EARLY LIFE

• Sheikh Hasina was born in Tungipara, East Pakistan on 28 September 1947. Her father was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, and mother was Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
• As she said in many interviews that she had grown up in fear due to her father’s political works. She married M. A. Wazed Miah in 1968.
• During the peak of violence of the 1970 Elections in Pakistan as well as her father’s arrest she had lived in refuge with her grandmother. She was active in the student politics of Eden Girl’s College, Dhaka

POLITICS

• Hasina was not in Bangladesh when her father and most of her family were assassinated on 15 August 1975. She was in West Germany where her husband, M. A. Wazed Miah, was working as a Nuclear physicist.
• She moved to Delhi in the late 1975 and was provided asylum by India. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, studied at boarding schools India. During her time in India she was not involved in politics.
• She was not allowed to return to the country until after she was elected to lead the Awami League Party in 16 February 1981 and arrived on 17 May 1981.
• Hasina was elected President of the Bangladesh Awami League in 1981. The Awami League has been described as a “left-of-center” party.
• Her party, along with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Ziaur Rahman’s widow Khaleda Zia, continued to work to restore democratically elected government, which they achieved by the democratic election in 1991, won by the BNP.
• Parliament completed its term and a general election was held on 15 February 1996. The election was boycotted by all major parties except the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party who won all the seats in the parliament as a result.

PRIME MINISTER

• The next parliamentary elections on 30 June 1996 were held under a neutral caretaker government headed by retired chief Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman. Bangladesh Awami League won the largest number of seats, 146 seats, but fell short of the majority.
• Sheik Hasina Wazed served her first term as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1996-2001. She became the first Bangladeshi Prime Minister since its independence to complete the entire term.
• Bangladesh joined two multilateral bodies, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) and D-8 (D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation). The NIP allowed foreign companies to open 100 percent owned subsidiaries

POLITICS

• Mugabe quickly assembled a militant youth league to spread the word about achieving black independence in Rhodesia.
• The government banned the party at the end of 1961, but the remaining supporters came together to form a movement that was the first of its kind in Rhodesia. The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) soon grew to a staggering 450,000 members. 
• Back in Southern Rhodesia later that year, the police arrested Mugabe and sent him to Hwahwa Prison. Mugabe would remain in jail for over a decade,

POLITICS

• In the 2001 election, although winning 40% of the popular vote (slightly less than the BNP’s 41%), the Awami League won just 62 seats in the Parliament, while the ‘Four Party Alliance’ led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won 234 seats, giving them a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
• Hasina and the Awami League rejected the results, claiming that the election was rigged with the help of the President and the caretaker government.

CRISIS

• The months preceding the planned 22 January 2007 elections were filled with political unrest and controversy.
• In April 2007, Hasina was charged with graft and extortion by military backed Caretaker government during the 2006-2008 Bangladeshi political crises.
• After spending 51 days in the United States and the UK, on 7 May 2007 Hasina returned to Dhaka, where she was greeted by a crowd of several thousand.

RETURN TO POWER

• On 6 November 2008, Hasina returned to Bangladesh to attend the Ninth National Parliamentary Elections 2008 scheduled for 29 December 2008.
• Her Bangladesh Awami League and its Grand Alliance (a total of 14 parties) won the general election held on 29 December 2008 with a two-thirds majority numerically the party controls 230 seats out of 299.
• Hasina was sworn into office as the Prime Minister for the second time on 6 January 2009. Independent observers declared the elections were held in a festive and peaceful atmosphere

PRIME MINISTER

• Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a third successive term in office with her ruling Awami League and its Grand Alliance partners, winning the 11th general election by a landslide. With 267 seats under its belt this time in 2014.
• Hasina won a fourth term after her party, Bangladesh Awami League, won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats in 2019.