Jatiya Party, the opposition in parliament, has convened an emergency meeting of its policymaking presidium and MPs as its chief HM Ershad’s health condition remain unchanged after he was admitted to the hospital last week.
Deputy Press Secretary to Party Chairman Khandaker Delwar Jalali said on Tuesday that the meeting slated for 3pm on Wednesday (Jul 3) at the JP chief’s Banani offices will be presided over by acting Chairman GM Quader.
Earlier in the day, the party said Ershad, now undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital, is not out of danger.
“His kidneys are functioning partially; the breathing problem is as like as it was yesterday. His health condition remains stable,” Ershad’s brother GM Quader told a media call.
“The fluid he had in his lungs yesterday still remains today. The condition has not improved. In these circumstances, his health condition may deteriorate.”
The 90-year-old former military dictator — now the Leader of the Opposition — already had a low haemoglobin level in his blood and was diagnosed with lung infection and kidney ailment after he was admitted to the CMH on Jun 22.
The Jatiya Party had so far said that Ershad was being treated in the hospital’s ‘Critical Care Unit’. But on Monday, AKM Mustafa, a member of Jatiya Party’s central committee, in a Facebook post revealed that the party chief had been transferred to the Intensive Care Unit.
Mustafa posted a photograph with the caption “Pallibandhu Ershad Sir with his wife Raushan Ershad reciting the Holy Quran beside him.”
Ershad is on ‘life support,’ and in a ‘critical’ condition, Health Minister Zahid Malik told the media after visiting Ershad in the hospital on Monday.
“What we understand by life support is that the patient continues to breathe through artificial ventilation. Ershad hasn’t reached that stage,” Quader told journalists on Tuesday.
“He is opening his eyes when called. The doctors said that he is in a drowsy state. Sometimes, he is sleeping and sometimes waking up. It’s not that he is in his senses completely but he is responding. I’ve met him.”