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The governance situation in the country in 2004 scored the lowest marks among 209 low income countries, reveals a recent report of the World Bank that warned the government to improve the situation to ensure further support from major development partners like the WB, Asian Development Bank, DFID and Japan.
   The report, titled ‘Bangladesh PRSP forum economic update — recent developments and future perspectives’, was recently submitted to the government, said sources.
   Based on six dimensions of the governance issue, the rating was finalised on the survey and perception-based indicators, said the WB report.
   The dimensions are voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.
   ‘The indicators, which cover some 209 countries, show that Bangladesh’s percentile ranking in 2004, for four of the six indicators, was in the lowest quartile, while for the two others it was in the second lowest quartile,’ says the report.
   Elaborating on the findings, the report said the percentile rating of the country on political stability was 11.7, for regulatory capacity 13.3, for rule of law 22.2 and for control of corruption 10.3.
   Bangladesh did somewhat better on government effectiveness (26.4) and voice and accountability (28.6), according to the latest report of the multilateral lending agency.
   The report, however, has not included the states of governance of the other countries concerned.
   The WB, in its update, cautioned the government that it would have to address the core issues of the governance to ensure future support from major lenders and development partners.
   ‘Improved governance is essential for the success of Bangladesh’s economy and poverty reduction, and none of Bangladesh’s major development partners will be able to sustain its support if the government does not squarely address the governance agenda,’ says the update categorically.
   The report identified three specific areas in governance that need to be reformed now.
   The areas include core governance functions, reduction in sectorial governance impediments, improving the investment climate and empowering the poor.
   ‘These three areas are critical to the PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) and are the focus of the government’s November 15-17, 2005 PRSP Implementation Forum. They are also the three pillars of the joint country assistance
   strategy of the ADB, DFID, Japan and the World Bank,’ reads the report. When asked, a government secretary told New Age that targets have
   been included in the PRSP document to address the governance problems and much has so far been done towards
   that end.
   He said that the government has established the independent Anti-Corruption Commission, and enactment of the Public Procurement Act is in the offing to contain both public and private sector corruption.
   ‘Furthermore, once reforms in tax administration, financial management and nationalised commercial banks are completed, the governance perspective of the country will be better than expected,’ the secretary told New Age.

The vice-chancellors of all the universities, both in the public and private sectors, on Saturday agreed in principle to implement a uniform grading system to ensure standardization of the university degrees that they offer.
   However, they failed to reach a decision on the time to begin implementation of the uniform grading system.
   Earlier, the University Grants Commission had proposed that the system be implemented from the academic session of 2006-2007.
   Almost all the vice-chancellors of private universities opposed a proposal of the commission to introduce the external examiner system as they apparently fear that it will cause ‘session jams in their universities’.
   The vice-chancellors expressed their opinions in a meeting with UGC chairman Professor M Asaduzzaman, held to work out ways to implement the uniform grading system.
   The meeting, held in the LGED office in Dhaka, was attended by more than fifty vice-chancellors.
   Vice-chancellor of the Independent University, Bazlul Mobin Choudhury, said ‘We agreed to implement a uniform grading system, but the commission’s proposal for introduction of “external examiners” is not desirable in our private universities as it can cause session jams.’
   ‘We are compelled to hold examinations and publish results in due time as we are private universities, many of whose students have enrolled in our institutions to be able to give their examinations in the stipulated time,’ he added.
   ‘I want the uniform grading system for all universities but I have to think a lot about the commission’s proposal of the external examiner system,’ said vice-chancellor of the Uttara University, M Azizur Rahman, who also spoke in the meeting.
   Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Professor SMA Faiz, told the UGC chairman that as the public universities are autonomous bodies and each has an individual academic council and syndicate, the proposal for introducing the external examiner system must be approved by the council.
   The commission, which prefers a grading system that will ensure uniformity of university degrees, finalised the system four months ago.
   It also asked the universities to formulate an examination ordinance, make rules and regulations for examinations, and ensure the announcement of results in line with its recommendations.
   The UGC sent the recommendations to the Ministry of Education, proposing a uniform grading system and suggesting ways to implement it in all the universities. UGC chairman M Asaduzzaman said vice-chancellors of the universities agreed in principle to the uniform grading system.
   The initiatives to formulate the uniform grading system were taken following a controversy over the variety of evaluation systems among the universities, even in the departments or institutions at the same university.
   There are also universities that confer degrees to students based on two forms — traditional class system and letter grade system.
   The commission observed that the dissimilarities and inconveniences had harmed the students, and the employers in public and private sectors, who faced problems in comparing prospective candidates against each other.
   The commission has proposed a nine-step letter grade system for evaluation in public and private universities to ensure conformity among the same level of degrees.
   The students will get numerical marks corresponding to letter grades in nine steps, beginning from D to A, and the grade points will be between 1.00 and 4.00.
   Grade D will be given for a numerical score between 50 and 54, and the grade point will be 1.00. Students scoring between 55 and 59 will get C with a grade point of 1.50.
   The grades will continue upwards in increments of five, but grade points will vary for some letter grades.
   Grade C will have a grade point of 2.00, followed by Grade B minus with 2.50 points, Grade B with 3.25 points, Grade B plus with 3.50 points, Grade A minus with 3.75 points, and Grade A with 4.00 points.
   Transcripts will, however, have only letter grades and their corresponding grade points, and finally the cumulative grade point average. The numerical marks will not be mentioned.
   The minimum cumulative grade point average for obtaining a degree will be 2.00. A student obtaining Grade C or below will be allowed to repeat the course. The minimum number of credit for a four-year Bachelor’s degree will be 120.

The government will buy sophisticated eavesdropping devices to enable the intelligence and law enforcing officials to tap the telephone conversation of any suspected individual.
   Sources in the government said that the latest modern tapping equipment will be bought as soon as possible to detect criminals and militants as the current devices used by the intelligent officials are not very effective.
   ‘Our security agencies are not well equipped to monitor and record the telephone conversations of any suspected individual due to lack of modern devices,’ said an official of the home ministry.
   Sources said that against this backdrop, a meeting was held at the DGFI headquarters on December 21, which was attended by officials of the intelligence agencies, Rapid Action Battalion, posts and telecommunications ministry, Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board and the home ministry to discuss how to procure the devices and use them.
   ‘The meeting mainly discussed the cost and types of devices to be bought,’ said a source present at the meeting, adding that it also discussed which agency would tap the phones and how the information would be shared among agencies.
   ‘We will take up a project to procure the modern bugging gadgets that will best suit our needs and budget,’ said the source.
   He said that the eavesdropping equipment vary greatly in the level of sophistication, and the devices produced for law enforcement and espionage are usually very expensive. President Iajuddin Ahmed on December 11 promulgated the ordinance with immediate effect, allowing the intelligence and law enforcing officials to tap the telephonic conversions of any individual, which is currently an offence under the Bangladesh Tele-communications Act 2001. Earlier, the regular cabinet meeting on December 5, with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the chair, approved the bill for seeking amendment to the act to allow phone-tapping by intelligence and law enforcing officials.
   The posts and telecommunications ministry placed the amendment proposal as it feels that due to the wide availability of mobile phones, the criminals are using them to facilitate criminal activities, thus posing a threat to national security and the law and order situation of the country.
   However, phones of suspected persons can only be tapped after taking the permission of the chief executive of the home ministry (in this case the minister).
   Officials said that the ordinance for allowing phone-tapping by intelligence and law enforcing officials would enable the government to produce evidence in the court to nail the arrested criminals, which is not presently possible.

The International Khatme Nabuwat Movement Bangladesh, a platform of Islamist bigots, on Saturday demanded immediate resignation of the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, for Friday’s ‘police action’ on them.
   The Nabuwat leaders at a rally at Baitul Mukarram said the police, on Babar’s instruction, had attacked their leaders and activists without any provocation.
   The organisation has long been demanding that the state should declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims, and they clashed with the police Friday to force their way to the Dhaka Central Jail to ‘embrace detention willingly,’ injuring 50.
   The jail-bound programme was followed by a December 23 deadline to meet their demand.
   The Nabuwat leaders said the BNP-led, four-party alliance had come to power with the votes of the Muslims, and they [Muslims] would not let it come to power again as it started betraying them.
   ‘The government has betrayed us by showing indifference to our demand. So it is time to implement the demand by ourselves,’ the Nabuwat secretary general, Nazmul Haque, told the rally, followed by a procession in the late afternoon.
   He also criticised the state minister for religious affairs, Mosharef Hossain Shahjahan, for ‘not taking any initiatives to protect the devotees from police action.’
   ‘It could be possible for the police to attack us as we were unarmed, but we will not give them any more chance and we will get prepared during our next programme,’ the Nabuwat amir, Mahmudul Hasan Mamtazi, said.
   ‘We took to the streets for the demand to declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims. But the government did not show any respect for our demand,’ he said. ‘Now we have nothing to ask from the government. We will implement our demand on our own.’

The drive against the Islamist militants, which was launched after the August 17 countrywide bomb blasts, is apparently stalled at the moment.
   The drive was geared up following the second wave of bomb attacks on the courts in three districts on October 3, and it was further strengthened after the suicide bomb attack that killed two senior assistant judges in Jhalakati on November 14.
   The law enforcers then seized a huge quantity of bomb-making materials and raided a number of dens of the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh at different places across the country.
   After netting the outfit’s military chief, Ataur Rahman Sunny, from a dormitory of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute on December 13, the law enforcers seized a huge quantity of bombs, grenades and ingredients for making bombs after raiding a number of JMB dens in Dhaka, Chittagong, Mymensingh, Rajshahi and Rangpur.
   A large number of Islamist militants were also nabbed at the time. However the number of militants being caught has been considerably reduced in the last few days.
   The officials of the police and Rapid Action Battalion denied the allegation of reducing the number of such drives and claimed that they were conducting drives across the country everyday for catching the militants.
   ‘However, the militants are on the run as many of their dens have been traced,’ the officials claimed. Echoing the lawmen, the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, at a discussion on ‘Terrorism and Militancy: Bangladesh Perspective’, organised by the Madrassah Teachers Council at the Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh on Thursday, claimed that the militant suicide squads are on the run after being flushed out of their dens, and their terrorist network has been snapped in many places.
   ‘Many of the front-ranking militant leaders have been arrested, their terrorist network is shrinking and the suicide squad members are lying low,’ he said.
   The government on December 19 announced a fresh bounty for the arrest of top-ranking militants and also the members of its suicide squad.
   But the lawmen are yet to get any information from the public about the whereabouts of the militants, said an intelligence official on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Jaipurhat police arrested two suspected JMB members, Nazrul Islam and Salman, from their houses on Saturday for alleged involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts.
   In Barguna, the police on Friday submitted charge sheet of a case relating to August 17 blasts against 12 people, including JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai.
   The other nine accused were Hafez Mustafa Hasan, Al Amin alias Minto alias Abdullah, Asadul Islam alias Arif, Masum Billah, Rezaul Kabir, Shahidul Islam Bawlakor, Shahid (Boxer Shahid), Abdul Haq Abbasi and Hafez Abdur Rahman.
   Only Hafez Mustafa Hasan and Al Amin are now in Barguna jail and Ataur Rahman Sunny is in the custody of the Rapid Action Battalion while the others are absconding.

From senior al-Qaeda commanders killed or arrested in Pakistan, to multiple bombings in Bangladesh and new attacks on tourists in Bali, the terror threat in Asia is more diffused and difficult to combat than ever.
   Experts say the al-Qaeda network has been definitely weakened but the four-year US-led war on terror has not brought to its knees the network of world’s most hunted, Osama bin Laden, whose fate remains unknown.
   More than 800 people have been killed, mostly in Asian countries, in some 14 attacks blamed on al-Qaeda since the September 9, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed almost 3,000 people.
   Analysts say the terror group has won to its side several local and regional Islamist militant groups, particularly in Asia. Al-Qaeda has been providing them with finances, training and counselling in target selection.
   ‘The Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Caucasian Groups within al-Qaeda’s ideological orbit of global jihad that received support now emulate al-Qaeda,’ Roan Gunaratna, head of the terrorism research centre in Singapore said.
   ‘They conduct coordinated simultaneous mass fatality bombings including suicide attacks, hallmark al-Qaeda attacks,’ he said in an email interview.
   Since its formation, al-Qaeda has supported some of the key Mujahedeen groups who were forced out of Afghanistan in the aftermath of US-led invasion of Afghanistan and created a network of support and hideouts for the group’s hardcore members in Pakistan.
   Some of the groups that aligned with al-Qaeda and provided manpower to carryout high profile attacks in Pakistan are: Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
   ‘Many top leaders of al-Qaeda have been arrested, their safe heavens busted but the capability of al-Qaeda to regenerate new crop of militants has remained intact,’ said a top Pakistani anti-terrorism official.
   In Southeast Asia al-Qaeda has regional allies such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines; Jemmah Islamiyah and Lashkar Jundullah in Indonesia; Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia; Jemmah Salafiyah in Thailand; Arakan Rohingya Nationalist Organisation and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
   ‘These link-ups are creating a situation where groups with purely local and regional agenda have now started contributing to al-Qaeda’s global efforts,’ said Pakistani security analyst MA Niazi.
   Bangladeshi expert retired major general Mohammad Ibrahim said governments in Asia ‘need to enlist the support of educational and religious institutions, community and other influential leaders to build a norm and an ethic against the use, misuse and abuse of religion for political purposes.’
   Bangladesh is a ground where terrorism could breed because of illiteracy, social injustices and rampant poverty, where people can be fooled easily, Ibrahim said.
   Sidney Jones, a terrorism expert based in Jakarta, said the groups linked to al-Qaeda remained a potent force despite being under pressure and losing some of their numerical strength over the years.
   ‘The terrorists who remain inspired by the al-Qaeda ideology here are much smaller in number than they were four years ago but they still can probably carry out attacks, especially because they’re willing to use suicide bombers,’ Jones, who is associated with the International Crises Group, said.

The Christians celebrate Christmas, the biggest religious festival of the community, today amid tight security.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the leader of opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, issued separate messages greeting the Christians on the occasion. In a message celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Archbishop Paulinus Costa urged all to live together showing respect to other religions and beliefs.
   ‘Our life and property are now insecure. And we are worried about the situation some people are trying to create in the name of religion,’ he told journalists at Kakrail Cathedral on Saturday. ‘We condemn the bomb attacks that kill innocent people.’
   The authorities concerned have deployed the Rapid Action Battalion members and more policemen at the churches in Dhaka and elsewhere for a smooth celebration.
   The Christians will exchange greetings, flowers, and gifts with relatives and friends. All Catholic and Protestant churches will say special prayers to disseminate the holy messages.
   Catholic churches in Dhaka such as St Mary’s Cathedral Church at Ramna, Holy Cross Church at Lakshmibazar, Holy Rosary Church at Tejgaon, National Major Seminary, St Lawrence Church at Kafrul, De Mazenod Church at Nayanagar, St Christians Church at Asad Gate, Mary Queen of the Apostles at Mirpur, and Mary Queen of Lourdes at Mahakhali have been decorated with candles, bulbs, and bouquets, and statues of Mother Mary, Jesus, and the magi. Thirty 30 big and small Protestant churches arranged prayer sessions.
   A number of organisations and individuals will arrange parties featuring Christmas carol, game, and dance show, and celebration with Santa Claus, and Christmas cake.
   The Sonargaon Hotel will arrange special lunch and dinner in its Café Bazaar restaurant and a children’s Christmas party at the swimming pool.
   The Sonargaon Hotel’s pastry chef made a chocolate church and Christmas tree with decoration and placed it at the entrance of Café Bazaar. Apart from puppet show, magic show, carols, it will arrange a party for children where Santa Claus will distribute gifts among them. The Bithika Restaurant of the hotel will offer Christmas lunch and dinner featuring international and traditional dishes.
   A 10-day Christmas and New Year observance festival began in Barisal with the participation of 15,000 members of the three major Christian sects. The programme began with the inauguration of a children’s fair at the Catholic Church on December 23.

The newly formed 45 ward committees of the Dhaka city Awami League have resented a large number of leaders and activists, giving birth to a new problem within the party amid the current long-standing deadlock.
   The leaders, dropped from the committees, and their followers already initiated agitation programmes in protest at the structuring and fresh committees which intensified the deadlock that resulted from infighting between the supporters of two top city leaders.
   The fresh 45 ward committees out of 100 ward units of the city Awami League were announced Friday night.
   The leaders, dropped from the new committees, on Saturday expressed their resentment by chanting slogans and bringing out processions in some wards.
   They said they have plans to bring out more such processions and lay siege to the party office if Abdul Jalil visits the place. The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, approved the committees. In addition to the two conflicting groups, one led by the city unit president Mohammad Hanif and the other by the general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, a third group of the leaders dropped from the committees might surface, said a source within the party.
   All the 100 ward units and 18 union units of the Dhaka city Awami League were formed in April leading to infighting as Hanif and Maya tried to include their stalwards into the committees. The rift between the supporters of the two groups compelled the party to suspend the city unit activities on May 26 to avert any possible clashes.
   After the suspension, the party high ups handed over the responsibilities for the eight parliamentary constituencies of the city to eight presidium members to look into the dispute.
   Two of the committees completed their job and prepared fresh and restructured committees of 45 ward units of the constituencies — Dhaka 5 and 6. Jalil said he had announced the fresh committees in accordance with the proposals of the presidium members.
   Party sources said the announcement of fresh committees might fuel the ongoing discord, saying that the presidium members did not evaluate the recommendations of city unit leaders.z ‘Some of the 45 units had not problems. But the restructuring of these units might create problems as the leaders, who were dropped, may not take the move easily,’ said a leader.

The Privatisation Commission has taken an initiative to ascertain the latest status of the state-owned enterprises that have been divested since 1993, to find out whether or not they are in operation under private management, said official sources.
   The commission has already asked concerned officials of different ministries that owned those enterprises to compile detailed reports on the condition of the privatised entities.
   Currently, the process of privatising the public sector entities has been plagued by an earlier cabinet committee’s decision to vest the respective ministries with the authority to close down their enterprises, as well as by the government’s unwillingness to go for job
   cuts before the upcoming elections.
   However, teams of the statutory regulatory body responsible for privatisation will make spot visits to take stock of the disinvested concerns in different parts of the country. A local consultant will also be appointed soon to help the commission prepare a report, said the sources.
   ‘We ourselves will ascertain the state of privatised
   entities while the consultant will help us prepare the
   report methodically. We have asked for information from the relevant authorities,’ an official of the commission told New Age.
   The whole exercise will be made under one of the components of the World Bank-sponsored financial sector reform programme.
   The initiative is being taken amid criticism that many of the privatised enterprises have remained closed for various reasons as the government has no monitoring mechanism in this regard. Since its inception as a board in 1993, the commission has divested about 60 enterprises.
   The commission has for long been complaining that it has no institutional capacity or manpower to look after the affairs of the post-privatised industrial units although it was supposed to do so.
   It earlier prepared an overall report compiling separate reports made by separate ministries — especially the Ministry of Industries and the Ministry of Jute and Textiles — after the Prime Minister’s Office asked for the latest status of the divested units.
   That report revealed that 27 out of the 56 divested enterprises covered by this survey have been facing problems as their production activities were hampered, fully or partially.
   Major SOEs — including the National Iron and Steel Industries, Metalex Corporation, Mymensingh Jute Mills, Kaliachapra Sugar Mills, Bawa Jute Mills, Noakhali Textile Mills and Lira Industrial Enterprise — are yet to resume production, according to the report.
   Apart from the privatised entities, many public sector entities, especially those in the Khulna region, are in a sorry condition due to imprudent policies and mismanagement, and the government cannot sell them in view of electoral politics.
   The finance ministry is also blamed for not allocating funds required for infusing capital into the ailing state-owned enterprises to give them a new lease of life.

Still free from bird flu, the country may face a human health disaster because of the government’s inaction in procuring Tamiflu, the only drug against the disease for human being, experts feared.
   Only one bird flu case will change the entire scenario and wreak havoc on human life for the non-preparedness to face the ‘fast spreading’ virus of bird flu, avian influenza, they said, stressing immediate government step to procure enough Tamiflu.
   The World Health Organisation strongly recommends that every country, as a precautionary measure against bird flu that wrought havoc in 18 Asian and European countries in 2004, should procure the drug for at least 20 to 30 per cent of its population, but the government is inactive, they said.
   The government neither procured the drug nor had contacted with the Switzerland-based Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu capsule, they said.
   The Roche Bangladesh portfolio manager, Mohammed Borhan Uddin, told New Age that they had asked its head office to supply 10,000 packets of Tamiflu and 5,000 packets of them were likely to reach by January.
   He said the drug would be brought only for their employees, and not for any commercial purpose.
   The price of each packet containing 10 capsules is Tk 2,000 and one needs to take two capsules a day for 10 days, he said.
   Asked whether the drug is affordable by common people, the Roche official said, ‘It will be affordable for all if the government procures the raw materials from the company and processes it in Bangladesh.’
   He also suggested that the government should contact Roche without any delay as it would take six months to one year to complete the whole process. Roche has received orders from 50 countries for the supply of the drug, he said.
   ‘WHO will provide us with the drug in case of any disasters,’ the Directorate of Health Services director general, Mohammed Shahadat Hossain, said. ‘Even after that the government, to bring down its cost, is negotiating with different drug manufacturers on how to produce the drug locally by importing raw materials.’
   The Department of Livestock Services director general, Salehuddin Mahmud, said there was no recognised drug for poultry; the drug is available for humans.
   The state minister for the health and family welfare, Mizanur Rahman Sinha, declined to make any comment on the issue.

Canadian oil company Niko Resources has been barred from operating its own bank account to receive payments from Petrobangla, the state-run oil and gas corporation, as Tengratila tangle has tainted its goodwill, sources in the energy ministry said.
   From now, all the government payments against the gas purchase from Niko would go to a joint bank to be operated by the BAPEX and Niko, officials of the ministry said.
   The government made the decision as it had ‘lost full confidence’ in the foreign operator of country’s two gas fields—Feni and Tengratila (Chhatak), according to the officials.
   However, BAPEX officials said as per joint-venture agreement between Niko and the BAPEX, this was mandatory for the Canadian company to operate a joint account to receive any payments against its gas sales.
   But, ‘Niko has violated this JVA condition since the commencement of its operation in the country through influencing some officials of the energy ministry’.
   They claimed that through the new measures, Niko, which proved most inefficient in dealing with Tengratila gas field operation, has been made to follow the existing rules and provisions of the JVA.
   Two government inquiry committees held Niko’s negligence and unilateral decisions responsible for the two blowouts at Tengratila gas field within only six months.
   Recently, Petrobangla has claimed compensation from the operating company for its fatal faults that caused the blowouts.
   The official sources said following the latest decision of the government, a petition would be submitted to the central bank for allowing the BAPEX-Niko duo to open a joint foreign exchange account to receive payments.
   Earlier, Niko had received a payment of $4.0 million from Petrobangla against its gas sales from the Feni field. Niko received the payments directly in its own account.
   After the payment, the then state minister for energy, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, was blamed for favouring Niko in getting the direct payments.
   Shortly after the payment, Niko reportedly offered a luxury jeep priced Tk 85 lakh to the state minister.
   But that abortive deal of Niko triggered questions among the policymakers, which ultimately was pacified through the forced resignation of the state minister.
   Recently BAPEX board has decided not to allow Niko to take any unilateral decision regarding its operations in the country. It also decided not to share the expenses of Niko made earlier on its own will.

The Pakistani prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, has said Islamabad and Dhaka enjoy very close brotherly and friendly relations and these ties would be further strengthened with the passage of time.
   He made the remarks while talking to a Bangladesh parliamentary delegation at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad on Friday, according to Asian Tribune.
   Aziz said parliament played a vital role in the socio-economic development of the people and stressed the need for promoting relations of the parliamentarians of both the countries for the development of the peoples. He appreciated the increasing engagements of the parliamentarians of both the countries and described it as welcome development for overall improvement of ties between the two countries.
   The Pakistani prime minister said both countries could share their best practices for the speedy development of the people and the region.
   He referred to experience of Bangladesh regarding micro-finance banking and said Pakistan had learnt a lot from this experience and now micro-financing was moving forward to new heights.
   Aziz said South Asia had great potential and there was need for promoting people to people contact between the regional countries and cooperation to ensure progress and prosperity of the people of the region.
   He said Pakistan was a peace-loving country and striving for peace in the region.
   The Pakistan prime minister said South Asia, despite enormous opportunities, had also great challenges which could be faced with greater collaboration among the South Asian countries.
   The Pakistani prime minister has learnt lesson from Bangladesh and reducing population and it has achieved population growth rate of 1.9 per cent during the last year. But he said it was not satisfactory and there was need for continuous efforts for population stabilisation as growing population could negate all gains.
   Speaking on the occasion, leader of Bangladesh parliamentary delegation Salahuddin Qader Chowdhry said Bangladesh was keen to enhance its ties with Pakistani people and government in all fields.
   He said permanent exchange of parliamentary delegation was essential for giving new impetus to the existing ties.

The police intercepted a procession of the non-government primary school teachers at Paltan crossing in the capital on Saturday while marching towards the Prime Minister’s Office to lay a siege, demanding nationalisation of their jobs.
   As per their programme announced earlier, about one thousand teachers under the banner of the Bangladesh Non-government Primary School Teachers’ Association gathered at Muktangan at about 12:30pm, and brought out the procession.
   Before the procession, they held a rally where the association leaders said the BNP in its election manifesto had made commitment to nationalise the jobs, but it was yet to be implemented even after four years in power.
   Mohammad Shamsul Alam, president of the Awami League-backed association, said they would not leave the streets until their demand was fulfilled. ‘If our demand is not met, we will show the prime minister black flags during her visit to different areas for the election campaign.’
   The association leaders decided to observe a 48-hour hunger strike at Muktangan on April 3 to press home their demand.
   There are about 75,000 teachers in 19,000 non-government primary schools across the country.
   The association general secretary, Abdur Rahman Bachchu, the vice-president, Abu Mohammad Sayed, and the organising secretary, Mrigen Mohan Saha, among others, were present.

The Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh on Saturday decided to go for a month-long countrywide awareness programme against militancy.
   The FNB leaders at a meeting at the BRAC Centre took the decision after reviewing the recent spate of bomb attacks.
   With its chairman, Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, in the chair, the meeting also decided to extend cooperation to the civil society, mass media and law enforcing agencies in aid to the campaign.

The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of the BNP, on Saturday expelled five activists of its Dhaka University unit on charge of anti-organisational activities.
   The expelled are assistant general secretary of the unit Maniruzzaman Rezin, social welfare secretary Anisur Rahman Rana, assistant finance secretary Kazi Moktar Hossain, members Ikhtiar Kabir and Mahbubur Rahman Palash.
   The Chhatra Dal president, Azizul Bari Helal, and general secretary Shafiul Bari Babu approved the decision, said a release.
   The expulsion followed the December 20 factional feuds that left 10 activists and a photojournalist injured on the campus.
   The clash ensued from an altercation between two junior activists and later turned a factional feud.
   Those who initiated the clash were supporters of the group that have little representation in central and university committees.