Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia will return home on Monday wrapping up her medical check-up and treatments in the UK.
“Her physical condition is much better now and she will return home on May 5” BSS news agency quoted BNP Standing Committee Member AZM Zahid Hossain as saying. Begum Zia has been suffering from liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease, kidney ailments and other health issues for a long time, her doctors shared with media.
Khaleda Zia will be accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, Tarique Rahman’s wife Zubaida Rahman and late Arafat Rahman Koko’s wife Syeda Sharmila Rahman Sithi.
Although air ambulance services are yet to be available to return homeland, Khaleda Zia’s doctors and entourage in London are exploring the highest possible air travel options. The BNP chairperson will return home on a regular flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines under special arrangements, according to BNP sources.
Tarique Rahman is overseeing the entire travel related issues, they said.
In 2018, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was arrested in a corruption case and imprisoned in the Old Dhaka Central Jail. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the fallen Awami League government released her under special consideration. After the fascist AL government fell in a mass uprising by the students and public on August 5 last year, Khaleda Zia was released by an order of the president. The court then quashed the verdicts in the two corruption cases in which she was imprisoned.
On January 8 this year, Khaleda Zia was taken to London for advanced treatment. A special air ambulance flight sent, as a token of friendship, by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani took Khaleda Zia from the VIP tarmac of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
After undergoing treatment for 17 consecutive days, Khaleda Zia was shifted from the London clinic to her son Tarique Rahman’s house on January 25.
Khaleda Zia celebrated Eid with her core family members in the UK this year. The three-times former prime minister spent four Eids inside prison and Bangladesh Medical University Hospital (former IPGMR) at Shahbagh during her imprisonment.
Khaleda Zia is currently undergoing treatment at her son Tarique Rahman’s house. She also did full medical check-ups there.