DHAKA: BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain on Thursday noon visited his predecessor in the party post Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, lying in deep coma in the city’s Square Hospital ICU, to know about his condition.

On life support in a grave condition for fatal cancer, Bhuiyan was flown back by an air ambulance from Singapore National University Hospital Wednesday.

Delwar visited him at around 2:20 pm, and spent some time beside him at the Intensive Care Unit on the hospital`s fourth floor.

Bhuiyan, the immediate-past secretary general of the former ruling party, fell from party high command’s grace for his reformist role during the emergency rule and thus burnt his boat behind him.   

Delwar later told reporters that he came to see Mannan as a long-time colleague, not as politician.

Asked whether the expulsion order against Mannan Bhuiyan would now be lifted, the incumbent in Bhuiyan’s seat said, “I don’t know anything regarding the issue because I came here only as a representative of the party.”

Earlier in the morning, Deputy Leader of the House and ruling Awami League`s acting president Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and party advisory council member Tofail Ahmed had visited Bhuiyan.

Besides, language movement veteran Abdul Matin also paid Mannan a visit, as both were formerly associated with late populist leader Maulana Bhashani.

Dissident Mannan Bhuiyan was expelled from the party just before BNP chairperson and ex-PM Khaleda Zia was detained in 2007 amid a massive crackdown on graft suspects during the caretaker government’s rule following the 1/11 changeover.

BDST: 1730 HRS, 8 JULY 2010