The Rise and Fall

Sheikh Hasina Wajid, former prime minister of Bangladesh, has been on a roller-coaster ride ever since she entered politics in the sixties. Here is the story of her tiresome political journey

On April 11, murder charges were filed against Sheikh Hasina by the police, alleging that she masterminded the killing of four supporters of a rival political party in October 2006. The four alleged victims were beaten to death during clashes between the Awami League and rival party activists. Deputy police commissioner, Shahidul Haq Bhuiyan said, "detective branch police submitted the charge-sheet of the case to a Dhaka court after carrying out investigations and taking evidence." Sheikh Hasina was visiting the United States at the time.
The interim government of Bangladesh subsequently took steps to prevent Hasina's return to Bangladesh. Newspapers reported that the airlines had been asked not to allow her to return to Dhaka.

She had been planning to return on April 23. On April 18, the Bangladesh government barred Hasina from her planned return, saying that she had made provocative statements and that her return could cause disorder. This was described as a temporary measure. Hasina vowed to return home anyway, and on April 22, a warrant was issued by a Bangladeshi court for her arrest. On the same day, Hasina attempted to board a flight back to Bangladesh in London but was not allowed on the flight. Labelling the case against her as "totally false and fake", Hasina said that she wanted to defend herself against the charges in court. On April 23, the arrest warrant was suspended and on April 25 the ban on Hasina's entry into the country was dropped.

With her rival Khaleda Zia being pressured to go into exile at the same time, the government's actions against Hasina appeared to be an attempt to restructure the political system rather than an attempt to support her rival.

After spending 51 days in the US and UK, Sheikh Hasina landed at Zia International Airport in Dhaka on May 7 and was greeted by a jubilant crowd of several thousands. At the airport Hasina told reporters that it was a mistake for the government to stop her from returning and that she hoped it would not "make a bigger mistake", while acknowledging that its reversal was a positive gesture. On July 16, 2007 Hasina was arrested by state police at her home and taken before a local court in Dhaka. Accused of extortion, she was denied bail on the same day as her arrest. She was held in a building that had been turned into a jail at the premises of the National Parliament. On July 17, the Anti-Corruption Commission sent a notice to Hasina, along with Zia, requesting that details of her assets be submitted to the Commission within one week.

Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy stated that the caretaker government was going beyond its limits but that he did not plan to return to Bangladesh immediately but would try to organize a protest worldwide. The arrest was widely seen as a move by the military-backed regime to force Sheikh Hasina to leave Bangladesh into political exile.

On July 30, the Dhaka High Court suspended her extortion trial and ordered her release on bail. The case is now before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Shaikh Hasina’s political and personal destiny was irrevocably altered on the fateful night of August 15, 1975, when her father and almost her entire family including her mother and three brothers, were assassinated in a coup d'etat by a section of disgruntled officers of the Bangladesh Army.

The eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, Hasina's political career started as a student activist in Eden College in the sixties. She was mostly under the shadow of her father until the1975 coup. She and her sister Sheikh Rehana, who were in West Germany at the time, were the only surviving members of the family. Hasina later moved to the United Kingdom, and then was in self-exile in New Delhi, before returning to Bangladesh, and Bangladeshi politics, on 17 May 1981. She was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and has been the President of the Awami League, a major political party in Bangladesh, since 1981.

After she returned to the country, President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in yet another coup in May, 1981. The following year, General Hossain Mohammad Ershad captured power through a bloodless coup and declared Martial law. In 1983, Hasina formed the 15-party alliance to launch a movement to oust him from power. She was in and out of prison throughout the 80s.

The Awami League won 148 seats in the 1996 parliamentary elections. The support of the Jatiya Party and a few independent candidates was enough for the 150-plus seats needed for the required majority. Hasina took oath as prime minister of Bangladesh. She vowed to create a Government of National Unity.

During the last year of her rule, Transparency International declared Bangladesh to be the most corrupt country in the world. Though Bangladesh had almost always been in the bottom five, the last position created an uproar and was seen by many as a major failure for Hasina. Though Hasina has been voted out of office since, Bangladesh has remained at the last position. The opposition demanded that Hasina resign and declare early elections, but Hasina refused to do so. She became the first democratically elected prime minister to complete her term.

The Awami League succumbed to a landslide defeat in the 2001 Parliamentary elections. It won only 62 seats in the Parliament, while the Four Party Alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won more than 200 seats, giving them a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Hasina herself was defeated from a constituency in Rangpur, which happened to include her husband's hometown, but won from two other seats. Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League rejected the results, claiming that the election was rigged with the help of the President and the Caretaker government. However, the international community was largely satisfied with the elections and the Four Party Alliance went on to form the government.

The Awami League has been irregular in the Parliament ever since. Hasina maintains that the ruling party does not give the opposition enough time on the floor. In late 2003, the Awami League started its first major anti-government movement, culminating in the declaration by party general secretary Abdul Jalil that the government would fall before April 30, 2004. This failed to happen and was seen as a blow to the party and Hasina herself, who had implicitly supported Jalil.

In her second term in opposition, Hasina faced assassination attempts against herself and killings of important party personnel. Ahsanullah Master, a MP, was killed in 2004. This was followed by a grenade attack on Hasina in Dhaka, resulting in the death of 21 party supporters, including the party’s women's secretary Ivy Rahman. Finally, her ex-finance minister Shah A.M.S. Kibria was killed in a grenade attack in Sylhet.

In June 2005, the Awami League got a boost, when AL-nominated incumbent mayor A.B.M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury won the important mayoral election in Chittagong, the port city and second largest city in Bangladesh. This election was seen as a showdown between the opposition and the ruling party.

The planned January 22, 2007 elections were marred by controversy. The Awami League and its allies protested, saying that the elections would not be fair because of alleged bias by the caretaker government in favour of Zia and the BNP. Hasina demanded that the head of the caretaker government, President Iajuddin Ahmed, step down from his position, and on

January 3, 2007, she announced that the Awami League and its allies would boycott the elections. Later in the month a state of emergency was imposed, Ahmed stepped down, and the elections were postponed.

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