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The interim government fears that labour unrest at some readymade garment factories and state-owned jute mills may intensify further due to non-payment of wages which has led to violent incidents in violation of the emergency rules.
   Intelligence agencies at a cabinet committee meeting on law and order on Thursday at the secretariat reported that around 23 RMG factories were vulnerable to workers’ unrest as the owners of these factories are not paying their workers on a regular basis as per the tripartite agreement among the owners, workers and the government.
   The meeting asked the garment factory owners to immediately pay wages to their workers as per the agreement and the jute ministry to take immediate measures to pay the arrears of jute mill workers in Khulna where the aggrieved workers staged protests and demonstrations on the streets, violating the emergency rules.
   The meeting also asked the BGMEA to create a contingency fund to help a factory facing financial crisis to pay its workers.
   Chaired by law adviser Mainul Hosein, the meeting was attended, among others, by education adviser Ayub Quadri, communications adviser MA Matin, cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumdar, home secretary Abdul Karim, inspector-general of police Noor Mohammad, high officials of the intelligence agencies and representatives from the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
    ‘The government will be tough this time on the factory owners who are not paying their workers on a regular basis,’ Mainul told reporters after the meeting.
   He said that some RMG factory owners were not conforming to the agreement. ‘They have been asked to immediately clear up the arrears of the workers and warned of punitive measures against failure to do so.’
   Earlier, the government formed a crisis management cell at the BGMEA involving, among others, members of the law-enforcing agencies to tackle any untoward incident in the readymade garment sector, which annually contributes over $8 billion to the national economy.
   The home secretary said that legal action would be taken against both the workers and owners if the emergency rules were violated in any factories. He feared that non-payment of wages and arrears may lead to deterioration of the law and order situation.
   He said the authorities concerned were asked to closely monitor the activities of some non-government organisations. According to intelligence reports, some NGOs were allegedly involved in the recent violence at RMG factories.
   Abdul Karim said the concerned authorities have been asked to pay the overdue wages of jute mill workers in Khulna also.
   The government, however, has decided not to allow the holding of an international conference on women’s rights in Gazipur which was initiated by Karmajibi Nari, as it fears that such a conference may lead to unrest among the garments workers, adversely affecting law and order, said an official.
   Meanwhile, the government has reportedly asked the authorities concerned to lodge cases against the garment factory owners who do not comply with the tripartite agreement and are depriving their workers of regular wages.
   The government believes that non-payment of wages to the poor garment workers was one of the main reasons for last year’s labour unrest in the readymade garment sector. The unrest resulted in a 10-point agreement between the government, owners and the workers that included implementation of the new minimum wages for workers.
   But the BGMEA found that about 30 per cent of the over 4,100 garment factories have not complied with the agreement in terms of implementation of the new minimum wage which was fixed at Tk 1,662.50 last year. Other studies claim that the overwhelming majority of the factories have not been paying the minimum wage, that only the biggest factories that have direct links with big buyers are doing so.

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed for two weeks the High Court’s verdict that asserted its inalienable power to deal with bail petitions under the apparently unassailable Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   The full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court — comprising Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin, Justice MM Ruhul Amin, Justice Tafazzul Islam and Justice Hasan Ameen — also ordered the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s verdict.
   The court passed the order after hearing the government’s provisional petition, seeking permission to appeal against the stay order on the High Court’s verdict.
   A High Court bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice SM Emdadul Haque on April 22 delivered the verdict, resolving the debate it invited on March 29 over the dilemma after revocation of the right to seek bail.
   The High Court has the jurisdiction to dispose of bail petitions under Sections 497 and 498 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) even under the ongoing state of emergency, and has the discretionary power of granting or not granting bail to any accused person after considering the merits of the case, observed the court in the verdict.
   The issue first came up during the hearing of a bail petition by a High Court bench of Justice Nazrul and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury on
   March 29, when the deputy attorney-general argued that the court was barred from
   dealing with bail petitions by the Emergency Powers Rules, which were amended on March 21 to bar accused persons from filing any petition with any court seeking bail during inquiry, investigation or trial of a case.
   The chief justice reconstituted the bench with Justice Nazrul and Justice Emdadul on April 15. When the new bench referred the matter to the chief justice for taking the necessary steps, he ordered the bench to dispose of the case.
   Accordingly the new bench re-opened the hearing of the issue. Kamal Hossain, MA Malek, Rafique-ul Huq, Mahmudul Islam, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan and Rawshan Ali gave their arguments as amici curiae (court’s friends), and additional attorney-general Salahuddin Ahmed appeared for the government.
   After hearing the issue, the court on April 19 started delivering the verdict that was concluded on April 22.
   All of the amici curiae argued that the restriction was imposed on ‘any court or tribunal’ and the Supreme Court was not included in the term ‘any court or tribunal’.
   If any restriction is imposed on the Supreme Court, the rules have to specifically mention the Supreme Court, as the term ‘court’ cannot include the Supreme Court, they contended.
   Since the Constitution has detailed provisions on ‘Supreme Court’, ‘lower courts’ and ‘tribunals’ in three
   different chapters, the term ‘any court or tribunal’ cannot include the Supreme Court, they argued.

A gang of muggers shot dead an army official’s son and snatched Tk 4.45 lakh from his father-in-law near Abahani playground in Dhanmondi in broad daylight on Thursday.
   The deceased was identified as HM Arefin Alam Rusho, 24, son of a physician couple, Lt Colonel Dr Shafiqul Alam, a neurosurgeon at Dhaka Combined Military Hospital, and Lt Col Dr Ambori of Comilla CMH.
   Witnesses said a gang of four muggers, riding two motorbikes, intercepted Rusho and Joynal Abedin, his father-in-law. The gruesome incident took place when they were about to board their car just after coming out of the National Credit and Commerce Bank on Satmasjid Road, after withdrawing Tk 4.45 lakh from the bank at around 11:45am.
   As the muggers were about to snatch the bag containing the money, Rusho went forward and tried to resist them.
   Immediately the muggers shot Rusho in his head from point-blank range, kicked Joynal Abedin and grabbed the bag. Both Rusho and Joynal fell to the road.
   The locals took them to the nearby Bangladesh Medical College Hospital where the attending doctors declared Rusho dead. Joynal is undergoing treatment at the hospital.
   Rusho’s body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy.
   On receipt of the dreadful information, Rusho’s father Shafiqul Alam, who had just conducted an operation at the CMH, rushed to the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital and accompanied the body to the morgue. Rusho’s mother, Ambori, also hurried to the morgue from Comilla and burst into tears. No one was able to stop her crying until the body was sent out of the morgue after the autopsy at about 5:45pm. His father and brother Rishat began weeping uncontrollably.
   Soon after the arrival of the body at the morgue, the police cordoned off the compound and did not allow anyone, including newsmen, to enter.
   The body will be buried at the army graveyard in Banani after the namaz-e-janaja that will be held at the CMH mosque after Friday’s jumma prayer, said relatives.
   Family members and relatives said that Rusho was scheduled to go to England in November to study chartered accountancy. Born in November in 1983, Rusho completed BBA from the North South University after passing SSC and HSC from the Mirzapore Cadet College.
   The lawmen have set up a number of check-posts at different points in the capital and started searching the vehicles, especially motorbikes, to nab the culprits.
   The commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Naim Ahmed, told newsmen that the police had collected the footage recorded by the closed circuit camera of the bank and were scrutinising it. Some evidence was also collected from the spot.
   ‘We’ve instructed the police, Detective Branch and Rapid Action Battalion to go through the evidence and video camera footage and begin looking for the culprits immediately,’ he said.
   There was no report of any arrest till the filing of this report at 7:15pm.

City-dwellers have been advised to take police escorts during transferring money from one place to another as there have been some incidents of mugging.
   ‘Any person or organisation can take police escorts during drawing from or deposit of money with any bank or transfer of money to other places,’ Dhaka Metropolitan Police said Thursday.
   A release issued by DMP commissioner Naim Ahmed, said the initiative was taken following the killing of an army officer’s son in a gun attack after withdrawal of money from a Dhanmondi bank.
   For police escort, bank authorities or concerned people or organisations have been requested to contact local police stations or the police control room by dialing 999. Escort-takers will have to provide transport in case of ‘money escort’, said the release.

Army Chief Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed has been elevated to four-star General of Bangladesh.
   In a major uplift to the hierarchies of the military services, Navy Chief Rear Admiral Sarwar Zahan Nizam has been elevated to Vice-Admiral while Air Chief Vice-Marshal S.M. Ziaur Rahman to Air Marshal. Besides, three Major Generals have been lifted to the next higher rung, Lieutenant General, while three Brigadier Generals to the rank of Major General.
   Principal Staff Officer Major General Mohammad Zahangir Alam Chowdhury got elevated to Lieutenant General with a new posting. He has been made Quarter Master General.
   Commandant of the National Defence College (NDC) Major General Abu Tayeb Mohammad Zahirul Alam has been promoted to Lieutenant General, an ISPR release said Thursday.
   Chief of the 9th Division Major General Masud Uddin Chowdhury has been promoted to Lieutenant General with new positing as Principal Staff Officer (P.S.O) of the Armed Forces Division.
   Deputy Director General of DGFI Brigadier General Golam Mohammad has been elevated to Director General of the Forces Intelligence on promotion as Major General.
   Brigadier General Mohammad Ashab Uddin has been promoted to Major General and appointed GOC of the 9th Division.
   Composite Brigade Commander Brigadier General AKM Mujaheed Uddin has been promoted to Major General and appointed GOC of the 19th Infantry Division.
   ’The order will be effective from forenoon Saturday (May 26),’ said the ISPR release.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, also the supreme commander of the armed forces, is scheduled to decorate the top-brass military officers with their new ranks at a ceremony at his office at the armed forces division at Dhaka Cantonment on Saturday.

The BNP is discussing with the military-backed interim government the party’s programme to observe the 26th anniversary of death of its founder and former president, Ziaur Rahman, on May 30.
   ‘We are negotiating with the government…,’ the Dhaka city BNP president and mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, told New Age Thursday evening.
   He declined comments on the government’s decision to cut short the party’s programme from two days to one day as the authorities are yet to formally inform the BNP of their decision in this regard. ‘They [government] will officially inform us about their decision on Saturday,’ he said.
   The interim government has, meanwhile, decided to allow the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, along with other 10-20 leaders to visit the grave of Ziaur Rahman on the occasion.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, are scheduled to visit Zia’s grave in the morning of May 30. ‘Since special security arrangements will be there, some 10 to 20 leaders would be allowed to visit the grave with her [Khaleda Zia] to pay homage to Ziaur Rahman on the day,’ law adviser Mainul Hosein told reporters after chairing a cabinet committee meeting on law and order at the secretariat on Thursday.
   But the party would not be allowed to hold any discussion meeting since the past experience of the government was not good, he mentioned. He said, ‘Activists and other leaders would also be allowed to visit the grave later in a disciplined manner as there is a state of emergency’.
   ‘BNP would not be permitted to hold its planned [discussion] meeting either at the Institution of Engineers or at the grave,’ the law adviser said responding to a query.
   He said the president would visit the grave of Ziaur Rahman to pay homage to the national leader. ‘In future, he would also visit the grave of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on such occasion. The government has itself taken the decision considering it right…it’s a departure from practices by previous governments’.
   Asked about the BNP’s programme to feed the destitute on the occasion, Mainul said they would not be permitted to hold such programmes on the street, but they could supply food to the orphanages.
   The BNP has requested the government to allow it to observe a two-day programme including holding a discussion meeting on the life of Ziaur Rahman at the Institution of Engineers on May 29 and a milad at his grave on May 30.

Politicisation of the judiciary, failure to make it independent and the meagre salaries and benefits of the judges have incorporated corruption in the Bangladeshi judiciary, revealed Transparency International in its 2007 global corruption report on Thursday.
   The report, which focused on judicial corruption and was released worldwide on Thursday, disclosed that two-thirds of the Bangladeshis who went to court, especially to the lower courts, to seek justice in 2004 were forced to pay bribes.
   The Bangladeshi chapter of TI organised a discussion on the occasion of releasing the report at BIAM auditorium where one chief justice and a few justices supported the findings of the Berlin-based anti-corruption body.
   They identified two other factors — the government’s interference in judicial affairs and the appointment of incapable persons as judges on political considerations — that have made the judiciary corrupt.
   Executive director of TIB, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, read out the summary of the report which revealed that corruption is undermining the judicial system around the world, denying citizens access to justice and the basic human right to a fair and impartial trial, sometimes even to a trial at all.
   ‘Equal treatment before the law is a pillar of democratic societies. When the courts are corrupted by greed or political expediency, the scales of justice are tipped, and ordinary people suffer,’ said TI’s chairperson, Huguette Labelle.
   The report concludes that corruption in the judiciary erodes the international community’s ability to prosecute translational crime and inhibits access to justice and redress for human rights violations.
   According to the TI’s Global Corruption Barometer 2006, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have relatively low levels of perceived judicial corruption in the Asia Pacific region.
   The judiciaries in India and Pakistan fare badly with 77 and 55 per cent of the respondents respectively describing the judicial system as corrupt.
   In contrast to Asia’s middle- and high-income countries, governments of many low-income countries, including Bangladesh, have lowered their commitment to ensure adequate support for courts and their personnel, giving rise to corruption and undermining the rule of law.
   In Bangladesh the report says that 77 Supreme Court and 750 judges of other courts serve a population of 150 million, but their salaries are insufficient, which discourages capable persons from joining the judiciary.
   It says that judicial reforms in Bangladesh are slow and have limited effect. ‘More than 20 per cent postponements have been granted on implementation of the Supreme Court’s directive for structural reform of the judiciary.’
   Former Chief Justice Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury said corruption has become a blood cancer which cannot be cured by traditional methods but by modern treatment like blood transfusion.
   ‘We all expect the judiciary to be corruption-free, but does corruption exist only in the judiciary?’ he asked, and said it was the fall-out of the overall corruption that exists in the whole society.
   He said those who are joining the judiciary nowadays having double graduations, but when they see that their fathers, brothers or relatives are corrupt and when they are taught by corrupt teachers, it will naturally have an impact on their mindset.
   From his experience, he said they do not get involved in corruption initially but become dishonest later.
   To save the judicial officials from corruption, said Mahmudul Amin, the chief justice has to play a very strong role. ‘Dishonesty in the judiciary will not go unless the whole society is cleansed of corruption.’
   He believes that the bar can play a crucial role in removing corruption from the society.
   The former chief justice repeated talked about the low salary and benefits of the judges and strongly recommended that they be increased.
   In addition, he said, the judges must be independent and must not listen to the higher authorities’ directives.
   Listing a number of instances of interference in the judiciary’s affairs, including transfer and appointment of judges under both the last two political governments, he said that if any judge remains honest he will face difficulties.
   Justice KM Sobhan said judges have to be appointed transparently, and their appointment has to be based on merit and experience. ‘But many are being appointed due to powerful backing and have limited knowledge of the law.’
   He also emphasised the necessity of increasing the salary and benefits of judges to eliminate corruption in the judiciary.
   But Professor Moniruzzaman Mian was not ready to accept that the judiciary was corrupt due to low salary.
   ‘Usually everyone gets a low salary,’ he said, adding that the appointment process of judges should be changed.
   About influencing judiciary, he said, ‘If the judges are afraid, they will falter in giving fair judgement.’
   Justice Abdur Rouf said there were problems in the judiciary but ‘they did not come from another planet’. He also emphasised the need for improving the appointment process of judges.
   Awami League presidium member Suranjit Sengupta said that they all had created the situation in Bangladesh and thus should work together to rescue the country from such a situation.
   TIB’s trustee board member Khan Sarwar Murshid, Justice Golam Rabbani, Law Commission member Enamul Huq also participated in the discussion, which was moderated by TIB’s trustee board member M Hafizuddin.

Win or draw is not a priority for Bangladesh when they will play the second and final grameenphone Test against India which starts today at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
   Bangladesh Television and Neo Sports will telecast the match from 10:00am.
   ‘We are not going to play a Test match thinking that we will play to win a game or draw. We want to do our best in this Test match and in doing that if any chance comes to us we will take it,’ said Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar ahead of the match which will also decide the fate of the series.
   Bangladesh have added pacer Mohammad Sharif to the squad after concerns over Shahadat Hossain’s fitness.
   The team management have indicated that Sharif, who played his last of eight Tests in January 2002 against Pakistan, could still play even if Shahadat regains his fitness should they opt for three seamers.
   In that case, left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr would be left out of the starting line-up, said a source close to the team management. Sharif will join Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Shahadat and Mohammad Rafique in attack.
   With the forecast of heavy to moderate showers during the next five days, it has also prompted the team management to give a rethink to the strategy.
   Skipper Bashar however was aware that the drainage system at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium, which is far better than in Chittagong, could still help the match go the distance.
   ‘I think we will have a full five days of Test cricket because the drainage system is pretty good at this ground,’ said Bashar though he admitted he had no idea about the nature of the wicket of the venue, which will host its first ever Test match.
   ‘To be honest, this is the first Test we are playing on this wicket. We have played a couple of one-dayers. But we never played a longer-version match here. Probably it will have a little more pace and bounce than in Chittagong,’ said Bashar.
   Indian captain Rahul Dravid however had a different idea. ‘It’s got more black soil compared to the red soil at the earlier game. So, we think it may keep a bit low as the game progresses,’ Dravid said.
   They left out VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and VRV Singh. It means either left-arm spinner Rajesh Powar or seamer Ishant Sharma will make a Test debut depending on whether India take three spinners or three quick bowlers.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman was among 41 detainees produced before the High Court advisory board Thursday as their detention periods were approaching 120 days.
   Others include former Chittagong deputy commissioner Hasan, proprietor of the Uttara Group Giridhari Lal Modi, and his brother Gonesh Lal Modi.
   Tarique and other detainees sat handcuffed before the three-member board comprising Justice MA Matin, Justice Ali Asgar Khan and a joint secretary of the home ministry, court sources said.
   None was allowed to meet the detainees, who were taken out of the Supreme Court premise at about 3:30pm in two prison vans under tight security.
   Section 10 of the Special Powers Act stipulates that the government must place a detainee and spell out the grounds for his/her detention before the advisory board within 120 days after apprehension.
   They were arrested by the army-led joint forces in February and sent to jail with detention orders for one month. The periods of their detention were extended later.
   According to the constitution, no person can be detained for more than 180 days unless the advisory board, after hearing the detainee in person, reports that there is sufficient cause for prolonged detention.
   According to Section 11 of the Special Powers Act, the board will convey its decision to the government case by case within 170 days from the arrest.

The 108th birth anniversary of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam will be observed today.
   The government and socio-cultural and political organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day.
   The programmes will begin with placing of floral wreaths, bouquets and flowers at 6:00am at the poet’s grave beside the Dhaka University mosque. There will be discussions, rallies, cultural functions, and a fair of Nazrul’s books
   Nazrul Islam was born on this day in 1899 at Churulia in Burdwan of West Bengal. A poet, lyricist, music composer, musician, dramatist, short story writer, and revolutionary thinker, Nazrul is best known for his fiery poems that inspired the Bengali people to rise against the British colonial rule as well as all types of injustice, discrimination, and oppression.
   He is widely known as the Bidrohi Kobi or the rebel poet as many of his poems and songs demonstrate an intense rebellious spirit against all oppressions on human beings, whether traditional or by force. The poet also condemned all religious bigotry and upheld the cause of the downtrodden.
   The nearly 3,000 songs he had composed are of so fine a standard that they have become a new genre of Bengali music known after his name and are still widely popular in the sub-continent. Nazrul songs and poems were also a great source of inspiration for the freedom fighters during our War of Independence.
   He is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and also widely honoured in India. He died in Dhaka on August 29, 1976.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and former prime minister and BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, paid glowing tributes to Nazrul on the eve of his birth anniversary.
   The cultural affairs ministry and Nazrul Institute have planned a two-day programme to commemorate the poet across the country and at Bangladesh missions abroad.
   The main programme will be held in the Osmani Memorial Hall in Dhaka at 7pm today with the chief adviser to the interim government attending as the chief guest. Rafiqul Islam, a professor of Bengali at Dhaka University, will deliver the Nazrul Memorial Lecture at the session.
   The cultural affairs ministry will also publish posters and souvenirs as part of the programme.
   Another important programme on the day will be held at Trishal in Mymensingh, where the poet passed several years of his life.
   The Nazrul Institute, Nazrul Academy, Nazrul Singers’ Council, and Bangladesh Cultural Council, among others, will observe the day through various colourful programmes.

The two major political parties, Awami League and BNP, on Thursday welcomed the army chief, Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed’s statement that he would not enter politics and that the army had no plan to promulgate martial law.
   ‘We welcome the army chief’s statement that he would not enter politics and that the armed forces would assist the civil administration as a subordinate government body,’ the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said in a statement on Thursday.
   ‘Our brave armed forces have saved the nation form confrontation and uncertainty by extending their support to the caretaker government,’ he said. ‘It has paved the way for holding a free, fair neutral election, reform of different institutions, and a Bangladesh free of corruption and criminalisation’.
   He said the armed forces had upheld their image and urged them to continue it.
   In an almost similar statement, the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, said, ‘It is the expectation of every politician that the armed forces will assist the civil administration’. He hoped the army would continue to make significant contributions to the nation’s march forward.
   The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed, on Wednesday reiterated that the ‘army has no plan to promulgate martial law.’
   Jalil told reporters at his Motijheel commercial office, ‘We appreciate the speech of the army chief as he has cleared his position and relieved the nation of confusion about the future of the country.’ The statement has dispelled controversies over the army’s role in the present situation, he said.
   The AL general secretary also said that if a new political party was formed, it should not be allowed to participate in the elections for at least three years so that opportunist groups could not enter politics.
   ‘The Election Commission has proposed that NGO activists or civil servants should wait for at least three years after retirement to take part in polls and the provision should also be applicable to any new parties,’ he said adding that if a new party was kept out of elections, the opportunists would lose interest in entering politics.
   He also hailed the EC’s plan to go door to door to distribute voter registration forms and hoped that the commission would hold talks with the political parties for suggestions so that it could bring more changes in its plan for preparing a flawless voters’ roll.
   Responding to a query, Jalil denied that the AL had decided to go for inner- party reform following pressure from the United States and said that the party had always taken decisions in keeping with the expectations of the people.
   He trashed law adviser Mainul Hosein’s claims that the pre-emergency chaos may resurface if parlour politics was allowed now.
   Jalil reiterated his suggestion for electing a non-partisan person as the speaker of parliament by consensus among the political parties.
   He claimed that the AL-led alliance was still alive and said it was not important whether the party met the EC alone or along with its allies.
   ‘The 14-party alliance still exists… there is no problem if the Awami League meets the EC alone or along with its allies’, he said.

The Awami League has started preliminary works for bringing reforms in the party after getting informal instructions from the party chief, Sheikh Hasina.
   The AL on Thursday sent separate letters to four foreign missions to know how political parties in their respective countries receive government funds.
   ‘We have sent letters to the missions of the US, the UK, Australia and the European Commission to know the details of the process followed by political parties in those countries for getting state funds,’ AL joint general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told New Age on Thursday.
   He said that the letters, signed by the party general secretary, Abdul Jalil, requested the foreign missions ‘to let us know how the money is given to the parties by their governments and what procedures are followed to fix up the amount.
   The AL president, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday held informal talks with some party leaders and studied the constitutions of the political parties in different developed democratic countries.
   The AL leaders went through the constitutions of the political parties of the developed countries including the Labour Party of the UK and the Democratic Party and the Republican Party of the US.
   They also discussed the ways of bringing necessary changes in its [AL] own constitution in keeping with the demand of the time after withdrawal of the ban on political activities, sources said.
   The party assigned some leaders with the task of making an assessment of the organisational situation at the union, ward, upazila, district and city corporation levels and the total number of the party committees.
   ‘The assessment at the grassroots level is going on and detailed reports in this regard are expected to be submitted to the party chief by Monday’, Ashraf said.
   The Awami League chief on Monday informally instructed the party leaders to be prepared for inner-party reforms to ensure more democratic practices in the six-decade old organisation.
   Hasina also made a number of proposals initially and asked her deputies to talk to the party rank and file to get their views and estimate the funds to be required for implementing inner-party reform.
   The proposals include election to all levels of the party to choose leaders, introduction of identity cards for the party members, choosing party candidates for parliamentary polls through ballots and seeking funds from the government for implementing the reform.

Tamil Tiger rebels blew up an army bus in Sri Lanka’s capital Thursday, killing at least one soldier, just hours after the guerrillas said they had stormed a naval base and killed 35 sailors.
   The escalation in violence came days after the Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate state since 1972, vowed they would never return to peace talks unless the government halted a military campaign against them.
   Initial investigations suggested that a Tiger suicide bomber on a rigged motorcycle had rammed into the army bus, but a police spokesman said the bomb could have been detonated by remote control.
   ‘We are now looking
   at the possibility that the motorcycle was placed by the
   side of the road and detonated as the bus passed,’ the spokesman said from the scene of the blast, just outside the capital’s sea port.
   National Hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said the driver of the bus died from his injuries and another soldier was in a critical condition. Four soldiers and three civilians were brought in for treatment following the blast.
   The attack came just hours after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam staged a pre-dawn raid on a strategic naval base at Delft, an islet off the northern Jaffna peninsula.
   ‘During a search operation, we found 35 bodies of Sri Lankan sailors and weapons,’ Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said by telephone from the rebel-held Wanni region.
   Four rebels were killed in the operation, he said, adding the Tigers had captured two anti-aircraft guns, two machine guns, one rocket-propelled grenade launcher and eight automatic assault rifles.
   Sri Lanka’s defence ministry, however, said in a statement that the attack was resisted and that 18 rebels were killed for the loss of four sailors.
   ‘Intercepted LTTE communications revealed that 18 Sea Tiger cadres, including four leaders, had been killed and another large number injured,’ the ministry said.
   Each side is known to discount casualty figures claimed by the other. There is no independent verification because foreign truce monitors have little or no access to combat areas.
   Local officials said a curfew had been imposed in Delft, which has a small population of fishermen.
   In another attack, the Tigers killed three constables from the police homeguard unit in the northern district of Vavuniya early Thursday, the defence ministry said.
   It said troops had also killed two Tiger rebels in a separate confrontation in the east of the island.
   Fighting has intensified across the island in recent days, and on Wednesday the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had pulled its staff away from northern frontlines dividing government and rebel forces.

The acting secretary of the Election Commission’s secretariat, M Humayun Kabir, on Thursday said that they are planning to complete data collection for preparation of the voters’ list with photographs and national identity cards by June next year.
   ‘We plan to complete the data entry in June next year, but everything depends on the procurement of the necessary equipment,’ Humayun told reporters at the weekly press briefing at the EC’s conference room. He said that after the completion of data entry, the EC will then receive complaints on the draft of the voters’ roll and examine all the data.
   The secretary said that purchase of the equipment would be time-consuming and they were trying to complete procurement within the shortest possible time. He hoped that a tender would be floated by this month for procurement of the equipment which includes 12,000 laptops, webcams and fingerprint scanners.
   The EC had announced earlier that the field-level work for voters’ roll preparation would start in August, and he set an 18-month timeframe from May this year for completing the voter’s roll.
   He said that the EC has taken the decision to send enumerators on door-to-door visits only to save time and make sure that people turn up at the voters’ registration centres for having their photographs and fingerprints taken.

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed till Sunday the High Court’s order to release Chittagong city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, detained under the Special Powers Act 1974.
   Justice Hasan Amin, in charge of chamber bench of the Appellate Division, also accepted a petition filed by the government for filing a regular appeal against Mohiuddin’s bail order issued by the bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice M Abdul Hye on May 22.
   Another bench comprising Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice M Ashfaqul Islam, on May 20, referred the bail prayer to the chief justice for necessary steps saying that the bench had no jurisdiction to deal with bail petition for a person, detained under the Special Powers Act.
   Mohiuddin was arrested by the army-led joint forces on March 7 and he was sent to jail on a government proposal for detention. Mohiuddin was admitted to Chittagong Medical hospital after he fell seriously ill. He is now undergoing treatment in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital.

Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion has sued five persons, including Chittagong city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, with charges of misappropriating city corporation’s fund through abusing power.
   ACC deputy director Abu Mohammed Arif Siddique filed the case with the Kotwali police in the port city Thursday.
   The mayor and four others were accused of embezzling Tk 83.49 lakh while procuring five dumping trucks and other equipment in 2006-07 fiscal year.
   The anti-graft watchdog official in his complaint said the mayor, now in jail, in connivance with the other accused, procured the vehicles and equipment at a cost of Tk 1.22 crore against their market value of Tk 39.31 lakh only.
   The other accused are Mokhter Alam, chief engineer of Chittagong City Corporation, Abul Hasnat, supernatant engineer (mechanical), Hossain Haider Ali, proprietor of the supplying company, and Sazzad Hossain, brother of the mayor’s assistant personal secretary.
   The joint forces arrested Mohiuddin from his Cashma Hill residence in the city on March 7 under the emergency acts.
   He was sent to the Chittagong Central Jail on March 9 and shifted to Bandarban Jail. He was rushed to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital on May 14 and shifted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka on May 15 for treatment. He was suffering from heart and urinary ailments.
   A High Court division bench granted temporary bail for the mayor for three months on May 17. However, he was not yet set free, as there was a three-month detention order against him under the emergency acts.

A rare spate of protests in Myanmar means the junta is very unlikely to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi when her latest year of house arrest expires this weekend, former political prisoners say.
   In what is becoming an annual ritual in the run-up to Sunday’s deadline, the White House, European Union, United Nations and fellow Nobel peace prize laureates have issued urgent appeals to the generals running the former Burma to set her free.
   But the pleas for the release of the 61-year-old woman, who has been behind bars or under house arrest since mid-2003, are even more likely than usual to fall on deaf ears.
   Two exiled dissidents said a prayer campaign for Suu Kyi last year and protests this year against deteriorating living conditions in the main city, Yangon, had sent shivers through the junta top brass–even though the demonstrations have been tiny.
   ‘They are scared of her, especially at the moment,’ said 54-year-old activist Khun Saing, who spent 13 years behind bars before fleeing to the Thai border town of Mae Sot in 2006.
   The last time Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, in 2002, she drew huge crowds on a tour of the country, a reminder to the generals of the huge sway the daughter of independence hero Aung San still held over Myanmar’s 54 million people.
   Suu Kyi, who has now been in detention for more than 11 of the last 17 years, is being held under an obscure security decree that has to be renewed every 12 months, giving her supporters annual cause for optimism.
   The army crushed the last mass uprising against military rule ruthlessly in 1988. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed as troops machine-gunned students in Yangon and elsewhere.
   Meanwhile, US First Lady Laura Bush on Wednesday called on China to join hands with Washington in efforts to restore human rights in military-ruled Myanmar.
   ‘Well, I think that China, especially, because of their closeness to Burma, should worry about the human rights abuses that are there,’ the wife of president George W Bush said at the launching of the US Senate Women’s Caucus on Burma.
   Last January, China joined Russia in vetoing a UN Security Council resolution urging Myanmar’s rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.
   Laura Bush said it was ‘important’ for Myanmar’s rulers to know ‘that the world is speaking together to them’ and ‘and so I urge China to stand with us, as well.’

A special anti-graft court on Thursday exempted Shahina Yasmin from testifying against her husband — the controversial rags-to-riches businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun, who is facing trial for not submitting his wealth statement in defiance of a notice issued by the Anti-Corruption Commission — observing that no married person can be compelled to give evidence against his/her spouse.
   Judge M Ashraf Hossain, of Special Judge’s Court-5, passed the first ever order of this kind in the country.
   The court, however, allowed an application filed by public prosecutor AFM Gholam Fattah, seeking permission to produce four more witnesses to prove the case against Mamun, and summoned them to appear before the court on May 28 for giving their testimony.
   The new witnesses are ACC field officer Ataul Kabir and ACC constables Mizanur Rahman, Mozammel Haque and Saiful Islam, who witnessed Shahina receiving the notice issued by the ACC asking Mamun to submit his wealth statement.
   Meanwhile the Special Judge’s Court-1, chaired by M Firoz Alam, and Special Judge’s Court-2, chaired by AK Roy, on Wednesday continued recording the testimony of prosecution witnesses in the graft cases against former state minister Amanullah Aman and his wife Sabera Aman, and former state minister Mir Nasir Uddin and his son Mir Helal Uddin.
   The court exempted Shahina from testifying against Mamun after hearing both sides of a petition filed by Mamun’s counsel Fakhrul Islam, challenging the legality of compelling a wife to testify against her husband.
   As a married couple is considered to be a single entity in the eye of the law, no married person can be compelled to give evidence against his/her spouse in accordance with Article 35(4) of the Constitution that stipulates that no one can be compelled to be a witness against himself/herself, the court observed.
   Section 122 of the Evidence Act stipulates, ‘No person who is or has been married shall be compelled to disclose any communication made to him/her during marriage by any person to whom s/he is or has been married; nor shall s/he be permitted to disclose any such communication, unless the person who made it, or his representative in interest, consents, except in suits between married persons, or proceedings in which one married person is prosecuted for any crime committed against the other.’
   Referring to the Section, the court observed, ‘This enactment rests on the obvious ground that admission of such testimony would have a powerful tendency to disturb the peace of families, to promote domestic broils, and to weaken, if not to destroy, that feeling of mutual confidence which is the most endearing solace of married life.’
   In the present case, Shahina was named as a prosecution witness to acknowledge that she received the notice issued by ACC on her husband.
   As such acknowledgement can be used by the prosecution against her husband, she cannot be compelled to give evidence, said the court in its order.
   The court framed charges against Mamun on May 14 for not submitting his wealth statement, thus defying the ACC’s notice. 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.
   Nasir, Helal, Aman, and Sabera were also charged for submitting false wealth statements to the ACC and owning assets disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.

Thousands of people rallied against the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, Thursday for the first time since violent clashes in Karachi, as the military ruler headed to the still-tense city.
   About 2,500 opposition supporters burned effigies of the president in the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan at the same time as Musharraf held a public rally of his own there, witnesses and officials said.
   Another 3,000 lawyers, rights activists and opposition workers gathered in the eastern city of Lahore where they chanted slogans in support of the country’s suspended top judge.
   ‘We will continue our struggle and protests until the elimination of the dictatorship,’ cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan told the crowd.
   The opposition movement that has gathered around the figure of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, since his suspension by Musharraf in March has been quiet since May 12 and 13, when violent clashes erupted in Karachi.
   About 40 people were killed there during the country’s worst ethnic bloodshed for two decades.
   New York-based Human Rights Watch has alleged that Musharraf’s government and his allies ‘deliberately sought to foment violence’ in Karachi while police did nothing to stop it.
   Musharraf suspended Chaudhry, the head of the country’s Supreme Court, on March 9 on charges of misconduct, including that he used his position to get official jobs for his son.

A methane gas explosion ripped through a Siberian mine on Thursday, killing 38 people in the latest in a grim catalogue of Russian mining disasters.
   The disaster came weeks after Russia’s worst mining accident since the Soviet era occurred at a nearby mine owned by the same company, Yuzhkuzbassugol, with the loss of 110 lives.
   A spokeswoman for Russia’s emergency situations ministry said 38 people had been killed in Thursday’s blast and said all 217 miners below ground at the time had been accounted for.
   The explosion happened deep underground during the morning shift at the Yubileinaya mine near Novokuznetsk, in west Siberia’s Kemerovo region.
   Six miners were injured, two of them seriously.
   At the mine’s entrance an AFP reporter saw around 40 relatives tearfully awaiting news of loved ones, amid heavy rain.
   ‘He’s dead! He’s dead! Where is his body?’ said one woman who wiped her tears with a handkerchief as she sobbed in the arms of a miner, who told her: ‘Don’t worry, Roma is alive.’
   Another miner, who gave only his first name, Andrei, said: ‘I was in the mine at the time of the blast. I felt the shock wave and I immediately went for the exit.’
   Yuzhkuzbassugol, which owns 20 mines in the region, is 50 per cent owned by metals and mining giant Evraz Group, in which Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich holds a 41 per cent stake.

Lacking power to bring troops home from Iraq, Democrats will Thursday grit their teeth as a new war budget heads for president George W Bush’s desk, stripped of their withdrawal timelines.
   The House of Representatives is expected to vote first on a multi-billion dollar bill funding combat operations through September, ironically, framed by Democratic leaders who disown many of its contents.
   Then the Senate will get its chance, either late Thursday or Friday, before the bill, if it passes as expected, is sent for Bush’s signature, after a bruising showdown over the bloody, costly and increasingly unpopular war.
   The budget for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will replace a previous 124 billion dollar version vetoed by the president earlier this month over withdrawal dates inserted by Democrats who captured Congress on an anti-war platform last year.
   Since they lack the two-thirds majority needed to block a presidential veto, the Democrats have finally ceded to political reality, after a tense test of wills with commander-in-chief Bush.
   In the end, Democrats appeared unwilling to enter the Memorial Day weekend, when Americans remember their war dead, risking being portrayed as unsupportive of troops braving a cauldron of fire in Iraq.
   But they argue they have laid down a marker, and signalled to Bush that eventually, they will force his hand over the war.
   ‘I view this as the beginning of the end of the president’s policy on Iraq ... it ends the blank check on more troops, more money, more time, and more of the same,’ said Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic caucus chairman.
   ‘The fact of the matter is we have to fund the troops,’ added House Democrat Joe Sestak.
   In the House, the measure will be in two parts: one a simple war budget worth around 100 billion dollars; the other a 20 billion dollar component packed with domestic spending hikes to placate restive Democrats.
   The Senate will cast just one vote on the whole package.
   But in a sign of Democratic distaste over the climb-down, several senior party figures in the House were expected to join war opponents and vote against the measure–meaning it will need Republican votes to pass.
   ‘I’m not likely to vote for something that doesn’t have a timetable or a goal of coming home,’ said House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The United States threatened new UN sanctions to punish Iran’s nuclear drive as it ratcheted up tensions with the biggest display of naval power in the Gulf in years.
   Hours after a bristling US armada led by two aircraft carriers steamed into waters near Iran for exercises Wednesday, Iran defied the threats and pledged that its controversial atomic programme was expanding.
   ‘The enemies aim to prevent us from using peaceful nuclear technology, not for scientific reasons but because they want to eradicate the roots of the principles of the Islamic Republic,’ the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Thursday.
   ‘With God’s help and power we are getting closer to our final aims because the enemy is exerting its last pressure on the Islamic republic and it will have no result,’ he said.
   A day earlier, the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran was defying UN Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium and was expanding the work, leading the way for world powers to discuss a new sanctions package.
   The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran continues to enrich uranium, which can provide fuel for civilian reactors but also make nuclear bombs.
   That prompted warnings from US officials of further
   UN punishment unless Iran curtails its nuclear development, which the Islamic republic insists is devoted to civilian energy.
   ‘Iran is once again thumbing its nose at the international community,’ the US under secretary of state, Nicholas Burns, said, even as US and Iranian envoys prepared for historic talks on Iraqi security in Baghdad next Monday.
   Iran denied obstructing IAEA inspections, but White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the report by the UN atomic watchdog was damning.
   The IAEA assessment ‘is a laundry list of Iran’s continued defiance of the international community and shows that Iran’s leaders are only furthering the isolation of the Iranian people,’ he said.
   The US Navy said the Gulf exercises were not directed at Iran but Mustafa Alani, senior analyst with the UAE-based Gulf Research Centre, said it was no coincidence the powerful flotilla arrived on the day of the IAEA report.

The police recovered six mortar shells abandoned in the Lakkatura Tea Garden near the city on Thursday.
   Locals said Ananda Chasha, a labourer of the tea garden, discovered the shells in the morning and informed local union parishad member Rana Bahadur Jut, who reported it to the Kotwali police.
   The police and joint forces rushed to the spot and recovered the six mortar shells, inscribed with 105 RR mm.
   It is believed that the shells were gathered by the Pakistani occupation forces in their bunker inside the tea garden during the War of Independence in 1971.
   Abdur Noor, officer-in-charge of Kotwali police, told New Age that the army’s explosive experts would see whether the mortar shells were alive.

The Jatiya Party faction led by Hussein Muhammad Ershad faces another split as the post of chairman has been challenged by Rawshan Ershad.
   After a state of emergency was proclaimed on January 11, leaders of different levels of the JP started raising demand for reforms within the party.
   Rawshan Ershad, party’s senior presidium member and wife of the party chairman Ershad, is putting fresh pressures on the party to bring change in the top post. She aspires to become the party chief, party insiders said.
   Her followers were scheduled to gather in a luncheon meeting in a city hotel on Thursday, but the programme was postponed due to lower-than-expected response from the invited leaders.
   Even the enthusiasts did not turn up, party sources said.
   Ershad, however, remained rigid against any immediate change in the party leadership and refrained from calling any meeting of the party’s executive body, sources said.
   His younger brother Golam Mohammad Kader and some other senior leaders are also aspirants for the top post, they said.
   The party’s secretary general Kazi Zafar Ahmed told a private television channel that disciplinary action would be taken if anybody was found involved in anti-party activities. The JP split four times since its birth in early ’80s.

The government has ordered for re-arrest and detention of fourteen out of 39 Awami League activists before they were set free from the jail on bail granted by the High Court on Tuesday.
   The order of re-arrest and detention of Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, an expatriate from UK, reached here on Wednesday and of 13 others on Thursday.
   Officials said the order of the Home Ministry received by the Deputy Commissioner was passed on to the Sylhet Jail.
   Forty Awami Leaguers, including ten expatriates from UK, were arrested on May 14 and sent to jail on one month’s detention. Thirty–nine of them had secured bail from the High Court.

Australia will increase its bilateral assistance to Bangladesh by 33 per cent to around 48 million Australian dollars from next year, said the Australian high commissioner in Dhaka, Douglas Foskett, after a meeting with the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, on Thursday.
   Iftekhar is scheduled to visit Canberra on June 12–13 at the invitation of the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer. The talks between Iftekhar and Downer will mainly focus on how Australia-funded development programmes in Bangladesh can be implemented effectively, Fosckett told the media.
   ‘The present situation in Bangladesh will also come up for discussion,’ the Australian envoy said.
   Responding to a query about the recent political developments, Foskett said, ‘It is very important that everybody knows what is going on… We are very positive that all are looking promising for the future.’
   About Australian aid to Bangladesh, he said, ‘Last year the amount was 36 million Australian dollars, which will increase by 33 per cent from next year.’
   The AUSAID director general will visit Dhaka in early June to discuss the projects funded by Australia, particularly in the health and education sectors, he told the newsmen.
   The foreign adviser said his planned visit to Canberra would strengthen the Bangladesh-Australia ties and cooperation in certain promising areas including information technology and scientific development.
   The United Nations Development Programme resident representative in Bangladesh, Renata Lok Dessallien, was also present at the meeting.

The High Court on Thursday refused bail to Sabera Aman, wife of former state minister Amanullah Aman, in a graft case with charges of falsifying wealth statements and amassing wealth disproportionate to legal incomes.
   Although the High Court has the jurisdiction to dispose of bail petitions of any accused person in a criminal case under the apparently unassailable Emergency Powers Rules 2007, Sabera should not be granted bail, as the graft case, she faces, is at the final stage, the bench of justice MA Matin and justice MA Hye observed in its verdict.
   The court also discharged the rule issued by another High Court bench on May 13.
   On May 9, Sabera, after appearing in the makeshift anti-graft court in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban’s MP Hostel, was sent to jail following the expiry of her interim bail.