Bangladesh's ex-PM Khaleda Zia's condition 'more stable' now, says doctor

Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia is now "more stable", with no deterioration in her condition, her personal doctor AZM Zahid Hossain has said.

Zia, the 80-year-old chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been undergoing treatment at Dhaka's Evercare Hospital since November 23 for multiple health complications and was shifted to a coronary care unit (CCU) later.

On December 11, she was placed on ventilator support to give rest to her lungs and other vital organs.

Her personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain said on Friday that Zia's "condition is much more stable than before," the state-run BSS news agency reported.

"Currently, there has been no deterioration in her condition," he said, adding that her physical condition has been "quite stable" over the past month.

Hossain said that Zia underwent a minor procedure on Friday as well, which was completed "very successfully", and "she was able to accept it well".

Zia's medical board, in a statement on December 11, said she was kept under round-the-clock medical watch by a team of local and foreign specialists, as several of her vital organs continued to be under severe stress.

She was scheduled to be flown to London last week with the medical board's consent but her departure was delayed as an air ambulance offered by Qatar could not reach Dhaka.

The doctors later decided that Zia should receive continued treatment at Dhaka's hospital until she was deemed fit to fly.

Zia's son and BNP's acting chairman Tarique Rahman is set to return home on December 25, ending his 17 years of self-exile in London.