HISTORY
Bengal was absorbed into the Mughul
Empire in the 16th century, and Dhaka, the seat of a nawab (the
representative of the emperor), gained some importance as a provincial
center. But it remained remote and thus a difficult to govern
region--especially the section east of the Brahmaputra River--outside
the mainstream of Mughul politics. Portuguese traders and missionaries
were the first Europeans to reach Bengal in the latter part of
the 15th century. They were followed by representatives of the
Dutch, the French, and the British East India Companies. By the
end of the 17th century, the British presence on the Indian subcontinent
was centered in Calcutta. During the 18th and 19th centuries,
the British gradually extended their commercial contacts and administrative
control beyond Calcutta to Bengal. In 1859, the British Crown
replaced the East India Company, extending British dominion from
Bengal, which became a region of India, in the east to the Indus
River in the west.
The rise of nationalism throughout
British-controlled India in the late 19th century resulted in
mounting animosity between the Hindu and Muslim communities. In
1885, the All-India National Congress was founded with Indian
and British membership. Muslims seeking an organization of their
own founded the All-India Muslim League in 1906. Although both
the League and the Congress supported the goal of Indian self-government
within the British Empire, the two parties were unable to agree
on a way to ensure the protection of Muslim political, social,
and economic rights. The subsequent history of the nationalist
movement was characterized by periods of Hindu-Muslim cooperation,
as well as by communal antagonism. The idea of a separate Muslim
state gained increasing popularity among Indian Muslims after
1936, when the Muslim League suffered a decisive defeat in the
first elections under India's 1935 constitution. In 1940, the
Muslim League called for an independent state in regions where
Muslims were in the majority. Campaigning on that platform in
provincial elections in 1946, the League won the majority of the
Muslim seats contested in Bengal. Widespread communal violence
followed, especially in Calcutta.
When British India was partitioned and the independent dominions of India and Pakistan were created in 1947, the region of Bengal was divided along religious lines. The predominantly Muslim eastern half was designated East Pakistan--and made part of the newly independent Pakistan--while the predominantly Hindu western part became the Indian state of West Bengal. Pakistan's history from 1947 to 1971 was marked by political instability and economic difficulties. Dominion status was rejected in 1956 in favor of an "Islamic republic within the Commonwealth." Attempts at civilian political rule failed, and the government imposed martial law between 1958 and 1962, and again between 1969 and 1971.
Almost from the advent of independent
Pakistan in 1947, frictions developed between East and West Pakistan,
which were separated by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
East Pakistanis felt exploited by the West Pakistan-dominated
central government. Linguistic, cultural, and ethnic differences
also contributed to the estrangement of East from West Pakistan.
Bengalis strongly resisted attempts to impose Urdu as the sole
official language of Pakistan. Responding to these grievances,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman--known widely as "Mujib"--in 1949 formed
the Awami League (AL), a party designed mainly to promote Bengali
interests. Mujib became president of the Awami League and emerged
as leader of the Bengali autonomy movement. In 1966, he was arrested
for his political activities.
After the Awami League won almost all the East Pakistan seats of the Pakistan national assembly in 1970-71 elections, West Pakistan opened talks with the East on constitutional questions about the division of power between the central government and the provinces, as well as the formation of a national government headed by the Awami League. The talks proved unsuccessful, however, and on March 1, 1971, Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan. Mujib was arrested again; his party was banned, and most of his aides fled to India and organized a provisional government. On March 26, 1971, following a bloody crackdown by the Pakistan Army, Bengali nationalists declared an independent People's Republic of Bangladesh. As fighting grew between the army and the Bengali mukti bahini ("freedom fighters"), an estimated 10 million Bengalis, mainly Hindus, sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. On April 17, 1971, a provisional government was formed in Meherpur district in western Bangladesh bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was in prison in Pakistan, as President, Syed Nazrul Islam as Acting President, and Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister.
The crisis in East Pakistan produced
new strains in Pakistan's troubled relations with India. The two
nations had fought a war in 1965, mainly in the west, but the
refugee pressure in India in the fall of 1971 produced new tensions
in the east. Indian sympathies lay with East Pakistan, and in
November, India intervened on the side of the Bangladeshis. On
December 16, 1971, Pakistani forces surrendered, and Bangladesh--
meaning "Bengal nation"--was born; the new country became a parliamentary
democracy under a 1972 constitution.
The provisional government of the
new nation of Bangladesh was formed in Dhaka with Justice Abu
Sayeed Choudhury as President, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ("Mujib")--who
was released from Pakistani prison in early 1972--as Prime Minister.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 1972-75
Mujib came to office with immense personal popularity but had
difficulty transforming this popular support into the political
strength needed to function as head of government. The new constitution,
which came into force in December 1972, created a strong executive
prime minister, a largely ceremonial presidency, an independent
judiciary, and a unicameral legislature on a modified Westminster
model. The 1972 constitution adopted as state policy the Awami
League's (AL) four basic principles of nationalism, secularism,
socialism, and democracy.
The first parliamentary elections
held under the 1972 constitution were in March 1973, with the
Awami League winning a massive majority. No other political party
in Bangladesh's early years was able to duplicate or challenge
the League's broad-based appeal, membership, or organizational
strength. Relying heavily on experienced civil servants and members
of the Awami League, the new Bangladesh Government focused on
relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of the economy and
society. Economic conditions remained precarious, however. In
December 1974, Mujib decided that continuing economic deterioration
and mounting civil disorder required strong measures. After proclaiming
a state of emergency, Mujib used his parliamentary majority to
win a constitutional amendment limiting the powers of the legislative
and judicial branches, establishing an executive presidency, and
instituting a one-party system, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik
Awami League (BAKSAL), which all members of Parliament were obliged
to join.
Despite some improvement in the economic
situation during the first half of 1975, implementation of promised
political reforms was slow, and criticism of government policies
became increasingly centered on Mujib. In August 1975, Mujib,
and most of his family, were assassinated by mid-level army officers.
His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, was out of the country. A new government,
headed by former Mujib associate Khandakar Moshtaque, was formed.
Ziaur Rahman, 1975-81
Successive military coups resulted in the emergence of Army Chief
of Staff Gen. Ziaur Rahman ("Zia") as strongman. He pledged the
army's support to the civilian government headed by President
Chief Justice Sayem. Acting at Zia's behest, Sayem dissolved Parliament,
promising fresh elections in 1977, and instituted martial law.
Acting behind the scenes of the Martial
Law Administration (MLA), Zia sought to invigorate government
policy and administration. While continuing the ban on political
parties, he sought to revitalize the demoralized bureaucracy,
to begin new economic development programs, and to emphasize family
planning. In November 1976, Zia became Chief Martial Law Administrator
(CMLA) and assumed the presidency upon Sayem's retirement 5 months
later, promising national elections in 1978.
As President, Zia announced a 19-point program of economic reform and began dismantling the MLA. Keeping his promise to hold elections, Zia won a 5-year term in June 1978 elections, with 76% of the vote. In November 1978, his government removed the remaining restrictions on political party activities in time for parliamentary elections in February 1979. These elections, which were contested by more than 30 parties, marked the culmination of Zia's transformation of Bangladesh's Government from the MLA to a democratically elected, constitutional one. The AL and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by Zia, emerged as the two major parties.
In May 1981, Zia was assassinated
in Chittagong by dissident elements of the military. The attempted
coup never spread beyond that city, and the major conspirators
were either taken into custody or killed. In accordance with the
constitution, Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar was sworn in
as acting president. He declared a new national emergency and
called for election of a new president within 6 months--an election
Sattar won as the BNP's candidate. President Sattar sought to
follow the policies of his predecessor and retained essentially
the same cabinet, but the army stepped in once again.
Hussain Mohammed Ershad, 1982-90
Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. H.M. Ershad assumed power in a bloodless
coup in March 1982. Like his predecessors, Ershad suspended the
constitution and--citing pervasive corruption, ineffectual government,
and economic mismanagement--declared martial law. The following
year, Ershad assumed the presidency, retaining his positions as
army chief and CMLA. During most of 1984, Ershad sought the opposition
parties' participation in local elections under martial law. The
opposition's refusal to participate, however, forced Ershad to
abandon these plans. Ershad sought public support for his regime
in a national referendum on his leadership in March 1985. He won
overwhelmingly, although turnout was small. Two months later,
Ershad held elections for local council chairmen. Pro-government
candidates won a majority of the posts, setting in motion the
President's ambitious decentralization program. Political life
was further liberalized in early 1986, and additional political
rights, including the right to hold large public rallies, were
restored. At the same time, the Jatiya (People's) Party, designed
as Ershad's political vehicle for the transition from martial
law, was established.
Despite a boycott by the BNP, led
by President Zia's widow, Begum Khaleda Zia, parliamentary elections
were held on schedule in May 1986. The Jatiya Party won a modest
majority of the 300 elected seats in the national assembly. The
participation of the Awami League--led by the late Prime Minister
Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed-- lent the elections some
credibility, despite widespread charges of voting irregularities.
Ershad continued his stated commitment to lift martial law. In November 1986, his government mustered the necessary two-thirds majority in the National Assembly to amend the constitution and confirm the previous actions of the martial law regime. The President then lifted martial law, and the opposition parties took their elected seats in the National Assembly.
In July 1987, however, after the
government hastily pushed through a controversial legislative
bill to include military representation on local administrative
councils, the opposition walked out of Parliament. Passage of
the bill helped spark an opposition movement that quickly gathered
momentum, uniting Bangladesh's opposition parties for the first
time. The government began to arrest scores of opposition activists
under the country's Special Powers Act of 1974. Despite these
arrests, opposition parties continued to organize protest marches
and nationwide strikes. After declaring a state of emergency,
Ershad dissolved Parliament and scheduled fresh elections for
March 1988.
All major opposition parties refused government overtures to participate in these polls, maintaining that the government was incapable of holding free and fair elections. Despite the opposition boycott, the government proceeded. The ruling Jatiya Party won 251 of the 300 seats. The Parliament, while still regarded by the opposition as an illegitimate body, held its sessions as scheduled, and passed a large number of bills, including, in June 1988, a controversial constitutional amendment making Islam Bangladesh's state religion and provision for setting up High Court benches in major cities outside of Dhaka. While Islam remains the state religion, the provision for decentralizing the High Court division has been struck down by the Supreme Court.
By 1989, the domestic political situation
in the country seemed to have quieted. The local council elections
were generally considered by international observers to have been
less violent and more free and fair than previous elections. However,
opposition to Ershad's rule began to regain momentum, escalating
by the end of 1990 in frequent general strikes, increased campus
protests, public rallies, and a general disintegration of law
and order.
On December 6, 1990, Ershad offered
his resignation. On February 27, 1991, after 2 months of widespread
civil unrest, an interim government oversaw what most observers
believed to be the nation's most free and fair elections to that
date.
Khaleda Zia, 1991-96
The center-right BNP won a plurality of seats and formed a coalition
government with the Islamic fundamentalist party Jamaat-I-Islami,
with Khaleda Zia, widow of Ziaur Rahman, obtaining the post of
Prime Minister. Only four parties had more than 10 members elected
to the 1991 Parliament: The BNP, led by Prime Minister Begum Khaleda
Zia; the AL, led by Sheikh Hasina; the Jamaat-I-Islami (JI), led
by Golam Azam; and the Jatiya Party (JP), led by acting chairman
Mizanur Rahman Choudhury while its founder, former President Ershad,
served out a prison sentence on corruption charges. The electorate
approved still more changes to the constitution, formally re-creating
a parliamentary system and returning governing power to the office
of the prime minister, as in Bangladesh's original 1972 constitution.
In October 1991, members of Parliament elected a new head of state,
President Abdur Rahman Biswas.
In March 1994, controversy over a
parliamentary by-election, which the opposition claimed the government
had rigged, led to an indefinite boycott of Parliament by the
entire opposition. The opposition also began a program of repeated
general strikes to press its demand that Khaleda Zia's government
resign and a caretaker government supervise a general election.
Efforts to mediate the dispute, under the auspices of the Commonwealth
Secretariat, failed. After another attempt at a negotiated settlement
failed narrowly in late December 1994, the opposition resigned
en masse from Parliament. The opposition then continued a campaign
of marches, demonstrations, and strikes in an effort to force
the government to resign. The opposition, including the Awami
League's Sheikh Hasina, pledged to boycott national elections
scheduled for February 15, 1996.
In February, Khaleda Zia was re-elected
by a landslide in voting boycotted and denounced as unfair by
the three main opposition parties. In March 1996, following escalating
political turmoil, the sitting Parliament enacted a constitutional
amendment to allow a neutral caretaker government to assume power
conduct new parliamentary elections; former Chief Justice Mohammed
Habibur Rahman was named Chief Advisor (a position equivalent
to prime minister) in the interim government. New parliamentary
elections were held in June 1996 and were won by the Awami League;
party leader Sheikh Hasina became Prime Minister.
Sheikh Hasina, 1996-2001
Sheikh Hasina formed what she called a "Government of National
Consensus" in June 1996, which included one minister from the
Jatiya Party and another from the Jatiyo Samajtantric Dal, a very
small leftist party. The Jatiya Party never entered into a formal
coalition arrangement, and party president H.M. Ershad withdrew
his support from the government in September 1997. Only three
parties had more than 10 members elected to the 1996 Parliament:
The Awami League, BNP, and Jatiya Party. Jatiya Party president,
Ershad, was released from prison on bail in January 1997.
Although international and domestic
election observers found the June 1996 election free and fair,
the BNP protested alleged vote rigging by the Awami League. Ultimately,
however, the BNP party decided to join the new Parliament. The
BNP soon charged that police and Awami League activists were engaged
in largescale harassment and jailing of opposition activists.
At the end of 1996, the BNP staged a parliamentary walkout over
this and other grievances but returned in January 1997 under a
four-point agreement with the ruling party. The BNP asserted that
this agreement was never implemented and later staged another
walkout in August 1997. The BNP returned to Parliament under another
agreement in March 1998.
In June 1999, the BNP and other opposition
parties again began to abstain from attending Parliament. Opposition
parties have staged an increasing number of nationwide general
strikes, rising from 6 days of general strikes in 1997 to 27 days
in 1999. A four-party opposition alliance formed at the beginning
of 1999 announced that it would boycott parliamentary by-elections
and local government elections unless the government took steps
demanded by the opposition to ensure electoral fairness. The government
did not take these steps, and the opposition has subsequently
boycotted all elections, including municipal council elections
in February 1999, several parliamentary by-elections, and the
Chittagong city corporation elections in January 2000.
In July 2001, the Awami League government stepped down to allow a caretaker government to preside over parliamentary elections. Political violence that had increased during the Awami League government's tenure continued to increase through the summer in the run up to the election. In August, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina agreed during a visit of former President Jimmy Carter to respect the results of the election, join Parliament win or lose, foreswear the use of hartals (violently enforced strikes) as political tools, and if successful in forming a government allow for a more meaningful role for the opposition in Parliament. The caretaker government was successful in containing the violence, which allowed a parliamentary general election to be successfully held on October 1, 2001.
Khaleda Zia, 2001-2006
The four-party alliance led by the BNP won over a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Begum Khaleda Zia was sworn in on October 10, 2001, as Prime Minister for the third time (first in 1991, second after the February 15, 1996 elections).
Despite her August 2001 pledge and all election monitoring groups declaring the election free and fair, Sheikh Hasina condemned the election, rejected the results, and boycotted Parliament. In 2002, however, she led her party legislators back to Parliament, but the Awami League again walked out in June 2003 to protest derogatory remarks about Hasina by a State Minister and the allegedly partisan role of the Parliamentary Speaker. In June 2004, the AL returned to Parliament without having any of their demands met for an apology to Sheikh Hasina and guarantees of a neutral Speaker. They then attended Parliament irregularly before announcing a boycott of the entire June 2005 budget session.
On August 17, 2005, near-synchronized blasts of improvised explosive devices in 63 out of 64 administrative districts targeted mainly government buildings and killed two persons. An extremist Islamist outfit named Jamiatul Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB) claimed responsibility for the blasts aimed to press home their demand for replacement of the secular legal system with Islamic sharia courts. Subsequent attacks on the courts in several districts killed 28 people, including judges, lawyers, and police personnel guarding the courts. A government campaign against the Islamic extremists led to the arrest of hundreds of senior and mid-level JMB leaders. Six top JMB leaders were tried and sentenced to death for their role in the murder of two judges; another leader was tried and sentenced to death in absentia in the same case.
In February 2006, the AL returned to Parliament, raised demands for early elections, and requested significant changes in the electoral and caretaker government systems to stop alleged moves by the ruling coalition to rig the next election. The AL blames the ruling party for several high-profile attacks on opposition leaders, and asserts that the ruling party is bent on eliminating Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League as a viable force. The BNP and its allies accuse the AL of maligning Bangladesh at home and abroad out of jealousy over the government’s performance on development and economic issues. Dialogue between the Secretaries General of the main ruling and opposition parties failed to sort out the electoral reform issues.
Caretaker Government, October 2006-Present
The 13th Amendment to the constitution required the president to offer the position of the Chief Adviser to the immediate past Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice K.M. Hasan, once the previous parliamentary session expired on October 28, 2006. The AL opposed Justice Hasan, alleging that he belonged to ruling BNP in his past life and that the BNP government in 2004 amended the constitution to extend retirement age for the Supreme Court judges to make sure that Justice Hasan became the Chief Adviser during the next elections to help BNP win the election. Justice Hasan declined the position, and after two days of violent protests, President Iajuddin Ahmed also assumed the role of Chief Adviser to the caretaker government.
On January 3, 2007, the Awami League announced that they would boycott the January 22 parliamentary elections. The Awami League planned a series of country-wide general strikes and transportation blockades.
On January 11, 2007, President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency, resigned as Chief Adviser, and indefinitely postponed parliamentary elections. On January 12, 2007, former Bangladesh Bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed was sworn in as the new Chief Adviser, and ten new advisers (ministers) were appointed. Under emergency provisions, the government suspended certain fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution and detained a large number of politicians and others on suspicion of involvement in corruption and other crimes. The government announced elections will occur in late 2008 and is registering an estimated 80 million voters in preparation for the elections.
On July 16, 2007 the government arrested Awami League president and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on charges of extortion during her tenure as Prime Minister. On September 3, 2007 the government arrested BNP chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on charges of corruption. Subsequently, the Anti-Corruption Commission has filed more corruption cases against Bangladesh's two most influential political leaders. Both Hasina and Zia have challenged the cases filed against them under the Emergency Power Rules, which deny the accused the right to bail. While the cases are under judicial review, the two leaders continue to be imprisoned.
