A newly formed five-member medical team yesterday examined Khaleda Zia in jail and will give its recommendations today.

“Initially she was reluctant to be examined by the medical team, saying that her personal physicians knew the actual problems. But she later cooperated,” Prof Abdul Jalil Chowdhury, who leads the team, told The Daily Star.

see page 2 col 1 He added that the BNP chairperson “has been suffering from problems in the knees and some other ailments for a long time.”

Members of the team will discuss the issues today and make recommendations, said the professor of internal medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

The team entered the Old Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road around 3:45pm and stayed there for an hour, Jailer Mahbubul Islam said.

“The doctors talked to Khaleda Zia for around 20 minutes and examined her preliminarily. The medical board would inform the inspector general of prisons on Sunday [today] about whether she would need tests or treatment,” he said.

The jail authorities would take steps after receiving the doctors' recommendations, he added.

The government on Thursday formed the medical team led by Prof Abdul Jalil Chowdhury of internal medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said BSMMU Director Brig Gen Abdullah Al Harun.

Other members of the team are cardiologist Professor Harisul Haque, orthopedic surgeon Professor Abu Zaffar Chowdhury, ophthalmologist Associate Professor Tariq Reza Ali and physiatrist Associate Professor Badrunnesa Ahmed of BSMMU.

Khaleda was sentenced to five years in prison on February 8 in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

On September 9, a 10-member BNP delegation led by its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and requested that Khaleda be taken to United Hospital and her personal physicians be included in the medical team.

The home minister then said her personal physicians would be included.

As the new medical team does not include any of Khaleda's personal doctors, the BNP has been expressing concerns over her treatment.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed at a press conference on Friday said the party leaders submitted names of five doctors who they thought should be included in the team.

He alleged that the doctors in the new team were politically biased and some of them would contest in the next general election with Awami League tickets.