DHAKA: Bangladesh’s critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a key figure in elections slated for next year, is to be flown by air ambulance to Britain, her doctor said Thursday.

Zia, 80, is in intensive care in the capital Dhaka, after she was admitted to hospital last month with symptoms of a lung infection.

Despite years of ill health and imprisonment, Zia vowed in November to campaign in elections set for February 2026 — the first vote since a mass uprising toppled her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina last year.

Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party is widely seen as a frontrunner.

“If everything goes well, we will take Khaleda Zia to London by Qatar’s Royal Air Ambulance,” her personal doctor AZM Zahid Hossain told reporters.

No exact time was given for the flight, but a helicopter drill took place near the hospital with medics suggesting it could happen within hours.

The flight was agreed by a medical board of doctors from Bangladesh, as well as from Britain, China and the United States.

“Doctors will accompany her to ensure a smooth journey,” Hossain said.

Zia was jailed for corruption in 2018 under Hasina’s government, which also blocked her from travelling abroad for medical treatment.

She was released last year, shortly after Hasina was forced from power.

Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, 60, has lived in London since 2008, saying he fled politically-motivated persecution.

He is seen as her political heir, but while he has said he would run for office, he has not been in Bangladesh for 17 years.

Since Hasina’s fall, Rahman has been acquitted of the most serious charge against him, a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina rally, which he denies.

Interim leader Muhammad Yunus has called for prayers for Zia, who he called a “source of utmost inspiration for the nation”.

Special prayers for Zia are planned for Friday in mosques and other places of worship.