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The central intelligence cell of the National Board of Revenue has started a massive crackdown on tax evading diagnostic centres, eminent doctors, corrupt meter readers and multi-storied house owners, said sources.
   The cell’s officials have recently discovered tax evasion of about Tk 10 crore, allegedly by two leading diagnostic centres of the capital, after comparing their tax returns with information loaded in their official computer servers, which were taken away from the establishments by taxmen all of a sudden.
   The centres are Popular Diagnostics and Medinova, said sources.
   A similar drive will soon be launched against 13 other diagnostic centres which have been included in the NBR black list, sources said. The list includes Modern Diagnostic, Lab Aid, Compath, Ibn Sina, Delta Diagnostic, Padma, Central Hospital and Islami Bank Hospital, said sources.
   According to the preliminary findings of the intelligence cell, 15 major diagnostic centres have long been concealing their real income to evade tax.
   ‘The suspected centres will be forced to pay taxes along with penalty, or face closure,’ an NBR official told New Age. ‘Evidences of tax evasion by the diagnostic centres have been collected.’
   The centres will soon be asked to submit the list of working doctors, and the amount of fees they are paid for consultancy and as commission, said sources.
   Citing an example, a tax official said a diagnostic centre paid Tk 1 crore to doctors in 2004 as consultancy fees. It has recently been asked to supply the list of doctors.
   The cell officials, however, have been facing serious problems in ascertaining the amount of money that doctors have been receiving as commission from diagnostic centres.
   Citing examples, officials said both the confiscated servers of the errant centres have not included names of the doctors who were given commissions, and a considerable amount of money was paid not to names but to ‘code numbers’.
   It is difficult to impose taxes on doctors’ commissions as diagnostic centres use code numbers in their servers for any particular doctor, said an NBR official.
   ‘We will not disclose the names of the doctors who have been getting commission, as they will never come to our centres if we name them,’ a tax official told New Age, quoting a general manager of a reputable diagnostic centre.
   The move against tax evading doctors will be undertaken soon after getting information of the paid fees from diagnostic centres, said sources. The next target of the cell will be the clinics in the capital.
   As far as corrupt meter readers of the utility departments of the government are concerned, the cell has prepared a list of such meter readers. One meter reader of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, owning one superstore and multi-storied building in Dhanmondi, has already been identified on Tuesday, sources said. The meter reader has no tax file in spite of his wealth.
   ‘We will send a list of meter readers having no tax files to the Bangladesh Bank for verifying their bank balances before imposing taxes on them,’ a member of the NBR told New Age.
   The NBR cell has also undertaken an initiative to identify owners of multi-storied buildings who have no tax files.
   The revenue board is planning to open another cell in Chittagong to identify tax evaders, said sources.
   ‘The objective of the NBR drive against tax evaders is to make wealthy people pay taxes as the country gets taxes which are much less than they should be,’ Zahir Muhammed, member (tax policy) of the board told New Age. ‘The NBR will not compromise with tax evaders.’

Bangladesh’s trade gap with the rest of the world widened further in January as increasing import bills led by consumer goods, petroleum products and capital machinery that swallowed the growth of export.
   Seven-month trade deficit rose to $1.57 billion in January, up by 12.1 per cent from December, compared to $934 million during the same period a year back, according to the Bangladesh Bank statistics.
   During July-January, export rose 10.7 per cent to $4.75 billion while import rose 21 per cent to $6.3 billion.
   The trade deficit in services increased to $647 million compared to $398 million a year back.
   The latest export figure released by the Export Promotion Bureau shows that export grew 12.5 per cent during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal.
   A central bank release on Wednesday says opening of letters of credit for import grew 24 per cent during the period, indicating a further rise in import.
   The seven-month balance of payment data shows that growing trade deficit has put the external sector in a precarious state with current account deficit amounting to $139 million compared with a surplus of $581 million during the same period of the preceding year.
   The growing trade deficit has already put pressure on the exchange rate in the recent months as the local currency depreciated by around 8 to 9 per cent against dollar to Tk 63.6 as of Wednesday from the Tk 58-59 levels in November 2004.
   The immediate past governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Fakhruddin Ahmed, before leaving his office past week, sounded a note of caution that the widening trade deficit could create pressure on the exchange rate.
   He also told reporters at a briefing that it would not be wise to adjust the exchange rates considering the reserve positions to stabilise the money market, adding that the level of other neighbouring countries remained much better in comparison.
   According to statistics, foreign exchange reserves stood around $3 billion or equivalent of three-month import bills at the end of April.
   The central bank data indicates that expenditures on consumer goods and petroleum products would increase in the coming months given the trend of L/C opening.
   Opening of import L/Cs for consumer goods surged by 57 per cent while that for petroleum products increased by 40 per cent till February.
   L/Cs opened for capital machinery and intermediate goods soared by 62 and 60 per cent respectively till the month, while the growth in industrial raw materials imports was marginal. The export figures show that readymade garment sector, withstanding the fears of setback of quota expiry from January 1, maintained its dominance commanding 77 per cent of the total export earnings.

The government has taken initiatives to improve the strained Indo-Bangla relations that further dipped in the last couple of months following a series of unwarranted incidents along the common border.
   In line with the initiatives, the government has asked the ministries concerned to put the heads together and find ways out to resolve the longstanding contentious issues between the two countries that included border disputes, security, water sharing and management, trade and economy, communications.
   An inter-ministerial meeting, scheduled to be held today, will discuss the issues with the border issue high on the agenda.
   The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, will chair the meeting. High officials from 13 ministries and intelligence agencies are expected to attend the meeting.
   The officials were asked to provide whatever information they have regarding Bangladesh’s relations with India.
   ‘The meeting is exclusively on the relations between India and Bangladesh,’ an official of the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
   Asked about the meeting, Morshed, however, said it was a regular meeting.
   The meeting came hot on the heels of recent border skirmishes between the two border forces that killed at least nine people since mid-April and firing on the frontier over the construction of controversial barbed-wire fencing by the Indian authorities within the restricted border lines.
   Though the official did not disclose details of the meeting, a source in the foreign ministry said the meeting would set up strategies for the upcoming negotiations with New Delhi.
   A foreign secretary-level meeting is likely to take place in the next month to review the entire gamut of bi-lateral relations.
   The meeting will focus demarcation of 6.5 kilometres disputed border of over 4000 kilometre Indo-Bangla border, trade gap worth of more than US $1.0 billion between two countries, India- Myanmar gas pipeline through Bangladesh, the Ganges water sharing treaty, Free Trade Agreement, co-ordinated border patrolling by the borer guards – the BDR and the BSF-, and visa regime among others.
   Foreign ministry officials said the meeting is considered highly significant following the double-postponement of the South Asian Associations of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in February in Dhaka as a result of India’s unwillingness to attend it on security ground.
   A parliamentary watchdog on foreign ministry at a recent meeting expressed dismay at the ministry’s performance to improve relations with India when China and Pakistan were one step ahead in renewing their diplomatic and business ties with India.
   The meeting had suggested the government for immediate measures to improve relations with India.

The Japanese ambassador, Matsushiro Horiguchi, on Wednesday suggested enactment of legal provisions to ensure ‘freedom of action’ for citizens during political programmes, including hartal.
   He also suggested improving governance, eradicating corruption and ironing out minor differences of opinion among political parties to unlock the growth potential of the economy and attract more foreign investment.
   ‘Hartals are hampering development and hindering FDI flow. I would suggest that going by global common sense, Bangladesh should consider making legal provisions to ensure property rights, …and freedom of action during political assemblies and demonstrations and, if necessary, make provisions for penalty,’ Horiguchi said in his lecture on ‘Next Steps for Japan-Bangladesh Relations’ at the National Press Club.
   ‘Hartal is a challenge for Bangladesh. Not only Bangladeshis, but also foreigners, especially businesspeople, are seriously troubled by hartals.
   ‘Freedom of speech and assembly are important. However, we see serious injustices when people do not sympathise with hartals are forced to cooperate, cars and buses on streets are destroyed or put on fire, and open stores are damaged.
   ‘What I think is most needed is Bangladesh’s strong political will and commitment and concrete actions to improve the law and order situation, eradicate corruption, and enhance its implementation capacity.’
   Horiguchi expressed his hope that the political parties would be able to iron out minor differences of opinion and cooperate to boost the economic and social development of their nation.
   Japan’s new country assistance programme for Bangladesh, to be finalised by September, identifies governance as one of the three major pillars of progress, the other two being pro-people economic growth and social development, he added.
   On the recent political killings and arms smuggling, Horiguchi said although the government has rounded up suspects of Shah AMS Kibria’s murder and the Chittagong arms smuggling cases, ‘the picture behind the crimes is yet to emerge fully’.
   He requested the government to continue investigation into the unsolved cases and bring the suspects to trial under due process.
   About the Rapid Action Battalion, he said there is widespread criticism of extra-judicial killing, but the law and order situation has greatly improved after its introduction.
   The envoy, however, warned that dependence on RAB to ensure security could be attributed to ‘malfunctioning of the police and judicial systems’.
   Improvement of these systems is ‘a crucial challenge for Bangladesh’, he said.
   The Japanese government, he said, would make effective contributions towards strengthening the police in response to the Bangladesh government’s recent request for cooperation for police reforms, including equipment supply, training and capacity building.
   Japan may help to set up a forensic research institute in Bangladesh, he added.
   Asked about his opinion of the opposition’s plea for reforms of the caretaker government system, Horiguchi said the matter should be settled by the people and the government of Bangladesh.
   He, however, hoped the next general election would be as free and impartial as the three previous ones.
   The Japanese envoy said Japan was contesting for membership in the United Nations Security Council and Tokyo was hopeful of getting Dhaka’s support in this regard.
   Asked if there were any irritants in relations between his country and Bangladesh, he answered in the negative.
   Replying to another question he said Japan was very much in favour of seeing South Asia as a nuclear weapon-free zone in line with the aspirations of smaller regional countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
   Talking about economic issues, the envoy called for reforming the cumbersome regulations and procedures, improving the Chittagong seaport, boosting infrastructure development and promotion of investment, including FDI.
   Stressing the importance of infrastructure development, which has shown little progress, Horiguchi mentioned that few tenders and contracts for setting up of power plants have been successful in recent years, which will lead to a serious power shortage in the near future, and the shortage of water for industrial use continues to be a serious problem.
   He said Japan would work to expand trade and investment, particularly enhanced FDI flow into Bangladesh, and improve the necessary infrastructure.
   In reply to a question, he said Japan would be willing to finance, along with other donors, the Padma Bridge, the feasibility study of which is at the final stage.
   The envoy also said that the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, would be visiting Japan on an official tour this summer at the invitation of Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.
   Her visit would consolidate mutual understanding, and enhance political and economic relations between Dhaka and Tokyo, the envoy added.
   The ambassador lauded Bangladesh for its democratic system, religious tolerance and cultural diversity.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, appeared on track Wednesday to win a third straight term in power, as Britain prepared to vote in a general election that has called his integrity over Iraq into question.
   Polling stations open Thursday at 7:00am (0600 GMT) and close at 10:00pm (2100 GMT), with most results to roll in overnight. If re-elected, Blair could announce his new cabinet as early as Friday.
   An opinion poll in The Times newspaper on Wednesday put his governing Labour Party at 41 per cent, well ahead of the Conservatives at 27 per cent and Liberal Democrats at 23 per cent.
   But with as much as one-third of the electorate said to be uncommitted, the big question was not whether Blair and Labour would be re-elected, but by how much—or how little.
   Many voters, furious at Blair for taking Britain into the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, could either boycott the polls or opt for the anti-war Liberal Democrats, potentially robbing Labour of a convincing landslide win.
   Blair was barnstorming key marginal constituencies Wednesday, reiterating his warning—discounted by most independent experts—that a low turnout will hand the Conservatives an upset victory.
   ‘There are big choices on all the main areas of policy, and there’s only one choice in terms of government—a Labour government or a Conservative government,’ he told a morning rally in north London.
   ‘Between now and when the polls close, we are going to be out in every single part of the country making our case, because we believe it’s the right one to take to the British people.’
   Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat chief Charles Kennedy were also out Wednesday blitzing constituencies up and down the country where tight races could determine the outcome.
   ‘Trust is very important at this election,’ said Howard in a breakfast TV interview, as he blamed a prevailing mood of discontent amongst voters on a breakdown in confidence in politicians.
   Blair led Labour to landslide victories in May 1997 and June 2003, scoring a 165-seat majority in parliament with 40.7 per cent of the vote in the latter election.
   But that was before Blair—US president George W Bush’s strongest ally on the world stage—decided to take a reluctant nation into the Iraq war.
   Nagging questions about the legality of the war, and how soon Blair decided to take Britain into it before telling the public, foiled Labour’s bid to put the strong economy at the heart of its campaign.
   Many analysts say that if Labour gets less than a 100-seat majority in the 646-seat House of Commons, Blair is likely to make way sooner rather than later for Gordon Brown, his ambitious and more popular chancellor of the exchequer.
   In a BBC radio interview Wednesday, Blair—who said last year he intends if re-elected to serve a ‘full term’ and then resign—acknowledged: ‘There is going to be a change (in Labour’s leadership) at some point’.
   ‘The reason I want to carry on now is because I believe passionately that there are things that we can do,’ he added.
   Going in Blair’s favour has been the inability of the Conservatives—the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher—to woo voters with their tough line on immigration and personal attacks on the prime minister.
   Howard, the party’s third leader since 1997, could fall by the wayside if his side fails to get at least 200 seats on Thursday, press reports said. In 2001 it won 166.

The police have identified as vulnerable 557 of 577 polling centres for the Chittagong City Corporation elections, scheduled to be held on May 9.
   Only 20 centres in such restricted areas as the cantonment and the police lines are normal while the rest are prone to violence, security breaches and political influence, said sources in the police.
   The authorities have decided to deploy 800 army personnel in addition to 11,000 personnel from the police, the Bangladesh Rifles and the Armed Police Battalion to avoid any untoward incident at the polling centres, said the deputy election commissioner, Biswas Lutfar Rahman. ‘As most centres have been identified as vulnerable according to the reports of different law enforcing agencies, the Election Commission has decided to engage additional security forces.’
   Sixteen election monitoring agencies including FEMA, JANIPOP, Democracy Watch and NDF have already started to keep close watch on electioneering.
   With only four days ahead of the election, the two major candidates continued with extensive campaigning and other preparations on Wednesday.
   The Awami League-backed Nagarik Committee candidate, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, exchanged views with the city residents from Comilla district and addressed 17 meetings with the election-conducting committees at community centres.
   AL leaders Motia Chowdhury, Suranjit Sengupta, Obaidul Qader, Abdul Matin Khasru, and Sylhet City Corporation mayor Badruddin Ahamed Kamran conducted mass contacts in favour of Mohiuddin in Chittagong.
   The BNP-led four-party alliance candidate, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, addressed four rallies at the outer stadium, Alongkar intersection, Mehedibagh Golpahar and Balirhat in the city and exchanged views with a group of residents hailing from Senbug upazila in Noakhali.
   He also conducted mass contacts at Madarbari, Feringibazar and Patharghata and sat at a meeting with the ward level chiefs of his election committee at the Enesel mansion office.
   The minister for fisheries and livestock, Abdullah-Al-Noman, the Barisal City Corporation mayor Mujibor Rahman Sarwar, forest and environment state minister Jafrul Islam Chowdhury and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury also campaigned in favour of Mir Nasir on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Mohiuddin received a death threat on Wednesday.
   A letter, sent to the mayor’s office by post in the morning, asked the mayor to resign and extend support to Mir Nasir, said sources in the Nagarik Committee.
   Otherwise, the sender, who introduced himself as Mohammad Shahabuddin Chowdhury, threatened to kill Mohiuddin

Bangladesh ranked 58th among 62 countries in the Globalisation Index 2005, down two places from 2004 and three from 2003.
   India ranked 61st, Pakistan 50th and Sri Lanka 43rd in the index, which puts forth an empirical measure of globalisation and its impact in surveyed countries that account for 96 per cent of the global GDP and 85 per cent of the population.
   The index, prepared by the US consulting firm AT Kearney and the US periodical Foreign Policy Magazine for the fifth year straight, and released last week, takes into account 12 variables, grouped in four categories: economic integration, personal contact, technological connectivity, and political engagement.
   Bangladesh slipped eight places to 43rd in the personal contact category, which tracks international travel and tourism, international telephone traffic, and cross-border remittances and personal transfers including worker remittances, compensation to employees, person-to-person and non-governmental transfers.
   It slipped to 61st in telephone use, down one place, held on to 60th in international travel, and dipped from 10th to 11th in terms of remittances and personal transfers.
   Bangladesh was placed the last in the technological connectivity category, which takes into account the number of internet users, internet hosts and secure servers. It was 59th in 2004.
   In the economic integration category, which combines data on trade and foreign direct investment, however, the country pushed one place up to 61st. It ranked 58th in international trade, 60th in investment portfolio, 61st in foreign direct investment and 62nd in investment return.
   Bangladesh made substantial leap in the political engagement category, which takes stock of the number of selected international organisations in the surveyed countries and the selected international treaties they sign, and was placed 35th, up 18 places. The category also assesses financial and personnel contributions to the UN peacekeeping missions, and levels of governmental transfers.
   The report says the more globalised countries tend to be less corrupt and more free, and globalisation may be the key to keeping politicians honest as well as helping countries adopt higher international standards of transparency.
   The index also shows that global integration has survived the turbulence of the Iraq war, a sharp economic downturn and the failure of trade talks.
   However, given the fact that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh together account for a fifth of the world’s population, the report says the effects of high performing industries are yet to penetrate the regional economies.

One US soldier was killed and seven wounded in operations throughout Iraq on Monday, while two US airmen were reported missing after their F-18 fighters disappeared from radar screens, the US military said.
   A Bulgarian soldier and 27 Iraqis including a high-ranking official were killed in separate incidents.
   The US military reported that it had lost contact with two of its military jets over Iraq and that a search was under way to locate the F-18s, which had taken off from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
   NBC News, citing US Navy officials, said the jets had been involved in a midair collision.
   ‘One 1st Corps Support Command Soldier was killed and another was injured when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during a combat logistics patrol south of Baghdad International Airport at approximately Monday.
   A Bulgarian soldier was killed and another injured in Iraq Tuesday when their vehicle crashed during a desert storm.
   A high-ranking official was gunned down in Baghdad Tuesday, while a firefight pitting US and Iraqi forces against guerrillas left 15 dead in the restive western city of Ramadi.
   Separate attacks north of the capital killed another 11 Iraqis during the day.

The Anti-Corruption Commission will seek legal opinion from the attorney general or a legal expert to find out whether it will have to get the government’s approval of the guideline for evaluating the staffers of the defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption before absorbing them into the commission or transferring them elsewhere.
   The commission came up with the decision at its meeting held on Tuesday with its chairman, Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, in the chair.
   On April 20, the commission approved the guideline for screening.
   The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion Act 2004 says the commission will appoint in its service the bureau’s staffers whom it will think fit after scanning, using any method it may select.
   According to the commission’s interpretation of the provision, the act has empowered it to formulate the guideline and criteria for scanning the bureau’s staffers.
   Even then, before scanning under the guideline it has prepared, the commission decided to seek expert legal opinion to ensure that no further legal complications arise, Justice Sultan told reporters after the meeting.
   The commission also decided to ask the government whether it could deal with cases under the Foreign Currency Control Act 1947, though such cases were not included in the commission’s jurisdiction in the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.
   The commission also approved the panel of lawyers, suggested by the attorney general, to conduct the cases for the commission in the Supreme Court.
   It also decided to ask different ministries and divisions of the government to send to the commission the information and records of allegations brought, and departmental proceedings drawn, against any official of the ministry or division.

The government will soon start a feasibility study to introduce a high-speed electric train between Dhaka and Chittagong.
   The officials of the Bangladesh Railway, the implementing agency of the project, said they have already started the process to appoint a consulting firm to conduct the feasibility study, and made a shortlist for six international firms among ten which submitted its expression of intent to the railway authorities in March.
   They said a project evaluation committee of the railway authorities will scrutinise the proposal for the shortlisted firms and appoint one of the firms to conduct the feasibility study at a cost of Tk 4.43 crore within a timeframe for 18 months.
   Earlier in January, the government approved the feasibility study project ‘conversion or construction of Dhaka-Chittagong rail track into double track with electric traction.’ Later the railway authorities invited an expression of intent on February 5 in this regard.
   The officials said the feasibility study will go over all the study reports, done earlier by the Bangladesh Railway, define traffic forecast, and provide a broad overview of the double track metre gauge or broad gauge rail track between Dhaka and Chittagong, and an alternative double track, and a cord line between Dhaka and Laksam.
   The study will also be conducted for a detail design and layout plan and technical soundness and a survey will be carried out to determine high voltage electric stations in the national grid.
   The study will help assess electric supply facilities, number of electric locomotives, and high-speed carriages required for the project.
   The officials said the electric train service will reduce the 320km trip between Dhaka and Chittagong from seven hours to about two hours as the proposed electric train would run at the speed of about 160km per hour.
   However, the officials at the communication ministry said huge involvement of money and time would be needed to implement the project.
   ‘At least Tk 4,000 crore would be needed to build a new track,’ said a top official.

A thana-level Awami League leader was killed in ‘encounter’ with the Rapid Action Battalion at Keraniganj in Dhaka Tuesday night, raising the crossfire death toll to 284 since June 2004.
   The RAB sources said a patrol team of RAB-2 in the evening went to Nazirabad Chandipara on information that a gang was there.
   As the RAB team reached the spot at about 8:30pm, the criminals opened fire on them, who also fired back.
   Later, the RAB men found one of the criminals, identified as Mafizul Islam Dud Miah, dead on the spot. The elite force also recovered two firearms along with ammunition from the scene.
   The RAB said Dud Miah was wanted in more than a dozen criminal cases, including four murders, and involved in criminal activities in the Lalbagh, Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar of Old Town.
   Meanwhile, claiming Dud Miah as the joint convener of Meghna thana unit of the Awami League, the party’s general secretary, Abdul Jalil, MP, in a statement said the RAB arrested him from the court premises without any warrant, when he went to the court to appear in a case at the speedy trial tribunal Tuesday noon.
   Condemning the arrest, Jalil, in the statement, demanded his unconditional release and said the government would be responsible if any harm was done to him.

The Code of Civil Procedure is likely to be further amended, bringing six major changes to the century-old law.
   The ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs has already prepared a draft bill, the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, which will be discussed at a consultation meeting with leaders of the bar council, the bar associations across the country and judges, to be held on Thursday and Friday at the auditorium of the Judicial Administration Training Institute.
   The draft bill proposes introduction of a centralised system of filing civil cases.
   According to the proposed system, in a judgeship (district), all cases will have to be filed with a single filing court.
   A judge will be in charge of the filing court and will, upon classification by nature of the cases, distribute the cases among the courts to deal with. He or she will also monitor the cases.
   The register of the suits will be maintained centrally in a judgeship and the identification number of any cases will be unchanged at any stage.
   Similar cases will be heard and disposed of by a single court simultaneously.
   According to the existing system, civil cases are filed with different courts in a judgeship. The courts subordinate to the district judge have jurisdiction over separate areas and a civil court has to deal with cases of different natures.
   The bill proposes that there will be separate specialised courts to deal with the cases of specific subjects and types, and each civil court in a judgeship will have jurisdiction over the district instead of a specific area of the district.
   To this effect, the Civil Courts Act will also be amended.
   The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill also proposes introduction of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, which have already been introduced in trial courts, in the appellate courts to make a way for settlement of cases outside courts at the appeal stage as well.
   According to the bill, the facts of the complaint or written statement will not be required to be orally stated or denied by the plaintiff or the defendant or by any witness.
   The complaint or written statement filed in the form of affidavit will be considered oral evidence and the plaintiff or the defendant may then be directly cross-examined.
   The same provision was made by the Code of Civil Procedure (Second Amendment) Act, enacted on July 19, 2003, and the government had to repeal the provision by a third amendment to the code enacted on November 22, 2003 in the face of protest by the lawyers.
   The bill proposes that after ex parte disposal a case may be restored upon deposition of Tk 2,000 as cost.
   According to the existing provision, if a case is disposed of ex parte, the party who failed to appear in the trial has to file a miscellaneous case seeking restoration of the original case, and disposal of such miscellaneous case takes years, causing unexpected delay in the final disposal of the original case.
   The bill proposes that a party will have to pay costs for seeking any adjournment in an appeal after three such adjournments.
   According to the bill, an appeal may be directly restored without any deposition of witnesses, but in that case the party will have to pay costs.
   The minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs told New Age on Tuesday that the amendment to the civil code would be made as a component of the legal and judicial reform programme of the government in order to introduce revolutionary changes in the country’s civil justice delivery system.
   The amendment will ensure speedy disposal of the cases and will reduce expense and time, he said.

The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, on Tuesday telephoned his counterparts in New Delhi and Islamabad to discuss the dates for holding the stalled SAARC summit in Dhaka.
   Morshed, as foreign minister of the host country, has proposed two sets of dates — September 4-5 or November 13-14 — for holding the 13th summit, which was postponed twice.
   Diplomatic sources told the news agency that in his tele-talk with the Indian external affairs minister, Natwar Singh, Morshed said Dhaka sent the proposed dates to Islamabad, the current chair of SAARC, for securing the concurrence of the member states.
   Natwar assured Morshed that he would convey to him about the confirmation of the dates in a day or two.
   On bilateral issues, the two foreign ministers agreed to resolve all bilateral irritants through dialogue. They also agreed to take necessary steps to keep the border peaceful.
   This is the second direct contact between the two foreign ministers after their meeting in Jakarta on the sidelines of Afro-Asian Summit in April.
   Morshed has also invited Natwar to visit Dhaka, preferably before the SAARC summit, and a formal invitation was sent to him through diplomatic channel.
   Later, Morshed had telephone conversation with the Pakistan foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, and discussed the possible SAARC summit dates.
   The foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin, sent the proposed dates to his counterpart in Islamabad.

Four officers-in-charge of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police have filed separate general diaries against mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
   The police said the OCs lodged the GDs with the Bandar, Pahartoli, Chandgaon and Kotwali police stations on May 1. But, they disclosed it Tuesday evening.
   The OCs filed the GDs as the mayor at public meetings on May 1 asked his supporters and activists to be present at the vote centres ‘with sticks to resist vote rigging,’ the police said.
   They said Mohiuddin also told the meetings that he would stand on the dock ‘if anything happened in resisting the vote theft.’
   The mayoral election will be held on May 9.

Miyan Golam Parwar, lawmaker of Jamaat-e-Islami from the Khulna-5 constituency, asked for gunman to the Khulna Metropolitan Police for his security.
   The police said the lawmaker had received death threat on April 28 through a letter from an underground party top leader. The letter, signed by New Biplabi Communist Party leader Shailen Biswas, was sent to the lawmaker by post.
   M Akbar Ali, deputy commissioner of the KMP (headquarters), told New Age that Parwar verbally asked for gunman to the KMP, and he was requested to apply to the home ministry for gunman.

The additional secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, Ataur Rahman Khan, was made the secretary of the Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday, about five and a half months after the formation of the anti-graft body.
   The appointment was made on the commission’s recommendation following a letter it sent to the cabinet division on April 23, said highly placed sources in the government.
   In December 2004, the government and the commission had been caught in a row over the appointment of secretary of the commission.
   The commission chairman, Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, on December 11, 2004 appointed the director general of the now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, MA Matin, director-general-cum-secretary of the commission.
   Matin’s contractual appointment as the director general of the defunct bureau expired on December 11, and the government had not extended his contract.
   In addition, the government on December 22 appointed AMM Reza-e-Rabbi as the secretary of the commission.
   To end the row, both the appointments had been cancelled by the commission and the government.

AF Hassan Ariff, who resigned as the attorney general on April 28, was appointed Tuesday the senior government counsel in the writ petition that has challenged the provisions on reservation of seats for women in the parliament.
   He will appear before the High Court to defend the 14th amendment to the constitution that provides for the reserved seats and the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004.
   The hearing of the case remains inconclusive and is expected to resume on Monday.
   Ariff confirmed his new appointment while talking to New Age on Tuesday. ‘The prime minister and the law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister accepted my resignation [as the attorney general] on the condition that I would appear for the state in some important cases.’

The criminal investigation department officials of the police on Tuesday interrogated 20 family members of 10 accused in the murder case of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria.
   During the sudden interrogation, CID officials asked them about the links between the main accused Abdul Quayum and the other accused.
   The investigation officer of the case and the senior additional superintendent of police-CID, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, who interrogated the relatives of the accused, said they went for fresh probing following a message received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
   Earlier, a visiting team of the FBI talked to the accused and their relatives.

Asserting that there has been no violation of the 1975 Joint India-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities from the Indian side, a top Indian minister on Tuesday told the parliament that the Bangladesh Rifles has been consistently misinterpreting a paragraph in it to oppose erection of fence on the border.
   The BDR is misinterpreting para 8 (e) of the guidelines to emphasis that fence is a structure having defence potential, the minister of state for home affairs, S Raghupathy, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
   He said the BDR is objecting to the construction of border fence within 150 yards of the International Border and resorted to firing recently.
   This issue has been discussed with the Bangladesh government at various levels including meetings between home secretaries and director generals of the two border guards, he said.
   The issue has also been taken up with Bangladesh through normal diplomatic channel, Raghupathy said, adding, the response from Bangladesh government was ‘not favourable.’