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The government’s utility agencies prepare inflated bills to any other public-sector entities for taking their services to cover up for corrupt practices elsewhere, the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, said Wednesday.
   Talking to journalists after a cabinet committee meeting, he particularly castigated electricity and telephone authorities for committing such irregularities while they have outstanding bills to various agencies.
   The minister also charged the Bangladesh Biman authorities with inefficiency and malpractice and asked them either to make its operation and management commercially viable; or ‘quit offices’.
   Admitting some irregularities, the state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, attributed Biman problems to non-compliance by some officials with his directives for correcting those.
   He also blamed travel agents and tour operators for creating ticket crisis.
   ‘It’s a business and the authorities concerned have to know how to run it. We’ve asked them to improve their efficiency level,’ said Saifur, who chaired the meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs at the Cabinet Division.
   He cited example that when the Biman authorities declined to issue tickets on the plea of completion of sales, passengers do suffer from ticket crisis and half of the seats in Biman aircraft are seen empty during the flight.
   However, Mir Nasir told reporters that officials had been instructed to make provision for forfeiting of 25 per cent money as down payment for advanced booking of tickets in case of default. ‘But, they
   said, my directive could not be followed for certain difficulties.’
   The committee meeting discussed in detail the issue of Petrobangla’s arrears of gas bills of about Tk 700 crore from as many as 30 government entities as well as outstanding electricity bills.
   ‘Gas bills have to be paid as Unocal, the supplier, has taken a rigid position that it will stop supply in case of defaulting payment. So, the government agencies have to make it
   regularly,’ the finance minister said.
   The committee suggested holding of meetings with city corporations and municipalities for arranging their payment for consuming electricity and gas. Also, an arrangement will be made for clearing the bills against utility services taken by mosques, madrassahs and charity organisations.
   Asked why the finance ministry is also in the defaulters’ list of Petrobangla’s bills, Saifur said, ‘This is the most generous ministry. We are supposed to make payment for others although we do it.’
   The committee also approved a draft policy on Small and Medium Enterprises.

The government will import food, at short notice if needed, in view of probable shortage of food stock this season, the cabinet committee on economic affairs decided on Wednesday.
   It endorsed the new food procurement guideline, reducing the timeframe for procuring or importing food to 21 days’ notice, and further asked the food and disaster management ministry to arrange imports if and when necessary.
   ‘We are yet to have the reports on aman rice harvest, and I think we may need to import food. The food ministry has been asked to get ready to import rice,’ committee chief and Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman told newsmen after the meeting of the Cabinet Division.
   He added that the ministry has been given flexibility in the guideline so that it can import food any moment if the necessity arises.
   The ministry feels the necessity of importing food when the government’s food procurement drive in the domestic market faces serious setbacks, said officials of the food and disaster management ministry.
   The new food procurement drive will allow finalising of the tender process for food import within 21 days, and it will simplify the process for dealing with a ‘very touchy’ issue.
   The officials also pointed out that imports of food might be needed, given the crop damage due to the devastating flood, as well as depletion of government stock due to the open market sales of rice to combat price spiralling.
   Already, as an alternative method of surmounting the food crisis, the food and disaster management ministry has allocated Tk 444 crore instead of food of equivalent value for two programmes styled ‘food for work’ and ‘test relief’.
   Currently, the government has slightly over 6,00,000 tonnes of food in stock, a quantity with which the ministry is not comfortable because it may not be enough for any emergency situation.

The Election Commission on Wednesday published separate lists of lawmakers belonging to different political parties and alliances, and also distributed the 45 reserved seats for women among the parties and alliances in accordance with the principle of proportional representation.
   The commission came up with the publication of the lists and distributed the reserved seats a day after the High Court on Tuesday asked it not to hold elections to 45 reserved seats for women in Jatiya Sangsad till February 23.
   Before publishing the lists and distributing the reserved seats, the commission, however, sought legal opinion on the matter from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
   Relying on the opinion of the attorney general, AF Hassan Ariff, the ministry, in its opinion given to the commission on Wednesday, said the High Court had barred the commission from holding the polling for candidates to the reserved seats, but had not stayed the operation of the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004.
   The law minister, Moudud, Ahmed told New Age that all the procedures under the act would have to be continued in accordance with the act.
   ‘If the procedures are not maintained in accordance with the act, it will be a violation of the law,’ he said, adding that accordingly the ministry has advised the commission to continue the process of the act.
   He also mentioned that the issue was discussed during hearing of the petition that sought to stay the election to the reserved seats, and considering the submissions made by the counsels for the petitioners and the state attorney, the court passed the order directing the commission not to hold the polling.
   According to distribution of the reserved seats by the commission, the alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist
   Party deserves 30 reserved seats, Awami League 9,
   Jamaat 3, Jatiya Party (Ershad) 2 and the alliance led by Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Naziur) 1 only.
   According to the final lists of lawmakers of the parties and alliances that the commission has published, the BNP-led alliance has 198 lawmakers after adding independent lawmaker MM Shahin to its own 197, Awami League 59, Jamaat 17, Jatiya Party 14 and the BJP-led alliance 5 after adding Islami Oikya Jote lawmaker Muftee Fazlul Haque Amini to the BJP’s 4.
   Four other alliances have also been formed, but they deserve no reserved seat for having less than .5 vote marks.
   Jatiya Party (Manju), which has only one seat in the Jatiya Sangsad, has formed an alliance, claiming inclusion of Islami Oikya Jote lawmakers Muftee Shahidul Islam and Muftee Mohammad Wakkas and independent lawmakers Shamsuddin Ahmed and Awrango. All of the lawmakers have, however, denied their inclusion in the alliance and it has now only one seat.
   The Islami Oikya Jote has formed an alliance with only two of its own lawmakers.
   The alliance led by Krishok-Shramik Janata League of Abdul Kader Siddiqui has three lawmakers including Mahi B Chowdhury of Bikalpodhara Bangladesh and independent lawmaker Hemayetullah Awrango. Earlier the alliance had claimed inclusion of Anwar Hossain Manju of Jatiya Party, who himself has formed another alliance, and independent lawmaker MM Shahin, who denied his inclusion in the alliance and supported the BNP-led alliance.
   The Election Commission has, surprisingly, enlisted independent lawmaker Shamsuddin Ahmed as an independent alliance.

Members of a parliamentary committee have accused the Jatiya Sangsad speaker of ignoring some recommendations of the committee and threatened to quit the panel if he continued keeping its recommendations unheeded.
   The accusation came Wednesday at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on private members’ bills and resolutions.
   The meeting observed that most of the decisions and recommendations made by the committee had been put aside for years.
   They accused the speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar, of making the committee dysfunctional as he hardly took any measures to pass a number of bills, some of which relating to constitutional amendment as recommended by the committee.
   Presided over by the committee chairman, Mozammel Haq of the BNP, the meeting was attended by lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition parties.
   The parliamentary body decided to meet the speaker before its next meeting scheduled for January 11 to request him to dissolve the committee or run it properly.
   As many as 29 private members’ bills remained pending with the current parliament. Of them, 13, including 11 relating to constitutional amendment, await tabling while 13 others are under vetting by the committee and three wait for passage.
   The current parliament passed only one private members’ bill, repealing another private members’ bill passed in the seventh parliament.
   ‘What is the use of being a member of this committee when we see our recommendations went in smoke,’ said a ruling party lawmaker, Abu Hena.
   A lawmaker needs a lot of time to prepare a bill, and it is highly frustrating when the bill does not get support from parliament, he said.
   The lawmaker said he had piloted Jatiya Sangsad (special privilege and power) Bill 2002, which the committee endorsed after vetting and recommended for passage on July 10, 2003. But the bill was yet to get the speaker’s nod for coming in the House.
   ‘The speaker violated the rules of procedure by writing to me personally that the bill requires presidential recommendation since it involves expenditure of money from the public exchequer,’ he said. ‘If it was so, why did the speaker not ask for the president’s consent before piloting the bill?’
   Besides, he said, the speaker cannot write to a lawmaker personally. ‘The bill is now the property of Jatiya Sangsad,’ he said referring to related regulation of the Jatiya Sangsad.
   Rule 73 (4) of the Rules of Procedure says, ‘If the question arises whether a Bill does or does not require the previous recommendation of the President, the question shall be decided by the Speaker’.
   ‘This would be my last meeting with this committee, if the speaker does not settle the case before the next meeting,’ he added.
   Awami League lawmaker, AKM Jahangir, called upon the members of the committee to resign en masse, if the speaker did not discharge his duty properly.
   Abdus Sobhan of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a component of the four-party ruling alliance, became irritated at the unnecessary delay.
   ‘We cannot wait for an uncertain period for implementation of the committee’s decision.’

The Board of Investment plans to put in place a comprehensive pay structure for foreign professionals working in Bangladesh.
   Copies of the draft pay structure have recently been circulated to different government offices by the director of the Prime Minister’s Office, Mujibur Rahman, with a request to forward their comments to the investment board by January 12, PMO sources told New Age.
   According to the draft, minimum monthly salary for the post of managing director, company chairman and chief executive officer should be between Tk 60,000 and Tk 90,000.
   The draft proposes a classification of the foreign officials, who hold top executive posts, on the basis of their countries of origin.
   Group A brackets professionals from member-states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, China, Myanmar, Indonesia, least developed countries and Africa, except South Africa. The minimum salary for the group has been fixed at Tk 60,000.
   Group B comprises professionals from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea and South Africa with a minimum salary of Tk 72,000 ($1,200) while Group C from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union with a minimum salary of Tk 90,000 ($1,500).
   The draft proposes a minimum salary, ranging from Tk 39,000 to Tk 63,000, for foreign professionals like senior engineers, senior chemists, general managers and technical advisors.
   A minimum salary of Tk 30,000 or $500 for the posts will be applicable to foreigners from Group A, Tk 39,000 or $650 for Group B and Tk 51,000 or $850 for Group C countries.
   The draft proposes minimum salaries of Tk 21,000 to Tk 33,000 for foreign technicians, supervisors, operators and foremen.
   Minimum monthly salaries of Tk 21,000 or $350 will be applicable to professionals from Group A, Tk 27,000 or $450 for Group B and Tk 33,000 or $550 for Group C countries.
   The proposed salary structure will be updated from time to time, says the draft.
   No such minimum wage structure exists for foreign professionals working in Bangladesh.
   According to a rough estimate of the investment board, about six to seven thousand foreign professionals have been working in Bangladesh in textile, readymade garment and automobile companies, advertising, buying houses, liaison offices and representative offices, and computer and advertising firms.
   A number of foreign employees in the private sector, in connivance with their local employers, allegedly show lower incomes to evade income tax, which has prompted the board to make the new guidelines for foreign professionals, BoI sources said.
   ‘We have proof that income tax has long been evaded by a section of foreign professionals employed in the private sector,’ the BoI executive chairman, Mahmudur Rahman, told New Age. ‘The proposed regulations will check tax evasion and ensure more employment for locals.’
   However, bigwigs in the RMG sector, which is the top employer of both local and foreign workers and professionals, said the board’s move would harm the sector.
   The minimum salaries are too high, they said, so the cost of the RMG sector will jump once the proposed regulations come into effect.
   ‘The proposed pay structure does not reflect the reality as many higher-level professionals from China have been employed in the RMG sector, whose salaries range from $250 to $350,’ the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president, Annisul Huq, told New Age.
   He, however, proposed that the government should fix certain amounts of tax for all specific foreign professionals instead of imposing the proposed regulations.
   Annis said the board should consult with the businessmen prior to finalising any regulations relating to the private sector.
   According to the draft, work permit fee for a foreign professional, to be applicable for one year, has been fixed at Tk 5,000, which is renewable at the same cost. No foreign professionals under the age of 18 will be eligible for appointment, it added.
   Foreign professionals will only be allowed if local professionals of the similar category are not available, the draft said. It has made advertisements in the local newspapers mandatory prior to applying for permission to recruit foreigners.

The Board of Investment on Wednesday refuted claims by exporters and foreign investors that its plan to make mandatory repatriation of $50,000 for all foreign buying houses, liaison offices and representative offices within the first month of their operations in Bangladesh was unrealistic and would be detrimental to export and foreign direct investment.
   ‘I do not believe that $50,000 is such a big or unrealistic amount for the foreign establishments to repatriate in the first month of their operations in Bangladesh,’ the BoI executive chairman, Mahmudur Rahman, told New Age.
   ‘Local agents of foreign companies, who are making money by selling foreign products here and who cannot be identified as foreign investors in all considerations, only oppose the move. I am confident that every single local investor in the industrial sector will support the BoI move.’
   The draft says all foreign business establishments in Bangladesh, either branch office or liaison office or representative office or buying house, has to repatriate $50,000 from their parent organisations within a month of getting approval for their operations.
   The amount will be earmarked for operating cost for the establishments in the first six months of operation, adds the draft.
   Mahmud said any furnished business office should require a number of computers, decoration, telephone, employees and advance for renting office premises.
   Apart from the initial expenses, they have to bear office expanses from the proposed amount, which is reasonable.
   ‘The government cannot allow any agent of foreign company that will bear their office expenses from local earnings,’ he said.
   He, however, promised to ha ave dialogue with the private sector before to finalising the regulations.

For the first and probably the last time Bangladesh will play a Test against an opponent who have played lesser matches as the first Test between the two lowest-ranked countries Bangladesh and Zimbabwe starts today at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.
   The Bangladesh players have played a total of 178 Tests in between them while the Zimbabweans total only 59. Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar has 32 Tests to his name and his counterpart Tatenda Taibu is the most experienced cricketer of his side playing only 16 Tests.
   Dion Ebrahim, another senior player in the Zimbabwean squad, has the experience of playing 22 Tests but it will be a big blow to the visitors as the upper-order batsman will miss the proceedings as he is serving a one-match ban handed out by the ICC. Seven months ago he was suspended for one match during the Sri Lanka tour.
   The turf at the Test venue seemed to be batting strip as it was grassless, flat and heavily rolled. Bangladesh have bolstered the batting by including seven batsmen alongside two spinners and two pacers. Fast bowler Talha Jubaier and left-arm spinner Manjurul Islam Rana were not considered for the playing eleven.
   Both the teams had long practice sessions at the venue on Thursday and the rival skippers expressed confidence about winning the Test. Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar has warned his players against complacency and not to look down upon the opponents’ strengths. Bashar also indicated that a superiority complex might cause the downfall and he had talks on the subject with his team-mates.
   ‘We all are determined to put up a good show, we just want to prove that we are capable of playing at the top level, if we think our opponents are weak then achieving the target will become tougher, we have to play the game as we have performed against top-bracketed teams,’ said Bashar.
   Coach Dav Whatmore has pointed out that playing against a lesser experienced side on the home soil and in the familiar conditions would an added advantage to his side.
   Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu was also confident of giving a good show. He indirectly refused to admit that Bangladesh are the favourites and was hoping to counter the home team’s experience with their enthusiasm. He was not worried about facing the Bangladesh spin attacks and said his players were also motivated to play their best as they returned to the Test arena after seven months remaining in wilderness.
   Md Ashraful, who produced a magnificent 158-run innings against India at the same venue ten days ago, was eager to repeat the feat and Javed Omar, who has an average of 45 against Zimbabwe, along with local boys Nafees Iqbal and Aftab Ahmed will be cheered up by the crowd. Javed reiterated his desire to retire if he can play a match-wining innings in the series.
   Sri Lankan S Wijaywardene and Pakistani Asad Rouf will be men in white aprons in the match and Akhteruddin Shaheen of Bangladesh will act as the third umpire.
   Indian trio – Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal and Laxman Shivramakrishnan – will give the running commentary of the Test on the Espn-Star Sports channel. 
   Bangladesh: Javed Omar, Nafees Iqbal, Habibul Bashar (captain), Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Md Ashraful, Khaled Mashud, Md Rafique, Mashrafee bin Mortaza, Tapash Baisya and Enamul Huq (Jr).
   Zimbabwe (from): Tatenda Taibu (captain), E Chigumbura, AG Cremer, T Duffin, DT Hondo, H Masakadza, S Matsikenyeri, C Mpofu, T Mupariwa, ML Nkala, T Panyangara, BG Rogers, P Utseya, M Vermeulen and Visu Sibanda.

No representative of Bangladesh is attending the Tsunami Summit, taking place in Jakarta today, when world leaders will figure out how the world can overcome such catastrophes in future.
   The world leaders will deal on Asia’s tsunami that killed over 150,000 people and left a trail of destruction along the coastline of at least 12 nations in Asia and Africa, and a 2.3 billion dollar humanitarian relief operation in the region.
   The summit is expected to agree to setting up a regional tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean nations, which, the experts say, can save many lives from undersea earthquakes that triggered the surge.
   Leaders of 26 nations, representatives of different countries and heads of lending agencies reached Jakarta on Wednesday to share their views at the one-day summit.
   The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, the Australian prime minister, John Howard, the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, are among the officials expected to attend the summit.
   News reports say Annan may announce a major UN tsunami appeal in the Jakarta conference, which will also discuss the possibility of an immediate freeze of debt payments by affected countries.
   Asked whether Bangladesh, a country known for natural disasters, is at risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, has any representation in the summit, the foreign minister, Morshed Khan, replied in the negative.
   ‘We are not sending anyone to the summit,’ Morshed told New Age Wednesday night without any elaboration.
   The US president, George W Bush, in a memorandum for the secretary of state and the secretary of defence asked to provide emergency disaster relief assistance to the listed 12 nations, including Bangladesh, hit by the tsunami.
   Indonesia, Thailand, Sri
   Lanka, India, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Seychelles are on the list.
   Asked whether Bangladesh will receive such disaster relief, Morshed said, ‘Bangladesh is providing assistance for other tsunami victims.’
   ‘If the assistance is for something like signalling or warning… then we may consider,’ he said, adding that he was yet to receive such information from his channels. ‘Let me see what type of relief is offered, then I will respond to it.’ The assistance is channelled under Section 506 (a)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of the United States.
   ‘Tomorrow’s conference is not only for Indonesia, but for all countries that have suffered from the earthquake,’ said the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Reuters quoted him as saying. ‘And of course we do hope that there will be a concrete result in the mechanism of how to assist countries that are to be assisted.’
   The International Monetary Fund has said assessment of the economic impact of the disaster will wait until immediate humanitarian needs are met.
   The relief efforts have faced enormous hurdles. The giant waves destroyed hospitals, damaged airports and washed away roads and bridges. The sheer number of aid organisations flooding into Asia, big and small, has posed coordination problems and created bottlenecks.
   ‘I think what we really want to do is make sure that the money that has been pledged and the resources that are on the way are properly and appropriately distributed to cater to the need,’ Colin Powell, said on Tuesday after had he reached Jakarta.
   The German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, on Wednesday pledged $674 million in long-term tsunami aid, the largest commitment from a single country. Japan has pledged $500 million and the United States $350 million.

Two alleged criminals, including an Awami Swechchhasebak League leader, were killed in a shootout between their associates and the Cheeta and Cobra, special police teams, in the city early Wednesday.
   Three policemen were also injured during the gunfight that took place at Rasulbagh of Mohakhali area and killed Shankar Singh alias Kishore, Gulshan thana unit organising secretary of the party, and Aslam alias Kasai Aslam, the police said.
   Aslam, accused in two murder cases, was earlier arrested by a Cobra team from the city’s Mirpur area at about 8:00pm Tuesday while Kishore, wanted in three murder and few other cases, on the basis of Aslam’s statement from Mohakhali area two hours later.
   The gunfight took place when the arrested were taken there to recover arms and drugs as per their statements and their associates opened fire on the joint team beside the house of one Sirajuddin at about 3:30am, the police said.
   Kishore and Aslam received bullets during the shootout and the doctors declared them after taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital at about 4:30am.
   Sub-inspector AB Siddik and constables Rafiq and Jahangir were also wounded.
   The police recovered a revolver with two bullets and 65 bottles phensidyl from the spot.
   Controversy raised over the deaths of the two as the police themselves gave contradictory statements.
   The deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch police, Faruk Ahmed, told newsmen that Shankar had been with the criminals who attacked the policemen while a police release said both Shankar and Aslam were in the police custody during the shootout.
   Kishore’s wife Sucharita told newsmen that a man, impersonating to be a police, told her to pay him Tk 60,000 for the release of her husband, detained in Tejgaon police station. But I later came to know that the Tejgaon police did not arrest anyone named Shankar or Kishore.

Some 150 Maoist guerrillas died in fierce fighting with security forces in Nepal’s remote southwest Wednesday, a top army official said.
   The battle, in which the senior army official said security forces attacked on the ground and from helicopters, was one of the bloodiest in months.
   ‘In a clash with the security forces, at least 150 rebels were killed and over 30 others injured’ in Kailali district in the far southwest, the army official said.
   There was no immediate comment on casualties from the Maoists who have been fighting since 1996 to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.
   Violence has escalated in the poverty-racked kingdom ahead of a January 13 deadline set by the prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, for the Maoists to resume peace talks.
   Deuba has said he would go ahead with long-postponed national elections in April if the rebels do not return to the negotiating table. Nepal has been without an elected parliament since 2002 amid political turmoil.
   The army official said soldiers ambushed some 500 rebels, staging a ground and helicopter offensive, as the guerrillas were about to attack an army post at Bankhet base some 380 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.
   He said fighting was continuing at last report from the far-flung area where the rebels have a heavy presence.
   ‘The army has recovered the bodies of 30 rebels while the other bodies have been carried away by their comrades,’ the official said.
   The army official said there were no deaths among security forces in the clash at Masuria but eight were injured.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed on Wednesday claimed that the human rights of a ‘few criminals’ cannot be more important than 14 crore people of the country.
   He claimed that the criminals were dying as the members of Rapid Action Battalion were retaliating, in self-defence, to attacks by the criminals.
   Moudud was addressing the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the vertical expansion of Narayanganj Jela Adalat Bhaban and Ainjibi Samity.
   He said the confidence of the people has been increased in the judiciary through perfect coordination between judges, lawyers and police.
   He claimed that the people of Bangladesh now believe that it is possible to judge a murder case in three months.
   Citing the death penalty of a Chhatra Dal leader for the Sony murder case, Moudud said eradication of criminality was possible due to non-interference of the government in the trial of any case.
   He said all the District Courts will come under internet service within a few moths.
   State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Rezaul Karim was present at the function as special guest, while president of Jela Ainjibi Samity Kazi Ahammad Ali presided over the function.

The Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association has decided not to raise bus fare and realise fare as was fixed by the government earlier.
   The decision was taken at a meeting of the association executive committee held in Dhaka Tuesday, a news release, signed by GM Siraj MP and Kafil Uddin, chairman and general secretary of the association respectively, said Wednesday.
   The association said in spite of the recent price hike of diesel, automobiles and incidental expenses, it would realise bus fare as was fixed by the government earlier considering the ability of the passengers.
   In the competitive market economy, the transport owners have taken flood, drought and different natural calamities into consideration while realising bus fare, it said.

The government is yet to finalise a policy guideline, including definition of and scope for, ‘referral hospitals’ despite waiver of all types of tariff for all forms of imported medical equipment to facilitate their growth in Bangladesh, said sources in the health sector.
   Absence of a policy guideline impedes investors who are working to set up international standard referral hospitals in Bangladesh.
   Generally, a referral hospital is a hospital that a patient is referred to by other health-care centres because it is better equipped and has specially trained physicians for better as well as special treatment.
   Two big investors — Square Group and STS Holdings Limited — requested the National Board of Revenue to allow them tariff-free importing of medical equipments after the tax waiver announcement.
   But the tax authorities refused to allow such a facility as there is no definition of referral hospital in the country.
   Later the revenue board formed a committee to define the term ‘referral hospital’ and an expert committee has also been formed in September 2004 to prepare a list of medical equipments eligible for waiver of tax.
   The committee has already finalised its report and submitted it to the tax authority, said NBR sources.
   The NBR chairman was not available for his comment on the latest position.
   Of the two investors, STS, with the technical cooperation of the Apollo Group, is setting up Apollo Hospital Dhaka at Bashundhara residential area, with a total investment worth $35 million.
   STS is expecting to inaugurate the country’s first referral hospital by March, 2005.
   But the hospital authority is facing difficulties in importing medical and other necessary equipments due to absence of the tax waiver facility. The hospital authority is now providing bank guarantees for each consignment of imported equipments as an interim arrangement.
   ‘As there is no policy guideline, the NBR asked us to submit bank guarantee equivalent to tax applicable for importing such medical equipments,’ said a senior official of STS Holding.
   He also said after finalising the definition and list of equipments eligible for tax waiver, the tax authority would refund the bank guarantee.
   ‘But the existing process is cumbersome and so we have requested the NBR to finalise the policy guideline as soon as possible,’ he added.

Three suicide bombings and a spate of ambushes and shootings rocked Iraq Wednesday leaving at least 48 people dead in 24 hours, including the three bombers, security sources said.
   The deadliest attack was near a police academy in the Shia city of Hilla, south of the capital, where 10 policemen were killed and 44 people wounded, according to an interior ministry official.
   ‘A suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the Babil Sports Club, which is just across the street from the police academy,’ General Qais Abud said.
   A spokesman for the Polish-led coalition force which patrols the area said the bomber struck shortly before midday.
   In Baquba, north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 13 wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into an Iraqi security checkpoint, police and hospital sources said.
   ‘Six policemen were killed and 13 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack against a police checkpoint in the Yarmuk neighbourhood,’ said doctor Humam Mohammed of Baquba’s main hospital.
   The bomber struck during a guard change at the checkpoint which had only been in place for two days, said policeman Mahmoud Abbas.
   In Ameriyah, just west of Baghdad, a third suicide bomber blew up his vehicle as a US military convoy passed.
   The blast missed its target but one civilian was killed and several wounded, said Major Phil Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division.
   In the same area, three contractors working for the US military were gunned down overnight, the interior ministry official said.
   A police patrol also found two other bodies that bore signs of torture, he added.
   Further west in Ramadi, the local hospital said it received the bodies of four civilians that may have been caught in clashes overnight between insurgents and the US military.
   The bodies of three men shot in the head were discovered in the Sufiya neighbourhood of the city off the main motorway to Jordan.
   A piece of paper attached to the bodies said they were Jordanian drivers who had been transporting goods for the US military.
   In the restive area around Samarra, north of Baghdad, six national guardsmen were killed and two wounded, security sources said.
   Gunmen also ambushed and killed four contractors for the US military in the city, which was recaptured from insurgents in a US-led assault in early October, said Lieutenant Colonel Mahmud Mohammed.
   Another contractor was killed near Balad and an interpreter working for the US military was killed near Tuz, police said.
   The violence even spread to the relatively calm southern port city of Basra, where a policeman was killed and two others wounded when gunmen sprayed their checkpoint with bullets, police said.
   Guerrillas also kept up their campaign efforts to derail landmark elections later this month, killing electoral commission staffer Khalifa Hussein and his driver in an ambush in Baquba.
   In the main northern city of Mosul, the bullet-riddled body of a senior member of the Islamic Party, Iraq’s largest Sunni faction, was found Tuesday, the party said.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, Wednesday urged the people to pull down the alliance government through a mass movement to be free its ‘misrule.’
   Hasina, also president of the Awami League, accused the government of ruining democracy and economy.
   ‘Get united and the nation will be free soon, Inshallah,’ she told huge wayside crowds on way to her ancestral home at Tungipara. She left Dhaka at 10:30am and reached Tungipara in the evening.
   She was accompanied by her son, Sajeev Wazed Joy and her sister-in-law, Christine, among others, on her fist visit to Tungipara after the August 21 grenade attack on her rally at the Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.
   As they passed through the route, thousands of people greeted them warmly by showering petals and chanting slogans. More than 100 welcome-arches were erected on the roads at places.
   Girls wearing saris welcomed Joy and his spouse, Christine, in Bengali tradition which was reciprocated by the newly-wed couple by waving hands with smiling faces. When they were crossing the River Padma hundreds of people on boats escorted them.
   Hasina addressed impromptu rallies at Nimatala Bazar in Sirajdikhan and Sreenagar road crossing in Munshiganj and at Bhanga and Tekerhat in Faridpur.
   She criticized the government for failing to control prices of essentials and accused the prime minister and her family members of ‘siphoning off money’ abroad keeping people unfed. ‘Khaleda Zia has not been given license to kill people without trial.’
   She said ‘this autocratic’ regime must be overthrown for restoration of democracy and values of the war of independence.
   Referring to the cancellation of her previous scheduled visit to Tungipara, Hasina alleged that she and her family members were obstructed under a conspiracy hatched by the government.
   On arrival at Tungipara, they offered fateha at the grave of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and placed wreaths. Earlier, Joy and Christine were ceremonially greeted by Sheikh Razia Naser, aunt of Hasina.
   AL lawmakers Kazi Zafrullah, Sheikh Selim, Sheikh Helal, Syed Abul Hossain, Zahid Hasan Russel, Mirza Azam and central leaders Obaidul Qader and Zahangir Kabir Nanak accompanied them.

The country would have no gas crisis after June as another 153 million cubic feet of gas would be added to the national grid by this time, the state minister for energy, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, said Wednesday.
   ‘About 20mmcfd gas has already been added to the national grid with the inauguration of the third well of Fenchuganj gas field and more 70mmcfd would be added by March when the Moulvibazar gas field goes into production,’ he said addressing as chief guest at a function to inaugurate the 220-kilometre gas pipeline in Bogra.
   The senior joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman, inaugurated the construction of the pipeline. The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is expected to launch the gas supply to Bogra, in a considerable expansion of the national grid, in late June.
   The local lawmakers, the Petrobangla chairman, SR Osmani, director (planning), Muktadir Ali, and the managing director of the Paschimanchal Gas Company Ltd, Kamrul Islam, were present at the function at suburban Silimpur.
   ‘Gas is misused in a large scale in the domestic sector during the winter season creating a crisis,’ Mosharraf said and urged all to prevent the misuse.
   He said the government had already brought down the system loss of gas to 5 per cent from 10 and it had planned to introduce prepaid metering system for more improvement in this sector.
   He also said the government would soon begin seismic survey in the country’s northern areas.
   Urging all concerned to ensure the maximum use of gas in the northern part of the country through making investment in the industrial sector, Tarique said the business community should take the lead to explore new avenues for maximum use of the natural gas.
   He also requested the people not to misuse the precious resource.
   The Bogra gas distribution project got ECNEC approval in December 2003.
   The Petrobangla chairman said 2,150 connections, including 50 industrial and 100 commercial, would be given within the year.
   Muktadir said the Bogra people would get gas by June, about six months before the scheduled time.

As the South Asian region is disaster-prone, Bangladesh and other countries can reap benefit from cross-border energy trade, observed speakers at a roundtable in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   ‘Nepal and Bhutan have huge hydroelectric potentials and Bangladesh has gas potential, so energy cooperation in the region can be a win-win situation,’ the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh, Aftab-ul-Islam, said at the roundtable on regional energy trade.
   The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the AmCham, the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Bangladesh of Chambers of Commerce and Industry organised the roundtable.
   Aftab said it was high time that governments of the South Asian countries had supported private sectors to develop infrastructures including energy, transport and telecommunication as the region has been devastated by tsunami.
   ‘Besides, Bangladesh needs huge foreign direct investment to meet the growing power demand,’ he said, urging the government to maintain a liberal policy to attract more foreign entrepreneurs.
   Investment in the energy sector has been drying up in the last few years as the government regulates price of output, observed the speakers.
   They urged the government to come out from pricing system and give it to the market to ascertain the price. Foreign direct investment in the power sector and exploration for gas, oil and other mineral resources has been in stagnation for the last few years due to price controlling, they maintained.
   Presenting a paper on ‘Critical Role of Energy in Attracting Private Investment to the SAARC Region,’ Willard A Workman, a former senior vice president for international affairs of the US Chamber of Commerce, said foreign power and energy companies do not like to invest in a country where the government regulates price of output.
   ‘Only 30 per cent of the total population of Bangladesh have access to electricity, which is among the lowest in the world. The demand for energy is growing at a rate of 10 per cent. So, the country needs huge power production and FDI in the sector can help it,’ he said.
   Workman said at this moment the world’s attention is now on Southern Asia as the region has been hit hard by Tsunami.
   ‘Bangladesh should take chance of world attention and private sector should be given chance to enhance regional cooperation in developing energy, power, transport and telecommunication infrastructure,’ he added.
   Md Akhtaruzzaman Manju, a director of the FBCCI and also president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh, and A Gafur, executive director of the AmCham, also spoke.

Some portions of about 200 kilometres of footpath in the capital, renovated under the five-year Dhaka Urban Transport Project, have developed a number of potholes.
   The project officials said they had found a number of potholes at some places on the footpath at Natun Bazar, Badda, Rampura, Banani, Mohakhali, Tejagaon, New Market, Moghbazar, Gulistan, and Uttara although most of the footpaths were renovated in the past one year.
   The officials said the contractors did not do their job properly at some places which resulted in the damage.
   The officials pointed out that some potholes had developed as mice often burrowed holes at some places under the concrete blocks.
   The officials said the roadside restaurants often dump leftover on the footpath which also caused the damage.
   The contractors did not do their jobs properly at some places, the officials said.
   The footpaths were either renovated or constructed under a component of the transport project, initiated in 1999 to improve the city transport infrastructure.
   A high project official said the damaged footpaths would not account for more than 2 per cent of the total stretch of the renovated footpath.

The High Court on Wednesday rejected a writ petition that had challenged the amendment to the rules on appointment of thana education officers, making provision for filling only 20 per cent of the vacant posts through promotion of the non-gazetted officers and assistant thana education officers.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Momonur Rahman and Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury delivered the verdict on the writ petition filed by treasurer of thana assistant education officers’ association, Zahid Hossain Khan.
   Following the judgement, the government is now free to appoint 123 thana education officers, who had already been selected through competitive tests conducted by the Public Service Commission in 2003.
   The High Court on July 14, 2003 stayed the process of the appointment and in the verdict delivered on Wednesday the court put aside the stay order.
   The High Court on July 14, 2003 also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause as to why the notification issued on December 19, 1994, amending the rules of 1985 for appointments of the gazetted and non-gazetted officers of the Directorate of Primary Education, should not be declared illegal.
   The amended rules have reduced the quota to 20 per cent of the vacant posts from 50 per cent for thana assistant education officers in appointing thana education officers.

A Bangladeshi was the sole winner of Jordan’s New Year lottery, netting record pre-tax prize money of 350,000 dollars, the official Petra news agency said Wednesday.
   It was the largest payout in the history of the lottery, which is run by the general union of charitable organisations, Petra said.
   Mohammad Abdel Malek, 57, had been working in Jordan for 23 years, one of tens of thousands of Asians employed in the kingdom on wages of as little as 100 dollars a month.
   But the lucky winner will have to wait three or four weeks before pocketing his life-transforming windfall, lottery chief Hani Shaqaa told Petra.
   He will also have to pay 11 per cent tax on his winnings.

Saudi Arabia has offered complementary Hajj to 21 Bangladeshis who lost their close relatives in a stampede in Makkah in 2004, official sources said Wednesday.
   Seven Bangladeshi pilgrims were killed in a stampede near the Jamarat Bridge in Makkah.
   Three members from each of the families are going to enjoy the opportunity this year as the Saudi government has offered them to perform Hajj in the category-A status.

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission has decided to allocate more frequency for mobile operators GrameenPhone Limited and AKTEL for the expansion of their network.
   The officials said the commission at its board meeting in December decided to allocate 7.5MHz frequency in 1800 GSM for GrameenPhone and 5MHz frequency for AKTEL.
   The officials said the frequency was allocated after the operators had applied for additional frequency as the current allocation was not enough to accommodate the growing number of customers which strains the network, resulting in call congestion.
   GrameenPhone now has about 25 lakh subscribers and AKTEL more than 10 lakh, and the operators use 7.4MHz frequency in 900 GSM band.
   The commission also decided to preserve frequency for two other mobile operators, Orasscom and the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, in 1800 band for use in future.
   Orasscom and the telephone board will use GSM band for their operation.
   The commission decided to allocate frequency to 10 private sector landline phone operators, which obtained the public switched telecom network licence from the commission.
   The commission officials said out of 10 operators, six would get frequency in 800 band, two in 1900 band and two in DECT technology available between 1880–1900MHz band.
   The commission also approved the numbering plan of the five PSTN operators.

The state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company started producing 20 million cubic feet (mmcf) gas a day from the third well of the Fenchuganj gas field Monday night.
   The total production of the filed has now stood at around 40 mmcf as the first well of the field has been producing around 22mmcf gas from May 22, 2004.
   Bapex began drilling the third well on February 6 on government funds and reached 3,056 metres depth in 97 days, said a news release of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation.
   The state-run Petrobangla discovered the field in 1981, the release said.

The activists of two factions of the BNP youth front Juba Dal began a clash over a tender worth about Tk 1 crore of the Panasi Project of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation on Wednesday.
   Local residents said the clash began with an exchange of 10 gunshots when two activists of the opposite factions quarrelled over the tender bid at the BADC warehouse at Kanaikhali.
   The police reached the place and arrested four activists.
   The police later denied arresting anyone.

Strike at Benapole Port continued for the fifth straight day Wednesday despite a 50 per cent cut in port charges by the government.
   A meeting between the government and striking port users’ associations ended inconclusive Wednesday as the agitators stood firm on their demands.
   Thousands of trucks loaded with goods remained stranded on both sides of the largest land port bordering India. Port officials said the strike was causing an estimated Tk 3 crore revenue loss per day.