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The secretary level meeting between the ruling BNP and the opposition Awami League took a new turn on Sunday with Abdul Jalil of the AL communicating to Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan of the BNP that the opposition was ready to relax its demand for removal of the chief election commissioner, if the BNP unequivocally agreed not to appoint former chief justice K M Hassan as chief the next caretaker government.
   The confirmation of the development came from sources from both the opposing political camps.
   ‘We want a solution to the present political impasse and therefore ready to compromise, for the sake of the success of the dialogue, on one of our major demands – the change of the chief election commissioner’, Rashed Khan Menon, the president of the Workers Party, a component of the opposition alliance, told New Age on Sunday evening. ‘We will, however, stick to our demand for not appointing Justice K M Hasan as the chief of the caretaker government.’
   Menon said Justice Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury would be acceptable to the opposition as the chief of the next caretaker government.
   When contacted after Sunday’s round of dialogue, Abdul Jalil told New Age that he had made it clear to his BNP counterpart that the ‘opposition would concentrate mainly on the demand for not appointing KM Hasan as the head of the next caretaker administration’.
   Jalil is also learnt to have handed over to Bhuiyan a written document, explaining as to how Justice Hassan could be bypassed to appoint someone else as the chief adviser to the caretaker government.
   Meanwhile, sources close to Bhuiyan admitted the development to New Age Sunday evening and said that he would discuss the issue with the partners of the ruling four-party alliance today.
   The next round of the dialogue is scheduled for Tuesday.
   Earlier, Dr Kamal Hossain of Gano Forum and Rashed Khan Menon played a role in softening the AL’s stance on the issue of the chief election commissioner, M A Aziz.
   Both the leaders had an exclusive talk with the president of the Awami League, Sheikh Hasina, who finally authorised Jalil to convey the position to Bhuyian.
   Briefing newsmen after the dialogue at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Bhuiyan and Jalil told reporters that if there was cooperation from all sides, the dialogue would lead to a success.
   ‘We discussed all the issues in a very cordial atmosphere and the (dialogue) process will continue’, said Mannan Bhuiyan.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil said, ‘we are continuing the dialogue to ensure a free, fair and impartial election.’
   ‘Holding a fair election is his (Mannan Bhuiyan) as well as our intention,’ said Jalil.
   While the two leading political parties were discussing possible reforms, Shushashoner Jonnyo Nagorik, an NGO, was staging a demonstration at the entrance of the Sangsad Bhaban demanding a positive outcome of the dialogue.
   The activists held placards that read ‘no confrontation but a meaningful dialogue’.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday said people would stand against any ‘conspiracy’ to disrupt the coming election and thereby help maintain the trend of democracy and development in the country.
   he also reiterated that the next general election would be held in 2007 according to the constitution under caretaker government.
   Khaleda, also the chairperson of the ruling BNP, was addressing separate public meetings at Narayanganj sadar and Demra ghat and Shyampur in the capital city.
   The prime minister cautioned the people that ‘conspiracy’ was going on to obstruct stability in the country and hamper the tempo of development.
   ‘It is imperative to maintain the trend of democracy and stability for uninterrupted development of the country,’ she said.
   The prime minister observed that fair election was necessary to maintain stability in the country and congenial atmosphere is prevailing in the country for holding fair polls.
   Fair elections would be held in a free and peaceful manner as the polls will be conducted by a caretaker government, not by any political government, Khaleda pointed out.
   ‘Today the opposition is out to destroy that fair environment of holding election and trying to create indiscipline and anarchy in the name of demand for electoral reforms,’ she said.
   She reminded that caretaker government would run the country as a constitutional government. ‘And their responsibility would be to take legal actions against those who create chaos and anarchy in the country during the interim period.’
   Khaleda said the opposition must have to participate in the polls if they have confidence in the people and if they had done work for public welfare in their past regime.
   But, she observed, ‘they (opposition) had carried out acts of terrorism under the reign of godfathers. So they are afraid to go before the people, so they want to foil the election.’
   The prime minister said the 2007 general election is very important for Bangladesh and that conspiracy is going on to foil this election to create constitutional vacuum through chaos and anarchy.
   But the people of the country are peace-and democracy-loving and in the past they had stood against those who conspired against democracy, independence, sovereignty and development.
   She believed the people would again stand against those who want to foil the forthcoming general election and create instability in the country.
   The prime minister further reminded that the people of the country restored democratic rights through long-drawn struggles, so they would never allow any conspiracy to see success in thwarting democracy.
   She admitted that there remained some power problem and urged people to show patience for some time saying if her government came to power next time, they would give first priority to solving the power problem.
   Khaleda also alleged that the previous government had failed to solve the electricity problem.
   Earlier during her visit to Naryanganj, Demra and Shyampur, the prime minister inaugurated the newly built Kanchon bridge at Rupganj, laid foundation stones of Bandor bridge in Narayanganj and second Sitalakhya river bridge at Demra ghat. She also inaugurated 200-bed Matuail Mother and Child hospital and the newly constructed Shyampur Model High School.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday instructed leaders of her party and its front organisations to mobilise people in their respective localities and get prepared to march towards the capital after the Eid if the alliance government handed over power to a caretaker administration with KM Hasan as its chief.
   She, however, hoped that the government would accept the opposition’s reform proposals in the ongoing dialogue to safeguard the people’s right to vote, otherwise, she warned that the demands would be realised through an all-out movement.
   ‘Mobilise people in your respective localities during the Eid vacation for a vigorous movement and take preparation for march towards Dhaka with sticks in hand after the Eid to realise the reform demands, if the government does not accept the proposals before it is too late,’ Hasina told leaders of AL’s front organisations while exchanging views with them at a city community centre.
   She said that the reform proposals were placed to ensure people’s right to vote, not to serve the purpose of the AL or any other parties and so there was no question of compromise on any point of the proposals.
   ‘It is not a matter of compromise. Any compromise on reform proposals will mean allowing the ruling alliance to rig the polls,’ she said.
   ‘A partisan person cannot be the head of the caretaker administration,’ said Hasina, referring to the constitutional provisions for the neutrality of the non-party caretaker administration and pointed out that Hasan was the founding member and international affairs secretary of the BNP.
   Referring to the grim situation in the power sector the AL president said that despite spending more than Taka 12,000 crore in the sector during their tenure, the alliance government had failed miserably to improve power supply situation. The AL president pledged to solve power crisis within a year if her party was elected to office.
   Hasina also instructed the leaders and activists of the opposition to stage protest instantly whenever there was disruption in power supply.
   ‘We will restore stability in prices of essential commodities checking syndicated price manipulation if we are voted to power,’ she asserted and also vowed to eliminate terrorist forces.
   The president, general secretary and organising secretary of the Juba League, Chhatra League, Mohila League, Juba Mohila League, Krishak League, Shramik League and other wings of the main opposition AL were present during the meeting. They, however, did not take part in any discussion.

The Chief Election Commis-sioner, MA Aziz, on Sunday found the question of his resignation to be unreasonable and declined to reply, terming the query ‘wild’.
   ‘Why you ask me regularly such a wild question ...,’ said the angry CEC when reporters asked him when he would resign. He also advised journalists to learn journalism before asking such questions. The CEC made the comment while leaving office at about 3:45pm.
   Earlier on Thursday, the CEC had not replied when asked whether he would resign if the ongoing dialogue reaches a consensus over reconstitution of the EC, saying, ‘The question is out of context.’
   Secretary to the EC secretariat Abdur Rashid Sarker, replying indirectly to several questions, told reporters on Sunday that any individual or institution should make sacrifices for the sake of the country.
   Talking to newsmen on October 1 the CEC welcomed the secretary general-level dialogue, terming it a ‘positive development’, but avoided replying to the question about his resignation.
   A rumour is running the rounds that if the ongoing AL-BNP dialogue reaches a consensus over reconstitution of the Election Commission, MA Aziz will resign.
   Sarker, on Sunday, said there is no relationship between the ongoing dialogue and the work the EC is doing for holding the 9th parliamentary election, scheduled for next January.
   He was speaking to a group of reporters at his office, and made the above statement in response to the reporters’ request to comment on the dialogue on the opposition’s demand for reforms to the caretaker government as well as electoral laws.
   ‘Who will come and who will stay does not affect our ongoing preparation to hold the next general election,’ he said.
   He added, ‘I have to complete the preparatory task before time runs out since the election must be held in time according to the constitution.’
   In reply to a query about the CEC’s and other commissioners’ reaction to the dialogue, ‘I do not think they are bothered about the issue.’

The communications ministry has allotted over four acres of land to a private company on ‘special consideration’ for construction of a five-star hotel complex at a prime city location beside Tongi Diversion Road and Panthapath, flouting government rules and regulations.
   ‘Considering a proposal from Millennium Holding Limited, …allocation of 4.16 acres of land (without the canal) has been made on special consideration for the purpose of constructing multi-storied Hilton Hotel complex at Maghbazar-Begunbari mouza on the western side of Tongi Diversion Road,’ a record of the communications ministry meeting reads.
   Sources in the ministry said the meeting, held on September 25, 2006, with the communications minister, Nazmul Huda, in the chair, allocated the land on a 60-year-lease basis flouting rules for Railway land leasing, competitive bidding, and laws related to environment, open space and marshy lands for construction of the hotel.
   The triangular piece of land, located in front of the Film Development Corporation, is basically a marshy land and the Begunbari canal passes through it helping major waste disposal of the city.
   It is learnt that the minister has taken a short-cut way of special consideration to avoid a number of litigations, pending with different courts, to lease out the land, where the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday laid foundation stone of a building for Bangladesh Federation of Chambers and Commerce and Industry.
   The lease is extendable to 30 more years. The private Millennium Holding Limited applied for the land in April, 2006.
   The sources said the government rules stipulated that lease fee for per square feet Railway land was Tk 35, but in this case, the company proposed Tk 10 per sft as lease fee, and 1 per cent of the gross operating revenue. But the approval came without settling these issues.
   When a business leader questioned the meeting whether the department could go for leasing without calling a tender, the minister avoided the question saying ‘it was one of the nationally important matter’.
   ‘Bangladesh’s image in the international arena would be glorified and foreign tourists and businessmen will be encouraged to stay here if we allow expansion of activities of a five-star hotel like Hilton,’ the minister was quoted in the minutes of the meeting as saying.
   Terming it a ‘positive initiative,’ the minister said it would also financially benefit the Bangladesh Railway.
   The sources said the minister also bypassed a report prepared by a four-member technical committee, formed to evaluate the proposal made by Millennium Holdings Limited to construct the hotel, which had received no formal letter from the Hilton.
   Although the hotel’s gross sale on revenue was announced at 3 per cent, the company proposed only 1 per cent, the report observed adding that no specific proposal was given for royalty over lease. No ground rent for the Railway land was proposed, it said.

Two major power grids in the north tripped on Sunday, causing massive outages in most of the 16 northern districts.
   Most northern districts faced severe outages all the day and in the peak evening hours as two 1.32kV Bogra–Palashbari and Palashbari–Rangpur grids tripped at about 2:02pm, resulting in a closure of the 100MW Baghabari plant of the Power Development Board, 110MW unit of a private power plant at Baghabari and two units of 125MW each of the Barapukuria power plant, said the power board officials.
   Power supply system in the northern districts such as Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Bogra was jeopardised immediately after the suspension of power supply from the plants.
   Although the grids were restored in about 20 to 30 minutes, the districts faced outages for hours as the plants needed about an hour to resume full generation. One of the two Barapukuria plant units is yet to resume operation.
   The power board officials said they were investigating the reason for tripping the grids.
   Power generation remained static at about 2,700MW in the peak evening hours against the demand for evening 5,000MW, forcing the authorities to shed a load of about 2,300MW across the country.
   Most city areas suffered outages between two to four hours as the Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority received 1,150MW against the demand for around 1,800MW.
   The New Age correspondent in Rangpur said Rangpur Unnayan Parishad, a local citizens’ forum, staged a sit-in demonstration in the town to protest at the outages in the district.
   The power board’s executive engineer Azharul Islam of the Rangpur town said they had nothing to do in this regard.
   The demand for power in the town was 20MW and the supply ranged between 7MW and 7.5MW.

Officials and employees of Biman Bangladesh Airlines have withdrawn their action programme after the government assured them that it would remove corrupt directors immediately from the beleaguered airlines.
   The state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, at a meeting with Biman’s union leaders at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Sunday, agreed to fulfil all their demands, including removal of corrupt directors by October 10, 2006, said meeting sources.
   The Bangladesh Biman Combined Action Council, that comprises all the 10 unions of Biman’s officials and employees, gave a five-day ultimatum to the government on October 5 to fulfil the three demands that include modernisation of Biman’s fleet, leasing aeroplanes to operate flights for an interim period, and curbing corruption.
   The council is expected to give a list of Biman’s corrupt directors to the ministry today, said a source.
   Alamgir told reporters at his office that the council had withdrawn its ultimatum after ‘successful talks’ with its leaders. ‘The ministry will take stern action against corrupt directors if we get evidence of their irregularities,’ said the state minister when asked whether the issue of corruption would be sent to the Anti-corruption Commission for proper investigation.
   ‘A letter has been sent again to the finance division seeking a block allocation of Tk 550 crore to solve the liquidity crisis that Biman is now facing. The World Bank will assist in the restructuring of Biman after a survey report, which is to be prepared by International Finance Corporation within three months, is completed,’ he said when questioned about the prospects of modernisation of the loss-ridden national carrier.
   The convener of the council, Captain SM Helal, said the aviation ministry had assured them of drastic action against the corrupt directors of Biman to make the airlines commercially viable.
   ‘The government has promised to fulfil other demands that include modernisation of Biman’s fleet in phases,’ he told the press.
   ‘If our demands, which are meant to save Biman from closure, are not met by October 10, we will launch an elaborate action programme the following day. We have just suspended our course of action for the time being,’ he added.
   The council was formed in early September to enforce adequate supply of funds for smooth operation of the airlines.
   Earlier, on September 3, the council, which had threatened to stop the ground operations at all the airports on September 7, causing a total suspension of air services to and from Bangladesh on the day, withdrew its strike as the government pledged to provide adequate funds for Biman.
   In the face of agitation by Biman employees, the Ministry of Finance later released a block allocation of Tk 150 crore, which the council found to be inadequate.

A Dhaka court on Sunday ordered a judicial inquiry after a National Shooting Federation official filed a case against 40 policemen on charge of assaulting shooter Asif Hossain Khan, who earned gold in the Commonwealth Games 2002, on October 2.
   The accused include deputy commissioner (north) Obayedur Rahman Khan, and Gulshan police officer-in-charge Mahbub Alam Khan, subinspectors Jasim Uddin and Faisal Zaman and havildar Nurul Islam, who is driver, and Abdul Khalek.
   The complainant, who named 23 witnesses including the five whom the police arrested after the incident, said the police on October 2 beat up three shooters, including Asif Hossain, storming into the National Shooting Federation Complex at Gulshan over words bandied between a shooting complex security guard and the driver of a police officer over parking.
   The police arrested the five, including the shooters, and took them to the Gulshan police station and sent them to court on charge of assaulting policemen.
   The shooting federation range officer, AF Shahbuddin Ahmed, filed the case with the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate accusing the policemen of unauthorised entrance into the federation, vandalism and assaulting more than 25 shooters.
   Metropolitan magistrate Syed Mohammad Mujibur Rahman ordered the judicial inquiry after taking the case into cognisance.
   Asif Hossain, who was taking preparation for the Asian Games scheduled for December in Doha, and coach Shoebuzzaman were admitted to Metropolitan Hospital after they had been injured in the incident.
   A car of the deputy inspector general (Special Branch), Sadiqur Rahman, approached the shooting complex at 12:15pm carrying Sadiqur’s wife. When the drive tried to park the car in front of the complex, a security guard asked him not to, as the place was not meant for parking.
   They soon entered into an altercation which turned into a scuffle. Other guards and employees of the complex soon joined the fracas. A three-policeman patrol team, led by subinspector Jasim, went to the place with Obaidur Rahman Khan, assistant commissioner Zannatul Hasan, and Mahbub Alam Khan and started beating whoever they found inside the complex.
   Many of about 30 shooters, who were practising inside, came out only to be severely beaten.
   The police arrested three shooters Asif, coach Shoebuzzaman, and Ali Hossain, cook Jahangir and an Ansars member Zannatul Ferdous. Asif and Shoebuzzaman were remanded on bail at night and three others the next day.
   Lawyer Moniruzzaman, also a member of the National Shooting Federation, moved the case for the complainant.

British Muslims have suffered from a surge of hate mail and other abuses since a minister said he has asked Muslim women to remove their veils while meeting him, community leaders warned Sunday.
   The police in the northwestern English city of Liverpool reported meanwhile that a Muslim woman’s veil was torn from her face on Saturday after she was subjected to racial abuse. A spokesman for the Muslim Safety Forum, Muhammad Abul Kalam, said attacks and threats against Muslims have risen since Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons and former foreign minister, made his remarks Thursday.
   Straw said he asks Muslim women to remove their veils when they visit his constituency office, saying he feared the veil was a ‘visible demonstration of separateness’ in a country where ‘parallel communities’ are forming. ‘We are very much concerned that Jack Straw’s comments will be picked up by certain elements of the community who want to spread Islamophobia,’ Abul Kalam said.
   ‘There have already been a number of violent, intimidating attacks across the country. His statements have been really detrimental to the Muslim community,’ he said.
   He added that the London Muslim Centre, based in Whitechapel, east London, had been deluged with racist emails.
   Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general for the Muslim Council of Britain, said his organisation had received a number of racist emails since last week.
   ‘Many people have said ‘How dare you let women wear full veils’,’ Bunglawala said. ‘But the issue is not about the niqab (veil); some women choose to wear it and some don’t and that is an individual choice.
   ‘The issue is that someone as high profile as Jack Straw has made these comments to the general public. This was not the way to go about it. The way to deal with this is through better education.’
   Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said he was astonished at the views of both Straw and his supporter, communities minister Phil Woolas, who asked Muslims to understand that veils frightened some people.
   ‘They are blaming the whole thing on the Muslim community and unleashing wave after wave of racist xenophobia,’ he said. ‘All these comments are made under the banner of ‘honest discussion’.’
   Meanwhile, Britain’s deputy prime minister John Prescott on Sunday rejected an appeal by a cabinet colleague for Muslim women to remove their veils but he welcomed debate on the issue.
   Prescott told BBC television that he would have no trouble communicating with a woman wearing a veil. ‘I think a woman that wants to wear the veil, why shouldn’t she? It’s her choice,’ Prescott said.
   Prescott praised Straw for opening up debate on the issue.
   ‘But I fear that sometimes people might use it in a more prejudiced way and I’m concerned it may damage relations rather than improve them. But let’s have the debate but the argument can go either way,’ he said.

Musclemen of a land owner backed by Patkelghata thana police attacked and ransacked the students’ hostel of Kumira Women’s College in Tala upazila of Satkhira district on Sunday morning leaving at least seven students injured.
   According to sources, one Nasir Uddin Morol of Kumira recently got order from the court to take possession of a piece of land that was earlier possessed by Utpal Kumar Ghosh of the same area.
   At around 9:00 am on Sunday, Nasir along with seven policemen of Patkelghata thana, nazir of Satkhira court, Abdul Wasek, and 20 to 25 hired goons went to take possession of the land, they said.
   The police and musclemen threatened the resident students of the college dormitory, situated in the land, and asked them to vacate the hostel in which 59 female students course live.
   According to the sources, as the students refused to leave the hostel, the police and goons started ransacking their rooms. They snatched and threw the belongings of the students out of the hostel.
   The students alleged that the police and musclemen snatched their money, examination admit cards, notes, and other goods and assaulted them leaving at least seven of the students injured.
   The attackers left the hostel at around 11:00 am giving the students 24 hours to leave the hostel or face dire consequences.
   The Tala Thana Nirbahi Officer, Mostafizur Rahman, visited the spot.

Peace negotiations between Nepal’s Maoist rebels and the government wrapped up on Sunday with both sides upbeat over the political process and looking forwards to more talks next week.
   ‘Today’s meeting has ended inconclusively, but they were very positive talks,’ said Nepal’s tourism minister Pradeep Gyawali, a member of the government team negotiating with the communist insurgents.
   He said that during Sunday’s nine-hour meeting, the two sides discussed ‘the interim constitution, the role of monarchy, the interim legislature, arms management and the process to start constituent assembly elections.’
   ‘We are hopeful that Tuesday’s talks will finalise all these issues,’ the minister told reporters.
   Maoist second-in-command Baburam Bhatterai shared the upbeat assessment.
   ‘The talks were very positive and fruitful in the sense that we discussed all the important issues with the top leaders of the seven parties,’ he said, referring to the seven-member coalition government.
   The latest negotiations, resuming after a four-month pause, are aimed at hammering out a new, temporary constitution that would bring the communist insurgents into the impoverished Himalayan kingdom’s political mainstream.
   The process has been slow-moving amid disputes over the future of Nepal’s 238-year-old monarchy and what the rebels should do with their weapons.
   Prior peace initiatives, in 2001 and 2003, ended in failure and plunged the nation back into conflict.

Hindu-Muslim clashes over the slaughter of cows, which are revered by Hindus, have killed two people and wounded dozens in Mangalore, the police said on Sunday.
   Riots erupted in the coastal city of Mangalore, about 320 km west of the IT hub of Bangalore, on Wednesday after a group of right-wing Hindu activists intercepted a vehicle carrying cows and buffaloes to an abattoir, local media reported.
   More than 60 people have since been wounded as mobs pelted stones at each other and burnt shops.
   A man who was injured in the head died at a local hospital on Saturday morning while another was stabbed to death by a group of unidentified people later in the night, senior police officer B Dayanand said.
   A curfew, which was imposed on Friday, was relaxed for a few hours on Sunday to enable people buy food and other essentials.
   ‘Police patrolling has been intensified in all sensitive areas.’ Dayanand said. ‘We are also organising peace meetings of community leaders to restore normalcy.’

A construction worker was injured when three beams of the under-construction building of Rajshahi University Teachers Students Cultural Centre collapsed on Sunday.
   The construction works of the building, involving Tk 1.25 crore, resumed after one year of its suspension.
   The concrete beams of the building collapsed for low quality construction materials and faulty design leaving one person injured, sources said.
   Rajshahi University chief engineer Abdur Rahman said, the university had no construction design cell and a Dhaka-based design farm, Engineering Consultant Bangladesh Ltd, prepared the design.
   RU vice-chancellor Professor Altaf Hossain said, the construction works were directed to stop again as structural faults have been detected.
   Sources alleged that the design of the building was prepared 15 years ago but it was not modified.

The prospective bidders for printing the updated voters’ roll observed that it would be difficult to come up with printed voters’ list within November as the time is too short.
   The prospective bidders, at a pre-bid meeting with the officials of the EC secretariat on Sunday, said that it would be impossible to complete the printing within 45 days, the timeframe set by the Election Commission.
   The EC issued a tender notice on September 28 and set October 12 as the last day for submission of bids. In the tender schedule, the EC fixed 45 days from October 18 for completing the task. The work order will be issued on October 18 to the successful bidders.
   Different printers who attended the meeting, held at the NEC conference room, also urged the EC to increase the rate. But the EC secretary refused to increase both time and rate.
   The secretary to the EC secretariat, Abdur Rashid Sarker, after the meeting told reporters that this time Tk 3.10 has been fixed per voter as cost for printing the supplementary voters’ list. In 2000 the amount was Tk 3.50. The cost was higher then as the voters’ roll was original.
   Asked why so short a period of time had been given for printing the voters’ list, Sarker said that this time the printing workload is much less compared to the one in 2001, as this is a supplementary voters’ list.
   The complete updated voters’ roll that will be printed will be of the capital only, where over 50 per cent of the entries have been changed, that is included or deleted or amended. In other areas only supplementary lists will have to be be printed, Sarker said.
   The EC, which wasted at least six months by dilly-dallying after being ordered by the court to update the existing voters’ list, started the updating work on July 1 and published the final figure on 7 September.
   All the previous voters’ rolls were prepared at least a year before the elections. The voters’ roll for the October 1, 2001 general elections was published on October 26, 2000, with the enumeration beginning on May 15, according to the commission’s records.

The sales and purchase agreement with Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Abdur Rahman Al Saud for handing over 67 per cent shares of the state-owned Rupali Bank will be signed on October 16 or 17, said the Privatisation Commission.
   The commission on Sunday began the final negotiation with the representatives of the Arabian prince, the highest bidder with an offer of $300 million in the tender for Rupali’s disinvestment.
   ‘It will take 3-4 days to complete the negotiation, and hopefully we will sign the sales and purchase agreement with the bidder on October 16 or 17,’ said a high official of the commission, which is a statutory regulatory body responsible for privatisation of the state-owned enterprises.
   The two sides are yet to settle a good number of smaller issues for reaching a final agreement, the official added.
   The latest developments in the Rupali sale process followed Thursday’s signing of the relevant file by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, ending speculations that interested quarters were desperate to hinder the privatisation of the nationalised commercial bank.
   The Privatisation Commission immediately issued a letter of intent for handing over the bank to the Arabian prince who, having experience of running insurance, hospitality and petroleum products businesses, individually vied for taking over Rupali Bank.
   On his return from abroad, the commission’s chairman, Enam Ahmed Chaudhury, will make the final arrangement for handing over the bank to the prince, said commission officials.

The government is likely to award the first internet telephony licence in private sector in a fortnight. The telephone board has put up its objection to such issuance of licence before the completion of common platforms.
   More than 50 telecoms firms submitted bids for licence to offer cheap overseas call through voice over internet protocol, which sends and receives voice data in digital packets rather than in traditional circuit-switched protocols of the public-switched telephone network.
   The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said they received more than 50 applications from companies including the six mobile operators and 14 PSTN operators. The remaining applicants are nationwide internet service providers.
   ‘We are expecting to issue licence in a fortnight after the required evaluation,’ said a high commission official on Sunday.
   The officials said telecoms firms having sound financial and technical capabilities for VoIP services would be eligible for licence.
   The commission earlier on September 22 invited bids from private sector, about three years after the cabinet approval. The submission closed on Sunday.
   The state-owned landline operator Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, however, did not apply for the licence although it has been doing VoIP for three years, offering a flat rate of Tk 7.5 a minute for calls to 25 countries.
   The telephone board in a recent letter to the commission said it would be a violation of the policy if the commission issues VoIP licence before the installation the common platforms to be set up in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Bogra.
   The government earlier decided VoIP data should be routed through the telephone board’s common platforms to monitor voice data traffic to ensure revenue.
   The board also said lawful interception would be not possible without the common platforms. The guideline says the licensees will need to make their systems complaint for lawful interception.
   The cabinet endorsed the voice over internet protocol, also known as IP telephony, in the private sector in November 2003. The licence will initially be given for five years with a renewal option.
   The regulatory and licensing guidelines for VoIP says the licence will be awarded in three categories — mobile operator VoIP licence, PSTN operator VoIP licence and nationwide ISP VoIP licence.
   The fee for mobile operator VoIP licence is Tk 10 crore, plus Tk 2 crore in annual licence fee and 5 per cent of the VoIP revenue.
   A landline operator will need to pay Tk 1 crore for licence, Tk 20 lakh in annual licence fee and 2 per cent of the VoIP revenue.
   The commission will charge a nationwide internet service provider Tk 50 lakh for a VoIP licence, Tk 7 lakh in annual fee and 1 per cent of the revenue.
   The guideline also said VoIP licensees will be connected to the telephone board’s submarine cable or the board’s satellite or both for international VoIP services until commissioning of the common platforms.
   The licensees will need sign an operational agreement with the telephone board on payment to the board by the licensees, says the guideline.

The University Grants Commission in a probe report said the Green University of Bangladesh has become ‘nearly dead’ and there are no educational activities in the institution.
   At the request of the Prime Minister’s Office, the commission formed a two-member committee which conducted the spot investigation on February 27 and found the inactivity of Green University, located at Farmgate.
   The report, submitted to the PMO in the last week of March, observed, ‘The University has no ability to provide higher education…It seemed we visited a busy commercial complex thronged by officers and employees of the Sunlife Insurance Company.’
   ‘We visited the 4th, 5th and 6th floors of the university but almost all the rooms were locked up,’ said the report. ‘No chair or table was found on the ground floor.
   ‘The 4th floor of the university has been rented to Sunlife Insurance Company,’ the report added.
   Green University started operating in December 2002, but the probe committee members, while visiting the campus, found only five students and four officials including the vice-chancellor and registrar.
   ‘However, the registrar claimed that they have 100 students,’ the report said. ‘The five students were waiting to get certificates.’
   ‘We found two part-time teachers, one for business and another for law,’ the report continued. ‘Although the university claimed that Professor Mohiuddin teaches there, the claim proved to be false.’
   ‘Computer lab and library rooms were found under lock and key. It seemed that the rooms had not been opened for many days and were absolutely unused,’ added the report.
   In October 2004, a high-powered evaluation committee, headed by the University Grants Commission chairman Professor M Asaduzzaman, submitted a report to the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, recommending immediate closure of eight sub-standard private universities including Green University.
   The committee evaluated the performance of all the 52 private universities and found seven gross irregularities such as low-quality education, temporary and overcrowded campuses, false statements about the number of students and teachers, and complete lack of administration in eight universities.
   The prime minister asked the education ministry to implement the recommendations as quickly as possible.
   The ministry, on November 2, 2004, formed another committee with a retired judge of the Supreme Court to investigate the above allegations against the private universities.
   The one-member judicial committee also found concrete evidence of the unfitness of Green University and recommended that the university should be closed down.

One year after the devastating South Asian earthquake wiped whole villages off the map, survivors of the disaster fell silent Sunday amid fears of another harsh winter in makeshift shelters.
   The Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, lay a wreath at a sombre memorial service in Muzaffarabad, the still rubble-strewn capital of Pakistani Kashmir, to honour the 73,000 who died in his country.
   Sirens then wailed to begin a minute’s silence at 8:52am (0352 GMT), the exact time the 7.6-magnitude quake struck last year, shearing off mountainsides and sweeping hamlets into foaming rivers across a zone the size of Switzerland.
   ‘I praise your courage and resilience. We will always be with you,’ Musharraf told an audience of more than 1,000 people including Kashmiri officials in a marquee near the city’s destroyed university.
   Musharraf said he had ordered authorities to probe complaints of corruption by reconstruction officials, and announced that the government would write off loans that survivors had taken out to rebuild their homes.
   ‘Those who died cannot be brought back, but I assure you that we will give you a better life. I also thank the international community and all the countries who helped us,’ added the military ruler, who shunned his usual army uniform for a traditional Pakistani smock and trousers.
   ‘It is good thing the president has acknowledged that corruption exists,’ shopkeeper Abdul Rauf, 45, said in Muzaffarabad’s ruined bazaar.
   ‘But these officials have made millions of rupees and even if they are fired, they will still enjoy the looted money for the rest of their lives.’
   Abdul Basit, 25, said he was injured in the quake but has still not received any compensation.
   ‘Nobody is listening,’ he said, adding that he thought officials were deliberately delaying pay-outs to force people to pay bribes.
   A number of schools, hospitals and a university will be inaugurated across the quake zone on Sunday, the information minister, Mohammed Ali Durrani, said earlier.
   In the capital Islamabad, survivors held a vigil to remember the people crushed to death when the quake brought down an upscale 10-storey apartment block, Margalla Towers.
   Security was tight for Musharraf’s visit to Muzaffarabad after recent scares including the recovery of two rockets near his official residence in Islamabad on Thursday.
   The police also feared a repeat of earlier protests, including one on Saturday in Islamabad, by survivors angry and fearful that up to half of the 3.5 million left homeless by the disaster will spend another winter in makeshift homes.
   Heaps of rubble still lie untouched in many areas, while children are taught in tents or in the open air. The United Nations says it will take 10 years for the region to return to normal.
   Musharraf said that work to rebuild the 600,000 homes, 8,000 schools and 350 hospitals destroyed by the temblor was progressing well, funded by six billion dollars from foreign donors.
   Tin huts have sprung up across the region and nearly half a million families have received some or all of the approximately 3,000 dollars in compensation they were promised, the government says.
   But the UN says 33,000 quake survivors still live in tent camps in Pakistan. The number could hit 60,000 as snow drives villagers from the mountains and into towns.
   The aid agency Oxfam says at least 1.8 million people are still living in temporary homes in Pakistan, although Musharraf has rejected the figure.
   Meanwhile in Indian-administered Kashmir, where the quake killed another 1,300 people, authorities said no official events were planned to mark the anniversary.
   Nearly 50,000 people in the Indian sector will have to spend their second winter in temporary tin sheds and flapping tents, aid agencies say. The quake is said to have razed around 22,500 homes there.
   Deaths from cold and sickness were prevented in the months immediately after the quake, but the UN has warned that the world must act once more to prevent a ‘second wave of deaths’ this winter across the quake zone.
   ‘We pledge to work together to respond to the needs of vulnerable communities with winter approaching again,’ UN Humanitarian Coordinator Jan Vandemoortele told a memorial service for aid workers in an Islamabad park.

At least 50 people were injured when supporters of the Awami League and Islami Chhatra Shibir were locked in a clash at Chouddhagram upazila headquarters in Comilla on Sunday.
   Winnesses said the clash ensued after local Jamaat lawmaker Syed Abdullah M Taher Taher came under ‘attack’ by AL activists during agitation programme organised to protest against the killing of Juba League leader Hedayetullah.
   The local Awami League organised a meeting at Chouddhagram to protest at the killing of Hedayetullah at Cheura in Chouddhagram on Thursday.
   Later, AL activists brought out a procession demanding immediate arrest of the killers of Hedayetullah.
   The AL activists hurled brickbat at the car of Taher while he was passing through the upazila headquarters, triggering a battle between the AL and Shibir activists, locals said. At least 20 persons of both sides were injured in the clash.
   Besides, 10 passengers of a BRTC bus on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway sustained injuries during the violence.
   On information, the police came to the scene and rescued the Jamaat lawmaker.
   The agitators also damaged 20 vehicles on the highway during the clash, disrupting transport movement on the route for five hours from 12:00pm.
   The upazila AL president, Abdus Sobhan Hasan, however, said the Shibir activists attacked their procession being provoked by the local Jamaat MP.
   Local Shibir unit called a half-day hartal in Chouddhagram upazila for Monday in protest against the alleged attack on Jamaat leader.
   Local Awami League and Jubo League threatened to block the Dhaka-Chittagong highway if the authorities didn’t arrest the killers of Hedayetullah within 36 hours.

The plaintiff of the businessman Jamaluddin Chowdhury abduction and killing case on Sunday sought withdrawal of the public prosecutor.
   Court sources said Farman Reza Chowdhury Liton, son of the deceased businessman and plaintiff of the case, filed a petition with the chief metropolitan magistrates’ court in the morning.
   He alleged the public prosecutor, Abdus Sattar, was serving the interests of the accused.
   Sobhan, a driver accused in the case, also filed a petition with the court seeking cancellation of an order issued by magistrate Akram Hossain to further investigate the case. After hearing, the court rejected the appeal.

Saddam Hussein’s defence team will continue to boycott his trial on charges of genocide against Iraq’s Kurdish minority when it resumes this week, his lead Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said on Sunday.
   ‘We met president Saddam Hussein on October 2 and presented him a series of observations about the trial and he instructed us to boycott Monday’s hearing,’ Dulaimi said in Baghdad.
   ‘The defence team has therefore decided to boycott the entire Anfal trial,’ he said.
   Dulaimi said defence lawyers will stay away from the trial because of Iraqi ‘government intervention’, including the sacking in September of chief judge Abdullah al-Ameri who was replaced with Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah.
   The ousted Iraqi leader is on trial with six co-defendants over the 1987-1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds which prosecutors say left 182,000 people dead.

Thailand’s military-installed premier Surayud Chulanont has submitted his cabinet list to the Royal Palace for the king’s approval, a government spokesman said on Sunday.
   Surayud, installed as Thailand’s prime minister on Sunday after Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a coup on September 19, is expected to officially announce his cabinet either Sunday or Monday.
   Yongyuth Mayalarp, who will be the government’s chief spokes-man, said the list of ministers had been sent to the Royal Palace for approval. ‘The announcement could be at any time.’
   Surayud has so far refused to reveal any names, but central bank chief Pridiyathorn Devakula and Bangkok Bank executive chairman Kosit Panpiemras have confirmed they will join his government.
   Several other bankers are reportedly considering it.
   Other names emerging include former ambassador to Washington and trade negotiator Nitya Pibulsonggram as foreign minister, and Piyasvasti Amranand, former head of the National Energy Policy Council, as energy minister.
   Meanwhile, officials fended off further international criticism of the coup.
   A foreign ministry spokesman expressed concern over a remark by Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, quoted in Thai media Saturday as saying the coup was ‘a setback’ for democracy in the kingdom.
   Malaysia’s ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad brokered talks between Thai officials and Muslim groups from Thailand’s south to help resolve the conflict there, his office confirmed for the first time Sunday.
   The revelation came amid indications from Thailand’s new government that authorities want to hold peace talks with insurgent groups from the Muslim-majority southern provinces.