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The Supreme Court on Monday issued rule on the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, and three other secretaries of the government to explain why they should not be prosecuted for contempt of court for not complying with its directives towards the separation of the judiciary from the executive.
   Kamal Siddiqui, law secretary Alauddin Sardar, establishment secretary Mahbubur Rahman, and finance secretary M Siddiqur Rahman were asked to respond to the rule within three weeks.
   The chief justice, Syed JR Mudassir Husain, who presides over the five-member full bench of the Appellate Division of the court, pronounced the order upon a contempt petition from Chowdhury Munir Uddin Mahfuz, a judge on the tribunal for prevention of women and children repression in Kishoreganj.
   Chowdhury Munir was one of the petitioners of the writ petition that prompted the Appellate Division to issue the 12-point directive on the separation of the judiciary on December 2, 1999.
   Although the petition sought contempt proceedings against ten top civil servants, the court excluded six of them from its rule. They are former law secretaries Md Asaduzzaman and Afzal Hossain Ahmed (now a judge of the High Court), former establishment secretaries Safar Raj Hossain (now home secretary) and Anwarul Bar Chowdhury, cabinet secretary ASM Abdul Halim, and former finance secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan.
   The contempt petition, filed on January 13, 2004 against the government’s constant procrastination in implementing the court’s directives, was kept pending for about two years.
   The court took up the petition for hearing on February 1, rejecting for the third time in six months the government’s plea for further extension of time for implementing the directives and dismissing its effort to avoid the contempt proceedings by initiating a process for amending the Code of Criminal Procedure.
   The petition was updated on February 22 after the Appellate Division had ordered the petitioner’s counsel, M Amirul Islam, on February 1 to file a revised petition.
   The Appellate Division detailed the 12-point directive on December 2, 1999 in its judgement to the Masder Hossain case, popularly known as the separation of the judiciary case.
   Masder Hossain and other judges of all the lower courts in the country filed a writ petition in 1995.
   The High Court delivered its verdict in the case in 1999 and the government then preferred an appeal against the High Court judgement. The appeal subsequently prompted the Appellate Division to issue the 12-point directive.
   Ever since, successive governments have taken extension of time from the Appellate Division for the implementation of the directives.
   The erstwhile Awami League government was allowed seven extensions in its tenure and the caretaker government of 2001 three in three months.
   The present government had been allowed nine extensions before the Appellate Division took up the contempt petition for hearing.
   The chief justice’s courtroom was jam packed with lawyers of all ranks in the bar and journalists.
   Emerging from the court, Kamal Hossain and Amirul Islam, counsels in the Masder Hossain case, termed the order time worthy and significant.
   ‘The Supreme Court has exercised its constitutional responsibility by issuing the rule against the bureaucrats to protect its authority and dignity,’ said Kamal Hossain, referring to the constitutional mandate for everybody to comply with Supreme Court orders.
   Although the petitioner sought a direction from the court asking the contemnors to appear in person before the court, the court said nothing in this regard.
   ‘It is usual practice that a contemnor appears in person in court, unless the court exempts him from personal appearance,’ said Amirul Islam.
   The acting attorney general, Abdur Rezaque Khan, told New Age that the four secretaries would now have to respond to the rule through their own lawyers.
   ‘Contempt of court is a personal liability and the secretaries will have to explain their positions, including their duties conferred to them under the rules of business of the government,’ he said.
   The court may decide on the liability of the secretaries in accordance with the rules of business, he added.
   Meanwhile, the fate of nine mid-level bureaucrats, already facing contempt charge for distorting the directives, has remained unresolved.
   As on other hearing days, the nine officers of different cadres stood on their feet when the court resumed and were allowed to seat when the court started hearing.

The cabinet on Monday approved in principle the bill that proposed the enactment of a comprehensive law on the contempt of court repealing the Contempt of Court Act 1926, which became obsolete.
   The weekly meeting of the cabinet, held Monday night at the Prime Minister’s Office, however, approved the proposed bill with some changes, said sources attending the meeting.
   The law minister, Moudud Ahmed, told New Age after the meeting that the bill would be placed before the cabinet for approval after finalising the draft in accordance with the changes made by the cabinet.
   The cabinet at the meeting also approved the policy for the procurement of Boro food grains.
   The Contempt of Court Bill was placed before the cabinet on July 18, 2005 and although agreed in principle on the enactment of the law, the cabinet sent back the bill to the law ministry asking for its placement before the cabinet on further scrutiny.
   ‘As the Contempt of Court Act, which bears no definition of “contempt,” is an age-old law and has become obsolete, confusions are galore over contempt,’ said the law minister. ‘Even the courts have to face difficulty in drawing the contempt of court proceedings.’
   The proposed law will be comprehensive as it will have a more or less clear definition of the ‘contempt of court’ and will codify the offences in details, said the sources.
   The draft bill proposes that no court will adjudicate a contempt of court case, in which the rule is issued by the same court that has initiated the proceeding.
   According to the sources, any innocent and fair criticism of judgements pronounced by any courts, publishing any fair comment on the merits of any case which has been heard and finally decided, publication of a substantially accurate account of what has transpired in a court, or of legal proceedings, fair and accurate report of legal proceedings held in public, published contemporaneously and in good faith, will not constitute an offence of the contempt of court.
   A true statement regarding the conduct of a judge in a matter not connected with the performance of his judicial functions will also not constitute the contempt of court, the sources said.
   The slander or libel of a court and personal criticism of a judge while holding office will, however, constitute the contempt of court, says the draft.
   According to the sources, the bill proposes that no court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of the contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it is established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interest of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime.
   According to the bill, criminal contempt means the doing of anything with intent to obstruct, or having the effect of obstructing, the administration of justice, and civil contempt means wilful disobedience of any judgement, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
   The bill also details the procedure of contempt cases and punishment of different offences of the contempt of court.

The World Bank has asked the government to put an end to directed lending, which, according to the multilateral lending agency, has made nationalised commercial banks ‘dysfunctional, illiquid and insolvent’.
   ‘… GOB [the government of Bangladesh] owes Janata approximately Tk 4 billion and SoEs [state-owned enterprises] owe Tk 14.62. Sonali’s exposures to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is around Tk 60 billion or 25 per cent of its loan portfolio,’ says an aide memoire of the bank, sent recently to different government agencies.
   ‘Similarly, Janata and Agrani also have exposures to BPC of around Tk 20 billion each. So, BPC owes around Tk 100 billion to the three NCBs due to which these NCBs have become illiquid and are unable to extend new facilities to the private sector.’
   The memoire follows the March 2-8 visit by a bank’s mission, led by its sector manager Simon C Bell.
   The finance secretary, Siddiqur Rahman, said there had been no directives from the finance ministry to the nationalised for loans, except in the case of the petroleum corporation.
   ‘The finance ministry never presses any of the NCBs – Sonali, Janata, Agrani or Rupali – to sanction loans either to an SoE or an individual,’ he told New Age. ‘We ask the NCBs to sanction loans to the BPC for obvious reasons.’
   The managing directors of two of the four nationalised banks could not have disagreed more.
   Directed lending was rampant, especially for state-owned enterprises, they said when talking to New Age.
   ‘The SoEs would have owed nothing to our bank, had there not been directives from the finance ministry [to sanction loan to them],’ said one of them.
   ‘We do sanction loans to the SoEs at the directive of the finance ministry and also to influential individuals under pressure from the political level,’ said the other.
   Both of them claimed that none of the directives had been given in writing and that the instruction would come over telephone.
   Meanwhile, the World Bank has asked to compensate the nationalised banks from budgetary allocation as these are affected because of directed lending.
   ‘The losses incurred by the NCBs due to directed lending to agriculture, energy, jute and textile sectors, to name a few, should be adequately compensated from the national budget,’ reads the memoir.
   ‘To meet the financing needs of rural people, the government may consider providing incentives to private banks to extend their banking facilities to the rural areas through appropriate products.’

At least one-third of the people, covered by the government’s safety net programmes, are not poor, and assistance under such programmes is distributed to just a fraction of those who really need it, says the World Bank.
   Findings of the lending agency show significant leakages in the safety net programmes at a rate between 10 and 50 per cent in the cases of food-based programmes such as vulnerable group development and food for work, and five to 25 per cent in cash-based programmes, including stipends for students.
   It points out that micro-credit programmes, too, are intertwined and that social safety net programmes that provide micro-credit may not be targeting the poorest segment of the society.
   Making such critical observations, the recently released World Bank report on ‘Social safety nets in Bangladesh: an assessment’ called for revision of the existing programmes and institutional arrangement as well as improving the allocation of limited fiscal resources and the efficiency with which these resources are used.
   The lending agency referred to duplication of programmes as a problem and recommended more coordination between implementing agencies so that there was no overlapping of safety net and micro-credit programmes.
   Proposing new strategies to minimise poverty and vulnerability, the bank hoped the country would be able to achieve the targets of the UN millennium development goals although many local and international organisations expressed doubts about its success in this regard.
   ‘With a combination of sound macro-economic policies, institutional reforms, and good governance, Bangladesh can achieve the MDG goal of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015,’ the bank mentioned in the information note.
   However, it added, there would still be a large number of population living below the poverty line.

Interference by a section of central and local leaders of the BNP-led four-party ruling alliance hampers government activities across the country, district administrators alleged on Monday.
   They also demanded that the authority of district magistrates over the district and upazila police administrations should be restored.
   The local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the environment and forest minister, Tariqul Islam, and the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, addressed the conference on Monday.
   ‘We cannot discharge our responsibilities properly because of interference by influential people, both at the central and local levels,’ said one district administrator on the second day of the three-day conference of deputy commissioners at the Cabinet Division at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
   Many others echoed his sentiment.
   A deputy commissioner later told New Age that they had meant leaders of the ruling alliance and their close relatives when they used the term ‘influential people’. ‘We didn’t, however, name any leader.’
   The deputy commissioners of Jhenaidah and Khulna observed that district magistrates should have been assigned to ‘exercise all-round authority over police affairs, including preparation and submission of annual confidential reports on police superintendents to the home ministry’.
   The law and order situation was on a steady downslide, as the district magistrates do not have effective authority over the police superintendents, they said.
   Upazila nirbahi officers should have the same authority over officers-in-charge of the police stations in their locality, they suggested.
   Other deputy commissioners were unanimous in their support to the proposal for the restoration of the district administration’s authority over the police.
   The home ministry said the decision to restore their authority over the police could only be taken upon consultation with the inter-ministerial committee on law and order.
   The authority of the deputy commissioners to prepare the annual confidential reports on the police superintendents was revoked during the presidency of the late Ziaur Rahman.
   The deputy commissioner of Noakhali said defective investigation reports impeded justice delivery in a number of cases.
   In many cases, the investigation officers do not even prepare the reports, he said. ‘Constables write the investigation reports.’
   He suggested that investigating units should be established in all districts.
   Five deputy commissioners suggested that forensic laboratories and separate prison wards for juvenile delinquents should be set up at the divisional headquarters.
   A number of the district administrators also demanded increase in infrastructure facilities, and logistics and manpower in their districts, including adequate courtrooms, lockups along with toilets, new police and coastguard camps, transports, fuel for transports and telecommunications and radio communication facilities.
   Prisoners have to live in unhygienic condition in small lockups, said the deputy commissioner of Jessore.
   The deputy commissioner of Brahmanbaria suggested appointment of permanent doctors in all district jails.
   The district administrators raised the allegation of interference by leaders of the ruling alliance in the presence of Mannan Bhuiyan, who is also the secretary general of the ruling BNP, conference sources said.
   ‘We cannot take action against corrupt activities of the union parishad [council] chairmen as they enjoy a kind of immunity,’ the Sunamganj deputy commissioner said.
   His views were backed up by a section of his colleagues.
   ‘Some chairmen even rent out union parishad complexes,’ alleged the Jamalpur deputy commissioner.
   Mannan Bhuiyan said the deputy commissioners ‘must take action against any corruption that takes place in their area’ and assured them that he would personally intervene if any deputy commissioner faced any pressure or problem from any quarter in any district.
   He asked them to be supportive towards the union council chairmen as they elected representatives of the people.
   He also asked them to check misuse of government funds.
   Mannan Bhuiyan praised the deputy commissioners for 70 per cent sanitation coverage in one and a half year.
   ‘The deputy commissioners have raised various issues and the government will consider those,’ he told journalists after coming out of one of the sessions.
   He said he had asked them to send impartial and correct reports to the government and also supervise the work of union councils to bring dynamism in local government activities.
   Tariqul Islam asked the deputy commissioner to take all-out measures against encroachers of forests and destruction of hills.
   He was requested to impose a ban on hydraulic horn.
   Babar praised the deputy commissioners for their role in maintaining law and order and assured that the government would consider their suggestions.
   The cabinet secretary, ASM Abdul Halim, the local government secretary, SM Zahirul Islam, the rural development and cooperatives secretary, Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, and all divisional commissioners were present at the conference.

Dhaka lodged a formal complaint with New Delhi on Monday that Bangladesh has so far received much less a quantum of Ganges water than is stipulated in the 30-year water-sharing treaty with India.
   ‘We have issued a protest letter to India as we are not getting due share of Ganges water,’ the water resources minister of the government, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, said.
   He said India should comply with the treaty and give Bangladesh its due share of water on the basis of the average flow in the past 40 years.
   In the latest 10-day cycle of the lean season, between March 21 and 31, Bangladesh received 10,000 cubic feet per second less, on an average, than what it had received in the corresponding period of 2005.
   According to the source of the Joint River Commission and as measured at the Farakka barrage point, Bangladesh got only 15,700 cusec in the last 10 days of March, against 25,309 cusec in 2005, 28,344 in 2004 and 35,127 cusec in 2003.
   Ministry sources say India is withdrawing Ganges water from different points upstream because of an ongoing drought, depriving Bangladesh of its due share.
   Experts fear Bangladesh will not get its due share of 35,000 cusec in the first ten days of April (April 1-10) either, as the flow of water at the Farakka point is still very low.
   According to monitoring by the Indian authorities at the Farakka point, the flow of Ganges water this year has been the lowest in 50 years. The average flow was 52,340 cusec between March 1 and March 10.
   The flow was more than 95,000 cusec at the beginning of the current lean season on January 1. It was 53,040 cusec between March 11 and March 20.
   The upstream withdrawal by Indian authorities, by constructing dams and diversion canals, has caused drying up of the Ganges, the ministry sources said.
   The shortfall has caused emergence of char (landmass) near the Hardinge Bridge point in the Padma (the downstream name of the Ganges).
   Hafiz said there was a decision at the last JRC meeting that the Indian water resources minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, would visit erosion-prone border areas in November 2005.
   However, the Indian minister has not yet made the visit to the area, he said.
   Erosion in the border areas has threatened the territorial boundary between the two countries and led to water crises.

The chief of the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, on Monday refused once again to make a statement to any court of ‘man-made laws’.
   ‘I have nothing to say in a court that is governed by man-made laws,’ he said when Shamsul Alam of the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court, asked him whether he had anything to say against the 10-day remand prayer of the Detective Branch of police.
   Abdur Rahman was produced in the court amidst tight security after the end of his third 10-day remand, with the Detective Branch seeking fresh remand in a case related to explosions in front of the National Press Club on August 17, 2005.
   Shah Mohammad Mashiur Rahman, investigation officer of the case, filed with the Ramna police station, said the militant leader had masterminded the blasts and ‘some important information’ had come out during his interrogation.
   He said further interrogation was needed to get to the bottom of the case.
   As no lawyer came forward to defend Abdur Rahman and the militant leader refused to say anything self-defence, the court put him on the fourth ten-day remand.
   The JMB supreme commander, who was arrested on March 2 in Sylhet, was then taken to the Uttara headquarters of the first Rapid Action Battalion.

The Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the main opposition Awami League, will elect today its new leadership from candidates who are not more than 29 years of age at the time of election.
   The AL president and leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday put to rest widespread speculations about the process when inaugurating the council session of the organisation.
   The new leadership will be elected through secret ballot, from candidates who are not more than 29, she announced.
   It is the first time in the Chhatra League’s 58-year history that an age limit has been set for the election of its president and general secretary.
   A meeting on Sunday between Hasina and former leaders of the organisation decided to raise the age limit to 29, although the BCL constitution puts a 27-year ceiling on the executive committee membership.
   ‘Any regular student, not more than 27-year-old, Bangladeshi, studying in any educational institution under any university or educational board may become an executive or a member of the central executive committee. …if studentship of any member comes into break, the executive committee might cancel membership of the students or might continue until expiry of the tenure,’ according to article 5 (C) of the BCL constitution.
   The meeting took into consideration the delay in convening the council session for its decision to raise the age limit. The tenure of the incumbent committee, which features a large number of aged, non-student leaders, expired two years ago.
   The decision put paid to hopes of irregular and former students, who have years of experience in student politics, to hang on to key posts on the executive committee.
   It also dispelled widespread speculation that the new leadership may once again be selected, rather than elected.
   Two thousand, four hundred and seventy-seven councillors, including 2,175 from BCL units across the country, are expected to cast their votes at the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh this morning.
   Earlier, aspirants for the posts of president and general secretary were asked to submit their academic certificates with the nomination papers in a bid to prove their actual age.
   The submission of academic certificates was made mandatory, for the first time, to keep non-students at bay.
   After election to two top posts, a new 201-member central committee will be selected at the directives of Awami League high-ups and former BCL leaders, BCL sources said.
   It will only be the second time in the BCL history that its president and general secretary will be elected. It came out of the practice of having a ‘pocket committee’ in 2002 and elected the president and general secretary through a democratic process.
   Election of a new leadership in the Chhatra League is considered as a beginning of a democratisation process and reform within the party, AL sources said.
   ‘Sheikh Hasina is determined to modernise and democratise the party and wants to make the student body free from the grip of some “derailed” youth leaders,’ said an AL leader, close to the party president.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday asked the leaders of her party’s student wing to prepare a list of those who were writing a distorted history of the country’s war of independence and said that the culprits would be tried if her party was voted to power in the next election.
   ‘If we form the government, the people will try those who are behind distorting the history,’ she said while inaugurating the reunion and national council of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, at Dhanmondi club ground.
   Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in the parliament, accused the four-party alliance government of inserting false and distorted information on the war of independence into textbooks and destroying the country’s education sector.
   The Awami League chief alleged that the sole aim of the leadership of the ruling alliance was to make fortunes through corruption, saying, ‘this government is not for the welfare of the people.’
   Terming education the main tool for poverty alleviation, Hasina vowed to make education free of cost up to Bachelor’s level if her party returned to power.
   ‘If we are voted to power, we have to eliminate illiteracy first for the development of the country,’ she said alleging that the alliance government had failed to raise the literacy rate even by one percent.
   She asked the BCL leaders to concentrate on their studies to have good results in examinations, and to respect their parents, guardians and teachers.
   Besides, the former prime minister asked them to hate corruption and militancy.
   The outgoing president of Chhatra League, Liaqat Sikder presided over the opening session of the reunion and national council while the general secretary of the organisation, Nazrul Islam Babu conducted it. Earlier, Hasina inaugurated the reunion and national council by hoisting national flag and releasing balloons and pigeons.

The government today goes for a ‘consolatory’ expansion of the open market sale of sugar, the crisis of which deepened further in a couple of days with its stock at wholesalers and retailers running out.
   Although the government boasts of the expansion, it will be too inadequate to contain the crisis of sugar, the price of which registered a further increase in two days. Sugar sold for Tk 64 in city markets on Monday.
   With the expanded programme, the government will sell 90 tonnes of sugar every day on the open market, which is less than 10 per cent of the requirement in the city and its surroundings and three per cent of the country’s daily demand.
   The government on Sunday decided to expand the OMS and to sell 90 tonnes of sugar through the offices of the 90 ward commissioners.
   Ninety thousand people will get one kilogram of sugar for Tk 41 each from Tuesday, the commerce ministry adviser, Barkatullah Bulu, told New Age on Monday.
   ‘We will keep the supply of sugar normal,’ said Bulu, referring to the expanded OMS that will be too inadequate to meet family consumption for the city, let alone industrial consumption.
   He said the government had again directed the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to invite a tender to import 2 lakh tonnes of sugar as the tender, invited about a month ago, lapsed into ‘indecision.’
   Traders and private sector importers, who source more than 80 per cent of the country’s demand , expressed doubt over the sugar import by the corporation.
   They also linked the grave situation to the government indecision over its duty reduction, saying that the importers were discouraged to bring sugar as it crossed $500 a tonne on the international market which was less then $300 a few months ago.
   ‘Doubling of the price on the international market means doubled duty even at the existing rate,’ said a Khatunganj-based importer. The current import duty on sugar is 73.5 per cent.
   The crisis of sugar in the city, meanwhile, turned grave with the stock at many wholesalers and retailers running. Many others stopped selling it for a continued price increase.
   Sugar sold at Karwan Bazar, Mohammadpur and in other areas for the prices between Tk 60 and Tk 64 a kilogram against the maximum price of Tk 58 two days ago and Tk 54 a week ago.
   The government announcement of expanded OMS created an instant impact on Maulvibazar in Dhaka and Khatunganj in Chittagong, two main wholesale markets of Bangladesh, with sugar selling for about Tk 2,100 a maund, which increased to Tk 2,200 a day ago.
   ‘The impact is absolutely temporary as the announcement of expanded OMS will not be sufficient to meet the demand countrywide,’ said Delwar Hossain, a wholesaler at Maulvibazar.
   A Khatunganj-based importer told New Age that stock of sugar at private importers was less than 30,000 tonnes, which can meet the country’s demand only for 10 days.
   ‘Unless the government reduces duty, no importer will open letters of credit,’ he said. He urged the government to make clear its stand about it.
   The government has been hardening the crisis by keeping hanging the import of sugar through the trading corporation for weeks as it pushed the private importers to uncertainty.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has decided to supply diesel to oil dealers under rationing system.
   The BPC made the decision as it’s storage has dwindled which could meet up the demand for only seven to eight days.
   Sources said following the fall in the stock the country was likely to face a severe diesel crisis again during the current IRRI-boro season resulting in fall of rice production this year.
   Although the energy adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, ruled out any rationing of diesel at this moment but admitted that the BPC was sometimes supplying less fuel to some dealers in different areas as a strategy of checking smuggling of fuel.
   However, the president of the Petrol Pump Owners Association, Nazmul Haque, said the dealers across the country were not getting adequate diesel from the depots. ‘The authorities of the depots are supplying them lower
   quantity of diesel against the requirement from last
   Thursday without showing any cause.
   But we know that till Monday there is about one lakh tonnes of diesel stock with the BPC which can meet up only the demand for seven to eight days,’ he added.
   According to sources, at present daily demand for diesel in the country is 10,000 tonnes to 12,000 tonnes while its total stock is about 1 lakh tonnes.
   About the energy adviser’s comment on rationing, Nazmul said if the BPC controlled the supply of diesel to the dealers in order to checking smuggling why it was also providing inadequate diesel to the dealers in Dhaka and other districts against only the districts in frontier areas.
   With the rationing of diesel supply by the BPC to 17 depots across the country, dealers and agents earlier raised their demands to meet the possible crisis as the oil supplier
   Kuwait Petroleum Corporation recently rejected to provide 60,000 tonnes of fuel oil for the government’s not paying the dues.
   The rationing of the fuel oil and the possible crisis would hamper the IRRI-boro cultivation while the demand for diesel would increase due to absence of rain this season.
   According to the experts, the power crisis in the country particularly in the city would heighten due to diesel shortage, as many generators could not run during load shedding.
   Meanwhile, apprehending possible diesel crisis the government has taken initiative to import 30,000 tonnes of diesel from India immediately.
   Energy ministry sources said the fund crisis and problems relating to the LC opening were the main hindrance to procuring fuel.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division on Monday requested the Economic Relations Division to negotiate with the Islamic Development Bank for a quick disbursement of $250 million for fuel import.
   The energy and mineral resources adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, on Monday directed the ERD secretary, Ismail Jabiullah, who left for the IDB headquarters in Jeddah in the evening, to expedite the process of disbursement. The IDB, which lends around $700 million to Bangladesh annually for fuel import, is yet to disburse around $250 million this year.
   The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation needs around $1.5 billion for import of around 3.7 million of fuel. It borrows the rest of the required amount from nationalised commercial banks and the Bangladesh Bank.
   The corporation is facing problems in opening letters of credit with the nationalised commercial banks as the banks are facing foreign currency shortage.
   It could not import 50,000 tonnes of diesel from Kuwait in March because of problem in opening L/Cs. As a result, the stock of diesel came down to around 1 lakh tonnes till Tuesday.
   Mahmud, however, told journalists that there was no chance of a diesel crisis in near future despite the non-arrival of 50,000 tonnes of diesel.
   ‘The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation will supply the diesel on April 10 while around 30,000 tonnes of diesel will arrive in Bangladesh from India on April 7,’ he said. Mahmud said ships laden with fuel would come to Bangladesh every three days after April 10.
    ‘Janata and Agrani banks are ready to open L/Cs but they have also problems in foreign currency reserves,’ he said.
   As for the Sonali Bank’s refusal to provide credit to repay the IDB loans, he said the finance ministry had already been requested to take steps in this regard. The corporation has, meanwhile, requested deputy commissioners of the bordering districts to monitor sale of fuels so that fuel could not be smuggled out of the country.
   Energy officials believe fuel smuggling to India, where the price is almost double than that in Bangladesh, has increased in the past few days as fuel consumption (sale of fuel from depot) has increased by around 80 per cent.
   The consumption of diesel was around 13,000 tonnes although the usual consumption should have been around 8,000 tonnes.

Hosts Bangladesh were made to work before booking their place in the quarter-finals of the AFC Challenge Cup on Monday against the world’s second lowest ranked team Guam 3-0.
   The scoreline flattered to deceive the tense moments Bangladesh endured throughout the contest. Midfielder Abul scored twice while Emily broke the deadlock early in the second half.
   Bangladesh created more than a dozen chances against the South Pacific nation, which was hammered 11-0 by Palestine in their previous fixture. But all their possession failed to turn into goals in the first half.
   The frustration on the pitch was soon felt in the stands as the nearly seven thousand crowd started booing every misfire against the weakest team in the competition.
   Diego Cruciani’s charges were surprisingly nervous in front of the nine-man packed Guam defence that protected goalkeeper Brett Maluwelmeng.
   The coach’s half-time briefing must have worked as Bangladesh came out with a certain plan of holding the ball and it paid dividends. In the 48th minute Emily exchanged a nice pass with Alfaz on the edge of the penalty area and dribbled past two defenders before placing an angular shot into the far post.
   Abul, who had spoiled a sitter in the first-half stoppage time, eased any nerves in the dressing with a brace of goals in the 83 and 85 minutes to seal the victory.
   Cruciani thought his boys were surprisingly nervous. ‘We deserved more goals but we lack efficient scorers and the finishing problem remains a worry as before,’ said the Argentine afterwards.
   ‘There are a lot of technical problems that we have to discuss before the Palestine game,’ he added.Away at Chittagong’s MA Aziz Stadium, Chinese Taipei fought back from two goals down to hold Afghanistan 2-2 in their Group A match.
   Hafizullah Qadami struck twice to help Afghanistan gain a two-goal cushion. Qadami, an attacking defender, put Afghanistan ahead in the 20th minute when his curler on a free-kick stormed into the net. He doubled the advantage three minutes later. Mohammad Jalal Afshar dodged two defenders inside the area and supplied the ball to Qadami.
   After the restart, Chinese Taipei forward Wei-Lun Chuang reduced the deficit through a free-kick in the 48th minute. Chien-Wei Liang scored the equaliser in the 73rd minute when he tapped the ball in on a rebound from defender Meng-Chian Lee’s freekick.

The newly appointed US ambassador to Bangladesh, Patricia A Butenis, arrived in Dhaka on Monday, an American Centre press release said.
   Butenis, a career diplomat, is expected to place her credential to the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, shortly.
   She was confirmed as ambassador to Bangladesh by the US Senate on February 16, 2006 and sworn in on March 17, 2006. She is the 12th US ambassador to Bangladesh and the third American woman to serve as ambassador to Bangladesh.
   Prior to this assignment, Butenis was deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Islamabad (2004-2006). She also served in Karachi, San Salvador, Bogota, Warsaw, and Washington in different capacities.
   Butenis is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of minister-counselor.
   Born in New Jersey, Butenis graduated with a degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained her Master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University.
   The position of US ambassador in Dhaka remained vacant since the previous ambassador Harry K Thomas joined as executive secretary to the State Department on July 2, 2005.

Tired of being second to men in conservative Saudi Arabia, five women decided if you can’t beat them, join them.
   Al Watan newspaper said the five women have undergone sex change surgeries abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a ‘psychological complex’ due to male domination.
   Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.
   The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.
   An interior ministry official told the Watan such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but those who undergo sex change are never arrested.

The prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, on Monday proposed the creation of an independent commission to end the political stalemate in Thailand following weekend elections, and offered to resign if the new panel recommended it.
   ‘My idea is to set up an independent commission ... to try to find a way out of the deadlock,’ Thaksin said in a television interview.
   ‘If this committee tells me to resign, I would obey,’ he said, adding that the new panel would include respected figures including former speakers of parliament and supreme court justices.
   But he said if his political opponents rejected the creation of such a committee, he would try to convene parliament and form a new government.
   Thaksin said his party had earned 57 per cent of the vote in controversial weekend elections, saying his estimate was based on unofficial returns.
   ‘Thai Rak Thai today received about 60 per cent of the vote,’ he said. ‘If you include the invalid ballots, it’s about 57-42.’
   Meanwhile, Thailand’s opposition leader said a strong protest vote in weekend polls was a warning to embattled prime minister.
   ‘We saw protest votes not only in the south and Bangkok, but also in many provinces in central and northern regions. It shows that people do not accept Thaksin’s government,’ Democrat party head Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
   An opposition boycott of the ballot has likely ensured victory for Thaksin’s ruling party which ran unopposed in nearly 70 per cent of districts.
   But a high number of abstention ballots has undermined his credibility and threatens to derail efforts to form a new government.
   ‘A large number of people voted to protest against him. How can he still run the country peacefully and in an orderly way?’ Abhisit said.
   Thais went to the polls Sunday in elections called three years early by Thaksin. They were seen as a referendum on the premier’s leadership, following weeks of protests demanding he quit over allegations of abuse of power.
   Simmering public anger towards Thaksin erupted in January after his family sold its holding in telecoms giant Shin Corp. for 1.9 billion dollars in a tax-free deal.

Indigenous people and settlers clashed Monday morning at Mahalchari in Khagrachari in which at least 30 of both sides were injured.
   Critically injured Tutumoni Chakma, 25, was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital from Khagrachari General Hospital. Seriously injured Chand Miah, 35, was treated at Khagrachari.
   Fourteen other injured, including 10 indigenous people, were admitted to Khagrachari General Hospital from Mahalchhari upazila health complex. The police rounded up 28 persons from both sides in this connection. Fearing further clash, hundreds of indigenous people left their houses at Chaiprue Karbaripara, Joysenpara and Noapara near Maishchari where the clash took place.
   The indigenous people during the clash looted seven cattle from Joysenpara, a village inhabited both by indigenous people and settlers.
   The clash began when Bokrai Marma and his son were plucking jackfruits from a tree belonging to Hossein Ali at Joysenpara at 10.30am. The violence soon spread to neighbouring villages in the form of a ‘riot,’ the police said.
   The United People’s Democratic Front and the Hill Women’s Federation brought out a procession in the Khagrachari town to protest at attacks stepped up on indigenous people.
   The police along with army and BDR personnel patrolled the area to avert further clashes.
   The hill people’s organisations in Dhaka went out on demonstrations denouncing the attack.
   The Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti student front Pahari Chhatra Parishad brought out a procession in Dhaka denouncing the attack.
   The organisations said the army and other law enforcers remained silent during the incident, which ‘proved it was planned.’
   After the incident, the administration arrested 25 people of whom 20 are from indigenous communities, they said and demanded their immediate release.
   The United People’s Democratic Front convener, Prasit Bikash Khisha, said the attack once again proved that the hill people had no security at home and it was part of a conspiracy to occupy the land of the hill people. A similar attempt was taken Gamaridhala, he said.
   The Pahari Chhatra Parishad joint general secretary, Regan Chakma, in Dhaka said two indigenous women were
   raped during attacks and a witness Buddhist monk was abducted.
   Another faction of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad backed by the Untied People’s Democratic Front denounced the attack and demanded arrest and trial of those responsible. It urged the hill people to unite against such repression.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, hinted on Monday that the tax net might be widened to meet increasing development expenditures in the next fiscal year, in the middle of which general elections are scheduled.
   ‘We have to increase development spending and for that we have to earn more revenue,’ he told journalists after a meeting of the budgetary resource committee.
   The committee, chaired by Saifur, comprises top bureaucrats of government agencies concerned.
   Finance ministry officials say the present government is set to prepare a full-fledged budget in the coming June although it is scheduled to leave office in October and a new government is likely to take over early next year.
   Saifur said his aim was to raise the ratio of tax to gross domestic product by 0.5 percentage point to 11 per cent from the current percentage of 10.5 to allow the government to spend the money for development and welfare needs of the people.
   He said the annual development programme of the current fiscal would be slashed down by no more than five per cent and he would rather redirect some money to finance new projects.
   Such projects would include renovation of the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University as an important heritage site and construction of a new hall of residence at Eden College to resolve residential problems for students.
   Poised to author his 12th budget, Saifur reiterated that fund constraint was not an issue.
   Rather, he said, most of the government agencies did not have the capacity to spend the money allocated for specific purposes.
   He said he would soon meet members of the resource committee and some of the ministries that had failed to properly spend the money allocated for various projects.
   Asked about the volatility in the money market Saifur said this happened because of the ‘adventurous and irresponsible’ attitude of some banks.
   The liquidity crisis of the Sonali Bank due to outstanding amounts to sector corporations also aggravated the situation, he added.

A Hamas spokesman said on Monday Hamas members held talks two months ago with French officials and more recently with an Indian diplomat despite US and Israeli efforts to isolate the Islamic militant group.
   ‘Meetings were held here (in Gaza) two months ago with French officials,’ said Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri, without identifying them or providing any details about the talks.
   France’s ambassador to Israel, Gerard Araud, denied French officials have any contact with Hamas, which won elections in January and formally took control of the Palestinian Authority last week.
   Araud said France, like the European Union, expected Hamas to first renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by interim peace deals.
   ‘We don’t have any contact with the Hamas ... We won’t have any contact with the Hamas whatsoever, as long as they don’t satisfy the three well-known conditions,’ the ambassador, speaking in English, told Army Radio.
   Israel has suspended tax revenue transfers to the Palestinians, and Washington has ordered all US diplomats and contractors to cut off contacts with Palestinian ministries, including independents and technocrats in the new Hamas government.
   Abu Zuhri said: ‘There is an understanding by France of the necessity for the European Union to reconsider its position regarding Hamas and they have promised to make an effort with other European countries in this regard.’
   Abu Zuhri said Hamas leaders also held talks in Gaza two weeks ago with India’s representative in the Palestinian territories.
   He said those talks took place at the home of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who was sworn in last week as Palestinian prime minister.
   Abu Zuhri said the Indian diplomat, whom he did not identify by name, told Haniya that India wanted to maintain relations with Hamas and to continue to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
   India’s representative based in the West Bank city of Ramallah was not immediately available to comment. A spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Israel declined to comment.
   Last year, Hamas leaders said they held talks with some EU diplomats and the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said in a television interview that diplomats from Britain had met officials from Hamas’s political wing on two occasions.

‘I came to Bilin because when Jews are with Palestinians there is less violence,’ says Jonathan Sivin as he joins a weekly demonstration against Israel’s security fence in this West Bank village.
   But this day Sivin’s words have an ominous echo, coming days after acting premier Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party won the Israeli general election on a platform of turning the ‘barrier’ into the Jewish state’s eastern border.
   Palestinian leaders, who call the barrier ‘an apartheid fence’, have said such a move will only lead to further conflict, and this ragtag band of 300 left-wing Israelis, Palestinian villagers and foreign peace activists agree.
   ‘Olmert means there will be no peace in this land,’ says demonstrator Yussef Karaja. ‘I don’t know what we can do but we refuse his way. They are killing us without shooting, by lack of food, lack of work, lack of services.’
   Once completed, the 670-kilometre mix of concrete, steel and razor wire will effectively confiscate eight to 10 per cent of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
   Some 49,400 Palestinians living in 48 villages will find themselves on the Israeli side of the barrier.
   Israel has always maintained that the barrier, much of it snaking east of the 1967 Green Line that is supposed to separate Jewish and Arab states, is for security and not a land grab, despite Palestinian fears of its ultimate goal.
   ‘The sole purpose of the security fence... is security ... and Israel’s response to suicide bombers who enter into Israel,’ a recent UN report on the barrier quoted the military as saying after the plan was dreamt up in 2001.
   The Hague-based International Court of Justice declared all parts of the barrier beyond the Green Line illegal under international human rights law in 2004, but the verdict is non-binding and has been ignored by Israel.
   Swiss protestor Alexandre, 30, says Israeli politicians use security to make voters fearful as well as an excuse to grab Palestinian land.
   ‘Look at the thousands of security forces deployed for the election. That was just to make people afraid,’ he says, surrounded by people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ‘Two states, one future’ and ‘Back to ‘67 borders’.
   Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags and chant ‘The wall must fall’ at Israeli police protecting the rapidly developing construction site. Some demonstrators break off olive branches which they wave at the armed police.
   ‘Clear the area this is a military zone,’ the police say, before telling the protestors ‘Kadima, kadima’ - ‘Forward, forward.’
   Flash-bang grenades are fired, some arrests are made and the crowd responds with ‘Give us our land back’.
   ‘The only solution is two-state, but not like this,’ says Louise, 26, from Tel Aviv. ‘Israelis should start packing our bags in this area and get rid of the settlements.’
   ‘We want the 1967 borders, not to grab land. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We’ll pay for what we’re doing to these poor people in the future. This has nothing to do with security.’
   ‘The Israelis plan something, we plan something, but it’s always different,’ says Palestinian Waji, as the peaceful demonstrators go back to the village and masked Palestinian youths emerge from the olive groves to throw rocks at police.
   ‘We plan to live together but they plan how to expel us and how to build settlements on our land,’ he says.

Six people were killed by lightning strike and in house collapse on Monday as some parts of the country experienced showers accompanied by thunder and squally winds.
   Although there were thundershowers at places, most parts of the country remained dry.
   The capital experienced a light rain with thunder and squally winds in the morning.
   Three members of a family were killed when a lightning struck their thatched house at village Tajpur Char in Lalmanirhat early Monday. They are Nausher Ali, 28, his wife Marjina Begum, 20, and their three-year-old son Russell. They were asleep when the lightning struck them.
   Shampa Akhter, a student of Aftab Memorial Junior High School at Bhaluka, Mymensingh, was killed and 14 other students, teachers and employees of the school sustained injuries when lightning struck them at about noon.
   The injured — Sheema Akter, Naimul Hasan, Mahbub Alam and Liton Miah were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital while seven others, Rina,, Riya, Sathi, Rozina and Asma Akhter, teachers Gopal and Shahnaz Begum, were admitted to Bhaluka upazila health complex.
   Haji Mohammad Mosharraf, a farmer, was killed by lightning strike while he was working in a field at Bandar in Narayanganj in the morning.
   In Kishoreganj, Halima Akhter, wife of Shahar Ali, died in a house collapse in village Paiksha in Katiadi during a storm which lashed the district on Monday morning. About 200 thatched houses and two schools were also damaged and a number of trees uprooted by the storm at different places of the district.
   The met office recorded highest 29mm rainfall at Sylhet. There was 12mm rainfall in Rangpur and 1mm at Mymensingh.
   The met office forecast rain and thundershowers and nor’wester ‘kalbaishakhi’ with speed of 60-80 kilometres per hour or more with hails at places over Rajshahi, Rangpur, Pabna, Bogra, Tangail, Mymensingh, Dhaka and Faridpur in next 24 hours.
   Rain or thundershower accompanied by gusty or squally winds is expected at places in Jessore, Kushtia, Noakhali and Comilla, the weather forecast said.

At least eleven workers of a shrimp enclosure were injured in an attack by miscreants at Dhangmari village under Dacope upazila in Khulna on Sunday.
   The police said 50-60 miscreants led by Mannan Mollah and Omar Farukh came to the shrimp enclosure by two trawlers at about 3:30pm and opened fire on the workers to capture it.
   In the face of sudden attack, the workers tried to escape, but 11 of them received bullet injuries, said the police adding that the attackers also beat them up.
   All the injured were taken to Dacope Upazila Health Complex and later six of them were sent to Khulna Medical College Hospital as their condition deteriorated.
   The six injured were Zakir Hossain, 25, Sattar Hawladar, 60, Delwar Hawladar, 25, Nasir Sardar, 18, and Halim, 13, of Dhangmari village, and Ibrahim Hawladar of Purba Khejuria village.
   After getting information, the police went to the spot at about 5:00pm and fired in the air. The attackers managed to flee by the trawlers, leaving two firearms on the spot.
   The KMCH sources on Monday said the six bullet-injured were out of danger. No case was filed and no arrest made in this connection till Monday afternoon, the police said.

The European Commission has shown its interest to get observer status of the SAARC, officials of the ministry of foreign affairs said here on Monday.
   The EC’s interest was conveyed when a delegation of senior officials of the SAARC member countries visited Brussels last week for an interaction with the senior officials of the EC, the officials said and added Bangladesh was represented by the additional foreign secretary, Muniruzzaman.
   Meanwhile, the director general of the ministry of foreign affairs, Imtiaz Ahmed, visited Germany last week for interaction with the senior officials of German parliament in Berlin. The German government has also showed its interest to get observer status of the regional grouping.
   The foreign secretary of Cyprus also conveyed interest of his country for getting observer status of the SAARC when the director general called on him, the officials said.

The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, on Monday asked the investigation officers of the cases filed in connection with the bomb attacks by militants to give priority to the cases that caused deaths.
   He gave the directive at a meeting to review the progress of the cases filed in connection with the August 17, 2005 countrywide serial blasts and subsequent suicide attacks.
   Babar along with the home secretary-led committee to monitor the cases expressed satisfaction over the overall progress excepting for those filed in connection with the Gazipur and Mymensingh blasts.
   ‘Find out why progress in the two districts is not satisfactory and take steps accordingly,’ the state minister told the committee members.
   He also asked the investigation officer of the case filed in connection with the recovery of explosives from a house in Sylhet from where Shaikh Abdur Rahman, chief of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was captured to cautiously discharge his duty.
   Nine cases filed in connection with blasts in Chand- pur, Gazipur, Khagrachari, Mymensingh, Jhalakati, Comilla and Sylhet caused deaths and the investigation officers of the cases were asked to pay more attention on the investigation to submit flawless charge sheets.
   Two hundred and thirty-five cases have been filed with different police stations and courts after Jamaatul Mujahideen carried out 469 blasts on August 17, 2005 and six subsequent suicide attacks across the country. Of those, charge sheets have so far been submitted in 129 cases and verdict delivered in four cases.
   ‘As we have found flaws in some cases and in investigation, we have asked the concerned officials to overcome the flaws,’ Babar told reporters after the meeting held at the home ministry.
   Pointing finger to the investigation officers, he warned that the concerned officials would be held personally liable if any arrested militants was acquitted or released for their faults.