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Teachers of Dhaka University on Saturday took classes wearing black badges as a sign of protest against the harassment of and repression on the two former prime ministers—detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   The DU teachers will also observe half-day work abstention today as part of their two-day protest programmes and decide on their next course of action depending on the government’s response to the five-point demand they made at an emergency meeting of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association on Thursday, leaders of the association said.
   ‘All the teachers irrespective of their political belief took classes wearing black badges and we will make the two-day protest programme a success,’ the general secretary of the DUTA, Professor Anwar Hossain, told New Age.
   Teachers belonging to all.
   groups—the blue panel supported by the AL, the pro-BNP white panel and left-leaning pink panel carried out the association’s decision.
   A few teachers, however, took classes without wearing black badges.
   The DUTA general secretary said that driven by their conscience, the teachers of Dhaka University had taken part in the programme although they had been asked by intelligence personnel not to stage protests violating the emergency rules.
   The government has slapped a ban on all sorts of protest programmes, rallies and processions by any group under the Emergency Power Rules 2007, after the interim administration took over on January 12.
   The DUTA leaders at their Friday’s meeting, attended by 223 of its members, observed that the interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed was acting beyond its constitutional mandate and demanded that the general elections should be held immediately and power handed over to an elected government.
   The meeting also demanded unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina, arrested by the army-led joint forces on July 16 and detained in a sub-jail, and condemned repressive measures against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and other political leaders.
   They also strongly protested at the reported government move to eliminate the two former premiers from the country’s political scene, and demanded removal of the law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser, Mainul Hosein, from the council of advisers for his politically motivated statements.
   Dhaka University students in general also expressed solidarity with the teachers’ movement.
   ‘We support the teachers’ protest against the government move to politically victimise the top leaders,’ said a final year student of mass communication and journalism. He said removing Hasina and Khaleda was not a solution to the political crisis.
   Besides the teachers’ programme, a small group of students, mostly members of the Awami League’s student front Chhatra League, brought out a procession on the campus on Saturday morning amid tight security. They demanded immediate release of Sheikh Hasina.
   They called upon the students to make today’s ‘countrywide strike in educational institutions’ successful and mobilise public support to free the Awami League president.
   The authorities deployed additional security forces on the campus to avert troubles. No such incident was reported during the teachers’ protest programme.
   Plainclothesmen remained active across the campus.
   On Friday night, intelligence personnel quizzed three senior teachers on the campus. They also insisted that the teachers should call off the programme.
   The DUTA general secretary alleged that an unknown caller on Friday night threatened to abduct his family members unless he called off the programme. He lodged a complaint with the university authorities asking for his security.
   The president of the DUTA, Sadrul Amin, a pro-BNP teacher, however, did not turn up on the campus on the day.
   ‘I did not go to the campus as I have no classes today,’ Sadrul Amin, told New Age.

The council of advisers of the caretaker government has approved in principle the Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Ordinance 2007, enabling the Election Commission to formulate rules and regulations.
   A regular weekly meeting on Saturday, chaired by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, gave the approval to the draft Ordinance 2007 that seeks to amend the Electoral Rolls Ordinance of 1982.
   Under the proposed amended Ordinance, upazila parishad has been included in the definition of the local bodies, which was absent in the earlier ordinance. It also incorporated application of computerised database by the Election Commission for preparing voters’ list with photo, updating of voter list every year, display of draft voter list along with photograph, and if anybody wants the voter list, it would be provided without photograph for social reason.
   The chief adviser’s press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, briefed the newsmen about the outcome of the advisory council meeting.
   The council also approved in principle the Acid Control (Amendment) Ordinance 2007, changing clause 4 of the Acid Control Act of 2002 and incorporating three more important persons as members of the existing council under the Act.
   The three new members to be included are inspector general of police, secretary of the law ministry and secretary of the social welfare ministry.
   As per the proposed amendment, the government, if necessary, can anytime co-opt new members and cancel the nomination of the members. The term of the membership of the council is for two years.
   Other members of the council are minister or state minister for home affairs, minister or state minister for social welfare, a woman member of parliament nominated by the speaker, secretaries of the home, industries, health, and women & children affairs ministries, presidents of FBCCI and National Press Club, professor or associate professor nominated by vice-chancellor of Dhaka University either from chemistry, applied chemistry, bio-chemistry and pharmacy departments, and an expert from BCSIR and two persons from NGO, nominated by the government.
   The advisory council meeting also discussed the ongoing case between Tulip, a computer company of Netherlands, and the Bangladesh government over the payment of compensation to the company following the cancellation of an agreement with the government on supplying computers.
   The meeting asked the ambassadors of Belgium and Netherlands to open up dialogue with Tulip to settle the matter out of the court.
   Tulip made an agreement during the caretaker government regime on June 30 in 2001. Under the agreement, the company was to supply around 10,888 computers to 3,382 educational institutions at a cost of about Tk 100 crore with 50 per cent Dutch grant and the other 50 per cent from the GOB.
   As the agreement was scrapped in 2003, Tulip filed a case with a Dutch court and the court in a unilateral decree ordered the Bangladesh government to pay compensation worth Tk 31 crore to the company.
   Bangladesh government preferred an appeal in the Dutch court against the decree and the court is set to pronounce its verdict on September 11 this year.
   Tulip has made an offer to settle the matter out of the court if the government purchases computers from the company.
   A presentation on the activities of the local government was also made at the meeting of the council of advisers.
   All the advisers of the advisory council attended the meeting at the Chief Adviser’s Office. Cabinet secretary and other secretaries concerned were present.

The Election Commission is virtually in a mess with most of its officials and staff struggling to cope with extra workload and frustration brewing over deprivation from promotion or fear of losing jobs.
   Mohammad Kamal Hossain, revenue deputy collector of Khulna, is discharging additional duty as deputy election commissioner, assistant election commissioner and district election officer of Khulna-2.
   Like Kamal Hossain, some officials of the administrative cadres of the government are performing additional duty as district and thana election officers, while election officials have been discharging the duties of officers two to three posts higher than them as the Election Commission has failed to assign officials to these posts.
   The work of the EC, from its secretariat to its field-level administration, is being done by a number of officials on an ad hoc basis while the remaining officials are frustrated due to deprivation from overdue promotion and fear that they might lose their jobs.
   There are nine deputy election commission offices across the county, and nine deputy election commissioners and a similar number of assistant election commissioners are designated to run these offices. Only one DEC is running the deputy election commission office at Rajshahi while the eight other offices are being managed by either assistant election commissioner or district election officers.
   Monirul Islam, district election officers of Barisal-2, told New Age that he is now holding three posts including DEC and AEC as current charges.
   There are 83 districts election offices and 505 upazila/thana election offices across the country and each office has to be managed by a class I officer of the Election Commission. But at the moment there are 60 district and 304 upazila/thana officials who are doing their work while the rest of the posts are being run by either officials of administrative cadres as additional duty or by the upper division clerks as current charge.
   According to the roadmap for holding the national polls by December next year, the EC fixed the time for internal reorganisation of the EC between February and December 2007. Many officials, however, expressed doubts about completion of reorganisation in the stipulated time as half of the time has already elapsed.
   In the last five months, the EC has done nothing to fill the vacant posts. It has conducted examinations of the of 304 upazila/thana election officials to prove whether they are fit for the job or not. [The reason for doing so was that many of those officials had reportedly been appointed on political considerations.] But the result of the examination, which was held on May 18, is yet to be disclosed.
   ‘How can I concentrate on my work when I don’t know whether my job will be confirmed or I will lose it,’ said a thana election officer.
   Additional secretary Humayun Kabir is holding the current charge of the secretary. M Rafiqul Islam, joint secretary administration, is also discharging the duty of joint secretary of election and planning. SM Asaduzzaman is holding the current charge as public relations officer and the post of assistant public relations officer still remains vacant. Mostafa Faruque, private secretary to the chief election commissioner, has been given the charge of an important desk of local government, Union Parishad, as additional duty.
   Mostafa Faruque provides the information about the daily routine of the CEC, but expresses his inability to say anything about the Union Parishad.
   The posts of the research officer and two assistant secretaries remain vacant.
   In the internal reorganisation plan unveiled in the roadmap, the EC proposed several reforms including ensuring the independence of the EC Secretariat, determining recruitment rules for its officers and employees, designing the commission’s own building, and strengthening its information technology wing by December this year.
   The election commissioners said in May that the EC had almost finalised a draft of amendments to the service rules for election officials to make their jobs transferable, as a part of the electoral reform programme. But the commission is yet to come up with the draft amendments.
   The EC on June 7 sent a proposal to the government for separating its secretariat from the PMO, now the Chief Adviser’s Office, for ensuring the EC’s financial and administrative independence. The council of advisers on June 23 approved the proposal in principle and asked the law ministry to prepare and submit a draft ordinance in this regard.

The dissidents in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday said they are not afraid of party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s threat to take disciplinary action against them.
   ‘What measures will she take? What have we done?’ asked Mufazzal Karim, an adviser to the chairperson. She is making such comments out of personal resentment and what she has said is unfortunate,’ he said after emerging from an informal meeting with the party secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, at the latter’s Gulshan residence.
   ‘The remarks made by her are creating confusion in the party. Soon we will meet her and discuss convening of the council session. We hope all misunderstandings will come to an end then,’ he said.
   ‘We hope that council will be held on the approval of the chairperson after the government relaxes the restriction on political activities,’ he told reporters.
   Mufazzal said that they were preparing to hold the council as early as possible as the Election Commission had already announced its election roadmap. ‘We should cooperate with the commission and hold the council at the earliest possible time,’ he said.
   He claimed that their move for reforms was not aimed to split the party, rather it was initiated to keep the party united. ‘The reforms are not centred on any individual. They are not meant to keep anybody out of politics,’ he asserted.
   Quite a few leaders of the BNP met Bhuiyan on Saturday. A delegation of the BNP unit in France, led by Abdul Malek Farazi, met him and submitted a statement signed by activists of the unit, extending their support to the reforms initiative.

Acting president of the Awami League, Zillur Rahman, has accused the interim administration of applying double standards and using the same law for opposite purposes.
   ‘How can a political party be launched when all political activities are banned under a state of emergency,’ the AL leader questioned saying that the same law could not be used for different purposes—favouring some while suppressing others.
   Zillur made the remarks while talking to reporters at his Gulshan residence on Saturday.
   He thanked the army chief and the interim administration for the announcement that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be recognised as the father of the nation in text books.
   Zillur reiterated that no council session of the party would be convened or no reforms would take place with the party president, Sheikh Hasina, in prison and called on the government to release her immediately.
   The party veteran said that the crisis in the party centring the reform issue had been resolved after Hasina’s arrest.
   ‘The party briefly faced a crisis due to misunderstandings among the leaders but it has been resolved after Hasina’s arrest,’ said Zillur, adding that all the leaders were united now…there is no disagreement, no dissenting voices… everyone is demanding the party chief’s release.
   Referring to Sheikh Hasina’s fear that she might not get justice, he said he shared her [Hasina] concern as she was arrested on ‘false’ charges.
   ‘Most of the judgements delivered so far by the courts in corruption cases have been judicious but the government should be careful so that no innocent person is harassed or convicted of corruption without concrete evidence,’ said Zillur.
   He also said that the AL had always supported the anti-corruption drives being carried out by the interim government but any mistakes in its decisions should be reviewed for correction.
   The acting AL chief said that the party was never opposed to the idea of bringing about necessary reforms in the party adding that the council would take a final decision in this regard.
   ‘All leaders have agreed to discuss reform issues within the party but those will be considered only after the release of Hasina,’ he said.
   The acting general secretary of the AL, Mukul Bose, on Saturday met the Zillur Rahman at his residence and expressed his solidarity with the party’s united stand to secure the release of Hasina.
   ‘No reform will take place until Sheikh Hasina is freed,’ Mukul, a leading dissident in AL pressing for in-party reforms, told reporters after holding talks with Zillur.
   He also said that the jail authorities were depriving Hasina of her right to meet visitors including party colleagues and close relatives.
   ‘There is a specific provision in the jail code allowing relatives of a prisoner—held in detention or serving terms—to meet him or her after getting permission from the authorities but the provision is not being followed in the case of visitors to Hasina,’ he said.
   He urged the authorities concerned to allow visitors to her as per the jail code.

Pratibha Patil was elected India’s new president on Saturday, the first woman to hold the office in the nation’s six decades of independence.
   The 72-year-old lawyer cruised to a landslide win over incumbent 84-year-old vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the largely ceremonial post.
   ‘I... hereby declare that Pratibha Devisingh Patil has been duly elected to the office of president of India,’ said election returning officer PDT Achary.
   Patil, a native of western Maharashtra state, defeated Shekhawat by a large margin, securing 66 per cent of the votes cast by an electoral college of federal and state lawmakers, Achary said.
   The parliamentary affairs minister, PR Dasmunsi, described Patil’s win as ‘massive... massive... massive.’
   A stream of well-wishers thronged Patil’s residence in New Delhi and people were dancing in the streets in her home town of Jalgaon.
   Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, plucked Patil from relative political obscurity, saying her election would boost the cause of gender equality and would be a ‘historic moment.’
   But Patil was buffeted by accusations that she protected her brother in a murder probe and shielded her husband in a suicide scandal in a campaign described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India’s post-colonial history.
   There were also claims of nepotism and involvement in a slew of financial scams.
   Patil, a demure figure who dresses conservatively in a sari pulled over her hair, has denied any wrongdoing.
   She was also mocked for telling television viewers that a dead spiritual guru gave her a ‘divine premonition of greater responsibility.’
   India’s top news magazine, India Today, put her on its front cover with the headline: ‘Embarrassing Choice.’
   Analysts say Patil has a
   tough act to follow in the form of India’s popular outgoing president Abdul Kalam. Congress rebuffed his bid for a second five-year term because, analysts say, it wanted a party loyalist.
   The silver-haired, shaggy-locked missile scientist, who became a national hero after overseeing successful tests in 1998 that turned India into a nuclear power, was dubbed the ‘People’s President’ for his populist style.
   Under the constitution, the prime minister holds the
   executive reins but the president plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.

The education ministry plans to reconstitute the search committee for the appointment of vice-chancellors, pro-vice-chancellors and treasurers at public universities in a transparent way as a committee member resigned.
   ‘The seven-member committee formed on May 13 will be dismantled and reconstituted as Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam of Dhaka University has resigned in the past week from the existing “bureaucrat-dominated” committee,’ said a ministry official.
   The formation of the committee headed by the education secretary with a deputy secretary as member secretary annoyed other members, especially educationists, prompting one of them to resign, the official said.
   ‘Syed Manzoorul Islam sent a letter to the education secretary, M Momtajul Islam, in the past week where he [Manzoorul] said he would not continue as a member,’ the official said on Tuesday.
   Although the committee could still be headed by the education secretary, it might include two former vice-chancellors and make a joint secretary (university) its member secretary.
   ‘There is no space for the committee to keep functioning as a bureaucrat-dominated body,’ Momtajul told the first committee meeting on July 5.
   Former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin, who attended the meeting as a committee member, was also resentful about the formation of the committee. ‘I am afraid I would need to legitimate the bureaucrat-dominated committee formed on May 13.’
   Echoing Farashuddin’s comment, the University Grants Commission chairman, Professor Nazrul Islam, told New Age that the existing committee was dominated by the ministry officials.
   ‘A proposal was sent to the ministry in the last week of June which recommended that the government should form a five-member “search committee” headed by a retired vice-chancellor instead of the current committee headed by the education secretary,’ Nazrul said.
   According to the terms of reference, the search committee will select candidates from among the leading public university professors to be appointed vice-chancellors, pro-vice-chancellors and treasurers at such universities and send their names to the chancellor’s office for appointment.’
   The committee will short-list three candidates for each of the vacant positions.
   There are 28 public universities in Bangladesh. Two of them have yet to start functioning.
   The four autonomous universities — Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, and Jahangirnagar University — will, however, be kept out of the committee jurisdiction.

A South Korean delegation is scheduled to visit Dhaka to asses the situation in the wake of allegations against two government agencies that they are involved in extracting money from jobseekers in the name of training registration.
   The four-member delegation, led by Hwang Hyo-jung, deputy director of foreign work forces employment team of the Korean labour ministry, will also brief the officials in Dhaka on the recruitment process under the employment permit system, diplomatic sources process.
   The officials in Dhaka claimed that the Korean team would come to see the progress regarding the signing of an additional agreement on language proficiency test and to explain recruitment under the EPS to them. During their three-day tour, beginning July 24, the delegation will meet the officials of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry and the Bangladesh Overseas Services and Employment Limited.
   The Korean labour ministry in the past week levelled the allegations against the Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited and the Bureau of Manpower and Employment, which are under the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry.
   Seoul asked Dhaka to immediately address the issue; it would, otherwise, send an inquiry team to Bangladesh to investigate the allegations.
   The allegations were levelled only a month after Bangladesh and Korea had signed a memorandum of understanding on the employment permit system which opened scope for overseas jobs for Bangladeshis.
   ‘We have informed Seoul in the past week that the offices under the ministry do not take money from people in the name of registration for training. We are yet to get their response,’ the acting overseas employment secretary, M Abdul Matin Chowdhury, told New Age on Saturday.
   He claimed that the Bureau of Manpower and Employment had given language training to people on behalf of the government, but it had not assured anyone of job placement in South Korea.
   Asked if the issue would be discussed during the visit of the Korean delegation, Matin said, ‘We want to discuss the issue with them.’
   He said the Korean team would inquire about the progress in signing an agreement on Korean language proficiency test and brief on recruitment under the employment permit system.
   Matin hinted that the agreement would be signed in a fortnight subject to recommendations from the inter-ministerial body and final approval of the cabinet. ‘I hope we could sign it in the first week of August.’
   As per the arrangements under the employment permit system, the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the EPS is followed by an additional agreement before the recruitment starts.
   Asked when the recruitment of Bangladeshis would start, the secretary did not specify any specific timeframe.
   As for the amount of sending a single person to Korea, he said, ‘It will not exceed Tk 1 lakh.’
   South Korea in March announced to recruit 150,000 overseas workers from five countries — Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, East Timor and Kyrgyzstan — during the year 2007–2008 under the employment permit system.
   Under the permit system, Korea will recruit sector-based workers, mainly in agriculture, construction, fisheries and service sectors, instead of industrial trainees, from Bangladesh and each of the workers will get a salary ranging between $900 and $2,000.

Law enforcers dropped the names of seven Abul Khair Group officials, including its chairman, off the final report, submitted early June, on the case of hoarding of 21.54 lakh kilograms of wheat in the Shah Cement factory in Munshiganj.
   The police filed the case on February 9 after the joint forces seized the 43,089 fifty-kilogram sacks of waste wheat, during a raid on the cement factory at Moktarpur in Munshiganj early in the day.
   The Munshiganj police officer-in-charge, SA Newazi, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the final report on the case early June.
   According to the documents seized, the wheat was imported from Russia in November 2006 by the AK Corporation and was scheduled to be taken to Aliganj in Narayanganj, but the authorities hoarded the wheat in the factory.
   Subinspector Kripa Sindhu Bala filed the case against seven of the group, including the chairman Abul Kashem, Abul Hashem, deputy managing director Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, director Shafiqul Islam, Shah Cement factory administrative officer Saifuzzaman Khan, assistant administrative officer Zakir Hossain and Shafiqur Rahman.
   The joint force arrested two of the officials — Saifuzzaman Khan and Shafiqur Rahman.
   The investigation officer produced Shafiqur in court and he was remanded in custody for three days on February 9. Both of them were remanded on bail a few days after their arrest.
   Zakir Hossain, who was arrested in another case, was sentenced on Wednesday to one year’s imprisonment and fined Tk 10,000.
   ‘I submitted the final report on the hoarding of wheat in the first week of June,’ the investigation officer told New Age. ‘I dropped the names of the seven officials as I could not find any evidence that they [the accused] hoarded the wheat.’
   The joint forces on January 29, meanwhile, seized a huge number of sacks of waste wheat from a rented warehouse and five cargos of the Abul Khair Group in Narayanganj.
   The police filed a case, but did not name any officials of the group in the first information report because of an underhand deal.
   The Abul Khair Group tried to settle the matter by paying Tk 14.80 lakh to the police in bribe on January 31.
   The joint forces managed too arrest two group officials, Mustafizur Rahman and Zakir Hossain, along with the Fatullah police officer-in-charge, Ashraf Ul Islam, and subinspectors Enamul Haque and SM Miraj Al Mahmud when the group officials were paying the bribe to the policemen. The money was seized.
   A special court on Wednesday sentenced Ashraf, Enamul and Miraj to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment on charge of taking bribe.
   The court also sentenced Shah Cement Industries Ltd assistant general manager Mustafizur Rahman and assistant manager (human resources) Zakir Hossain of the Abul Khair Group, importer of the wheat, to one year’s imprisonment on charge of paying bribe. The court ordered the bribe money to be confiscated.
   The court also fined the policemen Tk 1 lakh each and the group officials Tk 10,000 each.

The country’s exports to India will touch the $1 billion mark in three years if New Delhi really provides zero-duty access to 10 major Bangladeshi items, according to the projection of the newly formed joint business chamber of the two countries.
   The exportable items may range from hides and leather goods, jute, fish, garments, knitwear, melamine, sheet glass, pharmaceuticals and packaging materials, in line with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent announcement that duty-free access would be allowed to products from SAARC’s least developed countries such as Bangladesh.
   The leaders of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry also feel that a significant amount of investment by Indian companies in Bangladesh can help reduce the existing bilateral trade gap amounting to around $2 billion a year.
   ‘Investment is the answer to a number of problems related to trade between the two countries. The products to be manufactured by Indian investors in Bangladesh should be meant for the Indian market,’ said the new chamber’s president, Abdul Matlub Ahmad, at a press conference on Saturday.
   President Iajuddin Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the joint chamber at a function in a hotel today, which is expected to be attended by dignitaries from the two countries, including Joyram Ramesh, India’s state minister for trade.
   BK Bajoria, a director of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the media that India had, in recent times, developed more than 2,000 shopping malls where Bangladeshi products could be displayed and sold. His chamber is also planning to organise a ‘Made in Bangladesh’ exhibition in India to showcase the diversity of Bangladeshi products.
   When he was asked about the timing of the formation of the joint chamber, Matlub said its necessity has been felt in recent years with the increase in trade volume. ‘Its one major objective is to resolve the problems faced by businessmen of the two countries in trade transactions,’ he added.
   Dewan Sultan Ahmed, director of the joint chamber and also of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that though there has been an amiable and workable understanding between the two federal chambers, the joint chamber was initiated to address newer issues.
   Non-tariff barriers feature prominently in the grievances expressed by Bangladeshi businessmen, as does India’s restriction on investment by companies from Bangladesh and a few countries. Matlub said these issues would soon be sorted out with India, which is already taking positive steps in this regard. ‘India has realised her mistake,’ he claimed.
   When some reporters asked him how the problem of ‘informal trade’ or smuggling would be tackled, he said the regional trade bodies would suggest ways and means to discourage such trade.
   Referring to the proposed investment by the Tata Group in Bangladesh, Syed Manzer Hussain, the Tata group’s resident director and also director of the new joint chamber, said he was still waiting for the government’s response to the Indian conglomerate’s $3 billion investment offer.

Ferdous Ahmad Quarishi, a frontline propagandist for a new political order designed apparently by powerful behind-the-scenes quarters, on Saturday alleged that the common people and political activists were being sued and harassed on complains made anonymously and with ill motives.
   He also announced the name of his new political party as Progressive Democratic Party [Pragatishil Ganatantrik Dal] when there was a ban on political activities under a state of emergency.
   ‘Common people and political activists are being sued across the country for trifling matters and cases are being filed on allegations brought anonymously with ill motives,’ Quarishi said at a press conference at daily Deshbangla office at Segunbagicha in Dhaka.
   ‘We think none should be arrested or sued under the Special Powers Act just based on someone’s complaints or without proper investigation,’ he said.
   Announcing the name of his new political party, he said, ‘We have finalised the name of the party and that is “Pragatishil Ganatantrik Dal”…The party will be formally launched after withdrawal of restrictions on political activities.’
   Asked if his party had the blessings of the government, Quarishi said the two major political streams had created a crisis in the country and ‘it is a blessing that the government has hit them hard by its drive against corruption. ‘It is a blessing for those who want new politics. Of course, we are availing ourselves of the opportunity.’
   He said the PDP would field candidates for all 300 constituencies in the next general elections.
   He called upon the military-backed interim government to lift restrictions on political activities by next month. ‘There is no reason for continuing restrictions on indoor politics as political activities are going on despite the ban…therefore, I request the government to lift the ban on indoor politics, if necessary, in phases, by August.’
   Krishak Sramik Janata League general secretary Fazlur Rahman, Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Noor Mohammad Khan, Jatiya Party presidium members Kazi Feroj Rashid and Tajul Islam and BNP leader Maulana Shakhawat Hossain were present at the press conference.
   The PDP is the second party to have been named during the state of emergency. On July 19, former Jatiya Party leader Shawkat Hossain Nilu launched National People’s Party.

Relatives failed to visit detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina as the jail authority allowed none of them inside Saturday.
   Deputy inspector general (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said they had received from her a list of probable visitors and would allow them to see her after scrutiny.
   The prison official met the AL president and received the list.
   ‘We will now finalise the list of visitors,’ he told reporters.
   He said he had talks with the AL president and found her ‘quite well’ in the jail.
   The DIG at a press conference Saturday night rejected some newspaper reports that Hasina was provided with a broken cot.
   ‘The cot was never broken. Even then, we changed it following the media reports,’ he said.
   Awami League gave two television sets to the jail authority for its president.
   Abul Kalam Azad , press secretary to the AL president and her special personal assistant Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury handed over the two 21 inches colour television sets, given by the central AL and Canada unit for the party chief.
   The former prime minister was arrested on extortion charge and sent to the makeshift jail in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on July 16.

President George W Bush said on Saturday he was troubled by a US intelligence report’s finding that al-Qaeda had become entrenched in a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal region near Afghanistan.
   But Bush offered support for embattled Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, saying he believes Musharraf was committed to fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
   A portion of the National Intelligence Estimate made public this week found a ‘persistent and evolving’ threat to the United States from Islamic militant groups, especially Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
   In his weekly radio address, Bush said the report’s assessment that al-Qaeda was gaining strengthen in the tribal region of Pakistan was ‘one of the most troubling.’
   The White House has acknowledged that a truce Musharraf had reached last September with the tribal leaders had not worked and Bush said the leaders proved unwilling or unable to police the area themselves. ‘President Musharraf recognises the agreement has not been successful or well-enforced and is taking active steps to correct,’ Bush said.
   Pakistani forces are in the fight against militants and the United States supports them, Bush said, adding, ‘we will work with our partners to deny safe haven to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan – or anywhere else in the world.’
   Musharraf faces a political crisis at home amid waves of violence that erupted after government forces stormed an Islamabad mosque earlier this month to end a siege by militants.
   The North Waziristan area near the Afghan border is believed to be a hotbed of al-Qaeda and Taliban activity and US officials say bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders are hiding there. The United States has been pressing the Pakistan government to do more to curb al-Qaeda activities in the border area and has not ruled out US strikes.
   Pakistan’s foreign ministry says only its own troops can carry out counter-terrorism actions on its soil.
   US forces in Afghanistan have carried out strikes in Pakistan, often using missile-carrying Predator drone aircraft, without confirming them so as not to embarrass Musharraf, whom the Bush administration considers an important ally.
   In the aftermath of September 11, Bush has sought make the fight against terrorism a defining issue of his presidency.
   ‘As time goes by, it can be tempting to think that the threat of another attack on our homeland is behind us,’ Bush said. ‘The NIE report makes clear that the threat is not behind us.’
   Democrats seized on the intelligence report as evidence that the Iraq war has diverted resources away from the fight against al-Qaeda, and they criticised the Republican president for failing to catch bin Laden.

Incessant rains, coupled with onrush of waters from upstream, flooded 11 north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern districts afresh and worsened the situation in Chittagong region.
   Most of the rivers that crisscross the regions swelled alarmingly, signalling that the flash flood may cover more districts.
   Met office recorded 151.5mm of rainfall in Chandpur, 108.7mm in Kushtia, 91.6mm in Comilla, 89.2mm in Faridpur, 87.3mm in Madaripur and 70.5mm in Bandarban and 75mm Rajshahi on the day.
   Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong and Mongla seaports have been advised to hoist local cautionary signal 3 for the inclement weather.
   Major rivers in Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Ganges-Padma basins were approaching danger levels at Sirajganj, Aricha, Goalundo and Bhagyakul points, according to Flood Information Centre.
   The Surma at Kanaighat and Sunamganj, Someswari at Durgapur, Gumti at Comilla and Debidwar and Muhuri at Parshuram points already crossed their danger marks Saturday.
   Most of the rivers in all the basins except the South Eastern hill basin swelled.
   New Age Noakhali correspondent reports: Heavy rainfall due to ebb tide had affected low-lying areas of costal belt of Hatiya and Subarnachar Friday and Saturday.
   A rickshaw-puller, Amin ullah, was killed in Begumganj in a tree collapse at Mirwarushpur under on the Begumganj –Ramganj highway.
   The Padma, surged by heavy rains, was overflowing as were the canals and drains in the city.
   People opted for staying indoors most of the time and attendance in offices and educational institutions was thin.
   About 50 villages in Kazipur and sadar upazilas in Sirajganj district were inundated in the past three days as the Jamuna water level rose sharply, causing cracks in the western Brammuputra Right Embankment, reports our correspondent from Sirajganj.
   Reports from Bogra said river swelled alarmingly in three upazillas, exposing many areas to erosion. Heavy rainfall continued at Cox’s Bazar for past three days, submerging more areas.
   A timber trader drowned in the river Bakhali and his body was missing till 8:00pm on Saturday. More than three lakh people were marooned by water in Chakoria and Pekoua upazilas of the district.
   Gushing water of the Matamuhuri river badly damaged the town protection embankment Friday evening.
   Reports from Jhenaidah said the incessant rainfall affected life in the district. Low-lying areas in six upazilas went under water.
   Flood situation in Bandarban and Khagrachhari districts deteriorated Friday with new areas going under water as rains show no sign of ending. Over one lakh people were forced to leave homes for safer places.
    Parts of Pabna town and some upazilas were inundated.
   Pailyanpur, Mokhtabpara, Noorpur, Narayanpur, Biswaspara, Shalgaria, Anantabazar, Natun bazaar and Shibrampur areas were flooded.

The interim government has begun the new fiscal year on debt, said sources in the central bank.
   The government during the first 10 days of July, first month of the fiscal year, borrowed about Tk 1,319 crore from the banking system sending out a wrong signal, added the sources.
   Of the total, Tk 940.53 crore was borrowed from scheduled banks, and the remaining Tk 378.34 crore from Bangladesh Bank, according to a report of the central bank.
   The borrowing from the central bank came as overdraft. It was the same in case of borrowing from commercial banks which was done through treasury bills, bonds and securities, the report elaborated.
   Officials in the finance ministry described the borrowing as a normal practice but experts said governments resort to borrowing from the banking system for deficit financing. Thus, they pointed out, it was unnecessary at the very first month of a fiscal.
   ‘It is a normal practice as the government takes loans from banks amid poor revenue performance,’ said a high official in the ministry. ‘Sometimes, we refund the borrowed money to banks.’
   However, a former deputy governor of the central bank said the government should not opt for the easy way out to finance its development and revenue expenditure.
   ‘The macro-economic stability could not be established fully until and unless government borrowing from both banking and non-banking system is contained,’ the former central bank deputy governor told New Age.
   The National Board of Revenue, once again, missed its revenue target, earning about Tk 4,000 crore less than what it expected to in the fiscal 2006-07 that ended June 30.
   The government’s revenue earnings from the revenue board stood close to Tk 37,075 crore against a lofty target of Tk 41,055 crore for the last fiscal year.
   The amount was 9 per cent more than the previous year’s earnings, but far less than a 21 per cent growth envisaged in the budget.
   Officials in the finance ministry said the government would soon be solvent as a good chunk of project aids would be released, which would lessen its dependence on bank borrowing.
   The private sector, particularly the major chamber bodies, have long been pressing the government not to go for bank borrowing as the tendency shrinks credit facility for the private sector.

The Supreme Court, when it reopens today after a 44-day summer vacation which began on June 8, is set to hear a number of cases involving the great public interest.
   The Supreme Judicial Council, comprising Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin and the next two senior judges, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim and Justice MM Ruhul Amin, is scheduled today to hold its meeting to decide its next course of action regarding its inquiry into allegations against Faisal Mahmud Fayezee, who resigned on July 12 as a judge of the High Court.
   The council on July 9 issued a notice on Fayezee asking him to appear before it on July 14 to explain his position regarding the allegations of not passing the written orders and verdicts in 180 cases.
   Fayezee, reportedly to avoid the inquiry, submitted his resignation letter, addressed to President Iajuddin, to the registrar on July 12.
   The council is also likely to decide the fate of the 180 cases.
   Fayezee had passed orders after hearing 42 cases, but the detailed verdicts were not delivered by him.
   He also passed orders and verdicts in 138 cases from April 2005 to December 2006, and the bench officer had submitted their typed copies to him for correction, but they were not corrected by Fayezee.
   The Appellate Division is set to hear this week at least two important cases — the Rangs Bhaban demolition case and the contempt-of-court proceedings against 13 bureaucrats including four mandarins.
   The full court of the Appellate Division on May 7 issued a fresh three-point directive to the government for the creation and sanctioning of a particular number of posts of judicial magistrates across the country along with manpower including supporting staffers, allotment of courtrooms and chambers, and necessary budgetary allocations.
   The court asked the establishment, finance, public works and law ministries to take immediate steps in this regard and to report to the court their compliance to its directives by July 19.
   The court also adjourned till July 23 the hearing of the contempt-of-court proceedings against 13 officials, including four top-ranking bureaucrats, for procrastination in the implementation of the court’s 12-point directive and for distorting its orders on the separation of the judiciary.
   Accordingly, the hearing is scheduled on Monday.
   The full court of the Appellate Division is likely to hear on Tuesday the case regarding the 22-storey Rangs Bhaban to decide the fate of the building.
   The council of advisers at a meeting in April decided to demolish Rangs Bhaban.
   According to the case, the High Court on May 2, 2000 declared illegal the decision taken by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha on June 24, 1999, cancelling the plan of the building.
   Rajuk filed a petition before the Appellate Division, seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s verdict. The Appellate Division in 2000 ordered the owners to stop construction till the disposal of the case, but the owners continued turned a deaf ear and completed the 22-storey building.
   The High Court bench of Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice M Ataur Rahman is scheduled on Wednesday to hear a petition filed by Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina for quashing a 2001 graft case — the Meghnaghat power plant case.
   The metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka framed the charges against Hasina and the other accused persons on October 14, 2002, for allegedly misappropriating Tk 17.90 lakh from the power plant project.
   Hasina filed a petition with the High Court on December 2, 2002 for quashing the case and the court stayed the proceedings of the case till disposal of the petition.
   The same bench on May 29 fixed August 1 for the hearing of Hasina’s petition on the MiG-29 case and on August 7 for the naval frigate case.
   Charges were pressed against Hasina, former army chief Mostafizur Rahman, former air chief Jamaluddin Ahmed, former defence secretary Syed Yousuf Hossain, former air force officer Mirza Akhtar Maruf, former joint secretary of the defence ministry Mohammad Hossain Sherniabat and businessman Noor Ali in the case on January 29, 2003 for resorting to corruption in purchasing 8 MiG-29 fighters that caused the state treasury a loss of Tk 720 crore.
   The High Court, in response to a petition filed by Hasina, on March 12, 2003 stayed the case proceedings.
   A charge-sheet was submitted on August 3, 2003 against Hasina, former navy chief M Nurul Islam, former navy officers AKM Azad and Harunur Rashid and businessman Abdul Awal Mintu, accusing them of resorting to corruption in purchasing a naval frigate, which caused the state treasury a loss of Tk 447 crore.
   The case is still pending, as Hasina filed a petition for quashing the case and the High Court in 2003 stayed the proceedings.

The interim government, in a bid to shake up the field administration, has transferred 27 officers of the rank of senior assistant secretary and made them thana nirbahi officers.
   The establishment ministry issued two gazette notifications to this effect on Saturday.
   Officers on special duty Md Kawser Ali and KFM Parvin Akhter have been posted to the establishment ministry as deputy secretaries through another official order.
   Md Raqibul Hasan, second secretary to the National Board of Revenue, has been made TNO of Dhanbari in Tangail, Md Mahmudul Hosain Khan, personal secretary to the environment and forests secretary, has been sent to Shailakupa as TNO.
   ASM Humayun Kabir, personal secretary to the energy secretary, has been transferred to Matbaria in Pirojpur as TNO; Md Rezaul Karim, personal secretary to the industries secretary, has been made TNO of Lohagara in Narail; Md Razaul Bashar Siddiqui, personal secretary of the secretary to the Parliament Secretariat, has been made TNO of Debhatta in Satkhira; Md Nizamuddin, personal secretary to the defence secretary, has been transferred to Zianagar in Pirojpur as TNO.
   Sulekha Rani Basu, senior assistant secretary of the commerce ministry, has been transferred to Hossainpur in Kishoreganj as TNO; Md Masudul Hasan, senior assistant secretary of the Cabinet Division, has been made TNO of Dhamrai, Dhaka; and Md Nazrul Islam, personal secretary to the tourism and civil aviation secretary, has been sent to Cox’s Bazar sadar as TNO.
   Bipul Chandra Biswas, senior assistant commissioner at deputy commissioner’s office, Kushtia, has been transferred to Manda in Naogaon as TNO; Md Nazrul Islam Sarkar, general certification officer at the DC’s office, Kishoreganj, has been made TNO of Juri in Moulvibazar; and Md Wahidur Rahman, nijarat deputy collector at the DC’s office, Tangail, has been sent to Sariakandhi, Bogra as TNO.
   Md Habibur Rahman, senior assistant secretary of the science and ICT ministry, has been made TNO of Bagmara, Rajshahi; Abu Nayeem Mohammad Abdus Sabur, senior assistant commissioner at the DC’s office, Khulna, has been sent to Amtali in Barguna as TNO; and Md Barat Hosain Chowhdury, nijarat deputy collector of Madaripur, has been made TNO of Sundarganj in Gaibandha.
   Ananda Kumar Biswas, senior assistant commissioner at the DC’s office, Pirojpur, has been transferred to Ashashuni in Satkhira as TNO; Md Mohsin Ali, senior assistant commissioner at the DC’s office, Barisal, has been made TNO of Dakop, Khulna; and Mohammad Abu Nayeem, senior assistant commissioner of Narsingdhi, has been sent to Rama in Bandarban as TNO.
   Abu Daud Md Golam Mostafa, senior assistant commissioner of Chandpur, has been made TNO of Kawkhali, Rangamati; Md Kuddus Sarkar, senior assistant commissioner at the DC’s office in Jhenaidah, has been sent to Kabirhat in Noakhali as TNO; and Md Lutfar Rahman, senior assistant commissioner at the DC’s office, Netrokona, has been made TNO of Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat.
   Abu Taher Mohammad Zaber, personal secretary to the agriculture secretary, has been made TNO of Nachol, Chapainawabganj; Shibir Bichitra Barua, senior assistant secretary of the food ministry, has been made TNO of Baghaichhari, Rangamati; and Abdul Alim Khan, nijarat deputy collector of Kishoreganj, has been sent to Naogaon as TNO.
   Md Shafiqul Islam, senior assistant commissioner of Naogaon DC’s office, has been transferred to Bhanga, Faridpur as TNO; Anjan Chandra Pal, senior assistant commissioner at the Sunamganj DC’s office, has been sent to Companyganj in Sylhet as TNO; and AKM Shamim Akhtar, personal secretary to the religious affairs secretary, has been made TNO of Phulbari, Dinajpur.

Four Asian workers died in a fire at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil terminal on the Gulf, though the blaze did not affect production or loading activities, state oil giant Saudi Aramco said Saturday.
   A Saudi employee of Aramco and 11 workers employed by a contractor were injured – six Indians, four Sri Lankans and a Bangladeshi.
   The fire at the North Product Terminal broke out on Thursday while maintenance work was under way and was brought under control within an hour, it said in a statement carried by the SPA news agency.
   A committee has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire, which killed two Filipinos, an Indian and a Sri Lankan employed by a contractor, said Aramco, which runs the operations of the world’s top oil producer.
   An Aramco source said the terminal is a production loading facility.

A printed leaflet of the letter of the Awami League president, Sheikh which she wrote before her arrest by the joint forces on July 16 has been published by the AL and distributed among the city people on Saturday.
   The letter wrote by Hasina at her Sudha Sadan residence was found on her personal table and her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad disclosed it to the reporters on the day of her arrest.
   The leaflet included a photograph of Hasina along with the letter was circulated at different places in the name of Bangladesh Awami League.
   In the letter Sheikh Hasina, gave her arrest message to the people who also appealed the countrymen to protest against the illegal activities of the interim government.

The production and sale of locally manufactured low-tech agro-machinery is yet to gain any momentum due to lack of financial and policy support by the government. As a result the farmers, deprived of locally produced, inexpensive machines, stick to the age-old implements and methods, and lag far behind farmers of neighbouring countries in efficiency and productivity.
   The agro-machinery sector has been totally deprived of loans and subsidies, so most of the manufacturers are suffering from capital starvation and cannot continue production of cheap machinery which is desperately needed by farmers to boost their productivity.
   According to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, the local manufacturers have to pay VAT on their products though no VAT is required for imported agro-machinery, which has made local machineries costly and unpopular to the farmers who can afford to buy machines.
   The high price of raw materials, lack of skilled manpower, and lack of marketing campaign for the local machineries is bringing down the agro-machinery manufacturers to their knees, and many are thinking of closing down their factories.
   ‘The government has to ensure adequate loan facilities for the manufacturers, and farm technology should be incorporated in the academic syllabus of vocational educational curricula. This can expedite the spread of farm technology in the country,’ said Omar Faruque, president of the Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association.
   ‘The BARI has a mandate to invent local agricultural machineries and improve their quality, and the Department of Agricultural Extension also has a role to play in encouraging the farmers to use agro-machinery for getting bigger harvests,’ said Omar.
   ‘Information about, and demonstration of, agricultural machineries by the DAE are not up to the mark. Moreover the government has to ensure a level playing field so that local agro-machinery can successfully compete against imported machinery,’ said Dr M Asaduzzaman, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
   ‘We get positive responses from the farmers when we demonstrate any agricultural equipment to them,’ said Dr Khirodh Chandra Roy, former chief scientific officer of the farm machinery and engineering division of the BARI.
   For the uplift and dissemination of farm technology, the government has to give subsidy both to the farmers and the manufacturers, following the example set by other countries in the world to make the agricultural sector successful, added the official.
   ‘We have already taken up a five-year project on popularization of agricultural machineries, and I am really hopeful that the technology, if it is disseminated among the farmers, will increase production significantly, said the director-general of the DAE,’ M Abdul Bari.
   ‘Bangladeshi manufacturers can manufacture agricultural machineries of good quality if they are provided technological training and financial support by the government, and their machines will be comparatively better in quality than those of China,’ said Azizur Rahaman Mallik, general secretary of the Bangladesh Agricultural Machinery Merchants Association.
   About 50 agro-machinery manufacturers are producing useful farm machines like reaper machines (for wheat and paddy), paddle and power thresher, maize sheller, potato grader, potato digger, power winnower, chaff cutter, coir decorticator and yarn twisting machine, coconut oil extractor, bed planter, seeder, weeder, potato planter, drier, seed separator, knapsack-type sprayer, power tiller, hydro tiller, rice transplanter, USG machine, broadcasting seeder, low lift pump and treadle pump.

Skipper Younis Mahmoud powered Iraq into only their second Asian Cup semi-final with a double to sink plucky Vietnam 2-0 here Saturday.
   The victory was a ray of light for the beleaguered Iraqi people as they advanced to Wednesday’s semi-final in Kuala Lumpur where they could face fierce rivals Iran or South Korea.
   Iraq have been thwarted each time at the quarter-final stage at the last three Asian Cups but they were rarely in trouble against the eager but much smaller Vietnamese.
   The Iraqis stumbled at the last three continental tournaments to United Arab Emirates (1996), Japan (2000) and China (2004), but they were always in charge against Vietnam, playing in their first Asian Cup for 47 years.
   Iraq will learn their semi-final opponent today when Iran take on South Korea in Malaysia.
   The brace took striker Mahmoud’s goal tally to three for the tournament, one behind Japan’s leading sharpshooter Naohiro Takahara.
   Iraq scored from their first attack with Mahmoud doing the damage with a glancing header off a Nashat Akram free kick in only the second minute.
   The Iraqis used their aerial supremacy to telling effect in the early exchanges with the Vietnamese defending deep and under pressure.
   Impressive midfielder Nashat looked close to scoring twice in the opening half, storming through a couple of tackles to fire wide in the fifth minute and hitting the side-netting in another attack on goal nearing half-time.
   The Vietnamese gave their excitable supporters some hope when Nguyen Vu Phong’s shot was cleared by substitute Ahmed Abid Ali just before the break.
   Mahmoud killed off the game with a beautifully-struck free kick in the 66th minute after Karrar Jassim was brought down on the edge of the box.
   He curled the ball over the defensive wall and away from the diving goalkeeper Duong Hong Son to put the Iraqis two-up and cruising to the semi-finals.

The purchase of three dredgers from Spain has become uncertain as the Spanish government has recently declined to provide the funds for procuring the dredgers as per agreement.
   Dredging works in Bangladesh would be affected seriously as Spain unilaterally sent a letter of cancellation of the financial credit to the authorities concerned on May 28, said an official of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
   Besides, the procurement of nine more dredgers has become uncertain as the government asked the BIWTA to procure them through its own fund as per the suppliers’ credit guidelines, the official said.
   A project called ‘long-term dredging programme for maintaining navigability of waterways, including procurement of three dredgers and one booster pump with other accessories of dredgers’ was approved by the Bangladesh government on October 10, 2004.
   Earlier a protocol was signed between the governments of Spain and Bangladesh on June 28, 1998 involving $85 million where this project was listed with an allocation of $15 million, of which 70 per cent was soft loan and 30 per cent was OECD commercial credit.
   A revised commercial contract on February 19, 2005 was also signed between the Bangladesh government and Messrs Astilleros Huelva SA, the lowest bidder, at a contract price of $14.98 million.
   On receipt of the financial contract (70 per cent) signed by the Economic Relations Division, the Spanish authorities made it effective on September 19, 2006 while Bangladesh was waiting for the letter of effectiveness of 30 per cent financial contract, they received a letter of cancellation of the credit in May unilaterally from the Spanish authorities.
   The shipping ministry on Wednesday sent updated papers to the Bangladesh embassy in Spain as per its directives, the official said, adding that there has a little chance to get funds from Spain.
   The government initiated to buy 12 dredgers. A tender to purchase nine dredgers was floated in November 2005 and opened on December 15.
   The process was stopped in 2006 as the government asked the BIWTA to buy nine dredgers following the guidelines.
   ‘It wasn’t possible for us to buy dredgers following the guidelines and we had failed to manage donors,’ another BIWTA official said.
   Each of the 12 dredgers would have the capacity of 6 lakh cubic metres per year, raising the total capacity to 98 lakh cubic metres.
   The BIWTA has now only seven dredgers. Two of them were purchased in 1972 and five in 1975.
   The official said the longevity of the dredgers had expired long ago and their capacity had been reduced considerably.

A vested interest group, which also includes officials of the energy, power and mineral resources ministry and the Board of Investment, is secretly preparing to hand over the country’s mineral resources to foreign companies, alleged speakers at a roundtable on Saturday.
   They said the group was totally indifferent to the interests of the country and its citizens, and was out to formulate a ‘disastrous’ coal policy in a hurried manner to promote the interests of multinational organisations like Asia Energy.
   The speakers, who included experts, former bureaucrats, journalists, teachers and NGO activists, said that the process of formulating and reviewing the much-talked about coal policy should be transparent and open to the public.
   Some of the speakers questioned the authority of the present unelected government to finalise such an important policy in which crucial issues like people’s livelihood, ecology and agriculture were involved.
   Saptahik 2000 organised the roundtable on ‘Bangladesh Coal Policy: Present Aspects’ at the Daily Star Bhaban.
   Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal said while countries like India, China and Russia were not exporting coal as a matter of policy, bureaucrats in Bangladesh were out to sell for a song a vital mineral of which the country has limited reserves.
   He questioned the right of an unelected government to formulate such a vitally important policy.
   Although the proposed policy emphasised energy security, he said, ‘As per the policy, 80 per cent of the coal will be exported.’
   Nuruddin recommended updating of the energy policy in coordination with the proposed coal policy.
   Awami League presidium member Motia Chowdhury said, ‘Our mineral resources should remain in the country to meet the local need.’
   Without naming anybody, she said, ‘When you are talking against corruption, you can’t try to sell out our coal.’
   Professor Anu Ahmed smelled a rat in the hurried but secret move of the authorities to formulate the coal policy. ‘Why is there such hide and seek and so much secrecy in coal policy formulation?’
   Syed Abul Maksud said, ‘The coal policy should be formulated to ensure the wellbeing of the people after assessing the agricultural and environmental aspects.’
   Referring to the government’s agreement with Asian Energy, Professor Khaliquzzamn said any agreement should be signed only after formulation of the policy.
   Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of the Communist Part of Bangladesh, said before finalising the coal policy, the issue must be discussed in the parliament and the countrymen should be consulted.
   Professor Shamsul Alam said corruption was going on in energy, power and mineral resources ministry when army chief Moin U Ahmed was claiming that corruption is being eradicated.

The head of the British Army has warned that the country has ‘almost no capacity to react to the unexpected’ because of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in a leaked memo reported Saturday.
   Sir Richard Dannatt added that reinforcements to deal with emergencies were ‘now almost non-existent,’ the Daily Telegraph said.
   His analysis is the latest high-level warning that Britain’s military is feeling the pinch. In a note to fellow defence leaders, he said that only around 500 troops were available to deal with, for example, a domestic terrorist attack or a deployment overseas at short notice.
   ‘We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected,’ Dannatt, the chief of general staff, reportedly wrote.
   ‘The enduring nature and scale of current operations continues to stretch people.’ His comments come following repeated warnings of overstretch from the main opposition Conservative Party.
   And earlier this month, an influential committee of lawmakers reportedly said that there were ‘simply not enough’ troops to cope with current deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   Britain has over 6,000 troops in Afghanistan, a figure which will rise to 7,700 this year, and around 5,500 in Iraq.
   The public accounts committee claimed that the armed forces were 5,850 personnel, or over three per cent, below strength.
   A spokesman for the ministry of defence said that the armed forces were ‘working hard’ but that the current situation was ‘manageable.’
   He added that, earlier this week, the government announced that 500 troops were leaving Iraq and that others were being pulled out of Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Intelligence agency freed Salahuddin Mollah, a personal physician of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, Saturday morning, a security official said.
   Salahuddin was picked up by some plainclothes men when he was coming out of Khaleda’s house in Dhaka Cantonment at about 11:30 pm on Thursday.
   The authority had seized some electronic gazettes, including three mobile phones, and some printed documents carrying Khaleda Zia’s statement from him, sources in the intelligence agency said.

The Bangladesh Railway is going to start a direct train service between the Dhaka city and the southwestern districts of Khulna and Jessroe by the first week of August, said a railway official.
   The train will start from the Dhaka Cantonment instead of Joydevpur, he said adding that the BR might introduce another new passenger train on the Dhaka-Khulna route soon.
   He said the BR officials would meet on Sunday and Thursday at Railway Bhaban to discuss the launch of direct passenger train service between Dhaka and Khulna.
   Now, Sundarban Express can come up to Joydebpur station, some 30 kilometres off the capital city, from Khulna and Jessore.

An Awami League leader, who sustained multiple injuries in the grenade attack on a party rally on August 21, 2004, died Saturday at his residence in the city’s Jigatola area.
   The deceased, Sandeep Babul, 35, was a joint secretary of Awami League unit of Dhaka city’s ward 38.
   Family and party sources said, Babul sustained critical injuries in the gruesome grenade attack that damaged both of his kidneys. Party chief Sheikh Hasina sent him twice to India for treatment on her own expenses.
   The young party activist was deeply saddened by Hasina’s arrest on July 16 and stopped taking food since then until his death early Saturday.
   He was buried at Azimpur Graveyard after a namaj-e-janaj at Jigatola jame mosque.
   AL presidium members Abdur Razzak and Matia Chowdhury visited the residence of Babul in the afternoon.

An assistant engineer of a knitting factory was found dead in the factory toilet at Konabari in Gazipur on Friday night.
   The deceased was Mahbubur Rahman Swapan, 24, assistant engineer of the Keya Knit Composite Limited at Jaron of Konabari in the district headquarters.
   Official sources said Mahbubur joined work at 2:00pm Friday in keeping with the schedule. He was scheduled to work till 10:00pm. He got out of his room at 7:30pm for refreshments.
   Jahid Hossain, another assistant engineer, said he reached office at 9.40pm, but he did not find Mahbubur in the room.
   Mahbubur was found at 10:45pm sitting on commode in a toilet fully dressed. He was dead.
   A case was filed with the police in this connection.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board revealed a shortlist of three candidates – Jamie Siddons, Dave Houghton and John Harmar – to fill up the vacant post of the national cricket coach at an executive committee meeting at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
   The assistant coach of the Australian team Siddons, former Zimbabwe captain Houghton and Australian Harmar will be interviewed at the end of this month and the BCB expects to make a final selection before the Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in South Africa in September.
   The BCB will also name a new selection committee shortly once the tenure of chief selector Faruque Ahmed and selector Ather Ali Khan expires on July 31, said the officials.
   The executive committee asked three officials – general secretary Mahbub Anam, treasurer Afzalur Rahman Sinha and member ASM Faruque – to finalise the new selection committee.
   Replying to query on the rumour about the government’s initiative to dismiss the board, Mahbub Anam said they will work until they receive any such order.
   The BCB president, M Abdul Aziz, while talking to the reporters on the sideline of the meeting, also said he has instructed everyone to continue their work until further notice.
   Mahbub Anam said the new selectors would be named within a week as there is an obligation to name the squad for the Twenty20 World Cup by August 11.
   The BCB general secretary also revealed that Bangladesh will play a tri-nation Twenty20 tournament in Kenya from August 31 to September 5 subject to the approval of the ICC. Pakistan are the other team of the proposed tournament – the first of its kind in the history of the game.
   The BCB decided to award Tk 50,000 to each member of the Bangladesh women’s cricket team for winning the ACC tournament. They will also be accorded a reception shortly, said the officials.
   Ailing former cricketer Hasan Bably was also given a purse of Tk 50,000 for his treatment.
   The Board also decided to pay 15 per cent levy on their earnings from the sale of tickets during different international matches in the last few years to the National Sports Council as per the rule.

The Pakistani police said Saturday they had defused a bomb outside a packed shopping centre where the latest Harry Potter book was scheduled to be launched.
   The man behind what police called an ‘immature’ bomb plot phoned police after having an apparent change of heart because of the many children at the site, said Karachi police investigation chief Manzoor Mughal.
   ‘Police have foiled an attempt to blow up a car bomb by remote control outside the Pak Towers and defused 10 kilogrammes of explosives in a stolen car,’ he said. ‘Had it exploded it would have caused a huge loss of lives.’
   ‘There were several hundred people inside Pak Towers at the time we received the call from an unknown person that a bomb was about to explode,’ Mughal said.
   The warning prompted the cancellation of the official launch of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ at the Liberty Books shop in the shopping centre in Pakistan’s largest city.
   The police were trying to trace the call, and were interviewing the woman from whom the car was stolen at gunpoint on July 10 for a description of the thief.
   Amid global ‘Potter mania,’ around 2,000 Pakistani fans, mostly children and youths, had reserved copies of the book at the launch.
   ‘At around 9:00pm last night (1600 GMT Friday) a call was received from an unknown caller,’ said Mughal.