Abdur Razzak's condition worsens

Doctors say his lungs are in critical condition

Syed Nahas Pasha

London, Dec 22 (bdnews24.com)—Senior Awami League leader Abdur Razzak's health condition has deteriorated as doctors said his lungs are in critical condition.

He needs to undergo kidney and liver transplants, they said.

He has been kept in the special care unit of the King's College Hospital in London, Rashed Chowdhury, the press minister of the Bangladesh High Commission, told bdnews24.com

The 70-year-old former water resources minister had been admitted to the hospital in September, his wife Farida Razzak had said and requested the people of Bangladesh to pray for her husband.

Doctors were to transplant his liver on Dec 11 but later said his kidney needed to be transplanted, too. They wanted to do both surgeries at a time.

Razzak, a member of the ruling Awami League's advisory council, was minister for water resources in 1996-2001, but failed to secure a cabinet seat when the party returned to power in 2009.

Instead, he was made chair of the parliamentary committee on water resources.

He became general secretary of the Awami League in 1975, but later broke away to resurrect Bangladesh Krishak Sromik League (BKSAL) in the early 1980s when Sheikh Hasina had returned home.

The BKSAL, formed by the nation's father Sheikh Mujibur Raman, in a desperate effort to bury political chaos, merged with the mainstream Awami League in the late 1990s.

Razzak never got back the coveted position of general secretary and was made a member of the policymaking presidium.

He is widely believed to be instrumental in making the 30-year Ganges water sharing treaty in 1996.

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