The medical board treating critically ill former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia on Saturday postponed her planned travel to London for an indefinite period, her personal physician said.

The three time premier was scheduled to depart on Sunday after an earlier plan to leave on Friday was deferred when an air ambulance offered by Qatar could not reach Dhaka due to technical issues.

Media reports suggested that Doha later rented an alternative aircraft from Germany.

“The medical board thinks it is not appropriate for her to travel abroad at this moment," Dr AZM Zahid Hossain her personal physician and also a member of the party’s policy-making standing committee, told reporters.

He said doctors continued their "highest-level efforts" to arrange her treatment abroad and that a medical ambulance was fully ready to fly her out whenever her condition allowed.

"Allah has cured her from even more serious conditions in the past. The medical board is confident that Begum Khaleda Zia will overcome her current physical complications,” he said.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had said on Friday that if everything went well, the air ambulance provided by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, would arrive on Saturday for her departure on Sunday.

Zia, 80, is being treated at the coronary care unit of Dhaka’s specialised Evercare Hospital under an extended medical board comprising Bangladeshi and foreign doctors, particularly from China and Britain.

Her son Tarique Rahman’s physician wife, Zubaida Rahman, arrived in Dhaka from London on Friday to accompany her.

Obscure reasons have debarred 60-year-old Tarique Rahman from returning home while he lives in London and runs the BNP as its de facto leader through virtual platforms.

The medical board earlier agreed to send Zia to London for advanced treatment after she was hospitalised on 23 November with chest infections that affected her heart and lungs.

Doctors shifted her to the CCU four days later after several of her complications worsened.

“The medical board has unanimously decided that she will be taken to London via the Qatar Royal Air Ambulance, either after midnight tonight or early tomorrow morning,” Hossain earlier told reporters on Thursday.

Neither Hossain, the BNP nor the hospital authorities have commented on her current condition in detail. On Tuesday, her personal doctor said she was responding to treatment.

Two military and air force helicopters conducted landing tests at the rooftop of Evercare Hospital on Thursday to transport her to Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

In a Facebook post on Saturday last, Tarique Rahman wrote: “In this time of crisis, like any child, I too long for the comforting touch of my mother.” “But unlike others, to make a unilateral decision in this regard is not in my hands alone nor solely within my control. The sensitivity of this matter also limits the scope for detailed explanation,” he wrote.

BNP emerged as the frontrunner in Bangladesh’s changed political landscape after the ouster of deposed premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League on 5 August, 2024 in the student led July Uprising.

The party had said earlier that Rahman would be the future prime minister if Zia was physically unfit.

His post last week triggered speculation about the reasons behind his continued stay abroad.

Rahman has been living in London since 2008. He was charged and convicted in several graft and criminal cases during the military backed caretaker government and later during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

In 2024, all the cases were withdrawn by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus and courts acquitted him under revised judgments.

Several government advisers said after his emotional post that there was no bar on his return and that he would be provided security on arrival.

Foreign adviser Touhid Hossain said authorities were ready to issue a travel document in a day if his passport had expired but the Bangladesh embassy in London had received no request so far.

“Until Wednesday evening, he has not sought any travel pass,” Hossain told reporters.

Supporters and BNP units across Bangladesh held prayers in mosques on Friday after Jumma prayers seeking Zia’s recovery.

A special prayer session was held on Sunday afternoon at the premises of Dhakeshwari National Temple.

In January this year, Zia travelled to the United Kingdom and was treated for 17 days at a private London clinic.