The family of jailed BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia asked on Monday how she would survive at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, where she is now under treatment.
Khaleda Zia sought blessings of the people, they said after visiting her at the hospital.
Five members of her family — sister Selima Islam, Selima’s husband Rafiqu Islam, younger brother Shamim Iskander, Shamim’s wife Kaniz Fatema and his son Avik Iskander — met Khaleda Zia at the hospital on Monday, 33 days after the family last met her on November 13.
Selima told reporters, ‘She needs treatment. She was not granted bail. What should we do now? Her health condition is very bad. She has pain in her abdomen. Doctors are not giving her medicine. She is not being given proper treatment here. How will she survive here?’
There is no resemblance between the health report submitted to the Appellate Division by the university and the reality of the condition of Khaleda’s health, Selima alleged.
‘Today her sugar level is 14 after 12-hour fasting. How can it be called controlled,’ she asked.
The Appellate Division on December 12 rejected Khaleda’s bail appeal.
Selima said that the court did not grant Khaleda bail though she was very sick and aged and unable to move, eat of sit by herself.
Asked whether they had any discussion over releasing her on parole, she said that they did not have any such talks.
She termed the court decision unprecedented and said that bail did not mean her exoneration and the apex court could have granted her bail considering her age and illness.
On December 11, the university authorities submitted a report on Khaleda’s health to the Appellate Division saying, ‘As a result of combined active disease and accompanied damage she is, at present a crippled state and largely dependent on assistance for her day to day activities,’
The report said that Khaleda Zia was suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cough variant asthma and rheumatoid arthritis with secondary sjogren’s syndrome with bilateral total knee replacement due to advanced knee osteoarthritis.
According to the report, her blood pressure and asthma were under control, her diabetics improved though the targets were not achieved.
