Khaleda returns home from hospital Wednesday evening
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia returned home on Wednesday night after receiving treatment at Evercare Hospital for 45 days.
“Madam (Khaleda) was discharged from the hospital in the evening as per the advice of the medical board,” said her media wing member Shamsuddin Didar, quoting her personal physician Dr. AZM Zahid Hossain.
He said the BNP chief left the hospital at 7:00pm and arrived home around 8:30pm.
Contacted, Dr Zahid said Khaleda was discharged from the hospital as her physical condition is now stable.
“She’ll be under close observation by doctors at her home,” he added.
A BNP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the process of sending Khaleda Zia to the UK for better treatment is underway. “Once she is fit for the long journey, she will be flown to the UK.”
Thousands of BNP leaders and workers, along with members of its associate bodies, surrounded Khaleda’s vehicle and escorted it to her residence in Gulshan.
After spending the past five years under house arrest, this is the first time the BNP chief has returned home as a free person, following a presidential pardon granted after the ouster of the autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina.
On 8 July, Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, 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 a pacemaker in Khaleda Zia’s chest on 23 June.
Khaleda has long been battling various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.
Khaleda's doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.
On 26 October 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 30 October 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 25 March 2020 with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
On 6 August last, 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 6 August.
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."