Staff Reporter :
Senior lawyer and BNP Vice-Chairman Khandker Mahbub Hossain on Wednesday demanded release on parole for the party chief Khaleda Zia.
He also urged the government to think above Khaleda’s release beyond politics and from humanitarian consideration as she needs emergency medical treatment.
He made this demand in a press briefing arranged in his personal chamber at Malibagh Chowdhury Para in the city.
The government is waiting for Khaleda Zia’s decision to take her to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) or to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Tuesday said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia would be taken to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for necessary health checkups if the party wanted. But BNP demanded to admit her at the United Hospital for treatment. BNP chief’s younger brother Shamim Iskander wrote a letter to the Home Ministry on Tuesday seeking permission for bearing all medical expenses if she was admitted to United Hospital.
The BNP also echoed the same at a press conference, urging the government to immediately admit Khaleda to the hospital.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said, “The government should give importance to her (Khaleda Zia) wish as she wants to take treatment in the United Hospital. The government should not take the responsibility of her treatment.”
“After serving jail for 4 months, Khaleda Zia’s health has deteriorated severely. Now the fear for her life has been created. Release her on parole for quick treatment. As a bail petition is pending in the Appellate Division and as the Supreme Court and the trial court is closed due to Eid vacation, it is not possible to release her in legal process now. So, there is only one option to release her and that is to release her on parole,” said Khandker Mahbub. Former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Khandker Mahbub also said, “The present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also got release on parole during the Army backed Caretaker Government and got the opportunity to take treatment at private hospital. Even she (Sheikh Hasina) went abroad for better treatment. So, Khaleda Zia should also be given the opportunity.”
After meeting with Khaleda Zia at the Old Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road in Dhaka on June 9, her personal physicians told reporters that she might have suffered a mild stroke in jail on June 5.
“Khaleda Zia suddenly fell on the floor on June 5. She could not recall how it happened. It seems she had suffered a mild stroke,” Professor of Medicine S M Siddique, who was among the four-member team of doctors, told reporters.
On February 8, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the BNP chief and sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust case. She was then sent to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.
On May 16, the SC upheld a HC order that granted bail to Khaleda for four months in Zia Orphanage Trust case but she is still in the jail as she has been shown arrested in seven other cases.
