Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to travel to London in the first half of January for advanced treatment.
鈥楶reparations are underway to take her to the United Kingdom in the first half of January, if she remains fit for the air journey,鈥� said her personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain.
However, any specific date for the travel is yet to be set, said Zahid, also a standing committee member of the BNP.
BNP leaders said that Khaleda Zia would first go to London in the UK, where her eldest son and the party acting chairperson, Tarique Rahman, along with his family has been living since 2008.
After staying there for a few days, she will travel to the United States for treatment of her liver complications, they said.
They also said that all preparations had been made for the BNP chairperson鈥檚 treatment at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in East Baltimore, Maryland in the US.
She has already obtained visas for the UK and the US, they said.
A 15-member delegation which includes Khaled鈥檚 late son Arafat Rahman鈥檚 wife Syeda Sharmila Rahman, some physicians and BNP leaders, her personal secretary and two housemaids will accompany her during her London trip.
Khaleda鈥檚 office has already informed the foreign affairs ministry about her treatment abroad, including details of her entourage members.
Earlier, in October 2023, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure, known as the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, to stop water accretion in Khaleda鈥檚 stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.
Her doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.
The 79-year-old former prime minister is suffering from various complications, including liver cirrhosis, heart disease, lung disease, arthritis, kidney disease and diabetes.
She had to undergo long-term treatment through a medical board coordinated by specialist doctors, including being kept in the ICU at various times at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.
Khaleda Zia was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special judge court sentenced her to five years in imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
听
But in October of that year, the sentence was increased to 10 years after an appeal hearing in the High Court.
Later, the BNP chief was also sentenced to another seven years in jail in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.
Amid the Covid outbreak, the then government temporarily freed Khaleda from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020 on conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
On March 25 of that year, Khaleda returned to her Gulshan house after being temporarily released.
Since then, Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 government which was ousted on August 5 amid a mass uprising had been extending her release every six months at the request of her family.
After her temporary release, she had to be hospitalised with critical condition for several times for treatment.
Although, Khaleda鈥檚 family had applied several times to send her abroad, Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 government had repeatedly rejected it.
A day after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 government on August 5, Khaleda was completely freed by an order issued by president Mohammed Shahabuddin.
The BNP chief returned to her Gulshan residence on August 21 after undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital for a month.
Khaleda Zia was also suddenly admitted to Evercare Hospital on the night of September 12.听 Later, she returned home after six days of treatment.