The government has offered to provide BNP chief Khaleda Zia with medical treatment at Dhaka’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH), rejecting the appeals by the party as well as her family to take her to the United Hospital.
A three-time prime minister, Khaleda is serving a jail term after she was convicted of embezzling foreign donations made to the Zia Orphanage Trust.
The BNP, which claims the graft charges to be a politically-motivated attempt to shut Khaleda out of the upcoming national polls, says the jail code allows the treatment at a private medical facility, if needed.
The 73-year-old landed in prison on Feb 8 after she was sentenced to five years in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
On June 5, she had a fall, prompting renewed pressure from the BNP to get her the best treatment.
The BNP says only the government can now provide a solution to the deadlock.
“We have made it clear what Khaleda Zia wants and the government has been informed that the BNP will bear the medical expenses. It’s the government’s job to arrange for where Khaleda Zia wants to get treatment,” Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told Bangla Tribune.
According to him, the ‘ball is now in the government’s court’.
“But it’s the government’s responsibility to arrange for Khaleda Zia’s treatment,” he reiterated.
The government, however, remains adamant.
“Why should we arrange the United Hospital for Khaleda Zia’s treatment? We have offered the CMH in line with the jail code,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told Bangla Tribune.
On Khaleda’s reluctance, he said, “That we have to see what can be done according to the jail code. But I can’t say anything now.”
Sources in the BNP say, Khaleda’s counsels will raise the issue in court on Jun 24, when a hearing for her bail petition is scheduled.
On Jun 5, the former prime minister had a fall in Dhaka jail and her party has heaped pressure on the government since then to get the 73-year-old treated at the United Hospital.
Her personal physicians after a visit there believed she might have suffered a 'mild stroke' and suggested that she be taken to the United Hospital.
On Jun 10, the government offered to provide her with medical treatment at Dhaka’s CMH after she refused to go to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital.
But the former prime minister as well as the party has been demanding treatment at the United Hospital in Dhaka’s upscale neighbourhood of Gulshan.
On Jun 12, Khaleda’s family wrote the home ministry seeking medical treatment for her at the United Hospital, which is yet to evoke a response.