Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital in Dhaka early Saturday.

She arrived at the hospital from her Gulshan residence minutes after 2:45am on Saturday, over four months after leaving the hospital after taking treatment for over two and a half months there, BNP chairperson’s media wing confirmed.

The BNP chief was taken to the hospital ‘urgently’ after falling sick at home, said the media wing.

She was admitted to the hospital when her party and family members were demanding to allow her to go abroad for advanced treatment in an advanced medical centre. The government several times rejected the appeal of Khaleda’s brother in this connection.

The government turned down the applications, saying that there is no scope for a convict to avail such an opportunity.

Khaleda, a 76-year-old former prime minister, has been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung and eye problems.

For the last time, Khaleda left the hospital on February 1, 2022, after 81 days since she was admitted to the hospital on November 13, 2021.  

Her November 13 admission was only six days after she had returned home from the hospital.

The former PM had to take treatment at the hospital as a patient of its inpatient department several times since March 25, 2020.

On March 25, 2020, amid the Covid situation, the government suspended her jail sentences in two graft cases and released her from the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on conditions that she would take medical treatment at home and would not leave the country.