Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s family submitted an application to the home ministry on Wednesday evening seeking permission for her treatment abroad.

Ailing Khaleda’s younger brother Shamim Eskander submitted the application to home minister Asaduzzaman Khan at about 8:30pm, home ministry officials said.

In the application, the family did not name any particular country for the treatment of Khaleda, also former prime minister, they said.

Later, at about 11:30pm, the home minister in a press conference at his residence in Dhaka, aid that he had already forwarded to the law ministry for review.

The minister said that his government and the prime minister Sheikh Hasina were very much positive about the issue.

He said that his ministry would take steps immediately after getting response from the law ministry.

The law minister said that he did not see the application carefully.

‘I forwarded the application to the law ministry immediately after getting it. Process has already been started,’ he said.

The 75-year-old BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, who had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11, is suffering from post-Covid complications like high blood sugar and breathing problems along with her other health complications including severe arthritis and now undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka, said physicians on Wednesday.

A member of Khaleda’s medical team and several BNP leaders told New Age that the former prime minister’s sugar level had fluctuated between 14 and 20 for the last few days whereas it was 8-11 in normal times.

They said that she suffered from breathing complications early Wednesday and she was given oxygen support in the coronary care unit of Evercare Hospital. Her condition improved later.

They also said that physicians also tested the fluid extracted from her lungs and found no further abnormality.

Khaleda’s physicians said that before the Covid infection, Khaleda had been suffering from various complications, including severe and uncontrolled rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and hypertension, for the past few years.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, addressing a virtual meeting on Wednesday, requested people of the country to pray for Khaleda, saying she is seriously ill.

About the treatment of Khaleda, her sister Selina Islam told New Age that the family would follow the suggestions of the 10-member medical team that was formed to treat Khaleda.

A senior leader of the party said that they were trying to understand the position of the government on whether it would allow her treatment abroad.

‘If we get any green signal from the government, an application will be submitted to allow her to travel abroad for treatment,’ he said, adding that it would be a few hours of matter for the authorities concerned to reissue her passport if the government becomes cordial.

He said that Khaleda’s family was planning to send her to Singapore or the United Kingdom for treatment.

Khaleda was admitted to Evercare Hospital on April 28 for some tests as a part of her follow-up medical check-up.

After she had tested positive for Covid-19, Khaleda on April 15 went to Evercare Hospital for a CT scan and the report of the test showed a very nominal lung infection.

She again tested positive for Covid-19 in the second test on April 24.

Her medical team members on April 25 said that the BNP chairperson’s health condition was fine and she had no visible symptoms of Covid-19.

But after hospitalisation, her condition deteriorated and she was shifted to the coronary care unit with respiratory problems on Monday.

Khaleda, who was convicted in two cases, have stayed at her Gulshan house since her release from jail on March 25, 2020 on an executive order on conditions that she would take medical treatment at home and would not leave the country.