BNP MP Harunur Rashid yesterday said their jailed Chairperson Khaleda Zia is willing to go abroad for treatment if she is granted bail.
Harun said this talking to reporters after he and two other party MPs visited Khaleda at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital in Dhaka in the evening.
“She needs better treatment at a specialized hospital abroad immediately for her physical problems. I’m urging the government not to deprive her of the right to get bail,” he said.
Asked whether Khaleda wanted to go abroad for treatment, he said: “She’ll go abroad if she has scope for treatment. If she gets bail today, she is ready to go abroad tomorrow.”
Harun said the BNP chief’s top priority now was her medical treatment, and there was no such specialized hospital in Bangladesh to provide proper treatment in her current fragile health condition.
Khaleda, incarcerated since February last year in corruption cases, has been undergoing treatment at BSMMU Hospital since April 1 under the supervision of prison authorities.
Harun and BNP MPs Abdus Sattar and Amimul Islam went to BSMMU around 4:30pm for an hour-long meeting with her.
Reached for comment on the matter, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday told Dhaka Tribune: “We have been repeatedly saying that she will receive treatment wherever she wants, if she is granted bail.”
The party’s National Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said Khaleda had received treatment abroad before. “After she gets bail, she will decide from where she will receive treatment.”
Both senior leaders, however, maintained that they did not talk to the party leaders who visited Khaleda yesterday.
