya Party as its primary partner. During a press conference on December 11, 2008, Hasina publicly revealed her party’s election program, promising to develop a “Digital Bangladesh” by 2021.

Her Awami League and the Grand Alliance (a total of 14 parties) won 230 out of 299 seats in the 2008 general election, giving them a two-thirds majority. The results of the election were challenged by Khaleda Zia, the head of the BNP-led coalition (4-Party Alliance), who accused the Chief Election Commissioner of “stage-managing the parliamentary election.” On January 6, 2009, Hasina was sworn in as Prime Minister for a second term. The elections were held in a joyous and calm setting, according to independent observers.

Sheikh Hasina reneged on her deal with the Jatiya Party to designate Ershad, the party’s leader, President after she was elected Prime Minister.

Many of Hasina’s party’s politicians who backed the previous caretaker government’s imposed changes were ousted. In 2009, she had to deal with a huge national crisis in the shape of the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny, which resulted in 75 fatalities, including Bangladesh Army commanders, over a pay dispute. Some Bangladesh Army commanders accused Hasina for the fatalities, claiming she caused them by failing to bring in the army sooner. The provision requiring non-party caretaker governments to organize elections was repealed by the parliament in 2011. During the 2012 Rakhine State riots, she took a hardline position and refused to let Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar admission.

Sheikh Hasina and 24 other Bangladeshi ministers and security officials were charged with human rights violations before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on June 27, 2013. She has been “internationally credited” for achieving several of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations. A coup attempt against her by mid-ranking army officers was foiled in 2012 after an Indian intelligence agency alerted the Bangladesh Army. The army officers involved were identified by the Bangladesh Army as Islamist fanatics.

During her term, her government led and succeeded in establishing the International Crimes Tribunal to investigate and prosecute suspects in the Bangladesh Genocide, which was carried out by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, the Razakars, Al-Badrs, and Al-Shams, during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

◉ 2014–2019: Third premiership:

Sheikh Hasina and her governing Awami League and its Grand Alliance partners won a resounding victory in the 2014 general election, giving her a second consecutive term in power. The Grand Alliance, led by the AL, gained 267 seats, exceeding their previous best of 263 seats in 2008. Bangladesh has been ruled by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League since 2009, and she won 288 seats in this election. It was accused of utilizing filled vote boxes by one of the main opposition parties. The BNP and other major opposition parties boycotted the election.

With a total of 234 seats, Hasina’s Awami League gained a comfortable legislative majority. Voter turnout was just 51%, which was lower than in previous elections due to the boycott and violence. Hasina stated the day after the outcome that the boycott should continue “This does not rule out the possibility of a legitimacy issue. People and various political parties took part in the poll.” Despite the issue, Hasina went on to create a government with Ershad’sJatiya Party as the official opposition (with 34 seats).

The election has been described as a “political farce.” The BNP had planned to force the government to hold the elections under a neutral caretaker administration by staging rallies.

Bangladesh’s first two submarines were commissioned in March 2017. Hasina’s administration provided approximately a million Rohingya refugees asylum and help in September 2017, and asked Burma to halt atrocities against the Rohingya people. The majority of Bangladeshis backed the government’s decision to give Rohingya refugees asylum. Hasina was praised and credited for her deeds.

Sheikh Hasina backed demands to take down the Justice Statue in front of the Supreme Court. This was interpreted as the government caving into the pressures of religious extremists.

Sheikh Hasina is a patron of the Asian University for Women, which is chaired by Chancellor Cherie Blair and includes Akie Abe, Japan’s First Lady, and Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General.

◉ 2019–present: Fourth premiership:

Hasina’s Awami League won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats, giving her a third consecutive term and her fourth overall. Kamal Hossain, the head of the major opposition alliance, called the election “farcical” and rejected the results.

The BNP, the primary opposition party that has been out of office for 12 years and boycotted the 2014 general election, did horribly in the polls. Since Bangladesh’s post-Ershad democracy restoration in 1991, the party and its JatiyaOikya Front alliance have been marginalized to the weakest opposition, winning just eight seats.

Sheikh Hasina gave the inaugural address at the opening of the DakBhaban, a new headquarters for the Bangladesh Post Office, in May 2021. Hasina called for more expansion of the postal service in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in Bangladesh in her speech.

Continued digital transformation of the service, as well as the development of chilling units in postal warehouses to allow for the delivery of perishable goods by mail, are among the steps highlighted in the speech.