BNP is plotting to send Khaleda abroad, says Tofail

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has said the BNP’s insistence on taking Khaleda Zia to United Hospital for medical check-up is nothing but a ploy to send her abroad.

He claims the imprisoned BNP chief is not sick, rather she is fine.

“If she was ill, why wouldn’t she be admitted to [Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Hospital or Combined Military Hospital]?” he asked as he spoke to reporters at an event organised by the local Awami League at Bhola Sadar Upazila’s Digholodi Union on Sunday.

On June 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.

File Photo

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.

Khaleda landed in prison on Feb 8 after she was sentenced to five years in jail for corruption.

The government has offered to provide her with medical treatment at Dhaka’s CMH after she refused to go to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital.

Referring to the BNP’s constant demand about Khaleda’s treatment, Tofail said, “The issue of alternative hospitals would have arisen had there been any negligence in her treatment at Bangabandhu Medical or CMH.”

“She has chosen a particular hospital where she will be able to ask the physicians of her choice to recommend her treatment abroad. A conspiracy is on to send her abroad,” the Awami League leader remarked.