DHAKA: Bangladesh on Sunday blocked ailing key opposition leader and two-time former premier Khaleda Zia from travelling abroad for life-saving medical treatment, an official and supporters said.

Kayser Kamal, legal chief for Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), slammed the government’s decision to bar the wheelchair-bound 78-year-old from leaving — due to the terms of her effective house arrest — as an act of “political vengeance”.

Bangladesh is gearing up for general elections due before the end of January, and several Western governments and rights groups have expressed concern over the political climate in a country where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.

Zia and her bitter rival, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, have dominated the politics of the South Asian nation of 170 million people for over four decades.

Law minister says opposition leader legally bound by executive order

In 2008, Zia was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft, and jailed for two years before being released under house arrest. She has rejected the charges as politically motivated.

Zia has been hospitalised since early August with advanced liver cirrhosis, breathing difficulties and diabetes, and she suffers from a heart condition, rheumatoid arthritis and knee problems, her doctor said.

Her family last month wrote to the government, pleading to let her fly abroad for treatment.

On Sunday, however, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters they had rejected the plea.

He said the executive order for her release from prison barred her from both taking part in politics and going abroad for medical care.

“The application can’t be reconsidered,” he said.

The existing executive order would have to be cancelled before the government could reconsider a new directive allowing her to go abroad, meaning ex-PM Zia would have to return to prison first and then apply, the minister explained.

Kayser Kamal, the BNP legal chief, condemned the decision. “She was granted a conditional release under a provision, and the same provision can be used to allow her to get treatment abroad,” he said.

Tens of thousands of BNP supporters protested last week against the government’s actions tow­ards Zia.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2023