The government has decided not to allow the family of ailing Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia to take her abroad for treatment.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, after getting the law ministry’s opinion earlier on the day, in a press briefing at his secretariat office on Sunday afternoon informed it the journalists and said that the application of the BNP chief’s family could not be accepted as Khalda Zia was a convict.
‘In its opinion, law ministry mentioned clearly that there was no scope in the law to allow the application as there was no precedence of allowing any convict for treatment abroad,’ the home minister said.
‘Her [Khaleda Zia] conviction was suspended under section 401 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. There is no scope of allowing the application [of Khaleda Zia’s family] under the section for her treatment abroad,’ Asaduzzaman said.
He said that the prime minister Sheikh Hasina suspended the conviction of Khaleda Zia on humanitarian grounds and allowed her to take treatment as per her choice from her residence.
But, as per the law, there is no way to allow Khaled Zia for tenement abroad, he said.
The law ministry, in a press release on Sunday morning, said that their recommendations, issued by law minister Anisul Huq regarding BNP chief Khaleda’s treatment abroad were sent to the Home Ministry on the day.
On May 5 night, Khaleda Zia’s younger brother Shamim Eskander submitted an application to home minister Asaduzzaman Khan seeking permission to send Khaleda, who tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11, abroad for better treatment.
After receiving the application, the ministry forwarded it to the law ministry on the night for its opinion.
Khaleda, 75, was released from jail on March 25, 2020 on an executive order on conditions that she would take medical treatment at home and would not leave the country. She had been staying at her Gulshan home in Dhaka since then.
After Khaleda tested positive for Covid-19, she was admitted to Evercare Hospital in the capital on April 28 for some more tests as part of her follow-up medical check-up.
She has been undergoing treatment there as she was suffering from various post-Covid complications.
