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The government has announced a new pay scale, raising salaries by 53 per cent on an average, for all public servants of 20 grades. The new scale will be implemented in three phases with retrospective effect from January 1, 2005.
   The cabinet, at a meeting on Monday chaired by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, approved the lowest one of the four options for the sixth pay scale, proposed by a secretarial committee on the basis of the Pay Commission’s recommendations.
   Accordingly, the highest gross salary of a public servant stands at Tk 23,000 and the lowest at Tk 2,400 (basic). The highest gross salary was Tk 15,000 and the lowest basic salary was Tk 1,500 under the fifth pay scale.
   The monthly basic salary of a Class I officer at the entry level, which was Tk 4,300 in the previous pay scale and Tk 2,850 in the fourth, has been fixed at Tk 6,800.
   The new pay scale will directly benefit some 8.28 lakh public servants, including the police, and 1.4 lakh military personnel.
   Also, a total of 5.6 lakh teachers of non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs, under the monthly pay order system, will be entitled to the enhanced pay. They currently get 90 per cent of their salaries from the government.
   After examination of the recommendations and discussion by ministers, the cabinet meeting decided to pay 75 per cent of the salaries under the new pay scale in this fiscal year and the rest 25 per cent in the next fiscal year, beginning from July 1.
   The public servants will be able to draw their arrears (75 per cent pay hike) since last January in June.
   Various allowances recommended by the new pay scale will be given during the subsequent fiscal year (2006-07), the last year in office for the BNP-led alliance government.
   The government will require Tk 3,975 crore for implementing the pay scale, spanning three fiscal years. The requirement is Tk 567 crore this fiscal year, Tk 1,643 crore in 2005-06 and Tk 1,765 crore in 2006-07.
   The multilateral lending agencies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, earlier cautioned the government of the inflationary pressure that will arise due to implementation of the new pay scale.
   And with the pay hike now being effective, the government brushed aside the possibility of any ‘sympathetic inflation’ if the business community plays a fair role in the market.
   ‘Since we have a huge economy, a pay increase of Tk 4,000 crore [in three fiscal years] will not cause any inflation unless unscrupulous businessmen manipulate the market forces,’ the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, told reporters after the cabinet had endorsed the pay scale.
   Informed sources said the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, and another minister argued in favour of full implementation of the pay scale immediately, considering the next general elections.
   In response, Saifur was quoted to have said, ‘How can I give it? I would have to slash down the annual development programme if I am to give it simultaneously.’
   Briefing newsmen at the Cabinet Division, the cabinet secretary, Saadat Hossain, emphatically said, ‘Never had inflation risen after announcement of the new pay scale earlier in 1985, 1992 and 1997.’
   The increase in salaries of public servants was around 50 per cent in 1997, when Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government announced the fifth pay scale and implemented it in phases.
   ‘There are one thousand one hundred reasons for inflation and pay hike is not the only one. Inflation will depend on how the government controls money supply,’ he said, adding that even remittance could cause inflation unless the money is ‘sterilised’.
   The cabinet preferred continuity of the existing 20-grade salary structure instead of approving 37 grades proposed by the Pay Commission, which was headed by former cabinet secretary Mujibul Huq .
   Only the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the prime minister’s office, who enjoy far more senior status compared to other secretaries, will draw salary at the special grade at Tk 24,500 as gross amount.
   The first eight grades in top-down order are Tk 23,000 (fixed gross), Tk 19,300 (Tk 22,100 maximum gross amount), Tk 16,800 (Tk 20,700), Tk 15,000 (Tk 19,800), Tk 13,750 (Tk 19,250), Tk 11,000 (Tk 17,650), Tk 9,000 (Tk 15,480) and Tk 7,400 (Tk 13,240).
   The rest 12 grades that fall under the efficiency bar are Tk 6,800 (between Tk 9,075 and Tk 13,090), Tk 5,100 (between Tk 7,060 and Tk 10,360), Tk 4,100 (between Tk 5,850 and Tk 8,820), Tk 3,700 (between Tk 5,310 and Tk 8,060), Tk 3,500 (between Tk 4,970 and Tk 7,500), Tk 3,300 (between Tk 4,630 and Tk 6,940), Tk 3,100 (between Tk 4,290 and Tk 6,380), Tk 3,000 (between Tk 4,050 and Tk 5,920), Tk 2,850 (between Tk 3,760 and Tk 5,410), Tk 2,600 (between Tk 3,440 and Tk 4,870), Tk 2,500 (between Tk 3,270 and Tk 4,590) and Tk 2,400 (between Tk 3,100 and Tk 4,310).
   The cabinet accepted 80-90 per cent of the recommendations made by the secretarial committee, claimed Saadat, who himself headed the committee. It was formed to examine the recommendations made by the Pay Commission formed last year.
   Only a few suggestions, such as encashment of transport allowance, were not considered in view of the need for further examination, he said.
   ‘We [secretarial committee] did not touch the administrative issues although the Pay Commission made recommendations encompassing massive reforms,’ the cabinet secretary said. He explained that issues like anomalies in salary structure would be addressed, if needed, by the cabinet committee on good governance and administration reform headed by the finance and planning minister.
   The new pay scale has increased allowances by 30 per cent for the armed forces and police. Pensioners will enjoy 30 per cent increase in their benefits, and those public servants who are on leave prior to retirement will be entitled to full salaries during the entire one-year period.
   According to the pay scale, Class II officers will be entitled to 50 per cent selection grade and Class I officers to cent per cent selection grade.
   The transport cost during the transfer of public servants has also been increased significantly, the cabinet secretary told the reporters. House rent will be fixed in view of rates in the places of posting and other allowances also have been increased.

Four treasury bench members including the law minister, on Monday said the Supreme Court should draw contempt charges against the lawyers agitating and creating anarchy in the court premises.
   They named the Bar Council vice-chairman, Rokanuddin Mahmud, and the Supreme Court Bar Association president, Mahbubey Alam, for violating the court’s sanctity, undermining the image of the judiciary and issuing threat to the chief justice.
   The lawmakers took the floor on a point of order in the parliament and raised the issue of the ongoing agitation by a group of lawyers in the Supreme Court.
   ‘The Supreme Court should uphold its own sanctity,’ said the law minister, Moudud Ahmed.
   He also urged the Supreme Judicial Council to take action against some judges who might be engaged in ‘irregularities’ by not signing verdicts given by them.
   ‘We will be happy if the Supreme Judicial Council, which is constitutionally mandated to address intra-court irregularities, takes action,’ he said. ‘If the council does not act, the sovereign parliament knows how to ensure rule of law and uphold sanctity of the court.’
   ‘An anarchic situation has been prevailing in the Supreme Court,’ said Moudud,
   The three other lawmakers were Professor Shahidul Islam, Jahir Uddin Swapan and Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal.
   The speaker, Mohammad Jamiruddin Sircar, termed the lawyers’ agitation before the chief justice’s office ‘unconstitutional’, saying the chief justice could take action against the ‘indecorous gesture’ of the lawyers.
   ‘The Supreme Court, which is an independent institution, can draw contempt charges,’ he said. ‘The court can also ask the Bar Council to revoke membership of the lawyers if found guilty for contempt.’
   Some pro-Awami League lawyers have launched a movement in the Supreme Court premises on judicial functioning of Justice Faisal Mahmud Fayezee despite allegations of doctored LLB results. They also carried black flag and observed a sit-in in front of the office of the Chief Justice demanding an order asking Fayezee to refrain from judicial functioning.
   Professor Shahidul Islam, who first raised the issue, said Rokanuddin and Mahbubey Alam had violated the constitution by threatening the chief justice and creating obstacles on his way to the office by staging demonstration.
   Shahidul urged the Speaker to move a censure motion in the House for the lawyers’ action undermining the image and prestige of the judiciary and the Chief Justice.
   Swapan said the government was deprived of earning Tk 1,200 crore as revenue as some judges did not put their signatures in the verdicts given by them. ‘It would be an intentional act aiming to make gap between the government and the judiciary.’
   On the point, the speaker, who is also a lawyer, said the judges are accountable to the chief justice. ‘He [chief justice] can take up the issue. If the judge is proved inefficient, the chief justice can go to the Supreme Judicial Council.’
   Alal said the people had become anxious as a group of lawyers created a confrontational situation in the court. ‘These lawyers are pressurising the bench to give verdict favouring them.’
    ‘Once a judge of the High Court is appointed, the Supreme Judicial Council cannot sack him/her and even the chief justice cannot do it,’ said Sircar.
   He said the chief justice could take action in the matter of alleged contempt of court while the Bar Council chairman (attorney general) could cancel the Bar Council membership of the agitating lawyers.
   Moudud said an anarchic situation now prevailed in the Supreme Court compound tarnishing the image of the Supreme Court. ‘Some lawyers, who are the followers of a particular political party, have been creating such situation for last one year.’
   Describing the Supreme Court as the guardian of the constitution and the chief justice as the chief justice of Bangladesh, he said the situation created aiming the chief justice caused concern among the people.
   He hoped the agitating lawyers would refrain from their present activities and resolve the problem peacefully through discussion with the chief justice.

Thirty-eight more bodies were recovered from the sunken launch and the river Bura Gauranga on Monday, raising the death toll to 63, till filing of the report at 10:30pm.
   Divers of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and the Bangladesh Navy dragged the sunken launch ashore at about 8:15pm.
   Earlier in the morning, local people and relatives of the victims recovered seven more bodies floating on the river at Dhalar Char.
   According to unofficial sources, 63 bodies have so far been recovered, and over 40 passengers remain missing.
   The Char Mantaz-bound passenger launch ML Prince of Patuakhali started its journey from the Patuakhali terminal and sank in the river after being caught in the storm at about 11:30am on Sunday with more than two hundred passengers and crewmen on board.
   Seventeen bodies, including those of five women and six children, were identified and handed over to their relatives.
   The BIWTA rescue vessel Hamza reached the spot from Barisal at noon on Monday, and started salvage operation at about 2:00pm.
   But relatives of the victims who remained missing attacked the rescue workers at 6:00pm alleging that they had failed to rescue their near and dear ones.
   The agitating people pelted brickbats and stones at the rescue workers leaving four persons, including three policemen, injured. Mizanur Rahman, an office assistant of the Galachipa upazila relief office, was among the injured.
   To bring the situation under control, the police fired some blank shots and charged them with batons leaving at least six people injured.
   Later the navy men from the nearby base went to the spot and brought the situation under control assuring that the rescue operation will go on properly.
   Local people at Latar Char, Pangashia, Koralia, and Baishdia said they had seen many dead bodies floated away from the spot to the estuary of the bay.
   A survivor of the sunken launch, Hari Shangkar Das, 40, of Galachipa in Patuakhali, over mobile phone said the launch was overcrowded.
   It was carrying more than two hundred passengers as against the capacity of only 80. Survivors said there were no lifebuoys in the launch.
   The Galachipa upazila nirbahi officer, Mezbahuddin Ahmed, also admitted that the launch was overloaded with passengers.
   According to sources and official records, the small-sized old vessel had mechanical and structural fault. With the name ML Queen of Patuakhali, the launch was registered in 1982 with the capacity of only 66 passengers.
   Since then, the launch had sunken three times, once in the river Lohalia under Sadar upazila in 1989, again in the river Paira under Mirzaganj upazila in Patuakhali in 1994, and at last in the river Bura Gouranga near Patuakhali launch terminal.
   Its structure was changed later and registered with increased capacity of 80 passengers and renamed as the ML Prince of Patuakhali.
   Mainuddin Zulfikar, a registration officer, now posted to Sadar ghat terminal in Dhaka, on June 7, 2004 approved the registration without checking the modified design and structure, sources said.
   Mohammad Yunus, traffic inspector at Patuakhali, however, claimed the sunken launch had fitness, and certificate was valid up to June 6, 2005.
   But, another source claimed the photocopy of the fitness and survey certificate were produced when the route permit was fake.
   At least 29 single and double-decked passenger launches capsized in different rivers in the southern region since 1983, killing at least 4,000 people. Same number of people was missing and property worth about Tk 50 crore damaged, according to reports on launch accidents published in different regional and national newspapers.
   Both official and unofficial sources said causes behind the accidents were overloading with passengers, carrying goods, and carelessness about the security and safety of the passengers, negligence of launch owners and staffs, and failure for providing necessary lifesaving equipment in the passenger launches.

Most of the motor vessels of about 8,000 in operation lack basic safety standards, resulting in frequent disasters, sources in the Department of Shipping and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority said.
   They said the masters of the vessels, except for some, did not have a minimum level of qualification. Moreover, the weather forecasting system is not up-to-date enough for such waterways.
   ‘Most of the masters are illiterate and they have no proper training or expertise,’ a high shipping department official told New Age on Monday. ‘They know how to take a vessel in a direction, but lack knowledge of how to face danger.’
   They are also unable to make decisions and are little aware of their responsibility. They run vessels at their will and are never bothered about weather, risking the lives of hundreds of people.
   The only thing is that the shipping department issues fitness certificate after surveys of the vessels each year. But there are allegations that the surveyors do not discharge their duties, which helps unfit vessels to slip through.
   According to the shipping department, out of more than 7,800 vessels registered, 2568 were surveyed and given fitness certificates this year. A large number of them avoided the surveyor’s eyes and continued plying illegally.
   A shipping department official said there were thousands of small points from where vessels ply and the department could not post inspector or surveyor to each of the spots with its existing manpower.
   In this context, he said, the responsibility lies with the masters; but they usually seem relaxed as they are not well-treated and well-paid. ‘Both the facilities and the payment for such a stressful job are insufficient.’
   ‘Since lives of hundreds of people depend on them, you should also look into their facilities,’ said an official of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, comparing the masters with the pilots of aircraft.
   The shipping director general, Captain AKM Shafiqullah, believed that going by rules by trained and skilled masters could ensure the safety of passengers. ‘Thus we are now emphasising their education and proper training before issuing licence for them.’
   The vessels plying the waterway are in a poor condition and often overloaded, and they do not maintain passengers’ list. In calm weather, these three factors can be a dangerous enough, but in rough weather the factors are potentially lethal.
   Sudden storms are common at this time of year and a fine day can within minutes turn stormy, with visibility reduced to only a few metres. Smooth-flowing rivers can just as quickly become fast-flowing whirlpools.
   Following frequent launch disasters that killed hundreds of lives in recent years, the government has taken steps which include renovation of old ferries, extra checks to ensure that safety certificates are up to date, monitoring to prevent overloading and establishing weather forecasting system in waterways.
   But in a country where many people have no realistic option but to travel in overloaded vessels and small boats, such steps hardly bring about any results and disasters continues to take place.

The Saimon Overseas Ltd took over the task of scheduling appointments for the applicants seeking non-immigrant visas to the United States from May 14, said a news release issued on Monday by the American Centre in Bangladesh.
   Applicants are requested to go to the Saimon Overseas office at either Motijheel or
   Gulshan in the Dhaka city, or to the offices in Chittagong or Sylhet.
   The Citibank NA Bangladesh will collect fees for visa applications from June 12. Fees may be deposited with the Citibank branches at Motijheel and Gulshan in Dhaka, and at Agrabad in Chittagong, and also with the Saimon Overseas office at Gulshan.
   For the interim period, a $100 application fee will be collected by the American Express Bank branches at Motijheel, Gulshan, and Dhanmondi in Dhaka, and at the Agrabad in Chittagong.
   Saimon Overseas will charge a service fee of Tk 403 a passport in Dhaka and Tk 518 in Chittagong and Sylhet.
   Applicants who do not wish to take advantage of this service may schedule their interviews with the consular section of the embassy only on Sundays between 2:00pm and 3:00pm.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, leaves for Vietnam today on a three-day official visit to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries in economy, trade, and investment.
   During her visit, she will hold talks with her Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Khai, on matters relating bilateral, regional, and international interests, foreign ministry officials said.
   This will be the first-ever visit by the head of the government of Bangladesh to Vietnam. Also this is a return visit by Khaleda Zia to Vietnam following the visit by the Vietnamese president, Trun Duc Luong, to Bangladesh in March 2004.
   During the visit, Bangladesh and Vietnam will sign an agreement on promotion and protection of investment as a means of boosting economic cooperation between the two nations, said the foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin.
   In the official talks to be held tomorrow, Khaleda and Phan will review the entire range of bilateral issues, and discuss the ways and means to further strengthening sustainable cooperation between the two countries especially in the fields of economy, trade and commerce, investment, agriculture, science and technology, education, culture, and youth and sports.
   The two leaders would discuss specific areas for promotion of trade in the fields of pharmaceuticals, garment accessories, jute, leather, cement, agricultural equipment, and wooden furniture.
   The two sides will also discuss the scopes for joint-venture investment in pharmaceuticals, leather, jute, agro-based industries, agricultural equipment and ICT.
    ‘This is going to be an important visit for the promotion of cooperation in different fields, starting from economy to investment and from agriculture to culture and sports,’ the foreign secretary told newsmen at a press briefing on Sunday ahead of the prime minister’s three-day official tour.
   Accompanied by a 14-member high-powered business delegation, Khaleda will lead a 35-member official delegation.
   Bangladesh and Vietnam have so far signed seven agreements and protocols on bilateral matters. They are on trade, avoidance of double taxation, prevention of fiscal evasion, agricultural cooperation, formation of a joint commission on economic, cultural, scientific and technological cooperation, and cultural cooperation and its exchange.
   And this time the two countries will sign an agreement on promotion and reciprocal protection of investments. The two prime ministers will witness the signing of the agreement to be followed by their official talks on May 18.
   The Bangladesh prime minister will also have talks with the Vietnamese president, Trun Duc Luong, and discuss the matters of mutual interests. Besides, leaders of the business bodies would have meetings to boost bilateral trade between the two countries.
   Annual two-way trade between Bangladesh and Vietnam stands at about $ 20 million. In 2003-2004, Bangladesh exported goods worth $ 17.72 million and its imports amounted to $ 2.74 million. In the first six months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh’s exports to Vietnam amounted to $ 11.20 million and imports cost $ 3.91 million.
   Bangladesh’s principal export items to Vietnam include jute and jute goods, leather goods, chemical fertiliser, pharmaceuticals, knitwear, and shrimps, and imports include textiles and textile goods, machinery, mechanical appliances, prepared foodstuffs, and vegetable products.
   The prime minister’s itinerary includes attending a reception by the Bangladesh ambassador on May 17, official welcome at the presidential palace on May 18 before the official talks, call on the Vietnamese president, attending a banquet to be hosted by the Vietnamese prime minister on May 18, and visit to the monument of heroes and mausoleum of former president Ho Chi Min on May 19.
   She will return on May 19.

The body of the Bangladeshi peacekeeper, Noor Mohammad, killed by militiamen in the Eastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be brought back to the country today.
   Noor, a gunner of the Bangladesh Army, was wounded when the militiamen attacked a peacekeepers’ motorcade at Bunia in the
   province. He died in hospital on Thursday.
   An Inter Service Public Relations release said high-ranking army officials will receive his body at Zia International Airport with due honour in compliance with military custom.
   His janaza will be held at the Chopper’s Den at 11:00am today.
   The top brass of the army, including chief of army staff Lieutenant General Hasan Mashhud, will attend the janaza.
   The defence secretary and the army chief will place lowers on the coffin on behalf of the prime minister, Khaleda
   Zia.
   Noor Mohammad will be buried in his family graveyard at Tattakanda of Raipura in Narsingdi.

Dhaka is likely to incorporate border and other national security issues in the formal proposal on three conditions it plans to place before New Delhi for the proposed gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.
   An inter-ministerial meeting on Monday laid emphasis on national security issues which may arise after the installation of the pipeline, said sources in the meeting.
   The home ministry was asked to prepare a strategy paper on national security and report back to the energy ministry in a week.
   The commerce minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, the state minister for energy and mineral resources, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, and the state minister for power, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, and high officials of foreign and home ministries were present at the meeting.
   Bangladesh wants India to provide transit facilities to import hydroelectricity from Nepal and Bhutan, facilitate its trade with the two landlocked countries and to reduce current trade imbalance with India in exchange for the right of way for the gas pipeline.
   As the pipeline will cross three countries, some security concerns will arise, said a source present at the meeting.
   ‘The meeting observed that Dhaka should discuss with Delhi its security concerns,’ he said without elaborating.
   Five topics, which include the conditions and how best Dhaka’s interest would be protected in the memorandum of understanding to be signed by three countries on the gas pipeline, were high on the meeting
   agenda.
   The meeting decided to give seven more days to the bodies concerned to finalise their respective proposals on the conditions.
   The Power Division will prepare proposal on hydroelectricity and the commerce ministry on transit facility and trade imbalance, sources said.
   They said the formal proposal would be finalised soon after submission of the proposals
   prepared by the bodies concerned.
   Once Dhaka prepares the formal proposal, it will invite the Indian petroleum and natural gas minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, to visit Bangladesh to discuss the conditions.
   Dhaka would sign a memorandum of understanding for the gas pipeline if the talks between Dhaka and Delhi on the conditions come out successful.

At least 52 people, including two security force personnel, were killed in central Nepal as fresh violence broke out between Maoists and security forces, initial reports said.
   A nearly four-hour gun battle broke out on Sunday afternoon in Jaraytar in Sindhuli district, southeast of Kathmandu, resulting in the death of the security personnel and at least 50 rebels, the Himalayan Times daily reported on Monday.
   However, there was no official confirmation as yet of the killings.
   The army headquarters in Kathmandu confirmed the clash but said they were yet to receive full details.
   The clash erupted when
   security forces pursued a group of Maoist rebels, said to be fleeing from an eastern district where they had fought the army last week and suffered casualties.
   Nepalese security forces rescued 600 students who had been abducted by Maoist rebels from village schools in remote mountainous areas in the west of the country, the army said.
   ‘The security forces managed to rescue Sunday 600 students abducted from Niskot area of Myagdi district,’ an army statement said.
   Earlier Sunday, the army said that in a separate series of abductions, some 650 students had been taken from schools in western Nepal in the last week or ‘several days’.
   The latest abductions included at least 450 students from villages in the Tanahun, Palpa, and Baglung districts, and another 200 from a school in the western district of Salyan.
   The army said it had little information on where the students were being held, but termed the abductions ‘inhuman and a violation of human rights.’
   Rebels have been known to round up students to indoctrinate them with Maoist ideology, but normally return most of them unharmed.
   The practice has drawn criticism from Nepalese and international rights groups who have appealed to the guerrillas to protect students from the violence.
   Meanwhile, four international aid agencies suspended their operations in western Nepal earlier Sunday after their aid workers were beaten by rebels.
   The World Food Programme, Britain’s Department for International Development, the German Technical Cooperation, and the Dutch Aid Agency SNV, all ended their operations after investigating alleged beatings in the village of Sukariya, 550 kilometres west of Kathmandu.
   ‘The investigation concluded that Maoist cadres seriously assaulted one male and one female staff member,’ the statement said.
   The groups expressed regret over the suspension of their work, adding, ‘But we cannot put our staff at further risk.
   Maoist rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has already claimed more than 11,000 lives.
   Rebels have stepped up operations since king Gyanendra sacked a four-party coalition government February 1 saying it had failed to tackle the rebellion, and seized power himself.

The Awami League is now busy preparing a coordinated proposal for reforms in the caretaker administration system and the Election Commission.
   The party will sit this week for a dialogue with its political allies to thrash out a coordinated proposal for reforms in the caretaker system, after which they will decide their next course of action.
   Two subcommittees were empowered to finalise the Awami League’s draft of reform proposals after incorporating the suggestions of the party leaders.
   After reviewing the proposals, the party leaders, at a joint meeting of the central working committee and party’s parliamentary committee, made some more suggestions and amended some of the points presented by the chairmen of the party’s subcommittees.
   ‘After incorporating the suggestions of party leaders, we will formally sit with the other opposition parties within a short time to coordinate the proposal,’ said a member of the election subcommittee.
   The party’s central committee on May 12 adopted ‘in principle’ two sets of reform proposals presented by chairman of the subcommittee on legal affairs, Barrister Amirul Islam, and chief of the subcommittee on political cell, Professor Shamsul Huda Harun.
   The working committee agreed to a proposal that the chief adviser of the caretaker government, who must be acceptable to all parties, could be appointed from judges, teachers, officials and lawyers.
   Without restricting the office of the chief adviser to an immediate-past chief justice, the committee members suggested that it should be kept open so that neutral people of integrity could be chosen.
   According to the draft of the reform proposal, the president of the country should not enjoy any additional powers during the interim period before election.
   He should act on the advice of the chief adviser who enjoys the powers and functions of a prime minister, and the caretaker government should not be accountable to the president.
   Besides, the president should not promulgate any ordinance during the interim period. If the need arises, he should do it on the basis of consensus of the political parties.
   With regard to the Election Commission, the Awami League will propose the appointment of a chief election commissioner and other election commissioners after discussion with the political parties.
   There is also a second proposal for establishment of a permanent ‘constitutional commission’ with representatives of the president, prime minister, leader of the opposition and political parties in parliament.
   The AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, said they would announce the reform proposals by the end of this month.
   The reform proposals will require changes in the 13th amendment to the constitution that had established the provision of non-party caretaker government.
   The allies of the Awami League, including the 11-Party Alliance, Gano Forum, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, National Awami Party, Jatiya Party (Ershad) and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, are also demanding reforms. These parties have also been drafting separate proposals for reforms, said sources.

The controversial former commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, Amzad Hossain, has been given charge as range deputy inspector general of Chittagong Division on Monday.
   The police headquarter closed him on the eve of the Chittagong City Corporation mayoral polls for his controversial role at the instruction of the Election Commission.
   Additional DIG of Chittagong range, MA Mazed, meanwhile, has been given the current charge as the CMP commissioner.
   Former additional SP Harun-ur-Rashid of Rangpur, who was in deputation in the Rapid Action Battalion, has been promoted as police super in Chandpur.
   SP Morshed of Armed Police Battalion Dhaka has been transferred to Sylhet Armed Police Battalion while Begum Rowshan Ara of Sylhet Armed Police Battalion to Dhaka Armed Police Battalion.
   Former SP of Sherpur, Nivas Chandra Majhi, has been transferred to Sarda Police Training Academy and SP of Pabna (current charge) Kazi Fazlul Karim as SP of Sherpur.

Another suspected underground party member was killed in a ‘shootout’ between his associates and the police at Shibchar in Madaripur early Monday raising the crossfire death toll to 305 since June 2004.
   The police said they arrested Mohammad Abdus Salam alias Chika Salam, an activist of the Sarbahara Party, from Paikpara under Rajoir upazila on Saturday.
   Salam was a prime accused in the abduction and killing of two special branch policemen, sub-inspector Hasnain Azam Khan, and office assistant Quamrul Alam, claimed the police.
   Both the policemen were abducted from Shakharpar in Rajoir, and later killed by the assailants on April 3.
   Based on his statement, a team of the district police and detective branch took Salam to Utrail market in Shibchar early Monday to recover his hidden arms.
   As the police reached the spot at about 4:00am, the associates of Salam started firing on the police. The police also returned the fire triggering a gunfight. Salam died on the spot.

The Bangladesh Rifles foiled a series of BSF attempt to push-in 30 Indian nationals through the Hilli border under Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur, some 221km north-west of Dhaka.
   According to sources in the BDR, the Border Security Force of India assembled 30 Bangla speaking Indians in two groups at about 7:30pm Sunday along the border.

The High Court on Monday directed the government and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to allocate frequency and grant licence to the Jamuna Television Limited.
   After hearing a writ petition filed by the JTV authorities, challenging the validity of a government order that stopped the broadcasting of that television channel, a High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid and Justice Syed Refat Ahmed also directed the BTRC to dispose of all the pending applications filed by the JTV.
   The information ministry, on March 22 2004, directed to stop broadcasting on the grounds that they have no valid ‘No Objection Certificate’ and licence from the ministry.

The High Court on Monday issued a suo moto rule on the additional metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka, Mohammad Shamsul Alam Khan, public prosecutor Abdullah Mahmud Hasan, and sacked managing director of the proposed Inqilab Television, Salahuddin Shoeb Chowdhury, to explain why contempt proceedings would not be drawn against them for suppressing court proceedings.
   A High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mohammad Emdadul Haque Azad also asked them to appear in person before the court on May 24 at 10.30am to reply to the rule.
   The court came up with the orders because the additional metropolitan sessions judge on April 30 granted bail to Shoeb, who faces sedition and blasphemy charges, despite the fact that his appeal against denial of bail by the same court was pending in the High Court.
   The public prosecutor, Hasan, being a prosecution lawyer, also did not oppose the bail prayer on the grounds that an appeal was pending before the higher court.
   Shoeb, also former Dhaka-based correspondent of a Russian news agency, was arrested by the immigration police at Zia International Airport on November 29, 2003, when he was leaving the country. The police lodged two criminal cases against him on January 24, 2004 on charges of sedition and blasphemy.
   The additional metropolitan sessions judge on March 14 rejected the bail petition filed by Shoeb.
   Shoeb preferred an appeal against the sessions court’s order and the High Court on March 28 issued a rule on the government to explain within 10 days why the petitioner, detained since November 2003, would not be granted bail.
   Though the rule was yet to be disposed of, Shoeb filed a fresh petition seeking bail which was granted by the sessions court.

A group of human rights activists in Dhaka on Monday expressed concern over the arrest of internationally renowned human rights activist Asma Jahangir in Pakistan.
   In a statement, the Bangladesh Human Rights Commission chairman, Justice AKM Sadek, and secretary general, Saiful Islam Dildar, demanded of the Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, to immediately release Asma, a former chairperson of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.
   In another statement, the South Asian People’s Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism alleged that the police attacked and arrested the eminent human rights activist to make the fundamentalists quarter happy.
   The SAPUFC president, Professor Kabir Chowdhury, presidium member Justice KM Sobhan, general secretary Shahriar Kabir, Hena Das and Professor Ajoy Roy demanded immediate release of Asma and her colleagues.
   The Lahore police on May 14 arrested Asma along with some of her fellow activists while they were staging a demonstration there.

Bangladesh were all out for 127 in their first innings just before the close of the second day of the three-day match against Sussex at the County Ground, Hove on Monday.
   Bangladesh, trailing by 422 runs, were asked to follow on when the report was filed at 11:00pm. Earlier, Sussex declared their first innings on 549 for seven with Michael Yardy scoring a career-best 257.