Bangladesh's origins lie in
Bengal, a province of
British India that included present-day
West Bengal. Between 1937 and 1947, it was intermittently governed by a popularly elected
ministry, whose head was often designated the
Premier of Bengal. In 1947, the Province of Bengal was
partitioned into the Indian state of West Bengal and
East Pakistan. All three erstwhile Bengal premiers—
A. K. Fazlul Huq,
Khawaja Nazimuddin and
H. S. Suhrawardy—became Pakistani citizens; the latter two went on to become
Prime Ministers of Pakistan in the 1950s. East Pakistan's history from 1947 to 1971 was marked by political instability and economic difficulties. The nascent democratic institutions foundered in the face of military intervention in 1958, and the government imposed martial law between 1958 and 1962 and again between 1969 and 1971. Between 1947 and 1971, it was intermittently governed by
Governors and the
Chief Ministers of East Pakistan.
Independence and first parliamentary era (1971–1975) The modern office of the prime minister was established following the
declaration of independence of
East Pakistan by the
Provisional Government of Bangladesh on 17 April 1971, of which
Tajuddin Ahmad became the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Since the adoption of the current
Constitution of Bangladesh in 1972, the formal title of the office is the Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
Military coups and presidential regimes (1975–1991) From 1975 to 1991, the Prime Minister was appointed by the President while the President had executive power. However,
S. A. Bari was Prime Minister during this time.
Return of parliamentary government (1991–present) In September 1991, the Electorate approved changes to the Constitution, formally creating a parliamentary system and returning governing power to the office of the Prime Minister, as in Bangladesh's original Constitution. In October 1991, Members of Parliament elected a new head of state,
President Abdur Rahman Biswas.
Premiership of Khaleda Zia (1991–1996, 2001–2006) Khaleda Zia served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh twice from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006. Once in power, Khaleda Zia's government made substantial changes in education policy, introducing free education for girls up to the 10th grade, a stipend for female students, and food for education programme funds. It also made the highest budgetary allocation in the education sector since her administration. She became Prime Minister for the second consecutive term after the BNP had a landslide victory on
15 February 1996 general election to the sixth
Jatiya Sangsad which was widely believed to be rigged, after allegations or the BNP bribing the then
Election Commissioner arose. The election was, however, boycotted by all other major parties who were demanding that the elections be held under a neutral caretaker government, following allegations of rigging in a by-election held in 1994. Turnout was estimated at around 5%, though the government at the time claimed it to be much higher. On
12 June 1996 polls, BNP lost to
Sheikh Hasina's
Awami League but emerged as the largest opposition party in the country's parliamentary history with 116 seats. Aiming to return to power, the BNP formed a four-party alliance on 6 January 1999 with its former political opponent, the
Jatiya Party, and the Islamic party of
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and the
Islami Oikya Jot whom launched several agitation programmes against the ruling
Awami League. In the 2001 general elections
BNP won the election with a two-thirds majority of seats in the
Jatiya Sangsad and 46% of the total vote (compared to the principal opposition party's 40%) and Khaleda Zia was once again sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. In the 2008 elections, they faced a landslide defeat. The Khaleda-led Four-Party alliance won only 32 seats and emerged as the smallest opposition party in the country's parliamentary history. They won only 32% of the total vote whereas their main rival, the Awami League won more than 50% of the total vote. In the Tenth
Jatiya Sangsad election of 2014, the BNP, along with its 18 party alliance boycotted and violently protested the election to no avail.
2007 political crisis and caretaker government The scheduled
22 January 2007 elections were marred by controversy. The Awami League and its allies protested, saying that the elections would not be fair because of alleged bias by the caretaker government in favour of Khaleda Zia and the BNP. Hasina demanded that the head of the caretaker government, President
Iajuddin Ahmed, step down from that position, and on 3 January 2007, she announced that the Awami League and its allies would boycott the elections. Later in the month, the military led by Army Chief General
Moinuddin Ahmed intervened and President
Iajuddin Ahmed was asked to resign as the Chief Adviser. He was also made to declare a
state of emergency. A new military-controlled caretaker government was formed with Fakhruddin Ahmed as the chief adviser. The scheduled parliamentary election was postponed. On 12 January 2007, President Iajuddin Ahmed swore in
Fakhruddin Ahmed as the Chief Adviser to the interim caretaker government. For a country widely perceived as one of the world's most corrupt, the most dramatic aspect of Fakhruddin Ahmed's rule is his antigraft campaign against the establishment. So far, more than 160 senior politicians, top civil servants and security officials had been arrested on suspicion of graft and other economic crimes. The roundup had netted former ministers from the two main political parties, including former prime ministers
Khaleda Zia and
Sheikh Hasina and former adviser
Fazlul Haque. On 11 May 2017, the office of then Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina announced that the
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her office in March 2011 to demand that
Muhammad Yunus, a 2006
Nobel Peace Prize winner, be restored to his role as Chairman of the microcredit bank,
Grameen Bank. The bank's nonprofit
Grameen America, which Yunus chairs, had given between $100,000 and $250,000 to the
Clinton Global Initiative.
Grameen Research, which is also chaired by Yunus, had donated between $25,000 and $50,000, according to the Clinton Foundation website.
Premiership of Sheikh Hasina (1996–2001, 2009–2024) Sheikh Hasina lost to
Khaleda Zia in the 1991 parliamentary election after managing to win 88 seats and her party sat in opposition benches. She boycotted the 1996 February 15 elections giving Khaleda Zia a default victory. The
Awami League won 146 seats in the 1996 June 12 parliamentary elections. The support of the
Jatiya Party and a few independent candidates were enough for the 150 or more seats needed for the required majority. Hasina took the oath as the prime minister of
Bangladesh. She vowed to create a
Government of National Unity. Though some smaller parties and a few individuals from BNP did join the government, the distance between the main two political parties as well as their leaders remained as large as ever. The Awami League was defeated in the 2001 Parliamentary elections. It won only 62 seats in the Parliament, while the Four-Party Alliance led by the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party won more than 200 seats, giving them a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Hasina herself was defeated from a constituency in
Rangpur, which happened to contain her husband's hometown, but won from three other seats. Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League rejected the results, claiming that the election was rigged with the help of the
President and the
caretaker government. However, the
international community was largely satisfied with the elections and the
Four-Party Alliance went on to form the government. In the December
2008 election, the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League achieved a landslide victory, winning 230 seats, which gave them a
two-thirds majority in the Parliament. She made an alliance with the Jatiya Party and other leftist parties, named the
Grand Alliance which won 252 seats in the Parliament. Sheikh Hasina took oath as Prime Minister on 6 January 2009. She began her third term as Prime Minister of Bangladesh after winning a walkover 5 January 2014 election when Khaleda Zia's BNP boycotted the general election. Sheikh Hasina secured a fourth term as Prime Minister after winning the
2018 general election. Since then, Hasina became the longest-serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh since the country's independence in
1971. After
nationwide protests against the
government, on 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina was
forced to resign and flee from Bangladesh to
India.
Premiership of Tarique Rahman (2026–present) Following an 18-month transition under an interim government led by Nobel Laureate
Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh held its
13th general election on 12 February 2026. The
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Chairman
Tarique Rahman, secured a landslide victory, winning 209 seats in the
Jatiya Sangsad. On 17 February 2026, Tarique Rahman was sworn in as the 11th Prime Minister of Bangladesh by President
Mohammed Shahabuddin, marking the end of the interim administration and the country's first elected government since the 2024 uprising. == Prime Ministerial residence and office ==