[2][3] He is credited as a solid administrator with pragmatic policies who contributed to the economic recovery of Bangladesh by liberalizing trade and promoting private sector investments.

[15] Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, in a desperate bid to save the situation, amended the constitution and "institutionalized autocracy" by making him effectively the "unimpeachable" President and curtailed the freedom of the judiciary and press.

A section of his colleagues from the Awami League, backed by his killers, took charge of the state under the leadership of Khondaker Mostaq Ahmed, his longtime friend.

[19] President Sayem formed a board of advisors to run the country where Zia was bestowed with the portfolio of Finance, Home affairs, Information and Broadcasting.

However, an analysis of the results shows that the election was largely fair, and in some of the Awami League-dominated districts like Gopalganj, Ziaur Rahman received as little as 16% of the total votes.

The Ziaur Rahman-led government denationalized at least 10 sectors and introduced provisions to hand over the ownership of certain industries to local entrepreneurs and support them with funds.

[32] Dhaka Stock Exchange, which was shut down after the independence under the socialist programme of Sheikh Mujib, was reopened to bring in the idle money and savings to the mainstream investment scenario.

[36] When they approached the Bangladesh government with the proposal, Ziaur Rahman decided to support the initiative and linked the officials of Daewoo with Nurul Quader Khan and his team.

[38] After the liberation war, due to natural disasters and some policy restrictions, harvesting stayed lower than that of the pre-independence level, compelling the country to reach the international donors for large sums of food aid each year.

[44] Bangladesh, with a land size of some 56,000 square miles, was facing serious health problems that included an increasing birth rate, malnutrition, smallpox, chronic diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases, immediately after independence.

[13] President Zia made some quick efforts to address the problems, particularly in promoting vaccination and birth control that effectively cut population growth.

The Zia government considered the proposal with utmost priority and passed an act in the parliament to establish the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.

The anti-liberation Shanti Committee members, Abdur Rahman Biswas and Abdul Aleem held ministerial positions in Zia's cabinet.

Ziaur Rahman, to recognize the country's tribal and religious minority population's participation in government, appointed Rajmata Benita Roy as his advisor[64] and later Aung Shwe Prue Chowdhury as the state minister of Food.

Ziaur Rahman initially relied on Mirza Nurul Huda, one of Bangladesh's most famous economists and an academic with experience running the Finance Ministry of East Pakistan before the liberation war, to restructure the economy, which was in tatters after the flood and famine.

In response, Zia played his population card and brought in a huge number of Bengali-speaking people in the Hill Tracts area who eventually outnumbered the tribal populace, a move that triggered the insurgency further.

[73] In 1977, when the Burmese Armed Forces launched the infamous Operation Dragon King to expel the local Muslim Rohingya population, an influx of displaced migrants poured into Bangladesh for shelter.

Another uprising took place in Bogra Cantonment in September 1977, and on October 2, 1977, the airmen of signal corps staged a coup and lined up around twenty ranked Air Force officials and killed them.

[81] To tackle the 1977 coups, which killed senior military and air force officers and almost brought down his government, he sent the 9th Infantry Division to confront them under Mir Shawkat Ali.

This change in policy was economically more profitable for Bangladesh as the country received a significant amount of aid and credit support, which was used to develop factories, roads and research institutes.

Saudi Arabia committed US$300 million to Bangladesh as grants and interest-free loans and promised to finance the implementation of the second five-year plan from 1980 to 1985 to Zia's minister Abdul Aleem who led a delegate in late 1979.

The government led by Zia tried to maintain the relationship with the highest level of the United Arab Emirates ruling elites and made a stopover in March 1978, where he reiterated his commitment to the Islamic principles.

President Jimmy Carter appreciated Zia's ambition to make Bangladesh a self-sufficient country in food production and thanked him for his statesman-like role in the UN Security Council.

The U.S. government provided constant food aid support throughout the tenure of Ziaur Rahman that helped Bangladesh feed a large population of 90 million.

[95] The Eastern Bloc during the Cold War consisted of the now defunct Soviet Union and their allies of the Warsaw Pact, namely Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, Hungary, Poland and East Germany.

He shared his vision of a united South Asia free from unfriendly trade barriers and mutual regional security in a letter that was sent to the governments of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

He met Margaret Thatcher on June 16, 1980, and told her that the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan is a violation of the fundamental principles of international relations.

Pro-right elements who were supportive of the coup that killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were pushing for establishing an Islamic republic, shifting from the secular ideology of the state.

[102] His assumption of power took place against this backdrop of famine, the conversion of Bangladesh into an autocracy and a series of coups that killed hundreds and threw the country into political and social turmoil.

[11] Ziaur Rahman's reforms and policies have been characterised as pragmatic and effective, which helped Bangladesh recover from the devastation caused by the 1970 cyclone, the liberation war and the famine.