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The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion’s officer investigating the GATCO scam case has recommended that charges should be pressed against the detained former prime minister Khaldea Zia, eight of her cabinet colleagues, and her youngest son Arafat Rahman, seven former secretaries and 14 others.
   The investigation officer, Jahirul Huda, also a deputy director of the commission, on Sunday submitted the report, recommending the filing of the charge sheet against the 31.
   Sources in the commission said the investigation had found the eight former cabinet members responsible for the GATCO deal and the report had recommended submission of charge sheet against them although they were not named in the first information report of the case.
   The eight — former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, also the expelled BNP secretary general, former agriculture minister MK Anwar, former information minister M Shamsul Islam, former industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, also Jamaat-e-Islami amir, former health minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain and former state minister for commerce Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury — were members on the cabinet committee on purchase that approved the proposal of the award of the contract to an incompetent and inexperienced firm, Global Agro Trade Company, to handle containers at the inland container depot in Dhaka and at Chittagong port.
   All but Amir Khasru, who is now abroad, gave their deposition in the case before an investigation team.
   The investigation report also recommended pressing charges against seven bureaucrats, who worked with the cabinet committee.
   They are former cabinet secretary Sadaat Hussain, former secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office AHM Nurul Islam, sacked by the BNP-led alliance government, former secretary to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department Manik Lal Samaddar, former external resources secretary Mirza Tasadduk Hossain Baig, former energy secretary Nazrul Islam, former shipping secretary Zulfikar Haider Chowdhury, and serving additional communications secretary ATKM Ismail. They were also not named in the first information report.
   The commission filed the case on September 2 against Khaleda, Arafat and 11 others.
   Eleven others accused in the case are former Chittagong Port Authority chairmen retired commodore Zulfiquar Ali and AMM Shahadat Hossain, former CPA director (transport) MA Sanwar Hossain, chief accounts officer Ahmed Abul Kashem, former CPA member Lutful Kabir, Global Agro Trade directors Syed Galib Ahmed, Syed Tanvir Ahmed and AKM Musa Kajal, former shipping minister Akbar Hossain’s wife, Jahanara Akbar, and his son Ismail Hossain Saimon, and Saimon’s friend Ehsan Yusuf.
   All of the 13 accused including Khaleda and Arafat, named in the first information report filed by the commission’s deputy director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, have also been recommended to be included in the charge sheet.
   The investigation report also recommended three other officials of the Chittagong Port Authority to be included in the charge sheet. Their details could not be obtained.
   ‘The investigation report, along with the case documents, has been submitted to the commission. The commission will now need to give the final approval for filing the charge sheet after examining the report and the documents, including the depositions of 66 people in the case,’ said a senior official of the commission.
   Kahleda and Arafat were arrested on September 3 at their house in the Dhaka cantonment. Khaleda was sent to jail the same day. Arafat was remanded in custody for seven days for interrogation.
   He was sent to jail on September 5 after he had reportedly fallen sick.

The Awami League on Sunday endorsed the Election Commission's proposal not to allow any party to use the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding president of Bangladesh, on election posters.
   'He is the father of the nation. The present government has recognised it and the constitution also says so. His portrait should not belong to any particular political party. It will remain a national asset,' the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said during a dialogue between the commission and an eight-member AL delegation on electoral reforms.
   The AL team welcomed the CEC's stance on Mujib, although the party earlier opposed the commission's move to ban use of portrait of national leaders in election campaign. The AL proposed to include it in the Representation of People Order so that it became a law and was obeyed by all.
   'If your sentiment is so [recognising Mujib as the father of the nation], we do agree with the commission. But it must be made black and white in the election laws,' party presidium member Tofail Ahmed told the commission.
   The AL delegation, led by acting president Zillur Rahman, comprised six presidium members and the acting general secretary. The CEC chaired the dialogue, with election commissioners Muhammed Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain present.
   The CEC told the AL leaders that the present commission led by him was the outcome of a movement launched by the Awami League and its allies. The commission also undertook the programme for preparing a voters' roll with photographs as per the demand made by the AL, he added.
   'You are not just a political party but also a symbol of public aspiration to accomplish the country's development and uphold the national solidarity,' the CEC said, lauding the AL for its role in the war of independence.
   He further accepted the demand of the AL to introduce transparent ballot boxes, although the EC in recent times had advocated for ballot boxes made of steel.
   The commission's dialogue with the AL was the 10th in a series of talks with political parties before finalising the draft of proposed electoral reforms. The commission sits next with the Workers Party of Bangladesh on November 11.
   At the meeting, Tofail tabled the party's electoral reform proposals, which included the demand for not to register the political parties, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, which had opposed the independence war and all religion-based political parties.
   'Every political party, excepting one, have submitted their statements on the war criminals to you… Even you [CEC] also said the work had to be done by the government… But the task will be easy to do for the government if we [the commission and political parties] take a decision,' Tofail observed.
   The AL shifted its earlier stance of not allowing army troops to work as law enforcers and agreed with the commission's existing laws that incorporated the army into the group of law enforcement agencies to be deployed during the polls.
   The electoral reform proposals placed by the AL want the EC to have the judicial power to punish anybody who would violate any electoral law and the power to suspend or cancel an election following any such violation.
   The AL delegation, which included two women, appreciated an EC-proposed condition for party registration that stipulates that at least 33 per cent office-bearers on party committees should be women. But the provision was not realistic in the present social circumstances; so, it should be implemented gradually, the AL leaders maintained.
   The party lent support to the EC proposal for disbanding student fronts of political parties but suggested that expatriates should be allowed to take part in politics as party fronts.
   The AL leaders said they wanted a reduction in the ceiling on election expenses and promised to accept any decision of the commission in this regard. The ceiling now stands at Tk 5 lakh.
   The AL proposals also included a suggestion that the government could reserve a percentage of national budgets to fund the electoral campaigns of political parties based on the percentage of votes they had received in the immediate past general elections.
   Opposing the EC proposal for replacing the Representation of People Order, 1972 by a new order, the AL said some necessary amendments should be brought to the existing RPO of 1972 and 1982, without replacing them completely.
   The party suggested that the EC should drop its proposal for inclusion of a provision of 'no vote' on ballot papers to express voters' lack of confidence in the contesting candidates in a constituency.
   The AL acting president, Zillur Rahman, told the commission that release of the party president, Sheikh Hasina, from jail was necessary for holding free and fair elections. He also demanded that the state of emergency should be withdrawn without delay.
   The AL delegation suggested that the lists of polling stations should be published in all constituencies at least 10 days before the election schedule was announced.
   The persons involved in religious campaigns or having political affiliation as well as officials of non-governmental financial or commercial organisations must be excluded from the panel of election officials, the party demanded.
   The AL disagreed with the commission's proposal that to be an election candidate from a political party one had to be a member of the party for at least three years, saying many party supporters who had not members of a party sometimes did become party candidates.
   The AL leaders suggested that not only officials of the NGOs supported by foreign donation but also officials of NGO having local funding should have to wait three years from their retirement to contest elections.
   The party proposed that the number of election commissioners should be fixed and their appointment should be made in consultation with the major political parties.
   It also termed cancelling the registration of a party a sensitive subject, the power of doing which should not be vested with the EC, and demanded that any party whose registration was cancelled should be allowed to appeal against the decision.

The detained BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will write her views to the Election Commission to remove confusion created apparently by a dispute between two groups of party leaders over the post of the party's secretary general.
   She will also write to the government, explaining the recent developments within and outside the party.
   'As the chief of the party, she will give her explanations in black and white on the party constitution and recent developments to the Election Commission and other authorities concerned through the jail authorities,' Khaleda's attorney Shamsur Rahman Shimul Bishwas said after meeting her on Sunday afternoon at the special jail at the parliament complex. He declined to elaborate the statement.
   After staying more than two hours, from 2.30pm to 4.30pm, in the special jail, Shamsur said his conversation with Khaleda covered many issues, including the cases filed against her, the party constitution, and the constitution of the state.
   'Khaleda Zia has two identities - a former prime minister and the BNP chairperson, and she shared her opinion and gave instructions from both points of view,' he said.
   'We have discussed many things but I cannot share all of them here with you right now and will tell you somewhere else at a convenient time,' he told newsmen, referring to the jail authorities' request not to talk to the press on the jail premises.
   He, however, indicated that Khaleda was sticking to her previous explanation of the party constitution and opinion about the appointment of acting chairperson and acting secretary general. 'She is sticking to her previous stance on interpretation of the party constitution,' Shamsur said.
   He said they also discussed measures to secure release of the detained BNP leaders and activists. 'She urged the lawyers across the country to form legal committees to free the detained BNP leaders and activists.'
   She called on all to remain united at this crucial juncture of the nation's history, Shamsur added.
   Earlier on November 2, the party's acting office secretary, Rizvi Ahmed, said Khaleda conveyed them a message that she rejected the appointment of acting chairperson and acting secretary general and the proceedings of the October 29 meeting of the standing committee held without her consent.
   Rizvi said the BNP chairperson conveyed them the message through her youngest daughter-in-law, Sharmila Rahman, who met her on October 31.
   The jail authorities, however, claimed that Khaleda and Sharmila had no political talks.
   A section of BNP standing committee members held a meeting and appointed former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, also a member of the committee, and party vice president Hafizuddin Ahmed, also a former minister, as the party's acting chairperson and
   acting secretary general respectively.
   The meeting also decided to relieve Khandaker Delwar Hossain, appointed secretary general of the party by order of Khaleda on September 2, of the responsibilities of the post.
   Khaleda was detained on September 3.
   In another move, her adviser ASM Hannan Shah asked the Election Commission on Sunday afternoon to invite Delwar to any future talks on electoral reforms.
   'We have requested the Election Commission to invite Khandaker Delwar Hossain in accordance with the commission's stated policy and our party constitution,' Hannan said, after meeting the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, at the latter's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office.
   Hannan also suggested that the commission should consult the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, to determine who was holding the post of the party secretary general. 'We have also suggested the commission to send a letter to Khaleda Zia through the jail authorities to clear the confusion, if there is any, about who is holding the post of the party secretary general.'
   Hannan headed a BNP delegation that submitted a memorandum to the CEC. BNP leaders Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Ashraf Uddin Nizam, Sohrab Uddin, Shirin Sultana, Abdul Momin Talukder, Abul Kalam Azad, Rizvi Ahmed, Mujibur Rahman, and former BNP leader Akhtaruzzaman were the other members of the delegation.
   The CEC, Shamsul Huda, told reporters that the commission would decide about inviting the BNP to the dialogue within a day or two. 'We will inform you about our decision,' he said, adding that the commission had been studying the party constitution.
   Several hundreds party leaders from across the country were sending letters, mainly by fax, to the commission requesting it to invite Delwar to any future dialogue.
   The commission, however, decided not to take those faxes in consideration. 'Any body can fax a letter from any where,' the CEC said.
   The CEC earlier said the commission would send a letter to the BNP by November 7, inviting the party to participate in a dialogue on electoral reforms on November 22.

The High Court on Sunday granted bail to former prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and halted the proceedings of the graft case under the Emergency Powers Rules filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission charging her with taking Taka three crore in kickbacks in a power plant deal.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury also issued a rule on the ACC and the government to explain in eight weeks why the placing of the case under the emergency rules should not be declared illegal.
   The court, however, said that the investigation of the case would continue.
   The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Hasina on October 28 challenging legality of the approval given by the secretary to the ACC for placing the case under the emergency rules, which bars an accused from seeking bail in any court during investigation, trial or appeal in the case.
   Under the current purge against corruption in high places, the ACC deputy director, Shabbir Hasan, filed the case against Hasina and six others with Tejgaon police on
   September 2.
   In the case, Hasina and six others were accused of taking Taka three crore as ‘donations’ to Bangabandhu Memorial Trust from the owners of Summit Group and United Group of Companies for permission to set up three barge-mounted power plants in Khulna.
   The commission on September 20 approved the proposal for bringing the case under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   The first information report of the case said Hasina had received the money from the two companies between October 24, 1996 and November 24, 1997.
   Hasina’s counsel Rafique-ul Huq told the court that the case had been brought under the emergency rules in violation of law in a bid to stop her from seeking bail.
   As the case relates to an incident that allegedly happened long before the enforcement of the Emergency Powers Rules, it cannot be brought under the emergency rules, he contended.
   The same bench on July 30 and August 7 issued rules on the government to explain the legality of bringing two other extortion cases against Hasina under the emergency rules.
   The rules are yet to be disposed of.
   The court also ordered the government not to proceed further with the cases under the emergency rules and remanded Hasina on bail in the case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury.
   The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on August 27 stayed the execution of the High Court orders.

The president, Pervez Musharraf, tightened a state of emergency in Pakistan on Sunday, as police rounded up hundreds of opponents and the government warned it could delay key elections for a year.
   Defying international condemnation, military ruler Musharraf on Saturday suspended the constitution, sacked the chief justice and imposed strict media curbs in the nuclear-armed nation of 160 million people. The police also arrested rights activist Asma Jahangir, cricket legend Imran Khan, an outspoken former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence Hamid Gul, acting leader of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s party and senior lawyers.
   Meanwhile, Pakistani lawyers called for a countrywide strike today (Monday) against the imposition of emergency, a leading lawyer said.
   ‘We are launching our struggle from tomorrow. Lawyers will be observing a strike tomorrow. We will be holding protests and boycotting courts,’ Hamid Ali Khan, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told Reuters on Sunday.
   The police raided the offices of the private Aaj television channel in Islamabad early Sunday and attempted to confiscate broadcasting equipment, a senior producer said.
   Pakistani newspapers condemned Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, saying that he had cheated the nation and plunged the country back into dictatorship.
   Dawn newspaper’s banner headline described the suspension of the constitution as ‘general Musharraf’s second coup’, following the first putsch that brought him to power in October 1999.
   The United States led global criticism of the emergency declaration with Rice announcing the aid review.
   ‘We are going to review aid,’ Rice said journalists during a trip to the Middle East.
   Up to 500 people have been arrested across Pakistan in a crackdown launched after the declaration of the state of emergency, the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, said.
   Aziz further said parliament was entitled to delay elections for a year under emergency rule imposed by the president, but added that the government had not yet made a decision.
   The arrested activists include Javed Hashmi, acting chief of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s party, leading rights activist Asma Jahangir and cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan.
   Javed Hashmi, the acting chief of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party, was arrested in a raid on his house in the central city of Multan – although police allowed him first to finish his breakfast.
   The head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir, said she had been served late Saturday with a 90-day house arrest order at her home in Lahore.
   She said in an email that Musharraf had ‘lost his marbles.’
   Islamabad police arrested Hamid Gul during a small public gathering, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
   ‘It is not an emergency, it’s martial law. One man has put the country at stake to save his rule,’ Gul said before he was pushed into a police van and whisked off.
   Around 20 male and female rights activists chanting ‘Go, Musharraf, go!’ were later bundled into vans by riot police near the Marriott hotel, where premier Shaukat Aziz was addressing a press conference, an AFP reporter saw.
   Late on Saturday, Imran Khan, who captained Pakistan to cricket World Cup success in 1992 and then turned to politics, said he was placed under house arrest.
   ‘The police entered my house in Lahore and told me that I was placed under house arrest, they did not show me any detention order at all,’ Imran said.
   He had earlier accused Musharraf of committing high treason for declaring a state of emergency, saying he was ‘punishable by death.’
   Khawaja Asif, a firebrand central leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, was also placed under house arrest.
   Nationalist opposition leaders Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Qadir Magsi were detained in their home towns in southern Pakistan, the police said.
   The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, and other leading attorneys including Munir A Malik, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood were also taken into custody immediately after emergency rule was imposed.
   The four lawyers were counsels for ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when Musharraf first tried to sack him in March.
   The outspoken Chaudhry, who has been a thorn in the military ruler’s side and has issued several rulings against Musharraf’s government, was sacked but not arrested.
   The police have, however, effectively sealed off a special enclave in the capital where he and other senior judges live.
   The police also picked up five lawyers from southwestern Quetta, who were known as staunch supporters of Chaudhry.
   Hundreds of police and paramilitary rangers deployed late Saturday around the Supreme Court to prevent protests by lawyers and opposition parties.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said on Sunday that Washington would have to ‘review aid’ to Pakistan following president Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule.
   ‘We are going to review aid,’ Rice told a group of journalists in Jerusalem accompanying her on a Middle East mission.
   ‘But we do have concerns, continuing counter-terrorism concerns, and we have to be able to protect American citizens by continuing to fight against terrorists,’ she said.
   ‘We have a significant counter-terrorism effort in Pakistan and so we have to review this whole situation.’
   Musharraf’s calling of emergency rule on Saturday drew strong censure from the United States, but pointed at the same time to limits in Washington’s power over a key ally in its fight against extremism.
   ‘I am disappointed in this decision, sure,’ Rice said echoing earlier comments by White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
   ‘President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office,’ Johndroe had said in a statement.
   But Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said there was no plan to suspend military aid to Pakistan.

Student organisations, teachers and educationists have rejected the education ministry’s circular which bore the decision to ban the doing of part-time jobs, including journalism, by students of Chittagong University.
   However, high officials of the education administration on Sunday claimed that they were not aware of such a development before the Chittagong University authorities on Saturday formally imposed the ban.
   The decision to ban holding of part-time jobs by students was made in response to the recommendation of the University Grants Commission in early August, according to the official documents obtained by New Age.
   ‘Following a letter forwarded on June 1 by the Chief Adviser’s Office, the education ministry asked for the UGC’s opinion on an allegation made by someone from the Chittagong University,’ said an official of the UGC.
   The letter from the Chittagong University reads, ‘We want steps to be taken against the so-called journalism of the students who are violating the university rules and criticising the role of the vice-chancellor.’
   ‘The journalists have published false reports against some teachers and defamed them, being influenced by the rival teachers, and are thus creating disputes and division in the university,’ the letter reads.
   The letter, signed by a deputy-secretary (administration) of the UGC, recommended that the education ministry should ask the university authority to take action against the students who have been doing part-time jobs, and inform the ministry and UGC of the action taken by them.
   The UGC’s letter, sent to the education secretary, also said, ‘As per the university rules no student can hold any job.’
   The public relations officer of the education adviser, Ayub Quadri, told New Age on Sunday afternoon that the adviser would not comment on the issue.
   He also said ‘the circular has been issued without the consent of the adviser and the education secretary’.
   ‘The ministry has not informed us of the issuance of such a circular till date,’ said UGC chairman Professor Nazrul Islam. ‘I see nothing wrong in students doing part-time jobs including journalism.’
   Former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Professor Maniruzzaman Miah, said, ‘If the ministry does ban part-time jobs, I feel it will be an encroachment on the autonomy of the university, which is not desirable.’
   ‘The university is the sole authority that has the right to impose such a ban on students or teachers, not the ministry,’ he added.
   Renowned writer and academician Muhammad Zafar Iqbal on Sunday said, ‘Such a decision infringes on the constitutional rights of a citizen in independent Bangladesh. Personally I used to encourage my students to do some work, apart from regular studies. This will make a student much more resourceful.’
   M Asaduzzaman, the last chairman of the UGC, who is also a professor of the public administration department of Dhaka University, said ‘The majority of the students of public universities come from poor families. So banning part-time jobs is not acceptable.’
   The Bangladesh Students’ Union expressed anger at the issuance of the circular and criticised it severely, saying that it is against the interest of the students.
   Shamsul Alam Shajjan and Asaduzzaman Masum, the president and general secretary of the union, demanded that the government should help needy students in getting part-time jobs.
   Another official of the ministry said that the circular would be withdrawn in a short time.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested the Purbani Hotel managing director, Mahbubur Rahman Joynal, and his girlfriend, Jannatul Ferdous Nikita, suspected of trading in Yaba, at the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court Sunday evening.
   Joynal, an accused in four cases filed with the Mohammadpur police over the haul of huge foreign and local currencies, gold, diamonds and bonds on October 30, appeared in the court to surrender, but his appeal was rejected.
   The chief metropolitan magistrate, AKM Enamul Haque, refused to hear their petition for surrender as the court working hours had been over.
   As Joynal came out of the court dock, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested him and took him to battalion office for interrogation at around 6:30pm.
   A battalion team of female members arrested Joynal’s girlfriend Nikita when she, along with Joynal, was about to enter the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court to surrender at about 5:30pm, the RAB 3 commanding officer, Sultan Mohammad Khan Nurani, told New Age.
   Nikita’s lawyer Abdullah-Al-Mamun alleged the law enforcers dragged her client away, which is a violation of human rights, when she was about to enter the court to seek justice.
   A senior lawyer on Sunday told New Age, ‘The battalion members illegally picked up Nikita from the court premises in front of several lawyers when she was about to enter the court to surrender.’
   As part the crackdown on Yaba peddling, the battalion members in a overnight raid till Tuesday noon seized diamond and gold ornaments, alcoholic beverage, bonds, shares and foreign and local currencies worth an estimated Tk 50 crore from the house of Joynal at Dhanmondi.
   In the raid for more than 16 hours, the team also seized seven pieces of Viagra, three guns, a revolver, 224 cartridges, 159 rifle bullets and 60 bullets of .32-calibre revolver.
   The law enforcement agencies alerted all land and airports to the situation and stepped up vigilance to stop Joynal and Nikita from leaving the country. The law men also sealed off the house for the revenue board members to check his income tax files.
   The battalion filed four cases with the Mohammadpur police on charge of possessing firearms, foreign currencies, drugs and huge quantities gold and diamonds.
   The Rapid Action Battalion detained Yaba peddler Nikita’s sister Pushpita and her industrialist husband MHN Bulu, but released them after a couple of hours Thursday night as the team failed to establish their involvement in the trade in Yaba.

Dhaka on Sunday said the latest developments in Pakistan after the promulgation of state of emergency were its internal affairs and hoped that they would not lead to any instability.
   When his attention was drawn to the latest situation in Pakistan, the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said, ‘As a friendly country, Bangladesh is observing the developments in Pakistan very closely.’ ‘We view that those events are their internal matter. However, we hope that those in no way would lead to any kind of instability,’ he added.

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus on Sunday underscored the need for bringing about reforms in the lending strategy of the World Bank and criticised the global lender for failing to eradicate poverty.
   'Poverty eradication has been major objective of World Bank since its formation 60 years ago, but it has failed to eradicate poverty,' Yunus told reporters after a meeting with World Bank president Robert Zoellick at the Grameen Bank headquarters at Mirpur.
   'Time has come to consider the issues of reconstructing and reforming the World Bank.'
   'The world has witnessed so many changes over the decades, but the WB remains static. It is urgent to bring changes to WB policies,' he said, stating that conditions attached by the bank with its lending often put many countries in trouble.
   Yunus, whose micro-credit programme brought him and his Grameen Bank Nobel peace prize in 2006, urged Zoellick to enhance the lending ratio for micro-credit ventures.
   The WB lends $20 billion a year on an average and less than 1 per cent of the money is destined for micro-credit and small entrepreneurs, which Yunus said should be at least 5 per cent.
   He asked the WB boss to assist developing countries, including Bangladesh, in carrying out financial policy reforms.
   Zoellick, who became the 11th president of the World Bank Group on July 1, left Dhaka Sunday night ending his two-day visit. Earlier, he toured India and Pakistan.

The High Court on Sunday issued a rule on the Election Commission to explain in three weeks why it would no be directed to invite the BNP leaders to its dialogue on electoral reforms in accordance with its rules and the party constitution.
   The High Court bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sulana and Justice MA Hafiz passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Nasiruddin Asim.
   The dialogue with the BNP leaders is scheduled for November 22 and the commission needs to send the invitation letter to the party 15 days before the dialogue.
   Pleading for the petitioner, his counsel Nawshad Jamir, also son of speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, argued that the chief election commissioner had said the commission, after examining the BNP constitution, would decide on which of the two — the secretary general appointed by chairperson Khaldea Zia and the expelled secretary general Mannan Bhuiyan — would be invited to the dialogue.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Haque, on October 28 said that the commission would send the invitation letter to the person who would remain secretary general of the party at the time of the issuance of the letter.
   Referring to the remarks made by the chief election commissioner, the counsel claimed that the remark of the chief election commissioner made on October 28 was illegal.
   After the unconstitutional remark of the chief election commissioner, some conspirators held a meeting in violation of the party constitution and claimed it to be a meeting of the standing committee.
   The meeting of October 28 also appointed Hafizuddin Ahmed acting secretary general, although the party constitution does not have any such position, the counsel argued.
   According to the party constitution, the chairperson holds the supreme authority to appoint the secretary general and accordingly Kahleda Zia appointed Khandaker Delwar secretary general, the counsel said. ‘Delwar is the legitimate leader of the party in the absence of Khaleda Zia.’
   According to the rules of the commission and the party constitution, the commission must invite Delwar, as the legitimate leader of the party, to its dialogue on electoral reforms, he said, seeking a directive on the commission to invite Delwar.
   Deputy attorney general Idris Khan opposed the petition.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick on Sunday brushed aside the suggestions made by civic leaders for lending without conditions, which, he said, are meant for ensuring efficient use of the money.
   ‘We don’t want our money is stolen,’ Zoellick told reporters on the last day of his first ever visit to Dhaka.
   He said any borrowing country needs to follow the WB’s procurement regulations strictly.
   The World Bank chief said the bank wants to see good governance and transparency in the country.
   ‘We are interested in investing more in the agriculture sector. We value the public private partnership for ensuring development and prosperity,’ Zoellick said.
   He said he was impressed by the activities in the export processing zone of Savar, where he visited Sunday morning.
   He also appreciated the country’s achievement in the areas of poverty reduction, institutional reforms and health including the success in brining down maternal mortality rate.
   Civic leaders and economists at a meeting at the Radisson Hotel urged Zoellick that the World Bank must not impose any hard condition and dictate the government on policy issues.
   ‘We underscored that World Bank should give loans considering our development needs and successes, not on the basis of tough pre-conditions,’ senior economist Wahiduddin Mahmud told reporters after the meeting.
   ‘We would formulate our own policy to accelerate our economic growth with a sense of policy ownership and responsibility. Lenders or donor agencies should limit their credit activities within the country’s own policy frameworks,’ he added.
   The professor of economics stressed that the government of an independent country must have the right to decide on its own on issues like agriculture subsidy and domestic fuel price adjustments, no matter what IMF or others want or not.
   He said the country, despite some problems in governance, deserves enhanced lending from the World Bank.
   Robert Zoellick, responding to a question on reforms within the World Bank, said the group is also going through reform, which is an ongoing process.
   ‘I have succeeded in increasing the amount of the bank’s soft loans from $1.5 billion to $3.5 billion, which is also a reform brought in the bank’s strategy towards developing countries,’ he told reporters.
   Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the jute industry has been shaken and many industries closed down due to the prescription of the WB.
   Before winding up his two-day Dhaka tour Sunday, the World Bank president met chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at latter’s office and offered the bank’s support for creating a better business atmosphere in the country.
   ‘The president of the Bank indicated support for an action plan for better business forum if Bangladesh wants,’ Syed Fahim Munaim, press secretary to the chief adviser, said at a briefing.
   The chief adviser and the World Bank president had discussion over a host of issues including support for Bangladesh’s local government bodies, climate change, improvement of a business climate, human resource development, cooperation at the regional levels for energy, water and environment, and agriculture technology support at the luncheon meeting.
   Finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam and senior officials of the government and the World Bank were present.
   Fahim Munaim said World Bank president lauded the government’s reform agenda and achievement in social sector, especially advancement towards millennium development goals.
   Zoellick also showed interest in supporting Bangladesh’s strides for capacity building of the local government institution, developing human resources and building necessary infrastructure for graduating to a mid-income country by 2015, the press secretary said.
   The World Bank chief left Dhaka at about 9:00 pm for Berlin.

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed will hold a meeting with the secretaries on Tuesday with administrative reforms and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities high on the agenda, according to official sources.
   This will be the third such meeting of the chief adviser with the senior bureaucrats since his interim administration assumed office on January 12, a day after the promulgation of a state of emergency on the heels of political turmoil.
   The chief adviser is expected to instruct the officials on their responsibilities after the separation of the judiciary from the executive’s control which came into effect on November 1 and review the progress of works following the directives given in the previous meetings, said an official.
   The chief adviser in the last meeting in May admitted that his administration had failed to control commodity prices despite sincere efforts. At that time he had attributed the rise in commodity prices to the situation on the international market.
   He told senior bureaucrats that the government was thinking of using the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to import substantial quantities of essential goods to prevent local cartels, which were intent on profiteering, from raising prices.
   The first meeting was held at the secretariat on January 23 in which Fakhruddin had warned top officials that punitive actions would be taken against the people responsible should the administration fail. He had said that action would be taken on the basis of official enquiry against those officials who would not discharge their duties honestly, sincerely and impartially.

A Dhaka court on Sunday sentenced former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury to 56 years’ imprisonment in the third case filed against him on charge of giving a government car to an individual.
   The 56 years’ imprisonment is the highest sentence of an individual of the 220 high-profile corruption suspects so far convicted during the present interim government.
   The metropolitan court of senior special sessions judge Azizul Haque also fined Harris Tk 21,00,000, in default to suffer 15 more years in prison.
   Harris, who was tried in his absence, has already been convicted and jailed for six years in two cases, for three years in each case — one for not submitting his wealth statement and the other for possessing foreign currency illegally, the court officials said.
   The accused was sentenced from three to 10 years for five offences under the Anti-Corruption Act as he abused his power as a government servant and the Code of Criminal Procedure for mistrusting the government.
   The sentences will be executed from the date of Harris’s arrest or his surrender in court, the judge said.
   According to the prosecution, Harris as a chairman of the National Tea Company Limited between February 13, 2002 and January 31, 2003 was given a government car, but abusing his powers, he gave the car to one Amin Badal. Harris also provided Tk 1,47,925 for Badal as maintenance cost of the vehicle from government fund during the period.
   The court cross-examined 11 witnesses in the case filed by Kafrul police subinspector Shahabul Islam on March 25.

A Khulna court on Sunday remanded the Khulna City Corporation mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, in 5-day police custody in a case for extorting Tk 2.9 lakh.
   Three more cases were filed on Saturday and Sunday against Tayebur with the Khulna police.
   According to court sources, sub-inspector Enamul Haque, investigation officer of the extortion case lodged against the mayor on Thursday with the Khulna police, applied to the chief metropolitan magistrate for a 10-day remand in police custody for interrogating Tayebur.
   The court granted a 5-day remand after about one-hour hearing on the prayer.
   The army-led joint forces raided the KCC mayor’s Gagan Babu Road residence in the city in the early hours of Sunday and seized two unlicensed guns, 23 bullets, three knives, a bottle of foreign liquor, two bottles of Keru and Company’s Imperial brand whisky, two empty bottles of liquor, and Tk 1.64 lakh in cash.
   SI Golam Rabbani of the Detective Branch of Khulna Metropolitan Police on Sunday morning lodged two cases — one for possessing illegal arms and the other for possessing liquor — with the Khulna police.
   According to police sources, the joint forces on Saturday night also raided the residence of the mayor’s nephew and a KCC contractor, Shawkat Hossain Thandu, and seized a licensed pistol and four bullets.
   On Saturday evening, Ali Abdullah Elin of Joypur village under Rupsha upazila of the south-western district lodged yet another case against the mayor and seven others with the Khulna police for extorting Tk 4.5 lakh from him, promising to give him a job.
   The other accused persons in the case are KCC public relations officer Sardar Abu Taher, executive engineer (division- 3) Md Moshiuzzaman Khan, Khulna Unic Ice Factory chairman Quazi Saiful Islam, managing director Md Anam, Md Bulu, Md Kamrul Islam and BNP leader Tariqul Islam Jahir.
   Ali Abdullah alleged the KCC mayor, the PRO, and the executive engineer demanded Tk 6 lakh from him for appointing his nephew as a supervisor.
   Ali said he agreed to give Tk 4 lakh and handed over Tk 2 lakh in cash on February 2 and Tk 2.5 lakh on May 4 to the mayor and the other accused.
   But, the plaintiff said, the defendants did not give his nephew the job; instead, they began to threaten him. At one stage, they gave him a cheque for Tk 1 lakh, which was dishonoured by the bank.

The French chargé d’affaires in Dhaka, Jean Romniceanu has felt that nobody has given a ‘blank cheque’ to the caretaker government although the European Union members support Bangladesh.
   He has said the European Union members are critical of many issues, including the human rights situation. ‘We back this caretaker government for its efforts made so far in the right direction. We have not given this government any blank cheque,’ Romniceanu on Sunday told newsmen at the chancery.
   He made the comment on the sidelines of an agreement ceremony, in the house of the French ambassador, for the allocation of Tk 9 crore to three local NGOs.
   Romniceanu said, ‘It will be disappointing for us if the elections cannot be held in accordance with the election roadmap.’
   He told newsmen that they (European Union members) were impressed with the effort of the Election Commission in preparing the electoral roll. ‘We do hope that the elections will be held in a very transparent manner.’
   He observed that the completion of the electoral roll is halfway through.
   He said, ‘It is very important to establish internal democracy within political parties and accountability of the funds they receive. It will otherwise lead to a chaos.’
   The French envoy said reforms within a party was an ongoing process and the people and the party would decide who would be their leaders.
   ‘We would like you to put in place a system within the country and parties to ensure sustainable democracy to resolve the problems that the country is faced with,’ he said.
   Responding to a query on impact of the ant-corruption drive, Romniceanu said, ‘Initially, the impact of the fight against corruption may be a bit painful, but in the long run, it will yield positive results.’
   Expressing his optimism about the holding of the elections by December 2008, he said, ‘The political parties must behave logically when the restrictions on politics will be gradually withdrawn. No one wants to get back to the situation that existed before January 11.’

The home secretary, Abdul Karim, on Sunday parried media queries whether action would be taken against the people who had allegedly manipulated the August 21 grenade attack investigation.
   The secretary chaired a meeting of the home ministry's cell monitoring investigations of serious cases, but failed to give information about any progress in the investigations of most of the cases the cell was keeping tabs on.
   Asked whether the police during the rule of the BNP-led alliance government had tried to manipulate the case, he said the matter was under investigation.
   'The case is still under investigation. I cannot tell you anything until the investigation is completed,' he said while briefing newsmen at his ministry.
   Earlier on different occasions, journalists asked the same question but he always avoided answering it on the plea that the matter was under investigation.
   He also skipped a query how a petty criminal could be arrested on charge of carrying out such a deadly attack. He kept mum when asked to make comments on the allegation that the petty criminal, George Mia, was forced to give a false confessional statement on the grenade attacks on a rally of the Awami League which killed 24 people, including the party's women affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, and left scores of others injured and maimed.
   The home secretary only repeated what he had said earlier that four persons, including Harkatul Jihad leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, confessed to have been involved in the carnage.
   He also failed say if the investigations of other sensational cases like bomb attacks on Baniarchar Church in Gopalganj and a rally of the Communist Party of Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2001 and the Bangla New Year's Day carnage at Ramna Batamul in Dhaka in 1999, had made any headway.
   Asked how long it would take for completing the probes into these cases, he replied, 'The investigation officers are working sincerely.'
   The investigation officer of Engineer Shafiq-ul-Moula Tipu murder case has been changed nine times but there has been no progress in the probe yet since the murder took place five years ago.
   There has been no headway also in journalist Belal Hossain the murder case in more than a year.
   Senior officials of the Criminal Investigation Department, investigation officers and home ministry officials attended the meeting held at the ministry.
   It discussed the progress in investigations of 10 sensational cases now being monitored by the cell headed by the home secretary.

The power and energy adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, on Sunday expressed dissatisfaction over the dilly-dallying approach of a number of foreign companies and the unexpected delay in setting up power plants and of the failure of Power Development Board’s officials to repair inoperative power units in time.
   The adviser, at a review meeting, asked the officials concerned to take steps to cancel agreements with errant companies and punish project directors of power plants who fail to complete installation or maintenance of the power plants.
   He also expressed annoyance over the Chinese company CMC’s mishandling of the Barapukuria coal-mine and power plant and the recent slump in the PDB’s power production from a record high of 4,100 MW to around 3,400 MW.
   Tapan asked the PDB to cancel the agreement with Harbin Power Engineering Company, another Chinese firm, for setting up the 90 MW Fenchuganj power plant if the company fails to commission it in time.
   The first 30 MW unit of the Fenchuganj power plant is expected to come into operation by December, but Harbin recently warned the PDB that it would not be able to continue setting up the third unit because of non-payment due to a dispute over customs duty and VAT.
   ‘The National Board of Revenue has informed us that Harbin is supposed to provide the customs duty and VAT whereas the company, in violation of the agreement, is demanding that PDB should pay the duty and VAT,’ Tapan told reporters after the meeting.
   He also asked the PDB to cancel the agreement with Westmont Power Company for setting up a 40 MW independent power plant at Baghabari if the latter fails to complete the installation work by December 8.
   ‘Ever since I was appointed adviser, I have found that Westmont has been deferring the deadline for setting up the unit month after month,’ he said.
   Tapan asked the PDB officials to scrutinise the legal aspects of the agreement to ascertain whether the under-construction 40 MW power plant could be taken over by the PDB.
   He told reporters that the government has shown enough patience to these two power companies and their time was running out.
   The adviser blasted the concerned power officials when he came to know that the Barapukuria coal-mine would be shut down from November 15 for three months to start a new phase of production and the mine authorities had suggested that PDB should run one of two units of the power plant.
   Tapan said that he wanted both the power units to remain in operation in the crucial Boro season from December to March-April.
   He angrily asked the officials to tell him who gave permission to shut down the coal-mine and to run only one power unit.
   Tapan told reporters that he was irritated by the mishandling of the coal-mine and power plant by the Chinese company. ‘I will talk to the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka and the company officials to discuss the issue,’ he said.
   Power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan and other high officials of the energy division and PDB were present at the meeting.

The fate of Nepal’s King Gyanendra looked bleaker on Sunday after the country’s parliament passed a proposal instructing the government to begin legal preparations to declare the country a republic.
   ‘Parliament has passed a proposal to turn the country into a democratic republic and has asked the government to make the necessary arrangements,’ house speaker Subash Nemwang told the news agency after the proposal tabled by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was passed by a majority voice vote.
   The proposal was a compromise reached after Nepal’s former rebel Maoists demanded that the monarchy be immediately scrapped and the voting system for cancelled polls be changed.
   Sunday’s proposal approval came after a special parliament session called by the Maoists to address their demands.
   The Maoists and the CPN (UML) voted together against the Nepali Congress, the country’s largest party, and the proposal was passed by a simple majority voice vote.
   Gyanendra’s fate was to have been decided by a body elected to rewrite the country’s constitution, but now after the passing of the proposal it remains unclear what steps the country will need to take to become a republic.

Leaders of the two feuding groups of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, ASM Hannan Shah and M Hafizuddin Ahmed, continued firing salvoes at each other over their alleged involvement in the bloody events of 1975 and 1981.
   Apart from attacking Hannan Shah, Hafizuddin on Sunday also trashed former BNP vice president Mir Shawkat Ali’s claims that he [Hafiz] had taken part in the operation to arrest the then chief of army staff, Ziaur Rahman, on November 3, 1975.
   ‘He [Shawkat] said that he had heard that I was involved in the incident. How could he make such allegation just on the basis of what he had heard’, Hafiz asked.
   ‘It was not me…it was captain Hafiz who went to arrest Zia…Shawkat mistook me for captain Hafiz,’ Hafizuddin said adding that captain Hafiz went to Zia’s place on Khaled Mosharraf’s order.
   ‘He [Shawkat] named two witnesses, including Khaleda Zia, in support of his claims…but I too accept the same persons as witnesses to prove my claims…I will quit politics if Khaleda Zia says that I went to arrest her husband on that day,’ Hafiz asserted.
   He said he would try to meet Khaleda Zia to know her version of the event.
   Hafiz also disputed Shawkat’s claims that he [Hafiz] has been in the party for only six years. ‘I joined the BNP in 1992 at the request of Khaleda Zia after I won a seat in parliament in 1991.’
   Hafiz said he never wanted exiling Khaleda from politics and expressed his doubt whether the statement issued in the name of 122 former lawmakers in support of Khandaker Delwar Hossain was genuine.
   ASM Hannan Shah, meantime, accused Hafiz of backing away from his promise not to talk any more on the issue. ‘I do not know whether breaching promises is part of his character.’
   ‘He is trying to prove Mir Shawkat a liar but many books on the events of 1975, especially the ones written by retired colonel MA Hamid and retired major Rafiqul Islam, document his involvement in the November 3 incidents,’ Hannan said.
   Asked about Hafizuddin’s claim that it was captain Hafiz who went to arrest Zia, Hannan said, ‘Captain Hafiz embraced martyrdom in 1981…captain Hafiz was not a betrayer like him.’

The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha demolished six more structures on Sunday, the second day of its three-day drive to pull down unauthorised structures on the route of the planned Bijoy Sarani-Tejgaon road.
   Sixty day-labourers, a bulldozer and 140 policemen took part in the demolition of the structures behind the 22-storey Rangs Bhaban, which is also being torn down by the city planning authority to construct the road.
   The six structures demolished are a three-storey building, a one-storey building, and a tin-shed building of the public works department and three one-storey buildings of private owners.
   Forty-four structures, constructed without Rajuk approval, will be demolished during the three-day drive, said Rajuk magistrate ASM Emdadud Dastogir, adding that 18 legally-constructed buildings would be demolished after the plots and structures are acquired.
   The drive has posed a serious problem for the dwellers of the targeted houses as they are yet to find new accommodations.
   Abdul Awal, a cashier at the PWD estate department, said he was forced to leave his quarters on a two-day notice.
   ‘I am shifting all my furniture and other belongings to a place at my office temporarily as I have failed to rent any house or flat to live within such a short time,’ Awal, who lived in C/10/A, CNB colony, told New Age on Sunday.
   He said, ‘I sought permission to stay on at my house allotted by my department till December 7 as my wife Momotaj Mohal, an advocate, is taking part in a bar council training which will continue till December 7 but failed to get the permission.’
   The authorised officer-2 of Rajuk, Samsur Rahman, said they had issued final notices to all owners and dwellers of the illegal structures on October 11, asking them to shift or pull down their structures by seven days.
   The executive committee of the National Economic Council in the last week of August approved the project to construct a 2,400-foot long and 60-foot wide road from Bijoy Sarani to Tejgaon in the capital at a cost of Tk 122 crore.
   Of the project fund, Tk 49.68 core will be spent for land acquisition, Tk 27.91 crore in compensations, and Tk 2.77 crore for road building.

A total of 46,946 Bangladeshi pilgrims will fly to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj this year. Hajj flights of different airlines will begin carrying the pilgrims from November 12, the council of advisers was informed on Sunday.
   The council at its regular meeting with chief adviser to the interim administration, Fakhruddin Ahmed, reviewed the hajj policy and asked the officials concerned to take proper care of the pilgrims and arrange their accommodation and transportation properly, a government spokesman said.
   The hajj flights from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia will be operated until November 26. The return flights will begin on December 25 and run through January 7, 2008, said Syed Fahim Munaim, press secretary to the chief adviser, after the meeting.
   The meeting, attended, among others, by the advisers and senior officials, also approved a proposal for changing the name of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority. The authority will be called the Bangladesh Bridge Authority after an ordinance styled The Jamuna Bridge Authority (Amendment) Ordinance comes into effect.
   The meeting also gave nod to an education ministry proposal for extending the stay on introduction of a uni-track secondary education deferred till December 2008. The meeting said the system needed more preparations for its implementation.
   The council approved another proposal for extending the timeline for the non-governmental primary school teachers to pass the qualifying test for three more months from November, Fahim Munaim said. The meeting also approved in principle a draft Financial Loans Court Ordinance, 2007. The draft has been prepared to bring some amendments in the existing law enacted in 2003.
   The adviser who paid weekly visit to the field to see the government activities, especially the fertiliser demands and commodity prices, briefed the chief adviser at the meeting.
   ‘They came up with suggestions on what actions should be taken,’ Fahim Munaim said.

A bomb planted by Taliban rebels killed four policemen in Afghanistan Sunday while various security operations against extremist insurgents left around 60 rebels dead, officials said.
   The policemen were driving in the southeastern province of Ghazni when a bomb ripped through their vehicle, provincial police commander Alishah Ahmadzai said.
   A spokesman for the hardline Taliban movement, which was in power between 1996 and 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack. The interior ministry announced meanwhile that police working with international soldiers had killed 25 Taliban on Saturday in an operation in the troubled province of Uruzgan, which has seen days of heavy fighting.
   ‘The bodies of the dead were left at the battlefield,’ the ministry said in a statement.
   The coalition announced separately that its troops, teamed up with Afghan forces, had repelled an attack Friday on a military base in Uruzgan.
   ‘There were some casualties to the enemy,’ a coalition spokesman said.
   The provincial police chief, Jumagul Himat, said 35 fighters were killed but this could not be confirmed by the defence ministry.
   Two foreign soldiers, one of them a 21-year-old Dutch national, were killed in Uruzgan in incidents on Friday and Saturday.
   The coalition also announced it had killed several insurgents Saturday in the southern province of Helmand – an area where British troops have taken the lead in NATO-led operations.
   Warplanes were called in after rebels tried to ambush soldiers around Musa Qala district, the centre of which has been in Taliban control for months and is considered a rebel base.
   The Taliban overran two districts in neighbouring Farah province in the past week: officials have said they are preparing operations to take them back.
   In other violence linked to the insurgency, a bomb exploded near the border with Pakistan early Sunday, killing a school headmaster, the police said blaming the Taliban. And the defence ministry said Afghan troops killed four suspected rebels in two separate clashes on Saturday.
   The Taliban-led insurgency has grown steadily in the past years, despite the presence of 55,000 international soldiers here to stabilise the fragile nation.
   The violence has killed more than 5,000 people this year, most of them rebels.

The High Court on Sunday remanded on bail two former presidents of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries Abdul Awal Minto and Salman F Rahman in separate cases.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zobayer Rahman Chowdhury also stayed the proceedings of the cases against Mintoo, Salman, former BNP state
   minister Redwan Ahmed, former Awami League state
   minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir and former Jamaat lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   The court also issued five rules on the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain why the placement of the five cases under the emergency rules would not be declared illegal.
   The court passed the orders after hearing separate writ petitions filed by the five challenging the approval for the placement of the cases against them under the emergency rules.
   Mintoo was shown arrested on August 12 in a case filed with the Dhanmondi police against him on charge of extortion of Tk 50,000.
   The commission sued Salman for alleged misappropriation of Tk 128 crore of the AB Bank and Shahjahan for amassing illegal wealth.
   Mahiuddin and Redwan face two cases on vandalism charges.

November 7 will remain public holiday as National Revolution and Solidarity Day as the caretaker government did not change holidays
   mentioned in the calendar for 2007.
   Replying to a question at a press briefing, chief adviser’s press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, Sunday evening
   said holidays were mentioned in the January-December calendar and the present government had not made any change in it.
   ‘It will remain in effect which is fixed,’ the CA’s press secretary explained.

A Chittagong court on Sunday framed charges against former lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury and Arab Bangladesh Bank chairman Faisal Morshed Khan, son of former foreign minister M Morshed Khan.
   The acting judge of the divisional special trial tribunal, Maznul Ahsan, framed the charges against the accused in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and set Wednesday for recording depositions.
   ACC deputy director Abul Kalam Azad filed the case with the Bandar police on July 1, accusing Shahjahan of concealing assets worth around Tk 49.5 lakh in his wealth statement to the commission.
   The plaintiff also accused Faisal of abetting Shahjahan
   in concealing information
   about the money paid for importing a Range Rover car under the tax-free facility as a lawmaker.
   The investigation officer of the case, ACC deputy director Jahangir Alam submitted the charge sheet in the case on October 1, saying the allegations brought against the accused were found true.
   The court issued warrants for arrest of Shahjahan and Faisal on October 9. Shahjahan surrendered before the court on October 29, but Faisal is absconding.

Interested bidders for international gateway licence Sunday urged the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to reduce incoming call termination rate, now $0.06, to make overseas call business profitable and competitive.
   Commission officials said some of the interested bidders at a pre-bid meeting Sunday raised the issue fearing that the existing termination rate might not be able to stop the illegal international call business through the Voice over Internet Protocol. Termination rate is a kind of fee charged by telecom operators for sending calls from one network to another.
   At the meeting the bidders also requested the commission to extend the timeframe for setting up the gateway exchange from four months to at least six months.
   They also stressed the need for effective steps to stop the illegal internet telephony business to safeguard international gateway licence holders.
   The commission received 41 applications till Sunday from interested firms for setting up international gateway exchanges to route overseas calls to and from Bangladesh in response to its invitation for bids on October 7.
   It had invited bids from Bangladeshi enterprises for licences to set up, maintain and operate such systems under the International Long Distance Telecommunication Services Policy 2007.  The BTRC will auction three licences to private sector companies to break the monopoly of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board in the international telephony segment.

The charge-sheet in the case lodged in connection with the attempt on the life of writer and Dhaka University professor Humayun Azad on February 28, 2004 will be submitted in a week, the investigation officer of the case, Kazi Abdul Malek, informed the home ministry on Sunday.
   Seven persons have been arrested in connection with the attack, Malek, an inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of police, told a meeting of the home ministry cell that monitors investigations of sensational cases.
   Three of the arrested — Mir Jahan, Suman Babu, and Mizanur Rahman — are activists of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh. They have made confessional statements before the court.
   Humayun Azad sustained serious injuries when armed assailants swooped on him near Bangla Academy on the DU campus. He was treated at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka for over a month and recovered his multiple injuries. He later died in Germany.
   Controversy surfaced over the investigation of the case when the police arrested a Bangladesh Chhatra League leader, Abbas, and implicated him in the attack. He was released after several months as the police failed to prove his involvement in the attack.
   After the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government, the police began a fresh investigation into the case and found the involvement of the JMB.
   JMB Majlis-e-Shura members Salauddin and Ataur Rahman Sunny, who was also the military commander of the outfit, also confessed their involvement in the attack in custody of the Rapid Action Battalion, RAB sources said.
   The charge-sheet will be submitted accusing the JMB activists, said the IO.

The Dhaka district magistrate has fixed December for the renewal of arms licences for the people living in the district and the city.
   In a release on Sunday, the magistracy said the fees of the arms could be deposited with the Sonali Bank or the Bangladesh Bank by filling in the TR form 6 with code no 1-2211-0000-1859 and the challan needed to be attached with the original licence for renewal.
   The licence fees for the firearms is as follows: Tk 2,000 for a pistol or revolver or rifle, Tk 800 for double- or single-barrel gun, Tk 400 for other firearms, Tk 2,000 for repair and dealing licence of pistol or revolver or guns and Tk 1,000 for repair and dealing licence for rifle, the release said.