|
Sheikh Hasina, is the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been holding that position since January 2009 and was recently reaffirmed in that capacity with the Bangladeshi general election held, 14 January 2014. She previously served as Prime Minister from 1996 to 2001. Sheikh Hasina acted as the leader of the opposition in the parliament for almost 12 years. She has led the Bangladesh Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first President of Bangladesh, and widow of the nuclear scientist M. A. Wazed Miah. Hasina's party defeated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary election, assuring her of the post of prime minister for the second time. She secured this post for the third time in 2014.
Hasina's political career has spanned more than four decades during which she has been both Prime Minister and opposition leader. As opposition leader, she was the target of an assassination attempt in 2004. In 2007, she was arrested for corruption and charged with murder by the military-backed Caretaker Government during the 2006–2008 Bangladeshi political crisis, when the generals imposed a state of emergency. She returned as Prime Minister after a landslide victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance in 2008, when they took two-thirds of the seats in parliament. In January 2014 she became the prime minister for the third time after winning the general election which was boycotted by the main opposition BNP led alliance.
|
