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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday called on the military-controlled caretaker government to release the party chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina to ensure their participation in the formal dialogues in order to make the talks between the government and the political parties meaningful.
   It was the principal demand of the 18-point demand the BNP placed at the informal pre-dialogue talks with the government held at the state guest house Meghna on Monday afternoon.
   Other major demands of the party include withdrawal of the state of emergency at the earliest, scrapping of the emergency powers ordinance and emergency power rules, an end to unwanted interference by certain quarters in political and electoral processes, holding of fair and credible parliamentary elections before any other polls as soon as possible, upholding the national constitution at all levels, and keeping the judiciary, constitutional institutions, print and electronic media and the administration out of unwanted influence and allowing these institutions to work independently and neutrally.
   The demands also include release of all political detainees including Khaleda’s sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, withdrawal of all ‘false’ cases filed against political leaders and activists and other citizens and ensuring that no such cases would be filed again, stopping of issuing threats and creating panic among the people by raids on their homes without any specific charges, and an end to activities which could hinder an environment conducive to holding elections.
   The delegation also asked the government to contain the price hike of essentials and bring it within the people’s buying capacity, reopen the closed industries, generate employment opportunities and provide subsidies for essentials.
   The delegation suggested reintroduction of rationing system and allowance to the jobless and setting minimum wage for workers at Tk 4,500, adequate supply of power, seeds, fertiliser, and pesticides to the farmers, and fair prices for their produces, reduction of prices of educational equipment and dignity and safety of teachers and students.
   BNP national standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui led the delegation at the dialogue. The other members of the team were – standing committee member RA Gani, vice-chairmen MK Anwar and Sarwari Rahman, chairperson’s advisers ASM Hannan Shah, Reaz Rahman and TH Khan, joint secretaries general Selima Rahman, Nazrul Islam Khan and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and acting office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed.
   The meeting started at about 5:30pm and continued for two hours. Chowdhury Tanvir, RA Gani, MK Anwar, TH Khan, Selima Rahman, Nazrul Islam and Gayeshwar Roy took part in the discussion with five advisers to the interim government.
   Advisers Ghulam Quader, AF Hassan Ariff, Anwarul Iqbal, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and Hossain Zillur Rahman represented the government.
   After the talks, Nazrul Islam Khan briefed the waiting newsmen about the issues they had raised at the meeting.
   When asked if the BNP would participate in the formal dialogue even if the government did not release Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, Khan said, ‘BNP wants to see the dialogues meaningful. We want to participate in a credible and fair election. We also want that some of the possible decisions of the dialogues are implemented after the national elections. To ensure all these things, participation of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina [in the formal dialogue] is essential.’
   When asked by New Age whether the two sides had discussed about the Election Commission’s attitude on holding dialogue with the BNP, Khan said, ‘We raised the issue and wondered how the commission had invited a small group in the name of inviting the BNP.’
   ASM Hannan Shah said, ‘We told the advisers that the Election Commission was not taking decisions on its own. They are controlled by certain quarters.’
   ‘They [advisers] tried to explain that an independent and constitutional body like Election Commission cannot be controlled by others’, Shah told New Age adding, ‘When we [BNP] provided some proof, they [advisers] became silent.’
   ‘We demanded that the government should use its good offices to make the commission neutral,’ said a member in the BNP delegation.
   Hannan Shah also said, ‘In addition to the written demands, the BNP expressed its concern that the sovereignty of the country is being violated.’
   Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman briefed reporters about the meeting with BNP. He said the five advisers would sit today [Tuesday] to prepare a report on the pre-dialogue sessions with the political parties to be placed before the council of advisers so that the government could start the formal dialogues anytime soon.
   Earlier in the morning, Hossain Zillur Rahman sent an SMS [short message service] to BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain inviting the party to the informal talks.Continued on page 2 Col. 2

Top bureaucrats on Monday proposed salary hike for public servants to help them cope with rising costs of living.
   Secretaries to the government made the proposal at a routine meeting at the cabinet division with cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder in the chair, according to official sources.
   The senior officials also told the meeting that they did not have enough manpower or even any mechanism for examining any anomalies in the wealth statements at the ministry level in line with the directives of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   Being asked by the ACC, the cabinet division directed individual ministries to accomplish the task.
   Earlier, the interim government had asked all officials and employees to submit their wealth statements by February, 2008 to the respective authorities but no mechanism had yet been developed to preserve the documents, said an official.
   The bureaucrats also expressed concern over the stalemate in recruitment in the cadre service ‘in the name of reforms’ and urged the government to extend the retirement age of public servants, said a senior official who attended the secretary-level meeting.
   ‘We have discussed the issue of salary hike for the government officials and employees because of the market shocks. It has been pointed out in the meeting that the fixed income groups are hard-pressed in the present situation’, establishment secretary Md Abdus Salam Khan told New Age.
   He said that the establishment ministry had already informed the Public Service Commission about the vacant positions and also asked it to expedite the recruitment process.
   ‘Development activities under a number of ministries including housing and public works, communications, education and health and family welfare are being hampered due to shortage of field-level officials’, said officials concerned.
   The meeting, the first in the current year, observed that the entire recruitment process had remained stalled for over four years affecting seriously the activities of the state.
   Secretary to the Chief Adviser’s Office, Kazi Aminul Islam, asked the secretaries to give more efforts to yield better services and thereby brighten the image of the interim government, said meeting sources.
   He asked senior officials to highlight the government’s positive activities and its achievements in various fields. Although the government is doing many positive things, they remain out of focus, the secretary lamented.
   Finance secretary Mohammed Tareq assured the meeting that the overall economy of the country was not as bad as being projected nowadays by various quarters though it was facing some adversities.
   The secretaries alleged that their normal work was being affected as different agencies were asking them to maintain so many formalities, such as preparing monthly reports and providing information on various issues. They also suggested reduction in the number of meetings for the secretaries so that they could concentrate on their own work for better performance, said a secretary.

The overheated commodity market hardly showed any sign of cooling down in last one month since chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed took over the charge of monitoring as series of earlier measures failed to keep prices in check.
   Prices of 25 out of 48 essential commodities have rather marked steady rise in recent weeks while prices 12 commodities remained static at their peak, according to comparative statistics by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the state-owned trading agency now reduced to a market price recording body.
    Prices of 11 other products fell slightly, but left no visible impact on life of low-income group people, who are the worst victims of skyrocketing commodity prices.
   As a raft of measures involving various agencies to ease supply and control prices proved hollow and soaring prices continued to dig deep into consumers’ pockets, the council of adviser formed a core committee on March 24 to keep market on a tight rein and raise the people’s purchasing capacity.
   Asked what the government has done to increase the people’s buying capacity, the spokesman for the Chief Adviser’s Office listed a number of measures like open market sale, distribution of foods through vulnerable group feeding, test relief and expansion of the coverage areas of these social safety-net schemes.
   ‘The committee met frequently to give direction to the authorities concerned. As a result you see the prices have started falling by now,’ Syed Fahim Munaim told New Age on Sunday.
   ‘You will find the prices are going down in the coming days,’ he added.
   The interim administration has been dogged by unabated price hike of food and essential items since it took office in January, 2007. Top government officials often point the finger at the global commodity market volatility, but market observers found price rises in the local market to be disproportionate to global price increases.
   Calls for official import of food items and introduction of food rations from economists and public servants fell into the deaf ears of the government’s policymakers.
   The press secretary to the chief adviser referred to prices in many other countries and argued, ‘Bangladesh is not far behind the other countries in terms of taking measures to address the crisis.’
   The government took numerous measures, including formation of a number of committees to monitor the commodity market, launching open market sales of rice, engaging the border guards in retailing and distribution of essentials goods, market monitoring by law enforcers, and expansion of safety-net programmes like vulnerable group feeding to bring prices under control.
   But all these appeared futile exercises in the past 15 months, as the price rally did neither stop nor slowed down.
   The situation rather aggravated after the chief adviser-headed committee started finding ways and means to keep the market prices within commoners’ reach and ensure greater access of the poor to food.
   Meanwhile, the harvest of boro, on which all hopes were pinned, and official rice procurement started, but rice prices showed little signs of coming down.
   According to available statistics, real incomes of agriculture, manufacturing and construction workers dipped by 2 to 5 per cent in a year, while the coarse rice price increased by 67 per cent, followed by other major food items.
   A recent study says the number of people living below the poverty line is on the rise in recent times due to exorbitantly high food prices.
   The number would now stand at about 9 crore, up from previously estimated 6 crore or 40 per cent of the country’s population. Soaring prices are reducing their calorie and nutrition intake, signalling a public health and productivity disaster in future, economists and nutritionist said.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Monday appealed to a Dhaka court seeking to exempt former food minister Matia Chowdhury and eight others from corruption charges in a 2002 case.
   The ACC assistant director, Moniruzzaman Khan, submitted a final report to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court for Dhaka and sought exemption for them.
   In the report, investigating officer Moniruzzaman Khan said the allegations against the accused could not be proved.
   Acting water resources secretary Mohammad Ayub Miah, the then deputy secretary of the food ministry, had also been named as one of the accused in the case.
   The court did not pass any order on the appeal on Monday.
   The now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the case against the nine people, mostly bureaucrats, with Ramna police station on April 22, 2002.
   In case details, Bureau of Anti-Corruption official Syed Tahsinul Haque had alleged that the government counted Tk 13.30 crore in loss as the accused misused powers to import rice from India in 1998 and 1999 for their personal interests.
   In another development, the ACC on Monday submitted a charge sheet against former Sonali Bank managing director Muhammad Taimilur Rahman and wife Shamima Begum in a case filed for submitting a false wealth statement.
   The ACC assistant director, SM Monzur Ahmed, filed the case with Ramna police station on December 11 last year.
   According to the charge sheet, the couple had earned property worth Tk 1.18 crore through undisclosed sources and lied to the ACC.

The Election Commission has almost finalised the draft proposal for electoral law reforms that will empower it to cancel the candidature of any parliamentary contender for gross violation of electoral laws and declare vacant the seat of an elected lawmaker for giving false information in the account of the election expenses.
   ‘We have almost finalised the draft of the Representation of People’s Order and plan to send it to the government for promulgation by next week,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters on Monday.
   Despite objections from most of the political parties, the EC in the revised draft stuck to its proposal to have the authority to cancel the candidature of a contestant if his election agent or any other person who, at his behest or on his behalf and with his connivance, is found guilty of grave or gross illegality or violation of any provision of election laws or rules or the code of conduct. The original provision in the RPO 1972 for such violation of law and rules only imposes a fine of Tk 20,000, which hardly amounts to punishment.
   The revised draft has empowered the EC to reject any nomination paper accepted by the concerned returning officer and given it the power to declare any seat of an elected lawmaker vacant if information given in the return of the election expenses is found to be false.
   In the original law the EC had no jurisdiction to cancel any nomination paper accepted by a returning officer. It only had the power to entertain an appeal against the returning officer’s decision to reject a nomination paper.
   The EC, in a revised draft, has relaxed some conditions for registration of the political parties and set 2020 as the deadline for the parties to have women in at least one-third of the posts of party committees at all levels.
   The revised draft has also barred convicted war criminals from contesting the polls.
   According to the relaxed conditions, an existing political party will be eligible for registration if it has had at least one lawmaker elected since the independence of the country, or if it has polled at least five per cent of the total votes cast in the particular constituencies where it fielded candidates in the immediate past general elections.
   A new political party has to have functional organisational units and offices in at least one third of the districts and at least 200 members in each upazila in the districts concerned to be eligible for registration, said the revised draft.
   The EC’s revised draft reiterated that political parties intending to be registered would have to declare in their constitutions that they would not have front organisations of students, teachers and workers, and overseas units.
   In the draft, the EC has fixed the ceiling of election expenditure under different heads up to Tk 15 lakh on the basis of the number of voters in a constituency.
   The EC has also decided to raise the ceiling of polls expenditures of political parties contesting parliamentary elections with stringent conditions attached to ensure financial transparency. A registered political party, if it vies for over 200 seats, can spend Tk 4 crore for election purposes. If the number of candidates is between 100 and 200, it can spend Tk 3 crore, and Tk 1.5 crore if the number of candidates is between 50 and 100. If it fields contestants in less then 50 seats, it can spend Tk .75 crore, said the EC’s revised proposals.
   No government official and no staff of NGOs which receive foreign funds or donations can participate in any elections for three years after the date of quitting office.
   The draft has also made it mandatory for every candidate to furnish eight items of information. They include the academic qualifications of a candidate including certificates, whether he or she is an accused in a criminal case, the candidate’s income, description of assets and liabilities and number of dependents, and the amount of loans, if any, taken by the candidate for his or her company, or dependents, from any bank or financial institution.

The High Court on Monday stayed for three months the activities of the Supreme Judicial Commission formed to recommend appointment of Supreme Court judges.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmed also issued a rule on the government and the registrar of the Supreme Court to explain why the Supreme Judicial Commission Ordinance would not be declared unconstitutional.
   The court passed the orders after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by a Supreme Court lawyer, Idrisur Rahman, challenging the legality of the ordinance promulgated on March 16 establishing the commission.
   The petitioner’s counsel Shahdeen Malik told New Age after the court order, ‘The attempt of the executive branch to intervene in the process of appointment of the Supreme Court judges has been barred by the High Court order today. The independence of the Supreme Court has again been firmly established.’
   Pleading for the petitioner, Shahdeen told the court that the ordinance was promulgated in violation of the constitution and undermining the independence of the judiciary and the Supreme Court.
   According to the ordinance, the chief justice is the chair of the nine-member commission that has been formed to recommend appointment of the judges both in the High Court Division and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
   The commission includes law minister, two senior judges of the Appellate Division, attorney general, a lawmaker nominated by the prime minister, a lawmaker nominated by the leader of the opposition in the parliament, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the law secretary, who will also act as its member-secretary.
   Of the nine members of the commission, only the chief justice and two Appellate Division judges are members of the judiciary and the rest six are from the executive branch of the state, while the commission has been empowered to recommend appointment of the judges of the highest court, Shahdeen argued referring to the ordinance.
   According to the warrant of precedence, the status of five members of the commission is below a High Court judge, he contended posing a question, ‘How they can recommend appointment of a Supreme Court judge?’
   The ordinance says that the law ministry will place before the commission the names of three to five people for each of the vacant posts of the Supreme Court judges and the commission will select the right people from the list.
   The initiation of the selection process by the law ministry for appointment of the Supreme Court judges is a clear violation of the constitutional scheme of the independence of the judiciary, the counsel contended referring to the ordinance.
   ‘Besides, the recommendations of the commission will go through the law ministry to the president, who is not bound to accept any of the recommendations,’ he said.
   Additional attorney general Salahuddin Ahmed argued that the government promulgated the ordinance establishing the commission in order to ensure appointment of competent people as the Supreme Court judges in the wake of severe controversies over such appointments in the absence of any law on the appointment.
   The functioning of the commission should not be stalled, he contended.
   Although the council of advisers on September 19, 2007 decided to form the National Constitutional Council for appointing people to all constitutional offices, the Supreme Judicial Commission was formed on March 16 only to select people for appointing Supreme Court judges.

The leaders of the business community at a pre-dialogue discussion asked the government to bring an end to the state of emergency and restore meaningful democracy.
   ‘We want to go back to effective democracy, we want an elected government,’ Annisul Haq, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry told reporters after a meeting with the five-member panel of advisers who were asked to prepare a ground for dialogue between the government and political parties.
   The businessmen’s delegation — comprised of representatives of FBCCI, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceuticals Industry, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, International Chamber of Commerce and Industry — talked about bringing about a qualitative change in politics through reforms, improvement of the business atmosphere, elimination of the common people’s miseries and an effective democratic system in the country.
   After the meeting with the advisers, the delegation chief said that the business leaders would submit their observations to the government within the shortest possible time.
   ’We don’t want to go back to the atmosphere of 1/11. We want a qualitative change in politics,’ said Annisul Haq, adding that the delegation had also requested the government to lift the state of emergency.
   One business leader, in a statement, had requested the president to impose a state of emergency in late 2006 when the political turmoil continued to persist in the country.
   The five advisers to the interim government sat in the meeting with the business community in Meghna, the state guesthouse. Led by communications adviser Ghulam Quader, the meeting was attended by law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser Hassan Ariff, commerce and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, local government, rural development and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal, and foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury.

Dhaka city unit of the Awami League on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Chief Adviser’s Office containing signatures of about 25 lakh people demanding unconditional release of the detained party president Sheikh Hasina.
   City AL’s acting president MA Aziz and acting general secretary Quamrul Islam submitted the memorandum to Mostafizur Rahman, director at the Chief Adviser’s Office, at about 11:15am. Central leaders of the party were scheduled to go to the Chief Adviser’s Office along with the city unit leaders, but did not get permission.
   AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu termed the refusal of permission disappointing.
   Talking to reporters outside the Chief Adviser’s Office, Quamrul Islam expressed the hope that chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed would take initiatives to release Sheikh Hasina soon in deference to the people’s demand.
   Earlier on April 20, AL’s front organisation Juba Mahila League submitted a similar memorandum to the Chief Adviser’s Office with two lakh signatures from women community seeking unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina.

Police took away cooked food meant for distribution among the destitute by the BNP at Khilgaon in the city on Monday.
   The local unit of the party organised the food distribution as part of its three-day national programme to feed the poor.
   The police drove away the activists when they were about to start distribution of food among the poor who were waiting in queues at about noon.
   Police justified the action saying the programme was causing traffic jam in the area, leadersof local BNP said.
   Local units BNP and its front organisations faced police obstruction during distribution of foods among poor people at different places of the city on the day.
   The party secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, who went to the spot after the incident, expressed resentment at the police action and censured the government for its failure to feed the hungry.
   ‘They have failed to provide food for the people… when BNP activists came forward to offer their one day’s food to the poor, they took it away. It is simply a violation of human rights’, he said.
   The party also distributed foods among the poor at Paltan, Mollapara of Badda and Uttara level crossing on the day.
   Khandaker Delwar visited all the spots along with joint secretary general Selima Rahman, acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed, former lawmakers Sohrab Uddin and Nurjahan Yasmin, former Chhatra Dal president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel.

A cyclonic storm, code-named ‘Nargis’, brews over the Bay of Bengal and is likely to cross the Bangladesh-India coast within 4-5 days.
   In view of the impending calamity, Met Office sent a note of warning to the Department of Agriculture Extension asking the DAE to take necessary steps for ‘advance harvest’ of the standing boro paddy which sparked a ray of hope in the minds of farmers for a bumper production after the last monsoon’s crop damage by floods and cyclone.
   Cyclone Nargis appeared when the devastation done by the super-cyclone Sidr last November still haunts people’s minds and when rebuilding the battered life and livelihoods is underway.
   The cyclonic storm formed over the southwest Bay and adjoining southeast Bay is likely to intensify further and move in a northerly direction and cross the coast within 4-5 days, said a special Met bulletin.
   It said the storm was centred at 6:00pm on Monday about 1,220 km southwest of Chittagong port, 1,150 km southwest of Cox’s Bazar port and 1,100 km south-southwest of Mongla port.
   Maximum sustained wind speed within 54 kms of the storm centre is about 62 kph, rising to 88 kph in gusts or squalls. ‘Sea will remain rough over north Bay and very rough near the cyclone.’
   The maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla have been advised to hoist distant warning signal number two.
   All fishing-boats and trawlers over north Bay have been advised to ‘remain close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice’.
   The cyclone Sidr struck the country on the night of November 15 last year, leaving a trail of devastation across the country, particularly in the coastal region.
   Our Patuakhali correspondent writes more than one lakh people in Golachipa, Baufal, Kolapara, Doshmina and Mirzaganj upzilas are passing times in fear and anxiety as gusty wind is sweeping over the district.
   Fishing trawlers on the Bay of Bengal started rushing to the bank in the evening on Monday.

Quazi Salahuddin pulled off a dramatic victory to be elected as the new Bangladesh Football Federation president late Monday night. The legendary footballer defeated the panel headed by Major General (retd) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury in a hard-fought contest by 62-59 votes.
   Following are the full results:
   President: Quazi Salahuddin
   Sr vice-president: Abdus Salam Murshedi
   Vice-presidents: Badal Roy, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Manjur Hossain Malu and Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir
   Members: Sirajul Islam Bachchu, Anwarul Haque Helal, Azfaruzzaman Sohrab, Golam Rabbani Helal, Amirul Islam Babu, Mahbubur Rahman Shahin, Fazlur Rahman Babul, Shafiquzzaman, Khurshid Alam Babul, Sheikh Mohammad Aslam, Harunur Rashid, Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu, Satyajit Das Rupu, Shamsul Haque Chowdhury and Alhaj Mukbul.

The United Kingdom will not support any military intervention, let alone martial law, in Bangladesh, said the outgoing high commissioner of Britain, Anwar Choudhury, on Monday.
   He outright denied any personal involvement in the change in government on January 11, 2007, although he felt that the promulgation of the state of emergency on the day and deferment of the pending general elections had saved Bangladesh from a probable civil war.
   ‘Our view is that we will never support military intervention in this country. We will not support martial law,’ the Bangladeshi-born British diplomat told diplomatic correspondents in Dhaka.
   ‘We hope Bangladesh will have a strong, sustainable democracy,’ Choudhury maintained, expressing his confidence in the roadmap announced by the Election Commission to hold the parliamentary polls by December 2008.
   Replying to a query on the implications of the probable boycott of elections by the two major parties — Awami League and BNP — he said, ‘It will be individual’s or parties’ decision or strategy to go or not to go to the polls, but, at the same time, it will be a shame if the two parties do not take part in the election, because democracy is about participation.’
   On January 11, 2008, foreign envoys expressed their concern at the stormy situation in Bangladesh caused by the boycotting of the elections by a major political alliance led by the AL. Anwar Choudhury’s country asked the caretaker government to create the right atmosphere and an effective mechanism to enable all the parties to participate in the elections.
   ‘Don’t blame foreigners. When we’re asked about certain issues, we just speak out our clear policy (sic). It is up to you whether you listen or not,’ he said at a talk on ‘Bangladesh-UK Relationship’ organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association Bangladesh in the National Press Club. The association’s president, Masud Karim, chaired the meeting and its general secretary, Raheed Ejaz, delivered the welcoming address.
   The UK diplomat dismissed some notions that foreign diplomats are poking their noses into the domestic politics of Bangladesh. ‘We respect your independence and sovereignty; we support the people and want the prosperity of this country.’
   Reiterating his earlier position that the government should make way for the political parties to take part in the polls, he added that the political parties need to work with goodwill to see fully participatory elections.
   ‘The caretaker government will create the right conditions to encourage all parties to take part in the polls,’ he said.
   Choudhury suggested that the parties should select people with brains, heart and capability for contesting the elections.
   Touching on the issue of lifting the state of emergency, Choudhury said that the emergency should be lifted fully or to the maximum possible extent so that the parties and voters enjoy the freedom to campaign and cast votes.
   In reply to a question, the top UK envoy admitted that there are still bumps on the road to election, so there should be balanced thinking by all the sides who should shrug off the past and look at the future.
   Explaining the reasons for his optimism about the holding of elections, he said the chief adviser of the caretaker government made a pledge to the UN and 10 Downing Street about the holding of elections, and the preliminary preparations, including the registration of voters, are moving on the right track.
   Appreciating the various institutional reforms by the interim government, the envoy said Bangladeshi politics and elections must get rid of black money and muscle power, the two malaises blamed for upsetting the country’s polity.
   Expressing his satisfaction at having pushed the Bangladesh-Britain bilateral relations to new heights, the British diplomat said he came here to make some contributions, and he did it.
   ‘I tried to project the modern image of Great Britain and share our values with you,’ he said. ‘We stand for democracy, tolerance, globalization, economic progress and elimination of poverty.’
   He said he had also tried to ensure that Britain understood Bangladesh, its potential and the people’s massive hearts and aspirations.
   Terming Dhaka-London ties as something special, Choudhury said bilateral trade has increased by 25 per cent, and people-to-people contact has increased too. More people, especially students, are going to the UK in big numbers, the visa regime has been simplified and aid increased by 50 per cent.

The education ministry has planned to introduce spoken English exams for the SSC and HSC candidates from 2009.
   ‘We have planned to make it mandatory for each candidate of the secondary and higher secondary certificate exams to face 15 marks spoken test in English. The plan is aimed at developing speaking skill of the students,’ said a joint secretary of the ministry.
   ‘The communicative approach of English that is in practice from Class I to Class XII has four kinds of skills but only writing skill of the students is being evaluated in the SSC and HSC (both public exams). There is no test of reading, speaking and listening,’ he said. The school authorities would be asked to buy cassette players at their own expenses for improving the listening practice of students, he added.
   ‘To improve students’ speaking skill, we are now seriously considering that the schools will be asked to introduce 15 marks viva-voce in English from Class VI,’ he said.
   More or less 15 lakh candidates take the SSC and HSC exams every year under the nine education boards across the country. The students need to take 200 marks written English both in the SSC and HSC exams. Five marks viva voce are now in practice in physics, chemistry and biology in the SSC and HSC.

The first day of Supreme Court Bar Association election ended Monday with 539 out of the 1,780 voters casting ballots.
   The two-day polling began at 10.00am and continued till 5.00pm with a one-hour break from 1.00pm.
   After the first day’s voting, Nizamul Haque Nasim, convener of a sub-committee on election, said, ‘Everything was all right. There was a festive mood around. Polling is going on in a cheerful environment although the election is being held after 25 months.’
   Advocate Asadullah cast the maiden vote, followed by presidential candidate advocate Mujibur Rahman.
   The SCBA has introduced transparent ballot boxes for the first time.
   The election earlier scheduled for March 24-25 was deferred by about five weeks in the face of a government ban, but was subsequently lifted after a MoU was executed between the SCBA and the government.
   The candidates running for president are barrister Shafique Ahmed, advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, AK Mujibor Rahman, Humayun Hossain Khan, Sirajul Islam Khan and Saifur Reza.
   Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, barrister Badruddoza Badal, advocates Sheikh Ausafur Rahman, Nurul Islam Sujan, ABM Bayezid, AKM Zahirul Haque and ASM Abul Hossain are contesting for secretary.
   There are six candidates contesting for two posts of vice-president, two for a treasurer, five for two deputy secretaries and 14 for seven members.
   Security measures have been tightened in and around the Supreme Court premises for the election.

Hardline Hindus have vowed an ‘armed struggle’ to save Nepal’s King Gyanendra from losing his throne after former Maoist rebels swept elections in the home of the world’s last Hindu monarchy.
   Dozens of Hindu leaders who met in northern India for the annual conference of the Kathmandu-based World Hindu Federation pledged to protect King Gyanendra ‘at all cost,’ a Hindu leader said on Monday.
   ‘He is worthy of worship by all Hindus and we will protect him and bring him back to power at all cost,’ said Yogi Kaushalendranath, head priest of the Devi Patan temple in Uttar Pradesh state where the weekend meeting took place.
   ‘Ending the kingship is like defeating Hinduism.’
   The World Hindu Federation, which has close ties to fundamentalist Hindu groups in India, was founded in 1981 by Nepal’s former King Birendra, who was slain in a 2001 palace massacre that wiped out much of the royal family.
   King Gyanendra was enthroned after the death of his brother Birendra and the organisation, which says it has chapters in 100 countries, has called him the ‘emperor’ of all Hindus.
   Followers of the faith believe Nepal’s monarch is an incarnation of Vishnu, the ‘preserver,’ one of the most revered Hindu deities.
   Scores of Nepalese, including former army chief and federation head Bharat Keshar Singh, crossed the border to attend the meeting and to elect a new head – also from the Himalayan country’s royalist army.
   The conference listened to a message from Nepal’s King Gyanendra, whose hold on power has become increasingly tenuous in the wake of an upset victory by former Maoist rebels who have long called for a republic.
   The Maoists, who fought a bloody insurgency that ended in 2006 with 13,000 dead, have won over a third of the seats in a new assembly that will draft a fresh constitution – double the number of seats of their nearest rivals.
   Last week, the former rebels reiterated their pledge to abolish the monarchy as soon as a new interim government sits.
   But the Indian priest said Hindus could not allow that to happen.
   ‘We cannot tolerate this and will start an armed struggle against the Maoists,’ he said, without providing details on what the groups planned to do.

Civil servants, key players in the highly bureaucratic process of making and implementing budgets, can be punished for any financial misconduct relating to the annual plans of the government’s revenue earnings and expenditures, according to the planned fiscal responsibility act, now at the final stage of preparation.
   ‘The main motto of the planned law is to establish fiscal discipline and pass some responsibilities on to those who are involved in the process of preparation and implementation of the budget,’ an official of the finance ministry has told New Age.
   The draft law proposes that every ministry or division will have its budget management wing and section although, finance ministry officials complain, even the secretaries, considered chief accounting officers of the relevant ministries and divisions, do not properly own the budget.
   The finance ministry has sought comments from all ministries and divisions on the draft law for correcting any anomalies or adding any provision to it before returning to the Cabinet Division for final approval by the advisory council.
   ‘Efforts shall be undertaken through the budget to address regional development disparity,’ stipulates the draft law styled Public Resources and Budget Management Ordinance, 2008, said finance ministry officials.
   It is expected to uphold the supremacy of the parliament as the finance minister shall have to present before the Jatiya Sangsad a quarterly review report of the government’s revenue earning and expenditures.
   However, the planned law, which has proposed restriction on diversion of already allocated money under one head to another or re-allocation of budgetary funds without the permission and knowledge of the parliament, will be given legal effect through promulgation of a presidential ordinance in absence of the parliament.
   Already a provision of the Constitution [Article 90] says: ‘No amendment shall be proposed in Parliament to any such Bill which has the effect of varying the amount of any grant so made or altering the purpose to which it is to be applied, or of varying the amount of any expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund.’
   Also, successive governments issued statutory regulatory order to impose or withdraw taxes bypassing the parliament although constitutional provision says: ‘No tax shall be levied or collected except by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament.’
   A policy statement on the state of macro-economy shall be issued in parliament alongside the annual financial statement usually made by the finance minister during the presentation of the proposed budget before the beginning of the fiscal year, says the draft ordinance.
   Furthermore, a medium term budget will also be placed in parliament, stating the government’s projected allocations for subsequent two fiscal years.
   Former members of parliament time and again complained that they were not consulted in the processing preparation of the annual budget although one of their two main businesses is related to budget-making.
   The draft law stipulates a cap on the government’s borrowing from domestic sources at a maximum of 2 per cent of the gross domestic product and also stresses on keeping budget deficit at ‘sustainable limit’.
   The planned law says that budgetary resources equivalent to at least 8.5 per cent of the gross domestic product must be allocated to meet the expenses targeting at poverty alleviation programme. Gender balance and equity have also been emphasised.

The finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, on Monday warned that domestic fuel price adjustment to rapidly rising international prices could be a major source of social discontent and cost-push inflation.
   ‘The trade-off involved in energy management policies seems to have been inadequately addressed,’ he told a ministerial roundtable at the Ministerial Segment of the 64th session of UNESCAP in Bangkok, according to a message received in Dhaka.
   ‘Access to energy-saving technologies as well as financing required for applying such technologies at affordable cost are limited,’ he said at the special roundtable titled ‘Energy security and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific’.
   The Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, inaugurated the session with the Bangladesh finance adviser in the chair. The Thai prime minister stated that the present energy demand and supply of the regional countries and the efforts of Thailand for energy security.
   Aziz presented a country policy statement of Bangladesh in the plenary session, calling upon the ESCAP secretariat to take actions for establishing Regional Climate Fund, Regional Oil Fund and Regional Food Bank to face emergency situations.
   Speaking at the roundtable, the adviser said, ‘Foreign direct investors in the energy sector are typically very large and many countries like Bangladesh are often at a disadvantageous situation in negotiating contracts that adequately protect host country’s interests.’

A DGFI man was stabbed to death by snatchers, whom he chased and captured after responding to cries for help from a woman in the city’s Kochukhet area Monday.
   Law enforcers in a massive manhunt arrested two suspects from Bhasantek area in Kafrul in the evening.
   The police quoting witnesses said Mohammad Abdul Baset, 34, a corporal of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, who was riding a bicycle to work, started chasing a gang of four men who robbed Nisha, a female student of a private university, of her mobile phone set near Rajanigandha Shopping Complex at Kachukhet at around 12:15 pm.
   Baset managed to capture two of the muggers, who stabbed him in the chest and abdomen in front of the Muslim Modern School and fled.
   Bleeding profusely, Baset, son of Adam Ali Mian of Uttar Kafrul, collapsed on the ground. Locals rushed him to Combined Military Hospital, where physicians declared him dead at around 1:15 pm.
   Later, his body was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
   A man from Ponerotika under Shibganj upazila in Bogra, Baset was married recently to Anjumand Begum.
   A release issued by the Inter-Service Public Relations says Baset joined the army in 1992 and was transferred to the intelligence agency as a corporal in September 2004.
   In a combined drive, members of RAB, police, army and different intelligence agencies arrested the key suspect, Mohiuddin Tipu, 20 and his associate Nahid from a hideout at 196/1, Uttar Bhasantek area at around 8:30 pm.
   The team also seized a bloodstained knife, reportedly used in the killing and the snatched mobile phone from his possession.

Most of the five costly short-term rental power plants, which are supposed to add 240 megawatts to the national grid between May 15 and 27 to ease power crisis in summer, are likely to miss the deadlines as the progress of their installation work by selected companies are not satisfactory, power division sources said.
   A power division meeting, chaired by the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, was told on Monday that the 50MW Fenchuganj and 30MW Bhola power plants might be delayed by one month as the selected companies were yet to complete infrastructure development work.
   Power division officials also observed that the installation of other power plants – 50MW Shahjibazar, 50MW Kumargaon, 40MW Khulna and 20MW Bogra might also be delayed by five to 10 days.
   The Power Development Board on January 15 signed four contracts with a consortium of Energy Prima, Hosaf Meter Industry and Geo-Spectrum Group for installation of Shahjibazar Kumargaon, Fenchuganj and Bogra power plants and another deal with a joint venture of Kaltimax Energy and GBB Power for Bhola plant within 120 days.
   The board also signed a contract on January 28 with Agreeko International Projects for installation of 40MW Khulna power plant on similar conditions.
   The interim government took steps to set up the three-year rental power plants, from which the PDB will have to purchase electricity at comparatively higher prices, on an emergency basis to tackle the severe power outages.
   Power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan told New Age that the agreements with the selected companies had provisions for hefty penalty if any of them misses the deadline for putting the plants into operation.
   As per the agreements, for each day of delay a company will have to pay a penalty of $500 for each MW of electricity.
   ‘The companies know that they have to pay penalty. That is why I think they will try to make the plants operational in time’, he said.
   Sources in the PDB, however, said that one of the selected companies that failed to provide performance guarantee for one of the plants, was demanding that the 120-day agreement period should be counted from the day the board handed over the land to the company. ‘These companies are clever and it will be hard to realise penalties from them’, said a source.
   The Monday meeting was also told that work on installation of long-term rental power plants and small independent power plants were progressing as per the schedule.
   The meeting also discussed the gas and power shortage issues and observed that the power plants being set up would not face gas shortage as they were located upstream of gas fields.
   The meeting was told that because of gas shortage, the PDB was producing 500MW less electricity although power generation increased this year compared to the previous year.
   Tamim asked the power agencies to implement strictly the evening ban on shopping malls and to launch a campaign to motivate consumers to conserve electricity and gas. He also asked agencies to gear up drive against illegal power connections.

Seventy people were killed and 420 injured early Monday when a passenger train from Beijing careered off the rails and slammed into another train in eastern China, state media reported.
   Ruling out terrorism, the official Xinhua news agency said preliminary investigations found human error was to blame, without elaborating.
   The first train was travelling to Qingdao – the coastal city that will host the Olympic sailing competition in August – when it derailed, causing a train coming in the opposite direction to leave the tracks also.
   Nine carriages derailed, China news service said, and the second train crashed into those still on the track.
   The rail accident, the worst in China in more than a decade, happened near the city of Zibo in Shandong province, the news service said.
   Xinhua reported 70 people killed in the accident, quoting officials at the rescue headquarters. It said there were no foreigners among the dead.
   The news agency said four French nationals were among those injured. They included three family members and one of their friends.
   Pascal Boisson, 54, suffered multiple fractures to his ribs and may have another fracture in the chest, Xinhua reported, quoting Zhang Jun, head of the orthopaedics department at one of Zibo’s hospitals.
   The news agency described chaotic scenes in the minutes after the disaster, the ground littered with blood-soaked sheets and shattered thermos flasks, as passengers sought to save themselves and their loved ones.
   The second train was on its way to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, from Shandong’s Yantai.
   At one point so many survivors tried to make phone calls that the mobile communications network was congested and no one could get through, Xinhua said.
   Hu Weidong, a coach of China’s national sailing team, was also among the injured, and was transferred to a hospital in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province.
   Witnesses said many passengers were able to climb out of the wrecked train carriages shortly after the crash, some wrapped in bed sheets from the sleeper cars to guard against the early morning chill.

The National Monitoring Centre, set up by the intelligence agencies for tapping the telephonic conversations of suspected individuals, on Monday signed a deal with the mobile phone operators to set up tapping equipment in its premises.
   ‘They [NMC and operators] signed the deal at the BTRC office today,’ said Manzurul Alam, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commission, on Monday.
   He said the NMC could now directly tap the mobile phones of any suspects from its office without the help of mobile phone operators.
   Presently, the law enforcers assigned to the tapping task usually hand over the mobile phone numbers of their targets to the ‘lawful interception units’ that the mobile phone operators have formed to help the agencies in their surveillance work.
   The units provide the details of the calls made and received by that phone number to the mobile monitoring centre.
   Manzurul said the mobile phone operators had to bear all the cost of setting up the equipment.
   The BTRC chief, however, said he had no knowledge of how much money the operators would have to cough up for setting up the equipment.
   The government had earlier decided to make it mandatory for the mobile operators to record the subscribers’ personal information in electronic databases.
   The current system does not ensure that pre-paid subscribers furnish correct information, creating opportunities for criminals to use the mobile phone network for their unlawful operations.
   The government on December 11, 2005 promulgated an ordinance with immediate effect, amending the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Act 2001, which allows intelligence and law-enforcement personnel to tap the telephonic conversations of any individual.
   The amendment also says that the service providers will allow the concerned officials to use their infrastructure free of cost for doing the work.
   The government further amended the proposal in January 30, adding the provision for punishment of mobile operators if they fail to comply with its directives. Later the amendment was passed in the parliament.

New Age photojournalist, Andrew Biraj, won the prestigious World Press Photo JoopSwart Masterclass award, which was announced on Monday from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.
   Biraj is the lone photojournalist selected for the highly competitive award in Asia. Eleven other photographers from across the globe were awarded the prize for their outstanding photojournalistic body of work.
   Every year the World Press Photo Foundation selects 12 young photographers below 30 years of age from around the world for the prize. Earlier, the foundation had nominated a total of 132 photographers.
   Biraj submitted two sets of photo stories. One of them was titled ‘State Excluded’ and dealt with the stranded Pakistanis, highlighting the daily struggle in the Bihari camps of Dhaka. The other one was named ‘Tragic Fibre’ and depicted the miseries of the jute mill workers of Khulna.
   The winners were selected by an independent, international selection committee consisting of the president of Cuban Aurora Photos José Azel, French art director of the National Geographic Magdalena Herrera, director of Dutch Foam Fotografiemuseum Marloes Krijnen, Danish photographer Erik Refner, Italian photographers Berlingske Tidende and Massimo Siragusa and photographer Agenzia Contrasto.
   The purpose of the Joop Swart Masterclass, which was introduced in 1994, is to further young and talented photographers’ photojournalistic insight.
   The other winners are Peter van Agtmael of the Netherlands/USA, Martina Bacigalupo and Massimo Berruti of Italy, Michael Christopher Brown of USA, Agnes Dherbeys of France, Iñaki Domingo of Spain, Philipp Ebeling of Germany, Clemence de Limburg of Belgium, David Magnusson of Sweden, Jehad Nga of Libya/USA and James Pomerantz of UK/USA
   They will gather in Amsterdam from 8 to 13 November to receive the awards and meet the fellow masters.

Ten hand grenades and 422 bullets were recovered from a canal during re-excavation work at Sheikhpara village under Boalkhali upazila in Chittagong Monday afternoon.
   Police said workers first found the ammunition dump in the canal at about 2:30pm and informed them about the matter.
   Police went to the spot and brought the ammunition to Boalkhali thana.
   Patia Circle ASP Tofayel Ahmed said police suspected that the grenades and bullets were for use during the country’s war of independence in 1971.

As Spanish resident mission started function in Dhaka, the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, Monday said there was a tremendous scope for enhancing trade flows between Bangladesh and Spain, a major force in the EU.
   ‘Bangladesh desires enhanced trade and economic cooperation with Spain, the fifth-largest economy in the European Union,’ he said when the fist-ever resident ambassador of Spain to Bangladesh, Arturo Manuel Perez, presented his credentials to the president at Bangabhaban.
   The president hoped that the opening of the Spanish embassy here would play a vital role in translating goodwill and understanding that exist between Dhaka and Madrid into meaningful bilateral cooperation. Iajuddin emphasised high-level bilateral visits and holding trade fairs for promotion of trade and business between the two countries.

An Islamist candidate running in next month’s elections in Kuwait called on Monday for the expulsion of tens of thousands of Bangladeshi workers, blaming them for a crime wave.
   ‘Bangladeshi workers represent a serious danger to the country’s security and its noble values,’ Mohammad Hayef al-Mutairi said in a statement.
   ‘The interior minister should issue an immediate and brave decision to expel those (Bangladeshi) workers because they constitute a risk to the country,’ said the hardline Islamist candidate.
   Mutairi charged that Bangla-deshi workers were behind a wave of crimes that has hit the oil-rich emirate in recent years, including murders, abductions and prostitution. Some 200,000 Bangladeshis work in Kuwait, mostly as cleaners and in low-paid jobs.