Family members of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday said they want the government to allow her overseas treatment due to her critical illness.

“She (Khaleda Zia) wants to go abroad for better treatment. We also want to send her abroad and are requesting the government for her bail,” Begum Selima Islam, sister of Khaleda Zia, told media on Friday.

Six family members including Selima Rahman visited Khaleda Zia at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in the city around 3:00 pm.

Later, they made the request to the government to allow her to go abroad for treatment.

Shamim Ara Bindu (elder sister of Tarique Rahman’s wife Jobaida Rahman), Kaniz Fatemia (wife of Khaleda Zia’s brother Shamim Iskander) as well as Ovik Iskandar (nephew of Khaleda Zia), among the six family members, visited Khaleda Zia at the BSMMU.

The BNP chairperson has been in jail since a special court convicted her in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on February 8 last year.

Amid BNP leaders’ demand for admitting Khaleda to a specialised hospital, she was shifted to the BSMMU from jail on April 1 as her health condition deteriorated and she was kept at the hospital since then.