Staff Correspondent

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s freedom fighters’ rally, scheduled for Saturday in Dhaka, has been suspended due to the illness of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Her plans to travel abroad for medical treatment have also been postponed.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement at a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s Office in Dhaka’s Gulshan on Thursday.

He said, "Madam [Khaleda] fell ill last night. That is why Saturday’s freedom fighters’ rally has been postponed at the advice of the doctors."

The rally, organised by the Nationalist Freedom Fighters Dal, was scheduled to be held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, or BICC, in the capital’s Agargaon on that day.

Khaleda’s personal physician Prof AZM Zahid Hossain said: “She is being treated at her Gulshan home under the supervision of doctors. Her overseas travel has also been deferred due to the illness."

On Oct 29, it was reported that the BNP was set to travel abroad for treatment after being released from charges tied to a corruption case.

She was supposed to visit her son Tarique Rahman in London earlier this month and be conveyed there in a specialised air ambulance.

She was to then be transferred to a 'multidisciplinary medical centre' in a third country, according to Zahid.
Khaleda was also supposed to perform Umrah in Saudi Arabia.

The interim government had also gave assurances that the BNP chief will receive the support she is entitled to as a former prime minister to facilitate her treatment abroad, accompanied by her medical team.

Accordingly, visa work on passports for the US, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia has already been completed.

The 79-year-old former prime minister has been battling a combination of liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease, lung problems, arthritis, kidney ailments, and diabetes.

She had to receive treatment several times at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital for extended periods in the last four years.

On Feb 8, 2018, the BNP chief was sentenced to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

The sentence was increased to 10 years after an appeal hearing at the High Court in October of that year.

She was sentenced to prison for seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case afterwards.

The BNP chief was released from jail by executive order in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order was extended every six months by the Awami League government through an executive order. However, the order prevented her from travelling abroad.

The Sheikh Hasina government repeatedly turned down requests from Khaleda’s family to send her abroad, citing the restrictions of the executive order.

After the fall of the Awami League government in the face of a mass uprising, President Mohammed Shahabuddin remitted Khaleda’s sentence on Aug 6 under Article 49 of the Constitution.