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In the face of the worsening political scenario with opposing camps ready to face off on the streets, the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Sunday evening decided to send a panel of advisers to meet the chief election commissioner, Justice MA Aziz, and request him to step aside.
   Sources close to the council of advisers have told New Age that the emissaries who will call on the CEC sometime today are likely to ask Justice Aziz to either resign or go on leave voluntarily in an attempt to defuse the tension arising out of the political impasse centring on the reconstitution of the Election Commission.
   The decision to send the high-powered delegation came at a meeting Iajuddin held with his council of advisers late Sunday as the latest deadline given to the caretaker government by the Awami League-led alliance demanding the removal of Justice Aziz expired at midnight.
   The Awami League-led combine has announced a resumption of their countrywide blockade programme today while the BNP-led alliance, which has demanded the immediate announcement of the election schedule, has also vowed to take to the streets across the country today.
   ‘The proposal that we will place to the CEC on behalf of the president is in line with the discussions the president has held with the leaders of the two alliances over the last two days,’ an adviser told New Age. ‘The proposal is within the constitutional framework.’
   Adviser Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury told the press after the meeting that today’s effort is an attempt to defuse the tension arising out of the crisis.
   Sources close to the advisers said that the president and his advisers discussed in length the options that the interim government has in addressing the AL-led combine’s demand keeping in mind that it cannot go beyond the framework of the constitution.
   Following Iajuddin’s meetings with delegations led by the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday and the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday, it was decided that the president would send his emissaries to meet Justice Aziz today.
   The sources claimed that the delegation of advisers, who are yet to be named, will ask Aziz to either resign or to go on leave for the days remaining before the coming national elections are scheduled to be held.
   In an instant reaction to the news, the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said, ‘We have said before that we will accept any solution within the bounds of the constitution. Whether the president can request the CEC to resign without stepping over those bounds is a matter for him to consider.’
   Talking to waiting reporters at the Bangabhaban gate after the president’s meeting with the advisers, adviser Mahbubul Alam said the events are not transpiring in a haphazard manner.
   ‘[Monday’s] efforts will be taken on the back of [Sunday’s] events’, he said referring to the series of events in the last two days that included the president meeting the political parties.
   ‘The delegation will seek an appointment tomorrow morning from the CEC to convey the president’s proposal,’ Alam told the reporters after the two-and-a-half-hour meeting that began at about 9:45pm. The advisers discussed all pertaining issues, he said without elaborating.
   Asked to make an official comment about what the president’s proposal will be, Alam said it is out of the norms to make the matter public. ‘How can we seek his appointment and then make our message public beforehand? he asked the reporters.
   When asked if the way out of crisis sought will be within the constitution, he assured that ‘in no way will the constitution be violated’.
   Asked about the president’s address to the nation with a package solution to the prevailing crisis, Alam said things were moving fast and so the speech may be delayed.

The battle lines are drawn as rival political alliances have announced they will take to the streets today to push through conflicting demands with the caretaker government that is seemingly at a loss for how to tackle the crisis over the proposed reconstitution of the Electoral Commission.
   The Awami League-led alliance, sticking to its demand for reconstitution of the commission, resumes its countrywide blockade today after a four-day pause while the BNP-led combine, demanding immediate announcement of election schedule, has announced sit-in demonstrations in all constituencies.
   It will be the AL-led alliance’s third round of countrywide road-rail-waterway blockade which, it says, will continue until the chief election commissioner, Justice MA Aziz, and election commissioner SM Zakaria, resign.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police in a statement said the ban on holding rallies, going out on demonstrations, laying siege and enforcing blockade with firearms, sticks, oars, sickles and other harmful materials in the capital would remain in force until further order.
   Activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP, and the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student front of the Jamaat-e-Islami, have taken over Muktagan in the capital and vowed to remain there to press for immediate announcement of election schedule.
   After the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia’s meeting with the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Saturday, the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, along with 12 other leaders of her alliance, met the president on Sunday and had a two-hour-long ‘inconclusive’ talks.
   Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Abdul Jalil, the Awami League general secretary and coordinator of the alliance, accused Iajuddin of forcing them go ahead with the blockade programme as they had ‘no other option to realise reconstitution of the Election Commission.’
   Jalil warned that any deliberate attempt at confrontation or moves to foil the election would threaten democracy.
   He urged the BNP-Jamaat alliance to refrain from ‘trying to kill democracy’.
   The BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, at a rally on Sunday threatened to take to the streets if any decision was taken outside the constitution.
   The Dhaka city unit of the AL-led alliance held a preparatory meeting at the Awami League central office Sunday evening.
   The leaders vowed to make the blockade peaceful, but warned that if any quarter resorted to violence, the alliance would face them.
   The Jatiya Oikya Front, a combine of three political parties – newly floated Liberal Democratic Party led by AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Oli Ahmed, the Jatiya Oikya Mancha led by Dr Kamal Hossain and the Tarikat Federation led by Nazibul Basher Maizbhandari and a faction of the Islamic Oikya Jote, will also observe the blockade programme simultaneously with the AL-led alliance.
   The leaders of the parties at a meeting with the AL-led alliance at a city restaurant announced their solidarity with the action programme.
   The BNP-led alliance’s programmes include sit-in and processions in all constituencies today.
   The JCD and the Shibir, which started demonstrations at the Muktagan on Sunday, will continue their agitations until election schedule was announced.
   Abdul Jalil in the press briefing also said that the caretaker government would have to take the responsibility for any undesirable situation during the blockade.
   The alliance leaders, however, decided to keep the programmes of the Armed Forces Day on Tuesday out of the purview of the blockade programme.
   ‘We are aware that blockade causes sufferings to common people, but we have no option but to enforce the blockade to realise the voting rights of the people,’ said Jalil urging the people to extend their support to the programme as they had done before for the greater interest of the nation.

The BNP-led alliance on Sunday warned the interim caretaker government that it would take to the streets if the latter went 'beyond the constitution' in tackling the present political situation.
   The combine asked the government to maintain law and order at any cost, ensure people's safety and security and announce elections schedule immediately.
   'We will agree to nothing if it is done beyond the constitution… If necessary, we will take to the streets,' the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said at a rally at Muktangon in the capital.
   'Maintain law and order at any cost, ensure people's safety and security and announce elections schedule immediately,' he asked the caretaker government.
   He instructed the metropolitan and district units of the alliance to stage sit-in and processions in all constituencies across the country today.
   The rally was held as part of the alliance's programme to hold rallies and processions across the country against the Awami League-led combine's decision to resume a countrywide blockade this morning. After the rally, several thousand activists of the BNP-led alliance brought out a procession denouncing frequent blockades enforced by the AL and its allies.
   Alliance activists from different wards and thanas of the city joined the rally with banners, festoons, placards and sheaf of paddy and scales-polls symbols of the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
   They marched through the streets from Muktangon to Bangla Motor via Bijoynagar, Kakrail, Malibagh and Maghbazar.
   The Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, urged the chief adviser to the interim government to announce election schedule immediately.
   'The AL is raising illogical demands and enforcing destructive programme to foil the next parliamentary polls,' he said.
   Secretaries general of the two factions of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Saifur Rahman and Mohammad Habibullah Belali, secretaries general of two factions of the Islami Oikya Jote, Abdul Latif Nezami and Ahmed Abdul Quader and presidents of the Jatiyatabadi Chaatra Dal and the Islami Chaatra Shibir, Azizul Bari Helal and Shafiqul Islam Masud also addressed the rally.
   Convener of the city unit of the alliance and mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who presided over the rally, urged the AL to shun street demonstrations and participate in the upcoming polls.

There is no constitutionally operational way of removing the chief election commissioner unless Justice MA Aziz himself voluntarily relinquishes his constitutional post, said Akbar Ali Khan, an adviser to the caretaker government on Sunday.
   The president and chief adviser was planning to disclose a package of options through an address to the nation, Akbar said without mentioning anything about the reported news of inducting two more commissioners in the EC or the possible time of the president’s speech.
   Apparently disturbed by the major political parties’ stubborn refusal to accept any formula for resolution of the current crisis, Akbar told journalists on Sunday that each of them (parties) behave as if there is no other party in the country except themselves.
   Dwelling on the political wrangling over reconstitution of the Election Commission, he maintained that any move to form the Supreme Judicial Council, as suggested by the Awami League-led alliance, to impeach the chief election commissioner must be in accordance with the Constitution and must be based on reasons that are ‘satisfactory’ to the president.
   Also, the adviser added, the entire process would take so long that it would become impossible to hold the general elections within the three-month tenure of the interim administration. ‘The only feasible way is that he (Justice Aziz) himself quits on his own,’ he said.
   Saying that only the president has the discretionary power of making any move against the Election Commission, the finance adviser expressed the hope that the president, in his planned address to the nation, would come up with a ‘prudent initiative’ for creating an atmosphere conducive to holding acceptable elections.
   Another member of the four-member panel of advisers that was assigned to hold the dialogue, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, went one step forward, cautioning the countrymen that they should not expect any ‘magic’ in the president’s speech since he has to act according to the provisions of the Constitution.
   Mashhud told a questioner that the move to include two more commissioners in the Election Commission to assuage the AL-led camp was taken unanimously at the meeting of the council of advisers.
   ‘We have been stuck at the most critical area of reconstitution of the Election Commission,’ Mashhud said, adding that the caretaker government had no legal power to remove him. ‘What can we do if his conscience does not respond to the calls for his resignation?’
   Both the advisers said separately that it would be almost impossible to create grounds for formation of the Supreme Judicial Council because there is no code of conduct for proving that perjury has been committed by the chief election commissioner.
   Pointing at the legal opinion of the law ministry, they also ruled out two other proposals forwarded by the AL-led alliance of giving forced leave to the CEC and considering the Election Commission an executive body in the light of a judgement of the Indian Supreme Court.
   ‘Issuance of an ordinance for forced leave, which will also be applicable for the district judges, will not be good for the country…And the judgement of the Indian Supreme Court has no relevance in Bangladesh unless a local court gives such a verdict,’ Akbar Ali Khan pointed out.
   He said that it was impossible to satisfy all the parties, and that piecemeal solution of the political deadlock over the electoral process might not be acceptable to every party.
   Analysing the current political crisis caused by three major issues — reconstitution of the Election Commission, reforms of electoral laws and reshuffling of the administration — the long-serving former bureaucrat said the council of advisers has nothing to do with the first two. ‘We have little to do even with the issue of administrative affairs unless we are apprised at the meeting of the council of advisers,’ he said.
   About the authority vested upon the president under the caretaker government system, he referred to Article 58E of the Constitution, which says: ‘…during the period that the Non-Party Caretaker Government is functioning, provisions in the Constitution requiring the President to act on the advice of the Prime Minister or upon his prior counter-signature should be ineffective.’
   Terming the present caretaker government the most troubled one as it is being harried by various opposite demands, the finance adviser said that the advisers would still resolutely ‘try their best till the last moment’ to hold credible general elections.
   ‘The situation is really grievous and very volatile. What is possible today will not be possible tomorrow,’ said Akbar, ‘fervently’ asking the parties to show restraint for the interest of the general people.
   He felt that the political parties should do some self-assessment and judge the merits of their demands. ‘The country is not the property of some individuals or parties and the people and the civil society should come forward with their views to bring an end to the crisis.’
   Mashhud expressed his apprehension that if the political parties make a big mistake the consequences will be devastating both for the country and for themselves.

The president and chief adviser to the caretaker government, Iajuddin Ahmed, said he would not be able to take any steps regarding the issue of the chief election commissioner without a unanimous decision of all political parties.
   The president made the remarks when a delegation led by the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, met Iajuddin at Bangabhaban Sunday evening and urged him to personally request the chief election commissioner to step down, meeting sources said.
   The leaders also suggested that the president should try to use his office in all possible manners, including the possibility of sending the chief election commissioner on holiday, to reconstitute the Election Commission for making the forthcoming parliamentary elections credible, the sources said.
   The Awami League-led alliance will accept the situation if the chief election commissioner does not comply with the chief adviser’s request, said a member of the delegation.
   During the two-hour meeting, Hasina herself had a 20-minute one-on-one meeting with the president
   The issue of inducting two more commissioners into the commission, as reported in the press on Sunday, did not come up for discussion at the meeting, the sources said.
   The alliance delegation, however, questioned the name of the spokesman quoted in the news provided by the news agencies regarding the president’s intention of inducting two more commissioners into the Election Commission as an option for its reconstitution.
   After the meeting, the AL-led alliance coordinator, Abdul Jalil, also Awami League general secretary, at a briefing said the chief adviser had not taken any effective move to recast the commission, although he was given several deadlines, which led the alliance to go for tougher agitation programme from today.
   ‘The president-cum-chief adviser has now decided to appoint two more commissioners at the commission instead of removing chief election commissioner MA Aziz and commissioner SM Zakaria which people will not accept,’ said Jalil at the briefing in the Awami League chief’s Dhanmondi office.
   Jalil said the chief adviser had been acting at the directives of Khaleda Zia and said his contradictory role at the meeting of the council of advisers before and after the meeting with the BNP chairperson proved his loyalty to the past government.
   ‘The BNP chairperson during her meeting left a three-point instruction, including the announcement of the election schedule, for the president which prompted him to carry out the ill motive of the past government of election engineering by keeping Aziz and Zakaria in the commission,’ he said.
   Jalil said no election schedule would be effective before the reconstitution of the Election Commission and even if the schedule is announced in such a manner, it would be the ‘farewell schedule’ for the caretaker government.
   ‘We may go for a one-point demand, seeking resignation of the chief adviser if he fails to restructure the Election Commission,’ Jalil said.
   Jalil said the Awami League chief requested the chief adviser not to announce any election schedules before ensuring a congenial atmosphere by re-structuring the commission, before updating the voters’ roll and cancellation of the appointment of the 300 upazila-level election officers loyal to the BNP and Jamaat.
   The president listened to the Awami League-led delegation and did not say anything immediately, said Jalil.
   Hasina led the 13-member delegation of the Awami League-led alliance and requested the president to take effective measures to avoid further confrontation.
   Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Matia Chowdhury, Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, and Kazi Zafar Ullah, Workers Party leader Rashed Khan Menon, JSD leader Moinuddin Khan Badal, Gana Forum leader Pankaj Bhattacharya and Samyabadi Dal leader Dilip Barua were in the delegation.

Garment exporters on Sunday threatened that factory owners and workers would besiege the Banga Bhaban if the caretaker government fails to break the ongoing political deadlock.
   They demanded that the president and head of the caretaker government, along with the council of advisors, solve the political crisis within 12 hours, and thus prevent the country’s main industrial sector from being paralysed again by the blockade programme of the AL-led combine.
   ‘We, along with our workers, will have no option but to encircle the Banga Bhaban if the caretaker government fails to solve the ongoing political crisis immediately,’ said SM Fazlul Haque, the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, at an emergency press conference at his office.
   ‘We want a solution of the political crisis within 12 hours as our industry is threatened again by paralysis, and shipment through the ports is stopped,’ said Haque. ‘We want a clear-cut announcement from the president on a solution of impasse in the next 12 hours.’
   The leader of the country’s main foreign exchange earners’ group said, ‘Businessmen want a democratic, constitutional and peaceful solution of Election Commission issue through negotiation so that a fair and credible election can be held to ensure the country’s political and economic stability.’
   Haque claimed that the garment industry can no longer bear the burden of blockades. In the past 22 days of the caretaker government, production and export remained blocked for at least ten days, causing the garment industry to lose about Tk 200 crore per day.’
   Buyers of Bangladeshi garments are very anxious over production schedules and timely shipment, he said. ‘Many exporters have already incurred huge losses and the very existence of their enterprises is threatened,’ claimed Haque. ‘We will sue government if it fails to ensure security and smooth operation of export businesses.’
   Annisul Huq, the immediate past president of the association, said the present crisis is linked to reconstitution of the Election Commission.
   ‘The president and his advisors should take bold decisions as they have been given the right to solve the crisis and decide whether the chief election commissioner will take leave or retire.’
   Tipu Munshi, a former president of the association and an incumbent director of its executive board, said, ‘The caretaker government will have to bear the responsibility for letting business sicken due to the political turmoil.’
   The garment sector, which employs 2.2 million people and last year earned $8 billion through export, has been worst effected by the blockade, said the BGMEA leaders.
   They warned that if the vital garment industry faces such disruption, the global buyers will divert their orders to other sourcing countries, which will doom the country’s economy.
   The BGMEA, and its exiting president who is affiliated with the BNP, on Sunday decided to take a stand.
   Sources in the association said the majority of the directors of its executive board, led by two former presidents including one affiliated with the Awami League, agreed to campaign for reconstitution of the Election Commission.
   The directors argued that reconstitution of the EC was necessary to end the ongoing political deadlock and hold the kind of fair election that the business community desires.

A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter said Saturday.
   Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican president George W Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.
   A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, the vice president, Dick Cheney, attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.
   ‘If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran,’ Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion. Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions ‘and thus stop Congress from getting in its way,’ he said.
   The Democratic victory unleashed a surge of calls for the Bush administration to begin direct talks with Iran.
   But the administration’s planning of a military option was made ‘far more complicated’ in recent months by a highly classified draft assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency ‘challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb,’ he wrote.
   ‘The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons programme running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,’ Hersh wrote, adding the CIA had declined to comment on that story.
   The United States and other major powers believe Iran’s uranium enrichment programme is ultimately aimed at producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
   Iran insists it will use the enriched uranium only to fuel nuclear power stations.
   The major powers have been debating a draft United Nations resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany that would impose limited sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile sectors.

The government on Sunday transferred seven deputy inspector generals and 42 superintendents to new places. Six hundred and eighteen inspector-level officers were also transferred on the day.
   It was the most drastic reshuffle in the police administration in terms of the number of officials transferred after the interim government, headed by the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, had taken over office on October 29.
   The ministry of home affairs issued the transfer orders on Sunday, three days after the advisers’ committee on administrative reform at a meeting had decided to go for a large-scale reshuffle at all levels of the administration.
   The transfer order of the inspectors was, however, issued by the respective police ranges.
   The DIGs transferred were Sheikh Mohammad Sajjat Ali of the Chittagong ranges to police headquarters, Mohamamd Sadiqur Rahman of the Criminal Investigation Department to the Special Branch, Mokhlesur Rahman of the Special Branch to the Sardah Police Academy as its principal, Amir Uddin of the highway police to Chittagong, and the principal of the Sardah Police Academy Nazibur Rahman to the highway police.
   The commandant of the Detective Training School, Mili Biswas, an additional DIG, was made joint commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and she will replace Dr Mohammad Abdur Rahim who was made commandant of the school.
   Of the superintendents, ‘controversial’ former deputy DMP commissioner Kohinoor Mia, who was ordered to move to Rangamati as commandant of the Armed Police Battalion, has been made an officer on special duty at the police headquarters.
   Kohinoor was one of the 33 police superintendents transferred in the first phase, but the order was suspended in a couple of days.
   Kohinoor was transferred to Rangamati following the death of an Awami League activist, Waziullah, under the wheels of a police truck during the Awami League-led alliance blockade on November 13. But in the face of protest against Kohinoor in Rangamati, the police administration withdrew him.
   Six hundred and eighteen inspectors and officers-in-charge of different police stations of the six ranges were also transferred on Sunday.
   Of them, seven inspectors and 128 officers-in-charge were transferred under the Dhaka ranges, 34 inspectors and 92 officers-in-charge under the Chittagong ranges, 46 inspectors and 127 officers-in-charge under the Rajshahi ranges, 26 inspectors and 63 officers-in-charge under the Khulna ranges, 10 inspectors and 41 officers-in-charge under the Barisal ranges and eight inspectors and 38 officers-in-charge under the Sylhet ranges.
   The transfer of inspectors and officers-in-charge under the six metropolitan police will be made soon, said sources in the home ministry.

Senior joint secretary general of the BNP, Tarique Raman, on Sunday filed separate defamation suits against Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, and her two top political aides — general secretary Abdul Jalil and joint general secretary Obaidul Kader.
   Tarique, the eldest son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, appeared before the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate and filed the suits against them for ‘tarnishing’ his and his family’s image by publicly making defamatory statements on his alleged corruption.
   Magistrate AJM Abdullahil Baki heard the petition and ordered the launching of a judicial inquiry into the reported statements of the Awami League leaders.
   In three separate statements, he alleged that the accused on various occasions had made libellous remarks against him and his family. Newspapers and electronic media reports that aired the statements of Sheikh Hasina and her aides were attached with the submissions.
   In his statement Tarique referred to Hasina’s November 3 public meeting at the Paltan Maidan where she had alleged that Tarique used a private vehicle costing about Tk 2 crore, wore suits that cost lakhs of taka and lost crores of taka by gambling abroad. Terming Tarique’s family a den of thieves, Hasina also accused the Hawa Bhaban, the BNP chairperson’s office, of making Tk 2,86,000 crore by syndication and other illegal means.
   ‘The accused, Sheikh Hasina, made all these remarks, comments and statements purposely, maliciously, intentionally only to lower the prestige, image and esteem of the complainant and to belittle him and tarnish his reputation without any justification,’ he said in his petition to the court.
   He also complained that the statements had tarnished his political and social image in and outside the country. Amanullah Aman, Abdus Salam and Rakibul Islam are the witnesses of the suits.
   Tarique informed the court that he, on May 24, 2004, had served a legal notice to Hasina requesting her to withdraw her repeated slanderous statements, comments and remarks but she did not desist from spreading malicious falsehood against him.
   The submission filed against Abdul Jalil was for accusing Tarique, in a press briefing at AL’s Dhanmondi office on November 16 and 17, of interfering in the affairs of the caretaker government and its administrative process, obstructing and abusing due process of governance. Jalil also said that Tarique is dishonest, hypocritical and deeply involved in corruption.
   As mentioned in his submission, Jalil alleged that Tarique had sent his personal secretary to inspector general of police with a list of police officers to make sure of their postings and transfer to the areas designated by him. Tarique said the statements had tarnished his image and destroyed the goodwill that people had for him.
   ‘The statements made by Jalil are liable to create and did create doubt and raised questions of my integrity as a leader,’ Tarique alleged. BNP central leaders Najimuddin Alam, Habibul Islam Habib and Kamrul Islam have been made witnesses of the case.
   The senior joint secretary-general of BNP filed a suit against Obaidul Kader for making a number of libellous comments that blackened his reputation.
   According to his petition, Kader on November 4 told journalists that Tarique took as many as 435 suitcases and other luggage when he went for Umrah to Saudi Arabia. ‘The countrymen want to know what things were inside the suitcases and luggage,’ said Kader, adding that everything could be known if an inquiry is carried out.
   Kader also said Malaysian government had confiscated a huge sum of illegal money belonging to Tarique, which also needed to be investigated. ‘Tarique was given a medal by the New York Stock Exchange…How much money is required for this and what is the source of the money?’ questioned Kader.
   Tarique did not say anything in his defence in the court but termed all the three statements of Kader as false, untrue, without any basis and defamatory and libellous.
   BNP leader Barkatullah Bulu, Illias Ali and Mian Nuruddin Apu have been made witnesses of the case.
   The complainant requested the court to issue summons to the accused and expedite their trial and punishment under Section 500 of the Penal Code.
   Hundreds of BNP-leaning lawyers, including Muhamad Nowshad Jamir, Md Sanaullah Mia, Masud Amed Talukder, Md Khorshed Alam and Rezaul Karim Sarker moved the petitions in favour of Tarique.
   The lawyers, leaders and supporters of Tarique created chaos by chanting slogans in his favour inside the courtroom for more than from 12:00pm and vociferously demanding that the magistrate immediately issue an arrest warrant against Sheikh Hasina.
   The AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, however, censured Tarique for filing cases against Sheikh Hasina. ‘The son of the former prime minister has become angry as he has been unmasked,’ Jalil said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.
   He demanded investigation into how Tarique had become a millionaire, The AL leader also demanded immediate arrest of Tarique on charge of corruption.

The Supreme Court asked on Sunday the counsel for the condemned kingpins of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh to explain the admissibility of the petitions, filed by the condemned militants seeking permission to appeal, as they did not surrender in court, but rather challenged it.
   With the query, the full seven-member court of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain adjourned the hearing till next working day of the court.
   ‘Go for more study and then explain the legality of the petitions seeking justice challenging the court,’ the court told Khalilur Rahman Bhuiyan, the state defence counsel for the JMB supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, and his brother, JMB military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny.
   On the first day of the hearing in the case on Sunday, Khalilur read out the petitions filed by his clients.
   In the petitions, the condemned militants rejected the existing judicial system under the constitution terming it man-made, and urged the Supreme Court to try them by constituting a court guided by Islamic laws.
   If the Supreme Court constitutes a court guided by Islamic laws, they might prefer appeal against the High Court verdict that approved their death sentences, the condemned militants said in their separate petitions.
   The High Court on August 31 approved the death sentences of seven top militants sentenced to death by a Jhalakati court on May 29 for killing two assistant judges in a bomb attack on November 14, 2005.
   Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal, Iftekher Hassan Al Mamun and Khaled Saifullah filed six jail petitions and Khaled filed another petition with the Appellate Division in October and November.
   Another condemned militant, Asadur Rahman, has been absconding since the killing of the judges.

Three political parties including the Liberal Democratic Party, a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote and Nezam-e-Islam Party on Sunday expressed their solidarity with the ongoing movement of the Awami League-led alliance and decided to wage simultaneous movement demanding resignation of the chief adviser to the caretaker administration.
   The leaders of the three organisations at separate meetings with the AL-led alliance accused the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed of dragging his feet and not taking measures to ensure a free and fair election through reconstitution of the Election Commission and agreed to wage an all-out movement for his resignation from the post of the chief adviser.
   ‘We feel that democracy and the constitution are in danger under the chief adviser and have agreed to launch a simultaneous movement against him if the demand for restructuring the Election Commission is not met immediately,’ the coordinator of the AL-led alliance and general secretary of the AL, Abdul Jalil said at a joint press briefing after a meeting with the LDP leaders at a restaurant at Dhanmondi.
   ‘We requested the president to take effective measures to ensure a free and fair election, but he failed to do anything till date,’ the secretary general of the LDP, Abdul Mannan, told the briefing adding that they would go for sit- in demonstrations to press home the demands.
   He said that they had agreed to go for a simultaneous movement demanding resignation of the chief adviser and appointment of a new chief adviser to ensure a free and fair election.
   Both the leaders outright rejected the decision of the advisory council to appoint two more commissioners to the Election Commission in the name of reorganising the EC saying that the commission must be re-structured keeping the CEC, MA Aziz, and commissioner, SM Zakaria out.
   They also accused the chief adviser of trying to execute the ‘blueprint of the BNP-Jamaat alliance for election engineering.’
   ‘Although we have given enough time and repeated deadlines, the chief adviser to the interim government has failed to take steps to reconstitute the EC and now we have no option but to wage a one-point movement for resignation of the chief adviser,’ Jalil said.
   The AL general secretary warned that the president would not be able to escape the people’s wrath if his government failed to ensure a free and fair election through reconstitution of the EC.
   Jalil called upon the president to take all necessary measures immediately to reorganise the EC forgetting his ‘loyalty’ to the BNP-Jamaat alliance to avoid an undesirable situation.
   Alliance leaders Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Rashed Khan Menon, Matiya Chowdhury, Nurul Islam and LDP leaders Mahi B Chowdhury, Anwarul Kabir Talukdar and Alamgir Kabir were present at the meeting among others.
   After the meeting with the LDP, the leaders of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote led by Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury and the leaders of Nizam-e-Islam Party led by Musa Bin Izhar held separate meetings with the leaders of the AL-led alliance and expressed solidarity with the ongoing movement for EC reconstitution.

The Supreme Court on Sunday deferred for a week the verdict in two contempt-of-court cases against four top- and nine middle-order bureaucrats for wilful procrastination in implementing its 12-point directive on the separation of the judiciary from the executive and for misinterpretation of the court order.
   The full seven-member court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain, on Sunday posted the verdict for November 26.
   The contempt petitioner’s counsel, M Amirul Islam, asked the court whether the adjournment was given on any application. The court said it deferred the date suo moto.
   Earlier on November 16, the court posted the verdict for November 19.
   ‘We hope the court will deliver the detailed verdict in the cases on the next date identifying the people, who delayed the implementation of the court directives being in the high offices of the state,’ Amirul Islam told reporters after the court proceedings.
   On April 24, four top bureaucrats, including the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, submitted their replies to the contempt rule.
   Putting the onus for separating the judiciary from the executive on the prime minister, the top bureaucrats in their replies denied the allegation of contempt of court and apologised to the Appellate Division for their ‘unintended mistake,’ if any.
   The Appellate Division detailed the 12-point directive — meant to free the judiciary from the executive — on December 2, 1999 in its judgement in the Masder Hossain case, popularly known as ‘the separation of judiciary case’.
   From the time of the delivery of the judgement, all subsequent governments took repeated extensions of time for the implementation of the directives, but failed to complete the process.
   The court issued the contempt rule on four top bureaucrats — then principal secretary to the prime minister Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, law secretary Alauddin Sardar, establishment secretary Mahbubur Rahman, and finance secretary M Siddiqur Rahman — on April 3 after hearing a contempt petition filed by Chowdhury Munir Uddin Mahfuz, a judge in the tribunal for the prevention of repression of women and children in Kishoreganj.
   On November 29, 2004, the court issued a contempt rule against nine middle-order bureaucrats — joint secretaries to the establishment ministry Lokman Hakim, Badrul Alam Tarafdar and Abdur Rab Hawladar, deputy secretary to the same ministry Md Abul Kalam Azad Chakladar, deputy secretary to the law ministry Md Shafiqul Islam Talukdar, assistant secretary to the law ministry Muhammad Harunur Rashid, deputy secretary to the Cabinet Division Md Fazlul Haque and deputy secretary to the finance ministry AKM Motaleb Hossain — for distorting the court order at an inter-ministerial meeting on November 1, 2004.

The government on Sunday appointed additional deputy commissioners for eight districts and attached eight ADCs to the establishment ministry. A notice to this effect was issued on Sunday.
   The eight officials, made ADCs, are senior assistant secretary to the ministry of agriculture Begum Shamima Yasmin, transferred to Dhaka, deputy director of the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Academy Ram Chandra Das to Khulna, chief revenue officer of the Chittagong WASA Syed Sarwar Jahan to Feni, senior assistant commissioner to the establishment ministry Achhiya Khatun to Rajbari, upazila nirbahi officer of Kalia in Narail AKM Masudur Rahman to Lakshmipur, magistrate of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority Mohammad Mezbahuddin Chowdhury to Chuadanga, UNO of Badarganj in Rangpur Abdus Sattar Sarkar to Kurigram and UNO of Mollahat in Bagerhat Kamala Ranjan Das to Tangail.
   The eight ADCs who were attached to the establishment ministry are Nurul Amin of Chuadanga, Mohammad Salimullah of Chuadanga, Mohammad Maksudur Rahman Patwary of Rajbari, Mohammad Mafizul Islam of Feni, Ashoke Kumar Biswas of Khulna, Rabi-ur Reza Siddiqui of Kurigram, M Bazlul Karim Chowdhury of Kurigram and Asmaul Hossain of Lakshmipur.

The student fonts of the Awami League-led alliance partners will enforce a non-stop strike at Dhaka University from today after violence on Sunday between the student wings of two major political camps for stranglehold on the campus in which at least 10 were injured.
   At last five crude bombs went off and several gunshots were fired during the clash which took place over the injuring of two Chhatra League leaders by Chhatra Dal activists in the morning.
   The Chhatra League and its allies demanded resignation of the vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, and proctor Aka Firoz Ahmed and the arrest of armed activists of Chhatra Dal, recovery of firearms and ensuring congenial atmosphere for all democratic and non-communal forces in the halls of residence.
   Campus sources said the Chhatra Dal activists beat up Titu and Mizan of the Chhatra League in the morning.
   They again chased a large group of Chhatra League activists and leaders, including its president Mahmud Hasan Ripon and general secretary Mahfuzul Haider Chowdhury Roton when they were going to meet Faiz.
   The group took shelter in the administrative building and met the vice-chancellor. When the Chhatra League leaders were leaving the campus in police escort at about 1:45pm after the meeting, the Chhatra Dal activists again chased them, firing blank shots and blasting handmade bombs.
   The dispersed Chhatra League activists faced another assault by a dissident faction, led by Panir. Six Chhatra League activists were beaten up there by them.
   Most Chhatra League activists left the halls at the fag end of the past government over infighting.
   On Sunday, they tried to return to the campus in police protection.
   Of the injured, Syed and Mahbub were taken to hospital. Others injured are Shawkat, Tito, Miraj, Tayeb, Kamal Ghosh, Gautam, Bishwa, Murad, Riaz and Mainul.
   The leaders of Chhatra League-led alliance, Students Action Council, at a briefing in the afternoon announced enforcing a non-stop strike in protest at the attack. They said 14 of their activists sustained injuries in the attack.
   The leaders accused the vice-chancellor of patronising the Chhatra Dal activists and ensured the presence of outsiders in the halls of residence.
   SMA Faiz told reporters that the authorities talked with the hall authorities about ensuring congenial atmosphere for coexistence of the students of all parties.
   He said the halls could be raided by the Bangladesh Rifles or the Rapid Action Battalion, if necessary, for keeping them free of any kind of weapons. He said Sunday’s incidents would be investigated.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday called upon the litterateurs and cultural activists to get united and work from their respective position for the victory of patriotic nationalist forces in the forthcoming election.
   She made the call while addressing at a meeting with eminent artistes, litterateurs and cultural activists at the party’s Banani office in the evening.
   After the meeting, the cultural activists told newsmen that as in the past, they would work for the BNP-led alliance in the next poll.
   They said they would be performing on the stages of the BNP-led alliance in different parts of the city from now on.
   The strength of nationalist forces in the cultural arena is not less than that of the Awami League led-combine, they added.
   ‘People in the cultural
   field will work unitedly at the guidance of Khaleda in view
   of the present political situation.’
   They also said they all were committed to upholding the independence and sovereignty of the country even at the cost of their lives.
   Film-maker Chashi Nazrul Islam and Amjad Hossain, Ashrafuzzaman Ujjal, Maniruzzaman Manir, Mohammad Mahfuzullah, poets Al Mujahidi and Abdul Hai Sikdar, actor Omit Hasan, singer Asif, actress Moni Aziz, folk singer Arif Dewan, and dancer Farzana Chowdhury Baby, among others, were present.
   Later, the BNP chairperson had an view-exchange meeting with Ulama-Mashayekh at the same place.

Delay in project approval may lead to deferment of disbursement or cancellation of about $60 million fund pledged by the World Bank for procurements against the bank-aided projects, officials said.
   Eight procurement contracts involving the WB-pledged fund are yet to be approved by the government as advisers to the interim caretaker government, particularly finance adviser Akbar Ali Khan, are busy more with political issues than economic matters.
   If the procurement contracts are not endorsed soon by the cabinet committee on purchase, disbursement of the fund pledged could either be deferred or cancelled, sources feared.
   The WB in a recent communication to the Economic Relations Division expressed its frustration over the delay in approving the Bank-funded projects. It also specified the areas where urgent government action is required.
   ‘Any action on the issues on the hot list as well as on the contracts listed in the table would help in accelerating the pace of our projects, speeding up disbursements and helping to ensure the achievement of project development outcomes,’ said the communication, a copy of which was obtained by New Age.
   The multilateral lending agency either issued ‘no objection’ letter against the contracts or okayed bid evaluation reports, which is considered as mandatory for the bank-financed projects prior to their placement for approval.
   Sources in the cabinet division, which is liable to prioritise the procurement agenda for the purchase committee, has not even short-listed the procurement contracts due to lack of direction from the finance ministry, now headed by adviser Akbar Ali Khan.
   ‘We don’t know any date till now for holding any meeting of the purchase committee. We are also not aware of which procurement projects are going to be submitted for the committee's approval,’ a high official in the division told New Age.
   ‘The advisors are so busy handling the political impasse now that they have little time to spare for issues like project approval or purchase committee meeting,’ a secretary to the government told New Age on Sunday.
   He, however, said the lender-funded projects would get priority for approval from cabinet committee as soon as the political situation becomes normal.
   The contract, titled ‘procurement of Norplant’ at a cost of $6.35 million against which the bank already issued no objection certificate and bid evaluation report now awaits for approval.
   The procurement of 160 M cycles of LDOP at a cost of $13.2 million and 24 M vials of injectable contraceptive at a cost of $18.16 million under the health and family planning ministry have also been awaiting committee approval, sources said.
   Two other procurement contracts under the similar ministry--- $13.47 million procurement of DDS kits and $4 million project support office — are waiting for the government approval.
   Three other pending projects include consultant services for a Siddhirganj power plant and private sector participation in water supply.

The US ambassador in Dhaka, Patricia A Butenis, on Sunday observed the Bangladesh Election Commission had lost people’s confidence while the British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, suggested the commission should have consensus of major political parties.
   ‘I think it is clear that the Election Commission has lost the confidence of the people of Bangladesh. In fact, it was clear long time ago and the advisers have moved forward to reconstitute the EC,’ Butenis told reporters after a meeting with Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, the power and energy adviser.
   After a meeting with the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, the British high commissioner told reporters he stressed the need for an acceptable electoral process for holding the forthcoming elections in a credible manner.
   ‘We have talked about the election process, including building confidence of all political parties in the election machinery, the voters’ list and the election observers,’ he said
   Butenis said the advisers were working very hard on their proposals, submitted to the president, to reconstitute the commission. ‘It’s not me or my [US] government that should say how the EC should be reconstituted. The advisers, the political parties and the president should take a decision on the matter,’ he said.
   ‘I am concerned. We are missing the last chance to resolve the crisis quickly … They [advisers] are under lot of strain trying to encourage the president to move in the right direction,’ said Butenis.
   She pleaded to the BNP- and the AL-led alliances to be more flexible and to resolve the crisis staying off the streets.
   ‘I urge the BNP and the Awami League, four-party and fourteen-party alliance to please resolve the crisis through dialogue with advisers, who are very capable,’ she said.
   ‘The parties have to show flexibility. That means being patriotic, not being stubborn and not sticking to one position. Show compromise. That is all about politics. We have not seen enough of this flexibility.’
   She called on political parties to refrain from violence and to stay out of the streets. ‘It is frustrating for everyone.’
   The British envoy said ‘…this is the important thing. Sometimes we focus on the process, not individuals.’
   The British high commissioner expressed concern about the recent political violence.

Nepal’s rebel Maoists continue to force people to join their army despite an impending landmark peace deal with the government, rights workers and newspaper reports said Sunday.
   ‘The Maoist rebels have forcefully recruited more than 1,500 people, most of them children under 18, in the last week,’ Kundan Aryal, general secretary of Informal Sector Service, a leading human rights watchdog, said.
   The recruitment drive was in direct contradiction to the ceasefire code of conduct reached in May, when the rebels agreed to stop all forms of recruitment, Aryal said.
   The rebels and government were due Tuesday to sign a landmark peace deal that would end the decade-long rebel insurgency.
   The Maoists agreed to place their weapons and army under United Nations supervision in return for being allowed to enter government.
   ‘The rebels have taken people from at least 24 districts, which cover the Maoist proposed cantonment sites across the country, since November 12,’ said Aryal.
   The rebels have agreed to contain their People’s Liberation Army and weapons in seven different areas across the country. The camps would be supervised by the United Nations.
   Nepal’s Maoists have claimed their army was 35,000-strong, but other sources put their fighting force at closer to 12,000 people.

Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament has adopted a bill that would make digital fingerprinting compulsory for all US citizens seeking to enter the country.
   ‘All US citizens should be controlled and subjected to digital fingerprinting when they are issued with a visa and when they enter Iran,’ according to the bill, adopted after a debate broadcast live on state radio.
   ‘This law comes in response to the American practice of taking digital fingerprints of sportsmen, political officials and other Iranians, sometimes with an insulting attitude,’ MP Kazem Jalali said during the debate.
   Until now, only US journalists have been subjected to digital fingerprinting on arrival in Tehran.
   Diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran have been frozen since Washington broke off ties in 1980 following the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

An indefinite curfew has been imposed on a town in India’s north-eastern Assam state after clashes killed seven.
   Officials say trouble erupted on Saturday when the police detained two young men allegedly involved in a road
   accident in the town of Moirabari.
   Elections were being held
   in a college union and hun-dreds of students rushed to demand their release by the police.
   Rumours that the pair had been arrested following clashes during the college union elections fuelled the unrest.
   The police armed with batons tried to break up the protest,
   but the crowd grew to well
   over 1,000 and turned more violent.
   The town’s police station was set on fire. Some of the protesters dragged out and lynched three policemen who subsequently died.
   The police then opened fire, killing four protesters.
   More than 20 people, including some policemen, were injured in the violence.
   Seven of those hurt were in a critical condition, according to hospital sources.
   The administration has enforced curfew orders at Moirabari, in Moregaon district, and deployed additional police and paramilitary contingents to control the violence.
   Officials said the situation was still very tense, but now under control.
   Assam has seen many violent separatist movements over the past few decades and tensions often flare when people are detained for questioning by the police or even searched at routine checkpoints.

The government retracted from its earlier order of termination of the contractual jobs of eight officials and reinstated them in their previous posts in less than 72 hours.
   An official order regarding the cancellation of terminating the jobs of eight officials was issued on Sunday.
   All the three officials, who lost their jobs in the earlier order, were reinstated in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, four in the Securities and Exchange Commission and the rest in the foreign affairs ministry.
   The BTRC officials are chairman Omar Faruk and members AMM Reza-e Rabbi and Justice Abdus Salam. The SEC officials are chairman Faruk Ahmed Siddiqui, and commissioners Saleh Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Khan and Abbas Uddin Khan. Foreign ministry law adviser Ali Kaiser Hasan was also reinstated.
   The government earlier terminated the contractual jobs of the eight officials issuing an order at night on November 16.

The British minister of state for trade, Ian McCartney MP, will arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday on an official visit to Bangladesh.
   McCartney will meet leading business representatives, government and political party leaders during his visit to the country.
   Besides, the British deputy chief of defence, vice admiral Charles Style, will arrive here today on a two-day official visit as part of his South Asia tour.
   ‘His trip is intended to strengthen Britain’s bilateral military relationship with Bangladesh,’ a release of the British high commission said on Sunday.
   During his stay here, Charles Style will visit Bangladesh Naval base in Chittagong and hold meetings with senior officers of the armed forces.

The High Court on Sunday issued a rule asking the government to explain why the detention of 338 Myanmar citizens, kept in Cox’s Bazaar jail as under-trial prisoners, would not be declared illegal and why they would not be freed.
   A High Court bench of Justice Syed Dastagir Husain and Justice Mamnun Rahman also asked the government to explain why it would not be directed to produce those 338 people before the court.
   The order followed the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, a human rights group.
   The petitioner’s counsel, Idrisur Rahman, told the court that those 338 people of Myanmar have been languishing in jail for a long time facing different cases, which are still under trial.
   They have already served longer period in jail than the jail term required by the existing law for their alleged offences, the counsel argued.
   Idrisur Rahman with Amatul Karim moved the case.

The Superior Selection Board at a meeting on Sunday decided to promote officers at various levels who are eligible but were deprived of due promotion.
   The cabinet secretary, Abu Solaiman Chowdhury, who presided over the three-hour meeting at the Secretariat said the SSB meeting would continue for a few more days to prepare the promotion proposal.
   The SSB meeting was called in response to the demonstrations of a section of aggrieved cadre officials who claimed that they were deprived of due promotions and postings in the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government.
   The establishment secretary, AFM Solaiman Chowdhury, told reporters on Sunday that they were reviewing individual cases of all the deprived officials. ‘We want to ensure justice for every officer. It may take 10-15 days to complete the whole process of promotion.’
   Earlier, on Thursday morning, a section of aggrieved civil servants, in an unprecedented move, staged a sit-in inside the office of the establishment secretary and in the corridor of the Cabinet Division, demanding promotion for the deprived and posting for those who were kept as officers on special duty for long in the tenure of the last government.
   An aggrieved official told New Age that more than 1,000 officers at different levels were deprived of due promotion in the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government.
   Sources in the establishment ministry said the SSB is considering promotion of more than 200 officials at different levels including around 150 senior assistant secretaries. The SSB meeting will resume tomorrow, according to inside sources.