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Treasury and opposition bench lawmakers on Sunday observed that the committee system in Jatiya Sangsad is ineffective as the ministries are reluctant to implement the committees’ recommendations.
   They suggested that Sangsad should make the committee system effective for ensuring accountability and transparency of the government.
   ‘Ensure accountability and transparency of the executive branch by making the parliamentary committee system effective,’ the speaker of the parliament, Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, said at an international workshop on ‘Parliamentary Committees in the Westminster System: Lessons for Bangladesh’.
   Sircar, chief whip Khandakar Delwar Hossain and deputy leader of the opposition Abdul Hamid presided over different sessions of the workshop, organised by the Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy Project of the United Nations Development Programme and Jatiya Sangsad.
   At two plenary sessions, Professor John Power of Australia, Linda Buchanan of Canada, David Butcher of New Zealand, VK Bhatnagar of India and Ziaur Rahman Khan MP of Bangladesh presented separate papers on the parliamentary committee systems in their respective countries.
   Jamiruddin Sircar observed that nobody is accountable to any authority in the country. ‘Nobody is responsible in the country,’ he said.
   ‘We should ensure that the committees’ recommendations are implemented by the ministries,’ he suggested.
   He said that the government should function in a way that is not ‘personal’, ie it does not belong to any person.
   ‘The Cabinet should be accountable to the parliament. And the bureaucracy too
   should be accountable to parliament through the committees.’
   Sircar, however, claimed that Bangladesh’s committee system is better than that of many other countries, including India, which follows the Westminster system. ‘In Bangladesh, the parliament has a committee on each ministry. And there are some other special committees.’
   Hamid said the committee system was hardly functional here although the parliament has a great number of committees.
   ‘We should review the committee system to reduce the number of committees by merging some of them to make the system more effective,’ he suggested.
   Applauding the UNDP for its efforts to strengthen the parliamentary system in the country, the parliament’s chief whip, Delwar, said, ‘Its object is yet to be fulfilled.’
   He said there is no legal binding for the government to implement the parliamentary committees’ recommendations, but there are bindings according to parliamentary traditions and norms.
   ‘The executive must explain why the committees’ recommendations are not implemented,’ he said. ‘We should find out why the committee system is not effective here.’
   The chief whip said there was a huge gap between the thoughts and the activities of the lawmakers, who cannot express many things which they think to be important because of certain political realities.
   Urging the speaker to provide logistic support to the MPs, the chief whip said, ‘The MPs remain handicapped although they are duty-bound to fulfil the expectations of the voters.’
   The chief whip criticised the main opposition Awami League for its absence in the parliamentary sessions.
   The opposition chief whip, Abdus Shahid, said the lawmakers should work in the committees without fear of their parties and try to be non-partisan on national issues.
   He warned that the committees’ work will be futile if the recommendations are not implemented.
   Mahbubur Rahman, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on the defence ministry, said, ‘We are frustrated as the committee’s recommendations are hardly getting any attention.’
   The UNDP resident representative, Jorgen Lissner, said lawmakers should not take remuneration if they do not join the parliament.
   The parliament should look into macro affairs and the committees’ into micro affairs, he said.
   Shahid, however, criticised Lissner’s comment on opposition MPs absence in the parliament sessions. ‘The UNDP is a development partner and the resident representative has no right to teach us lessons.’
   Shahid urged Lissner to withdraw his comment, which, in Shahid’s view, was ‘insulting’ and ‘slanderous’.
   VK Bhatnagar suggested that Bangladesh should not follow any model of committee system. ‘Do not follow any model. Your system should grow in your own soil,’ he said.
   ‘But there is no harm in experimenting with the committee system in a budding parliamentary democracy,’ he said. ‘Try to adopt and adapt whatever is good in other countries’ committee systems.’

Students, who will be in Class IX in January 2006, will follow a new system in the Secondary School Certificate examinations in 2008, according to an education ministry circular issued Sunday.
   The students will answer ‘structured’ questions instead of essay-type ones. A structured question is a question, which will ask for several items of information on a single topic.
   There will be 60 marks for answers to structured questions instead of 50 marks for the existing essay-type questions. The structured questions will be prepared as per the suggestions in the unitrack curriculum, said the circular.
   There will be 40 marks for answers to multiple-choice questions, instead of the current 50 marks, according to the circular. General mathematics, higher mathematics, two papers of English and Bengali 2nd paper will, however, be excluded from the new format.
   It said the examinees will be given only 40 minutes to answer the 40-mark multiple choice questions instead of the existing 50 marks for multiple choice questions. They will be given two hours and ten minutes of time to answer 6 structured questions, out of the total nine questions, for 60 marks.
   The education ministry’s circular asked the nine education boards to ensure training and other kinds of support for question-makers, moderators, examiners and head-examiners.
   The government introduced multiple-choice questions in SSC examinations in 1992. Since then as many as 50 numbers were for answers to multiple choice questions which were included in each subject except general mathematics and higher mathematics.
   Two papers of English, which had 50 per cent objective questions from 1992, were re-formatted to essay type questions in the Secondary School Certificate examinations in 2002.

The education ministry will serve show-cause notices within this week on 404 higher secondary schools which drew blanks in the Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations this year.
   ‘The heads of the institutions will be asked to explain why their results were so bad, said a high official of the ministry. He added that the monthly pay orders of the teachers of the institutions may be cancelled.
   Among the non-performing schools, 47 under Dhaka Board, 89 under Rajshahi Board, 32 under Barisal Board, five under Chittagong Board, three under Jessore Board, four under Sylhet Board did not register a single pass-score in the exams.
   Besides, there are 224 madrassahs which alsodrew blanks in this year’s Dakhil examinations.
   The government spends Tk 7 lakh on each school and Tk 8 lakh on a Dakhil madrassah each year, said ministry sources.
   In 2004, the number of schools, madrassahs and technical institutes scoring nil was 567, down from 642 in 2003. In January, the government cancelled the monthly pay orders for teachers and employees of 42 schools and madrassahs with zero pass rate in the secondary school certificate or equivalent examinations in the last three consecutive years.

Price hikes of food items in the domestic market, coupled with higher international oil prices and rising import costs, has created inflationary pressure on the Bangladesh economy despite its overall positive performance in recent times, says the Asian Development Bank.
   In its latest quarterly economic update, the bank cautions that a higher import bill, due mainly to upsurge in oil prices by around 50 per cent in a year, has threatened to upset balance of payments and exchange rate of the country, which has an expansionary monetary policy.
   The lending agency has attributed depreciation of taka against dollar to increasing import prices, contributing to inflation which reached 6.9 per cent in May 2005 on a point-to-point calculation.
   When releasing the report on Sunday, the bank’s senior economist Rezaul Karim Khan, however, maintained that the rate of inflation was ‘nothing alarming’ for Bangladesh and it is manageable for the country if it is fiscally prudent. The bank predicts 6 per cent inflation this year.
   In the near future, the bank has forecast a triple challenge for Bangladesh — global oil-price spirals, export competitiveness of the garment sector and misgovernance in every possible sphere.
   Prepared on the basis of official data, the bank’s quarterly update has pointed out that of late Bangladesh has witnessed a rising trend of trade deficit.
   During the July-May period of 2004-05, exports rose by 15 per cent compared to 26.6 per cent growth of imports during the first 10 months of the last fiscal year.
   Also, the current-account surplus carried over from the previous fiscal year was transformed into a deficit of $402 million during the July-April period of the ‘05 fiscal year, said the lending agency.
   ‘The overall economic performance remains positive with a steady expansion in the industry and services sectors despite serious flooding. Even with increasing pressures, the fiscal and current account deficits remain moderate,’ the bank’s officer-in-charge, Hua Du, told journalists at the bank’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office.
   The economic growth in 2005 was estimated at 5.4 per cent, down from the previous year’s rate of 6.3 per cent, for which the bank blamed the July-September 2004 floods.
   Hua pointed out that the current budget has been aligned with the focus of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper by attaching greater priority to rural farm and non-farm sectors, small and medium enterprises and addressing key infrastructure and regulatory issues.
   ‘Better infrastructure, public policies, regulatory regimes, governance and improved law-and-order situation will be needed if higher rates of private investment are to materialise,’ she added.
   The bank’s publication said that direct inflationary effects of the oil-price increase have been limited due to the incomplete ‘pass-through’ in view of the administered retail price of petroleum products in the domestic market.
   When asked what policy measures in this regard should be taken, Rezaul declined to make any suggestion although he spoke of huge losses incurred by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation because of domestic adjustment of oil prices.

The main opposition Awami League will launch month-long mourning programmes, including a countrywide half-day hartal on August 15, from today.
   The other programmes include placing wreath at the portrait of the former president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, inauguration of a commemorative plaque to mark the August 21 grenade attack, token hunger strike, mourning procession, human chain, and discussion meetings.
   Party sources said the leaders and activists of the AL and its front organisations will wear black badges, bring out mourning processions, form human chains, and arrange blood donation programmes, people’s songs, and discussion meetings from today.
   The party will organise a discussion meeting and display photographs and books on the life of Sheikh Mujib on August 15 to mark his death anniversary. It will also hoist the national and party flags half-mast atop all the party offices across the country in addition to hoisting black flags.
   As part of the programme, a countrywide half-day hartal from 6:00am to 12:00 noon will be observed on August 15 protesting against the government decision of scrapping the public holiday on the day.
   The party leaders will also place wreath at the portrait of Sheikh Mujib, offer prayer at his mazar, and pay visits to the mazars of the victims of the August 15.
   The party chief, Sheikh Hasina, is scheduled to visit the mazar of Sheikh Mujib at Tungipara on August 16. She will unveil a memorial plaque on August 20 to commemorate the party activists killed in the August 21 grenade attack.
   AL front organisations will hold a discussion meeting in the capital on August 16 and hold other programmes from August 17-19.
   It also decided to bring out an antiterrorism procession from the Central Shaheed Minar on August 21 which will be ended on the Bangabandhu Avenue through lighting candles and taking oath against terrorism.
   The similar antiterrorism processions will also be brought out at all the district and upazila headquarters.
   Different front organisations of the party will organise various programmes, including video show and discussion meetings, from August 22-28 on the Bangabandhu Avenue.
   Finally, the AL will hold a public rally in the capital on August 29.

A suspect in the failed London bombings on July 21 reportedly told police the attempted attack was revenge for the US-led military operation in Iraq, as officers in northern Italy arrested another brother who may have aided his escape from Britain, Italian media reported Sunday.
   ‘The bombs of July 7 in London? That happens every day in Iraq,’ Hamdi Issac, also known as Osman Hussain, was quoted as saying by the daily La Repubblica during his interrogation.
   ‘We met each other at a muscle-building class in Notting Hill and Muktar (Said Ibrahim) showed us some DVDs with images of the war in Iraq, especially women and children killed by American and British soldiers,’ he reportedly said, referring to another suspect who is being held in London.
   The motivation for the attempted bombings was ‘hatred of Westerners,’ he said, according to La Repubblica.
   Hamdi Issac, an Ethiopian-born naturalised Briton, has said he wants to stay in Italy, where he was arrested on Friday, and does not wish to be extradited to Britain.
   Italian authorities have 60 days, a period that could be extended another 30 days, to decide on his extradition.
   During his interrogation, Issac, 27, denied having links with Al-Qaeda, according to Ansa news agency said.
   ‘A signal had to be given and we did it, but we did not intend to kill anybody.
   ‘It was just a gesture,’ he said, adding that he had no links with the four July 7 suicide bombers, three of whom were of Pakistani origin.
   The July 7 attacks claimed 56 lives, including those of the four bombers. In a virtual carbon copy attack on July 21, devices failed to explode fully on three subway trains and a bus.
   Italian judges had doubts about some of the suspect’s statements, especially about not intending to kill
   people, according to La Repubblica.
   ‘Does he mean to tell us that he risked his life to explode a firecracker?’ the paper
   quoted an unidentified judge as asking.
   In northern Italy, anti-terrorist police interrogated Issac’s brother Fati, who is suspected of having hidden or destroyed documents considered important by investigators, the Ansa news agency said.
   Another brother, Remzi, was arrested in Rome on Friday accused of having sheltered Hamdi Issac and holding fake documents in his shop in the Italian capital.
   The investigation in Italy has uncovered a network of people originally from the Horn of Africa who have helped Issac in his flight from Britain,
   Italy’s Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Saturday.

The second additional metropolitan judges court on Sunday sentenced 11 people to death for killing Moha-mmad Alam, an industrialist, and his three domestic aids at his Jurain residence in the Dhaka city on January 1, 2002.
   The judge, Rabiul Hassan, pronounced the verdict against Alam’s sons-in-law Matiar Rahman Matin alias Jamai Matin alias Mamtaz Uddin and Mohammad Ali Babul Hasan alias Babu Jamai, and nine others — Kabir, Sohag Bepari, Mohammad Sohel, Yusuf Miah, Jahanara Begum, Babu alias Babul, Dulal, Al-Amin and Farida. Each was also fined Tk 50,000.
   Of them, Al Amin and Dulal remain absconding and the court issued their arrest warrants.
   They will be hanged until death upon confirmation by the High Court, said the judgement.
   The convicts may appeal to the High Court against the verdict within seven days upon receipt of a copy of the verdict.
   The judgement also sentenced six more, Sheuli Akter, Rabbat Ali alias Bachchu, Abdur Rahman, Asma Rahman, Rehana Parveen and Alauddin, to rigorous imprisonment for different terms.
   Sheuli and Rabbat were sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 30,000 each and in default, one year and six months more in jail.
   Alauddin was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 50,000 and in default another year in jail.
   The remaining three were given three years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 10,000 each, and in default, six more months in jail.
   The judgement acquitted another accused, Abdul Latif Khan, as the charge against him was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. Another accused, Kathal Haji, had died during the trial.
   The judge, on July 11, adjourned delivery of the verdict to scrutinise the statement of a prosecution witness and fixed Sunday for pronouncing the verdict.
   Several hundred people, carrying festoons, thronged the court premises to hear the judgement and demanded capital punishment to the killers.
   According to the prosecution, Mohammad Alam, along with and his three domestic aids — Rahima, Sakhina and Kamala — was hacked to death.
   The assailants looted large sums money in cash and gold ornaments from Alam’s residence.
   Alam’s son-in-law, Matin, one of the convicts, filed a murder case with the Shyampur police on July 2, 2002 and the police arrested Alam’s two sons, Nur-e Alam Babul and Jahir Alam Khokan.
   The investigation charge was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department in March 2002.
   The department arrested a maidservant, Farida, who confessed that Alam’s two sons-in-law had masterminded his murder.
   Based on the confessional statements of some of the accused persons, the Criminal Investigation Department submitted the final report to the court on July 18, 2002.
   On July 20, 2002, another murder case was filed accusing 10 persons, including Alam’s sons-in-law.
   The police recovered Tk 35.82 lakh in cash and gold ornaments weighing over 86 tolas and other valuables, looted from Alam’s residence, from the possession of the accused arrested from different places across the country.
   The police also seized a number of vehicles, and documents of land purchased by the accused with the looted money.
   After investigation, the police submitted charge sheet on August 9, 2004 against 19 people.
   The speedy trial tribunal-1 of Dhaka framed charges against the accused on January 20, 2004 but it was transferred to the second additional metropolitan sessions judges court, which pronounced the verdict on Sunday.
   Fifty-seven prosecution witnesses, out of 133, named in the charge sheet, were cross-examined during the trial.

Dhaka has finalised a list of 61 items for which it will seek duty-free access at the third meeting of the Bangladesh-India joint working group on trade, scheduled to be held in the capital on August 1-2.
   The list includes fruit juice, mineral water, tobacco, cigars, cement, petroleum oil obtained from bituminous mineral, polymers of ethylene, tubes, plastic articles, tableware, kitchenware, tanned or crust hides, cartoons, boxes, cases, jute and textile fibres, jute yarn, woven fabrics of jute, twine, carpets, and all kinds of men’s, boy’s, baby’s, girl’s and women’s dresses and accessories.
   Electric accumulators, cables, stranded wire, liquefied gas, copper wire, ceramic sinks, wash basins, rubber footwear, linen, track suits and swimwear have also been included in the list.
   MVPC Shastry, a joint secretary of the Department of Commerce, will lead an 11-member Indian delegation at the meeting. Ilias Ahmed, a joint secretary of the commerce ministry, will head a 10-member Bangladesh team, sources in the commerce ministry told New Age.
   ‘We will seek duty-free access to India for all 61 items under the Bangkok Agreement, a trade pact of seven countries including Bangladesh and India. The latter had earlier given Bangladesh duty-free access for 79 items under the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement,’ a high-official in the commerce ministry told New Age.
   According to the regulations of the World Trade Organisation, any member country of the WTO willing to provide duty-free access to another WTO member country on a bilateral basis, irrespective of either reciprocity or non-reciprocity, must notify the WTO through either existing free-trade agreement or preferential trading agreement.
   Earlier, India provided duty-free access to Bangladesh on 79 items non-reciprocally through SAPTA, commerce ministry sources said.
   The meeting will also table discussions on elimination of non-tariff barriers, which is often imposed on Bangladeshi products by Indian customs authority and establishment of a bilateral free-trade area between the countries.
   ‘The country could not reap benefit from the 79 items, already provided duty-free access by India due mainly to frequent imposition of non-tariff barriers,’ a high-official in the commerce ministry told New Age. ‘Issues relating to elimination of non-tariff barriers are our main agenda, while forging bilateral FTA is the prime agenda of India.’
   The meeting is likely to finalise the draft of the revised Bangladesh-India trade Agreement, improving infrastructural facilities at land customs stations and facilitating banking services at land ports, the sources said.

The state minister for power, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, on Sunday took a dig at the bureaucrats saying they were instrumental in ‘slowing down’ development activities, including those in the power sector.
   ‘Politicians are often held responsible for the delayed or poor implementation of projects for what essentially are due to the bureaucratic omissions and commissions,’ he said.
   His broadside came in the presence of several bureaucratic personnel who attended a seminar in the capital on the integration of energy and rural development policies and programmes.
   What amounted to an open admission of failures in the Power Division to carry out the required and targeted reforms and implementing a number of power-generation projects in his four-year tenure, Iqbal sought to fix the responsibilities on the members of the bureaucracy/technocracy to the exclusion of the political masters.
   ‘Bureaucrats here decide what to do or what not to do. One sentence of a bureaucrat is enough to kill a project,’ he said.
   Iqbal said that the Power Development Board had been incurring a ‘colossal loss’ for purchasing power from the private power plants in dollars.
   ‘The exchange rate of a dollar was Tk 57-58 when the plants were installed five to six years back; and now it is Tk 64-65. Yes, we are getting 1200mega watts of power from the IPPs, but how will PDB survive?’ he asked.
   ‘No bureaucrat has come up with any idea or suggestion to remedy the situation, nor have any one of them come up with any alternative decision towards the mitigation of this costly anomaly,’ Iqbal said.
   ‘We always blame the lending agencies for attaching conditions of reforms to the giving loans. But we have never gone to them seeking funds for home-grown solutions and reform proposals,’ he added.
   Citing the seminar, Iqbal said, ‘We have held seminars, workshops, discussion etc. But no long term policies and their implementation mechanism have so far come out of these exercises.’
   ‘Population is increasing at an alarming rate. Disaster is looming if we can not adopt any long term policies in every sector and implement those.’
   The Power division, the Strategy Policy Management National Team and ESCAP jointly organised the daylong seminar at the LGED Bhaban.
   Rahmatullah, director general of the Power Cell, presided over the seminar that was attended, among others, by ESCAP’s Hongpeng Leu, SPM National Team’s SM Mesbahul Islam and Dewan Zakir Hossain and representatives from Asian Development Bank, World Bank and UNDP.

The Election Commission is likely to announce the schedule of elections to the reserved seats for women in the parliament within the first week of the current month.
   The commission has almost finalised the preparation for holding the elections, said a source in the commission.
   The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on July 19, however, dismissed the petition seeking leave to appeal against the High Court judgement that had rejected three writ petitions challenging the constitutional provision of reservation of the 45 parliamentary seats for women, and the law on the elections to the seats.
   The commission on January 5 published separate lists of lawmakers belonging to different political parties and alliances, and also allocated the seats among them in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, stipulated in the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004.
   As per the distribution of the reserved seats, the BNP deserves 30 seats, Awami League 9, Jamaat-e-Islami 3, Jatiya Party (Ershad) 2, and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Naziur) 1.
   According to the law, the parties and alliances are free to nominate any number of candidates in the election, but will elect candidates according to their quotas.
   If the number of candidates exceeds the quota, the elections will be held through ‘single transferable vote’, a new election system introduced by the election law, and only the lawmakers of the party will vote to elect candidates of the respective party or alliance.
   The main opposition Awami League had earlier said they would not go for the elections as they do not accept the law.
   According to the law, if the AL boycotts the elections, the EC will have to fix another schedule for holding the election to their seats and all the lawmakers will be allowed to nominate candidates and cast their votes.
   The 14th amendment to the constitution was passed by the parliament on May 16, 2004, and the subsequent law for holding indirect election enacted on November 24, 2004. But the elections to the seats could not be held due to legal battle in the Supreme Court.

The Irish Republican Army will remain illegal in Ireland until Dublin considers it is no longer any threat, despite the group’s historic renunciation of violence, the prime minister, Bertie Ahern, said Sunday.
   The IRA’s decision to abandon its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland last Thursday means that the Catholic Sinn Fein party no longer has an armed wing.
   But Ahern said the IRA will have to reform itself as a non-military group before the government can revoke the prohibition order on the paramilitary organisation made under the Irish Republic’s 1939 anti-terror law.
   ‘They are going to have to move a few more steps along the way and I don’t think they will do that overnight,’ he said.
   The government would have to make an assessment that the IRA was no longer a threat to the state and was no longer engaged in violence or unlawful activities before the ban was lifted, he said.
   ‘They never have to drop the name IRA or Provisional IRA. That isn’t the issue,’ he said, adding that conditions included commitments on the IRA’s rulebook, its armed campaign and its ‘conspiracy against the state’.
   ‘Before it (the ban) can ever change they have to comply with all those issues. I think that is a challenge. I am not saying they have to do that in the next week.’
   Under the 1939 anti-terror law, the Offences against the State Act, membership of an illegal organisation carries a maximum two-year prison sentence on conviction.

The government has appointed Nasima Haider as high commissioner to South Africa, said a foreign ministry statement Sunday.
   She presented her credentials to the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, at the presidential guest house in Pretoria at a ceremony Friday.

Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta on Sunday said the law minister, Moudud Ahmed, should resign, if he had any respect to the rule of law.
   ‘Through ‘illegal’ procedure for the clemency given to former Juba Dal leader Mohiuddin Jintu, Moudud had been turned into a minister of the BNP instead of 14 crore people,’ he told a protest rally organised by the Dhaka city (north and south) unit of the Awami Juba League on Bangabandhu Avenue demanding cancellation of the president’s clemency.
   With the unit president Abul Bashar in the chair, Juba League president Jahangir Kabir Nanak, general secretary Mirza Azam, and city AL general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, among others, addressed the rally.
   ‘The president, prime minister, law minister and state minister for home received huge amount of bribes from the former president of the BNP Sweden unit, Jintu, in exchange of the president’s clemency order,’ Suranjit said.
   Speakers said the president by issuing the order for clemency dishonoured his constitutional post, and the nation could not trust him any longer. Despite such an illegal act, they said, the BNP-government even didn’t feel the necessity of resignation as they had no ‘sense’ in this regard. They urged the countrymen to wage a tougher movement to force the government to resign.
   At the end of the rally, the Juba League leaders and activists burnt an effigy of Moudud.

District Sammilita Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad, a forum of opposition lawyers, has decided to boycott a function of the local bar association today where the law minister, Moudud Ahmed, will be the chief guest.
   The forum took the decision to boycott the installation ceremony of the newly elected office-bearers of district bar association to protest against Moudud’s ‘anti-lawyer role’ and for harassing the SCBA secretary by filing a defamation suit against him.
   The decision was announced at a protest meeting of the forum held on Sunday at Suruj Ali auditorium. The meeting, presided over by local SASP convener Mohammad Nurul Islam, was addressed by Masud-ur Rouf, Asaduzzaman Asad, Anisur Rahman Dipu, Nurul Huda and Shamim Akhter Rekha.

Hundreds of foreign students in Pakistan’s Islamic seminaries were Sunday preparing to go home in line with an expulsion order that came amid a crackdown on militants after the deadly London bombings.
   The president, Pervez Musharraf, under pressure to move against the country’s Islamic radicals, has ordered more than 800 militant suspects arrested in sweeping raids and told some 1,400 foreign madrassa students to leave Pakistan.
   ‘The decision appalled me, but I guess I don’t have any choice,’ said Mohammed Tahir, a 24-year-old Frenchman of Pakistani descent studying at Lahore’s leading madrassa, the sprawling Jamia Ashrafia.
   ‘I’ll not go against the law, but I would have liked to complete my education,’ said Tahir, a father-of-three from Paris studying Islamic law, interpretation of the Qur’an and logic in the seminary.
   ‘I’ve got one-and-half-years left in my studies, but I plan to complete it at some seminary in France.’
   The school’s principal, Abdul Rehman Ashrafi, said the madrassa would abide by the order and expel the 25 to 30 foreigners among its more than 1,800 students, saying many of them could continue their studies at home.
   ‘We have our madrassas everywhere,’ he said. ‘We’ll ask our expelled students to complete their education at one of our seminaries in their own countries in Europe, the United States and Asia.’
   Malaysian student Suheiri bin Bahadur, who three months ago enrolled in a five-year course at Jamia Ashrafia, also voiced disappointment but said he would continue his studies in his homeland.
   ‘I think if the madrassa administration asks me to leave, I’ll have to go, but I would have liked to complete what I came here for,’ he said.
   ‘I selected Pakistan because the quality of religious education here is quite good, but I’ll continue my education after I go back to Malaysia.’
   Hardline Islamic groups have protested against the nationwide clampdown, which has also included a ban on ‘hate sermons’ in mosques and a national drive to register all madrassas this year and to change their curricula.
   But a leading madrassa federation, the Wafaqul Madaris Pakistan, had agreed to cooperate in the registration drive of the country’s more than 12,000 seminaries, said foreign office spokesman Muhammad Naeem Khan.
   The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan also quoted him as saying that the ‘menace of extremism’ would be exterminated by spreading knowledge, education and introducing reforms in various segments of Pakistani society.
   The Lahore principal said most madrassas would follow the orders, including the repatriation of foreign nationals and dual passport holders.
   ‘We’ll stick by the government’s orders to expel all the foreign students from our seminaries, and I think most of the madrassas plan to do the same,’ he said on Sunday.
   Musharraf has defended the madrassa network as being broadly moderate and providing education for the poor but vowed to come down hard on the minority that teaches extremism and breeds anti-Western militancy.
   Many hardline schools were set up, often with American and Saudi funding, as indoctrination and military training sites during the 1979-1989 US-backed guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation in neighbouring Afghanistan.
   After the July 7 London bombings, Britain pressed Pakistan to move against radical madrassas following news that some of the British suicide-bombers had previously visited Pakistan and that one may have studied at a seminary there.
   No one linked to the London blasts had been arrested, Musharraf has said, but he has pledged that the nationwide sweeps would go on.
   In one weekend raid, police in the eastern city of Bahawalpur arrested 16 imams at different mosques for violating a ban on using loudspeakers for their sermons, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported Sunday.

Three members of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti were shot dead allegedly by activists of the United Peoples Democratic Front at Logang Amtali in Khagrachhari on Sunday.
   The victims were identified as Gajendralal Chakma, Shadhan Bikash Chakma and Ranjan Kumar Chakma. On information, a police team came to spot and recovered the bodies of the victims.
   Local sources said the killing might have come as a sequel to dispute over establishing supremacy in the area and toll collection. Security has been beefed up in the area following the incident.

The BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Sunday asked the party loyalists in Sylhet to refrain from mudslinging among them.
   ‘Stop mudslinging and remain calm,’ Bhuiyan, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, told the leaders of the two rival groups of the Sylhet BNP.
   M Ilias Ali MP, Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury MP, and Dr Syed Maqbul Hossain MP, who led the now-defunct district committee group, met with Bhuiyan at his secretariat office on Sunday afternoon. They again met with him at his residence in the evening.
   Another group, led by Dildar Hossain Selim MP, and Abdul Haque, a ward commissioner of the Sylhet City Corporation, loyal to the finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, met with the party secretary general at his residence on Sunday afternoon. They urged the secretary general to take quick steps to restore discipline in the party units in Sylhet.

George Harrison’s widow has made a dream come true by remastering the film and music of her husband’s 1971 ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ into a high-definition DVD, a project Harrison had to abandon when he became ill.
   According to The Telegraph, the 99-minute film on the charity concert has been restored and remixed, along with 72 minutes of extra footage, for release on HD-DVD.
   ‘It’s really stunning. It’s been blown up from the original 16 mm to 70 mm. Harrison wanted to get a full soundtrack. Now, you’ll be watching a really beautiful film,’ Olivia Harrison was quoted as saying.

Five US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in two separate incidents in Baghdad, the US military said Sunday.
   In the first attack Saturday around 1:40pm, a patrol hit a roadside bomb in the southern Dora neighborhood, killing a soldier from Task Force Baghdad, a statement said. Two others were wounded in that incident.
   Later that evening, around 11:00pm, four task force Baghdad soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in southwestern Baghdad.
   The names of all the soldiers killed are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

A teenager was beaten to death by a gang of men in a racist murder in northern England, police said on Saturday.
   Anthony Walker, 18, a local college student, was attacked by a gang of three or four men in a park in Huyton, near Liverpool, late on Friday just minutes after he had been abused by a man wearing a hooded top as he waited with his 17-year-old white girlfriend and a relative at a bus stop in Huyton.
   Police arrested a man on suspicion of murder on Sunday in their hunt for the killers of a black teenager left with an axe in his skull following a racist attack in Liverpool.
   ‘Merseyside Police have arrested an 18-year-old man from Huyton on suspicion of the murder of Anthony Walker,’ a police spokesman said.
   ‘This was a totally unprovoked and racially motivated attack,’ he said.
   To escape the abuse, the group decided to walk through a nearby park, the spokesman said.
   ‘Shortly before they reached the exit, three or four men jumped out of the bushes,’ he said.
   The girlfriend and the relative, both 17, ran to get help. When they returned they found the victim slumped on the ground with serious injuries. He was taken to hospital where he died.
   Knowsley South MP Eddie O’Hara called it a ‘cowardly, cold-blooded, merciless’ murder and said he was ashamed that someone from the local community had committed such as crime.
   ‘Anthony was a son, he happened to be black, any mother would have been proud of Anthony with his educational and career aspirations,’ he said. ‘I’m so saddened that his life should be ended so cruelly as this.’
   He said he hoped that CCTV cameras at the park might have captured the killers on film.
   ‘People don’t walk around Huyton holding axes,’ he told Sky News. ‘There seem to be two stages to this attack and there was an axe in the second stage — that indicates to me that it was premeditated.’

People who believe in democracy, demand rule of law, and talk about human rights cannot support any conviction by any Martial Law Courts, said TH Khan, a senior pro-government lawyer.
   ‘Such courts are nothing but kangaroo courts, and Martial Law is nothing but jungle law,’ he said when addressing a press conference organised by Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, an organisation of the pro-government lawyers, at the Supreme Court Bar Association on Sunday.
   Khan, a former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said the president had rightly given clemency to a former leader of Juba Dal, Mohiuddin Jintu, who was awarded death penalty by a Martial Law Court in 1982 in a double murder case.
   In reply to a query of the press, he said the president granted the clemency considering the fact of the case.
   According to the records of the case, the conviction cannot be sustained as Jintu was not named in the FIR, but included in the supplementary charge sheet, and awarded death penalty by a Martial Law Court against which he had no scope for appeal, said TH Khan, also president of the forum.
   Announcing the programme for a grand rally of the lawyers across the country on August 5 on the Supreme Court Bar Association premises, he said the lawyers supported by a particular political party were out to create anarchic situation in the judicial arena.
   ‘They demand independence of the judiciary, but have burnt a copy of the High Court verdict,’ said the forum vice-president, AKM Mujibur Rahman, adding that such action was a clear disregard to the court. The forum will also hold meetings with the senior lawyers on Sunday and with the lawyers belonging to four-party alliance on Monday.