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The Election Commission will start preparation of voters’ roll with photographs and national identity cards in late August by setting up camp offices at polling stations across the country rather than visiting door to door.
   Citizens will have to visit the camps to register as voters and get multipurpose national ID cards. A pilot project will be launched next months for the process.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Monday disclosed the EC’s decision after having discussion with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   The CEC was not specific about how long it would take to prepare the voters’ roll, but said that the commission would certainly complete the task within the 18-month timeframe announced earlier.
   ‘We have decided to set up camps to expedite the work. If possible, we will prepare it before the timeframe expires’, he said.
   He said there was no scope to go beyond the already announced timeline of 18 months to complete the task.
   ‘It’s a daunting task…like a bullfight. If it [the bull] can be managed technically, the election will survive; otherwise there will be bloodshed… It will be a great achievement if we can complete the task,’ he said.
   The CEC said number of teams was raised from 8,000 to 12,000 to save time for preparation of the electoral roll.
   The teams will be shifted from one place to another after completing the job in a particular area. About 20 minutes will be required for proving a national ID card.
   He said the commission could set up camps at 69 thousand polling stations which were used in local government elections across the country.
   Photographs, fingerprints and personal information will be taken at the camps. The camps might work for 12 to 15 days and eligible voters could visit the camps between 12 noon and 10:00pm.
   When reminded that the EC’s previous experience of not going door to door for voters’ roll preparation was miserable, the CEC hoped that this time people would turn up at the camps to get ID cards as they would not be able to get any public services unless they have ID cards.
   ‘We will make it mandatory for citizens to produce their voter registration numbers and ID cards for getting passports, VGF cards, opening bank accounts and other public services...,’ the CEC told reporters at the EC secretariat.
   Huda said the commission would undertake special campaign programme to make people enthusiastic about visiting the camps.
   In the past, the commission always prepared voters’ roll by sending its staff door to door to collect information.
   Earlier in July last year, the then EC led by Justice MA Aziz initiated a procedure to update the voters’ roll by asking people to visit election offices and local government representatives to include or delete their names.
   However, the EC was compelled to change the method following a lukewarm response from the people and severe criticism of the procedure. It then decided to send its staff door to door to update the voters’ roll.
   Huda hoped that the first instalment of the logistics including 12,000 laptops will be procured by the last week of July.
   ‘After the first phase of procurement is completed, we will start field work in full swing from late August,’ he said adding that task of preparing voters’ roll in urban areas like city corporation of Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi might start earlier than in rural areas.
   He said the commission would make necessary amendment to the related laws and rules for preparing a new voters’ roll with photographs before launching a project for the purpose. According to the Electoral Rolls Rules 1982, the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982, and the High Court’s directives regarding the voters’ roll, there is no scope for preparing the voters’ roll with photographs or preparing it anew other than updating the existing roll.
   Earlier, the CEC, along with election commissioner M Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain, called on chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and apprised him of the measures they were going to take regarding the voters’ roll and national ID cards.
   Asked what the CA told the commission regarding their action, Huda said the head of the interim government assured them of providing all assistance. ‘They [government] would provide everything whenever it would be needed,’ the CEC added.

The alliance led by the Awami League on Monday said it was disappointed with the Election Commission decision of preparing a fresh electoral roll without door-to-door visits.
   Constitution experts were also divided over the legality of the commission’s preparing the fresh electoral roll and setting up camps offices in place of door-to-door visits.
   The leaders of the Awami League-led alliance resented at the commission’s not holding any discussions with them before making the decision.
   The alliance coordinator, Abdul Jalil, however, refused to make any official comment on the issue. He said he would give his official reaction after talks on Tuesday. But some alliance leaders gave their personal opinions.
   ‘I do not believe that the people, especially rural women, will go to the camps for enlistment,’ an Awami League presidium member told New Age.
   The leader also said it was not clear to them why the commission had decided not to visit door-to-door and raised questions about the success of the move.
   ‘Even the commission did not hold any talks with us before making such an important decision,’ he said.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, said they did not see any point in making the decisions regarding the electoral roll. ‘The Election Commission did not discuss the issues with us.’
   Asked about the decision of fresh roll preparation, Menon said the High Court had given a verdict in favour of updating the roll of 2001.
   ‘We saw in the past that our people are not interested in going to camps for enlistment,’ he said, adding the process is time-consuming.
   The executive president of a Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction, Moinuddin Khan Badal, said the constitution made door-too-door visit for electoral roll preparation mandatory. ‘How could they prepare the electoral roll without door-to-door visits? They cannot do it.’
   The Communist Party general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, said his party was keeping close watch on the activities of the commission and would evaluate the activities later.
   He, however, hopped the commission should take steps to hold free and fair elections.
   A former Supreme Court judge, Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, also a former election commissioner, opposed the commission’s decision, saying the existing laws do not permit preparation of a fresh electoral roll and setting up camp offices instead of going on door-to-door visits.
   The Bangladesh Bar Council vice-chairman, Rokanudin Mahmud, who opposed the move of the previous EC to prepare a new electoral roll, however, supported the move.
   Justice Naimudin told New Age last night, ‘Preparing any fresh electoral roll will be illegal, as the existing Electoral Roll Ordinance 1982 and the Electoral Rolls Rules 1982 do not permit preparation of any fresh electoral roll.’
   There is no scope for preparing a fresh electoral roll without changing the laws, he opined.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told reporters on Monday that the EC would make necessary amendments to the electoral laws and rules for preparing a new voters’ roll with photographs before launching the project.
   Opposing the EC’s move for setting up camp offices instead of going on door-to-door visits, Justice Naimuddin said, ‘There is no scope for doing so, as the existing laws stipulate door-to-door visits by the enumerators to collect the particulars of the eligible voters.’
   ‘The people are neither conscious enough nor capable financially or otherwise to even bother to go to camp offices, traveling for miles, to be enrolled,’ he opined, saying that for the same seasons a similar move initiated by the previous EC had to be abandoned in the face of demands raised by a cross-section of people.
   He also opposed the EC’s decision to engage the army in preparing the electoral roll.
   ‘How can the EC engage the army in preparing the electoral roll?’ he asked, and asserted that it would be a gross violation of the laws.
   The EC will have to appoint enumerators who must go on door-to-door visits for collecting the particulars of eligible voters, opined the former election commissioner.
   Rokanuddin, however, supported the EC’s move and said, ‘The nation is now demanding a free and fair election as early as possible, and to ensure it we need a flawless electoral roll.’
   It should be the demand of everyone that the EC should prepare a flawless electoral roll with photographs of the voters within the shortest possible time, and so the EC should be allowed to adopt any process it may think proper in order to ensure expeditious preparation of the electoral roll, he said.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, changed her decision at the last minute to leave the country for Singapore Monday night.
   Khaleda’s brother and a BNP vice president, Sayeed Eskander, left Dhaka for London by an Emirates flight Monday evening.
   Khaleda, who has reportedly been under intense government persuasion to go into exile, was ready to take a Singapore Airlines flight which was scheduled to leave Dhaka at 11:50 pm. ‘She cancelled the trip as she fell ill,’ the BNP spokesman, Nazrul Islam Khan told New Age at 9:00 in the evening.
   However, Khaleda’s youngest son Arafat Rahman, his wife Sharmila Rahman, and daughters Zahia Rahman and Zafia Rahman, and her [Khaleda] nephew Saiful Islam Duke and three domestic helps were to accompany her.
   The government processed the travel documents for Khaleda Zia and her family members.
   Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of Khaleda’s eldest son Tarique Rahman, and their daughter Zaima Rahman decided to stay back at home in case Khaleda left the country. Zubaida is learnt to have refused to go abroad, leaving her husband in jail at home.
   The government arrested Tarique on March 7 on charge of extorting Tk one crore from a businessman.
   Asked if the BNP chairperson would give any political message before her possible departure, party spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan, who visited Khaleda at her Dhaka Cantonment residence in the afternoon said, ‘I will tell you soon.’
   The Singapore Airlines flight was scheduled to take off at 11:50 pm last night. The staff of the airline in Dhaka said they were in touch to carry a VIP family on the Monday flight.
   Khaleda, who contained pressure mounted on her by a powerful quarter behind the government for about last six weeks to leave the country, apparently gave in, and communicated to the authorities concerned that she was flying out ‘for medical treatment’ on Monday, the BNP sources said.
   The BNP assistant office secretary Syed Emran Saleh Prince, who also visited Khaleda Monday, told New Age that the health conditions of Khaleda and Arafat were bad.
   Sayeed Eskander, who left Dhaka on Monday evening , earlier told New Age that he was ‘going to London to attend the graduation ceremony’ of his son studying there.
   Notably, only four BNP leaders – joint secretaries general Nazrul Islam Khan, Selima Rahman, assistant office secretary Syed Emran Saleh Prince and former MP Sultana Ahmed – were allowed to meet Khaleda at the latter’s Dhaka Cantonment residence in last 20 days since April 25 – the day government claimed through an official press note that it never exerted pressure on Khaleda Zia relating to her foreign visit or leaving the country.

The authorities suspended operation at Chittagong port and Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong as a cyclonic storm, Akash, the first of the season, formed over the Bay has intensified and headed towards the coast.
   The maritime ports in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar have been asked to flag local danger signal 7 and the port at Mongla danger signal 5 as the cyclonic storm was about 500km off the shore in the afternoon on Monday.
   The authorities also asked the local administration to make preparations to face the situation.
   The New Age office in Chittagong reported that activities at Chittagong port and Shah Amanat International Airport had been suspended.
   All the scheduled flights to the airport were cancelled as the airport was shut at 6:00pm. The equipment and vehicles at the airport have been taken away to safe places.
   The depression that formed on Sunday over the east central Bay was upgraded by weathermen to a deep depression which was later upgraded to a cyclonic storm, Akash. It was 450km south-west of Cox’s Bazar, 535km south-west of Chittagong and 560km south of Mongla in the afternoon, the Met Office said.
   Gusty to squally winds blew within 54 kilometres of the cyclone centre at the speed of 62 kilometres an hour. Winds are likely to clock a speed of 88 kilometres an hour, they said.
   The storm was likely to move towards north-northeast and to cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast early Tuesday.
   Fishing trawlers and boats in the sea have been asked to move inland to safety until the weather improves.
   The disaster management ministry had an emergency meeting in Dhaka to decide on measures to face the calamity. The local administrations in the coastal districts have been asked to evacuate people to safe areas. Rescuers, fire-fighters and Red Crescent Society members have been asked to remain on alert.
   Five control rooms have been set up in Chittagong to help people during the storm.
   The acting Chittagong Port Authority chairman, Yahiya Sayeed, said all the preparations were made in keeping with the disaster management plan to face the situation. ‘We alerted all concerned and took precautionary measures.’
   The port officials said cargo handling was suspended at 3:00pm while measures were taken to protect the cargoes dumped at the port sheds and yards.
   About 20 ships were staying in the port jetties and the outer anchorage and masters of the ships have been advised to take precautionary and safety measures, they said.
   Red Crescent sources said more than 40,000 volunteers were alerted as part of the preparedness programme.
   Sea became very much rough with gusty winds blowing at the speed of 70-80 kilometres an hour and tidal waves surging 6-7 feet higher than usual, people in Patuakhali and Barguna said.
   Reports from Barisal said river vessels on all routes in the region were stopped in the afternoon and passengers were offloaded at the Barisal terminal.
   ‘We asked the river vessels not to move as the storm may sweep over the region at night or early morning,’ said Saiful Islam, officer at the Barisal port
   The storm was only 250km south-southwest of the Cox’s Bazar seaport and only 130km south-southwest of St Martins Island at 9:00pm, said Deepak Chandra Nath, of the Cox’s Bazar Met Office, reported the correspondent in Cox’s Bazar.
   It started raining with gusty winds in the morning and weather deteriorated towards the evening. The Met Office recorded 50mm of rainfall in 36 hours beginning Sunday morning.
   The cyclone preparedness programme deputy director of the Red Crescent Society in Cox’s Bazar said 6,655 volunteers were alerted for evacuation of the coastal people in eight upazilas in the district.
   Four thousand people have already moved to safe places at Kutubdia, Matharbari, Sonadia and St Martins Island.

The police arrested BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s adviser, ASM Hannan Shah and his elder son, Shah Rezaul Hannan, at their house at Mahakhali DOHS in Dhaka on Monday.
   Hannan Shah was also remanded in police custody for five days for interrogation in connection with a case of extortion filed with the Kapasia police. The case was filed by a local leader of the Awami League.
   The family members said a joint forces team went the house of Hannan Shah at about 2:00pm and asked him to go with the team members.
   Hannan’s younger son, Reazul Hannan, said the team went there and took away his father at about 2:40pm.
   Hannan Shah was taken to the cantonment police station.
   He has recently been vocal for Khaleda Zia, particularly over the reported government plan to force Khaleda to go into exile, a report that the government has been denying.
   Three cases in connection with keeping firearms, extortion and gas bill default have been filed against Hannan Shah with the Kapasia police in a week. His elder son was implicated in two of the cases.
   The joint forces personnel earlier raided the house of Hannan for about an hour.
   Hannan and Rezaul were taken to Gazipur. The police produced them in the court of a district magistrate in the evening showing them arrested in the extortion case filed with the Kapasia police. The police sought that Hannan should be remanded in custody for seven days.
   Ruhul Amin, a lecturer of the Kapasia Degree College and also general secretary of the Kapasia Awami League, filed the case on Sunday regarding extortion of Tk 1 lakh from him on March 29, 2004 promising him reinstatement of his job in the college.
   The complainant also said Hannan Shah, his son Rezaul and others attempted on his life for several times after the general elections in October 2001 and barred him from going to college for which the authorities suspended him
   in 2003.

The National Board of Revenue estimates the revenue earning in the current fiscal year may fall more than Tk 2,000 crore short of its revised target as the revenue income in July to April marked only a 9.07 per cent year-on-year growth against the targeted 21 per cent, NRB sources said.
   The revenue income target for FY2006-07 was initially set at Tk 41,055 crore, which was downsized to Tk 37,297 crore in March following a lacklustre revenue performance in the preceding months, finance ministry sources said.
   The revenue earning in the July-April period was Tk 28,490 crore, up by Tk 2,369 crore, or 9.07 per cent, from that in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, NRB statistics show.
   ‘We could be Tk 2,000 crore short of the revised target as we have no miracle in hand,’ an NRB high official told New Age on Monday.
   ‘Business activities are sluggish. Import volume is not up to the mark as would be in a normal situation, with huge exemptions in all tax areas hindering us from achieving the ambitious growth target,’ observed the taxman.
   In FY2005-06, the government’s revenue income from the NBR source was Tk 33,986.91 crore.
   According to the latest NBR data, Tk 6,785 crore was earned in import duties in July 2006-April 2007, posting a 6.75 per cent increase from the income in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
   The revenue generated under the head of local value-added tax during the period was Tk 5,740.12 crore, which is about 16 per cent higher than that in the corresponding period of FY06.
   The period saw a negative growth in income from supplementary duties at import stage. The income generated under the head was Tk 1,010.99 crore compared to Tk 1,309.41 crore earned in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
   The income from excise duty during the period was Tk 182.12 crore, registering a rise of about 14 per cent from that in the same period of FY06.
   A total of Tk 4,725 crore was earned from the supplementary duties at local and import stages, which also marked a negative growth compared to the income under the head in the same period of FY06.
   The revenue earned in the period under the head of income tax, the only one which crossed the target, was Tk 5679.80 crore or 24.90 per cent more than that in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
   Revenue officials attributed the revenue shortfall to political instability in the October-December period and a slump in business activities in its wake.
   ‘Businesses had been in a state of disorder for the last few months, forcing many of them to count losses,’ an NBR official told New Age.
   Besides, the NBR saw four chairmen in the first six months of the current fiscal year, which resulted in a lack of direction and dynamism in revenue collection at the field level, sources said.
   The government had to borrow more than what was estimated in the current budget from the banking and non-banking financial institutions due to the poor revenue performance, finance ministry officials said.
   In response to a query, they said the government’s borrowing target from both banking and non-banking financial institutions had been raised to Tk 11,337 crore from the projected Tk 8,834 crore due to the poor revenue growth and low foreign aid and grant inflow.

The Pakistani government authorised paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence, as strikes called by opposition parties brought Karachi and other cities to a standstill Monday.
   ‘We have increased the presence of Rangers in the city and have told them to arrest or shoot anyone involved in violence and riots threatening life or property,’ the interior secretary, Syed Kamal Shah, said, referring to a paramilitary force.
   ‘The events of Saturday were very serious and violent. The whole city was paralysed and many precious lives lost,’ he said. ‘We don’t want a repeat.’
   Shops and schools were closed and most public transport remained off the streets in Karachi, a southern commercial hub where nearly 40 people were killed at the weekend in clashes between rival political supporters.
   ‘Karachi is completely shut down and at least three-quarters of all businesses have closed across the rest of the country,’ a senior government official monitoring the strike said on condition of anonymity.
   Pakistan’s Supreme Court Monday adjourned a hearing into the legality of charges against the country’s most senior judge, whose suspension has provoked a wave of deadly protests. The hearing in Islamabad was postponed until Tuesday minutes after it began when one of the judges, Falak Sher, said he could not sit on the 14-judge full bench dealing with the case, officials said.
   Meanwhile, Gunmen killed a senior Supreme Court official early Monday in what his family said was a targeted killing after a weekend of violence over the suspension of Pakistan’s top judge.
   The family of Syed Hamad Raza, the court’s deputy registrar, called for justice and dismissed initial police reports that he was shot dead at his home in Islamabad by robbers.
   ‘It was a targeted killing, it was not a robbery. There is no evidence that it was a robbery, Islamabad police is twisting the story,’ Raza’s brother Khalid Ali Shah told reporters.
   The violence erupted in the port city on Saturday after pro-government parties blocked a public rally by the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, following his suspension on March 9 by the president, Pervez Musharraf.

The head of Pakistan’s Islamist opposition alliance petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday, calling for the removal of the president Pervez Musharraf, from office as well as from his position as army chief.
   The move by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, came amid a deepening judicial crisis that represents the greatest challenge to Musharraf’s authority since he took power in a military coup in 1999.
   ‘We have challenged both of Musharraf’s positions because he is not capable of holding either office,’ Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for Ahmed, told the news agency.
   In his petition, Ahmed pleaded that Musharraf be dismissed from the army because he had violated his oath by taking part in politics while remaining in uniform.
   He said Musharraf had also disqualified himself from holding the office of president by ‘dragging the army into politics’.
   Musharraf promised to stand down as army chief by the end of 2004 as part of a deal with MMA but later backed out of his commitment.
   Constitutionally, he is due to quit the army by the end of December this year, but is believed to be reluctant to do so.
   Musharraf is expected to stand for a second term as president in September or October and wants to be re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for elections due around the turn of the year.
   Many analysts say Musharraf’s move to sack the country’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in March might be motivated by a desire to have a more pliable man at the head of judiciary in case of a constitutional challenge to his plans.

A couple of advisers on Monday said the government was considering lifting ban on indoor politics soon and continuing with the electoral reforms for the holding of credible elections.
   The government may consider lifting the ban on indoor politics, the communications adviser, MA Matin, told reporters in his office.
   Saying that Tk 237 crore, kept by businessmen with foreign banks, was recovered, the adviser said the cabinet had assigned the foreign ministry to look into the matter.
   He said the government could relax the rules for the people who earned money legally, but had not declared it. ‘I think they can be given a chance. Their request can be considered if they pay the income tax.’
   On the activities of the anti-corruption task force, Matin said FIRs in 22 cases were filed. Four were sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The national coordination committee dealing with serious crimes was processing seven cases to be sent to the Anti-corruption Commission.
   Meanwhile, the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, told a workshop that the government was working to hold successful elections.
   ‘We took all the initiatives, including electoral reforms, to hold successful elections and help in the formation of a responsible government,’ he said, addressing the inaugural ceremony of the daylong workshop in the BIAM auditorium.
   Democracy Watch and CAMPE organised the workshop on the ‘role of media in achieving Millennium Development Goals.’
   Mainul said people would need to rethink about the politicians who won public support to uphold democracy and establish good governance, but failed to fulfil the goals because of corruption.
   People’s rejection and distrust in ‘corrupt’ politicians was heavy punishment for them, he added, saying all the corruption cases were under trial as per the judiciary system and there was no hide-and-seek on the part of the government.
   He also sought suggestions from all concerned to achieve the goals set by the government. Welcoming the politicians talking about reforms and stopping dynastic politics inside the party, Mainul said the implementation of millennium development goals would not be possible without establishing good governance.
   Ataus Samad, chairman of the People’s Forum on MDG and editor of Amar Desh, said the government should specify its tenure and legality according to the constitution.
   Mahbubul Alam, former adviser to the caretaker government and editor of the Independent, stressed the need for establishing good governance to achieve the MDG.
   Reazuddin Ahmed, editor of the News Today, Zaglul A Chowdhury, chief editor of Bangaldesh Sangbad Sangstha, Taleya Rehman, executive director of Democracy Watch, and Rasheda K Choudhury, director of CAMPE, also addressed the programme.
   About 30 journalists from different print and electronic media took part in the workshop.

An official of the Rapid Action Battalion was wounded when a member of a band of robbers, who was caught, shot him during a raid at Moghbazar in broad daylight on Monday.
   The lawmen said that a RAB-3 team laid an ambush around the Piyashi Bar and Restaurant after receiving information that gangsters would gather there before robbing a money exchange centre at about noon.
   Sensing the presence of the RAB, the robbers tried to escape but the RAB personnel caught hold of one of the robbers, Akhtar Hossain, who, in a desperate bid to escape, shot BM Nuruzzaman in the abdomen.
   Akhtar was arrested though his associates managed to escape. The RAB members seized a pistol loaded with four bullets from his possession.
   Injured Nuruzzaman was taken to the Combined Military Hospital where he was operated upon.
   After the incident, the RAB personnel and the police conducted a massive search in the area and arrested a suspected robber, Ataur Rahman Hira, from a room in New Diamond Hotel on New Eskaton Road. The lawmen seized a pistol loaded with three bullets from his possession, said police.
   They searched a number of hotels, restaurants and shops to nab the absconding robbers. People were seen standing at a distance to see what was happening.
   The truncheon-wielding lawmen also assaulted the people, irrespective of sex, who were passing through the area. Many of the people were injured and were taken to different hospitals, said witnesses and local people.
   Shop-owners pulled down their shutters during the raid which continued till 4:00pm.

A criminal case has been filed with the Mohammadpur police against the chairman of Technical Education Board for assaulting on two reporters and confining them to the Ansar camp in the board office building at Agargaon, Dhaka on Monday.
   Mostaq Ahmed, a staff correspondent of the daily Janakantha, lodged the case under sections 342, 323, 307, 379, and 114 of the Bangladesh Penal Code against Mohammad Idris Ali, chairman, and Mohammad Shajahan, secretary of the board, Mamun-Or-Rashid, private secretary to the chairman, Barek Hossain, an employee of the board, and Asadul, an Ansar on-duty at the board office, the police said.
   According to the victims, Mostaq on Sunday contacted Idris Ali over telephone and sought his comment on a report on corruption by the board chairman run by the Janakantha on Monday. Idris at that time invited Mostaq to come to his office on Monday to have further discussions on the issue. He also requested the Janakatha news editor to send Mostaq to him.
   Accordingly, Mostaq along with Siddiqur Rahman Khan, a senior staff correspondent of New Age, went to meet Idris at his office at about 1:30pm on Monday.
   As soon as they met, Idris demanded an explanation from Mostaq of why the report was published in Janakantha, claiming there was no allegation of corruption against him. In response, Mostaq requested the board chairman to file a rejoinder to the report, which he assured would be published in the daily, the reporters said in his complaint.
   But, Idris said he did not need to make any rejoinder, rather he was going to take revenge on Mostaq in a different way. A gang of men led by Shajahan, Mamun, Barek, and Asadul then swooped on Mostaq and beat him black and blue.
   Seeing the plight of Mostaq, Siddiq called his chief reporter over mobile phone to inform him of the incident, when the gang assaulted on Siddiq, too, and snatched away the identity cards and cell phone sets of both the reporters.
   At one stage, the gang dragged them to the Ansar camp on the ground floor of the office building and confined them to it.
   Hearing the news, a number of newsmen from various print and electronic media outlets rushed to the spot and rescued the two injured reporters with the help of Rapid Action Battalion and police.
   When the newsmen asked Idris about the injuries of their colleagues, he claimed that both of them got hurt as they hit against a door. When the journalists asked how their dresses were torn, Idris kept mum.
   SM Shibly Noman, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur police station, told New Age on Monday night, ‘We could not arrest the chairman instantly as we need permission of higher authorities to arrest a government high official.’
   He, however, said, ‘We will arrest them [the defendants] immediately after we get the permission as they are accused in a criminal case.’

A High Court bench on Monday dropped from the cause list a petition filed by Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina for quashing a graft case against her, as her counsels stated that Hasina lacks confidence in the concerned bench of judges.
   A deputy director of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, Ghulam Mostafa, filed the case on December 11, 2001 against Hasina, former prime minister, and three others, accusing them of misappropriating Tk 17,89,857 in Meghna Ghat Power Plant project.
   The metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka framed the charges against Hasina and the other accused persons on October 14, 2002.
   Hasina filed a petition with the High Court on December 2, 2002 for quashing the case. The High Court on the same day issued a rule on the government to explain why the case would not be quashed. The court also stayed the proceedings of the case till disposal of the rule. Since then the petition has been listed in the cause list, the list of the cases that will come up for hearing, on several occasions, but the case is yet to he heard.
   The deputy attorney-general, Helaludin Mollah, on Sunday reminded a High Court bench of Justice Sharifuddin Chakladar and Justice SM Emdalul Haque of the case, and requested them to expedite its hearing. Accordingly the case was included in the cause list on Monday.
   When the case came up for hearing before the High Court bench on Monday, Hasina’s counsels, Rokanuddin Mahmud and Mahbubey Alam, pleaded that the case should be dropped from the cause list as their client, Sheikh Hasina, fears that she might not get justice from the bench.
   Accordingly, the bench dropped the case from the cause list.
   Helaluddin Mollah told reporters after the court order that the government might bring up the case before another High Court bench soon and seek an early hearing.

Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of former Prime Pinister Khaleda Zia, on Monday was shown arrested in another case filed against his friend and business partner, Giasuddin Al Mamun, for extorting Tk 4.89 crore from the owner of a construction firm.
   Sub-inspector Rezaul of Gulshan thana, who is also the investigation officer of the case, told the court that Mamun extorted the money from businessman Abu Shahed Saleh — owner of the
   construction firm Aclrcn, which is part of Reza Construction and Al Amin Construction — on different dates, and he and Tarique shared the money.
   After hearing the petition, the court of the chief
   metropolitan magistrate permitted the IO to show Tarique arrested in the case filed with Gulshan thana on May 5. Mamun, who has remained on police remand, on May 10
   confessed to the extortion before magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah.
   Tarique, who is now in the Dhaka Central jail, has so far been shown arrested in at least five extortion cases after the High Court on April 17 stayed the first case of extortion of Tk 1 crore against him.
   A trial magistrate, Abdur Rauf Khan, postponed the hearing of Tarique’s Tk 1 crore extortion case till October 17 in response to the High Court’s order.
   Tarique, the senior joint secretary-general of BNP, was arrested from his mother’s residence on March 8 under the Emergency Powers Rules and sent to jail on March 12 on charge of extorting Tk 1 crore from a businessman, Ahmed Amin, who is also BNP’s member.

A special judge’s court of Dhaka framed charges against Giasuddin Al Mamun for not submitting his wealth statement defying a notice issued by the Anti-Corruption and posted for May 17 the start of the trial.
   The judge of the special judge’s court 5 of Dhaka, Asharf Hossain, also ordered the prosecution, the commission, to produce three witnesses — commission deputy director Akhter Hamid Bhuiyan, complainant of the case, commission field officer Khandakar Akhteruzzaman, who served the notice, and Mamun’s wife Shahina Yasmin, who received the notice — in court on May 17.
   When asked before the charge is framed, Mamun, who is chairman of private television Channel 1, told the court he was not guilty and he should not be tried in the case.
   ‘As I have been in custody since January 31, when I was arrested, I did not know anything of the notice,’ he said.
   Interrupting him, the court said, ‘It is not the proper time to hear you and you will be asked to make your statement in court at the proper time.’
   Before the charge was framed, the court rejected the defence petition that sought that Mamun should be discharged.
   Rejecting the plea of Mamun’s counsel, the court in its order said the commission had the power to ask any private person, suspected of owning any asset disproportionate to his or her legitimate income, to submit wealth statements.
   Although the notice was issued by the commission secretary in the absence of the commission, the commission later ratified the action of the secretary with retrospective effect, the court said, adding the ratification legalised the process of the issuance of the notice.
   The court also observed that there was nothing wrong in taking the case into cognisance by the metropolitan sessions judge, as the judge enjoys the power and status of the senior-most sessions judge having the power to take any case into cognisance.
   The court, however, after hearing another defence petition, allowed the chief counsel of Mamun, Fakhrul Islam, to consult Mamun for 30 minutes in a room beside the makeshift courtroom at the MP Hostel of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex.
   Mamun was charged with non-submission of wealth statements under Section 26(2)(a) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and Rule 15D(5) of the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   According to the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, the offence is punishable with imprisonment for three years or with fine or both. Under the Emergency Powers Rules, the offence is punishable with imprisonment for three to five years, or with fine or both.
   The commission issued the notice to Mamun along with 49 other corruption suspects on February 18 asking them to appear in the commission within 72 hours to submit their wealth statements.
   According to the prosecution, Mamun’s wife Shahina Yasmin received the notice on February 19, but neither Mamun nor his representative complied with the instruction.

A Dhaka court on Monday gave permission to the ACC’s investigation officer to interrogate former communications minister Nazmul Huda at the ‘gate’ of the Dhaka Central Jail over two graft cases filed against him.
   Metropolitan magistrate Jagannath Das Khokan passed the order after investigation officer Mirza Zahidul Alam, also an assistant director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, appealed to the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate on Sunday to be allowed to do so.
   ‘We need to hear Huda’s statement for the sake of the investigation of the graft cases,’ the IO told the court. Huda, along with his wife Sigma Huda, was accused of receiving bribes worth about Tk 2.40 crore from a construction businessman, Mir Zahir Hossain, on different occasions.
   Huda, during his tenure as communications minister, gave various projects of the Roads and Highways Department to Zahir in exchange of bribes, stated plaintiff Shariful Islam, also an ACC deputy director, in the hearing of the case filed with the Dhanmondi police station on March 21.
   The deputy director also lodged another case against Huda with the Shahbagh police station, accusing him of allocating a plot of land owned by Bangladesh Railway to an NGO run by his wife, in violation of the rules.
   On April 2 Huda was showed arrested in both the cases after he was apprehended under the Emergency Powers Rules and sent to jail on February 5. Sigma remained free on bail.
   The metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka, Azizul Haq, heard the petition filed by the prosecution to frame the charge against Nazmul Huda in a case against him for possessing arms and ammunition illegally and keeping them at his residence. The judge will pass the order today.
   Dhanmondi police, on March 8, lodged the arms case against Huda, stating that they had seized 14 bullets along with a revolver, whose licence had not been renewed since 2003, from his residence on February 4 when the joint forces arrested him under the Emergency Powers Rules. The police also submitted a charge-sheet against Huda to the court on April 8.

The army-led joint forces detained 40 Awami League leaders, including some expatriate party leaders and the city unit general secretary, at Khadim in Sylhet Monday afternoon on charge of holding and joining a political meeting in violation of the Emergency Powers Rules.
   Sources in the party said the arrested included city unit general secretary Misbah Uddin Siraj and joint secretary Abdul Khalique, UK unit joint secretary Shaifiqur Rahman Chowdhury, city unit Juba League president Syed Shamim, district Chhatra League president Jaglu Chowdhury, city Chhatra League convener Habibur Rahman Shelim, Awami League leaders Shafiul Alam Nadel, Nasir Uddin Khan, Sadruzzaman Prince, expatriate in UK, and UK Awami League leader Faruq Ahmed, Abul Kashem and UK Juba League joint secretary Mojahid Ali Sohel.
   The rests could not be identified immediately after the incident.
   Sources in the Awami League said Shiplu, a nephew of UK Awami League joint secretary Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, bought a house at Khadim from a former municipal chairman, Awami League leader Badrul Hussain Babul, some days ago.
   Shafiqur Rahman hosted a lunch on the occasion on Monday where most of the local Awami Leauge and front leaders, including several leaders of the UK Juba League and Awami League, were present.
   But the guests did not leave the house after the party and talked among themselves.
   At one point, the joint forces raided the house at about 5:00pm and picked up 30 leaders on suspicion that they had been involved in a political meeting, the party sources said.
   The joint forces said in the evening that they would hand the arrested over to the police.
   The joint forces also arrested the executive engineer of the National Housing Authority in Sylhet on charge of taking bribe at his office in the afternoon.
   Sources in the joint forces said MA Munim, executive engineer of the National Housing Authority in Syleht, demanded Tk 5,000 as bribe from a building contractor in connection with the work order of a housing project in Moulvibazar, which is implementing under the Sylhet office of the National Housing Authority.
   Building contractor Nazrul Islam informed the joint forces of the matter. Munim was captured in his office room at Shibganj at about 2:00pm
   when he was taking the amount from Nazrul, the joint forces said.
   The forces took Munim to the RAB 9 headquarters in the city. He was being interrogated till evening.
   In Pirojpur, the joint forces also arrested Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Irtija Hasan Raju, at his house at Adarshapara at about 4:30am.
   The police said Raju, president of the district unit Chhatra League, was wanted in a number of criminal cases.
   He was handed over to the Pirojpur police in the morning after interrogation in the local army camp.

Cyclone ‘Akash’ threatens to wreak havoc over Chittagong throwing into doubt the third and final match of the grameenphone one-day series between Bangladesh and India at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium today.
   The weathermen have said the cyclone could hit the coast this morning and asked the maritime ports to issue danger signal number seven on Monday. Akash was located 534km north from the port city when this report was being filed.
   Rain had interrupted in the first two matches of the series, which India won to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
   However, thanks to the modern drainage system at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, only eight overs were lost from both games. But officials here said that the drainage system at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium was not as good as Mirpur.
   Officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board were in talks with the match officials over the fate of the match. ‘We are really in a great dilemma over even going to the field on Tuesday. A cyclone is coming and we all know how damaging it could be,’ said a top BCB official asking not to be named.
   The rough weather has already upset Bangladesh’s plans with three replacement players – Tushar Imran, Rajin Saleh and Mehrab Hossain Jr – who had been asked to join the team following viral fever among a number of players stuck in the capital.
   The called-up players were supposed to fly in the evening but left stranded in Dhaka for a while after both Bangladesh Biman and GMG Airlines cancelled their all flights to Chittagong. The stranded players then took a microbus to join the team, Tushar told reporters over telephone from the capital.
   In case of an improvement in the weather situation, any of the trio could find himself in the starting eleven as at least four players complained of viral fever.
   Vice-captain Mohammad Ashraful has already been ruled out while Farhad Reza, Shahadat Hossain and Abdur Razzak also developed the symptoms.
   From India’s perspective, the match could see either left-arm pacer Rudra Pratap Singh or batsman Robin Uthappa, or both, playing their first match of the series. Captain Rahul Dravid said on Monday that both have been included leaving out pacers Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan.

Garment exporters on Monday demanded that the central bank should ask the commercial banks to adopt speedier export payment transactions and reduce preventive rates on interests and difference in the buying and selling rate of foreign currencies.
   During a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, a delegation of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said the local industries need these supports to face the growing competition in global market.
   The BGMEA leaders also said that existing export transactions through letter of credits are unsuitable methods due to their lengthy disbursement process.
   Banks in other countries are practising contract, deferred payments, factoring and other modern and speedier methods and Bangladeshi exporters need to adopt these immediately to remain in competition, said the BGMEA president, Anwar- ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
   ‘We have requested the governor to bring down the interest rates on bank loans to below 10 per cent from 15-16 per cent,’ said the president of the BGMEA.
   He told the governor that difference in the buying and selling rate of foreign currencies in local banks is around two per cent which is exorbitantly high.
   ‘This difference in other garment exporting countries is around 0.50 per cent and in Bangladesh, it should not go up over 0.75 per cent,’ he said. ‘The governor has assured us to discuss the issues with the commercial banks.’
   The governor also assured the delegation of taking initiative to provide soft term loans to set up effluent treatment plant in industries and agreed on the necessity of increasing the allocation of Export Development Fund as BGMEA requested to raise it from $100 million to $300 million.
   BGMEA vice-presidents Faisal Samad, Ferdous Parvez and ABM Shamsuddin were, among others, present at the meeting.

The communications adviser, MA Matin, has said the interim government would continue with the project for the construction of an expressway connecting Dhaka and Chittagong which was taken up by the previous government.
   Canada-based consulting firm Lavalin International Inc was assigned to conduct studies on socio-economic and technical aspects of the proposed expressway, the adviser told reporters after a presentation on the inception report on the project at the communications ministry on Monday.
   He said the Canadian company would carry out the feasibility study within six months and a detailed study in 12 more months. The cost of the project is yet to be fixed.
   ‘It would take a maximum of three hours to reach Chittagong from Dhaka and the other way round for any vehicle through the 235km expressway which would reduce fuel consumption as the designed speed for traffic is 100km an hour all the way,’ Kazi M Hasan, team leader of the consulting firm, said in his presentation.
   He said the government would need to acquire 30,000 acres of land for the expressway project to be implemented on a build, own, operate and transfer scheme. Tolling for the use of the expressway has not yet been calculated, the consultant said.
   Asked about the economic return on the project, he said they were yet to asses the economic aspects.
   The communications secretary, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahamn, said the impact of the expressway on railway and waterway should be taken into consideration in the feasibility study.

A week-long cultural festival featuring musical performances, a puppet show and playing on the flute ended at Banani in Dhaka on Monday.
   The festival organised by fashion house Jatra began on Tuesday to provide the city children with some recreation.
   The concluding ceremony featured the launch of a book, Janala Diye Khoka Dekhe (a child looks through the window) for children.
   Artist Mostafa Monwar took the wrap off the book written by Nazia Zabin.
   Speaking on the occasion, Mostafa said city children did not get enough study materials and recreation facilities for them were also limited.
   The recreation opportunities available in the city could not attract the children in most cases, he said. ‘Children can hardly see the sky and rains in the city.’
   Mostafa Monwar said the book was suitable for children and it would attract children. Nazia, who is a mother and juvenile litterateur, wrote stories in rhyme, he said.
   Nasreen Ahmad, another mother, who illustrated the book, said all the rhymes tell the stories of garden, birds, flowers, fruits, sky, trees and rains.
   Dr Naila Khan, Anusheh and the writer also spoke on the occasion.
   The book has been printed on hand-made paper and in handwritten script. The book can be bought from Jatra for Tk 250.
   A puppet show on the war of independence, scripted, directed and designed by Mostofa Monwar, followed the launch of the book.
   Singers from Dhaka and Kushtia performed every day at the festival. Musical performances included opera music, open-stage singing, baul and Lalon songs and playing on the flute.

The highway police picked up Moyeen Iqbal, son of former Awami League lawmaker HBM Iqbal, from Sreepur in Gazipur early Monday on charge of reckless driving.
   The police said that they signalled to the jeep of Moyeen while he was passing through the Kodda Bridge on the Gazipur-Tangail Highway at about 2:00am. But ignoring the signal, he tried to go away changing the direction.
   On receipt of the wireless message, the police put up barricade and stopped the vehicle on Maona Road in Sreepur at about 3:00am. He was sent to the Gazipur court in the afternoon.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is still alive but keeping a low profile, notorious Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a video released on Arab television late Sunday.
   ‘According to my information I think that Osama is still alive,’ Hekmatyar said in the video broadcast by Al-Arabiya television.
   He said Bin Laden, wanted by the United States over the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, would be better off ‘not multiplying his appearances in the media or in publishing statements and videos.’
   Hekmatyar earlier this year claimed that his men had helped Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to escape US Special Forces searching for him in the eastern Afghan mountains at the start of 2002.
   The Sunni warlord is a former Afghan prime minister who carries a multi-million-dollar US bounty on his head.
   His men have attacked coalition forces in Afghanistan but he conducts his business separately from the Taliban militia which sheltered bin Laden until it was ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The injury list of Bangladesh has claimed another victim as Khaled Mashud, the veteran wicketkeeper who was recalled into the Test squad, sustained an elbow injury while playing for Abahani in the Kai-Altech Premier Cricket Super League match against Old DOHS on Monday.
   Mashud scored unbeaten 32 but sustained an injury while keeping wicket. His injury was scanned but the final report was not known. If the injury is serious then he could miss the first Test in Chittagong starting on May 18.

The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, was shifted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital from Bandarban jail early Monday with serious ailments.
   Mohiuddin was rushed to the hospital at around 3:00am as he was suffering from respiratory problems accompanied by urinary complications, hospital sources said, adding that he was also suffering from abdominal pain.
   The hospital authorities formed a 10-member board, headed by cardiac specialist Monjur Morshed, for treatment of the mayor who was being treated at the coronary care unit.
   Mayor’s wife Hasina Mohiuddin visited Mohiuddin at around 3:00pm and told journalists that his health condition deteriorated for lack of proper treatment at the jail.
   She urged the government to take necessary measures to provide the mayor with better treatment facilities.

The Bangladesh ambassador to Netherlands, Ismat Jahan, has been appointed ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Monday.
   Ismat is a foreign service cadre official of the government.
   Mohammad Harun Chowhdury, joint secretary of the home affairs ministry, has been made divisional commissioner of Barisal through another gazette notification on the day.

An arms case was filed on Monday against 194 leaders and activists of Kapasia upazila Awami League and its front organisations apparently in retaliation to filing of an extortion case against former BNP minister Hannan Shah on the previous day.
   Mohammad Ruhul Amin, a lecturer at the Kapasia Degree College and the general secretary of Kapasia AL, who lodged the extortion case on Sunday against Hannan, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, is one of the defendants in the case filed with a Gazipur magistrate court under the arms and explosive substances act.
   The accused in the arms case also include the Kapasia AL president, Asgar Rashid, Juba League leader Mizanur Rahman, and BCL leaders Mahbub Uddin Selim and Sakhawat Hossain.
   A nephew of Hannan, Fakir Iskander Alam Janu, filed the case, accusing the defendants of attacking him and on Hannan’s house at Safaishree under the upazila on October 28 last.
   Fakir Iskander alleged the defendants equipped with firearms, bombs, oars, and other weapons attacked the house.