Khaleda need not be sent abroad right now: Physician

The medical board formed to conduct the check up of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia thinks her health condition does not require her to be sent abroad on treatment.

Chief of Dhaka Medical College Hospital's orthopedics department professor Md Shamsuzzaman heads the board. He told Prothom Alo on Sunday, ''As far as I have seen, she does not need to be sent abroad right now (for treatment).''

Khaleda's arthritis complications increased a bit in jail and she has pain in her left hand and leg, added Shamsuzzaman.

He also said that they are yet to receive the medical test reports.

The former prime minister, now in jail, was taken to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Saturday morning where she underwent some medical tests as per recommendation of the board.

BSMMU director, Abdullah Al Harun, on Saturday said BNP chief Khaleda Zia was apparently in good health.

“Apparently she is doing fine, but her actual health condition will be known once the x-ray reports are available,” the director told a media briefing after the former prime minister underwent some medical check-ups there.

BNP, however, claimed that its chairperson was forcibly taken to hospital simply to harass her.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday alleged that this was an Awami League government drama simply to mentally and physically harass the BNP chief and former prime minister.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that Khaleda wanted to have her medical tests conducted at a private hospital, but the government did not comply.

On 8 February, a special court sentenced Khaleda to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sent her to jail.