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At least 219 people, mostly involved in politics, have so far been jailed for varying terms in the ongoing drive of the interim government against high-profile corruption and serious crimes.
   The convicts include seven former ministers, 12 former lawmakers and five businessmen.
   Courts sentenced them to imprisonment, fined them Tk 19.28 crore in all and ordered confiscation of their wealth of an aggregate of Tk 130 crore.
   Fourteen of the convicts were jailed for amassing illegal wealth, 4 for not submitting wealth statements defying the Anti-Corruption Commission notification, 16 for evading taxes, 7 for bribery, 41 for extortion, 20 for cheating, 5 for owning illegal arms, 25 for patronising militancy, 1 for possessing illegal liquor and 90 for setting fire to and vandalising houses in Natore.
   The convicts include 6 businessmen, 2 business house employees, 3 policemen, 2 engineers and 208 political party leaders and activists.
   Of the convicts, involved in politics, eight are of the Awami League, 1 of the Jatiya Party and the remaining 198 are of the BNP that ruled the country between October 2001 and October 2006.
   The special judge’s courts, set up on the Jatiya Sangsad Complex to try high-profile corruption suspects, delivered verdicts in eight cases, filed by the commission for amassing illegal wealth and hiding information in wealth statements since May, when the courts started functioning.
   In the verdicts, the courts jailed eight people — former Awami League minister Mohammad Nasim, former AL sate minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir, former BNP state ministers Amanullah Aman and Mir Nasiruddin, former BNP lawmakers Manjurul Ahsan Munshi and Ali Asgar Lobi, Awami Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath and telephone board CBA leader Firoz Miah — for 13 years and ordered confiscation of their wealth of Tk 70.93 crore for amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income and hiding information. Firoz Miah is also involved with the BNP.
   The courts also jailed five others — Nasim’s wife Laila Arzumand Banu, Aman’s wife Sabera Aman, Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin and Pankaj’s wife Monika Devnath — for three years for abetting them in the crimes. The convicts were also fined Tk 1.8 crore in all.
   Another court in Chittagong jailed former BNP lawmaker Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan for 20 years, fined him Tk 10,000 and ordered confiscation of his wealth of Tk 6.36 crore.
   The special anti-graft courts of Dhaka also jailed former BNP minister Nazmul Huda for seven years, his wife Sigma Huda for three years, and three police officers of the Fatullah police station for seven years for bribery, and ordered confiscation of Tk 2.4 crore and Tk 14.80 lakh Huda and the three policemen took in bribe respectively.
   The special courts also jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, former AL lawmakers Joynal Hazari and Shamim Osman and businessman Gaisuddin Al Mamun, also a close aide of Khladea’a eldest son Tarique Rahman, for three years for not submitting their wealth statements defying the commission notification.
   A Rajshahi court jailed former BNP minister Aminul Huq, Rajshahi city BNP leader Shish Mohammad and 23 others for 31 years on charge of patronising militancy.
   A Natore court jailed former deputy minister M Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu, his elder brother Nurunnabi Talukdar and cousin Atikur Rahman Talukdar for 8 years, and 87 leaders and activists of the Natore district unit BNP, including 16 relatives of Dulu, for 7 years for looting and vandalising 30 houses and 18 shops at Ramsa Kazipur and Amtali Bazar in Natore.
   Of the 41 convicts on extortion charges, Rajshahi mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu and 10 others were jailed for 13 years, former BNP lawmaker Nadim Mostafa and 16 others for 10 years, former BNP lawmaker for a Barguna constituency Matiur Rahman for 17 years, former BNP lawmaker for a Chapainawabganj constituency Shahjahan Miah and two other local BNP leaders for 5 years, his wife Ashifa Ashrafi Papiya for 5 years, former BNP lawmaker Naser Rahman, son of former finance minister Saifur Rahman, for 9 years, (in the same case) two engineers and a local BNP leader for 5 years, Dhaka city ward commissioner and city BNP leader Chowdhury Alam for 10 years each in two cases, his wife Hasina Chowdhury for 10 years, Khagrachari municipal chairman and BNP leader Belayet Bhaiyan for 5 years and Kamalganj municipal chairman of Moulvibazar, Hasin Afroze Chaudhury, for 5 years.
   They were also fined Tk 4.26 lakh in all.
   The 16 convicted on charge of tax evasion include former minister Shahjahan Siraj, his wife Rabeya Siraj, son Rajib Siraj and daughter-in-law Farzana Khan, Ali Asgar Lobi, former lawmaker Mosaddak Ali Falu’s wife Mahbuba Sultana, former housing minister Mirza Abbas’s wife Afroza Abbas, his brother Mirza Khokon and former state minister and AL joint secretary Obaidul Kader’s wife Isratunnisa and revenue board official ATM Sarwar Hossain. The court ordered confiscation of their wealth of about Tk 28 crore in all and some landed property and fined them about Tk 6.3 crore in all.
   The Bashundhara Group chairman, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam, his wife Afroza Begum and three sons Saadat Sobhan, Shafayet Sobhan and Sayem Sobhan have also been jailed for eight years for tax evasion.
   The owner of a chartered accounting firm, SM Quddus, was also jailed for three years for abetting the Bashundhara Group in the offence. The court also ordered confiscation of about Tk 22.05 crore and fined the group Tk 8.3 crore in all.
   Jatiya party faction chairman Anwar Hossain Manju was jailed for five years in a case filed under the narcotics control act.
   Of the 20 convicted of cheating, former BNP lawmaker Nadim Mostafa and 16 others were jailed for 5 years, BNP lawmaker Matiur Rahman for 17 years, Dupchanchia municipal chairman in Bogra, Jahangir Alam, for 2 years, and JSS leader of Rangamati, Zahir Ahmed, for 17 years.
   Dhaka city ward commissioner, BNP leader Monwar Hossain Dipjol, also an actor, was jailed for 17 years and his wife Romana Monwar for 7 years, former BNP lawmaker for a Barisal constituency Abul Hossain Khan for 7 years, former BNP lawmaker for a Patuakhali constituency Shahidul Alam Talukder for 10 years and businessman Gaisuddin Al Mamun for 10 years for possessing illegal arms.
   Former state minister for power Anwarul Kabir Talukder was fined Tk 40 lakh by the Chittagong customs authority in tax-free vehicle case. He has, however, not been jailed.
   Moreover, 115 politicians, including former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, and former ministers and lawmakers, are now detained in jail and facing a number of cases filed after January 11. About a hundred more, including some of the convicts, are still in hiding.
   The commission has so far notified 142 high-profile corruption suspects to submit their wealth statements. It has filed 33 cases for amassing illegal wealth. The courts have so far given verdicts in eight of such cases and in four cases for not filing the wealth statements.

Several hundred farmers on Wednesday blocked the Jhenaidah–Kushtia Highway, set on fire a police motorbike and damaged three trucks, demanding smooth supply of fertiliser.
   At least five policemen, including the Sailkupa police officer-in-charge, were injured in clashes between the farmers and law enforcers at Bhati Bazar of Sailkupa.
   Witnesses said several the farmers assembled in front of two dealers’ shops at Bhati Bazar at 8:00am as the dealers started distributing 7 to 10 kilograms of fertiliser among each of the farmers through slips.
   An elderly farmer, Jamir Uddin, 75, of Dudsar, became agitated as he failed to get any fertiliser. The duty policemen then beat him up with truncheon. He became critically injured.
   Enraged with police atrocities, the farmers who failed to get the fertiliser clashed with the law enforcers and pelted them with stones in which five policemen, including the officer-in-charge, Billal Uddin Tarafdar, were injured.
   The farmers demanded fertiliser and blocked the Jhenaidah–Kushtia Highway for an hour. Several hundred vehicles remained stranded on both ends of the road.
   The farmers at one point set fire to a motorbike, belonging to a policeman, and damaged three trucks.
   The joint forces reached the place and tackled the situation at 1:00pm after promising the farmers smooth supply of fertiliser.
   The farmers said the principal dealers did not supply the fertiliser and asked the farmers to get fertiliser from sub-dealers, which created the trouble.

The LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, on Wednesday said that street hawkers would no longer be evicted from their present sites.
   He blamed some over-enthusiastic police officers for eviction of hawkers from the capital and claimed that such a move was not on the agenda of this government.
   The adviser was replying to reporters’ queries at the LGRD and cooperatives ministry.
   The interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed continued the eviction of hawkers initiated by the previous caretaker government. Later, the government took measures to rehabilitate the footpath vendors in response to the adverse reactions from, and widespread criticism by, various quarters.
   ‘We will not make any further move to evict hawkers from the capital. They will be allowed to continue their business in a disciplined manner in the places allocated to them,’ said Iqbal in reply to a question.
   He told reporters that the holiday markets set up for the evicted hawkers would remain open for them if they wanted to continue their business there. ‘If the hawkers do not find the holiday markets suitable for their business, we will close them down,’ he said.
   When he was asked about the local government elections that are already due in many areas, he said the Election Commission has been delegated the authority to hold such elections.
   The acting high commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Mukta Dutta Tomar, made a courtesy call on the adviser at his office earlier on the day. They discussed different aspects of the forthcoming second summit of the SAARC home ministers, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on October 23-25.
   The adviser expressed his desire to visit the well-known Indian milk-collection centre — Ananda Milk Union Ltd. The acting high commissioner assured him that the necessary steps in this regard would be taken.
   The LGRD and cooperatives adviser will lead a nine-member delegation to the SAARC home ministers’ conference in the Indian capital.

Anti-poverty campaigners are not aware of the actual value of the poverty benchmark of $1 in purchasing power parity set by the UN Millennium Development Goals.
   Although they agree that the measurement of poverty should be redefined and modified to one more appropriate to the local context, initiatives and programmes taken up by many of these activists do not question either the flawed poverty reduction targets set by the government or the rather low poverty benchmark.
   According to an MDG progress report, jointly published by the government and the UNDP, about half the population of Bangladesh earned less than a ‘dollar a day (PPP)’ or less than Tk 15 in 2005. According to this document, Bangladesh’s poverty reduction target is to reduce this proportion of people (earning below Tk 15 per day) from 50 per cent to 29.4 per cent by 2015.
   Publications, monitoring reports and assessments of the development goals brought out by citizens’ organisations and anti-poverty campaigners, who are also part of larger coalitions and networks to fight poverty, continue to reproduce the data without questioning the validity or authenticity of the government’s poverty reduction targets.
   Taking into account the data of the World Development Report 2007 (per capita income of $470 and $2,090 in PPP), the MDG poverty line for Bangladesh is Tk 15 per day, meaning that an individual earning more than that amount would be considered one above the poverty line.
   Sayed-ul-Alam Kazal, coordinator of Bangladesh secretariat for the People’s Forum on MDGs, said the value of $1 PPP fluctuated but wrongly put it in the range of Tk 69 to 70, which happens to be the value of market dollars.
   He agreed that the definition of this poverty benchmark should be modified to suit the local context. Kazal told New Age on Wednesday that advocacy was a continuous process and that it continued in different forms across the country. ‘The people’s forum is a coalition of coalitions. Our main objective is to raise the awareness of the people about what the development goals actually are.’
   Similar forums in other countries, such as the Philippines, have already lobbied and convinced their respective governments to redefine and modify their poverty benchmarks to something that are more acceptable. Officials of the UN Millennium Campaign have previously vowed to support any such move from the citizens’ organisations of any country but point out that it is essentially the responsibility of these campaigners.
   Atiur Rahman, chairman of Unnayan Samunnay, a non-governmental organisation, and also the local chapter of the Social Watch, said Bangladesh might reach the development targets on time but that would hardly change the scenario. He also agreed that the poverty benchmark had to be redefined according local needs. ‘I prefer to use the term localising our development goals so that they are more meaningful.’
   Anu Muhammad, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said the UN development goals were in fact a retreat from the level of ambition that had been set by the Bangladesh government in its five-year plans. ‘These targets actually lower the level of ambition and would amount to nothing meaningful even if they are achieved.’
   Anu told New Age, ‘There is a continuous effort to change the methodology to measure poverty so that it undercounts the poor and projects a better image of poverty around the world.’ He said the ‘dollar a day (PPP)’ devised by the World Bank was also such a ploy.
   ‘I do not think poverty is a problem by itself but a manifestation of problems elsewhere. Thus reduction of poverty must be approached through productive and social sectors.’ He said otherwise one would merely engage in an ornamental approach which would allow the basic reasons of poverty to remain as they are.

Former premier Benazir Bhutto pledged on Wednesday to restore democracy to Pakistan on the eve of her homecoming after eight years in exile, defying al-Qaeda threats and government pressure to delay.
   Calling herself a ‘people’s leader,’ she insisted she would fly as planned on Thursday to her Karachi power base, where her party claims as many as one million supporters will welcome her home.
   ‘Yes, I am going,’ the two-time premier told reporters in Dubai.
   ‘Pakistan’s future is at stake and I am going to Pakistan with a mission to see a peaceful transition to democracy and bring hope to the oppressed people of my country for a new future.’
   Benazir, the first female leader of an Islamic nation, is returning to lead her party in crucial general elections due in January following a deal she cut with president Pervez Musharraf that paves the way for power-sharing.
   Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a 1999 coup, is still awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his landslide election win earlier this month.
   Hundreds of anti-Musharraf protesters rallied outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad as it opened hearings Wednesday challenging his right to contest the vote, but the judges later adjourned.
   Musharraf, who controversially stood for re-election despite still being army chief, cannot be declared winner until the court has ruled.
   He has pledged to quit the military by November 15 if he is re-elected for another five years. But he has not ruled out dissolving parliament — or even imposing martial law — if he is blocked.
   In Dubai, Benazir insisted she would not postpone her return despite fears over security that prompted Musharraf to press her to delay until after the court ruling.
   She said she wanted to create for the people of Pakistan a country ‘where they have opportunities for employment, economic well-being, the primacy of civilian rule and a society free of extremism.’
   She denied reaching a ‘deal’ with Musharraf, despite an amnesty agreement earlier this month clearing her of the corruption charges that had driven her into exile.
   That amnesty is regarded as a prelude to power-sharing, which the United States is keen to support as a bulwark against Taliban and al-Qaeda extremism in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border.
   Benazir, who has lived in exile in Dubai and London, has said she feared that retired army officers may be plotting to kill her.
   But she said on Wednesday: ‘I don’t believe that a true Muslim will make an attack on me... Islam forbids suicide bombings.’
   She added: ‘Many threats have been made from left, right and centre to try and intimidate me, to intimidate the people of Pakistan... to intimidate the workers of the PPP.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion is looking for three former bureaucrats of the prime minister’s office, including former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, for interrogation in the GATCO scam case against ex-premier Khaleda Zia.
   According to ACC sources, the commission is yet to know the whereabouts of the bureaucrats.
   The investigation officer of the case, Jahirul Huda, also a deputy director of the commission, on Wednesday sent a letter to the establishment ministry seeking its assistance in finding out Kamal Siddiqui, Talebur Rahman, a former director of the prime minister’s office and a former director general of the office.
   Meanwhile, being summoned by the investigation officer, three bankers on Wednesday appeared before the probe team in the commission and gave information pertinent to the case, said the sources.
   The investigation team on the day also quizzed the chief accounts officer of Chittagong Port Authority, Mosharaff Hossain, also a former member of an inter-ministerial committee which had connection with the GATCO deal.
   Earlier on October 11, the probe team interrogated detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia at the special jail on Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises.
   Before questioning Khaleda, the team also quizzed 65 people, including seven former ministers, six retired secretaries and a serving additional secretary of the communications ministry and a number of Chittogong port officials.
   On September 2, the ACC filed the case against Khaleda, her youngest son Arafat Rahman and 11 others on charge of awarding a contract to Global Agro Trade Company, an ‘incompetent’ and ‘unfit’ firm, to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and at Chittagong port, allegedly for kickbacks.

The Election Commission will initiate dialogues with expatriate Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom on the second week of November to assess the possibility of registering them as voters.
   Election commissioners Muhammed Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain will participate in the dialogue to be held in London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh.
   ‘In the dialogue sessions, we will examine whether only a few political activists or most of the expatriates are interested to be enrolled as voters,’ Sohul told the media Wednesday.
   He said if most of the expatriates were found interested to become voters then the commission would start the process for registering them.
   ‘Initially we will hold the dialogues in the UK as the highest number of Bangladeshi expatriates live there. The EC will next discuss the ways to enrol expatriates living in other countries,’ Sohul said.
   Sohul on Wednesday called on the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, and discussed with him the EC’s plan to enrol Bangladeshi expatiates in the UK.
   ‘The adviser assured us of offering all the assistance required to implement the plan. The four meetings will be held under the supervision of the Bangladeshi mission there,’ Sohul said.
   The EC recently has decided in principle to allow expatriate Bangladeshis to cast votes in parliamentary elections through postal ballots and register as voters by contacting the Bangladeshi missions abroad. The Bangladeshi citizens living overseas have been demanding including their names on the voters’ roll for a long time.
   Sohul said the expatriates could cast their votes by post or coming to the constituencies based on the permanent addresses given in their passports.

The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, on Wednesday hailed army chief General Moeen U Ahmed’s statement that he had no intention to assume the presidency but termed unwise the idea of an expanded interim government.
   ‘I think it will not be wise to expand the government for the remaining period of time before the polls,’ Zillur told reporters in reply to a query at his Gulshan residence. The Awami League leader welcomed the army chief’s statement made in London on Tuesday that he had no desire to be the country’s president.
   ‘What he [Moeen] has said is becoming of an army chief,’ Zillur said. ‘I have no desire to assume the presidency,’ Moeen told reporters at the Bangladesh high commission in London on his way to the United States.
   ‘He [army chief] is working for bringing about reforms with a commitment to hold general elections before the end of 2008,’ the AL leader said adding that his party believed the polls would be held as per the roadmap announced by the Election Commission.
   Zillur said that it would not be wise to expand the government by appointing consultants for a brief period of time.
   Moeen said that appointment of consultants was being considered to make the caretaker government more dynamic and the constitutional provisions were being examined in this regard.
   Zillur criticised the authorities for not granting bail to the AL president, Sheikh Hasina before Eid. ‘It was unjust that Hasina was not granted bail before Eid,’ he said. ‘If Hasina had been granted bail, there was no chance that she would have gone into hiding…’
   He said that if the AL president had any such intention, she would not have returned to the country from the United States.
   Terming illegal the detention of the leaders of the Awami League and Chhatra League without any specific charges, the acting AL president demanded that the government should release those against whom no charges could be framed till date.

BNP Chairperson’s adviser Hannan Shah on Wednesday said the BNP had become victim of dual policy of the caretaker government.
   ‘Our office has been kept closed. As a nationalist political party BNP is failing to play its desired role,’ he told reporters at his DOHS house.
   He said the BNP would intensify its legal efforts to free the leader Khaleda Zia.
   Besides, he said, steps are underway to strengthen the city committee of the BNP alongside formation of BNP committees where there are no committees.
   Shah endorsed army chief General Moeen U Ahmed’s remarks made in London about the factors that led to the state of emergency and about activities of the caretaker government.
   He said violent activities of certain political parties at that time resulted in imposition of the state of emergency.
   Shah, however, observed that the caretaker government did not perform its responsibilities in accordance with the constitution. ‘If they did so, such situation would not have been created.’
   The BNP leader said constitutionally the jurisdiction of the caretaker government is limited. ‘Its prime obligation is to hold general elections within stipulated time and transfer power to an elected government,’ he added.

The government is amending the Bangladesh Civil Service Recruitment Rules to allow candidates to seek re-evaluation of their BCS examinations score, a top civil servant said on Wednesday.
   ‘The government is amending a number of sections of BCS recruitment rules on the recommendation of Public Service Commission. The provision of challenging BCS mark sheet is a significant one,’ the establishment secretary, Md Abdus Salam Khan, told the news agency by phone. ‘The draft proposal on the BCS recruitment rules has been finalised. We will soon send the draft to the secretary committee for approval.
   ‘Then it will go to the law ministry for vetting and the ministry will send it to the chief adviser and the president for approval,’ Salam said.
   The secretary explained that the amended rules, once approved, would allow a candidate to seek a re-evaluation of his/her marking by paying a fee.
   The current provisions consider the BCS scores confidential and do not allow a re-evaluation.
   ‘The amended draft proposes that the application forms of BCS exams can be submitted to the district commissioner. A candidate can submit the application to the DC office of his/her district,’ Salam said. A PSC source said authorities had asked the government to amend several provisions of the BCS recruitment rules as the BCS exams had been questioned over the last few years.
   The proposed amendments seek to update the test system and ensure fairness, transparency and accountability of the exams.
   The PSC also proposed to the government to consider ways to reduce harassment, time and money of the job seekers.

Water receded completely from the low-lying areas in the Chittagong city where heavy rains, influenced by a deep depression in the Bay, caused flash floods on Tuesday damaging goods in a large number of industries and business enterprises.
   The situation improved fast as there was no rainfall in the port city after Tuesday night. The sky remained cloudy in the city while light rains occurred at some places outside.
   Former leader of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ershad Ullah said the rain-triggered flood caused an estimated loss of over Tk 100 crore to the trade and industrial sectors.
   Most of the low-lying areas in the city went under three to five feet water affecting raw materials, finished products and other goods in a large number of warehouses, industries, markets and business establishments, he said.
   The floodwaters entered many warehouses and factories at Nasirabad, Kalurghat, Sararika, Halishahar and Chandgaon BSCIC industrial areas and damaged essential commodities in many godowns at Khatunganj, Chaktai and Korbanigonj.
   Without giving the break-up of the losses caused by the flood, he said the loss might cross Tk 100 crore.
   The president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, told New Age on Wednesday that many warehouses and industries were affected by the flood.
   ‘The loss in terms of money is huge. We are trying to collect information on the losses from the affected warehouses and industries,’ he said.
   Blaming the poor drainage system for the flashflood, he said, ‘We will have to face greater troubles in future if the city’s drainage system is not improved immediately,’ he added.
   The first vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, MA Salam, said some of their garment factories were badly affected by Tuesday’s flashflood in Chittagong.

Onions on Wednesday were retailed for Tk 60 a kilogram as its supply from India remains suspended.
   Traders at Shyambazar said the price increased by Tk 8 a kilogram in three days. They said the price increased as onion import from India has remained suspended for a couple of weeks.
   The local variety of onions was retailed between Tk 56 and Tk 60 a kilogram on Wednesday in city markets. Onions imported from Indian were retailed between Tk 46 and Tk 50.
   Just before Eid-ul-Fitr, local-variety onions sold for prices between Tk 48 and Tk 52 and the Indian variety between Tk 42 and Tk 44.
   According to daily price records of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the retail prices of Indian onions increased by 26 per cent over a month and 207 per cent over the year. Local onions became dearer by 19 per cent over the month and 138 per cent over the year, the records showed.
   Former Dhaka Metropolitan Perishable Importers’ Association secretary Khandaker Babul on Wednesday said that Indian exporters had said that they would not be able to export onions until the early harvest of the item from Nashik in Maharashtra becomes available on the market.
   Nashik is India’s major onion-producing region and the early winter harvest from Nashik is expected early November.
   ‘Although India earlier suspended fresh export of onions for a fortnight from October 1, the Indian exporters are now saying they may not be able to export onions until the Nashik harvest becomes available on the market,’ Babul said.
   Wholesalers at Shyambazar said a few consignments of Indian onions, ordered before the restriction, were entering Bangladesh, but the volume is too small to meet the domestic demand. ‘Around 50 trucks of Indian onions are now entering Bangladesh every day. During normal supply period, about 200 trucks on an average entered Bangladesh a day,’ a trader said.
   At least one-third of the shop at Shyambazar ran out of onion stock by Wednesday afternoon, said market sources, and they are now running out of stocks of local onions, which pushed up the prices. Indian onions sold between Tk 38 and Tk 42 a kilogram and the local onions between Tk 46 and Tk 50 on the wholesale market at Shyambazar on Wednesday.
   Bangladesh consumes around one million tonnes of onions and supply from Indian meets about a half of the demand, the sources said.

The government has decided to bestow the status of commercially important persons to more than a dozen non-resident Bangladeshis for their significant contributions to remittance earning and making investment at home, said officials at the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry.
   The ministry has already finalised a list of 14 persons of the Bangladeshi Diaspora and sent it to the home ministry to examine their individual records before conferring the status through official notification.
   ‘The list is final if the home ministry has no objection to any of the persons. We want to encourage the unsung heroes for sending money back home and making more investment,’ a high official at the expatriates’ welfare ministry said on Wednesday about the latest status of the move.
   If the plan is materialised, this will be the first time for the government to award the status of CIPs to expatriate Bangladeshis in recognition of their contribution, especially to increasing foreign exchange earning.
   The non-resident Bangladeshis remitted nearly $6 billion in fiscal year 2006-07 to cushion the country’s balance of payments by filling in the gap between import bills and export earnings over the years.
   The expatriates’ welfare ministry prepared the primary list of the CIPs from the non-resident Bangladeshis following applications from many such people in 2006.
   The National Board of Revenue is another agency which will give clearance after checking the tax records of the expatriates on the list.
   Based on a 2006 policy for honouring expatriate Bangladeshis with the status of CIPs, the government will select such persons every year from now on, said the officials concerned.
   The selection criteria give emphasis on investment in the country’s industrial sector, remittance through the legal channels and also import of Bangladeshi goods by the expatriates.
   Iqbal Ahmed, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the United Kingdom, has topped the short-list of CIPs for his industrial investment worth $61.7 million in the country.
   Abul Hossain, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, is the highest remitter of $581,939.97. Selim Hossain, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the UK, is ranked the top importer of Bangladeshi goods worth $7,455,172.

The daily Janakantha editor, Atiqullah Khan Masud, also chairman of the Globe Constructions Ltd, on Wednesday was acquitted of fraud charges over the sale of flats as he reached a settlement with the plaintiff.
   Metropolitan magistrate M Shah Alam Sardar acquitted Masud of the charges as the plaintiff, Rebecca Mahmuda, a resident of Malibagh Chowdhurypara, filed an application with the court saying that she had received her money back and she had no further complaints against the accused.
   Attaching the application to the verdict, the court also acquitted Ashraful Haque, general manager for the Globe Constructions Ltd, who has been in hiding since the case was filed.
   This is the second instance of an out-of-court settlement reached during trial in corruption cases in two weeks after the daily Jugantor publisher, Nurul Islam Babul, made a similar deal for which the court acquitted him of the charges of fraudulence, land grabbing and attempt on life.
   Rebecca on April 18 filed a case with the Ramna police against Masud and Ashraful, accusing them of cheating buyers over the sales of flats built by the Globe Constructions Ltd.
   In the complaint, she said Masud and Ashraful embezzled Tk 9.78 lakh deposited by the plaintiff against the purchase of a flat.

The government has drafted a policy apparently to prevent entry of derelict ships made of or carrying highly toxic substances, prevent environment pollution, and reduce human casualties in ship-breaking yards, officials said.
   ‘We have submitted the draft to the higher authorities early this month. The shipping ministry will take the next step to make it effective,’ director general of shipping department AKM Shafiqullah who headed a committee that finalised the policy titled The National Policy on Ship Breaking 2007 told New Age on Wednesday.
   He said the policy, when comes into effect, will help improve the working conditions in the ship-breaking outfits, located mainly in the south-eastern district of Chittagong and marked as dangerous by the international environment watchdog GreenPeace.
   The policy suggested ban on import of warships or atomic power-driven vessels for scrapping.
   It also pursued mandatory introduction of modern equipment for scrapping, waste reception, and recycling facilities and setting up of healthcare centres to prevent environmental pollution and reduce human casualties at the scrapping yards.
   With lack of a policy in line with the international conventions on ship-breaking, Bangladesh has been facing acute environmental pollution because of unsafe dumping of toxic wastes in the Bay of Bengal, numerous deaths of workers and health-related problems of many others over the last decades.
   ‘We want the policy to come into effect in the shortest possible time,’ the shipping secretary, Sheikh Enayet Ullah, told New Age.
   Right groups at home and abroad have long been asking the government to adopt a tough policy to reduce health and environment hazards in this sub-sector, where more than 20,000 people are employed amid serious health risks.
   According to available statistics, the ship-scrapping units meet 90 per cent of the domestic demand for steel, but workers in this sub-sector have no legal shields for their safety.
   The shipping ministry at an inter-ministerial meeting in September finalised the draft policy to be placed before the council of advisers soon for its nod.
   ‘We have tried our best to prepare the rules in line with the international conventions,’ said Shafiqullah.
   But, experts allege the draft policy still has many loopholes, and it was not updated in line with the Basel Convention 1992, which later adopted technical guidelines for environmentally sound management of the full and partial dismantling of ships.
   The draft policy says imported ship cannot be used for any purpose other than scrapping. The exporters or the owners of the ships have to prepare a list of toxic and harmful materials and their quantity with their locations in the ship prior to export. They must submit the report to the authorities concerned.
   The owners must dispose all wastes, in a way that is environmentally sound and not harmful for human health, before handing over the vessels to importers. All the tanks and cargo holds of the vessels must be cleansed of inflammable and poisonous substances, the proposed policy dictates.
   It, however, does not explain where the waste will be disposed of or dumped.
   The policy says the government of an exporter’s country must ensure Bangladesh that the ship is prepared for scrapping, and the exporter must submit a report prepared by a panel of experts who will physically visit the vessel before handing it over to the importer. The handover will only take place after approval of the authorities concerned.
   If the ship is considered risky for environment or public health or hazard for the workers at the country of import, then the owners/or exporters of the vessel must take it back to the country of origin on their own costs.
   For protection of the environment, the proposed policy suggests ship-scrapping will take place only at government-specified yards. No scrapping yard will be allowed to set up at environmentally sensitive places, like the Sundarban.
   Gadgets having radiations, such as fire detectors, must be handed over to the Atomic Energy Commission for safe disposal, stipulates the policy.
   For professional safety of the workers at the shipyard and their health, the draft suggested mandatory introduction of scrapping plan, ensure availability of sufficient number of fire extinguishers and rescue apparatus, and setting up of a first aid centre.
   The proposed policy empowers the law enforcers — navy, coast guard and other agencies — to restrict movement of any vessel trying to enter into Bangladesh water territory, if the vessel does not have prior permission from the government. They will also be empowered to force out any vessel from Bangladesh territory for non-compliance of the rules.
   As many as 700 out of 45,000 ocean-going ships are decommissioned as they become derelict every year across the world and their destinations are now developing countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. India hosts the largest portion of ship-scrapping.

Government offices, including the Bangladesh Secretariat, seemed to be victims of the officials’ and employees’ holiday hangover even on Wednesday, the second working day after the Eid vacation ended on Monday.
   Though most advisers and top officials attended offices at the secretariat in a ‘relaxed mood’, many officers and employees were yet to rejoin work on the day as another round of holidays will begin with the weekly holiday on Friday.
   Officials are likely to return to work from Monday since Sunday — the day Durga Puja, the major festival of the Hindu community, will be observed — will be a public holiday, said an official.
   The main entrance to the secretariat, which usually remains crowded with visitors, looked deserted on Wednesday and the number of vehicles inside it was much fewer than usual. Education adviser Ayub Quadri and health adviser ASM Matiur Rahman have gone abroad on official tours and energy adviser Tapan Chowdhury is out of the country on a personal visit. Most officials and employees of the ministries under the advisers who are abroad virtually did not do any work, excepting some routine stuff, said sources.
   Around seventy per cent of the civil servants and employees were present at the secretariat and the rest were on an extended leave to spend more time with their families and friends. Attendance at other government, semi-government and autonomous offices, state-run banks and commercial establishments was also less than usual.
   The number of visitors and lobbyists at the secretariat and public offices was negligible as administrative work remained virtually suspended due to the poor presence of officials and employees.
   Although the three-day holiday for Eid-ul-Fitr officially began on Saturday and ended on Monday, many government officials and employees enjoyed six consecutive days of holiday from last Wednesday, which was also a public holiday because of Lailatul Qadar, either by taking causal leave or skipping offices on Thursday.
   A number of officials at different ministries said that there was hardly any work done in most offices at the secretariat as many were yet to rejoin work while those who attended their offices spent most of the time gossiping with their colleagues.

The law and information adviser, Mainul Hosein, on Wednesday said the influence of partisan politics weakened the independent and just judicial process.
   Addressing the additional district and sessions judges at Judicial Administration Training Institute, he said the system of checks and balance failed to work and the government became arbitrary and corrupt in the past in every sphere of life.
   ‘Corruption and abuse of power prevailed over the rule of law. The corrupt ones in public life plundered public wealth and enjoyed immunity against the law,’ he told the special orientation course for the judges.
   The course was organised to facilitate the implementation of the judicial magistracy from November 1 dubbed as ‘commencement day of the separation of the judiciary from the executive.’ Recounting the pre-state of emergency scenario, the adviser said the whole democratic edifice fell apart requiring the army backing to save the nation from a danger of an imminent civil war.
   He said present caretaker government had faith in democracy and the rule of law by extending cooperation all the way for completion of the process of separating the judiciary from the influence of partisan politics and executive interference.
   ‘This caretaker government takes great satisfaction and pride for its success in finally achieving the important milestone by way of fulfilling the constitutional obligation to keep the judiciary its dignity of being independent of the control of the executive,’ he said.
   Mainul said, ‘By recognising the importance of judiciary’s independence, we are upholding the importance of human rights for a civilised existence in a free country.’
   Reminding role of the judges, he said now it was for the judges to make the judiciary strong and just to earn people’s full confidence.
   ‘It is only through personal integrity you can ensure people’s confidence in the judiciary,’ Mainul said, adding, ‘as judges you have also taken upon yourself the onerous task of sharing the present responsibilities of steering the country towards the goal of restoring democracy.’
   He said, ‘Together we must be successful in restoring democracy without which the judiciary shall not remain independent. The judiciary was not allowed independence because democracy was not allowed to succeed.’

Dubliner Anne Enright won the Man Booker Prize, one of the literary world’s most prestigious awards, on Tuesday for her bleak Irish family saga ‘The Gathering.’
   ‘We found it a very powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book’, chairman of the judges Howard Davies said after picking one of the outsiders from the short list.
   ‘It is an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language,’ he told reporters after the judges spent 2-1/2 hours closeted together picking the winner of the 50,000 pound ($100,000) prize.
   Enright herself described the book as ‘the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepy’.
   ‘When people pick up a book they may want something happy that will cheer them up. In that case, they shouldn’t really pick up my book,’ she has admitted.
   Asked if winning the famous prize under a harsh media spotlight might now provoke writer’s block, the 45-year-old Enright said: ‘I am no spring chicken so it won’t stop me squawking.’
   Her book tells the tale of the nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan who gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward, drink-fuelled brother Liam and relive a dark secret from his boyhood.
   Enright said of dysfunctional family sagas: ‘There is always a drunk, there is always someone who has been interfered with as a child, there is always someone who has been a colossal success.’
   ‘Family is something which is inescapable, there is no such thing as not being part of the family,’ she told reporters after beating hotly fancied British novelist Ian McEwan and New Zealander Lloyd Jones.
   ‘I do draw on the Irish tradition freely,’ she said, fulsome in praise of compatriot James Joyce. ‘Joyce threw a great light, he made everything possible,’ she added.
   The last Irish writer to win the Booker was John Banville two years ago for the equally bleak ‘The Sea’.

Abul Kalam Azad, a Bangladeshi horticulturist, has been among the five ‘model farmers’ in the Asia-Pacific region awarded this year for their outstanding achievement in farming.
   The regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has given the awards to encourage farmers of Asia and the Pacific, home to majority of the world’s hungry people, in spite of significant progress in poverty alleviation.
   Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presented the five Asian farmers with the FAO awards in a ceremony on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the UN body in Bangkok on Wednesday.
   Azad, the secretary to the local farmer’s association in the Comilla district headquarters, was honoured as a model horticulturist representing South Asia.
   After he had been discharged from the air force for being proved colour-blind in 1990, Azad chose to become a farmer and started with some fish ponds, and began growing vegetables along the pond banks. Later he also grew rice.
   Azad learnt farming techniques and technologies, experimenting with new vegetable crops, and also a hybrid strain of rice called Hira that doubles the yields, said a release issued by the UN body.
   The organisation believes there is no better solution to securing the right to food for the poor other than by empowering them with the capacity to enhance productivity and to eliminate poverty.
   ‘The rise in inequality, of incomes as well as non-income dimensions such as education and health services, especially in rural areas of Asia, is a major cause for concern,’ said He Changchui, the UN body’s Asia-Pacific chief.
   The global body maintains that there is a need to address the policy bias against sectors and individuals in which the poor are engaged.
   Four other awarded are Pramuan Charoenying of Thailand for community forestry, Ponifasio Ricky Westerlund of Samoa for home gardening, Nget Sareng of Cambodia for aquaculture and Ochirbat Ganzorig of Mongolia for agribusiness.

The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, on Wednesday made it clear to the EU presidency in Dhaka that Bangladesh did not support EU and US initiatives to impose tougher sanctions on Myanmar.
   The adviser said Bangladesh would forge ahead with plans to construct a Bangladesh-Myanmar highway.
   He said negotiations with Myanmar on allowing Bangladeshi agriculturists to farm Myanmar land on a contractual basis would continue.
   ‘Bangladesh fully supports the efforts undertaken by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Myanmar and hopes for a peaceful resolution to all issues concerned,’ Iftekhar said in a statement on his meeting with the Netherlands ambassador, BM ten Tusscher, at the foreign affairs ministry.
   The press statement said the adviser and the Dutch ambassador discussed regional issues including the Myanmar crisis.
   ‘We have extended support to the initiative of the UN to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. Gambari has also been accepted by the Myanmar government,’ Iftekhar told the news agency on Wednesday.
   ‘We will continue with plans to construct the Myanmar-Bangladesh friendship road, and continue negotiations on ‘contract’ farming.’
   Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal in August to construct a 23-kilometre cross boundary road from Teknaf in Bangladesh to Bowlibazar in Myanmar.
   The Myanmar government also agreed to allow Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to farm Myanmar land on a contractual basis. The final deal is yet to be signed.

Astronomers have found the biggest stellar black hole so far, a monster with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun, lurking in a nearby spiral-shaped galaxy.
   The find, located in a galaxy called Messier 33, has an even bigger companion – a close-orbiting star that is 70 times the mass of the Sun, according to an investigation led by Jerome Orosz of San Diego University, California.
   Black holes are among the most powerful forces in the Universe. They are believed to be concentrated fields of gravity which are so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape them.
   Stellar black holes derive from the collapse of stars, but typically range from about three to 14 or 15 solar masses.
   Another category of black holes are ‘supermassive’ holes, spotted at the centre of galaxies, that have masses millions, even billions, times that of the Sun.
   The paper appears on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal.
   The Orosz team were able to make their calculations with unusual accuracy – the estimate is plus or minus 1.45 solar masses – because the Messier 33 phenomenon is a so-called ‘eclipsing binary.’
   This means that the companion star passes directly in front of the black hole in its 3.45-day orbit, blocking out X-ray emissions from the hole.
   The regular fall and then rise in the X-ray signal provides the key indicator for calculating the ‘weight’ of the hole.

India edged a fluctuating final one-day international by two wickets in Mumbai, as the series ended 4-2 to Australia.
   Murali Kartik took 6-27,
   the best ODI return by a left-arm spinner and three batsmen fell first ball, although Ricky Ponting hit a 63rd one-day fifty.
   Australia mustered 193 all out but India were soon 8-2 inside four overs.
   Robin Uthappa gave them hope with two sixes in a fluent 47, and an unbroken 52 stand between Zaheer Khan and Kartik led them home with four overs to spare.
   The hosts omitted former skipper Rahul Dravid, who had made only 51 runs in the series, including two ducks, although Mahendra Dhoni insisted he had been merely rested.
   Left-armers Zaheer Khan and RP Singh found considerable movement with the new ball, but struggled to control it, sending down 14 wides between them.

The police found a bomb in a room of the pathology section at the Diabetic Hospital in Pabna Wednesday morning.
   Police sources said some employees of the hospital first saw the bomb when they opened the pathology room at around 9:00am. The bomb was found wrapped up with black tape and tied with electric wire, they added.
   On information, a team of the Rapid Action Battalion and the police came to the hospital and recovered the bomb.
   The district police superintendent, AFM Masum Robbani, told New Age that they sent the news to bomb expert at the Bogra Cantonment.

Five-day celebrations of Durga Puja, the greatest religious festival of Hindu community, got off to a festive start Wednesday evening across the country.
   The puja began with Shasthi rituals in the evening with devotees ringing bells and beating drums to mark the advent of incarnated deity Durga.
   Saptami Puja will be offered today while Mahashtami on Friday, Navami on Saturday and Dashami (Vijaya) on Sunday.
   The five-day festival will be wrapped up on Sunday through immersion of the images of goddess Durga and others.
   Devi Durga is the Hindus’ great goddess, the consort of Shiva, and she is worshiped in various forms corresponding to her two characteristics: benevolence to the good and fierceness to the evil.
   The puja is being held in different parts of the capital, particularly at Dhakeswari temple, Ramkrishna Mission, Jagannath Hall and in old part of the city.
   Meanwhile, the government has taken strict security measures to facilitate smooth puja celebrations.