Khaleda to go to hospital for health check-up early Thursday

"Following the advice of the medical board, Khaleda will be taken to Evercare Hospital"

Dhaka, Sept 11 - BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will go to Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital early Thursday for health check-up.

Her personal physician, Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, said, "Following the advice of the medical board, Madam will be taken to Evercare Hospital. Preparations are underway for her transfer."

BNP media cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan mentioned that the former Prime Minister is expected to leave her Gulshan residence for the hospital around 1 a.m.

Earlier, on August 21, Khaleda Zia returned home after a 45-day treatment at Evercare Hospital.

On July 8, Khaleda Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital in the capital six days after she had been discharged from the same hospital with various ailments.

A group of specialist doctors, led by Prof Shahabuddin Talukder, successfully installed the pacemaker in Khaleda Zia’s chest on June 23.

Khaleda has long been battling various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.

The BNP chief’s doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

On October 26 last year, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure known as the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accretion in Khaleda Zia's stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.

She was placed in Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. On October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

On August 6, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

The president passed the order under Article 49 of the Bangladesh Constitution, according to a gazette issued by the home ministry on August 6.

Article 49 states that "The president shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves, and respites and to remit, suspend, or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal, or other authority." -UNB