DHAKA: Bangladesh’s army-backed interim government has apparently revived a year-old plan to send two detained former prime ministers abroad.

A recent demand for treatment overseas for former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has opened a new window for the government to revive the plan, media and party officials said.

“We will gladly consider, if the respective parties seek government help to send the two former prime ministers abroad for treatment,” law advisor to the interim government, Mainul Husein, told reporters on Wednesday.

Hasina, who ruled from 1996 to 2001, is suffering from high blood pressure, impaired hearing and eye troubles, her physicians and leaders of her Awami League party said.

They urged the government to send her abroad, preferably to the United States, after she fell sick in court during a hearing on corruption charges on Monday.

Khaleda, chief of Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and also a former prime minister, was known to have long suffered acute knee pain and other complications.

Khaleda is under the treatment of government doctors in prison.

Both women have been in jail for months after being arrested on charges of corruption and abuse of power, and face trial by special courts.

FAMILY DYNASTIES: Zillur Rahman, acting chief of the Awami League, said Hasina was “seriously ill” and should be allowed to receive treatment abroad soon.

Khaleda, who ended her five-year term as prime minister in October 2006, was about to be put on a Saudi Arabia bound flight and her rival Hasina was temporarily barred from returning home from a visit to the United States in April Last year.

It was believed at the time that the interim government was planning to send them into exile until after a general election, which had been planned for late 2008, fearing their presence in the country could provoke unrest ahead of the polls.

But the government backed down under pressure at home and abroad.

Both Khaleda’s BNP and Hasina’s Awami League have been under pressure to reform their parties to prevent the two women leaders from establishing family dynasties.

Disgruntled officials in both parties launched reform campaigns last year, but that soon petered out in the face of protests by the rank and file.

A special court is trying Hasina for allegedly extorting some $1 million from two businessmen while in power.

Khaleda was charged with accepting kickbacks from a local firm in exchange for giving it a container handling permit at Chittagong port.

Separately, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed corruption charges against the two ex-premiers for giving work permits inappropriately to Canadian oil firm, Niko Resources Limited.

If convicted, they would be barred from contesting the election, legal experts say.

But their presence in the country could still be a potential threat to the interim government, because the women still command widespread support among the electorate after ruling the country for the past 15 years by turn.

Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since last January when an army-backed interim government took over following months of political violence, vowing to weed out corruption and hold a free, fair and credible election.

More than 170 key political figures have been detained as part of the anti-corruption drive.—Reuters