Decision on Khaleda Zia’s treatment abroad today
Staff Reporter :
The government’s decision on sending Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia abroad for treatment will be taken today (Sunday).
Khaleda Zia’s younger brother Shamim Iskandar applied to the Home Ministry on September 25 to send BNP Chairperson abroad for treatment as her health condition is deteriorating continuously.
“The Home Ministry has sent the application to the Law Ministry for its opinion on the issue.
Law Ministry’s opinion will be given Sunday (today),” Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq told the media on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that if BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia wants to go abroad for treatment, she has to return to jail and seek permission from the court.
‘Again she [Khaleda] has to return to jail and go to court.
She has to take permission from the court,’ the prime minister, now in the United States, said in an interview with Voice of America that aired on its website on Saturday.
In response to a question about the government’s position about Khaleda’s treatment abroad, Hasina said, ‘I ask which country in the world has been able to send a convict abroad for treatment. Will any country do that?
If they [Khaleda’s family and the BNP] want, they have to go to the court.
Permission must be obtained from the court. We have no scope to interfere in the function of any court.’
Leaders and activists of BNP have been demanding sending BNP Chairperson and mother of democracy Begum Khaleda Zia abroad for her better treatment.
Meanwhile, Khaleda Zia was again shifted to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) cabin of the hospital after about three hours as her condition deteriorated further.
Khaleda Zia has been undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka for 51 days since August 9.
On September 25, Khaleda’s brother Shamim Iskander submitted an application to the home ministry seeking permission to send the former prime minister abroad for better treatment.
Law minister Anisul Huq on Thursday told the media that the home ministry had forwarded the application to the law ministry for its opinion.
Begum Khaleda Zia, a 78-year-old former prime minister, has been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart and eye problems.
On September 12, the government extended the suspension of Khaleda’s jail sentence by six more months with the same two conditions as before — she would not be able to go abroad and she would have to receive treatment in the country.
Khaleda was freed from jail on March 25, 2020, after the government suspended her jail sentence for six months. She was released during a time when the world was grappling with the pandemic.
The BNP chief landed in jail on February 8, 2017, after being sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by a special court in Dhaka in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
On October 30, the following year, the High Court enhanced her punishment to 10 years after dismissing her appeal.
The former prime minister was convicted by another special court in Dhaka in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case on October 29, 2018. She was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by the court.
