'Khaleda’s health condition apparently good'

FT ONLINE

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Director Abdullah-Al-Harun has said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seems to be in good health but her condition can be better assessed upon receipt of her medical reports.

“Khaleda Zia’s physical condition is apparently good, but a better assessment of her health can be made after her x-ray report is released,” he told a press briefing at the BSMMU on Saturday.

Harun said: “We arranged a wheelchair facility for her but she preferred walking from her cabin to the radiology and imaging department. Four doctors – Wahidur Rahman, Md Mamun, FM Siddique and her personal physician in jail – accompanied her during the whole process.

“Khaleda Zia came at the radiology and imaging department for different tests. Several X-rays of her bone were taken there, according to the medical board of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).”

The BSMMU director said the test reports would be released on Sunday and that they would send them to the jail authorities very soon.

The 73-year old former prime minister was taken to the BSMMU in the morning for a medical check-up.

She was offered a wheelchair to go to the cabin block on the 4th floor of the hospital but she declined and opted to walk to the lift.

Two members of a medical board, formed earlier by the government and Khaleda’s personal physicians, examined her health.

Later, the doctors suggested conducting some medical tests, including x-ray on her knees and hands and a blood test.

After the x-ray in Radiology and Imaging Department and blood test, she was taken back to the jail.

The BNP chief has been in jail since February 8, after a trial court convicted and sentenced her to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

On April 1, the government formed a medical team that included four professors of DMCH to examine her health condition as she suddenly fell sick in jail on March 29.

Police stop Koko’s wife from visiting Khaleda

Law enforcers barred Khaleda’s daughter in-law Sharmila Rahman Shithi and two grandchildren and Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal President Afroza Abbas from visiting her at the hospital, alleged BNP leaders.

Having failed to enter Khaleda’s cabin, Sharmila and her daughters went back to their car and waited there for some time.

Meanwhile, police arrested five BNP men who gathered there and chanted anti-government slogans.