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Foreign investment proposals registered with the Board of Investment dropped 84 per cent during January–June 2007 compared with the previous six months, showing a steep decline in the trends of capital inflow from abroad.
   Foreign direct investment proposals fell in value from $1,263.445 million in July–December 2006 to only $197.274 million in January–June 2007, according to the data compiled by the investment promotion agency until June. FDI proposals were worth $211.364 million during January–June 2006.
   The investment board is yet to update the investment data for three months after June 2007 although the officials concerned admitted that the trend in registration of investment proposals — both by foreigners and local entrepreneurs — was not so healthy.
   Domestic investment proposals in value dipped to almost a half at Tk 6,682.47 crore during the first half of 2007. The amount was Tk 12,975.63 crore in July–December 2006.
   Apart from investment figures, industrial production fell to 2.6 per cent year-on-year in May 2007, with a slowdown most pronounced in food production and in jute, cotton and leather industries, said the global economic and market analysis report by US-based Citicorp.
   Diminishing business confidence and the cost of transition are the main reasons behind the declining investment trend, said Mir Nasir Hossain, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
   He cautioned that the investment scenario was alarming for national industrialisation, employment generation and economic growth.
   ‘The investment figures reflect hesitation of the local businessmen. And potential foreign investors have apparently chose to wait and see what happens to the pending FDI proposals of $3 billion of Tata,’ said a high investment board official.
   A foreign investor, while explaining reasons of foreigners’ lack of interests at the moment, said the ‘state of emergency’ gave sort of negative signal about the country in attracting foreign investments.
   Bangladesh attracted $790 million in foreign direct investment in 2006, lower than $845 million of FDI in 2005, which was again up from $460 million in 2004. The FDI inflow totalled $350 million in 2003, $328 in 2002 and $354 million in 2001, according to the Bangladesh Bank data based on the actual inflow of foreign investment into the country.
   The latest investment board statistics show that it received foreign direct investment proposals worth $14 million in June 2007, $13.73 million in May, $92.2 million in April, $27.95 million in March, $41.71 million in February, $7.614 million in January, and $48.545 million in December 2006, $13.164 million in November, $32.034 million in October, $1,117.764 million in September, $31.861 million in August and $20.077 million in July.
   Month-wise break-up of local investment proposals in value is Tk 1,134.74 crore in June 2007, Tk 1,171.15 crore in May, Tk 1,157.25 crore in April, Tk 341.89 crore in March, Tk 1,785.28 crore in February, Tk 1,092 crore in January, Tk 1,447.9 crore in December 2006, Tk 1,381.71 crore in November, Tk 1,952.65 crore in October, Tk 2,616.74 crore in September, 3,993.88 crore in August and Tk 1,502.7 crore in July.
   The decline in the value of local investment in the past six months has reversed the increasing trend witnessed in the past one decade. The proposals by local entrepreneurs registered with the investment board were worth Tk 4,745.7 crore in the financial year 1996-97, Tk 6,621.0 crore in 1999-2000, Tk 8,806.6 in 2001-2002, Tk 13,546.1 crore in 2003-04, and Tk 18,370.3 crore in 2005-06.
   The recent Citigroup report, Emerging World, used the industrial production figures based on data preceding the recent floods and mentioned that further natural disasters, a setback to exports, inflation and politics were the key risks to Bangladesh’s economic outlook.
   Commercial banks are sitting on idle money of more than Tk 14,000 crore, which is a manifestation of sluggish economic activities.
   The import of capital machinery also fell by 28 per cent in the six months till June 2007 compared with the corresponding period of the previous year and an average annual growth of 35 per cent over the past five years. Imports declined by 27 per cent compared with the figure of the last six months of 2006, which were marked by political turmoil.
   ‘The initial crackdown on and the subsequent listing of corruption suspects have shaken the businessmen’s confidence. The government’s action also lacks uniformity, resulting in declining trends in investment,’ said economist Atiur Rahman.
   He said net economic growth would be significantly reduced not only by the declining local and foreign investment but also by the budget deficit at the beginning of the financial year, leading to lower public sector investment. He suggested that a political settlement should be reached to improve the situation.
   Mir Nasir Hossain described the declining trend as the cost of transition and correction for improving governance, and emphasised the need for concerted efforts to save the languishing industries.
   ‘We are trying to ensure that economic growth is not slowed down significantly,’ he said, expressing the hope that after the completion of the list of corruption suspects the businessmen would heave a ‘sigh of relief’ and concentrate on investment.

Most essential commodities registered further rise in prices after Eid, with onions marking a jump of Tk 10 on the wholesale market only on Friday.
   The Indian variety of onions sold for Tk 50 a kilogram on the wholesale market at Shyambazar, the largest wholesale centre of perishables, in Dhaka on Friday evening; the price was Tk 40 on Thursday. The local variety sold for Tk 54 a kilogram on Friday against the price of Tk 50 of Thursday.
   The Indian variety was retailed between Tk 50 and Tk 55 a kilogram in the city kitchen markets on Friday. The local variety sold between Tk 58 and Tk 65 a kilogram.
   Onions were retailed between Tk 42 and Tk 48 a kilogram a week ago and between Tk 34 and Tk 42 a month ago, according to records available with the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
   A Trading Corporation report on Friday calculated that prices of Indian onions to have jumped by up to 36 per cent in a month and by up to 217 per cent in a year. The price of the local variety jumped by 32 per cent in a month and by 158 per cent in a year.
   Declining supply earlier pushed up onion prices on the wholesale market by Tk 8 in three days after Eid.
   Ganesh Sarker of the Rafiq Enterprise on Friday told New Age, ‘Onions started marking up in the morning as the number of trucks carrying Indian onions to Bangladesh declined.’
   Onion prices have continued increasing for over a fortnight after India on October 1 imposed restrictions fresh export of onions till October 15.
   Former Dhaka Metropolitan Perishable Importers’ Association secretary Khandaker Babul said the exporters in India were not getting no-objection certificates for which they could not export onions.
   He said Indian exporters would not be able to export onions until the early harvest of the item from Nashik in Maharashtra, the major onion-producing region in India, becomes available on the market.
   Bangladesh consumes around one million tonnes of onions and supply from Indian meets about a half of the demand during off season, the sources said.
   The prices of atta, soya bean oil, potato and eggs have also increased in the week. Packed atta sold between Tk 33 and Tk 34, up by Tk 1 in a week, on Friday.
   Non-packed soya bean oil was retailed between Tk 80 and Tk 82, up by Tk 2 in a week, potato between Tk 20 and Tk 22 and a dozen eggs between Tk 16 and Tk 18.

The Election Commission has not yet decided as to who from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party should be invited to the dialogue on electoral reforms, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda has said.
   The commission will take a decision on the issue by the first week of November, he said.
   When his attention was drawn to the reports carried by three newspapers on Friday that the EC had decided to invite BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain to the dialogue, the chief election commissioner told New Age, ‘We have not yet taken a decision on the issue as we still have more than a month before we sit with the BNP for dialogue which is scheduled for November 24.’
   ‘Why should we make a decision so early,’ Huda, told New Age over telephone adding that he did not make any such comments to any newsman.
   ‘Generally we send invitation letter to a political party 15 days before the scheduled dialogue with it and we will hold a meeting of the commission sometime at the end of this month or in the first week of November to decide who from the BNP would be invited,’ he said.
   The EC will make a decision after going through the constitution of the BNP and examining whether the BNP chairperson has the authority to expel and appoint any of its leaders, the CEC explained.
   Khandaker Delwar Hossain was named the BNP secretary general by party chairperson Khaleda Zia after she expelled Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan as secretary general on September 3, the day she was arrested.
   Meanwhile, BNP chairperson’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah hailed the reported decision of the election commission to invite Delwar Hossain to the dialogue, while the expelled joint-secretary general, Ashraf Hossain, said that any such decision [inviting Delwar Hossain] on the part of the Election Commission would be ‘tantamount to going back on its avowed objectives’.
   Hannan Shah praised the CEC for ‘taking the right decision at the right time realising the truth’. But he could not confirm whether the party would sit with the commission for dialogue. ‘We will decide on the matter after consulting senior party leaders,’ he said.
   ‘I am happy like thousands of party activists about the Election Commission’s decision,’ Hannan Shah said and hoped that those who had tried to mislead the BNP leaders and activists would stop their activities.
   ‘The commission’s decision once again proved that the expelled people have no place in the party. No one is with them. People of Bangladesh never accept invalid coins. I hope they will come to their senses,’ he added.
   Followers of the expelled party secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, gave guarded reactions to the matter. Ashraf Hossain, a key follower of Mannan Bhuiyan, said ‘I am not yet sure whether the commission has made any such decision [ to invite Delwar] but if the commission invites anybody ignoring us it would mean the commission is drifting away from its avowed objectives.’
   He said the Election Commission would talk with political parties, not with any individual. ‘We represent the mainstream of the party and most of the former lawmakers and leaders are with us.’

An architect, who was stabbed by muggers in Chandanpura area, died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital Thursday night.
   The deceased was identified as Sakhawat Ullah, 26, son of Mahbub Ullah, a resident of Chunuti area under Lohagara upazila in the district.
   The police said the muggers stabbed Sakhawat to take away his mobile phone set and other belongings at around 3:00am while he was heading home
   in a rickshaw on his arrival at GEC crossing in the city from Dhaka.
   Sakhawat was rushed to CMCH where he died at around 9:45pm, hospital sources said.

The Power Division has warned a Russian and an Indian contractor of stern action if they fail to complete rehabilitation and repairs of two power generation units of Ghorashal and Baghabari plants by the extended deadlines of November 15 and January 15 respectively.
   The Russian Technopromexport, which was awarded the contract to rehabilitate and modernise two 55MW units of Ghorashal power plant, failed to complete the work of unit-1 by August deadline, sources in the Power Development Board and Power Division said.
   The TPE then sought a time extension till November 15 to complete the job. It is supposed to begin the rehabilitation and maintenance of unit-2 after brining the unit-1 back into production.
   The other contractor, Indian Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, also informed the PDB that it would not be able to complete the repairs of the 71MW Baghabari power plant by the December 15 deadline and sought one-month time extension, the sources said.
   ‘Both the companies have been granted the time extensions. But, if they fail to complete the work by the extended deadlines, their payments will be stopped and no TPE or BHEL staff will be allowed at the plants after that. We may also request the government to cancel their visas as well,’ said a source.
   The PDB in a letter on October 9 informed the TPE that it would not make any further payment if the company failed to complete the rehabilitation work and bring the power generation unit back into operation by the extended deadline of November 15.
   In the letter, the board also warned the company that, if it failed to meet the new deadline, no TPE officials would be allowed to enter the Ghorashal plant after that.
   Sources said the energy and power adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, recently visited the Baghabari power plant, which has been out of order for months now, and found it in a miserable condition.
   The adviser blasted the plant officials including the manager for their leniency towards the Indian company. He also criticised the Power Division officials for slack monitoring of the progress in the contracted work.
   The sources said the Power Division earlier this month summoned BHEL officials and gave them warnings similar to that issued to the TPE, if the company failed to meet the deadline.
   They said the minutes of the meeting between the Power Division and BHEL officials would be sent to the PDB for issuing a formal warning to the Indian company.
   They, however, expect both the companies to complete the contracted jobs and bring the power units back into operation by the respective deadlines.

At least 138 people were killed and more than 300 injured in an attack on former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession, officials said Friday, updating an earlier toll.
   ‘According to latest figures 138 people died in the attack,’ ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told the news agency.
   Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said the number of wounded was ‘in excess of 325 and many of them are in critical condition.’
   Farooqi said no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted Benazir as she was leading a mammoth rally in central Karachi to welcome her home after eight years in exile. She escaped unhurt.
   Among those killed were six policemen, Farooqi said, adding that the number could still rise.
   The streets, packed with hundreds of thousands of her jubilant supporters, quickly became a scene of bloody carnage.
   It was the worst suicide attack in Pakistan’s history and cast a huge cloud over hopes that her return, under a deal cut with the president, Pervez Musharraf, might end months of political turmoil in the South Asian country.
   Military ruler Musharraf called her to ‘convey his deepest sorrow over the terrorist attack’ and pledged to arrest the culprits, a presidential spokesman, retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, said.
   ‘We all condemn this terrorism and no one should take advantage of the situation and start a blame game,’ he quoted Musharraf as saying during the call.
   Benazir’s party vowed she would stay in Pakistan to fight general elections in January, seen as a key step to returning the nuclear-armed nation of some 160 million people to civilian rule.
   ‘She will stay in Pakistan, she will not leave, she is determined,’ Safdar Abbasi, a senator for Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party, said at her Karachi residence, Bilawal House.
   While admitting Islamist extremists were likely responsible for the attack itself, she stressed such groups could not operate without logistical support from people in positions of power.
   Speaking to Paris Match in English, she blamed Musharraf’s government for failing to prevent Thursday night’s attack.
   The blasts came hours after Benazir had flown in from Dubai, sobbing as she set foot on Pakistani soil for the first time since 1999, having shrugged off warnings that al-Qaeda and Taliban militants would try to kill her.
   Blood and body parts were scattered widely across the scene and doctors at hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, struggled to keep pace.
   ‘It was like walking through an abattoir,’ said an AFP photographer who had been close to the bombing. ‘Some people were lying around intact, others were completely dismembered.’
   Hospital officials said nearly 400 people were injured.
   The explosion damaged the specially fortified campaign bus decked out with portraits of the ex-prime minister and her father which Bhutto had been driven on through the crowds for more than eight hours.
   Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said a grenade was thrown into the crowd seconds before the suicide attacker blew himself up.
   ‘The impact was so high because the bomber used things like pellets and nails, which always have a splintering effect,’ Cheema added.
   He said the blast ‘appears to be the handiwork of militants who have been creating acts of terrorism in the country.’
   The deputy information minister, Tariq Azeem, said there had been a prior threat by Baitullah Mehsud, a pro-Taliban warlord linked to a string of attacks since July, to launch suicide attacks against Benazir.
   Her husband Asif Ali Zardari, however, blamed the Intelligence Bureau the country’s premier civilian spy agency.
   Benazir had returned from self-imposed exile after Musharraf dropped corruption charges against her in the hope her popularity could shore up his grip on power.
   She had mostly worked out a power-sharing deal with him, but his re-election as president earlier this month is now being challenged the courts.
   About 20,000 security personnel had been deployed to protect Benazir but the provincial governor said in view of the ‘real threats’, authorities had urged her party to wind up the procession faster.
   ‘Unfortunately, the terrorists got their opportunity,’ governor Ishrat-ul-Ibad told Dawn Television.
   Dressed in a green tunic, her head covered with a white scarf —green and white are Pakistan’s national colours — Benazir had for hours stood in the open on top of the truck, ignoring police advice to stay behind bullet proof glass, as it edged through crowds waving party flags.
   Benazir appeared to have had forebodings of an attempt on her life.
   ‘They might try to assassinate me. I have prepared my family and my loved ones for any possibility,’ she told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
   At least three militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban were plotting suicide attacks, according to a provincial official.

Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto vowed on Friday to fight militancy after an ‘attack on democracy’ by a suicide bomber during her homecoming parade killed at least 138 people.
   ‘The attack was not on me, the attack was on what I represent,’ Benazir told a press conference in the port city. ‘It was an attack on democracy and it was an attack on the very unity and integrity of Pakistan.’
   Benazir pledged to defy ‘cowards’ from al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups who had vowed to launch suicide attacks against her before she flew home from Dubai.
   ‘If it means sacrificing our lives, then we are prepared to risk our lives, but we are not prepared to surrender our great nation to the militants,’ said Benazir, wearing a black armband in memory of the victims.
   Benazir further promised to stay in Pakistan to fight general elections in January, seen as a key step to returning the nuclear-armed nation of some 160 million people to civilian rule.
   It was the worst suicide attack in Pakistan’s history and cast a cloud over hopes that her return, under a deal cut with the president, Pervez Musharraf, might end months of political turmoil in the South Asian country.
   Military ruler Musharraf called Benazir to ‘convey his deepest sorrow over the terrorist attack’ and pledged to arrest the culprits, a presidential spokesman, retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, told the news agency.
   ‘We all condemn this terrorism and no one should take advantage of the situation and start a blame game,’ he quoted Musharraf as saying.
   Benazir earlier accused supporters of late military ruler Mohammed Zia ul-Haq of being behind the blasts, in an interview published in French on the internet site of Paris Match magazine.
   Zia overthrew Benazir’s father, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1977 and had him hanged two years later, while her brother was shot dead here in 1996.
   While admitting Islamist extremists were likely responsible for the attack itself, she stressed such groups could not operate without logistical support from people in positions of power.
   Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, however, blamed the Intelligence Bureau, the country’s premier civilian spy agency.
   The United States, which sees Pakistan as a key ally in its ‘war on terror,’ led the global outcry following the deadly blasts.
   Australia said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, while the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, denounced the bombing.

Two more most wanted criminals of Dhaka are likely to be sent back from India to the Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department by this month.
   The two, Haris Ahmed and Tanvirul Islam Joy, wanted by the Dhaka police for long have been in the custody of the Indian Criminal Investigation Department in Kolkata. The BNP-led government on December 27, 2001 announced cash reward on their arrest.
   The Indian police in Kolkta arrested Joy on May 4 and Haris in July. Joy was reported sick during his arrest as he had surgery in the legs a couple of months ago.
   The police arrested him in possession of two passports — one of Bangladesh and another of India. A case related to his Indian passport is pending with a Kolkata court which is likely to be disposed of in a few days, sources in the Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department said.
   As for report on eight more wanted criminals of Dhaka being arrested in Kolkata published in Dhaka daily newspapers, sources in the Bangladesh police said only two of the 23 most wanted criminals of Dhaka were in the custody of the Kolkata police.
   ‘The Kolkata Criminal Investigation Department arrested five criminals of Dhaa. We have already brought three back home. The two are likely to be brought home by this month,’ a Dhaka CID official told New Age.
   ‘We have sent the pictures and particulars of some criminals after the Kolkata CID asked for them to keep watch on the criminals,’ he said.
   Bangladesh on October 7 received three wanted criminals of Dhaka — Naimul Hasan alias Habibur Rahman Taj, Mohammad Sohel alias Ibrahim and Biplob Rahman alias Lambu Selim — sent back from Kolkata.
   A 12-member CID team received the three at the Benapole border and brought them to Dhaka. The three were remanded in custody for seven days on October 8; but the police handed them over to court on the fifth day of their remand because of Eid-ul-Fitr. The three will be placed on remand again and a hearing in this regard has been posted for Monday.
   The three are likely to be interrogated by the task force for interrogation once they are remanded in custody for the second time, the source said.
   ‘The three were handed over to Bangladesh in a friendly gesture although there is no extradition treaty between the countries,’ said the Bangladesh CID chief, additional inspector general Fani Bhushan Chowdhury.

The programmes and projects of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are designed to benefit the corporate houses of the developed countries, speakers at a discussion in the city said on Friday.
   The participants of the discussion on the anti-people policies of the two Bretton Woods institutions, organised by Voice, a non-governmental organisation, suggested more rigorous monitoring of activities of these lending agencies and hinted at the possibility of holding a people’s tribunal.
   Piash Karim, a professor of economics at BRAC University, referred to a damning report of the Meltzer Commission on the World Bank which said that 70 per cent of the World Bank’s lending was made only in seven countries and that 80 per cent of its resources were spent on such countries that were able to repay their debts. ‘Even in the case of lending there is an obvious bias in this agency.’
   He said it was not merely a matter of coincidence that individuals who previously in their careers had acted to further US policies worldwide, for instance Robert Macnamara and Paul Wolfowitz, were later chosen to head the bank. It is evident that the lending agency is used as a tool by the United States to serve its interests.
   Piash suggested formation of a tribunal on the activities of these agencies and demanded accountability of their programmes.
   Melissa Hussain, a professor of English at the North South University, dwelt upon how these agencies exert and retain their influence across the world through their money, knowledge, and power.
   She said these agencies furthered their neo-liberal propaganda by establishing themselves as knowledge bases on the one hand and exercising their power and monetary resources on the other and forced their clients to undertake policies that the agencies preferred.
   She said an analysis would reveal how these agencies manipulated their data sets to establish their preferred economic policies as the best options. These only lead towards further privatisation and liberalisation without any regard for actual development or the rising inequity among the general people.
   Anu Muhammad, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said their were indications in the latest annual publication of the World Bank, the World Development Report of 2008 focusing on agriculture, that the bank intended to completely commercialise this sector.
   This, he suggested, would follow from the green revolution of the 60’s which eventually led to an increase in the use of chemical inputs and
   gradually destroyed the soil fertility and environment, all in the name of higher yield of food grains.
   He said the World Bank’s crusade against corruption and advocacy for good governance were merely eyewashes
   as it did not believe in them but just chose to implement such programmes in places where they suited its interests.
   ‘Many a corrupt regime have been provided with generous assistance from these agencies, while many a regime genuinely committed towards eradicating corruption have been criticised by them.’
   ‘These agencies, through their exercise, ensure that the cost of living increases and that poor countries gradually become wholly dependent on their assistance and act as captive markets for corporations based in the developed countries,’ he said.
   Anu also suggested forming a people’s tribunal, where
   people would give their testimonies regarding how they had been affected by the policy prescriptions of the lending agencies.
   Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of Voice, presented the keynote paper and moderated the session.

At least 12 people, including an army sergeant and a child, were killed and 30 injured in a bus-truck head-on collision at Dhankundi in Sherpur upazila of Bogra on the Dhaka-Bogra Highway Friday.
   The police and witnesses said the Dhaka-bound bus of SA Paribahan from Dinajpur collided with the Bogra-bound goods laden truck at about 1:15pm, leaving nine people dead and 33 injured. The truck fell into a ditch after the accident.
   The injured were taken to Sherpur Upazila Health Complex and Bogra Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital where three people died after admission.
   Ten of the deceased were identified as army sergeant Ariful Islam, 40, Dwip, 8, Rupa, 28, her domestic help Mahfuza, 15, Badal, 25, Rumi, 25, Akhtaruzzaman, 19, Masud Rana, 25, Farhad, 22, and Ataur Rahman, 18.
   The police seized the bus and the truck, but the helpers and drivers of both the vehicles managed to flee.
   Senior police officials and the upazila nirbahi officer of Sherpur visited the spot.

Bangladesh condemned the bombings in Karachi in the wake of return of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto that left 138 death and over 400 injured.
   A spokesman of the foreign ministry termed the bombings a dastardly act of cowardice.
   He conveyed heart-felt sympathy to the bereaved families and prayed for early recovery of the injured, said a press release.
   Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped a suicide bombing that shattered her homecoming procession and killed up to 138 people hours after she returned to Pakistan Thursday night.

Iconic Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto had already had a life filled with personal tragedies before the bomb carnage among the mammoth crowd that welcomed her home from exile.
   The two-time prime minister of the turbulent Islamic republic embarked on her political career in her teens after her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged by then military dictator General Zia-ul Haq.
   Benazir senior, who laid the foundations for Pakistan’s nuclear capability as president and later prime minister, was toppled in 1977 by Zia, who sent him to the gallows spurning all international appeals.
   Zia fostered Islamic militancy in Pakistan and made crushing the Bhutto family and its Pakistan People’s Party his mission until he died in a plane crash in 1988.
   The party founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1967 kept going despite persistent persecution by the powerful military establishment.
   And the Bhuttos have remained one of Pakistan’s top political families amid a string of tragedies. In 1985, Benazir’s brother Shah Nawaz died of poisoning in his apartment in the south of France.
   Eleven years later, her older brother Murtaza, who was accused of involvement in terrorism, was shot dead in Karachi. Benazir blamed Pakistan’s intelligence services for his death.
   The ex-premier, despite the apparent failure of her two corruption-tainted terms in power, continues to enjoy huge support, particularly among the millions of urban and rural poor in this impoverished South Asian nation.
   The family is still disliked by the military because of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s insistence on civilian rule in a country that has spent more than half its existence since 1947 under the thumb of the army. He forcibly retired a number of senior officers against the backdrop of Pakistan’s military debacle with India in 1971.
   Benazir’s recent turnaround to negotiate with military ruler president Pervez Musharraf has been widely criticised, but she insists her aim is a peaceful transition from military to civilian rule.
   And the massive turnout in Karachi showed she still commands the loyalty of a large section of the population who respond positively to her.
   While she retains the potential to win a third term in power in general elections in January, her future remains uncertain, threatened by assassination attempts or the displeasure of the powerful military top brass, analysts say.
   ‘A military with political ambitions will always distrust a leader whose popular appeal is widespread,’ political analyst Hasan Askari told the news agency.
   ‘The army will not tolerate any civilian leader who could challenge their monopoly of political power and Benazir is the only leader who retains the potential to mobilise people against the military,’ he added.
   ‘In the political domain the strengths of a leader or a family evoke a lot of opposition from their political competitors, and Bhutto’s family is one such example. Their political successes become liabilities for them.’

The LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal’s comments blaming some ‘over-enthusiastic’ police officers for the eviction of hawkers from the city pavements has caused frustration in the police force.
   A number of senior police officers resented the comments made by the adviser, who himself was the chief of the police force, and said his remarks had tarnished the image of the force as a whole.
   Anwarul Iqbal Wednesday claimed that the move for evicting hawkers from pavements was not on the agenda of the interim government and blamed some ‘over-enthusiastic’ police officers for the action.
   High officials of the Dhaka Metropolitan police on Friday said that hawker eviction drives were conducted by the joint forces of which the police were merely a component.
   A senior official of DMP told New Age, ‘Police forces move at the directives of the government and our main duty is to maintain law and order… we do not have any rivalry with the hawkers and so we have no special interest in such actions.’
   An official of the special branch of police said the force always conducted all drives at the directives of the home ministry.
   ‘If our drives have any negative impact, the government instantly blames the police and takes departmental actions against the officials concerned,’ he lamented.

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commission has decided to ask the mobile phone operators to nominate officials to receive and implement any instruction of the commission regarding any emergency situation, such as shutdown of mobile network on security ground.
   ‘We have decided to ask the mobile operators to send a list of their nominated officials to the commission as the first persons to contact for dealing with such [emergency] situations effectively,’ said a BTRC official Friday.
   The official said, besides security ground, the commission would also make firsthand contact with the nominated officials on other emergency situations, such as devastating flood or storm, to give necessary directions on how to handle them.
   He said the commission also would nominate two or three of its officials to work with their counterparts in the mobile phone companies.
   According to BTRC officials, the officials nominated by the mobile phone companies would furnish the commission with certain information, such as addresses and land phone numbers of their offices and residences and their mobile phone numbers, to facilitate seamless communication even in adverse situations.
   BTRC officials said the commission took the decision in September after it had faced difficulties in implementing its order to shut down the mobile phone networks during the curfew in late August as many officials of the mobile phone operators whom the BTRC contacted said they were not authorised to shutdown the network immediately without the consent from their higher authorities.
   The commission ordered to shut down the mobile networks of the country’s six operators at least four times between August 22 and August 29 on security ground following the imposition of curfew by the interim government to quell the countrywide student unrest demanding withdrawal of troops from all universities as well as lifting of the state of emergency.
   The commission officials also found it hard to get the mobile phone company executives for extension of the shutdown time as it did not have the land phone numbers of them. It forced the BTRC to wait for reopening of the mobile networks for giving further instructions, commission officials said.
   Moreover, the mobile phone operators also found it confusing as instructions were coming from various sources. The operators later requested the commission to address the issue.
   ‘We have learnt the lesson and decided to streamline the process,’ said a BTRC official.
   According to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act, 2001, the government, if feels it necessary, can order suspension of mobile phone operations.
   Section 97 (2) of the act says if the president declares an emergency or if the government feels that the state’s security and law and order situation are in danger, it can suspend or amend any licence or certificate or permit issued under this act, or suspend any particular activity of, or a particular service provided by, an operator, and it will not have to pay any compensation for doing so.

Dr Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, has appreciated Bangladesh’s strong role in various sectors of the United Nations including the UN peacekeeping operations.
   He made this remark when the chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, met him at the President of General Assembly’s Executive Office at the UN Headquarters Thursday afternoon.
   General Moeen congratulated Kerim on assuming the presidentship of the 62nd session of the General Assembly. He expressed his confidence that under Kerim’s leadership, the General Assembly would gain more pace this year in its proceedings.
   The army chief highlighted the fact that Bangladesh is one of the top Troop Contributing Country of the UN Peacekeeping Operations with around 10,000 personnel deployed at present.
   He stressed the need for more representation of Bangladesh in the decision-making level of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations both in the Headquarters and in the Field Missions.
   Kerim, who is from Macedonia, recalled the excellent performance of Bangladeshi peacekeepers in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also praised the role of Bangladeshi peacekeepers in Kosovo.
   They also discussed challenges faced by the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur, Sudan, where a big number of Bangladeshi peacekeepers are deployed right now.
   General Moeen invited Kerim to visit Bangladesh at his convenient time. Kerim accepted the invitation and assured that he will sincerely try to visit Bangladesh sometime next year.
   General Moeen reassured Kerim of the continuation of Bangladesh’s strong commitment towards UN Peacekeeping Operations.
   Ambassador Ismat Jahan, permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations and Brigadier General Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul, defence adviser to the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, were present.
   Earlier, ambassador Jahan hosted a lunch in honour of the visiting army chief, which was also attended by senior officials of UN Peacekeeping Operations.

Visiting army chief General Moeen U Ahmed has said they favour upazila parishad elections ahead of parliamentary polls or both simultaneously.
   Addressing the Bangladeshi-born journalists at the Consulate office in New York Thursday afternoon, he said the Election Commission would set the date for parliamentary elections.
   Responding to a volley of questions during an hour-long conference, Moeen said the army was only helping the government in improving law and order and in preparing electoral roll, but ‘it appeared some people wanted us to declare martial law.’
   Disclosing his future plan, the army chief said he wanted to retire from the army respectfully and dedicate himself to the services of the orphans.
   Moeen said he was misquoted by some media about his remarks in London on assuming the office of the president and said he had stated that he had no ‘intention’ to become the president.
   Asked about alleged government influence to punish former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, he said, ‘I have nothing against them… We respect them. One is daughter of Bangabandhu and another is wife of a president.’
   The army chief said he was not calling them corrupt. If the corruption charges are not proved against them, ‘they will come out free.’
   Asked whether Pakistani model is being followed in Bangladesh Moeen appeared annoyed with such speculation and said, ‘We left them 36 years ago. The Bangladesh army fought against the Pakistani army, we fought and liberated our country.’
   On anti-corruption drive, he said, ‘Corruption has entered the vein of society. There is corruption everywhere; it afflicts politics, business and civil society. It has been a disease.’
   Moeen sought cooperation from expatriate journalists in finding out the smuggled money hidden or invested abroad.
   ‘Why don’t you help? This is your nation,’ he told the reporters.
   The army chief said the government had done a lot of reforms in the past and more would be done in the remaining period. He said a task force was constituted to cleanse corruption in RAJUK and another task force would be constituted to clear corruption in NBR.
   Replying to a question, he said names appearing on the list of suspected corrupts did not mean they were corrupt until proved through investigation.
   To another question, he said people would find out honest and competent candidates for the next elections.
   Asked when the state of emergency will be lifted, Moeen said the government could say about it.
   Asked why the caretaker government now looks shaky, he said the government was not at all shaky. Goodwill of the government should not be seen as shakiness. The government acts showing respect to the public opinion.
   Bangladesh permanent representative to the United Nations ambassador Ismat Jahan and Consul General Shamsul Huq were present.

A senior US army officer who was Saddam Hussein’s jailer was himself jailed after a court martial in Baghdad on Friday found him guilty of charges including illegal possession of secret documents.
   Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, 52, the former commander of a detention facility that held Saddam before his execution last December, was sentenced to two years in prison, dismissed from the army and ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances.
   He was also found guilty of refusing to obey an order and behaviour unbecoming an officer for his relationship with an Iraqi woman interpreter. The sentence covers those charges and three others he pleaded guilty to at a pre-trial hearing.
   He was acquitted on the more serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carried a term of life imprisonment, for allowing detainees to use his mobile telephone for unmonitored calls.
   Steele was the highest-ranking US officer to face a charge of aiding the enemy since Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, was charged in September 2003. The army eventually dropped the case.
   Prosecutor Captain Michael Rizzotti told the court on Friday that nearly 12,000 secret documents had been found in a search of Steele’s living quarters.
   ‘(They were) documents that if (they had) fallen into the wrong hands could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation. He did not get authority to take these documents,’ Rizzotti said.
   Much of the trial was held in closed session because of the sensitive nature of the documents, but reporters were given a glimpse of one which contained aerial photographs of Kandahar airbase and Bagram airfield in Afghanistan.
   Steele, whom the prosecution painted as a maverick who believed rules did not apply to him, opted not to testify during the court martial but read out a statement during sentencing in which he apologised ‘for my stupidity’.
   He said he had lost 40 lbs (18 kg) while in custody, during which time he was confined to his cell for 23 hours a day.
   ‘I violated the confidence and trust of those who selected me for the mission,’ he said.

The government is contemplating construction of a railway-only bridge over the river Jamuna for movement of trains.
   ‘We are considering an option to construct a second bridge on Jamuna parallel with the existing one for rail traffic only,’ said a top official of the Bangladesh Railway.
   The official said a separate railway bridge was necessary for movement of trains, particularly container trains, as the existing track on the Jamuna bridge was not strong enough to transport such containers.
   ‘The soundness of the bridge will be at stake, if containers heavier than the capacity of the bridge are transported through the existing track,’ the official said.
   The official, however, said a feasibility study would be carried out soon to determine the cost of building such a bridge.
   ‘We are approaching the lending agencies for funding the feasibility study,’ said the official.
   The official said as the railway authorities were actively considering construction of a new bridge, it had recently suspended a $25 million project to strengthen the track on the existing Jamuna bridge for bearing higher ‘axle load’.
   The state-owned organisation last year sent a proposal to the Planning Commission to increase the load-bearing capacity of the bridge for movement of heavy freight trains in future. Currently eight trains pass through the bridge everyday and all are passenger trains.
   On railways the axle load is the maximum weight of a train per pair of wheels allowable for a given section of the track. The maximum axle load is related to the strength of the track, which is determined by the weight of rails, density of sleepers and fixtures, train speed, amount of ballast, and strength of bridges.
   The 4.8 kilometre Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge was built at the cost of around $900 million with a dual-gauge railway track and was opened for traffic on 23 June, 1998. The longest bridge in the country developed several cracks in March last year, which, the officials suspect, was caused by the movement of trains.

Field officers and employees of two female stipend projects have not been paid their salary since January because of administrative logjam resulting in disruption in regular operation of the projects.
   Some of such unpaid officers, out of the total 470, blamed the top bosses of the projects for the logjam and sufferings. But the bosses said the ‘callousness’ of the education ministry officials was responsible for the situation.
   ‘About 90,000 girl students of 19 upazilas under Phase II of the female secondary stipend project have received their stipend for the January–June period in September, but the salaries of 95 officers and employees of the project have remained unpaid since January,’ said an upazila project official.
   ‘The callousness of project director M Abdur Razzaque is responsible for our sufferings,’ an official of one of the 19 upazilas said. ‘The papers required for the disbursement of our salaries were not sent to the education ministry in time.’
   ‘We are not also getting the expenses to run the office,’ the official told New Age. ‘We are borrowing money from others to run our families and the 19 upazila projects offices located in remote, rural areas.’
   Razzaque, the director of the largest stipend project, said, ‘The officers and employees of the 19 upazilas were absorbed into my project in December 2006. I sought ministry’s opinion on their salaries, but any decision regarding the matter is yet to reach us.’
   He said this was what responsible for the non-payment of the salaries. ‘I do not know when they will get salaries,’ Razzaque said.
   ‘The final decision on salary disbursement will be made at the finance ministry,’ said a joint secretary of the education ministry. He brushed aside the allegation of ‘callousness.’
   An additional secretary, however, said all the officers and employees would soon get their salaries in arrears.
   Likewise, 371 officers and employees of 53 upazilas under the Secondary Education Sector Development Project have not been paid their salary since January.
   M Afzalur Rahman, director of the project, told New Age in the past week that he had written to the education ministry in June seeking steps for the disbursement of the salaries.
   ‘The decision depends on the education ministry,’ he said. ‘I am not sure when the officers and employees will get their salaries.’
   ‘The regular activities of the project are hampered as the field officers are not getting their salaries,’ a project official said. ‘We cannot force them to do their job as they remain unpaid.’

The new president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, wants to allow private-sector companies to help finance aid to the poorest countries, an innovation already stirring controversy.
   The unprecedented outreach already has met with a positive response, Zoellick said Thursday at a news conference here, without naming the companies.
   ‘This is at an early stage,’ Zoellick said in response to a question about a Financial Times interview published Thursday in which he revealed the World Bank’s new strategy.
   Zoellick said the Bank has had ‘some discussions’ with companies ‘but we also have to work this through our board processes.’
   ‘It also could help us broaden the base of support for the funding of the poorest, the 81 poorest countries in the world,’ Zoellick, a former US trade chief and Goldman Sachs executive, said ahead of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings this weekend.
   Zoellick, who took the helm of the Bank in July after a favouritism scandal forced his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz, to resign, underscored his strategy to integrate the Bank’s activities into a global network.
   He said he had ‘received a lot of emails from people I know in the private sector saying this could be a great thing.’
   He added, ‘If we are able to move it forward this could offer us an opportunity to serve another one of the strategic directions I would like to encourage which is how to make sure we draw the private sector in.’
   Zoellick said he saw no real challenge in getting board approval for the private-sector strategy.
   ‘I don’t see any particular problem, but until we get through that we cannot really take the steps with the companies,’ he said, without providing further details.
   Zoellick was questioned about the World Bank’s 15th fund-raising campaign to rebuild the coffers of the International Development Association.
   The IDA is the Bank’s main lender to countries whose populations live on less that two dollars per day, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
   ‘By the end of the year I hope that we will have our IDA contributions,’ Zoellick said.
   The next IDA meeting will be held Tuesday in the US capital, with a subsequent meeting scheduled on November 12-13 in Dublin, Ireland.
   ‘I believe we are on track to do better than IDA 14,’ he said Tuesday in a press briefing, referring to the 14th fund-raising campaign which raised 33 billion dollars.
   The World Bank recently announced it would double its IDA contribution to 3.5 billion dollars.
   But Zoellick’s innovation, which he said could be extended to private foundations such as that of US billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates, drew immediate fire from some quarters.
   ‘The private sector getting involved in the replenishment of IDA raises serious questions,’ said Sebastien Fourmy, a spokesman of Oxfam International, a nongovernmental organisation.
   The World Bank is ‘a public institution accountable to citizens,’ not to shareholders, said Fourmy.
   Mark Weisbrot, economist and co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, said: ‘It sounds terrible,’ adding ‘there is all kinds of room for corruption.’

About 76,000 people fled their homes in eastern Myanmar over the last year because of armed conflict and human rights abuses by the ruling junta, an aid agency said Friday.
   Torture, military attacks and random arrests have increased since the last survey of the region two years ago, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium said in a report.
   The atrocities are taking place in remote regions of eastern Myanmar, where the government has battled ethnic rebels for nearly 60 years, leaving a total of about 500,000 people displaced, the group said.
   Images of the junta’s deadly suppression of pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks were broadcast around the world last month, but TBBC said the violations in eastern Myanmar are happening far from the world’s view.
   ‘The regime’s militarisation of border areas has brought terror to local ethnic communities,’ said Jack Dunford, the group’s executive director.
   ‘The destruction of food supplies and other threats to livelihoods continue to be committed with impunity.’
   About 76,000 people fled their homes over the last year, with 160 villages destroyed, said the TBBC, an alliance of 10 humanitarian agencies.
   International pressure has been building on the regime over its crackdown on the pro-democracy protests, which left 13 dead and more than 3,000 jailed.
   Dunford said while the United Nations is trying to press the junta to open negotiations with the pro-democracy opposition, international efforts should also focus on the plight of people living in remote parts of the country.
   ‘We welcome the United Nation’s efforts to broker tri-partite dialogue and promote national reconciliation,’ he said in a statement.
   ‘Yet, it is essential to specifically address atrocities being carried out in remote areas and to demand an immediate ceasefire.’
   Broad swaths of eastern Myanmar were once controlled by the rebel Karen National Union, but the group is now reduced to a string of bases pressed against the Thai border.

The Election Commission has invited the Awami League to its dialogue on electoral reforms for November 4.
   The acting AL general secretary, Ashraful Islam, told New Age on Friday that he had received the EC’s invitation letter in the evening. The commission sent the letter on Thursday to the central AL office on Bangabandhu Avenue, he added.
   The party will decide on the issue at a working committee meeting scheduled for Monday, Ashraf said adding that most of the party leaders were in favour of joining the talks.
   ‘We hope the party will arrive at a unanimous decision on whether to participate in the dialogue with the Election Commission,’ he said.
   The acting party president, Zillur Rahman, maintains contacts with senior presidium members Amir Hossain Amu and Abdur Razzak, who are now abroad, over phone and another senior presidium member Tofail Ahmed is also working in this regard.

The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has dismissed calls from India’s main opposition party to resign after his apparent climb-down on sealing a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, saying he hoped the deal could move ahead.
   ‘Well, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) of all parties has the least moral right to make such a demand,’ Singh was widely quoted on Friday in Indian newspapers as saying.
   The BJP is India’s main Hindu nationalist opposition party.
   The prime minister said he hoped the nuclear deal would still go forward.
   ‘I have mentioned that there are some difficulties. We are working in a coalition. We have to find a way out and I have not given up hope,’ he said.
   The controversial agreement — which aims to give India access to much-needed but long-denied US nuclear fuel and reactors — had pushed Singh’s coalition to the brink of collapse after its communist allies rejected the pact.

Anti-corruption measures have been incorporated in the training module for government officials, the establishment secretary, Abdus Salam Khan, told New Age on Wednesday.
   The government in a bid to curb corruption has asked the civil servants to submit wealth statements to the authorities concerned, he said.
   The secretary said the administration was already going through a process of reforms which would help to minimise irregularities in public offices.
   A committee was also working to sort out to what extent government information can be made public to make the administration more accountable and transparent, he said.
   A recent seminar on ‘anti-corruption policies and practices in public administration,’ organised by the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre and the United Nations Development Programme in the BPATC auditorium at Savar put forth a set of recommendations for the government to address the issues of corruption.
   As for recommendations put forth at the seminar, Abdus Salam said they would consider the recommendations which could be adopted to address the issues of corruption in government offices.
   The government-initiated seminar also recommended enactment of laws to ensure people’s right to know and making government officials more accessible for the people to reduce corruption, now a major challenge for the interim administration.
   ‘Access to information is the need of the time and many countries have enacted laws to ensure people’s right to know,’ he said.
   The seminar observed that corruption was a low risk, but a high-profit business in Bangladesh. It recommended that the best way to deal with it was to make corruption high-risk.
   Reforms initiatives should be home-grown rather than donor-driven, said the participants, who included senior bureaucrats, academics and officials from non-government organisations.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission secretary, Md Mokhles Ur Rahman, in his deliberations at the seminar said his office was too poorly manned to tackle the widespread corruption now prevailing across the country.
   The speakers pointed out that most laws are 100 years old with provisions that hinder people’s right to information.
   They said people should have the right to know information on promotion, posting, performance and annual confidential reports, which would help to bring about transparency and minimise irregularities in public sector.
   The participants said prevention of corruption needs combined initiatives from business community, civil society and the government.
   They also stressed the need for e-governance in administrative functions to avert irregularities.

New York nightclubs are to introduce video cameras, identity checks and police intervention at the smallest altercation in measures aimed at providing top security even if it risks stifling the fun.
   Police commissioner Raymond Kelly on Thursday announced a 58-point programme for keeping bars and nightclubs safe, and at combating drug sales, bar fights, underage drinking, prostitution ‘and other illegal activity.’
   The ‘security above all’ policy harks back to the 1990s when then-mayor — and now Republican presidential hopeful — Rudolph Giuliani, implemented a ‘zero tolerance’ policy that turned New York into a city with one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
   The new programme calls for one police-trained and licensed security guard for every 75 clients.
   There will also be video cameras at all nightclub entrances and bathroom doors. ‘Digital video of any unlawful conduct should be identified and provided to the NYPD when requested,’ reads the text of the agreement.
   Installing document scanners to monitor the identity of customers entering the premises ‘is strongly recommended.’
   Kelly said a ‘best practices’ program with the banking industry ‘helped us combat a major spike in bank robberies. We hope that a similar program, with industry support, can help reduce crime associated with the nightlife industry.’