by Staff Correspondent,

Dhaka — Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq has dispelled rumors that former prime minister Khaleda Zia would be allowed to go abroad for medical treatment.

“There is no base of such rumors,” the minister told reporters at his office in Dhaka on Thursday. But, he said, the preconditions will be the same to extend the tenure of suspension of her prison term.

Khaleda, also the chief of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Dhaka court in 2018 for misappropriation of funds meant for orphans.

She served parts of the sentence, but the government on humanitarian ground released her from the jail in March 2020, suspending the prison term for six months as per an executive order. She was given condition that she would stay at her home in Gulshan and not travel abroad.

Since, then the authorities are extending the executive order to respond to her family’s appeal.

“It was not finalized yet as to how long the tenure of executive order be extended,” the Law Minister said acknowledging that his office received Khaleda Zia’s application forwarded by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The ministry sought the law ministry’s opinion on the application filed by Khaleda Zia’s brother, Huq said.

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