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Thirty-five years after he took off on a T-33 aircraft from a West Pakistan airbase, looking to return to his motherland, Bir Shreshtha Matiur Rahman finally landed home on Saturday.
   One of seven heroes given the country’s highest gallantry award after the war of independence in 1971, Matiur’s remains arrived in Bangladesh from Karachi, Pakistan, where he had remai-ned buried for 35 long years.
   He flew home by BG-024 flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines at 10:50pm Saturday night. Eight flight lieutenants, officers of the same rank as that of Matiur, brought out the coffin draped in national colours.
   Matiur Rahman is among the seven honoured with the highest gallantry award of Bangladesh, Bir Shreshtha, given only posthumously.
   He was killed when his jet crashed near the India-Pakistan border as he tried to fly out of Pakistan with one of the Pakistani fighter planes during the war in 1971.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, received the coffin at Zia International Airport at 11:00pm with flowers.
   A contingent drawn from the army, the navy and the air force paid guard of honour to the national hero.
   The wife and family members of flight lieutenant Matiur Rahman, senior ministers, chiefs of the army, the navy and the air force were present.
   The prime minister later talked with the wife and other family members of Matiur and left the airport.
   After the reception formalities, the coffin was taken to the central mosque of the air force at Kurmitola in Dhaka.
   A motorcade of personnel of the three forces escorted the coffin. The state-run Bangladesh Television aired the ceremony live.
   On Saturday afternoon, the state minister for liberation war affairs, Rezaul Karim, at a news briefing said a five-member committee, led by the secretary of the ministry that left for Pakistan on June 20, took over the coffin.
   The coffin will be taken to the National Parade Square in Dhaka today at 10:00am. A special prayer will be said where top defence officials and other dignitaries will attend.
   People from all strata of life have been requested to attend, said Rezaul. He said the Pairaband gate and Taltola gate on Roquiah Sarani will remain open the people to enter the parade square.
   The acting president, Jamiruddin Sircar, is expected to pay tribute by placing flowers on the coffin, Rezaul Karim said.
   The coffin will remain in the parade square till 11:00am. The entire ceremony will be shifted to the Tejgaon air force base if weather remains inclement.
   Matiur’s remains will be taken to the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur around 11:30am in the capital city and will be buried with the state honours.
   The fighter planes of the Bangladesh Air Force will fly over the area during the burial.

A small patch of land in the graveyard for Class IV employees of the Mashrur Airbase in Karachi, has long belonged to Bangladesh.
   There lay, uncared for and unmentioned, flight lieutenant Matiur Rahman, Bir Shreshtha. Not anymore.
   Matiur came home on Saturday night, almost 35 years after he had taken flight from Pakistan to fly away home. Now, Matiur will be laid to rest in a free land that he had dreamed of.
   Matiur’s wife lamented that he had been buried in Karachi where his grave was marked as that of a traitor.
   ‘I have nothing to ask from the country now. I have had a full life. All I want for my husband is to bring him back. Is he not Bangladesh’s hero?’ asked Matiur’s wife Milly, last year, speaking to New Age. Her wish has finally been fulfilled.
   It was August 20, 1971, several months into a ‘no flying’ restriction on all East Pakistani pilots. Matiur decided it was time to break free. He boarded a T-33 aircraft and took off with an apprentice from West Pakistan. A few minutes into the flight, the plane crashed, burying his dream to fight for his country with the one skill he had acquired throughout his professional life—flying a fighter.
   His daughter Mahim Matiur Khandakar, who was a little girl when her father left home never to come back, was the only Bangladeshi to visit his grave in 1994.
   She had grown up knowing that her father was one of the great heroes who had sacrificed his life for his country. However, it was not until she was 23 that she had the opportunity to visit her father’s grave.
   ‘On her return Mahim officially applied to the government to relocate Matiur’s grave to Bangladesh,’ said Milly.
   Bit it was not till 2003 that the government finally decided to build memorials honouring the seven Bir Sreshthas at their place of martyrdom. As Matiur died on Pakistani soil, the government decided to build a memorial near Bijoy Sarani in the capital.
   At the foundation-laying ceremony in 2003, Milly and Matiur’s elder brother Khorshed Alam, a retired civil servant and a former Bangladesh Bank governor, requested the government for the second time to bring Matiur home.
   ‘It is not unusual. Nations have always had the custom of relocating graves of their statesmen and martyrs whenever and wherever appropriate. I requested the government to do so too,’ says Khorshed.
   Matiur’s youngest brother, Alamgir Kabir Samad, has also been pursuing this cause for several years now. General awareness in the matter had also grown with the years.
   Paribesh Bachao Andolan, an environmentalist organisation, had also presented a memorandum to both the president and the prime minister to relocate Bir Sreshtha Matiur’s grave in 2005.
   Matiur’s memorty has been preserved in writing, at least, through publication of Bir Sreshtha Matiur Rahman Smarak Grantha brought out by Agami Prokashani at the Ekushey Book Fair in 2005.
   The book, edited by Milly, attempts to put together a proper documentation of her husband’s life.
   The Bangladesh Air Force and the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs were the concerned authorities regarding a move on the relocation issue. ‘I have repeatedly sent letters to both and even to the Prime Minister’s Office. But nothing has happened yet,’ complained Milly, last year.
   While Bangladesh may have won independence in 1971, Milly’s personal struggle ended when the government finally decided to bring back Matiur. Our hero would finally fly home.
   Earlier this year, after several rounds of talks, Pakistan agreed to return the mortal remains of Matiur Rahman.
   A delegation of Liberation War Affairs ministry had gone to Pakistan on June 20 to bring Matiur back.
   As Matiur’s grandson, Rashad, visits the war heroes’ museum in Washington DC, he finds his grandfather’s name there. He has long asked Milly of his great ancestor.
   Other than a few faded photographs and tales of glory, there was nothing for Rashad.
   Now, Rashad will have a patch of soil in his forefather’s land that holds not just his legacy, but a nation’s pride. Milly’s hero will live amongst us.
   In Greek mythology, when Icarus flew high towards the sun and his wax wings melted, he had only one dream — to fly. Matiur flew too on that August morning. He dreamt of a liberated motherland. A son of our soil, our martyr, had long lied neglected in some land that is not his own. Like a ghost trapped in eternal twilight, Matiur’s bones were trapped in the soils of a foreign land.
   Our Icarus’ soul will fly high, in the blue skies of a free land from now and forever.

The removal of the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, seems to be a matter of time unless he resigns from office willingly.
   ‘The government is likely request the country’s president to direct the Supreme Judicial Council to inquire into matters relating to the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, unless he resigns, and report its findings as the government doubts whether he is “mentally fit” to hold office,’ a member of prime minister Khelada Zia’s kitchen cabinet told New Age on Saturday.
   ‘We may give him the option to quit office,’ said the minister.
   The prime minister will soon hold a meeting with key policy-makers of her government to determine Aziz’s fate.
   She called the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, who was visiting Sylhet, for consultation, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told New Age.
   According to article 118(4) of the constitution, the president, by order, determines the conditions of service of election commissioners (including the chief election commissioner).
   But the president shall have to direct the matters relating to concerned commissioner if he has reason to apprehend, upon receiving information from any source, that the commissioner may have ceased to be capable of properly performing the functions of his office because of physical and/or mental incapacity, says the constitution.
   In the meantime Khaleda consulted five senior ministers on Thursday about the recent activities of the CEC. ‘She doubts if Aziz is a “sensible” man,’ a minister, who attended the meeting, told New Age.
   He has created ‘unmanageable’ troubles for all by ‘hurriedly’ and ‘inefficiently’ dealing with the voters’ list issue, apparently to bypass the Supreme Court’s rule as well as by being adamant to not update the list.
   The communication minister, Nazmul Huda, who is known as a friend of Aziz, told a television channel on Friday that the CEC could be removed through the Supreme Judicial Council on the basis of a complaint, and the council might refer it to the president, asking for his decision in this regard.
   Any citizen can request the president to remove the CEC, he said.

Police have been failing, for quite some time now, to manage crowds in a democratic manner, particularly the ones agitating against the government.
   This observation was made by a group of politicians, academics, rights activists, legal experts, and a former police boss at a roundtable, styled as ‘a human rights perspective of police behaviour in crowed management. The roundtable was organised in the city jointly by New Age and Odhikar, a human rights coalition, on Saturday.
   The participants, however, attributed this particular failure of the police to different reasons that include undemocratic governance by the political parties and the police’s lack of respect for the civil and political rights of the citizens.
   Besides low pay, overwork, lack of adequate logistics and training, absence of allocation of adequate funds for investigations, etc play a big role behind the law enforcers’ brutality in handling the crowds in general and opposition activists in particular.
   Most of the participants argued strongly that the policemen’s brutality in tackling the crowds should not be judged in isolation, but should be seen in the perspective of the social and political realities that allow every section of the society to behave undemocratically. They said that the solution lies with the democratisation of the state machinery and political parties managing the affairs of the state, while financial and logistical constraints of the law enforcing agencies should be addressed effectively without further delay.
   Earlier, Elyus Rahman of Odhikar presented the keynote paper at the roundtable, describing how law enforcers treated crowds brutally in four incidents of the year — the people’s uprising in Kansat and Demra, attack on journalists in Chittagong and the opposition’s sit-in in front of PMO in the capital. He also pointed out how the police violated various constitutional, legal and international rights during the incidents in question.
   Elyus suggested the setting up of a body to monitor overall police behaviour, orientation of police on human rights, amendment to the PRB of 1943, Police Act of 1861 and other relevant laws because of the emergence of new circumstances.
   ‘Political use of the police by the parties in power must also be stopped immediately to improve the crowd management capacity of the police force,’ he said in the keynote paper.
   Speaking on the issue, Manjurul Ahsan Khan of the Communist Party of Bangladesh said that oppression of the political opponents by using the police force has risen to an intolerable degree these days, although it started as early as in January 1973.
   Khan said it was high time that the political parties stop using the police for partisan interests and suggested that there should be a legal instrument which will protect the honest and non-partisan police officials from implementing illegal orders issued by the governing political authorities. ‘Besides, the government should take immediate steps to address the police’s financial and other genuine grievances.’
   Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party of Bangladesh admitted that the opposition political activists, at times, provoke the law enforcers during street demonstrations for certain political motives. He, however, provided a couple of examples showing that the ‘law enforcers these days are quite selective in their handling of the crowds’. ‘During operations, police provide safety and protection to the fundamentalist elements belonging to the JMB or the anti-Ahmadiyya groups. But the same law enforcers resort to merciless beating of the activists of the secular democratic parties and groups.’
   Menon argued that democratisation of the state machinery was the ultimate means to stop undemocratic police actions.
   Awami League’s women’s affairs secretary, Dipu Moni, claimed that police brutality, particularly to the opposition activists, has surpassed all records at the moment. ‘In most of the cases of opposition demonstrations, the law enforcers behave like the armed thugs of the ruling party,’ she said. ‘This is a product of post-1975 culture, which is aimed at making politics difficult for politicians. It is time to put an end to this culture.’
   Akhtaruzzaman, an organising secretary of the Awami League, described how the police ‘once friends of the people’ have now become ‘foes of people’, and stressed the democratic need of ‘converting the police as an institution to a non-partisan point of view’.
   Major General (retd) Moinul Hosain Chowdhury, a former adviser of the caretaker government in charge of the home affairs ministry, squarely blamed the political parties in power for the inefficiency and partisanship of the police. ‘The police are corrupt and inefficient because their political masters are corrupt and inefficient.’
   Dr CR Abrar of the Dhaka University argued that all those enjoying state power, civil or military, contributed to the gradual distortion of a democratic political process, and the police’s undemocratic behaviour has to be explained by the partisan use of the law enforcers by the successive governments. ‘The distortion began in 1974 with the introduction of one-party rule. The following governments criticised that distortion, but continued to use similar methods for their partisan purposes.’
   Professor Asif Nazrul of the law department of Dhaka University observed that the undemocratic behaviour of the police is nothing but a reflection of the undemocratic norms of the society that govern all other professional groups — of lawyers, teachers or journalists. ‘We have hardly any scope to unilaterally blame the police for so-called uncivilised behaviour, when the rest of the social groups routinely fail to behave in a civilised manner.’
   Earlier, Professor Mizanur Rahman of the same department came down heavily on the police for their ‘brutal, violent and barbaric’ attitude toward the people and said that our society will face no problem in the absence of such a police force.
   Ashraful Huda, a former inspector-general of the police, admitted that the police’s handling of the crowds cannot always be called proper. He, however, presented a long list of constraints that the police are forced to work under, which include low pay, overwork, lack of logistics, etc.
   Giving an ‘unbelievable’ example of police’s fund constraint, he told the audience that ‘there has never been any allocation of funds for police investigations into any case’. ‘Everybody says that law and order is a prerequisite of economic development, but nobody is ready to give enough funds to the police to effectively enable them to keep law and order.’
   Afsan Chowdhury, journalists and researcher, echoed Ashraful Huda’s opinions.
   Dr Mushtuq Hossain of Sommilito Peshajibi Parishad argued against the proposition that police resort to attacks on opposition activists only when provoked by the latter. Giving an example of how police refrained from attack in the face of deliberate provocation on a particular political occasion, Mushtuq said the police behave undemocratically only when asked to do so by the political incumbents.
   AF Hasan Ariff, president of Odhikar, chaired the dialogue, while New Age editor Nurul Kabir moderated the session.
   Others who took part in the discussion included Nishat Chowdhury, Farida Yasmin of BLAST, and TIM Zahid Hossain of Action Aid Bangladesh.
   Notably, a couple of ruling BNP leaders who accepted the invitation to participate at the roundtable eventually did not turn up.

The World Trade Organisation’s headquarters is expected to host a mini- ministerial meeting in Geneva from June 29 to hammer out an agreement for the current round of trade negotiations.
   Although no formal invitations had been sent out, it is expected that between 50 and 60 ministers will be in Geneva from June 26. Among them 25 to 30 ministers are expected to participate in the green room meetings, said sources close to the negotiations.
   As of now there are no indications that the least developed countries will be represented at the green rooms in any capacity.
   The round of informal meetings, expected to be facilitated by WTO director general Pascal Lamy himself, will begin with meeting of the G6—the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil, Australia and Japan. The G6 meeting will be followed by another larger meeting with the G20, G33 and the African Caribbean and Pacific countries’ group (ACP) till the mini-ministerial begins.
   The meetings are expected focus mainly on farm subsidies and industrial tariff. The chairmen of those two committees have already circulated the drafts on June 22. Services, it is reported, may be discussed briefly.
   Insiders and experts have repeatedly criticised the trade forum’s undemocratic and opaque manner of reaching the all-inclusive consensus that its proponents harp on.
   The next round of green room meetings ensures representations of most developing and developed countries too.
   It becomes apparent that even Lamy wants the richer members of the trade forum to negotiate among themselves. He said in an interview it was up to the developed and leading developing countries to make offers that would result in a consensus.
   Brussels and Washington maintain that it is up to the other to make an offer that could be acceptable and claim that their own offers are rather ambitious.
   On the other hand Brazil and India, the leading developing countries that Lamy had alluded to, insist that the developed countries—the US and the EU— must make deeper cuts in their agricultural subsidies first in exchange for lower industrial tariff in the developing countries.
   The least developed countries have so far been ignored at the global trade forum although they are repeatedly told that gradual trade liberalisation under this framework would eventually come to their benefit.
   In fact, it has become a trend at the trade forum’s ministerial conferences that the least developed countries are swallowed in large coalitions—G90 in Cancun and G110 in Hong Kong—dominated by large developing countries.
   These grand coalitions only ensure that the developed countries, particularly the United Sates and the European Union, concede to the demands of the developing countries.
   Walden Bello, head of Focus on Global South, said it was an ominous sign that Brazil and India had joined the ‘big boys’ club’ at the Hong Kong ministerial conference.
   The developing countries in the last two ministerial conferences demonstrated convincingly that they were the power brokers of the forum.
   The Cancun conference collapsed amid resistance from the G20 countries, of which both Brazil and India are members. The Hong Kong conference seemed headed for a similar collapse till the same two countries rally support of other smaller members and manufactured a consensus at the very last stage.
   In both cases the grand coalition of G90 and G110 played a crucial role.
   Insiders also point out that the least developed countries are kept from conducting negotiations with the developed countries parallel to similar negotiations with the developing countries, especially the advanced developing countries.
   The round of negotiations that could in effect seal the fate of global trade looks set to ignore the poorest members of the trade forum.
   The least developed countries together control 0.4 per cent share of global trade which has been gradually decreasing.
   The current round of negotiations — Doha Round — was launched in November 2001 and was supposed to be completed by the end of 2004. It has already failed that deadline due to diverging interests of the members.
   The commonly accepted deadline now is the end of 2006 since the US president’s fast track authority expires by mid-2007 and the US Congress looks unlikely to renew it.

A superb goal eight minutes into extra-time by Maxi Rodriguez sealed Argentina’s 2-1 win over Mexico here Saturday and a mouthwatering clash with Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals next Friday.
   Regulation time had finished 1-1 after two goals in an action-packed first quarter of the game, but it was a moment’s brilliance from Rodriguez that ensured Mexico would not make their third ever World Cup quarter-final.
   The Atletico Madrid midfielder chested down an innocuous Juan Sorin pass on the edge of the area, swivelled and fired a looping left-footed volley into the far top corner beyond the reach of diving goalkeeper Osvaldo Sanchez.
   The early pressure of an entralling match, however, had been all Mexican as the Argentinian midfield struggled with the pace of the game and
   it paid off in the sixth minute.
   Captain Rafael Marquez lost Gabriel Heinze to come rushing in to the far post unopposed to drive home a Pavel Pardo free-kick that had been headed superbly on by Mario Mendez from the near post.
   Argentina responded immediately, pressure from Hernan Crespo forcing Jared Borgetti, who was returning after missing the last two games through injury, to head Juan Riquelme’s swirling corner into his own net in the 10th minute.
   Lacking the incisive passing and running of Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez, both benched by coach Jose Pekerman despite their outstanding display in the goalless draw against the Netherlands, Argentina looked one-dimensional against the more dynamic Mexican side.
   Borgetti, who scored 14 goals in Mexico’s qualifying run, was a constant threat to Argentina, whose strikers were continually thwarted by the stout defending of the outstanding Marquez, Carlos Salcido, Ricardio Osario and Andres Guardado.
   Last-ditch defence by West Ham defender Lionel Scaloni deflected Borgetti’s header in the opening minutes, Heinze was forced into a sliding block on a vicious shot after 14 minutes, and goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri then tipped a blistering 25-yard shot over the bar.
   Marquez was on hand in the 18th minute of a gripping game to parry a shot by Crespo after a slicing through ball from Esteban Cambiasso. The first-half ended in controversy when Heinze, who put in for him a rare sloppy performance in the first-half, miscontrolled a simple pass from Abbondanzieri and gifted the ball to Francisco Fonseca before hacking down the striker.
   Swiss referee Massimo Busacca doled out a yellow card for the Manchester United defender but it could easily been red. Fonseca had a clear chance in the 54th minute, failing to control a ball with just the Argentine keeper in front of him.
   Straight up the other end, Sanchez beat away a shot from Rodriguez, largely outmuscled until then. And Sanchez made the save of the match a minute later, showing great reflexes to parry a well-driven Javier Saviola shot around the post.

Germany took one step closer to their dream of lifting a fourth World Cup crown after the hosts defeated ten-man Sweden 2-0 here on Saturday to book their place in the quarter-final.
   Germany got off to the perfect start with Lukas Podolski scoring twice in the first 12 minutes - making it three goals in his last two outings - as Sweden’s defence fell apart.
   Defender Teddy Lucic was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 34th minute giving Sweden a mountain to climb. Henrik Larsson had the best chance to get his team back in the match but missed a penalty at the beginning of the second half, blazing over.
   It was a fourth straight World Cup win for Germany who are now just two games away from matching manager Jurgen Klinsmann’s target of reaching the final in Berlin on July 9.Germany will face the winner of the Argentina v Mexico tie - taking place at 1900 GMT in Leipzig on Saturday - in next Friday’s quarter-final in Berlin.
   For Sweden it was more second-round disappointment - they crashed out of the 2002 World Cup to Senegal at the same stage.
   Sweden manager Lars Lagerback started with three strikers, including the returning Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the bold move backfired as Germany struck early.
   With just four minutes gone Miroslav Klose surged through on goal. Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson stopped him in his tracks but the ball fell kindly to Podolski and his shot went in off the hapless Lucic. It was Podolski’s second goal in a row and the third was not long in coming.
   In the 12th minute Podolski, who will play on this ground for Bayern Munich next season, accepted a pass from Klose and curled a left-footed shot in for 2-0.
   German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann had hardly made a save in his first three matches but was called into action to stop a smart turn and shot by Ibrahimovic.
   Eight minutes into the second half Sweden were then handed a lifeline when Larsson was felled by Christoph Metzelder in the penalty area.
   But Larsson, winning his 93rd cap, hammered his spot-kick over the crossbar to the dismay of the Sweden fans.
   Germany captain Michael Ballack then saw a fantastic drive tipped onto the post.
   The new Chelsea man was shooting at will and could have had a hat-trick but he was left still searching for his first goal at these finals.
   Sweden created chances but with their numerical disadvantage they never looked like overturning a buoyant Germany.
   The home fans left the turnstiles in high spirits as their team continue to ride the World Cup wave.

Over 79 per cent of the country’s school children are infected by parasitic worms, leading to malnutrition, diarrhoea, anaemia, respiratory and other health problems, reports a study.
   A survey by the World Health Organisation found that 50 million people are vulnerable to filariasis, while 20 million others in the areas of the country where the disease is endemic are already suffering from the disease caused by Filaria, a thin parasitic worm introduced by mosquitoes into the blood-stream.
   Parasite-generated sicknesses like filariasis are endemic in 32 districts, mostly in the north, kala-azar in 34 and malaria in 13, while infection by soil-transmitted worms called helminthes is common in all the 64 districts, the study found.
   The health ministry, in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the WHO, has already initiated some steps to eliminate filariasis and kala-azar by 2015. An anti-helminthic medication programme has also been launched to free at least 75 per cent school children of the parasite by 2010.
   At present, the government is implementing three components of the programme — mass drug administration, morbidity control and social mobilisation — to rout filariasis. It is also working on a national policy on control of parasitic diseases and a strategy to eliminate filariasis and helminthiasis with the financial and technical support of JICA.
   The health ministry, JICA and the WHO on Saturday jointly organised a workshop on a draft of the national policy.
   Helminthiasis can be controlled easily and at very little cost by administering anti-helminthic drugs twice a year, said the health and family welfare minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, at the opening ceremony of the workshop.
   The minister mentioned a number of ongoing de-worming programmes like the filariasis elimination programme, school health programme and
   vitamin A+ campaign. But he regretted the absence of
   coordination between the de-worming activities of the government and non-government organisations.
   Mosharraf suggested the setting up a central reporting system to reduce misuse or overuse of anti-helminthic drugs and to minimise programme costs.
   The ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh, Masayuki Inoue, said his country gained valuable experience of successfully overcoming parasitic diseases within a short period after World War II. He hoped that sharing of that experience can help Bangladesh develop an effective national parasitic disease control policy and strategy.
   Moazzem Hossain, the concerned programme manager working for the Directorate-General of Health Services, gave a brief introduction to the draft policy.
   Akio Arai, the country representative of JICA, Duangvadee Sungkhobol, representative of the WHO, Sahadat Hossain, director-general of health services, and Mahbub Ahmed, joint secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, also spoke at the workshop.

The much-talked-about promotion of a large number of deputy secretaries to the rank of joint secretary has remained stalled because of manipulation of the selection process and influence of a ‘powerful quarter’ on the administration.
   The officers, who allegedly tampered with their annual confidential reports and were involved in other irregularities, are now making hectic efforts to ensure their promotion before the caretaker government takes over in October this year, said a source in the Ministry of Establishment.
   Asked whether the officials who were involved in manipulation of the evaluation process would get promotion, the establishment secretary, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, told New Age last week that the names of at least 20 deputy secretaries were dropped from the promotion list as there were allegations of gross irregularities against them.
   ‘Some ACRs are missing. Apparently, this has been done in order to manipulate the entire promotion process,’ he asserted.
   The establishment secretary, however, said the names of some 30 deputy secretaries, who were presumably involved in some minor irregularities including tampering with their ACRs, were still on the promotion list.
   He admitted that the ACRs were being manipulated in collusion with some ‘dishonest officers’ of the establishment ministry. ‘Measures are under way to take action against these officers too,’ he added.
   Earlier on June 14, a meeting of the Superior Selection Board recommended 120 deputy secretaries from the ’82 and ’83 batches for promotion.
   Before that the establishment ministry had prepared a list of about 200 deputy secretaries from the ’82, ’83 and ’84 batches against some 126 vacant posts of joint secretaries in the administration. But the promotion process came to a halt following allegations of widespread corruption and anomalies in the evaluation process of the civil servants, said an officer in the establishment ministry.
   There have been allegations of anomalies and tampering with government documents against some 50 deputy secretaries, all of whom are strongly lobbying to get promoted to the rank of joint secretary.
   Of them, 30 officers have managed to get their names on the promotion list which has been finalised by the SSB, according to sources.
   Meanwhile, the government is learnt to be under pressure to include more names in the list of deputy secretaries earmarked for promotion.
   The board will hold another meeting very soon to further revise the list, the sources said.
   A senior bureaucrat told New Age that about 14 additional secretaries were likely to be promoted to the rank of secretary soon.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, is scheduled to return home today ending a five-day high-profile private visit to India.
   Hasina, who left for New Delhi on June 21, will fly back home via Kolkata where she was scheduled to attend a ceremony to receive the Mother Teresa Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday. But she cancelled the programme because of controversy over the organisation which had announced the award.
   During her stay in New Delhi the AL chief held a series of meetings with senior Indian politicians including the present and former Indian prime ministers, the chairperson of ruling United Progressive Alliance, Sonia Gandhi, and Indian opposition leader, LK Advani. She also offered prayers at the shrine of Khwaza Mainuddin Chishty at Ajmer.
   The Awami League and its front organisations have dropped their plan to accord a ‘grand reception’ to Hasina at Zia International Airport following her decision not to receive the award in Kolkata.
   Hasina’s political secretary, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, told BBC on Friday night that the AL chief had cancelled the programme to attend the award giving ceremony in Kolkata as she had a meeting with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Indian prime minister, IK Gujaral, in Delhi on the day.
   Some Awami League insides, however, said Hasina did not receive the award as questions arose over the recognition of the organisation that nominated her for the award for her contribution to parliamentary democracy.
   The Mother Teresa International Millennium Committee, the organisation which announced the award, is not registered, press reports said. The chairman of the MTIMC, Anthony Aroon Biswas, admitted that the organisation had no registration. The Missionaries of Charity, founded in Kolkata by Mother Teresa, also expressed its surprise at the award in her name saying that they had not been informed of it.
   A spokesman for the Indian ministry of external affairs told Indian newsmen that no one had consulted them (about the award) before. ‘We came to know of it from her (Hasina).’

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Saturday returned to his official residence-cum-office, Bangabhaban, after 32 days of medical treatment.
   However, the speaker, Jamir Uddin Sircar, who has been discharging duties as the acting president since May 24, will continue to do so until Iajuddin resumes work, government sources said.
   Although there is much confusion among people about the simultaneous presence of the president and the acting president, leading constitution experts maintain that an acting president can discharge the duties of the president even during his presence in the country, if the latter is unable to carry out his functions.
   ‘The president arrived at Bangabhaban from Combined Military Hospital at 11:50am and will take rest as per the advice of a medical board,’ the president’s press secretary, Mokhlesur Rahman Chow-dhury, told New Age Saturday afternoon.
   ‘The board will review his health condition after two weeks and if he is found fit he will then resume the president’s office,’ Mokhles explained.
   ‘There is no constitutional complications in the president’s returning to his official residence and still remaining on leave,’ eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain told news agency BDNEWS on Saturday. As per the Article 54 of the constitution, if the president is ill or remains on leave on any ground in the country or abroad, a relevant person can discharge the duties as acting president, he said.
   ‘All things regarding the president’s functions now depend on the medical board’s report. If the physicians certify that the president is recovering, but he should take rest, the president can go on leave,’ Kamal observed.
   If the physicians certify the president as physically unfit to discharge functions, he will
   be so in the eyes of the law, he added.
   Kamal, however, said every thing regarding the president — like his return to Bangabhaban and discharging functions — should be done in a transparent manner.
   In his opinion, ‘The government should clarify these things publicly through media, and the people have the right to that information.’
   The Supreme Court Bar Association president, M Amir-ul-Islam, also echoed Dr Kamal and said, ‘The presence of the president and the acting president simultaneously will
   not create any constitutional problem.’
   Iajuddin returned home on June 20 after undergoing a bypass surgery of heart at a Singapore hospital on May 26. Earlier on May 23, he was admitted to the CMH, Dhaka on his complaint of chest pain. He was flown to Singapore on May 24 for treatment.

An oil tanker of the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation caught fire at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong Port on Saturday, leaving three members of the crew members missing and three others injured.
   Officials at the Chittagong Port Authority said the ship, Banglar Saurabh, caught fire after explosions when it tanks were being cleaned at the outer anchorage at around 12.15 pm.
   Top officials said the ship was cracked into two as a result of the fire and might sink any time.
   Being informed, the authorities sent rescue vessels from the port authority, Bangladesh Navy, and Coast Guard to the scene and brought the fire under control after three hours of frantic efforts in the Bay of Bengal.
   Sources said the fire soon spread on the whole vessel, which was carrying 20 to 25 tonnes of fuel for its own consumption.
   The chairman of the port authority, MM Shahadat Hossain, told New Age that five vessels, two of the Bangladesh Navy, two of the Chittagong Port Authority and another of the Coast Guard, equipped with fire fighting units, brought the fire under control.
   Asked about the latest position of the tanker, the chairman said, ‘The tanker is about to sink. The rear portion has already gone under water.’
   A naval officer said the authorities may declare it abandoned as it is already half sunk.
   All 44 crew members of the vessel, who jumped into the water during the fire, were rescued and the fire was brought under control after three hours, said the port authority chairman.
   However, sources at the port said they could not trace three of the crew members. Carpenter Nurul Islam and pump-man Shamsul Haq were among the missing.
   The board chairman said the movement of vessels at outer anchorage and the port channel was not interrupted due to the incident and other activities were also normal.
   The chief officer of the vessel, Zuhurul Islam, was undergoing treatment at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital with burn injuries. Two others were released from the hospital after primary treatment.
   The government formed two committees to probe the fire incident. The committees were asked to report in a week.
   The Mercantile and Marine Department formed a four-member committee, headed by captain Habibur Rahman, while the shipping corporation formed another committee with three members.
   The Bangladesh Shipping Corporation has 13 ships including the fire-ravaged one.

Nepal’s Maoist rebel leader Prachanda has said his guerrillas and government troops could join forces to form a single army ahead of elections to a constituent assembly, media reported Saturday.
   ‘The Maoist army and the Nepali Army could be merged before constituent assembly elections after the formation of the interim government through an interim constitution,’ the rebel leader told local journalists Friday at Dhangadi in western Nepal, state-run daily The Rising Nepal reported.
   Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also said that the issue of arms management could be achieved through discussions between the Maoists and the new government.
   While not prepared to disarm, Maoist rebels said on Thursday they are willing to put their army and their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations to create a stable environment for the constituent assembly polls.
   The two sides have been observing a ceasefire for nearly two months and have agreed to hold elections for a body that will rewrite Nepal’s constitution, probably removing the king permanently from political life.
   King Gyanendra relinquished direct rule in April and handed back power to parliament after mass protests against him.
   He had sacked the government and assumed direct control in February 2005, in a widely criticised move, that he said was justified as political parties were corrupt and had failed to stem the decade-long bloody insurgency.
   Last week, the rebels and new government reached a landmark power-sharing deal and agreed to dissolve the new government and establish an interim body that includes the rebels.
   A committee formed to draft a temporary constitution that will pave the way for the rebels to join an interim government has started informal talks with the Maoists and civil society leaders, an official said.
   ‘The official work will begin in the next two days. It will take at least 15 days more to draft the interim constitution after beginning our work formally,’ Laxman Prasad Aryal, coordinator of the committee, told AFP on Saturday.
   ‘The interim constitution will be a temporary arrangement to hold a constituent assembly election,’ said Aryal, former justice of the Supreme Court.

The government primary schoolteachers under the banner of the Bangladesh Primary Teachers’ Association, now on a strike for an indefinite period from June 17, began a fast unto death at the city’s Muktangan on Saturday.
   The association president, Abul Kalam Azad, inaugurated the fasting. A number of teachers from across the country are taking part in the programme.
   The teachers vowed to continue the fasting until fulfilment of their demands including an end to discriminatory salary structure.
   Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Civil Service General Education Association has decided to boycott the classes today demanding an end to initiative of amending the Absorption Rules 2000, ensuring earn leaves, selection grade scale, promotion at all levels, and creating new posts.
   On the other hand, the community primary schoolteachers continued their fast unto death for the seventh consecutive day on Saturday to press for the demand of nationalising their jobs.
   BDNEWS adds: Another faction of the Bangladesh Government Primary School Teachers’ Association led by Abdul Awal Talukdar on Saturday started a fast unto death on the Central Shaheed Minar premises after the police barred them at Doyel Square from moving towards to the Prime Minister’s Office for submission of a memorandum.
   Later a five-member delegation of the association went to the PM office where a mid-level official received the memorandum. The association gave the government a seven-day ultimatum to meet their demands.
   Amid the stalemate in the primary education system, a feud among the government primary teachers emerged following a separate demonstration of a faction of them led by Azad.
   The faction staged demonstration at Muktangan, but the other group led by Awal termed it ‘government-sponsored outsiders’.

The World Health Organisation has detailed the first evidence that a person likely caught the bird flu virus from a human, then passed a slightly mutated version to another person. But experts said on Friday the genetic change does not increase the threat of a pandemic.
   The investigation said the mutation of the H5N1 strain of the virus occurred in a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who was part of the largest cluster ever reported.
   The index case is believed to have been infected by poultry. She then likely passed it to the boy and five other blood relatives.
   The boy is then thought to have infected his father, whose samples showed the same mutation, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
   Only one infected family member survived.
   ‘It stopped. It was dead end at that point,’ said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
   Uyeki, who was part of the investigating team, stressed that viruses are always slightly changing, and there was no reason for this mutation to raise alarm because the virus has not developed the ability to spread easily among people.
   The UN bird flu chief, David Nabarro, said the findings nevertheless emphasised the importance of continuous monitoring of the H5N1 virus in both humans and poultry.
   ‘We were fortunate in that the change that took place did not result in sustained human-to-human transmission,’ he said by telephone on Friday. ‘This is a vivid reminder of the need to keep a very close watch on what the virus is doing.’
   Experts fear the H5N1 virus could eventually mutate into a highly contagious form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a global pandemic.
   The current virus remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds. Scientists believe limited human-to-human transmission has occurred in a handful of other clusters, all of which involved very close contact.
   The WHO report was distributed during a three-day meeting in Jakarta attended by some of the world’s top bird flu experts. Indonesian officials called the closed-door session to ask for help in coping with the virus, which has infected more people in Indonesia this year than anywhere else — killing an average of one person every 2 1/2 days last month.
   Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s coordinator for the Global Influenza Programme in Geneva, said
   the cluster in Indonesia last month drew international attention because of its size. Otherwise, he said, it resembles family clusters observed elsewhere.

The police on Friday filed two cases against the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders of Rajshahi University after recovery of bombs, firearms and explosives from the room of a JCD leader at Nawab Abdul Latif Hall of the university.
   JCD leader Safin Ahmed was injured as a bomb, which he was making, exploded in his room at the hall. He was shifted to Dhaka from the RMCH for better treatment as his condition deteriorated.
   Safin Ahmed, RU central
   convening committee member and former president of the Nawab Abdul Latif Hall unit JCD, was shone arrested in an arms case.
   Campus sources said the police and university proctorial body Friday night searched rooms of JCD activists of the hall and recovered two sharp weapons, three hokey sticks and 10 phensidyl bottles during the drive.
   Meanwhile, Nawab Abdul Latif Hall authorities formed an investigation committee comprising four members headed by hall houses tutor Masud Parvaze Rana and asked to submit report within the next four days.
   Others members of the committee are hall house tutors Saberuzzman, Saiful Islam and Altaf Hosain.
   The Nawab Abdul Latif Hall provost, Dr Aslam Hossain, said the committee had already started working.
   The university JCD convener, Nuruzzman Likhon, said Safin was a victim of conspiracy and it was a pre-planed incident.
   Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Chhatra League and the Samajtantrik Chhatra Front of university unit on Saturday staged separate demonstrations on the campus and demanded exemplary punishment for the responsible JCD activists who were involved in bomb making.

The housing and public works minister, Mirza Abbas, has sent a proposal to settle the dispute with MNH Bulu over the private television channel Baishakhi.
   Shahabuddin Sikder, media consultant of Bulu, a director of the television channel, said this at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Saturday.
   He informed that the minister sent the proposal through Bulu’s uncle, Atiqur Rahman, who is also close to Abbas, a few days ago.
   ‘He (minister) has agreed to repay about Tk 6 crore to settle the dispute, but Bulu has invested Tk 9.30 crore, including Tk 4.80 crore in the Baishakhi Media Limited,’ Shahabuddin told the press conference. The matter might be settled within a couple of days, if the whole money is paid back, he hoped.
   The dispute developed when Bulu asked the authorities concerned to withdraw his share from the Baishakhi Media Limited as it could not be on air after spending more than Tk 38 crore, even though its managing director, Kazi M Shahidullah, estimated the cost for airing the channel between Tk 18 crore and Tk 25 crore, he said. ‘The authorities have turned down Bulu’s plea to withdraw the share.’
   Immediately after filing a case with the chief metropolitan magistrates’ court in this regard, Bulu was made accused in two cases, and the police arrested him early hours on May 31. He was again made accused in another case, Shahabuddin said.
   The Baishakhi authorities later published an advertisement in different dailies claiming that Bulu was never a director of the media rather he was merely a promoter, Shahabuddin said.
   He also raised a question about ‘how Shahidullah registered a general diary with the Gulshan police on June 20 saying that Bulu had withdrawn his share from the media on May 25.’
   The conference came to an abrupt end when a section of ‘media men’ reportedly loyal to Baishakhi created chaos.

Armed activists of BNP’s student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal reportedly attacked the staff and passengers of a launch at the Muladi station Friday night leaving at least 20 injured.
   They also vandalised cabins of the MV Jalpatanga and looted cash and valuables worth about Tk 60,000 during the attack launched for not carrying a group of JCD men free a day ago, the launch staff claimed.
   The JCD men, led by Muladi upazila JCD president Faruk Khan, got into the triple-decked launch after it had touched the station on its way to Dhaka from Barisal at about 8:20pm, and started beating the staff and ransacking the cabins.
   As a number of passengers tried to resist the JCD men, they swooped on the latter, took away the cash and mobile phones and gold ornaments from them and the launch staff, the victims said.
   Faruk, also the son of upazila BNP president, along with his associates boarded on the launch from Dhaka on Thursday and wanted to travel without giving the fare, but the launch staff realised the fare from them for which the attack was launched, the staff claimed.
   The injured included launch staff Abdul Khalek, Masud, Sumon and Mizan and passengers Oli, Rahman, Yusuf Hazari and Faisal.
   The launch owner, Md. Akkas, is a district BNP leader and the dispute was settled through negotiations between the district and upazila BNP leaders, the officer in-charge of Muladi police, Mahbubur Rahman, said.
   Another source, however, said the launch owner was preparing to file a case in this connection and the Launch Owners Association in Barisal called an emergency meeting Saturday night.

Three more suspected underground party leaders were killed in separate ‘crossfires’ with the Rapid Action Battalion in Jessore and Narail early Saturday raising the crossfire death count to 591 since June 2004.
   The deceased were Abdur Razzaq alias Razzaq, 30, of village Ranagatee, Junayed Hossain, 30, and Md Matiar Rahman, 33, of village Shubhorara under Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore, were regional leaders of the Biplabi Communist Party.
   The battalion claimed that they arrested Razzak, wanted in eight cases including five for murders, from Shubharara. They arrested Junayed, accused in five cases including two murders, from Narail Sadar and Matiar, wanted in seven cases including two murders, from Phultala in Khulna on Friday and interrogated them intensively.
   Based on their statement, three battalion teams took Razzak to Abhaynagar and Matiar to Manirampur in Jessore, and Junayed to sadar upazila in Narail to recover arms and nab their associates early Saturday.
   As the team reached Durgapur with Razzaq at around 3:15am his associates opened fire on the battalion prompting them to retaliate. The battalion said at one stage, Razzaq tried to escape but died on the spot falling in the line of fire.
   Junayed was killed in a fight between his associates and the battalion at Mirzapur under Narail Sadar while Matiar at Hogladanga area of Manirampur upazila at around 3:15am.
   The battalion seized four pipe-guns with eight rounds of ammunition.

The Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, the apex body of labour organisations, on Saturday renewed the demand for 30 per cent dearness allowance for garment workers before implementation of new minimum wage.
   The SKOP leaders at a press conference in the city hoped that the government and garment factory owners would implement in time the tripartite agreement signed on June 12 following widespread labour unrest in the sector.
   According to the agreement the workers would get weekly holiday, appointment letters, identity cards and some other facilities within a month from the date of signing the agreement and the minimum wage would be announced within three months from the date of formation of the minimum wage commission, the labour leaders said.
   The SKOP leader and general secretary of Jatiya Sramik League, Roy Ramesh Chandra warned that the situation might worsen if the government and factory owners delayed implementation of the agreement.

Lawmaker for the Lalbagh constituency Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu on Saturday filed a case against ward 76 commissioner Mir Ashraf Ali Azam of the Azimpur-Lalbagh area alleging the commissioner instigated vandalism of the road construction work through the Azimpur graveyard on Friday.
   He also accused a reporter of Prothom Alo, Shatadal Sarkar, who wrote a report on the construction of the road through the graveyard.
   The case was filed by Tanvir Ahmed, staff of Pintu’s firm Asha Enterprise, with the Lalbagh police.

The Bangladesh Bar Council on Saturday disbarred an advocate of Chittagong, M Shahidul Islam Khan, on charge of ‘submitting a fake bachelor of law (LLB) certificate’.
   The statutory regulatory body of the country’s lawyers came up with the decision after finding Shahidul guilty of securing his enrolment in 1989 by submitting a fake LLB certificate, says a press release.
   On October 17, 1998, the authorities of Chittagong University issued a notice on Shahidul to explain within 15 days why his 1986 LLB certificate should not be cancelled as it was obtained by unfair means. After receiving the copy of the show-cause notice, the bar drew suo-moto proceedings against Shahidul and referred it to its tribunal.
   A tribunal comprising KM Saifuddin Ahmed and ZI Khan Panna found his LLB certificate fake and decided to disbar him from practicing law for life.