Ziaur Rahman's tenure as the President of Bangladesh started with his acquisition of the presidency from Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem on 21 April 1977, after the latter resigned from his position on health grounds. Zia became the president of Bangladesh at a time when Bangladesh was suffering from a host of challenges that included low productivity, a food shortage that resulted in a famine in 1974, unsatisfactory economic growth, severe corruption and a polarized and turbulent political atmosphere after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members in a coup that was followed by a series of counter-coups. 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.

During his presidency, Bangladesh started the export of manpower to Middle Eastern countries, which eventually became Bangladesh's major source of foreign remittances and transformed the rural economy of the country. Besides, it was during his tenure that Bangladesh started exporting ready-made garments to take advantage of the multi-fibre agreement, a sector that made up 84% of the total export in Bangladesh as of 2023. The share of customs duty and sales tax in the total tax of Bangladesh grew from 39% in 1974 to 64% in 1979, which reflects a massive surge in economic activities inside the country. During his presidency, Bangladesh's agricultural output grew two to three-fold within five years. Jute became profitable for the first time in independent Bangladesh's history in 1979.

Zia's tenure as president saw a series of deadly coups in the Bangladesh Army that threatened his life. He suppressed the coups with brute force, and after each coup, secret trials were held inside the cantonment according to military law. But he ran out of luck on 30 May 1981, when some military men forced their way inside the Chittagong Circuit House and killed him there. He received a state funeral in Dhaka on 2 June 1981, which was attended by hundreds and thousands of people, making it one of the largest funerals in the history of the world.

South Asia specialist William B. Milam said, "It is hard to imagine what would have happened to Bangladesh had Ziaur Rahman been assassinated in 1975 instead of 1981. A failed state on the model of Afghanistan or Liberia might well have resulted. Zia saved Bangladesh from that fate."

Accession to presidency Bangladesh after independence

After the independence of Bangladesh, chaos and power struggles between different groups ensued. Political murders became a common thing, and productivity of key industries did not return to the pre-independence level. Despite the funnelling of million dollar-worth of aid, Bangladesh was in acute shortage of foreign currency, and political patronage made it difficult to distribute the aid to the poorest quintile of the citizens. In 1974, after a devastating flood despite the availability of food grains, a famine began that killed around a million. 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.

Eight months after the constitutional amendment, he was killed along with his family members in a pre-dawn coup on August 15, 1975, that threw the country into deeper turmoil. 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.

On November 3, a counter-coup led by the Chief of General Staff of the Bangladesh Army, Brigadier General Khaled Mosharraf put the Chief of Army, Major General Ziaur Rahman, under house arrest, made himself the chief of the army, and replaced President Mostaq Ahmed with his nominee Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem. But before he could consolidate his grip over the situation, 7 November 1975 was staged orchestrated by retired Lt. Colonel Abu Taher on November 7, but by followers of Zia within the army, freed Zia and reinstated him as the chief of army staff.

Military administration and presidential crisis

After the uprising of November 7, a military administration was formed, with President Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem as the chief martial law administrator. Ziaur Rahman, the chief of the Army, became a deputy chief martial law administrator along with the two other chiefs of the Navy and Air Force. However, Bangladesh's constitution did not have any provision for these arrangements.

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. The new president declared a date for the national election. However, most of the political parties were against the election, as they were largely unprepared compared to their rival BAKSAL. This made the situation difficult for the president.

In early 1977, the president was diagnosed with a problem in his gallbladder, and his doctor advised him to go for long rest, compelling him to think of retiring from his position. On April 20 of the year, his advisors, led by Abdus Sattar came to see him and advised him to resign in favour of Ziaur Rahman. President Sayem summoned Ziaur Rahman and requested Zia to replace him as President.

On April 21, President Sayem resigned, and transferred the presidency of Bangladesh to Ziaur Rahman.

Referendum and elections

1977 Confidence referendum

Less than 24 hours after his taking charge as the president of Bangladesh, Zia declared he would hold a confidence referendum to know the view of the people about his government. Critics suggest that the confidence referendum was his bid to legitimize his presidency.

The referendum, which was held on May 30, 1977, stunned the political commentators and observers. Voters were asked, "Do you have confidence in President Major General Ziaur Rahman BU and the policies and programs adopted by him?" Zia got 98.87% of the votes, according to the Election Commission of Bangladesh, with only 1% of voters opposing his views, which raised serious questions about the process.

As controversy engulfed the referendum, Zia declared a hold a popular vote in the next year.

1978 Presidential election

After the independence, Bangladesh opted for parliamentary democracy, where people elected a representative for their constituency, and these representatives, known as members of parliament, elected the president of the state, which was a titular position compared to the Prime Minister. But after the fourth amendment of the constitution, Bangladesh effectively became a democracy with a Presidential system of government.

This presidential election was the first presidential election to be held in Bangladesh after the transformation. Zia, a war hero, joined the race as the candidate of the Jatiyabadi Front (), an alliance of six parties that included pro-Islam parties like the Muslim League on the one hand and minority-led parties like the Scheduled Caste Federation, on the other hand. His prime challenger was the commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh liberation forces in 1971, General M.A.G. Osmani, backed by the Ganatantrik Oikya Jote (), a platform of the Awami League and some leftist parties.

Zia bagged around 76% of the votes, while General Osmani managed to convince 21% of the voters, according to the tallies shared by the authority. Supporters of Osmani claimed that the election was rigged and incidents of stuffing ballot boxes took place across the country. 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. Zia bagged a huge number of votes in the areas where the Muslim League fared well in the 1946 Indian provincial elections. Winning the election gave Zia some sort of legitimacy to run Bangladesh as its president.

Key reforms Ziaur Rahman is credited with leading some of the key reforms that eventually shaped the economy and societies of Bangladesh. These reforms include the liberalization of trade, economic activities, and promoting entrepreneurship, resulting in export-led growth.

Liberalization of economy

Ziaur Rahman presided over the transformation of Bangladesh from a socialist planned economy to a capitalist open economy from 1977 to 1981. Zia was generally considered "pro-market" and laissez-faire, although other scholarships consider him a social liberal who moved Bangladesh away from the Mujib era interventionist economy to a Western European style socially fair economy.

Privatization

When he came to power, 92% of the industrial sector was under public ownership due to the policy of nationalization imposed by the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government. The Mujib government nationalized 18 heavy industries, including steel, petrochemicals, mining and power. 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. Apart from that, the Bengali industrialists who lost their industries to the government due to the nationalization policy were compensated.

The first sector to be privatized was the tanneries, as most of them were under lock and key after the wholesale nationalization of industries. One of the first few tanneries to be privatized was the Orient Tanneries, which was bought by Syed Manzur Elahi, a young businessman, who transformed it into the Apex tanneries and started exporting processed leather soon. The contribution of the leather industry to Bangladesh's export earnings grew from 4.6% to 10.1% between 1973 and 1983 after the tanneries were privatized.

Promoting investment and trade

In 1972, the ceiling for private investment was initially only 2.5 million BDT, restricting private investments. As a part of the liberalization efforts led by President Zia, the ceiling on private investment was abolished in 1978.

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. The first international bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (now Eastern Bank Limited), was granted to open a branch in Dhaka. The development policies were designed to support entrepreneurs. Investment Corporation of Bangladesh was established to promote investments and bridge financing.

The government of Bangladesh imposed 100% export duty on wet leather in 1977 so that tanneries would feel encouraged to produce crust and finished leather goods. Awards for best exporters were introduced to encourage businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Industrialization

Ziaur Rahman's presidency was marked by the beginning of the ready-made garments industry that eventually transformed Bangladesh's economy. His government drafted some crucial policies to promote industrialization in Bangladesh.

Establishment of the RMG sector

Ziaur Rahman's presidency was marked by the beginning of the ready-made garments industry, which eventually transformed Bangladesh's economy. The first export-oriented RMG factory to be established in Bangladesh was Desh Garments of Desh Group by Noorul Quader Khan. It was made possible by the partnership with the famous Daewoo Corporation of South Korea, which was looking for an alternative country to East Asian countries to set up a factory.