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The former PM of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia, is all set to be released from jail shortly. Zia is the chief of the opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and she was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a corruption case in 2018.
On Monday, President Mohammad Shahabuddin issued orders to release Zia from jail, and he said this just hours after Hasina resigned from the PM post.
Khaleda was born in Jalpaiguri, in undivided India, in 1945. Her husband, Lt Gen Ziaur Rehman, served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 until he was assassinated in 1981.
Zia became the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh in 1991, running the country at a time of serious civil unrest. Zia went on to win a second term in 1996, but the elections were boycotted and denounced as unfair by the major opposition parties.
Zia returned to power five years later as an alliance of four parties led by her won the elections. She stepped down in 2006 and was arrested for corruption a year later. The BNP leader, who was in very poor health, had been confined to the hospital.
