BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is being examined by the medical board to determine whether to move her overseas as soon as feasible for better care.

At the BNP headquarters in Naya Paltan on Thursday, Professor Dr. AZM Zahid Hossain, Khaleda Zia's personal physician, informed reporters.

"Madam is receiving 479 days of treatment at Evercare Hospital. On August 21, she went back home, but on Thursday morning, she had to go back to the hospital. Before bringing her overseas, doctors' opinions regarding her fitness are required, according to Dr. Zahid.

“Madam is undergoing treatment in the Evercare Hospital for 479 days. She returned home on August 21, but shifted to hospital again early Thursday. Physicians’ opinion about her fitness is needed for taking her abroad,” Dr Zahid said.

“One’s physical fitness of tolerating negative pressure of journey is needed before boarding a flight,” he said adding “this is not a matter of story rather an academic, professional and scientific issue,” Dr Zahid said.

Taking these issues into consideration, medical board’s local and foreign members are consulting and thinking about taking measures quickly for taking her to advanced medical center abroad.

“Whenever she will be physically fit, she will be onboard for treatment abroad,” he said.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital in the early hours of Thursday.

The BNP chief arrived at the hospital from her Gulshan residence around 1:40am, said BNP media cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

Earlier, on August 21, Khaleda Zia returned home after 45 days at Evercare Hospital.

On July 8, she was admitted there 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 June 23.

Khaleda has long been battling various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart and eyes.

The BNP chief’s doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

On October 26 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 October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was also convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

On August 6, Khaleda Zia was freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

The president passed the order under Article 49 of the constitution, according to a gazette issued by the home ministry on August 6.

The president may pardon, reprieve, and respite as well as remit, postpone, or commute any sentence imposed by a court, tribunal, or other authority, according to Article 49.