Khaleda returns home after five days in hospital

The medical board decided to continue treatment at home after tests

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 May 2023, 02:37 PM
Updated : 4 May 2023, 02:37 PM

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has returned to her Bashundhara residence after spending five days for treatment at Evercare Hospital. 

She arrived at her home at 6:22pm on Thursday in a white car accompanied by Sharmila Rahman Shithi, the wife of Khaleda’s deceased son Arafat Rahman. 

The medical board saw her test results and decided to continue her treatment at home, said her personal physician Prof AZM Zahid Hossain. 

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other party leaders were present when she reached home.

The BNP chief was taken to Evercare on Apr 29 for medical tests and was later admitted. A medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder oversaw her treatment. 

Khaleda, 77, has been suffering from a range of health complications, including arthritis, diabetes, and kidney and liver diseases for a long time. Since 2021, she has been in hospital several times for various ailments, including COVID-19.

The BNP chief was sentenced to jail in two graft cases in 2017. The septuagenarian had served her sentence at the old central jail of Dhaka until the government decided to suspend her jail time on medical grounds amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Khaleda was released from prison on Mar 25, 2020 by executive order and the government has already conditionally extended her time out of jail on several occasions, most recently in March. 

Her party and family demand that she be allowed to travel abroad for treatment but the government has not granted her permission to leave Bangladesh.