BNP Standing Committee has demanded that the government must take prompt steps to send their party Chairperson Khaleda Zia abroad for advanced treatment considering her critical health condition.
“Though our leader has recovered from coronavirus, she has been suffering from some post-Covid-19 complications, and she’s not free from risk in any way. She has heart problems, and her kidney and liver complications are very critical,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference, he also said the medical board formed for Khaleda’s treatment thinks she needs treatment for liver and other complications at any advanced centre abroad as there is little scope to receive such treatment in Bangladesh.
“Our Standing Committee meeting has called for intensifying steps for sending Khaleda aboard for ensuring her treatment at a much better and advanced centre. Our meeting also urged the government to [completely] free her,” Fakhrul said.
The members of the party’s policymaking body had held a virtual meeting on Saturday where they discussed Khaleda’s overall health condition.
Fakhrul said Khaleda’s family, not BNP, had earlier taken steps for her treatment abroad and submitted an application to the government in this regard.
“Our Standing Committee has now taken a resolution that she needs treatment abroad. The government should now do immediately whatever is needed in this regard,” she said.
He said their party will also work out their next course of action to this end through discussions.
The BNP leader said the government should take steps to ensure treatment of ailing Khaleda abroad as he is not only an elderly politician, but also a three-time former prime minister and chairperson of a major party who made contributions to the county’s Liberation War and played an outstanding role in restoring democracy.
He said Khaleda underwent treatment for 53 days at the Evercare Hospital and she also received treatment at home before going to the hospital for coronavirus infections.
The BNP chief’s medical board at the Evercare Hospital decided to discharge her from the hospital as some doctors and nurses at the non-Covid-19 unit were infected with the Indian Delta variant of coronavirus, he added.
Besides, Fakhrul said, she had also infections twice caused by bacteria due to her long stay at the hospital.
He said the BNP chief was taken to her Gulshan residence after taking the necessary steps for her treatment under a close observation there.
“Ensuring her highest treatment coming out of political narrowness is now the demand of people," he mentioned.
On June 19, Khaleda Zia got back home from the Evercare Hospital after 53 days of treatment for Covid-19 and other physical complications.
The 76-year-old BNP chief, who tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11, was admitted to Evercare Hospital on April 27.
On April 28, a 10-member medical board, headed by Prof Shahabuddin Talukder, was formed for the treatment of Khaleda at the Evercare Hospital a day after her admission there.
She tested negative for Covid-19 on May 8, 27 days after she tested positive, but the BNP chief was staying in the hospital for treatment for various comorbidities and post-Covid-19 complications.
Her family submitted an application to the government on May 6 seeking permission to send her abroad for advanced treatment, but it was turned down on legal grounds.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government had freed Khaleda from jail for six months through an executive order suspending her sentences on March 25 last year. Later, the suspensions were extended.
