Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh HasinaHon'ble Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
SHEIKH HASINA, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was born on 28 September,
1947 at Tungipara under Gopalganj district. She is the eldest of five
children of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
the founder of independent Bangladesh.
She graduated from the
University of Dhaka in 1973. She was elected Vice President of the
Students Union of Government Intermediate Girl’s College. She was a
member of the students League Unit of Dhaka University and Secretary of
the Students League Unit of Rokeya Hall. She actively participated in
all the mass movements since her student life.
Father of the
Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with the members of his
family was martyred on the fateful night of 15 August 1975. Sheikh
Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were the only survivors as
they were in West Germany at that time. Later she went to the United
Kingdom from where she started her movement against the autocratic rule
in 1980. Sheikh Hasina was unanimously elected President of Bangladesh
Awami League in 1981 in her absence, while she was forced to live in
exile in New Delhi. Ending six years in exile, she returned home finally
on 17 May 1981.
In the parliamentary election held in 1986,
she won three seats. She was elected Leader of the Opposition. She led
the historic mass movement in 1990 and announced the constitutional
formula for peaceful transfer of power through Articles 51 and 56 of the
Constitution.
Following the election of 1991 Sheikh Hasina
became Leader of the Opposition in the country’s Fifth Parliament, She
steered all the political parties in the parliament towards changing the
Presidential system into the Parliamentary one.
Sheikh
Hasina created awareness among the people and waged a struggle for
Non-party Caretaker Government to ensure free and fair polls. Her
movement reached the peak after a non-cooperation movement in March 1996
and the provision for Non-party Caretaker Government was incorporated
in the Constitution.
At the call of Sheikh Hasina a large
number of people of all walks of life expressed solidarity with the
movement at the ‘Janatar Mancha’. In the Parliamentary election held on
12 June 1996, Bangladesh Awami League emerged as the majority party and
she assumed the office of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on 23 June
1996.
After becoming the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina
adopted a number of pragmatic policies for overall development of the
nation including poverty alleviation. During the last four years her
government achieved laudable success including signing of the historic
30 year Ganges Water Sharing Treaty with India, signing of historic
peace Accord on Chittagong Hill Tracts and inauguration of the
Bangabandhu Bridge on the river Jamuna.
Sheikh Hasina was
conferred Degree of Doctor of Law by the Boston University of the USA on
6 February 1997 and Honorary Doctor of Law by the Waseda University of
Japan on 4 July 1997. She was also conferred the Honorary Doctorate of
Philosophy in Liberal Arts by University of Abertay Dundee of the United
Kingdom on 25 October, 1997. She was conferred Honorary Degree of
Desikottama (Doctor of Literature, honoris causa) by Visva-Bharati
University of West Bengal, India on 28 January 1999. She was also
conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on the ground of
her distinguished creative contributions in the service of society by
the Australian National University on 20 October 1999. Dhaka University
conferred Honorary 'Doctor of Laws' degree to Sheikh Hasina on 18
December, 1999 for her outstanding contribution towards peace and
democracy. The World famous Catholic University of Brussels, Belgium
conferred Honorary Doctorate degree (Doctor Honoris Causa) on Sheikh
Hasina on 04 February, 2000 for her decisive role in establishing
democracy, protecting human rights and peace. Sheikh Hasina has been
conferred Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the Bridgeport
University, USA on 5 September, 2000.
Sheikh Hasina has been
awarded UNESCO's Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize for 1998 for her
remarkable contribution to bringing peace through ending the 25 years of
conflict in Chittagong Hill Tracts with political courage and
statesmanship.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
received prestigious Pearl S. Buck Award '99 on 9 April 2000 in
recognition of her vision, courage, achievements in political, economic
and humanitarian fields by Randolph Macon Women's College of USA. The UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been awarded the
prestigious CERES' medal to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in recognition
to her fight against hunger on 02 August, 1999. The All India Peace
Council awarded her 'Mother Teresa Award' in 1998. The Mahatma M K
Gandhi Foundation of Oslo, Norway awarded Sheikh Hasina ‘M K Gandhi
Award’ for 1998 for her contribution towards promotion of communal
understanding, non violent religions harmony and growth of democracy at
the level of grassroots in Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina was named Paul
Haris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. She was
also given Medal of Distinction in 1996-97 and 1998-99 and Head of State
Medal in 1996-97 by the International Association of Lions Clubs.
She
has authored several books including "Why Are They Street Children",
"The Origin of Autocracy", 'Miles to Go", "Elimination of Poverty and
Some Thoughts", "People and Democracy", "My Dream My Struggle" and
"Development for the Masses."
She performed holy Hajj and Umrah several times.
Sheikh Hasina is the Chairperson of "The Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust". She has been helping a
lot of poor boys and girls for their education.
Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, throughout her life has been a strong proponent of peace,
freedom and democracy. From an early age, inspired by the lofty ideals
and love for the people of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, the liberator of Bangladesh, she developed a strong sense of
identity for the common people. She always spoke out against oppression
and violation of human rights. This commitment has hardened over the
years, particularly when her parents, brothers and scores of relatives
were brutally assassinated by the misguided members of the military in
1975 soon after the independence of Bangladesh.
Since that time her resolve for democracy and development for the
teeming millions of Bangladesh has become firmly entrenched. She
struggled for the return of democracy in Bangladesh and fought valiantly
for its establishment in the country in every possible manner. She was
committed to making Parliament the centre of all national activities.
In 1996, the people of Bangladesh gave her a strong mandate as the
Prime Minister of the country. Despite serious resource and constraints
and recurrent natural calamity as well as widespread poverty, Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina, during the first two years of her government,
has lived up to her unswerving commitment to the cause of peace,
democracy, development and human rights.
Her first act of
peace within months of her assumption of office was the initiative for
resolution of the long-standing water-sharing dispute with India through
a 30-years treaty. This put an end to a very complex regional dispute.
Her visionary idea of a business summit among the political and private
sector leaders of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan has added a new
chapter in the history of South Asia.
Her dedicated
leadership also made possible a peace agreement in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, thereby solving the 23-year old insurgency in the Hill districts
of Bangladesh. This peace accord brought an area inhabited by nearly 5
million people out of violence and into a time of peace and development.
Though the international media has not given much prominence to this
accord, it is uniquely remarkable because the peace accord benefited
such a large number of people and the whole area has been brought under
development programs following the complete surrender of arms by the
insurgents.
Her quest for peace has taken her to India and
Pakistan to talk to the leaders of these two countries soon after the
nuclear test urging reduction of tension in the region.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been a strong advocate for the Culture
of Peace at global, regional and national levels. In many major
conferences, she espoused the concept of the Culture of Peace, most
recently in South Africa at the 12th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) which has a membership of 114 countries. Her initiative has
resulted in the first-ever resolution by the Plenary of the United
Nations General Assembly on the Culture of Peace. She also provided
leadership for the declaration by the UN of the period 2001 to 2010 as
the International Decade for Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the
Children of the World.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s
determination for the eradication of poverty, in particular through
wide-ranging microcredit programmes, has been recognized world-wide. Her
co-chairpersonship of the Microcredit Summit in February 1997 which
resolved to bring 100 million families of the world out of poverty by
2005 focused world attention to her strong commitment to the eradication
of poverty and enlistment of the poorest of the poor. She has been a
champion of microcredit by spreading the message in major international
forums. Her leadership led to the adoption for the first time by UN
General Assembly a far-reaching resolution on the role of microcredit in
the eradication of poverty.
Along with poverty eradication, she
has focused on the empowerment of women and has successfully completed
legislation to ensure adequate representation of women in the local
government bodies, leading to the election of more than 14,000 women to
these bodies in 1997. She has taken major initiatives to stop violence
against women and children.
She has also provided leadership in the
field of education, particularly for the education of girls in her own
country as well as advocating it for global support. Her government has
greatly enhanced budgetary allocation for primary education focusing on
girls’ education.
To improve the quality of life of the people
of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has particularly focused on
human development, paying special attention to healthcare, family
planning, nutrition, women’s rights and survival and development of
children. At the UN and other forums, she has been a major voice in
support of the cause of children and their rights.
Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina has, all along her life, defended human rights in
every possible way. Her active promotion of the rights of women and
children has drawn appreciation by both government and NGOs as well as
international organizations. She has promoted the right to development
as having centrality in the human rights regime. At the NAM Summit in
South Africa in 1998, her proposal for a Convention on the Right to
Development received welcoming endorsement of the Heads of State and
Government. She initiated the establishment of a National Human Rights
Commission and the office of Ombudsperson as well as Bangladesh’s recent
accession to six major human rights instruments including the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Her
keen interest resulted in the signature by Bangladesh of the Statute
for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ratification of the
Landmines Treaty, being the first country in South Asia to do so.
Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina’s initiative resulted in the hosting of the
first-ever conference of the Asian parliamentarians devoted to peace and
cooperation in Dhaka in September 1999 which elected her as the first
President of the Association of Asian Parliaments for peace established
at the conference.
At present, as someone who has lost so much
personally and has been a victim of oppression and denial of freedom,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stands out as a messenger of peace,
democracy, development and human rights. Her leadership of the eighth
largest country of the world manifests her concern for the people, seen
again during the worst-ever floods in Bangladesh in 1998.
- Sheikh
Hasina is the recipient of the UNESCO Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize for
1998 for her role in bringing peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region
of Bangladesh.
- Sheikh Hasina has been awarded the Mahatma
Gandhi Award for 1998 (Oslo, Norway) for her contribution towards
promotion of communal understanding, non-violence, religious harmony and
growth of grassroots democracy in Bangladesh.
- She has been
awarded 1999 CERES Medal for contribution to the agriculture development
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
- She
is the winner of the 1999 Pearl S. Buck Award for "your vision, your
courage and your achievements in political, economic and humanitarian
spheres capture the spirit of the award and of the woman who inspired
it."
- She has been awarded honorary Doctor of Liberal Arts by the University of Alberta Dundee in the United Kingdom in October 1997.
- She has been conferred honorary Doctor of Laws by the Boston University in the United States and the Waseda University of Japan.
- She
has been conferred the degree of Desikottama (Doctor of Literature) by
the Visva-Bharati University, India founded by Nobel Laureate
Rabindranath Tagore.
- She has been conferred honorary Doctor of Laws by the Australian National University in October 1999.
- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been conferred honorary Doctor of Laws by Dhaka University in December 1999.
- She has been conferred honorary Doctor of Laws by the Catholic University of Brussels in February 2000.
- Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina has been conferred by the honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters for her contribution to world peace and development by
the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut in the United States on 5
September 2000.
Under her
leadership her party Bangladesh Awami League led grand alliance to win a
landslide victory in the 9th Parliament Election on December 29, 2008
with 262 seats out of 299 in the National Parliament.
Sheikh Hasina took oath as Prime Minister of Bangladesh at a ceremony held at Banghabhaban on January 06, 2009.
Sheikh Hasina is married having one son and one daughter.
An
apparently discontented Narayanganj City Corporation mayoral candidate
Shamim Osman speaks to journalists at a hurriedly called media
conference at his election camp in Chashara just before voting ended on
Oct 30. Photo: Rashed Shumon
