06/06/2024
The game-changing policies of Sheikh Hasina
The eldest among the five children of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangamata Sheikh FazilatunnesaMujib, Sheikh Hasina was born at Tungipara in Gopalganj on September 28 in 1947.
The Awami League has formed governments four times with her as the prime minister. This is her third consecutive term as the head of government. In 1996, Sheikh Hasina returned the party to power 21 years after the assassination of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975.
After the assassination of her parents in 1975, she was in India with political asylum till 1981 when she was elected as the president of the Awami League in her absence. She returned home on May 17, 1981.
From establishing democracy in Bangladesh to take the country out of the LDC bracket, Sheikh Hasina is credited to spearhead many game-changing policies in the country, observed former Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique and a Senior Economist of Policy Research Institute Dr. Ashikur Rahman while talking to Bangladesh Post on Monday.
The Prime Minister also gave a vision to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041.
“To me, her far-sighted vision has taken the country forward. On May 17, 1981 after returning to the country, she said she had come to return democracy to the people and free the country from military and autocratic rule,” Prof Siddique said.
"After that, as the President of Awami League, as the leader of the opposition and the Prime Minister, she worked for the rights of the people which are enshrined in the constitution given by Bangabandhu. And gradually she has returned those rights to the people," he said.
“First of all she ensured the right to communication which is a fundamental right. People did not have that right before 1996 when she took the responsibility as the Prime Minister first. Many people could not use mobile phones. Even I could not afford a phone then because it was a monopoly business. The Prime
