The family of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has applied to the Ministry of Home Affairs again seeking permission for extension of her release period and her treatment abroad.
Khaleda's younger brother Shamim Iskander submitted a prayer to the ministry on behalf of the family on March 6 last, said BNP media cell member Shairul Kabir Khan.
Khaleda Zia's personal secretary ABM Sattar delivered the prayer to the Home Ministry.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has already sent the prayer to the Ministry of Law.
A decision regarding the prayer is likely to be taken on Monday (March 18). However, sources said there is no legal scope of sending Khaleda Zia abroad for treatment.
In the prayer, Shamim Iskander states that his elder sister Khaleda Zia's life is on great risk. In order to save her life, she needs to be taken abroad for advanced treatment.
According to the Khaleda Zia's medical board's decision, the BNP Chairperson was taken to Evercare Hospital in the capital on Wednesday (March 13). She was brough back at her Gulshan residence from the hospital on the following day.
The medical board advised to send Khaleda Zia abroad as early as possible. So, the BNP Chairperson's younger brother has sought the permission to take her abroad for treatment, said Khaleda Zia's personal physician and BNP vice-chairman Dr AZM Zahid Hossain.
He said it is Khaleda Zia's constitutional right to receive proper treatment. The BNP Chairperson has developed some complications in her heart. She needed to be taken abroad as early as possible, he said.
In this regard, Law Minister Anisul Huq said on Sunday that the Ministry of Home Affairs sent the prayer to the Ministry of Law seeking legal opinion. Since he had returned to the country from abroad on Sunday, legal opinion would be given on Monday.
Khaleda Zia was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as 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 and convicted in Zia Charitable Trust corruption case the same year. She had been in jail for two years. Then the government released her on March 25, 2020 on two conditions staying her conviction through an executive order. Since then the period of her release has been extended by six months responding to the prayer of her family. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order extending the period of her release for six months last on September 12, 2023. The period of her release is going be ended on March 24 next.
The two conditions -- on which Khaleda Zia was released through an executive order are that she would have to avail medical treatment staying at her home and that she would not be able to go abroad.
Khaleda Zia, the 78-year-old former prime minister, has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, eye problems and post-Covid complications.
