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The interim administration has initiated a move to reconstitute the Public Service Commission, a constitutional entity widely believed to be plagued by corruption and irregularities, in a bid to get rid of controversial persons from the institution.
   An adviser to the administration on Monday hinted at the much-expected reforms saying that the government wanted its chairman to go voluntarily paving the way for its reconstitution.
   ‘Voluntary resignation of the chairman will pave ways for the government’s planned reform of the Public Service Commission,’ the LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, told reporters at his office on Monday.
   He thinks that the PSC needs immediate reconstitution with honest and competent people.
   The PSC is the third institution after the Election Commission and the Anti-corruption Commission to come on the interim government’s reform agenda.
   Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government has already reconstituted the Election Commission after the chief election commissioner and his deputies resigned on request from the president, Iajuddin Ahmed.
   Similarly, the Anti-corruption Commission chairman and his two deputies relinquished their positions following requests from the president although they were in the middle of their tenure.
   These reforms are said to be a part of the government’s reform agenda aiming at cleansing politics and the administration from corruption and dishonesty, and ensure holding of a credible election.
   The PSC, responsible for recruiting civil servants, now appears to be the next on the priority list of the interim administration’s reform plans.
   In the last few years, corruption, leakage of question papers, nepotism and politicisation eroded the credibility of the institution and plagued the recruitment process.
   Anwarul Iqbal said, ‘I think the commission should be immediately recast since positions of six members out of 14 remain vacant and the tenure of its chairman expires shortly.’
   The Public Service Commission should be thoroughly reformed to ensure that only competent candidates are recruited in the civil service, the adviser viewed.
   ZN Tahmida Begum was appointed the chairman of the PSC by the immediate past BNP-led alliance government. Her tenure is supposed to end in May this year. Tahmida was not available for comments. Sources in the government said, the chairman and members of the commission were now under moral pressure to resign.
   ‘We will complete all reforms essential for holding a free and fair election,’ the health adviser, ASM Matiur Rahman, also the member of the cabinet committee on the administrative affairs, said.
   There were allegations of irregularities in the Bangladesh Civil Service examinations during the regimes of both the BNP and the Awami League.
   The question papers of the BCS examinations were reportedly leaked in the last few years. The preliminary test for 24th BCS examinations was cancelled following media reports of alleged leakage of question papers.
   ‘There were massive irregularities in almost all examinations beginning from the 20th BCS to the 27th BCS for recruitment in civil service,’ according to sources.
   Many have raised questions on holding four BCS examinations during the BNP’s five-year term.
   Meanwhile, the PSC authorities have initiated probe into the allegations of corruption and irregularities in the recruitment process.

Lawmakers’ absenteeism cost the exchequer Tk 20.45 crore in the five-year term of the eighth Jatiya Sangsad, which left audit disputes involving Tk 13,154 crore unsettled, says the local chapter of Transparency International, the global corruption watchdog.
   The entire tenure of the parliament, which ran from October 2001 to October 2006, was marred by unscheduled discussions, inaction of parliamentary standing committees, misuse of money and reluctance of the lawmakers to attend the sessions and discuss matters of public importance, says Transparency International Bangladesh in a report published on Monday.
   The report pointed out that 104 members abstained from more than half of the total sessions, while 61 were absent on three-fourth of the total working days in the parliament.
   Most of the absentees were businessmen who had been elected as lawmakers. The attendance of women lawmakers from reserved seats was much higher than that of elected ones.
   ‘The prime minister was absent for 178 working days out of 373, while the leader of the opposition remained absent for 328 days,’ said the report.
   ‘The eighth parliament had to suffer from a total 227 hours of quorum crisis, which was one-fifth of the 23 sessions, and caused misuse of Tk 20.45 crore,’ TIB research officer, Tanveer Mahmud, told a press conference in Dhaka on Monday.
   He said a total of 149 audit objections to 15 ministries, amounting to Tk 13,154 crore, have not been settled as yet.
   The report also placed a set of recommendations — including introduction of the provision of nullifying the membership of the lawmakers after remaining absent from the sessions for 20 consecutive days instead of 90 days, election of deputy speaker from the opposition, reduction of the number of parliamentary standing committees by cutting down the number of ministries, and ensuring the presence of both the leader of the Sangsad and opposition along with an adequate number of other members — to make the parliament effective.
   The report also recommended promulgation of a law making loan defaulters ineligible for contesting the election, appointment of a parliamentary ombudsman, formulating a code of conduct for lawmakers, election of at least 50 per cent of the chairmen of the parliamentary committees from the opposition, keeping the ministers out of the parliamentary committees to ensure accountability.
   The TIB’s chairman, Professor Mozaffar Ahmed, in his speech emphasised the need for lawmakers to have adequate knowledge of law and rules of procedure to make the parliament effective.
   ‘The party should take measures to apprise their respective members of the rules of procedure,’ he said, pointing out that most of the members had wasted time in the parliament on the plea of point of order and discussion on budget speech and presidential speech.
   ‘The culture of boycotting the parliament should be stopped at any cost,’ he said, adding that there should be check and balance between the ‘position and opposition’ in the parliament.
   Executive director of the TIB, Iftekharuzzaman, was also present at the press conference.

Former BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed was sent to jail after his surrender to the chief metropolitan magistrate court in the capital on Monday.
   In their anti-crime drives, the army-led joint forces arrested Sylhet unit general secretary of the Awami League, Chhatak municipality chairman and two leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bagerhat on the day.
   Two leaders of the BNP’s Bogra unit, arrested on Sunday for hoarding essentials and alleged theft of relief materials, were sent to jail under the special powers act of 1974.
   In a separate drive in the capital, the forces detained four employees of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha for alleged corruption.
   In the capital, Salahuddin Ahmed, former lawmaker for Dhaka-4 (Demra-Shyampur-Jatrabari) constituency and an accused in two criminal cases under arms and money laundering prevention acts, surrendered to the court of metropolitan magistrate Mamun al-Rashid in the afternoon and sought bail.
   The joint forces on January 4 raided the residence of Salahuddin and seized three swords, one knife, currencies of different countries along with passports and cheque books but the former lawmaker was not present.
   Sub-inspector, Abdul Khayer, lodged two cases with the Shyampur police against Salahuddin under arms and money laundering prevention acts.
   Surrendering to the court Salahuddin pleaded not guilty saying: ‘I did not commit any crime during my tenure as an MP but the forces raided my house to harass me and tarnish my image.’
   Opposing the bail petition, the police said that the defendant had illegally kept the weapons and foreign currencies at his residence.
   ‘The former lawmaker committed crimes under section 19 (cha) of Arms Act and sub-section one of 25 (Kha) under foreign currency act of 1974,’ the police told the court.
   Hearing both the sides, the magistrate ordered to send Salahuddin to jail.
   Meanwhile, counsels for 10 detained BNP leaders, including Mosaddek Ali Falu, Mir Nasiruddin and Amanullah Aman, filed separate bail petitions with the metropolitan sessions judge court.
   The court of Mohammad Momin Ullah fixed March 5 for hearing of the petitions.
   The joint forces arrested five Rajuk employees—accountant Harun-ur-Rashid, assistant accountant Sanaullah, lower division clerk Babul Pal and two inspectors Ruhul Khadem and Salma Zaman—for their alleged involvement in a cheque forgery of Tk 16 lakh a few years ago.
   The two inspectors made fortunes by corrupt means, sources in the city planning agency said.
   In another drive, the forces arrested Zahid Ahmed, a director of Rising Garments, from his office at Shialbari of Pallabi in the morning along with three others—Abbas, Ali Ahmed and Manjurul Alam. Of them, Ali Ahmed was a union parishad chairman and reportedly associated with outlawed Sarbahara party, the sources said.
   In Sylhet, the forces arrested Iftekhar Hossain Shamim, general secretary of the AL Sylhet unit, from a meeting at Fenchuganj on charge of his alleged involvement in crime and also for encroaching on government land and property of minority people.
   In another drive, the joint forces detained Mashuk Uddin, a CBA leader of Jalalabad Gas Company Limited, his driver Golam Hamid Babul and nephew from his Raynagar residence in the morning.
   Earlier, the forces detained Chhatak municipality chairman, Abul Kalam Chowdhury and a former union parishad chairman, Iqbal Ahmed.
   Dara Miah, an alleged land grabber and three Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists—Chanchal, Mostafa and Shafiq—were also detained in the drives.
   In Bagerhat, the forces arrested municipal commissioner M Sarwar Hossain and two Jamaat leaders, M Mostafa Kamal and Maulana Golam Mostafa from Mongla on Sunday night.
   In Bogra, district BNP general secretary Saiful Islam and his associate Mohammad Shukrana were sent to prison after being produced in the court on Monday.
   The forces arrested the two on Sunday evening on charge of theft of 6,000 pieces of warm clothes meant for distribution among distressed people.
   Rejecting their bail petitions, magistrate Saiful Islam sent them to prison on a 30-day detention under the special powers act.

Bangladesh will conduct a study on the benefits and risks of opening up the country’s service sector under the framework of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) as businessmen apprehend that this burgeoning sector may suffer in case of uneven competition right now.
   At a preparatory meeting on Monday on the upcoming talks of the trade ministerial council of South Asia, it was also resolved that Bangladesh would reiterate the demand for upholding the tariff concessions stipulated in the previous form of the SAFTA, which was the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), and which were later restricted by the sensitive lists of the SAFTA.
   ‘We must know strengthens and weaknesses of our service sector so that it does not suffer in the free trade regime in the regional bloc. That is why a national study will be conducted on the issue before a regional study,’ the representative of a trade body told New Age.
   Mustafa Abid, a trade expert of the Tariff Commission, informed journalists at the commerce ministry that Dhaka would insist on the inclusion of benefits of the SAPTA in the list of tariff concessions, so that the sensitive list does not lessen Bangladesh’s benefits. ‘If all the benefits stipulated in different resolutions are ensured, the sensitive lists will automatically be made smaller,’ he added.
   The inter-ministry meeting, also attended by representatives of the private sector and think-tanks, focused on Bangladesh’s country position on a number of critical issues in the regional economic bloc under which small-scale trade transactions began after notification by member countries.
   A major concern of Bangladesh is standard testing of goods and commodities to facilitate trade through a mutually acceptable certificate of origin, and the issue is likely to be discussed at the SAFTA talks.
   AB Mirza Azizul Islam, the commerce adviser to the interim government who chaired Monday’s preparatory meeting, is expected to attend the
   SAFTA trade ministerial meeting on February 26, which will be preceded by a two-day expert-level meeting on February 24-25.
   The experts’ meeting, held every six months, was due to be held in October 2006 but was delayed because of the political turmoil in Bangladesh at that time. Besides, there are different sub-groups that can sit for meetings whenever necessary.
   The preparatory meeting also touched upon non-tariff measures, an issue which will be better dealt with at the bilateral meetings with any country, be it India or Pakistan, said the commerce secretary, Firoz Ahmed, while briefing newsmen.

The reconstituted Election Commission is working on an electoral reforms action plan, besides preparing a list of its tasks arranged in order of priority.
   The EC is likely to finalise a working paper on the electoral reforms by Sunday and invite political parties to discuss and seek their opinions about it.
   ‘After we draft the working paper by Sunday, we will hold a meeting to touch it up. Then we will sit with the political parties to top it off,’ the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told the media on Monday after a meeting at the National Board of Revenue headquarters.
   Soon after taking over as the CEC on February 5, Shamsul Huda said policy reform would be a major goal of the EC and it would propose the necessary electoral reforms to the government in the shortest possible time.
   According to sources, a group of EC officials have been collecting and compiling the electoral reform proposals made by various quarters including the think tanks and non-governmental and civil society organisations. However, they are yet to include the proposals made by former CEC MA Syed in the compilation.
   Syed submitted his reform proposals in 2001 to the then president Shahabuddin Ahmed. But most of the reforms proposed by Syed have not been incorporated in the existing electoral laws due to opposition of the major political parties. Even though just before the 2001 elections the president on Syed’s advice had added sections 91D and 93B to the Representation of People Order 1972, they were later scrapped following pressure of those parties.
   Besides making preparations for the ninth parliamentary polls, the other pressing tasks on the Election Commission’s priority list are taking steps for holding elections of those union parishads and municipalities that could not be held because of legal complications or problems in demarcating their constituencies and carrying out internal reforms at the EC secretariat.
   Elections of 90 unions and 51 municipalities across the country have been suspended for a long time due to legal tangles the, EC sources said.
   On its priority list the EC has also included holding elections of three city corporations — Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna — in early May. The tenure of the present office bearers of Dhaka City Corporation expire on May 14 and those of Rajshahi and Khulna city corporations on June 16, EC secretariat sources said. But, they say, these three polls are unlikely to be held in time because of the country’s state of emergency.

The national election will be held after a congenial atmosphere for free and fair polls is ensured by making some necessary reforms and completing certain tasks including trials of the accused in some major graft cases, seizure of illegal arms and putting terrorists in prison.
   This was stated by the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, at a press briefing on Monday.
   ‘Free and fair election can be held only in a congenial atmosphere, for which we have to do a number of things,’ he said.
   To hold an election free of muscle power and black money, the corrupt people, especially the godfathers, must be convicted trough trial of their cases, said the law adviser, adding that illegal arms should be seized and terrorists must be brought to book for holding a fair election.
   In order to expedite completion of such essential tasks for ensuring a polls-friendly atmosphere, the ongoing state of emergency, proclaimed on January 12, may continue as emergency should not be proclaimed repeatedly, he said in reply to a reporter’s query.
   He, however, could not say for how long the emergency might continue. When asked about the efforts of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus to form a political party in spite of the emergency, Mainul said not all kinds of political activities, but only provocative and peace-disrupting activities like hartal, strike, siege, processions and rallies, were banned under the emergency powers ordinance and the emergency powers rules.
   ‘Expression of political opinion is not barred under the emergency,’ he said.
   Corruption and terrorism cannot be termed as politics, and now the politicians should analyse their misdeeds that have led to the ongoing state of emergency, he said, adding that the politicians should also take measures to make amends for their wrongdoing and ensure that there will be no repetition.
   ‘Healthy politics can only be possible in a congenial atmosphere, and now we are trying our best to create it,’ he said.
   Replying to a query, he said that it is not the duty of only the caretaker government to ensure that the corrupt politicians may not escape proper trial and due punishment because of loopholes in the laws. ‘It is the prime duty of the courts,’ he said, adding that the people should also extend their whole-hearted cooperation to rescue the country from godfathers and corrupt politicians.

Practical steps to separate the judiciary from the executive will be taken on the date the Supreme Court fixes for making the four sets of rules on judicial service and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance effective.
   ‘We hope that the Supreme Court will fix the date, on which the rules and the ordinance will come into effect, on Wednesday,’ law adviser Mainul Hosein told reporters at a press briefing held on Monday. He expressed this desire after the full court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court ordered the government on Monday morning to submit the printed copy of the ordinance to the court on Wednesday.
   The copy was supposed to be submitted to the court on Monday and the attorney-general, Fida M Kamal, told the court that the ordinance was promulgated on Sunday night but the printing of the ordinance was yet to be completed.
   He sought time for submission of the copy and the court fixed Wednesday for the next hearing of the proceedings of the contempt cases against 13 bureaucrats, including four top-ranking officials, for procrastination in the implementation of the 12-point directive and for distorting the court’s orders on separation of the judiciary from the executive.
   The contempt petitioner’s counsel, M Amirul Islam, however, submitted an application to the court, saying that the sets of rules still had some deviations from the 12-point directive and they should be corrected.
   The court said that the application would also be heard on Wednesday.
   District judge of Sirajganj, Masder Hossain, one of the petitioners of the writ as a result of which the 12-point directive was issued on December 2, 1999, told reporters after the court order that the judiciary has finally been separated from the executive.
   ‘Today is a historic day as the judiciary has at last been separated from the executive, and from now on the judiciary will be able to work without any interference by the executive,’ he said.
   Once the rules and the ordinance come into effect, the judicial service will come under the control and supervision of the Supreme Court. But it will not make the judiciary completely independent of the executive, as the officers of the administrative service will continue to perform judicial functions and have judicial powers, under an interim arrangement, until a sufficient number of suitable officers are appointed to judicial service.
   The existing magistrates, now exercising judicial functions, will be transferred to judicial service on deputation for the interim period.
   The executive officers, on completion of the interim period, will be allowed to choose either to return to administrative service or stay back.
   According to the rules and ordinance, there will be separate judicial and executive magistracy, and the executive magistrates, including deputy commissioners, will be stripped of judicial powers and functions.
   The executive magistrates, however, will not lose the executive powers and functions they currently have, including the power to command law-enforcers to disperse any unlawful assembly, to endorse a warrant or order for removal of an accused person arrested under warrant, to enable search by postal and telegraph authorities for documents and to detain them, to issue search warrants, to require security to keep peace or for good behaviour, to make orders as to local nuisance, to require security for good behaviour in case of sedition, to cancel bonds for keeping the peace and to impose Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
   The cases pending with the courts of the district magistrate or additional district magistrate will be transferred to the court of the sessions judge of the district, and the cases pending with the court of the executive magistrate will be transferred to the chief judicial magistrate of the district, says the ordinance.
   On January 16 the caretaker government framed four sets of rules on judicial service, taking the penultimate step for separation of the judiciary.
   The Appellate Division on December 2, 1999 issued the 12-point directive, which will eventually separate the judiciary from the executive, in its verdict on the government’s appeal in Masder Hossain’s case, popularly known as ‘separation of the judiciary case’.

The top political leaders, who were arrested by the army-led joint forces in drive against corruption and crime, were on Monday shifted to different jails from the Dhaka Central Jail.
   ‘The top leaders have been shifted to different jails due to the lack of accommodation for the VIPs in the Dhaka Central Jail,’ said a senior official at the jail, adding that they were taken to 10 jails, including the Kashimpur Central Jail.
   The top politicians were kept together in two large cells in the Dhaka Central Jail, which is not safe, the official said. The leaders were given division there.
   ‘As many of the top politicians are sick and used to take medicines, they have been shifted to the jails, which are close to different medical college hospitals, so that they can get proper treatment in case of emergency,’ inspector general of prisons, Brigadier General Zakir Hasan, said.
   He also cited lack of accommodations for ‘so many’ VIP prisoners in the Dhaka Central Jail.
   The joint forces arrested the top politicians from their houses in the capital on and after February 4 and all of them were sent to the Dhaka Central Jail with 30-day detention after they were produced in the chief metropolitan magistrates’ court.
   The arrested bigwigs include former minister Barrister Nazmul Huda, immediate past prime minister’s parliamentary affairs adviser Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and political adviser Mosaddak Ali Falu, state ministers Amanullah Aman, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and Salahuddin Ahmed and former lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi of BNP.
   The arrested Awami League leaders include former home minister Mohammad Nasim, former state minister for planning Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former MPs ANH Mostafa Kamal alias Lotus Kamal and Kamal Ahmed Majumdar, Awami Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Debnath, and Awami League chief’s adviser and former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Salman F Rahman.
   Former lawmaker Mufti Shahidul Islam, who is senior nayeb-e amir of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and a leader of Islami Oikya Jote, a component of the immediate-past ruling coalition, is also behind bars for his alleged involvement in militancy and countrywide bombings.

Devastating bomb attacks ripped through two popular central Baghdad markets on Monday, killing at least 79 people in a lethal response to the embattled Iraqi government’s latest security plan.
   Also Monday, a court sentenced Saddam’s vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan to hang for crimes against humanity, as his former boss did in December, after reviewing an earlier life sentence on the orders of an appeals panel.
   Following the verdict, Ramadan cried out: ‘I swear to God I am innocent. May God support me. May God take revenge against everyone who rendered me injustice.’
   US-based Human Rights Watch had urged Iraq not to impose the death penalty because they said there was insufficient evidence linking Ramadan to the murders of Shia villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the 1980s.
   ‘The tribunal found Ramadan guilty without evidence linking him to the horrific crimes committed in Dujail,’ said Richard Dicker, of the organisation’s International Justice Program.
   The blasts appeared timed to mark the end of a national 15-minute pause for reflection called by the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on the first anniversary of the demolition of a Shia shrine by Sunni bombers.
   They also struck Shia districts in the heart of the capital on a day when Maliki’s security forces had launched a massive security sweep designed to halt just this kind of apparently sectarian massacre.
   Security and medical officials said at least 79 people were killed and more than 165 wounded by the explosions. ‘We expect that number to rise, we’re checking the hospitals,’ said a defence ministry official.
   Traders at the Shorja market, battling intense flames to save their stock, said two car bombs had detonated in a garage beneath a multi-storey wholesale menswear market packed with small stores and fabric.
   Firemen, crowded among jostling bystanders in a tight street, vainly poured streams of water into a building that was still ablaze five hours after the explosion. Nearby, a man sat alone against a red metal shutter, sobbing.
   A second explosion ripped through shoppers in Haraj market, a kilometre away in the crowded Rusafa commercial district, adding to the steady flow of bloodstained bodies arriving in four city hospitals.
   According to the Islamic calendar, Monday was the first anniversary of the demolition of the golden-domed Shia mosque in Samarra by Sunni bombers, an outrage which triggered Iraq’s descent into sectarian bloodletting.
   Maliki had ordered thousands of police and troops onto the street as part of a much-heralded joint Iraqi and US security plan, snarling traffic across the city as officers searched thousands of cars for weapons.
   Meanwhile, the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, confirmed to reporters that two German citizens have been missing in Iraq since last week.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the execution of the death sentence of Khaled Saifullah, one of the seven kingpins of the banned Islamist militant outfit, Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, who were condemned to death for killing two judges in Jhalakathi.
   The stay order came up when the law ministry was writing its opinion on the mercy petitions, filed by relations of the condemned militants, which will be placed before the president.
   According to sources in the ministry, the opinion is being prepared and is likely to be submitted to the president within a week. The law ministry’s opinion is that the condemned militants should not be given presidential clemency.
   The chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, passed the stay order after hearing a petition filed by Khaled Saifullah seeking revision of the verdict, delivered by the Appellate Division on November 28, rejecting the hand-written appeals of the seven condemned militants.
   According to the order, the execution of Khaled’s death sentence will be stayed till February 19.
   The court also ordered that the petition should be heard by a full bench of the Appellate Division.
   According to the law, only the execution of Khaled’s death sentence will be halted, as no other condemned convict had so far filed any such petition.
   Criminal law expert Bazlur Rahman told New Age, ‘One appeal for review of the verdict cannot stop the death sentence of all convicts, and Khaled’s petition may suspend the execution of his death sentence only.’
   Khaled’s counsel Shamsul Alam told the court that Khaled was the only condemned convict who had made a proper petition to seek permission to appeal against the High Court’s judgement that had upheld the death sentences of the condemned militant kingpins.
   ‘So his petition cannot be rejected along with others’ petitions on the same grounds,’ argued the counsel.
   The full bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain, on November 28, 2006 rejected the handwritten appeals of six militants and upheld their death sentences.
   On May 29, 2006 the seven militants — JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, Rahman’s brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, Khaled Saifullah, Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun and Asadul Islam Arif — were sentenced to death for killing two judges in Jhalakathi in 2005.
   Arif has become a fugitive after the killing. Jhalakathi senior assistant judges Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey were killed in suicide-bomb attacks on November 14, 2005.

The Awami League on Monday scrapped all its deals with its coalition partners, including the highly controversial memorandum of understanding with the Khelafat Majlis on fatwa (edict) as the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 22 have been cancelled.
   Talking to the news agency, the acting general secretary of the party, Obaidul Kader, said the Awami League had entered into agreements and understandings with some political parties before the January 22 elections. ‘Since the January 22 election was cancelled, all those agreements and MoUs, including the one signed with Khelafat Majlis, stand cancelled.’
   Kader, who spoke as AL spokesman, said they would think afresh in a new situation when a new schedule for the polls would be announced. Since there is no election now, he observed, the seat-sharing understanding with their allies has no validity now.
   In reply to a question, he, however, said the AL-led expanded alliance would remain a political platform. ‘This is a platform for political unity, why should we break it?’
   AL presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim also said, ‘Since there is no election, there is no agreement or MoU with any party.
   ‘Let there be an election, we will think anew in a new situation,’ said the senior AL leader and former minister.
   On December 23, the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, and the Khelafat Majlis chief, Azizul Huq, signed a 5-point MoU, triggering fierce criticisms from liberal quarters against Awami League as the deal provides for legitimacy of fatwa.
   At that time, the Awami League had argued that the pact was not against the concept of secularism.

Nepal has tightened security after learning of plans by Hindu fundamentalists to use a festival in the capital to call for the declaration of a Hindu state, officials said Monday.
   Thousands of Hindu pilgrims and sadhus–wandering ascetic Hindu holymen–traditionally descend on Pashputinath Temple in Kathmandu to celebrate the annual festival, the main day of which falls this year on Friday.
   ‘The government has received information about possible trouble being caused by Hindu fundamentalists during Shivaratri,’ a home office official said.
   ‘Security has been tightened in the capital while local authorities along the Nepal-India border have been alerted to keep a close eye on the flow of sadhus and Hindu devotees.’
   An advisor to King Gyanendra–a monarch viewed by many devout Hindus as a living incarnation of Vishnu, the god of protection–said last week that the festival will be used to call for Nepal to be redeclared a Hindu state.
   ‘We have invited various Hindu activists and sadhus from India to participate in a peaceful protest rallies and sit-ins to be organised in the capital from February 17,’ said the aide, Bharat Keshar Singh.
   Following the king’s climb-down last April in the face of massive anti-royal protests, Nepal was declared a secular state.
   Now a peace deal between the interim government and Maoist rebels is steering the country towards becoming a republic.
   Meanwhile, the United Nations mission in Nepal told the Himalayan nation’s government to get a move on and organise scheduled elections crucial to the impoverished country’s future.
   Under the terms of a peace deal struck late last year between the interim government and Maoist rebels, Nepal is supposed to hold elections by mid-June for a body that will redraw the constitution.
   But the head of the United Nations Mission In Nepal, Ian Martin, said the deadline could be missed, leaving the country stuck in political limbo and the peace process exposed to more pressure.

A sizeable number of stranded Pakistanis have been evicted from their camps in Saidpur in Dhaka, and Mymensingh, during the ongoing drive against illegal encroachers and land-grabbers that the government began in mid-January.
   ‘Inmates in other camps are also panicky because they think that they might be evicted at any time,’ M Shoukat Ali,
   the general secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee, told New Age on Monday.
   More than 900 families in Dhaka and Mymensingh have been rendered homeless after the authorities knocked down the shacks in their camps, where they have been living a miserable life for more than 30 years.
   The leaders say the eviction drives were conducted in violation of international laws and agreements signed together by the Bangladesh government and the International Committee of the Red Cross to accommodate the refugees until their repatriation.
   It is also contradictory to the government’s own decision not to evict them from where they are stationed now, said Shoukat, referring to the home ministry’s decision taken on December 15, 1991, and the public works ministry’s directive on March 12, 2003 in this connection.
   The government asked the concerned authorities to maintain the status quo until the controversy of the stranded Pakistanis was settled, especially in terms of their repatriation.
   Over 2,50,000 Pakistanis, who opted to go to Pakistan after Bangladesh won its War of Independence against Pakistan, have been living in 70 camps in 13 districts. Their repatriation process was stalled in 1982 as Pakistan began dilly-dallying to take its citizens back, multiplying the sufferings of the Urdu speaking people.
   The SPGRC leaders reported that the authorities evicted over 800 families in Saidpur on February 5 and 6.
   In Pallabi the homes of some 25 families were bulldozed on January 22, and in Mymensingh 34 others were evicted.
   ‘We urged the government not to throw these poor people on to the streets. They have no other place to go to,’ said Shoukat, adding that the SPGRC has sent a memorandum to the chief adviser, seeking his intervention.
   The Bangladesh government has been giving humanitarian support to the stranded Pakistanis as per the Geneva Convention.
   Different social and non-governmental organisations, in a joint statement, urged the
   government not to evict the stranded Pakistanis from their camps.
   Representatives from the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, AL-Falah Bangladesh, Coalition for the Urban Poor, Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum, Unnayan Gabeshana Foundation, Shamsul Haq Foundation, Odhikar and Democracy Watch signed the statement, among others.

Town planner Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, the Dhaka City Corporation and Bangladesh Railway demolished more than 600 illegal structures at Uttara, old Dhaka and Narayanganj on Monday as the interim administration continued drives against encroachment on government lands and illegal occupation of public property.
   Rajuk recovered about five bigha land worth Tk 100 crore by demolishing more than 200 illegal structures on its Uttara Model Town plots.
   The DCC carried out drives in Azimpur, Ganaktuli and Hazaribagh areas under Lalbagh police station and pulled down about 200 structures amid protests at Ganaktuli of old Dhaka but there were no untoward incidents.
   Rajuk bulldozers knocked down makeshift and semi-concrete structures along the roads at Sector 7 of Uttara.
   More than 150 roadside shops, located between Syed Grand Centre and Hussain Tower in the area, were demolished.
   The affected shopkeepers claimed they had rented the shops paying Tk 3 lakh in advance for two years to one Ramzan who also owned a shop on Rajuk land.
   Some 50 semi-concrete structures were also pulled down at Sector 7 of Uttara.
   The structures included bus counters, restaurants, shops selling sanitary fittings, fax-phone service centres and other small businesses.
   The team also removed a billboard installed on Rajuk land.
   The DCC demolition drive led by its zone-3 executive officer faced protests staged by some two hundred locals at Ganaktuli of old Dhaka as rumbling bulldozers knocked down dozens of illegal roadside structures. But the protesters dispersed when army troops arrived.
   A DCC team also demolished about one hundred shops in a kitchen market established illegally on Azimpur children’s park by former lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu.
   Besides, the DCC pulled down a number of illegal roadside structures at Hazaribagh and Azimpur bus stand crossing near Eden Girls College.
   Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway demolished about 200 illegal structures at Godnail under Siddhirganj thana and Gymkhana under Bandar thana of Narayanganj district.
   Some of the illegal structures raised on railway land were used as store-rooms by three private banks.
   The railway recovered about five acres of land after a long time from the grip of illegal occupants, railway divisional estate officer Delwar Hossain said.
   The railway is expected to carry out drives against encroachers in some other
   areas including Tejgaon today.
   Members of the joint forces comprising army, police and RAB were present during the demolition drives to avert untoward incidents and foil attempts by land grabbers to hinder the operation.

Sonali Bank passed a bad year in 2006 with diminished profit, higher classified loans and lower recovery of classified loans, said a bank report. The number of profitable branches also decreased last year.
   The operating profit decreased by 23 per cent to Tk 301 crore in 2006 from Tk 396 crore in the previous year, and number of profitable branches diminished by 10 to 770 out of 1,183 branches.
   The amount of classified loans increased by Tk 778 crore to Tk 5,890 crore, and recovery of classified loans decreased by Tk 412 crore or 47 per cent to Tk 463 crore from Tk 875 crore in 2005.
   The bank’s loan growth rate was only 6 per cent against the overall average loan growth of 18 to 19 per cent. It disbursed Tk 24,096 crore loans as advances and wrote off Tk 110 crore with a growth of 106 per cent in the period.
   However, the bank showed better performance in deposit and certain sections. The deposit amount went up by 7 per cent and export business growth increased by 24 per cent last year.
   The bank has set targets of Tk 32,453 crore in deposit and Tk 25,301 crore in loans and advances for 2007. The operating profit target is Tk 452 crore. It also wants to bring down the classified loan rate to 14 per cent from the existing 24 per cent.
   The finance adviser on Monday, at the annual conference of the bank, directed the management to increase efficiency and use modern technology to provide better service.
   The board and management of the bank should be given a free hand to enable smooth operation, and that is why the government decided to corporatise the bank, he said.
   He pointed out that earlier the government policies had harmed the bank. 'The government will not impose any such bad policies on the bank.'
   The acting finance secretary, Md Tareq, said the financial condition of the bank was not good.
   ‘As the Sonali Bank is the biggest, its bad health has a negative impact on the banking sector and society.’
   He said Sonali Bank is different from other banks as it performs treasury functions also. He urged the management to improve the financial condition of the bank.

India’s governing Congress party faces the first of a string of tough mid-term tests on Tuesday when Punjab state goes to the polls to elect a new state assembly.
   Campaigning has been fierce, with some of the 1,050 candidates for Punjab’s 117-seat assembly-currently held by Congress-even roping in bar dancers to lure the northern state’s 16 million voters.
   The election will be followed by votes on February 14 and 23 in Manipur in the northeast
   and Uttarakhand in the north, both of which are also currently held by Sonia Gandhi's Congress.
   After that, all eyes will be on pivotal Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which is currently held by a regional opposition party and goes to the polls at the end of May.
   Defeat in the polls would deal a major blow to Congress and could mark the resurgence of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
   The polls, however, have no direct bearing on the national parliament and the Congress-led federal government.
   Congress wrested power in Punjab in 2002 following a bruising electoral battle with the then ruling combination of the regional Akali Dal Sikh party and the BJP.
   'Punjab is crucial as results there will have a ripple effect on India's seven other northern states, including Uttar Pradesh, and hence this no-holds barred campaigning going on there,' said New Delhi political analyst Anand Ojha.
   Some 4,000 wealthy overseas Indians are also campaigning in Punjab, the Indian Express daily reported, listing among them Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, who owns 1,500 petrol stations in the United States.
   'The canvassing in Uttarakhand is not as intense as it is in Punjab,' said BK Dhar, a federal poll observer in the tiny state of Uttarakhand, where 836 contestants are in the fray to grab the provincial assembly's 70 seats.
   Congress, which leads a coalition administration in Manipur, was not taking any chances in the border state where it will be pitched directly against the BJP in February's ballot, analysts said.
   'Congress will have to deal with the incumbency factor in Manipur, where the people are disgusted with trying to force New Delhi to take away the sweeping powers of the military,' analyst Ojha said.
   Manipur, plagued by ethnic insurgencies, was rocked last year by violent protests following the rape and murder of a prominent rights activist that was allegedly carried out by soldiers.
   Vote counts in the three states-Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur-will begin on Febru- ary 27.

The interim government on Monday decided to implement a Tk 550 crore elevated expressway project linking Panthapath to Pragati Sarani/Gulshan Avenue to improve the city's transport system.
   An inter-ministerial meeting, presided over by LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal, took the decision on the project initiated by the previous government.
   'The previous government could not implement the project under the Dhaka City Corporation due to bureaucratic tangles,' Anwarul Iqbal told reporters at his office after the meeting.
   He said the project would soon be placed at the ECNEC meeting for approval.
   The Japan Bank for International Cooperation pledged a loan of Tk 300 for the project, while the remaining amount would be funded by the government.
   But the Japanese authority recently told the government that they wanted to withdraw the fund due to procedural delays on the part of Bangladesh's authorities. 'We have received a letter from the Japanese authority intending to withdraw the fund,' the adviser mentioned.
   The meeting, also attended by Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain, asked the authorities concerned to ensure that the parking spaces of commercial buildings in the city are
   being properly utilised and that no vehicle is parked on the streets.
   The government has also decided to demolish all structures in Hatirjheel and Begunbari canals to ease the city's drainage system.
   The meeting asked the authorities concerned to strictly enforce traffic rules to check sound pollution.

The executive engineer of the Patuakhali Public Works Department, Zahid Hossain, was suspended on Monday following allegations of financial irregularities against him, said a press release issued by the senior information officer of the public works ministry.
   The suspension order came after the housing and public works secretary, SM Jafarullah, had been informed about the allegations of irregularities against the engineer in a tender of Tk 10 crore under the ministry, the release added.

Bangla (compulsory) examinations was held on Monday, the first day of Bachelor’s (pass), subsidiary and certificate course examinations 2006 under the National University, the university sources said.
   A total of 1,73,723 candidates of 1,316 degree colleges under 479 examinations centres across the country sat for the examinations, said director of the public relations department of the university.
   ‘No candidate was expelled centre on the day', claimed the director.