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The military-controlled government has approved the Consumer Rights Protection Ordinance 2008 with provisions of imprisonment and financial penalty in cases of consumer rights violation, official sources said.
   The approval was given at a meeting of the council of advisers presided over by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Wednesday, said Syed Fahim Munaim, press secretary to the chief adviser, after the meeting in the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   The proposed law, after coming into force a through presidential proclamation, will allow consumers to take legal steps individually against people involved in malpractice such as adulteration, cheating, price manipulation and violation of related laws.
   According to the ordinance, the government will set up a consumer rights protection directorate in Dhaka and set up consumer rights protection tribunals in districts and upazilas to check against unfair practice related to consumer goods.
   The rights activists who had launched vigorous campaign in early 1990s for regulatory mechanism over businesses to guarantee consumer rights welcomed the move, hoping the government would enforce the law accordingly.
   ‘We want to see effective enforcement of the law. It must be enforced for the welfare of the common people,’ rights activist Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, told New Age.
   The Consumers Association of Bangladesh welcomed the government saying it must act sincerely in implementing the proposed law. The association will hold programmes to create awareness among the people of the implementation of the law.
   The proposed law says there will be consumer rights protection committees, to be headed by deputy commissioners in districts. There will be similar committees in upazilas and unions.
   It stipulates a maximum of three years’ imprisonment and financial penalty of Tk 2,00,000 in cases of its violation. It has been widely alleged the consumers in Bangladesh have been deceived by businessmen over the years in the absence of a legal shield.
   Against the backdrop of the demand for a consumer rights protection law, the government in 1994 first pledged to start drafting a law, but the process had remained stalled for years.
   The first draft of the proposed law was moved to the cabinet in November 2001. The cabinet, at the time, in principle approved the draft and formed a six-member secretary committee to examine it.
   The draft was, at the recommendation of the committee, again sent to the cabinet in 2004 and was sent back to the ministry for further scrutiny.
   On January 20, 2006, it was sent again to the government’s highest policy-making body with proposals for a few amendments and ‘further scrutiny’ by the commerce ministry was sought.
   The interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed took the matter into consideration. Fakhruddin’s cabinet in principle approved a draft ordinance on consumer rights protection in November 2007, asking the law ministry to plug the loopholes, if any, before the final approval.
   The draft ordinance, which received the final approval at Wednesday’s meeting, has eight chapters and 87 clauses on various aspects of consumer rights protection. It also proposes formation of a 21-member council with representatives of business community, civil society, Consumers Association of Bangladesh and officials of the ministries concerned to advise the government from time to time. The council will oversee market prices of essential commodities and monitor application of the law through legal channels of the government.
   The council will also launch market research, if required, in line with the proposed law.
   Wednesday’s meeting, attended among others by the advisers to the government, special assistants to the chief adviser and the secretaries concerned, also approved a proposal to increase the outfit allowance to Tk 5,000 from the existing Tk 3,500 for the members of the judicial services.
   It also approved the draft of a memorandum of understanding between Bangladesh and Libya on manpower export. The deal is expected to be signed on September 4 when the Libyan manpower minister is scheduled to visit Bangladesh. The meeting also approved the Administrative Tribunal (Amendment) Ordinance 2008.

Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina along with five others was on Wednesday charged with corruption in the MiG-29 warplane corruption case.
   Dhaka divisional special judge Golam Murtoza Majumder, in the makeshift courtroom on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, framed the charges against Hasina, also the Awami League president, and five others in the case.
   The judge also posted for September 3 the beginning of the trial with the recording of the depositions of prosecution witnesses.
   The court charged Hasina, now facing trial in a case of extortion and another of corruption, with criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Penal Code and criminal misconduct under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 causing a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state by buying eight MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia in 1999.
   Former air chief Jamaluddin Ahmed, former defence secretary Syed Yousuf Hossain, former air force officer Mirza Akhtar Maruf, former joint secretary of the defence ministry Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali were charged with abetting Hasina in committing the offences under Section 109 of the Penal Code.
   If the charges are proved, Hasina may be jailed for life or 10 years for criminal breach of trust and for seven years for criminal misconduct. In addition, fine may also be imposed on her for both the offences.
   The other five may also face similar sentences for helping Hasina to commit the offences.
   The court framed the charges rejecting the defence counsels’ petition which sought adjournment of the proceedings for a month saying that Hasina, released on June 11 by an executive order for eight weeks and now in the United States for medical treatment, would return by September 8 and the charges should be framed in her presence.
   The prosecution opposed the defence plea and said there was no scope for delaying the framing of charges as Hasina had been exempted from personal appearance in court and was represented by her counsels.
   The other five were in the dock and all of them pleaded they were not guilty as the court read out the charges against them.
   The court also relieved former army chief Mustafizur Rahman from the trial as he had died.
   The prosecution on June 2 proposed framing of charges against the seven, including Mustafiz, in the case.
   Abdullah Al Zahid, deputy director of the now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 11, 2001, accusing Hasina and the six others of corruption in the purchase of the MiG-29 fighter planes, which, he said, caused a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state.
   This is the third case in which Hasina has so far been indicted and to face formal trial.
   The trial of Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim in the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case, stalled for about six months, was restarted on August 18.
   M Ashraf Hossain, the judge of the special judge’s court 5 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, began again the trial with recording the deposition of the plaintiff, Azam J Chowdhury, a local power company boss, amid protests of the defence counsels.
   The East Coast Trading Private Ltd managing director, Azam J Chowdhury, filed the case with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007 alleging the former prime minister, aided by her sister and cousin, had extorted Tk 2.99 crore from him for the award of a power plant installation contract in 2001.
   The trial, which began on January 30, had been stalled since February 26 when the High Court quashed the case. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on May 8 turned down the High Court verdict and made room for the continuation of the trial.
   Hasina is also facing trial on graft charges in the barge mounted power plant case. The trial, however, has been stalled as the High Court on July 7 stayed the trial and issued a rule on the government to explain the legality of the graft cases.
   The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on August 13 upheld the High Court orders that stayed the proceedings in the barge-mounted power plant case.
   The full court of all the five Appellate Division judges disposed of the petition filed by the government seeking permission to appeal against the High Court order and asked both parties in the case to get the rule, issued by the High Court on July 7, heard by the High Court expeditiously.
   Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007.

Rajshahi University was closed for an indefinite period following a clash between the students of the institution and businessmen of Binodpur Bazar that left 60 people injured Tuesday night.
   The authorities concerned also decided to suspend all the classes and examinations for an indefinite period and asked the students to vacant their halls of residence by 12:00 noon on Wednesday. The students had left their dormitories within the deadline.
   The syndicate at an emergency meeting Wednesday morning took the decision. Acting vice-chancellor ProfessorMamnunul Kerammat chaired the meeting.
   ‘We have decided to suspend all the classes and examinations to avoid untoward incident and ensure the security of the students,’ said Dr Shafi, member-secretary of the syndicate.
   Campus sources said the clash erupted when the students vandalised the ticket counter of Hanif Paribahan at Binodpur.
   The students attacked the counter after the supervisor had forced a third year student of management department to get down from the bus in Natore following an altercation over the arrangement of a seat.
   On his return, the management student Humayun Kabir went to the ticket counter and asked its manager to refund him the price of the ticket.
   As the manager refused to refund, Humayun informed his fellow students of the matter. Later businessmen, transport workers and local people attacked the students when they went to the ticket counter.
   The businessmen of Binodpur Bazar along with local people also entered the campus and attacked the students. They ransacked the windows and doors of SM Hall and Medical Centre of the university.
   The university authorities did not take any step to bring the situation under control, some students alleged.
   The police reached the spot at 1:00am and fired 20 rounds of rubber bullet and teargas shells to disperse the angry people.
   Riot police, members of Rapid Action Battalion and Bangladesh Rifles were deployed on the campus and its adjacent areas to fend off further trouble.
   Rajshahi Metropolitan Police deputy commissioners Sajjadur Rahman and Mahbubur Rahman visited the spot early Wednesday.
   Rajshahi City Corporation mayor-elect AHM Khairuzzaman Liton also visited the area Wednesday morning. During the visit, the businessmen placed 4-point demand, including resignation of proctor Enamul Haque, and compensation of Tk 50 lakh for damaging shops by the students.
   Liton said that a group of criminals created such violence on the campus. He demanded immediate appointment of a vice-chancellor and resignation of the proctor, saying that the clash erupted due to failure of the proctor and acting vice-chancellor.

No recommendations of the judicial inquiry commission on the August 21, 2004 grenade attack have been implemented and the commission report is yet to be made public.
   The one-member commission of Justice Joynul Abedin, formed the day after the attack, submitted its report to the home affairs ministry on October 2, 2004 with 14 short- and 7 long-term recommendations.
   According to the report, a copy of which has been made available to New Age, the intelligence agency of ‘a big foreign power’ that ‘helped the emergence of Bangladesh by cessation from Pakistan with oblique motive to make it a subservient state…orchestrated this dastardly and mindless attack.’
   ‘The operation was carried out by hired goons who mainly comprised the armed cadres of an organisation having familiarity and access to most of the crowds in the rally,’ the report says. ‘The Awami League leaders were not, however, aware of this design nor had they any hand in it.’
   ‘This mindless attack…, like some other attacks in the past, was made with the desire and expectation that it would arouse support and sympathy also from the western world because the Awami League is acclaimed as a secular political organisation,’ it adds.
   The report also says, ‘The foreign intelligence agency is not a friend of anyone in Bangladesh, including the Awami League.’
   ‘The commission has not been able to identify the actual culprits,’ the report says, ‘but it has nevertheless been able to identify the masterminds behind the incident.’
   The report attributes the commission’s failure to identify the real culprits to ‘the lack of direct evidence and this was substantially contributed by the open and consistent non-cooperation of the Awami League leaders.’
   The Supreme Court Bar Association, meanwhile, instituted an independent committee to investigate the grenade attack. The commission published its report on February 27, 2005 without identifying the perpetrators of the attack.
   The report attributes the commission’s failure to identify the culprits to lack of access to the report of the intelligence agencies and lack of cooperation from the government.
   The committee demanded the government should publish all the reports of investigations of and inquiries into all grenade or bomb attacks and illegal arms seizure in a month.
   The Joynul commission concluded that the intelligence and security agencies of the country were inefficient and inactive, and recommended that they should be reformed and given proper training.
   Their accountability should also be properly ensured. The absence of coordination between the national intelligence and security agencies like the Detective Branch, Criminal Investigation Department, National Security Intelligence and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence is one of the major threats to national security and sovereignty, the commission observed.
   It also recommended appointment of an adviser on security with the status of a cabinet minister, who would be directly under the control of the prime minister, to ensure coordination between the national intelligence and security agencies.
   ‘The security and intelligence chiefs in the state should not be manned by anyone on a contract basis,’ the report says.
   The commission also recommended the formation of a special team in the CID comprising explosive experts and the setting up of a mobile forensic laboratory.
   It also recommended rallies should not be held without the permission of the authorities concerned, and should be held in specified venues in order to prevent such murderous incidents.
   ‘The government must sit together with all political parties to dissolve all the political acrimony, forge consensus on the issues of national importance and devise security measures for their leaders and assemblies,’ the report says.

The Awami League will observe the fourth anniversary of the August 21 grenade attack on its rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in which 24 people, including its women’s affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, were killed and more than 300 injured.
   The party will observe the day with reservations about the government’s initiatives to investigate the August 21 grenade attack and trial of the case.
   The party will observe a two-minute silence at 5:22pm, the time when the first grenade exploded in 2004, across the country in a symbolic protest against any terrorist attack and in honour of the people killed in the incident. Candles will be lit at the memorial plaque near the central party office in the evening.
   The party chief, Sheikh Hasina, and other top leaders narrowly escaped the attack, but Hasina’s ears were badly damaged at the sound of the explosion.
   The day’s programme will begin with the leaders placing wreaths at a memorial plaque at 11:00am. The party also will hold a discussion to commemorate the anniversary of the attack.
   The programme also includes saying prayers at Ivy Rahman’s graveside in the Banani graveyard. There will be a prayer session in the house of her husband, Zillur Rahman, the acting Awami League president, on August 24.
   Zillur on Wednesday expressed his reservations about the government’s initiatives to investigate the August 21 incident and trial of the people involved the attack.
   ‘The BNP-led coalition government made a mockery of the investigation and the trial… The incumbent government has not yet taken any initiatives so that we can believe that proper investigation and trial would be conducted,’ he said at his house at Gulshan as Bangladesh Gram Daktar Kalyan Samiti leaders met him.
   Forty-six months after the attack, the police on June 11 at last submitted two charge sheets — one for the killing and another for the explosion — against 22 people, including former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and Harkat-ul-Jihad chief Mufti Hannan.
   The home ministry has also in principle decided to transfer the case to a speedy trial tribunal from the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court for an expeditious disposal.
   Assistant inspector general of police Abdul Jalil Mandal said the police headquarters had received a letter from the home ministry which directed them to assist in the speedy disposal of the cases.
   ‘The home ministry on August 4 in principle decided to transfer the cases to the speedy trial tribunal,’ said Mandal.
   The chief prosecutor in the case, Ehsanul Haque Samaji, told New Age that delay in the case was complicating the prosecution and depositions of more than 400 witnesses alone could take several years to complete.
   He said the legal necessity of submitting two charge sheets meant each case would be tried in two separate courts.
   The case under the explosive substances act is now under trial in the senior sessions judge’s court which issued warrants for arrest of eight individuals and posted for August 31 the hearing in the framing of charges.
   The murder case is now under trial in the metropolitan additional sessions judge’s court. The judge, AKM Rasheduzzaman, has also posted for August 31 the hearing in the framing of charges.
   The prosecutor said the accused had already been produced in court three times for the hearing in the framing of charges and the defence counsels had been granted time to get prepared for the hearing.

Even four years after the deadly grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in Dhaka on August 21, 2004, the nation is still in the dark about the plotters of the carnage and the source of the Austria-made Arges grenades used in the attacks.
   Different investigation reports and conflicting confessional statements made by three petty criminals and an Islamist militant leader have led to serious confusion over the attack.
   The Criminal Investigation Department on June 11 submitted two charge sheets – one for killing 22 people in the attacks and another under the explosive substances act – against 22 people, including Abdus Salam Pintu, former deputy minister of the BNP-led government, his two brothers and Mufti Abdul Hannan, Bangladesh chapter operations commander of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.
   The CID chief, Mohammad Javed Patwari, told New Age, ‘We came to know during investigation and from information gathered from the arrested suspects that Pintu’s bother Maulana Tajuddin had supplied the grenades.’
   ‘We could not yet arrest Tajudddin. He is on the run. And we could not identify the source of the grenades. We can unearth the source after his arrest’, Javed said, adding that they had sought Interpol’s help to arrest him.
   The investigators of the case several times tried to lead the case in different directions.
   The investigators stunned the nation at one point by claiming that petty criminals George Miah, Abul Hashem Rana and Shafiqul Islam had made ‘confessional statements’ on June 26, 2005, that the fugitive members of the ‘seven-star’ gang carried out the attacks and that Awami League leader Mokhlesur Rhaman, also a ward commissioner, was one of the plotters of the attack.
   They attempted to submit a charge sheet based on the story, but the government held back following media flak that termed George Miah’s story very sketchy.
   The present investigation officer also said that the former investigators had damaged some significant evidence in a bid to save the main suspects.
   The Rapid Action Battalion arrested Mufti Hannan in Anandanagar of Madhya Badda in the city on October 1, 2005.
   Hannan told journalists on the day that he did not flee the country as the former home minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury had asked him not to worry.
   Hannan also attempted to make a statement in the court on October 12, 2005, but a court inspector prevented him.
   RAB sources said that before giving a confessional statement before the court of magistrate Shafiq Anwar on November 19, 2006, Hannan had admitted that his outfit carried out the grenade attacks but the law enforcers concealed the fact at the instruction of the then state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar.
   The one-member judicial inquiry commission of Justice Joynul Abedin, formed the day after the attack, submitted its report to the home affairs ministry on October 2, 2004 claiming that the intelligence agency of ‘a big foreign power’ that ‘helped the emergence of Bangladesh by secession from Pakistan with a motive to make it a subservient state…orchestrated this dastardly and mindless attack.’
   ‘The operation was carried out by hired goons who mainly comprised the armed cadres of an organisation having familiarity and access to most of the crowds in the rally’, the report said. ‘The Awami League leaders were not, however, aware of this design, they had not a hand in it either.’
   ‘The commission has not been able to identify the real culprits’, says the report which is yet to be made public. A copy of the report, however, has been available to New Age.
   The report attributes the commission’s failure to identify the real culprits to ‘the lack of direct evidence and this was substantially contributed by the open and consistent non-cooperation of the Awami League leaders.’
   The Supreme Court Bar Association instituted an independent committee to investigate the grenade attack. The commission published its report on February 27, 2005 without identifying the perpetrators of the attack.
   The report attributes the commission’s failure to identify the culprits to lack of access to the report of the intelligence agencies and lack of cooperation from the government.
   The committee demanded that the government should publish all the reports of investigations of all grenade or bomb attacks and illegal arms seizure.
   After the carnage, intelligence from the Scotland Yard and Federal Bureau of Investigation came to Bangladesh to investigate the incident. None of the agencies, however, has yet given any report.
   Kawsar Ahmed Haidary, special superintendent of the CID, also the final superviser of the case, told New Age, ‘Authenticity of the confessional statement made by George Miah is questionable as no corroborative evidence was found.’
   The investigation had ground to a halt after the ‘George Miah theory’ flopped, and 17 of the 20 suspects arrested in connection with the case were freed on bail. The three, who made the confessional statements, are still behind bars.
   The bailed out 17 were Manjur Hossain, Shah Alam, Haji Shoaib Dicon, Ayub Ali Khan, Shaibal Saha Partha, Habib alias Abdul Hannan, Badsha Mia, Abdur Rahman, Mohammad Hossain Tushar, Zahir Hossain Liton, Akhteruzaman Ata, Abdur Rahim, Waliullah alias Ali, Mohammad Hossain, Monir Hossain alias Pichchi Monir, and Akash Sarkar Jiten.
   None of these persons who faced a lot of harassment and inhuman torture were found guilty in the final investigation.

An adviser to the military-controlled interim government on Wednesday hinted that the administration was inching closer towards an understanding with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party over major issues, including release of the former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, but insisted that the success depended on mutual trust.
   ‘We have resolved almost all the issues relating to release of Khaleda Zia…The hurdle that still stands in the way is mutual trust’, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters at the secretariat. ‘Hopefully, this could also be worked out soon since efforts are on.’
   He said the government was making all possible efforts to ensure that all political parties participate in the elections.
   Referring to a statement of the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on release of Khaleda, the adviser said mutual trust was an important issue here. ‘We are persistently working towards this end with a positive attitude…We are optimistic we can achieve mutual trust.’
   After a cabinet meeting in Chittagong on August 13, Fakhruddin told reporters that the efforts to release the BNP chairperson through a normal process were under way.
   Asked whether the qualitative changes the government intended to achieve would be possible by keeping the two top leaders –Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia – outside the elections, Zillur said such questions were ‘hypothetical’.
   He said the administrative process for releasing the BNP chairperson would not be any barrier when all would reach a greater understanding.
   When asked if the government had retreated from it previous position by initiating the release of the two leaders, the adviser, however, asserted that the government was not backing way from its pledge for bringing about qualitative changes in politics, which, he said, was a national desire.
   He said the government wanted participation of all political parties in the general elections.
   Asked whether the arrests of Khaleda and Hasina were a wrong decision of the present government, he said history was a continuous process. ‘A decision is taken in need of the hour…We should rather concentrate on whether we can become successful in transition.’
   On the same day, communications adviser Ghulam Quader told reporters that the process for Khaleda’s release was progressing as said by the chief adviser. ‘We do not have a date and time… for her release. We are making all possible efforts to make the process faster…I do not like to say anything in advance in this regard lest it destroy the possibility.’
   He said the government and the BNP were working together on the issue.
   Replying to a question, he said the government was considering the option of parole for Khaleda as releasing anybody on bail was the responsibility of the court.
   Both the advisers said that the government was yet to set a date for another round of talks with the Awami League in response to the latest request of the party. The advisers said they would discuss all issues to be raised by the AL at the dialogue.
   About talks with the BNP, Zillur said, ‘We have not yet received any response from the BNP for the dialogue…We are, however, happy to see in media reports that the BNP leaders are showing a positive attitude… that they are interested in holding talks with the government.’
   The BNP along with its ally Jamaat-e-Islami has been pushing for release of Khaleda Zia from jail as a condition for joining the dialogue with the military-controlled government.
   The government arrested Khaleda Zia on September 3 last year and detained her in a high-security special jail on the parliament complex. It implicated her in four cases on charges of corruption.
   Earlier on June 11, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the president of the Awami League, was released temporarily on an executive order for medical treatment abroad apparently after striking a political deal with her party.

The BNP and its allies march towards the Chief Adviser’s Office today for the submission of a memorandum demanding release of the party’s chief Khaleda Zia and overseas treatment for her son Tarique Rahman.
   The leaders and activists of the parties will gather at the graveside of Ziaur Rahman at 10:00am and then march towards the Chief Adviser’s Office. The top leaders of the BNP-led alliance will lead the procession.
   The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Wednesday urged the leaders and activist of the party, its allies and their front organisations to make the programme successful.
   ‘Khaleda Zia is not just the leader of the BNP or the alliance, but also the symbol of unity of the people. We expect the government will release her showing respect to demand of the people,’ he said before breaking a token hunger strike of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal leaders and activists demanding immediate release of Khaleda.
   ‘There is no alternative to an elected government to solve the crisis in all spheres of life created by this failed government. The earlier the government would hold the elections, the better it would be for them and the people,’ he said.
   ‘No free and fair elections can be held under the state of emergency and if they [the government] were still willing to do so, it would not be acceptable to us and the people,’ he said.
   ‘They held local government polls, but now the ballot papers are being found in places. It was an acid test for them to hold elections under the state of emergency,’ he said.
   The Juba Dal general secretary, Moazzem Hossain Alal, acting Juba Dal president Miah Muhammad Selim, Juba Dal leaders Khairul Kabir Khokan and Shirin Akhtar, former lawmakers and leader of various front organisations were also present.
   The secretaries general of the BNP-led alliance in the morning sat at a meeting in the house of the BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to work out today’s programmes.
   Party sources said the secretaries general had discussed ways to make the programme successful by mobilising the highest number of people possible for the march.
   The lower units of the party and the fronts have also been instructed to hold the programme. The lower units will send the memorandum through the offices of upazila nirbahi officers and deputy commissioners.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow the Anti-Corruption Commission to appeal against the High Court orders which had stayed the proceedings of 52 graft cases against high-profile corruption suspects, including politicians and businessmen.
   The full court of all the five Appellate Division judges, headed by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, disposed of the 35 petitions filed by the commission seeking stay on the High Court orders and dismissed 17 other petitions as the matters had already been resolved by the High Court.
   The court also ordered the counsels of both the commission and the accused to get the rules, issued earlier by the High Court asking the commission to explain the legality of the cases, heard by the High Court expeditiously.
   The Appellate Division, however, posted for October 13 and 26 the hearing in six cases as the High Court had already disposed of the cases and the commission filed regular petitions seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdicts.
   The court also kept pending the hearing in two other similar petitions as the commission’s counsels sought time.
   Rafique-ul Huq, who defended most of the people in the cases, told reporters the Appellate Division had disposed of the petitions asking both the parties in the corruption cases to get the rules issued earlier by the High Court heard and disposed of by the High Court expeditiously.
   The commission’s senior counsel Anisul Huq told reporters the Appellate Division had refused to stay the High Court orders, but asked both the parties to get the rules heard by the High Court expeditiously.
   The court, however, ruled the stay order issued earlier by the chamber judge of the Appellate Division on the High Court orders would continue till the disposal of the rules by the High Court, Anisul Huq said.
   The court is scheduled today to hear similar petitions filed by the commission seeking permission to appeal against the High Court orders that granted bail to high-profile corruption suspects and stayed proceedings of 41 corruption cases.

The government has asked the private universities located in residential areas or on VIP roads in Dhaka to move to other places in three months.
   ‘The private higher educational institutions which are now located in residential areas or on VIP roads will need to move to other places in three months… Such a move is part of the government efforts to solve traffic congestion of the city,’ said an order issued by the education ministry on August 13.
   ‘A copy of the order has been sent to the ministries of home, communications and public works, and University Grants Commission and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha for further action,’ an education ministry official said.
   ‘The University Grants Commission has accordingly asked the private universities to move out from such areas and roads to other places,’ he said.
   ‘The decision was made at a meeting in the Chief Adviser’s Office on July 29 in the presence of the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed. The meeting discussed ways to address traffic congestion in the city,’ the education ministry official told New Age on Wednesday.
   Of the total 51 private universities, 41 are housed in rented buildings in Dhaka. A large number of private schools and colleges are now also located in residential areas such as Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara.
   Some schools, colleges and private universities are located on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, a VIP road, in Dhaka.
   The government in April decided not to allow establishment of any new educational institutions on any important, busy and VIP roads and in residential areas across the country.
   ‘The existing unplanned location of educational institutions is responsible for severe traffic congestion, rampant untoward incidents such as damage to vehicles, incidents of setting vehicles on fire, road blockade and threats to VIP movement security and these factors have prompted the government to make the decision,’ another official of the ministry said.

Members of Pakistan’s ruling coalition said Wednesday they were trying to resolve a split over the reinstatement of judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf, who resigned this week.
   The coalition, led by the parties of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, managed a rare show of unity when it agreed on impeachment charges that forced Musharraf out of office on Monday.
   But since then, Sharif has been pressing for the immediate restoration of the judiciary, with talks between coalition members on Tuesday ending without agreement and due to restart on Friday.
   ‘There is no deadline given by us,’ the education minister, Ahsan Iqbal, a leading member of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N, said when asked about reports that it had given Benazir’s party an ultimatum during the talks.
   ‘We will see after 72 hours and try to resolve this issue as we are committed to the judges’ restoration.’
   Divisions over the issue have distracted the coalition leaders from dealing with rising Islamic militancy and a crisis-hit economy ever since they trounced Musharraf’s political allies in elections in February.
   Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir’s widower, and Sharif agreed in May to restore around 60 judges who were sacked by Musharraf during a state of emergency last November in order to push through his re-election as president.
   But moves to bring back the judges, including the independent-minded former chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, stalled amid speculation over Zardari’s commitment.
   The judges could theoretically overturn an amnesty on graft charges that Musharraf gave to Zardari and Benazir as part of a doomed power-sharing deal in October last year, before Benazir’s return from exile.
   She was assassinated in a suicide attack in December.
   ‘We have committed ourselves to restoration of the judiciary,’ Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party, said. He refused to comment further.
   Musharraf warned in his televised resignation speech on Monday that the coalition had to tackle the country’s problems urgently in order to ‘save Pakistan.’

The Election Commission has replied to Awami League’s letter for fresh talks, asking the party to clarify what issues it wants to address, the chief election commissioner said.
   The Awami League sent letters to the chief adviser and the EC Tuesday seeking a date and time for another round of dialogue on issues related to timing of parliamentary and upazila polls.
   ‘We have sent a letter to the AL asking to know the particular issues they want to discuss,’ ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters after a meeting on voter listing at the EC secretariat.
   ‘The commission has previously met with the political parties on issues related to schedules of national and upazila polls,’ Huda said.
   ‘The AL has not pointed out any specific agenda in the letter. We hope if the party specifies its agenda the commission will be able to clarify its position on that matter,’ he said.
   The CEC said: ‘Anybody may sit and talk with the commission. Our door is open.’
   ‘We have not set any specific date to hold another dialogue with the AL.’
   Asked how many upazilas polls may be held in October, he said: ‘We have not mentioned the numbers yet. We suppose the polls will be held in between 300 to 350 upazilas.’
   ‘The commission will fix the number of upazilas prior to announcing the polls date, after the promulgation of upazila election regulations,’ he said.
   The EC has already finalised the draft of regulations for the upazila parishad polls, Huda said.
   The Election Commission earlier held two rounds of electoral reform dialogue with 17 parties between September 2007 and February 2008.
   The AL also sent a letter to the chief adviser Tuesday for another round of political dialogue with the interim government.
   Addressing the chief adviser, the letter said: ‘Various questions have been raised and confusion has been created over important issues such as the Jatiya Sangsad election and upazila parishad polls.’
   ‘We think it is necessary to have another round of dialogue with the chief adviser and his team as soon as possible on our proposals regarding the timing of parliamentary and upazila polls.’
   ‘It is also necessary as a follow up to our earlier dialogue.’
   The government held two rounds of informal talks with the AL and other parties in April and June, leading up to the first round of formal dialogue.

The High Court on Wednesday granted interim bail for six months to the HRC Group chairman, Sayeed Hossain Chowdhury, in the latest case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission under the Money Laundering Prevention Act against him on August 6.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader and Justice M Emdadul
   Haque Azad passed the order after hearing the petition filed by Sayeed Hossain.
   The court also asked the commission to explain why Sayeed would not be granted regular bail.
   Sayeed, after his arrest on charge of breaching the Emergency Powers Rules at his house at Gulshan on July 18, was released on bail on August 1. But he was arrested again at the Dhaka jail gate on the same allegation on the day.
   A Dhaka court on August 6 showed Sayeed arrested in the money laundering case filed earlier in the day by the commission’s deputy assistant director Abul Kasem with the Tejgaon police against him and four others.
   The commission accused Sayeed and the four of illegal transfer and transformation of Tk 12.16 crore.
   The same court on July 29 granted bail for four months to Sayeed, in the first case, and July 13, in the second case, Sayeed’s counsel Mahbubur Rahman told the High Court bench, moving the bail petition on Wednesday.

A nuclear energy deal between the United States and India could fuel an arms race with Pakistan unless it is amended to ensure New Delhi is banned from producing new weapons-grade material and from conducting nuclear test explosions, two US
   lawmakers said Wednesday.
   The two lawmakers called on the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to insist on amending the agreement when it meets to consider the deal on Thursday in Vienna.
   Objections by any nation in the group — which controls the global flow of civilian atomic exports — would scuttle the pact.
   The nuclear energy pact ‘threatens to rapidly accelerate New Delhi’s arms race with Pakistan — a rivalry made all the more precarious by the resignation on Tuesday of the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf,’ Democrats Edward Markey and Ellen Tauscher wrote in a commentary published in the New York Times.
   ‘This deal was foolish when Pakistan was relatively stable; with Musharraf gone, an arms race on the subcontinent would likely be more difficult to control.’
   The suppliers group ‘can say yes to nuclear trade with India if two simple conditions are met,’ wrote the two members of the House of Representatives.
   ‘First, India must sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a step already taken by 178 other countries and every member state of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,’ the commentary said.
   ‘Second, India must agree to halt production of nuclear material for weapons.’
   Such a ban would not require India to give up the atomic weapons it has or prevent it from building more weapons with nuclear material previously produced, according to the lawmakers.
   By shutting down the manufacture of new plutonium and highly enriched uranium, India ‘would prove to the international community that opening up nuclear commerce would not assist, either directly or indirectly, its nuclear weapons programme.
   Markey, from Massachusetts, is co-chairman of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation and Tauscher, from California, is chair of the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
   The president, George W Bush, and the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, agreed a framework for the nuclear deal in 2005, under which the United States will provide energy-starved India civilian nuclear fuel and technology.
   India still needs a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and ratification by the US Congress before the deal can go through.
   The United States and other developed states suspended nuclear trade with India after New Delhi fired its first nuclear weapons test in 1974, and the new deal is part of a strategic partnership between the world’s two biggest democracies.
   The commentary said the Nuclear Suppliers Group was formed in response to India’s illegal 1974 nuclear test and that it would be undermining its mission if it approved the deal as written.
   If the group agrees to the deal as is and breaches its own rules, ‘countries such as Iran and North Korea would certainly use the precedent to their advantage.’

The Election Commission has finalised the draft of upazila electoral rules and code of conduct dropping its plan to keep political parties out of the process of the local government polls.
   The EC is likely to send the draft to the law ministry today for vetting after which it will promulgate the rules exercising its power to do so under the Upazila Parishad Ordinance.
   The interim government on June 30, 2008 promulgated the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance-2008 that said the candidates must resign from their posts in political parties, if they held any, before taking oath to the elected parishads.
   In the initial draft code of conduct and electoral rules for upazila polls the EC had made the upazila polls non-partisan and barred political parties from contesting the polls and participating in electioneering.
   It brought changes in the draft after the High Court had scrapped similar rules prepared for city and municipal polls that barred political parties from participating in local government polls.
   The EC’s plan to keep political parties out of the August 4 polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities fell through after the July 31 HC ruling that allowed the political parties to participate in local government elections.
   According to the revised draft of upazila electoral rules and code of conduct, political parties will be able to contest the upcoming upazila elections.
   EC sources said that the commission hoped that local government ministry would file an appeal against the HC ruling allowing political parties to contest the August 4 local government polls.
   The EC is still sticking to its guns over holding polls to 300-250 upazilas in October though major political parties are strongly opposing the plan for holding any other elections before parliamentary polls the interim government has pledged to hold in December.
   The Upazila Parishad Ordinance has introduced a number of provisions suggesting disqualification of certain types of candidates from contesting the elections to the local body. Bank loan defaulters and people employed in any private or semi-government schools will not be eligible to contest the elections.
   Anyone who is convicted of fund embezzlement or other criminal offences, who is wanted by police and has been identified as a war criminal by any court will not be eligible for election to the upazila parishads.
   The candidates must submit reports on their sources of income and account of the assets they own to the Election Commission. They must resign from the [posts of] political parties, if they hold any, before taking oath.

Jamaican Usain Bolt became the first man in 24 years to claim the Olympic sprint double on Wednesday when he won the 200m in record-breaking style.
   Bolt set a new world record time of 19.30 seconds to bag a double last achieved by American Carl Lewis at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
   The Jamaican, who will be 22 on Thursday, broke the record of 19.32sec set by American Michael Johnson at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
   Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles claimed silver in 19.82sec and defending Olympic champion Shawn Crawford of the United States took bronze in 19.96sec after team-mate Wallace Spearmon (19.95sec) was disqualified for running out of his lane.
   The US team later launched two protests, the first against Spearmon’s disqualification, which they ultimately accepted, and a second against Martina for the same offence.
   ‘I feel good. I have just proved to the world I am a true champion and with hard work anything is possible,’ said Bolt.
   ‘This is more than I can handle really, I’m a bit overwhelmed. I didn’t think a 200m record was on because I felt tired after the heats.
   ‘But I told everyone I was going to come out here and leave everything on the track and I did just that.
   ‘I worked so hard to become champion and I will work harder to stay at the top,’ the former world junior champion warned.
   He accelerated off his blocks in a perfect start and within 20 metres had tracked down Zimbabwe’s Brian Dzingai on his outside.
   As he hit the final bend, Bolt was a metre up on Crawford on his inside and he entered the final straight looking majestic, launching his lithe 1.96m (6ft 5’) frame sprinting well clear of the field.
   There was no easing up in the final 10 metres, as he had done in the 100m, the Jamaican dipping fiercely at the line with clenched teeth.
   ‘I got out good, I ran the corner as hard as possible and once I entered the straight I told myself to ‘keep it up, don’t die on me now’,’ Bolt said.
   Martina said it had been a privilege to have raced Bolt in top form. ‘I felt good to be there during the race,’ said the 24-year-old whose time was 0.29sec quicker than his personal best.
   Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee confirmed the 30-year-old Blonska had failed her A sample and the result of the B sample would be known Thursday.
   Blonska faced a lifetime ban if both samples prove positive after serving a previous suspension for taking stanozolol, the anabolic steriod used by disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson.
   International Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack confirmed an investigation was underway.
   ‘The procedure is running. The B-sample will no doubt be opened today and a decision taken tomorrow.’

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission will decide on power tariff increase for power agencies by September, the commission said after a public hearing in the issue on Wednesday.
   ‘After examining the opinions of various stakeholders and power agencies, the commission will make a decision on September 30 whether power price would be increased and to what extent, if it is increased,’ said the commission chairman, Golam Rahman.
   The Power Development Board submitted the application for increase in tariff by around 33 per cent for the electricity that agencies like Dhaka Power Distribution Company, Dhaka Electricity Supply Company, Rural Electrification Board and West Zone Power Distribution Company buy from the board for supply to consumers.
   Stakeholders including representatives of business associations, consumers association and the Transparency International, Bangladesh opposed the power board application for increase in power tariff for power agencies as ultimately the tariff for consumers would need to be increased to offset the burden of the agencies.
   Power agencies, however, agreed to buy electricity for higher prices if the commission allowed them to charge higher prices from consumers.
   The board initially submitted applications to the commission for power tariff increase for both agencies and consumers, but the commission on July 3 rejected the application for the proposed increase for consumers.
   It said the commission would first make a decision on increase for power agencies.
   The stakeholders during Wednesday’s hearing said the board’s application for tariff increase for power agencies contained unrealistic assumptions, unjustified cost analysis and accounting practices and lacked any direction to improve its efficiency and reduce system loss.
   Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative Aftab Ul Islam said the cost of business had increased by around 15 per cent as the power board could not ensure proper electricity supply.
   Transparency International representative Zakir Hossain Khan said because of corruption and high price of electricity of independent power producers, the board had incurred a loss of more than Tk 900 crore in the past year while consumers had to pay bribes to get power connections.
   He also said the board had an outstanding bill of Tk 6,000 crore to different agencies and it would earn only Tk 2,200 crore more if its tariff was increased.
   ‘Tariff increase may give the board a relief for a short time, but in the long run it has to improve its efficiency and reduce corruption. If it realises its outstanding bills, it will not need to increase power tariff in near future,’ he said.
   Power board officials, however, said they would incur a loss of about Tk 2,392 crore if the tariff was not increased. They failed to answer properly some queries of the stakeholders.
   The commission will take post-hearing opinions in writing from stakeholders till August 28 before deciding on the price increase proposal.
   Even if the commission approves price increase for agencies, the interim government is unlikely to allow any increase in power tariff for consumers during its remaining tenure, the chief adviser’s special assistant M Tamim told New Age recently.

The shipping authorities have banned a foreign ‘toxic’ ship from being scrapped at Sitakundu ship breaking yard, the Chittagong port and shipping officials said on Wednesday.
   Mongolian flag carrier New Atlantia, which global environmental watchdog Greenpeace described as hazardous, changed its name to MT Enterprise and entered the Bangladesh territory a few days back, they said.
   It was waiting at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong port to be scrapped at Sitakundu ship breaking yard, they added.
   Private ship breaking firm Madina Enterprise imported the scrap ship of over 16,000 tonnes for Tk 90 crores from Singapore recently, the officials informed.
   Initially, the office of the director general (shipping) gave clearance for breaking up the ship here, but the same office cancelled the clearance on August 14 after learning that it was blacklisted as hazardous by Greenpeace, they also informed.
   The authorities also ordered this ship to leave the Bangladesh water territory, they said.
   ‘We banned this ship after we became confirmed that it was toxic and blacklisted by Greenpeace,’ said Dr Mosarraf Asraf, chief chemist of the office of DG (shipping).
   ‘Initially, we gave clearance as we were not aware of the problem because our website was down. Singapore-based exporter firm Yalumba Incorporated also misled us with wrong interpretation in the documents submitted to us,’ he added.
   Nazim Uddin, owner of Madina Enterprise, claimed that he had imported the ship for scrapping after obtaining due permission from the shipping authorities.
   ‘When the ship is ready for beaching at Sitakundu yard, the shipping department cancelled the permission with a plea of its name being on the list of toxic ships made by Greenpeace,’ Nazim said.
   ‘Then, we filed a writ with the high court and secured permission to break up this ship,’ he added.
   But the chief chemist said the next course of action would be taken against this asbestos-laden ship after getting the copy of the court order.
   Meanwhile, Young Power in Social Action, an NGO working on environmental and human rights issues, said it would organise a human chain in the port city today to protest against the arrival of this toxic ship and to demand its immediate departure.

A Kuwaiti Labour Court has ruled in favour of about 750 Bangladeshi workers who have been complaining of non-payment and underpayment of salaries.
   The Arab Times, a Kuwait-based English language daily, Tuesday quoted a Bangladeshi embassy official as saying that the court under the ministry of social affairs had ruled on the complaints filed by the Bangladeshis who were employed with a local cleaning company and were placed at various government establishments.
   It was pointed out that the company was irregular in payments to them and that the employer also failed to renew their residencies. The court ordered the company to pay the workers two months salary and other benefits, in addition to shouldering the cost of their repatriation, reports said.
   Bangladesh embassy officials were also quoted as saying that a total of 233 cleaners of the company had already been sent back to Dhaka and that the rest of the ill-fated workers will also be sent home in next few days.
   ‘The ministry of social affairs and labour is doing everything in its capacity to repatriate the workers and senior officials of the ministry are regularly monitoring the situation of the workers,’ the Arab Times report said.
   According to the complaints received by the embassy, some cleaners alleged that they were being paid as low as KD 6 in compensation, even as the embassy has called upon the company to pay the workers not less than KD 20 as temporary compensation. Out of the 750 workers, about 300 are female cleaners. Residency permits of most workers have expired, reports said. Earlier, victim workers told the Arab Times that the company had filed false cases against some of them accusing them of absconding from work in an effort to deport them. The move was aimed at denying them their unpaid salaries. The workers were being paid a monthly salary of KD 20.
   The workers had also alleged that they were facing serious food shortage and that some community members were providing them supplies out of kindness.
   The Bangladesh embassy in Kuwait has taken some concrete measures to curb the exploitation of its workers by unscrupulous employers. To this end, the embassy henceforth checks the antecedents of a company before giving green light for recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.
   Meanwhile, Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, who began fresh strike protesting non-payment as well as deduction of salaries since Sunday, reportedly called off their strike following a settlement between the workers and the companies.
   The Arab Times on Monday reported that some 6,000 workers of two cleaning companies enforced the strike demanding fixation of minimum monthly wage at KD 40 as per the Kuwaiti government order.
   Since the issuing of the order, Kuwait government so far took action against at least five companies as they were continuing to deprive their workers of their fair salary and other facilities.

The Bangladesh Police on Wednesday denied Indian press reports that the police had entered the Indian territory and arrested one, as published in the Economic Times of India on Tuesday.
   Terming the report false, baseless and fabricated, the inspector general of police, Noor Mohammad, told New Age, ‘I have yet to hear the news, but I am confirmed that the Bangladesh police has never entered the Indian territory.’
   Saying that the allegations are ‘baseless,’ the Kurigram deputy commissioner, Jalal Uddin, told New Age, ‘A team of the Bhurungamari police, led by assistant subinspector Abdul Latif, conducted a raid on Dakkhin Bashjani early Tuesday to arrest a convict named Hossain Ali.’
   ‘As Hossain and his associates attacked the police, the police fired six gunshots in which Hossain was injured. He was then arrested at a jungle,’ Jalal said, adding the Bangladesh Police never entered the Indian territory.
   The Bhurungamari police officer-in-charge, Aslam Iqbal, told New Age, ‘Our team conducted the raid and fired on the criminals.’ ‘The arrested and the injured police officer were treated in Kurigram Health Complex and were later shifted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital,’ Aslam said.
   Hossain Ali, 40, meanwhile, died from his injuries in Rangpur Medical College Hospital at about 1:30pm.

Former foreign minister M Morshed Khan’s son Faisal Morshed Khan was on Wednesday jailed again for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in the wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   AKM Arifur Rahman, the judge of the special judge’s court 10 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, also ordered confiscation of Faisal’s wealth of Tk 1.66 crore found disproportionate to his legitimate sources of income.
   The court also fined Faisal Tk 10 lakh and ordered him to serve one more year in jail in case of failure to pay the fine.
   The court sentenced Faisal to imprisonment for two years for hiding assets in the wealth statement and rigorous imprisonment for eight years for amassing illegal wealth.
   The court ordered consecutive execution of the sentences meaning Faisal will need to serve both the sentences.
   The sentences, however, will come into effect after the arrest or surrender of Faisal as he is in hiding.
   On April 13, another special court of AK Roy sentenced Faisal, also the AB Bank chairman, to rigorous imprisonment for seven years for helping former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Shajahan Chowdhury in amassing illegal wealth. The court also sentenced Shajahan to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information about assets.
   Faisal’s father M Morshed Khan, also a BNP stalwart, was on August 4 jailed for 13 years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in the wealth statement. Morshed also went into hiding immediately after the declaration of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007.

A Spanish tourist jet carrying more than 160 people skidded off a Madrid airport runway and broke up in flames Wednesday, killing at least 45 people and injuring dozens, officials said.
   The Spanair jet made an emergency landing just after taking off from the Madrid-Barajas airport heading for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, according to an emergency services spokesman.
   Smoke billowed from the wreckage of Flight JK 5022 off the bottom of the runway. Helicopters dropped water to douse the flames of the jet and grassfires caused by the crash.
   Regional authorities issued a provisional toll saying there were at least 45 dead and 40 injured.
   CNN Plus television news gave a toll of 47 dead. El Mundo newspaper said the toll could exceed 100.
   Reports said there were 166 passengers on the jet.
   Spanair, a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS, is Spain’s second biggest airline after Iberia. Five passengers on a Spanair flight from Spain’s Basque region to Barcelona were injured in an emergency evacuation on January 9, 2006.
   It was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations to Spain since then.

Missiles fired from Afghanistan hit a militant hideout in Pakistan’s tribal belt Wednesday, killing at least eight people including some foreign extremists, security officials said.
   Two missiles hit a house owned by a local tribesman with links to Islamic militants in Wana, the main town in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, the officials said.
   ‘It was a known hideout for militants. At least eight people were killed and some foreign militants are among them.’ security official said.
   Residents said the owner of the house, named as Haji Yaqub, was wounded and was pulled from the rubble of his house, but people were scared to stay in the area because aircraft were flying overhead. ‘The missiles came from Afghanistan,’ the official said.
   There has been a series of missile attacks on militants in Pakistan in recent weeks.