Khaleda’s treatment abroad Anisul asks BNP to apply to Home Ministry
Staff Reporter :
Despite a good number of petitions seeking BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s better medical treatment abroad pending with the government, the Law Minister on Saturday said that the BNP must have to apply to the Ministry of Home Affairs to allow Khaleda Zia going abroad for improved treatment.
In a reversal of his earlier stance on the issue, Law Minister Anisul Huq made the assertion at a function in Akhaura Upazila of Brahmanbaria district.
On several occasions earlier, family members of the BNP chief applied to the home ministry for the same purpose.
On September 4, Khaleda Zia’s younger brother Shamim Eskander submitted an application to the Home Ministry seeking permission to allow former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia for receiving treatment abroad.
However, a notification on extension the suspension of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s jail sentence by six more months with the same two conditions as before — she would not be able to go abroad and she has to receive treatment in the country, signed by Mohammad Abu Sayed Mollah, Deputy Secretary (Jail-2 section) of the Security Services Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, was issued on September 12.
Earlier, the Law Minster had said that there is no legal scope for allowing BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to go abroad for treatment.
“The application must be submitted to the home ministry, which then can ask the law ministry for its opinion.
A decision will be reached upon their formal submission,” Anisul Huq said this while talking to reporters at the event.
According to the Law Minister, “Khaleda Zia continues to receive quality healthcare at Evercare Hospital despite her prison sentence, by courtesy of the benevolence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
Meanwhile, Private Secretary to BNP Chairperson Abdus Sattar on Saturday told the media that Khaleda Zia’s younger brother on behalf of family members submitted an application with the Home Ministry on September 4 for her treatment in abroad.
“If needed not a single rather 100 applications will be submitted for Khaleda Zia’s better treatment if the government allows the BNP Chairperson to go abroad,” he said.
Responding Law Minister’s comments, Abdus Sattar said, “It is not needed for submission fresh application regarding Khaleda Zia’s better treatment in abroad as an application has already been submitted to the Home Ministry on behalf of family members on September 4.
If the government had the will, they could have told us instead of telling the media.
Or he could have called the family members as they have all our mobile numbers.”
The Law Minister repeatedly said that according to the law of the country, Khaleda Zia has no chance of receiving treatment abroad, Abdus Sattar also said adding the even the Law Minister said the same thing just 10 days ago and how they can now believe it.
Earlier on September 18, the Security Services Division under the home ministry issued a notification extending the suspension of Khaleda’s jail term by another six months.
Khaleda Zia has to receive treatment in Dhaka, and she will not be allowed to go abroad during this period, said the notification.
On last Friday, the BNP held special prayers seeking Khaleda Zia’s early recovery at the metropolitan, district, upazila, municipality, union and ward levels across the country after Jummah prayers.
The 78-year-old former prime minister has been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, and eye problems.
Since her conditional release in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Professor Shahabuddin Talukder.
Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Jail after a lower court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018.
Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
