Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The High Court on Thursday confirmed the death sentence of retired risaldar Moslemuddin and acquitted the other two condemned fugitives of the charges of killing four top Awami League leaders in Dhaka jail in 1975.
   The High Court bench of Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Ataur Rahman Khan also acquitted of the charges the dismissed lieutenant colonel Syed Farook Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired major Bazlul Huda and retired major AKM Mohiuddin, who appealed against their conviction after being jailed for life.
   In its verdict on the death reference and appeals against the trial court verdict in the 1975 jail killing case, the court also observed no sufficient evidence was found for the conviction of the other eight sentenced to life imprisonment.
   The court, however, did not pass any order on the eight as they had not appealed against the conviction and had gone into hiding without surrendering in court.
   The chief public prosecutor of the case, Anisul Huq, after the verdict, told reporters the sentences of life imprisonment for the eight remained unchanged as the High Court passed no order on their conviction.
   Anis termed the verdict ‘unfortunate’ and said he would prefer an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the verdict.
   ‘I am disappointed with the verdict… The government will appeal against the verdict with the Appellate Division,’ Anis said. ‘We have faith in the apex court and hope we will get justice there.’
   The Awami League expressed its disappointment with the High Court.
   The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, in his house at Gulshan told reporters the High Court verdict had disappointed them and the people would not accept the verdict.
   The Rajshahi mayor-elect Khairuzzaman Liton, son of AHM Qamaruzzaman, one of four leaders killed in jail in 1975, expressed his disappointment with the High Court verdict, saying the neutrality of the court could be questioned with the verdict.
   ‘We will move higher court against the judgement. We hope to get justice there,’ he said.
   In the long-drawn verdict, delivered in eight working days after hearing the case in 26 working days, the court confirmed the death sentence of risaldar Muslemuddin. It acquitted dismissed dafadars Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha of the charges saying no sufficient evidence was found for their conviction.
   The killing took place 79 days after the assassination of Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of his family, including his four-year-old child and two daughters-in-law, on August 15, 1975. Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana survived as they were abroad.
   Four of Sheikh Mujib’s close political colleagues — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Monsur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman who ran the provisional government of Bangladesh at Mujibnagar — were killed inside the Dhaka central jail on November 3, 1975.
   The investigation and trial of the jail killing case, however, came up after the Awami League had assumed office in 1996.
   The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court on October 20, 2004 gave the verdict in the case, sentencing three persons to death and 12 to life imprisonment. All of the 15 convicts were former military personnel.
   The trial court sentenced three persons — retired risaldar Muslemuddin and dismissed dafadars Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha — to death penalty. They all are in hiding.
   The people sentenced to life imprisonment were dismissed lieutenant colonel Syed Farook Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired major Bazlul Huda, dismissed lieutenant colonel Khandakar Abdur Rashid, lieutenant colonel Shariful Haq Dalim who was relieved, retired lieutenant colonel SHMB Noor Chowdhury, retired major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, retired lieutenant colonel AM Rashed Chowdhury, major Ahmed Sharful Hossain who was relieved, retired captain Abdul Majed, captain Kisman Kismat Hashem and captain Najmul Hossain Ansar who were relieved.
   Farook Rahman, Shahriar Rashid, Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed are in jail and others are in hiding. They appealed against the trial court verdict and were acquitted of the charges.
   The four former army officers, however, cannot be released as they were earlier sentenced to death penalty in the Sheikh Mujib murder case, now pending with the Supreme Court for appeal hearing.
   Anisul Huq with additional attorney general Mansur Habib, Nurul Islam Sujan, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, SM Rezaul Karim, Momtaz Uddin Mehedi, Fazle Noor Tapash and Motahar Hossain Saju moved the case for the state.
   Former additional attorney general Abdur Rezzak Khan appeared for Shahriya, Syed Mizanur Rahman for Farooq, and Abdullah Al Mamun for Mohiuddin and Huda. Abdul Hannan conducted the case as the state defence for three condemned fugitives — Moslemuddin, Marfat and Abul Hashem Mridha.

The Awami League on Thursday expressed its disappointment with the High Court verdict that acquitted dismissed lieutenant colonel Syed Farook Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired major Bazlul Huda and retired major AKM Mohiuddin, earlier sentenced to life imprisonment, and upheld the death sentence of risladar Muslemuddin in the jail killing case.
   The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, in his house at Gulshan said the High Court verdict had disappointed them and the people would not accept the verdict.
   After the assassination of Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, four of his close political colleagues — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Monsur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman who ran the provisional government of Bangladesh at Mujibnagar — were killed inside the Dhaka central jail on November 3, 1975.
   Qamaruzzaman’s son Khairuzzaman Liton expressed his disappointment with the High Court verdict saying the neutrality of the Court could be questioned with the verdict.
   ‘We will move higher court against the judgement. We hope to get justice there,’ he said.

The High Court on Thursday issued a rule on the government to explain in two weeks why the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, under which the Truth and Accountability Commission was formed on July 30, would not be declared illegal and void.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hosein Ahmed passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed on August 25 by Supreme Court lawyer Adilur Rahman Khan, women’s organisation Nari Grantha Probartana executive director Farida Akhter, physician-turned-politician Dipu Moni and rights organisation Odhikar’s acting director ASM Nasiruddin Elan.
   The secretary to the president, cabinet secretary, law secretary, home secretary, truth commission chairman and the Anti-Corruption Commission chairman were asked to come up with the explanation.
   The military-controlled interim government on July 30 formed the truth commission to let people voluntarily admit to their corruption, deposit ill-gotten wealth to the state exchequer and get mercy.
   The commission was formed in accordance with the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, promulgated on June 5.
   The petitioners’ counsel Tawfique Nawaz argued the promulgation of the ordinance and the formation and functioning of the commission were unconstitutional as the commission was formed as an alternative to courts to try corruption suspects.
   The preamble and some other clauses of the ordinance said the government had promulgated the ordinance (on June 5) to ‘remove corruption’ by means other than criminal trial and to reduce the burden of trials upon the state.
   Referring to the ordinance, the counsel said that the objective of the ordinance was contrary to the constitutional provisions.
   According to the constitution, an alleged offender can be punished after a fair trial by a competent court or tribunal and there can be no alternative to courts or tribunals for trial of a criminal offence, the petition said.
   The commission set up under the ordinance is neither a court nor a tribunal established by any law, Tawfique argued, adding, ‘Even the Supreme Court has ceased to have its supervisory authority, granted by the constitution, over the decision of the commission.’
   Opposing the petition, the attorney general, Salahuddin Ahmed, argued the commission was not an alternative to courts.
   The ordinance was made and the commission was formed only to let corruption suspects voluntarily admit to their corruption, deposit ill-gotten wealth to the state exchequer and get mercy.
   Neither the ordinance nor the commission has put any person on compulsion or under pressure of going to the commission, rather any person can admit to their corruption voluntarily to get mercy, the attorney general said.
   Tawfique argued the ordinance was made in violation of the constitutional provision of ‘equality before law’ as the ordinance empowered the commission to pick and choose corruption suspects for mercy.
   Discrimination against individuals is contrary to Article 27 of the constitution that guarantees equal rights before law, he pointed out.
   The ordinance empowers the commission to order confiscation of money commensurate to the amount earned illegally and such confiscation results in barring the person concerned from contesting election to a public office or companies, Tawfique said. ‘This is, for all purposes, a conviction and sentence and such authority to punish a person by the commission is inconsistent with constitutional provisions for trying an offender by a court of law.’
   Section 29 of the ordinance says the commission can seek assistance of the judiciary in consultation with the Supreme Court and the judiciary is under legal obligations to assist the commission.
   Referring to the section, Tawfique argued it was against the basic structure of the constitution as an independent judiciary was to ensure a fair trial and not to follow the instruction of or to assist any statutory body.
   According to the constitution, an ordinance requires to be placed in the immediate next session of the parliament while the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance has been made and the commission launched for a five-month period and that will expire before the next general elections, he contended. The ordinance and the commission are ‘illegal’ as the ordinance cannot be placed in the parliament for ratification, Tawfique argued.
   He also challenged the authority of the interim government to promulgate such an ordinance as it had provisions related to policy decisions of the government beyond the jurisdiction of a caretaker government and the ordinance was neither related to holding of elections nor to the regular functioning of the government.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Thursday said the alliance led by his party was ready to participate in dialogues with the interim government and contest the polls after Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman were released.
   After visiting the party chief Khaleda Zia at the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, Delwar said the government should create a proper atmosphere for the dialogues and subsequent participation of his party in elections.
   ‘We want to join the dialogue and the elections in a free environment along with a free Khaleda Zia. We will not contest any stage-managed elections’, Delwar said.
   It was his first meeting with Khaleda in the jail though he did not apply for the visit. Earlier, the authorities denied him permission thrice to see her despite having court instructions.
   The secretary general of BNP’s major ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid accompanied Delwar during the three-hour meeting.
   ‘The BNP-led alliance is an election-oriented combine and it participated in the past polls and assumed office with the people’s mandate. We want to contest the next elections and it is up to the government to create the required atmosphere’, he said.
   Delwar ruled out the possibility of applying for Khaleda’s release. ‘We are in a movement for long demanding her release. Why should the question of application arise’, he told a questioner.
   He said the BNP chairperson was anxious about the health of Tarique Rahman and demanded his immediate treatment overseas.
   ‘She has made the appeal as a mother, not as the chairperson of the party.’
   Ali Ahsan Mujahid claimed there was no correlation between their meeting with Khaleda and any negotiation process.
   The two leaders entered the jail at around 12:45pm and came out at 3:30pm.
   ‘We went there after being told that Madam wanted to meet us and…We had conversation [with her]…,’ Delwar told reporters after the meeting with Khaleda.
   The three leaders discussed possible ways for smooth transition to democracy by restoring normalcy in politics through dialogues with the government and the Election Commission, and the issue of registration of political parties and participation of the alliance in the elections, sources close to the leaders said.
   Before starting together for the special jail, the Jamaat leader went to Delwar’s flat at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and had meeting with some senior leaders of BNP. Mujahid and Dewlar also had an exclusive meeting for half an hour before going to the jail in the same car.
   In the late afternoon, Khaleda’s lawyers visited her at the jail to take instructions.
   ‘She wants to follow the legal process and gave us instructions accordingly’, Naushad Jamir, her lawyer, told New Age.
   The government arrested Khaleda Zia on September 3 last year and implicated her in four graft cases. The High Court granted her bail in two cases.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail for eight weeks to former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s detained eldest son Tarique Rahman in the Bashundhara bribery case, clearing the way for his release from prison.
   The three-member Appellate Division bench chaired by chief justice MM Ruhul Amin passed the order after hearing a petition filed on Tuesday by Tarique, against a High Court order that had rejected his prayer for bail in the case.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chakladar and Justice M Emdadul Haque Azad on August 7 rejected Tarique’s bail petition in the case filed against him and seven others on charge of taking Tk 21 crore in bribe for protecting Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan’s son Safiat Sobhan from the charge of killing the group’s director Sabbir Ahmed on the night of July 4, 2006.
   After the Appellate Division order, Tarique’s chief counsel, Rafique-ul Huq told reporters, ‘The apex court, considering the health condition of Tarique, also senior joint secretary general of BNP, has granted his bail in the last case.’
   ‘Now there is no barrier to release of Tarique from jail as he has been granted bail in all 13 cases filed against him after his arrest on March 8, 2008,’ Rafique said.
   ‘Tarique is seriously ill and the medical board has suggested his treatment abroad’, Rafique told the court adding, the High Court had already granted Tarique bail in all cases.
   The counsel also argued that Tarique should be granted bail as the Appellate Division had earlier granted interim bail to human rights activist Sigma Huda, also wife of former communications minister Nazmul Huda, considering her health condition.
   Attorney general Salahuddin Ahmed, who was present during the hearing, did not oppose Tarique’s bail petition in the last case.
   When asked if the court orders granting bail to Tarique were sent to the prison authorities, Naushad Zamir, one of his lawyers, told New Age, ‘We hope he would be enlarged on bail if the formalities are completed at the earliest.’
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chakladar and Justice M Emdadul Haque Azad on Wednesday granted bail to Tarique in five cases. The court also stayed the proceedings in the cases.
   The same court on Wednesday stayed for six months the proceedings in the Bashundhara bribery case, the lone case under trial, which is pending with a Special Judge’s Court set up in the Jatiya Sangsad Complex.
   The same court on Tuesday granted bail to Tarique in the latest case filed against him for misappropriating Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust fund.
   Another High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Sheikh Abdul Awal on Monday granted him bail in the first case filed against him on March 8, 2007 by Amin Ahmed, a construction firm owner, for extortion of Tk 1 crore. The High Court on April 17, 2007 stayed the proceedings of the case.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam on March 4 granted bail to Tarique in two extortion cases and stayed the proceedings of those cases.
   The police implicated Tarique in a case relating to extortion of Tk 1.32 crore, filed with the Gulshan thana by Khan Mohammad Aftabuddin of Reza Construction, on March 27, 2007. The case was filed primarily against Tarique’s business partner and crony, Giasuddin Al Mamun.
   Tarique was also implicated in another case originally filed against Mamun with the same thana on May 5, 2007 by Abu Shahed Saleh, project co-ordinator of Al-Amin Construction and Reza Construction, for extortion of Tk 4.89 crore from the firm.
   Though the alleged extortion took place before the proclamation of the state of emergency, the government placed the case under the Emergency Powers Rules, which was a violation of the constitution, according to Tarique’s lawyers. The same court on December 10, 2007 granted Tarique bail in the Tk 81 lakh extortion case filed against him by Marshal Distilleries managing director Harun Ferdousi with the Gulshan thana on March 27, 2007. The court also stayed the proceedings of that case.
   The High Court on December 2, 2007 granted bail to Tarique in two extortion cases filed with the Dhanmondi thana on April 1, 2007, and Shahbagh thana on April 9, 2007. The court, on December 3, 2007 also granted him bail in the case filed by Aftabuddin with the Kafrul thana on March 27, 2007 for extortion of Tk 16 lakh from him.
   Tarique was shown arrested in all the extortion cases after the High Court on April 17, 2007 stayed the trial proceedings of the Tk 1 crore extortion case filed with the Gulshan thana against him on March 8, 2007.

The High Court on Thursday granted interim bail for four months to the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader and Emdadul Haque Azad also asked the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain in six weeks why Khaleda Zia would not be granted regular bail in the case.
   The commission’s assistant director Samsul Haque on February 26 filed the case with the Shahbagh police against Khaleda and 15 others, including 10 of her former cabinet colleagues, for causing the state to incur losses of Tk 158 crore through misuse of power.
   The court passed the order after hearing a petition for bail to Khaleda, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson. Her chief counsel, Rafique-ul-Huq, moved the petition.
   The same court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to former ministers Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar and Matiur Rahman Nizami, also the Jamaat-e-Islami Amir, in the same case.
   The court on August 26 granted interim bail for four months to Khaleda in the case filed by the commission against her and others for embezzling Tk 1.2 crore of the Zia Orphanage Trust. Khaleda has been implicated in four corruption cases since her arrest on September 3, 2007.
   One of her counsels, Rafiqul Islam Miah, told reporters, ‘We will soon file a petition seeking bail to her in the remaining cases, Gatco and Niko.’
   He, however, claimed Khaleda would not face any trial in the two cases as their proceedings had earlier been stayed by the High Court.

The Election Commission on Thursday invited 16 political parties, including the mainstream Bangladesh Nationalist Party, to dialogue to reach a consensus on party registration by October 15.
   The dialogue will begin on September 6 and continue till September 9 in the conference room of the commission with the parties it had earlier held two rounds of talks on electoral law reforms.
   ‘The discussion will last for a short time and the main agenda of the talks is the registration of political parties. If the parties want, others election issues might also be discussed,’ the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told reporters on Thursday.
   He said this time the commission had sent invitation to the BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the commission earlier invited the government-backed splinter group of the BNP and now it felt it should talk with the mainstream BNP.
   Asked how the commission invited Delwar as the commission earlier had invited the splinter group’s leader M Hafizuddin Ahmed after examining the BNP constitution which remained unchanged till date, Shamsul said, ‘We feel uncomfortable as we have talked with one group. We feel we should talk with the other group. This is why we have invited Delwar this time.’
   According to schedule, the commission will sit with the Workers Party of Bangladesh at 10:30am, Samyabadi Dal at 11:30am, Ganatantri Party at 12:30pm and the Jatiya Party at 2:00pm on September 6.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) and the BNP will sit with the commission on September 7, Liberal Democratic Party, Islami Oikya Jote, Jatiya Party (Manju) and the Jamaat-e-Islami on September 8 and the Krishak Sramik Janata League, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab), National Awami Party (Mozaffar) and the Awami League on September 9.
   The commission will also hold talks with the Awami League on September 4 as a possible date for talks with the party has already been decided.
   The commission initiated the move for the fresh dialogue as major political parties rejected the October 15 deadline for party registration and said it was absurd in view of time constraints and the state of emergency.
   Just after the amended Representation of the People Order 1972 had been put into force through a gazette notification on August 21 setting the conditions for registration of political parties with the commission, politicians argued the parities were not in a position to comply with the tough conditions for registration at the moment.
   The commission on Tuesday issued a notice inviting political parties to apply for the registration in a prescribed form along with a number of documents including party’s bank statements and income sources.
   The commission on Wednesday also published the notice in national daily newspapers setting October 15 as the deadline.
   Eight small political parties and groups, meanwhile, on Thursday collected application forms for registration. The parties and groups are the National People’s Party, Bangladesh Sachetan Nagarik Mancha, Islamic Constitution Movement, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, Nirdaliya Jana Andolan, Liberal Democratic Party, Jamaat-e-Ulema Dal and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Malek–Ratan).
   Shamsul Huda on Tuesday said, ‘The commission will hold talks with political parties, hear their problems and suggestions and try to address the problems. But they must register by October 15.’
   According to the commission timeline for registration, the parties will get just a month and a half to amend their constitutions and institute new committees by holding council sessions to meet the criteria for registration.

The Election Commission has changed its position regarding the identity of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and invited the mainstream BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, to the dialogue with political parties.
   The commission for nine months has recognised the government-backed splinter group of the BNP as the party mainstream and held talks with the splinter group leaders.
   Controversy surfaced when the commission had invited the BNP splinter group’s acting secretary general, M Hafizuddin Ahmed, to the talks on electoral reforms, challenging the decision of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on the appointment of Delwar as secretary general of the party.
   When Hafiz was invited to the talks, the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said the BNP’s constitution and the ‘doctrine of necessity’ had compelled the commission to invite the group led by Hafiz.
   Shamsul suddenly in the past week changed its position and started saying the commission was ready to hold talks with the mainstream BNP.
   Asked whether the commission, which earlier held talks with the BNP splinter
   group in April, would now hold talks with the party mainstream, Shamsul on August 25 said the circumstances had changed and everyone was observing it.
   The commission on Thursday invited Delwar too the talks with the commission scheduled for 2:00pm on September 7.
   Asked how the commission invited Delwar as the commission earlier had invited the splinter group’s leader M Hafizuddin Ahmed after examining the BNP constitution which remained unchanged till date, Shamsul said, ‘We feel uncomfortable as we have talked with one group. We feel we should talk with the other group.’
   Shamsul, however, several times earlier said there was no scope for talks with both the factions.

At least 1,500 people have fled their homes for shelters in eastern India after days of violent clashes between Hindus and Christians that have killed at least 10, officials said Thursday.
   Hundreds of houses have been burned to the ground and the police have been ordered to shoot on sight after the killing of a popular Hindu holy leader on Saturday sparked riots that have drawn the condemnation of the pope.
   ‘There are around 1,500 people from both the communities who have been rescued by the police,’ local civil administrator Satyabrata Sahu said.
   ‘We have started running shelter homes with food provisions for the people who have fled their homes,’ he said.
   Witnesses in eastern Orissa state estimated the same number again were hiding in forests or camping out at police stations in fear for their lives, although this could not be confirmed.
   ‘Over 300 people fled our village and have taken shelter in the forest,’ Kanu Chandra Nayek told the Indian Express newspaper after his village was attacked by a Hindu mob.
   ‘Here we have almost nothing to eat, there’s a constant downpour, our children are sick.’
   State officials said 167 people had been arrested after rioters torched nearly 500 houses as well as Christian prayer halls and vehicles in Orissa.
   Orissa authorities say 10 people have died, but government officials have put the toll at 16.
   The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, a coordinating body for the Catholic church in India, put the toll at 13 late Wednesday based on reports compiled by the local archdiocese.
   The body has called for Catholic schools to shut down Friday and for peaceful rallies across the country in protest of the violence.
   However administrator Sahu insisted Thursday the situation was ‘tense but under control.’
   Some 2,000 federal and state police have been sent to the worst-hit Kandhamal area in the last three days, senior district official Kishan Kumar said.
   Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday ‘firmly condemned’ the violence in Orissa, where Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive in 1999 — a crime for which a Hindu man is serving life in jail.
   Hindu-Christian clashes erupt periodically in India where 2.3 per cent of the more than 1.1 billion population are Christians.
   Hardline Hindus accuse missionaries of ‘bribing’ poor tribals and low-caste Hindus, who often face strong discrimination, to convert by offering education and health care.
   A spokesman for the Catholic bishops’ body said caste prejudice was also spurring the sectarian violence, with most of the converts in the riot-hit areas Dalits — those on the lowest rung of the ancient Hindu caste hierarchy — or tribals.
   ‘Absolutely the element of caste clash is there,’ said Father Babu Joseph.
   ‘They have been progressing these years with better education into the services and also established their own small businesses. All their small businesses were the first targeted.’
   The police initially blamed the death of Saraswati, who had campaigned against the so-called ‘forced conversions,’ on Maoist guerrillas. But Hindus in the area have accused Christians of responsibility for his death.
   Four people have been arrested in connection with the death, the police have said, without providing details.

Three mayors-elect – Shawkat Hossain Hiron of Barisal, Talukder Abdul Khaleque of Khulna and Khairuzzaman Liton of Rajshahi – sent letters to the acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, on Thursday relinquishing their party posts following directives from the local government directorate.
   The AL-backed eight municipality mayors-elect also sent their resignation letters to the parry’s district unit presidents. They also sent copies of their resignation letters to respective deputy commissioners.
   The three city and eight municipality mayors-elect sent heir resignation letters according to section 7(3) of the Local Government (City Corporations) Ordinance 2008 that requires an elected mayor or councillor to resign from his post in a political party, if the person holds such post, before taking oath of office.
   Local government adviser Anwarul Iqbal told reporters on the day that the mayors-elect would be sworn in by September 11 but the schedule and venue for the swearing-in ceremony were yet to be decided.
   Iqbal said the law stipulated that the mayors- and councillors-elect should take oath within 30 days after the publication of the gazette. The EC gazetted the results on August 12 after elections to the four city corporations and nine municipalities on August 4 and so they have to take oath by September 11.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed would administer oath to the mayors-elect and the councillors would be sworn in by deputy commissioners, he said.
   Iqbal also said that according to law, the mayors- and councillors-elect would have to fulfil two conditions for taking oath – giving up their party posts and submitting affidavits on their assets.
   The Sylhet mayor-elect Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran has not sent his resignation letter to the party as he is now in jail.
   Asma Kamran, wife of detained Kamran, told New Age that they had applied to the deputy commissioner seeking time and the administration allowed them seven more days to complete the procedure.
   The local government directorate on Tuesday issued letters to the mayors- and councillors-elect asking them to relinquish their party posts. Following the directive, the three city mayors-elect – Hiron, convener of Barisal city AL, Khaleque, president of Khulna city AL and Liton, general secretary of Rajshahi city AL – resigned their party positions.
   Most of the 278 mayors and councillors elected in the August 4 polls hold posts in committees of different political parties.
   Talking to New Age, Hiron said that he had sent his resignation letter to Zillur after consulting the two other mayors-elect. The three city mayors-elect requested the acting AL president to take initiatives in this regard.
   Liton told New Age that they had resigned their party positions to go by the electoral code of conduct.
   Anisur Rahman, mayor-elect of Shreepur municipality in Gazipur district, told New Age that he had sent his resignation letter to the district AL president, Mozammel Huq.
   The Awami League, which earlier directed the mayors-elect to challenge the laws in courts, has changed the decision. Acting party president Zillur Rahman said resignation from party posts by the mayors-elect could be accepted as they contested the polls accepting the conditions.
   AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu told New Age that the three mayors-elect had sent their resignation letters but the party had not yet decided whether the resignations would be accepted or not.
   The party will take a decision in this regard at the presidium and central working committee meetings on August 30 and August 31, sources said.

The detained Sylhet mayor-elect Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran was on Thursday given one more week to resign from the post of the city Awami League president.
   The divisional commissioner extended the time by a week for Kaman to resign from his party post on Thursday after his wife, Asma Kamran, had filed an application in this regard, sources in the divisional commissioner’s office said.
   The government earlier asked the mayors- and councillors-elect to the Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporations and nine municipalities to resign from their party posts and inform the government of the resignation by 5.00pm Thursday.
   The Sylhet divisional commissioner, Zafar Ahmed Khan, on Thursday told New Age that the time for Kamran to relinquish the party post was extended by a week.
   Asma Kamran said her husband agreed to resign from the party post. ‘We have already prepared all the papers which will be sent to the authorities concerned by the next week.’

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Thursday launched the execution of Strategic Transport Plan for building a safe, easy and efficient communications system in the greater Dhaka area, saying that it’s time to make the capital city habitable by cleansing it of environment pollution and traffic jam.
   He regretted that the city dwellers have to suffer much being deprived of facilities of many city-development schemes for not starting the projects in right time or delayed start or foot dragging on their implementation.
   He blamed these unwarranted problems on a lack of coordination among city-development departments concerned and service-providing organisations.
   The head of caretaker government made the observations as he formally inaugurated the implementation works of the 20-year-long STP mega-project for sustainable, safe and environment-friendly transport and communications system encompassing Dhaka and adjacent districts of Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, Gazipur and Manikganj.
   He inaugurated the implementation by switching on the scheme at a function organised at Osmani Memorial Auditorium by Dhaka Transport Coordination Board of the communications ministry.
   The project will be implemented in phases in the sprawling STP command area measuring about 17,400 square kilometres.
   Its implementation has fallen behind almost three years for not activating and approving the project in right time. The scheduled implementation period of the first phase of STP was 2005 to 2009, the launching ceremony of the Strategic Transport Plan was informed during a presentation.
   The present caretaker government approved the project this year, against the backdrop of commuters’ abject suffering for outmoded transport system of the capital compounded with nagging traffic congestion that causes waste of valuable time in this high-speed age.
   The additional executive director of DTCB, SM Saleuddin, made a short presentation on the multimodal transport system in the burgeoning capital, which involves an expenditure of 5.2 billion US dollars, excluding the cost of land acquisition.
   Construction and reconstruction of about 330 kilometres of roads and highways, including 50 new roads, flyover, elevated expressways, metro (underground railway), circular waterways, bus rapid transit, rapid mass transit, bus- route rationalisation, traffic-system development and safe environment are the major components of the STP.
   The feasibility study of metro and elevated expressway has been started for building the underground and up-ground communications networks.
   The communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, presided over the launching ceremony of STP activities. The secretary of Roads and Railways Division, M Mahbubur Rahman, delivered welcome address. Advisers, special assistants and civil and military officials were among others present at the function.
   The chief adviser said his government had given an important consideration to the matter of increasing scope and facilities of city life alongside resolving people’s problems and fulfilling their expectations.
   ‘This government has already taken initiative to further expedite the DTCB and, at the same time, laid special importance on advancing the STP which had been stuck up for long,’ he the meet.
   He noted that Dhaka city is turning into a mega-city in the context of changing times.
   He said DTCB was formed aiming to improve the transport system of Dhaka city through adopting a safe and coordinated transport and communications system. This institution remained almost inactive for a long time.
   Alongside increasing population, economic activities and industries have increased, so has the number of vehicles, he said. Roads have not increased in proportion to the rate at which the number of vehicles increased.
   ‘As a result, intolerable traffic jam, air and noise pollution and so on become a matter of city life. On the one hand, civic amenities have decreased and on the other increased sufferings,’ he said.
   The chief executive of the country for the interim period told his audience that he had no hesitation to say that transport system of Dhaka city today fell far short of fulfilling the expectation of city dwellers for a lack of long-term and coordinated planning of city development.
   The chief adviser said it was undeniable that transport system of Dhaka still had not got a planned shape, and he blamed past mismanagement for this shortcoming.
   ‘Anarchy has long been continuing in transport sector,’ he said.
   Traffic congestion and accidents became regular phenomena due to providing unplanned route permit, lax application of law regarding movement of unfit vehicles and flouting traffic law and so on, he mentioned.
   The chief adviser said for lack of discipline in management and operation of transport system and traffic jam the valuable working hours were being wasted and cost of transport increased, which ultimately affects the economy.
   He stressed a quick riddance, so that transport requirement of the city residents and people of the greater Dhaka area could be ensured in the best way.
   The chief adviser said he believed that STP would act as a historic document for making overall transport system of Dhaka worthy of the modern times.
   He said it would be a big challenge for providing money for a gigantic project like STP, but, even then, the beginning of STP activities bears a special significance considering the good future of people and overall prosperity of the country.
   Through STP opportunity has come up for the coordinated initiatives of the government and private sector, he said, adding that development partners will have to come forward remarkably in implementing the Strategic Transport Plan.
   The chief adviser sought cooperation of all in implementation of STP for enhancing civic facilities, and safe life of the city dwellers.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now in Canada, is likely to return home sometime next month as extended timeframe for her temporary release nears an end.
   ‘The party chief will return home in September,’ acting party president Zillur Rahman told reporters at his Gulashan residence Thursday.
   Hasina, who left the country for the USA on June 12 a day after she was released from jail by an executive order, in a phone conversion with another party leader also expressed her eagerness to come back home as soon as possible after getting another round of medical check-up.
   ‘She [Hasina] wants to come back as she is not feeling well abroad,’ Matia Chowdhury, a presidium member of the party, told New Age after talking to the party chief over telephone.
   Arrested on July 16, 2007 and implicated in five cases of graft and extortion, Hasina was freed by an executive order initially for eight weeks on June 11 for treatment abroad.
   The government extended her release order for another month.
   The party and her lawyers had been continuing legal efforts for her permanent bail.
   The issue will also figure high at the party’s further dialogue with the chief adviser-headed panel of advisers, according to party sources.
   The date for next round of talks was not fixed as yet.
   In her telephone conversation with Matia Chowdhury, the Awami League chief discussed the recent polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities, in which AL nominees won all but one mayoral posts.
   The party chief endorses the party’s standpoint that the parliamentary polls should be held before any other elections, insiders said.

An adviser to the interim government on Thursday claimed efforts were on to narrow the gap between the government and political parties.
   ‘There is no reason that the gap between the government and political parties should widen. The parties will be speaking out their agenda… We are trying our best to reduce the gap with the parties,’ the communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, told reporters at the secretariat.
   As for media reports that the process for the release of former prime minister Khaleda Zia was hanging in balance for conditions tagged by the government, Quader brushed aside the allegations, saying, ‘Her [Khaleda’s] release has not been stuck for any conditions. You will see it… We are moving forward with a certain goal and will be successful.’
   Asked whether Khaleda’s eldest son Tarique Rahman would be released if he would obtain bail in all the cases against him, the adviser said, ‘The government does not interfere in court matters.’
   He, however, said, obtaining bail was a lengthy process whereas it takes less time to get released on parole.
   He avoided giving any direct answer when he was asked for comments on what would happen if Tarique would obtain bail in the remaining case on the day.
   As for Tarique’s release, the home affairs adviser, MA Matin, after opening a workshop in Dhaka, told reporters the release of Tarique, under medical treatment in a prison cell at Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital, was progressing.
   ‘I do not know of the actual situation,’ he said. ‘We believe in rule of law… if he gets bail in all cases, he will be released.’
   But the adviser said he was unaware of the reported conditions for the release of the BNP chairperson. Khaleda Zia.
   Asked whether the overall political situation was going beyond the government’s control, Quader, who is leading a five-member panel of advisers to the dialogue with parties and other stakeholders, replied in the negative. He claimed everything was under the government control.
   He hoped free and fair elections would be held by the end of December with the participation of all political parties.
   ‘You will see a democratic government taking over on January 1,’ the adviser said.

Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday made history as Democrats formally nominated him by acclamation as the first black presidential nominee of a major political party.
   Obama’s defeated rival Hillary Clinton dramatically halted a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention and proposed the Illinois senator be nominated by acclamation in a gesture of unity after a bruising primary race.
   ‘I move senator Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States,’ Hillary Clinton said from the convention floor, surrounded by her New York delegation.
   Several Hillary supporters wiped tears from their eyes, as she made the announcement, and some African-American supporters of Obama also appeared to be crying, witnessing a moment many of them thought they would never see.
   Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives made the formal announcement of the historic nomination.
   ‘It is with great pride that I announce Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States by acclamation,’ the house of representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told the convention.
   ‘I have been asked to inform you that Senator Obama accepts the nomination,’ she said, adding he will deliver his acceptance address Thursday.
   Hillary’s move was the latest step in a carefully choreographed show of unity and reconciliation following their primary dust-up after she had earlier released her delegates to support Obama.
   ‘I am here today to release you,’ Hillary said, drawing cries of ‘No’ in a meeting of her delegates in downtown Denver, a day after she ordered her millions of primary voters to unite behind the party White House hopeful.
   ‘You want to vote according to what is in your heart. I am not going to tell you what to do. You have come from different places and made a long journey,’ she said, adding she had already pledged her vote to Obama.
   The state-by-state roll-call vote, based on the delegate hauls apportioned during the marathon coast-to-coast Democratic primary contest got underway Wednesday with Alabama casting 48 votes for Obama, and five for Hillary.
   The run-down is a time-honoured feature of the convention, which in days gone by was often fraught with tension and horse-trading, but is now merely a ceremonial affair.
   Intense negotiations between the Hillary and Obama camps took place to ensure that the former first lady won her due, and had her 18 million primary votes honoured, while stressing an image of unity.
   Hillary’s primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with Republican John McCain has tightened to a dead heat.
   Later, former president Bill Clinton will grab the spotlight, under pressure to cast aside months of hard feelings to back Obama.
   Obama’s vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden meanwhile is set to deliver his keynote speech, likely to hammer the convention’s Wednesday theme of national security, and to highlight his tragedy-scarred life story.
   Act two of the Clinton melodrama at the convention comes a day after Hillary Clinton stirred a rapturous reception and ordered her army of supporters to back the party ticket.
   Bill Clinton has been waging an ill-tempered feud with the Obama campaign for months, and has yet to offer a robust endorsement of the new party standard bearer.
   Clinton, who accused the Obama camp of playing the ‘race card’ on him, seems to have taken his wife’s loss hard, and appears to believe his legacy as the only Democrat to win two terms since Second World War is getting insufficient respect.
   ‘President Clinton will lay out the choices that we face on foreign policy,’ said Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice.
   ‘He will talk about how Barack Obama has what it takes to be a strong commander-in-chief.’
   Reports quoting unnamed Clinton aides have said the former president will not attend Obama’s acceptance speech, due to be delivered before more than 70,000 supporters in an open-air football stadium here on Thursday night.

Foreign ministers of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) sit in New Delhi today to do the spadework for the 2nd summit of the bloc, slated for November 13 also in the Indian capital.
   Officials of the foreign ministry said that the meeting would discuss the issues of signing an anti-terrorism deal, easing visa regime and setting up of permanent secretariat and two different centres on climate and energy.
   ‘The foreign ministers will also discuss the possible cooperation from the Asian Development Bank, especially for a wider regional connectivity,’ said Kazi Imtiaz Hossain, director general of the SAARC and BIMSTEC wing of the foreign ministry.
   Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury will represent Bangladesh in the 10th ministerial meeting of the regional bloc that groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
   The summit was earlier scheduled for February 2007, but was postponed upon Dhaka’s request in view of volatile political situation prevailing in Bangladesh in late 2006.
   Foreign ministers of the seven-member group are likely to finalise an anti-terror pact styled ‘BIMSTEC convention on cooperation in combating international terrorism, organised crime and illicit drug trafficking,’ aimed at fighting cross-border terrorism with united efforts.
   Originally established as BIST-EC—Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation — in 1997, the bloc changed its name to BIMST-EC with the joining of Myanmar. The name again changed keeping the same abbreviated form after the bloc’s enlargement in 2004, when two land-locked Himalayan kingdoms — Nepal and Bhutan — joined.

The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, who is now in the Indian capital to attend the 10th BIMSTEC Ministerial Conference, held a bilateral meeting with the Indian external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, Thursday evening.
   They held a comprehensive discussion on bilateral issues covering political, economic and security subjects.
   Iftekhar expressed his deep sorrow at the devastations caused by floods in Bihar. He underscored the need to work together to address the problems arising out of natural calamities, of which Bangladesh has also often been a victim.
   The foreign adviser thanked the Indian minister for the rice already delivered from the quantum of 5,00,000 that Bangladesh is procuring from India and hoped that the remaining quantum will be made available soon. He also requested an early withdrawal of the ban on the part of India on the export of rice.
   Iftekhar underscored the need for removal of all types of trade barriers so that the balance in trade between the two neighbours could be restored. He asked that procedures should also be simplified to facilitate trade.
   The foreign adviser emphasised the need for peaceful borders, and the minimisation of border incidents.
   The Indian minister expressed his appreciation of the current state of bilateral relations and agreed that there is scope to expand mutual cooperation across a broad front.
   Both expressed the hope that common relationship of the countries of SAARC and BIMSTEC would contribute to the strengthening of mutual friendship. The need to render both organisations more active was also stressed.
   They also expressed their happiness at the planned resumption of maritime boundary demarcation talks scheduled to begin in Dhaka next month, after a gap of more than 20 years.

The European Commission sees difficulties in holding the general election under the state of emergency, EU delegation chief ambassador Stefan Frowein said Thursday.
   ‘There are some difficulties in holding the elections while the emergency in force,’ he told reporters replying to a question at the EC secretariat in the afternoon after a meeting with the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda.
   Frowein, however, said the government of Bangladesh would decide whether the emergency should be lifted or relaxed before the general election scheduled to be held by the end of this year.
   He said in the latest round of mediation the EU was trying to convince the political parties for their participation in the upcoming general election.
   Asked whether the EU would send observers if the general election is held under emergency, he said the European commissioner for external affairs would take the final decision about sending the election observation mission to Dhaka after analysing the situation.
   ‘Everything depends on the condition. It cannot be
   predicted right now. We are looking into the matter and the higher authority will take the final decision on time,’ Frowein said.
   The EU ambassador said the CEC told them that he had spoken to the government regarding holding the elections under emergency. ‘Let’s see what they can do.’
   Asked about the meeting, the EU diplomat said the discussion was on current situation. ‘I congratulated the CEC on holding the city and municipalities’ polls successfully on August 4.’
   About the voters’ list, he said the voter lists with photographs had been used for the first time in the country’s history and everything went on very fine all over.
   ‘We are very happy with the polls. It is a milestone that such a correct voters’ list with photograph has been completed within a short time.’
   Expressing pleasure over the EC’s work, he said such a big job that had been done by the EC was unique in the world. It is for the first time in Bangladesh that the EC was able to complete such a tough task in a short time which is totally correct. ‘I think it should be going into the Guinness Book of records.’

The lone bidder for the 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant installation has offered to sell electricity to the Power Development Board at a ‘high price’ of 4.5394 US cents a kilowatt-hour.
   The Power Cell on Thursday opened the financial offer of the consortium of the Powertek Berhad of Malaysia, Siemens Project Ventures of Germany and the Korea Electric Power Company and found the consortium had offered a ‘weighted average price’ of 4.5394 cents or around Tk 3.148 for each unit of power.
   The government on Monday approved the tender evaluation committee report that found the consortium technically qualified.
   The price offer of the consortium is almost double the price for which the Power Development Board buys power from the 450MW Meghnaghat and 360MW Haripur independent power plants installed in 2001.
   The Power Cell director general, Abdul Jalil, who heads the tender evaluation committee, told New Age the committee would evaluate the financial offer of the consortium and send the report to the government in a week. Based on the committee report, the government will decide whether the consortium’s offer will be accepted or not.
   He, however, declined comments on whether the price was ‘high’ as the committee was yet to evaluate the total offer.
   When his attention was called to the price offered by the consortium, a high power board official said, ‘The board buys power from Haripur and Meghnaghat IPPs at a price between Tk 1.35 and Tk 1.70. When the Haripur and Meghnaghat plants were set up, the AES Corporation quoted a price of 2.78–2.79 cent for each unit. So if the consortium has offered 4.5394 cents, it is really high.’ The power board will know of the power tariff formally once the committee completes the evaluation.
   The power board, however, buys electricity from the 90MW single-cycle Westmont IPP at a price of about Tk 3 and from the 210MW power plant of the Rural Electrification Board’s Rural Power Company Limited at about Tk 3.2 a unit.
   The power board now incurs losses of more than Tk 1,000 crore by buying electricity from independent power plants and sells the electricity to consumers for lower price.
   The Power Division at the time of the launch of the Bibiyana IPP project expected electricity price would be higher because of increase in the price of power plant equipment and the conditions that the sponsor would need to install an 8km gas pipeline and pay compensation for land acquisition for pipeline installation.
   ‘It is true the price of gas turbine has significantly increased worldwide since the Haripur and Meghnaghat plants were installed, but because of low gas price in Bangladesh, electricity price should not be more than 3–3.2 cents,’ he said.
   ‘A large independent power plant generates tens of millions of units of electricity each month. So change in price by half a cent makes a huge difference. Even if the power plant installation costs have increased by 70 to 80 per cent, this cost should be covered with an increase by half a cent,’ he said.
   The AES Corporation, Chevron and the Powertek consortium were pre-qualified for the technical and financial bidding, but the AES did not participate in the final bidding, saying the power plant project costs had increased significantly. Chevron did not cite any reason for its withdrawal.
   Two bidders — a consortium of local Summit Industrial and Mercantile Corporation and US company GE and the YTL Power International of Malaysia – were declared disqualified from the bidding process. Summit repeatedly claimed it had fulfilled financial criteria for pre-qualification. But the Power Cell and its adviser, International Finance Corporation, claimed Summit had not fulfilled such criteria.
   Many officials feel no participation of other companies in the bidding has made the tender less competitive.
   ‘If the government approves such a high price, ultimately price at consumer level will need to be increased,’ said another official.
   He said it would be a tough choice for the government whether to accept the high price. ‘If it rejects the proposal and goes for re-tender, power crisis will linger.
   The lone bidder may have taken the chance. If the government accepts the proposal, the power board will keep incurring losses and consumers will face additional burden,’ he said.

Hundreds of Bangladeshis, cheated by recruiters at home and by employers in the host country, have been passing their days in Malaysia in hardship with a sense of insecurity haunting them always.
   Most of these unskilled workers, who spent between Tk 2.50 lakh and 2.90 lakh each to fly to Malaysia with job hopes, found betrayed soon after their arrival, but could not afford to go back. Their dreams were shattered, but they decided to stay back risking life and fighting police harassments and enmities from fellow Asians, particularly Tamils, victims said.
   Daulat Mia, a young man of Faridpur, flew to Kuala Lumpur end of 2007 with recruiting agent promising him a tiles factory job with starting salary of 850 ringgit or Tk 18,000 a month.
   ‘Coming here, I spent a couple of months with no job and then the agent (in Malaysia) employed me at a building construction site. I get monthly 600 ringgit for 10 hours of inhuman work a day,’ he said, talking with this correspondent at a Kuala Lumpur central town bus station.
   Daulat can hardly send Tk 5,000 a month to his family, which has exhausted all its savings and loans to pay more than Tk 2.5 lakh to send him abroad for a better future. He will need more than four years just to make up for the expenditures his family bore for sending him to Malaysia.
   Yet, he feels himself luckier than hundreds of other Bangladeshis. ‘Their conditions are extremely miserable.’
   Mamun Hossian of Bhramanbaria works at a petrol station at Kelang Nama, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, and gets 750 ringgit a month for 12-hour duty everyday.
   ‘I paid Tk 2.70 lakh to my agent who promised me a job in a Kuala Lumpur shopping mall. But I passed more than a year without any job and in extreme miseries before I managed this job myself,’ said Mamun.
   Apart from Kuala Lumpur, cheated and frustrated Bangladeshis are also found in Puchang city like many other areas of the Asian economic powerhouse, which needs lakhs of foreign workers to propel its fast-growing economy.
   All of them have similar stories to tell — of being betrayed twice, beaten by police and attacked by roughneck Tamils. Allegations of bribing the police for safe stay are also rampant.
   Tajul Islam of Narayanganj said condition of several thousand Bangladeshis like him, whose passports were left with employers’ agents and who were being hunted by Malaysian police, was beyond description.
   ‘When Malaysian police catch a worker without a valid passport, it requires at least 500 ringgit to release him. I sometimes feel that going to jail and then back to Bangladesh is better than paying such amount of bribe often,’ said Tajul, who works in a Puchang restaurant.
   Many Bangladeshi workers in Puchang said they were panicked by Tamil hooligans of Indian origin, who often attacked Bangladeshis in workplaces and snatched their valuables on streets in broad daylight.
   In one afternoon, two Tamil hooligans attacked one Nasir Uddin, who runs a Chinese-owned bar in Puchang. They also beat some other Bangladeshis who protested the attack on Nasir.
   In most cases, Bangladeshis, who do not have valid passports in their possessions, cannot seek legal supports.
   Some Bangladeshis find unskilled and uneducated Tamils envious of and often hostile to Bangladeshis, but say Chinese and Malay employers admire Bangladeshis as faithful and hardworking.
   ‘But educated Tamils are well-behaved,’ said Jahangir Alam, who works at a medical equipment shop at Puchang.

Hundreds of Pakistani lawyers protested Thursday to demand the reinstatement of judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf, an issue at the heart of political instability here.
   Several cities saw the black-suited lawyers joined by political party workers and other supporters carrying black flags as they blocked key roads for two hours in Islamabad, shouting slogans against the government.
   ‘Reinstate judges’ they chanted, saying that ‘War will continue’ until the judiciary’s independence is restored.
   Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposed dozens of judges under a state of emergency last November when it appeared they would challenge his re-election as president the previous month.
   The sackings sparked large and sometimes violent protests by Pakistan’s influential lawyers.
   Musharraf resigned on August 18 under the threat of impeachment charges levelled by the government but Pakistan’s shaky ruling coalition has since failed to decide how to restore the judges.
   The former prime minister Nawaz Sharif withdrew his party’s support from the coalition three days ago over the issue, saying the ruling Pakistan People’s Party was dragging its feet.
   A group of angry lawyers here Thursday tore down posters of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and a leading presidential candidate to succeed Musharraf in a September 6 election.
   Since Sharif’s party quit Pakistan’s four-party coalition on Monday the government has reappointed eight judges sacked by Musharraf but lawyers’ groups have dismissed the gesture as a political stunt.
   They say the move was designed to harm their demands for the reinstatement of all those removed last year, pointing out that the eight were not reinstated but freshly appointed. The technicality allowed the government to hold off on any change to the status of the sacked judges.
   These include the independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, seen as the central figure in the dispute.
   Critics have said that Zardari does not want Chaudhry restored to his position as he could rescind an amnesty that allowed him and his slain wife Benazir to return to Pakistan last year after years in exile.
   In the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday hundreds of lawyers staged sit-down protests in front of the provincial assembly building and three other public sites.
   ‘Those judges who have taken a new oath of their offices have accepted the illegal actions of former president Pervez Musharraf,’ lawyers’ leader Aitzaz Ahsan said.
   ‘We are not fighting for our jobs but for principles,’ he added.
   In the central city of Multan 1,000 lawyers, traders, political workers and other supporters blocked the main national highway, bringing all inter-city traffic to a halt.
   ‘Death to Zardari,’ ‘Asif Zardari is the enemy of judiciary, enemy of justice,’ said protesters, who were carrying flags and placards.
   ‘It is a conspiracy against an independent judiciary,’ the leader of Multan Bar Association, Mehmood Ashraf Khan told the protesters.
   There were also protests in the southern port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.
   ‘He is the chief justice and until he and other judges are reinstated our struggle will continue,’ Rashid Razvi, leader of the Karachi Bar Council said.
   ‘The nation recognises only Iftikhar Chaudhry as the chief justice and any other occupying his seat is illegal and unconstitutional,’ he said.

Britain’s most senior Muslim policeman launched a stinging attack Thursday on the controversial head of London’s police, against whom he has launched a discrimination claim.
   Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said it was with ‘deep regret’ that he was taking Sir Ian Blair of the Metropolitan Police to an employment tribunal and denied the move was linked to unhappiness at not being promoted.
   ‘My current case is essentially to do with my treatment at the highest levels of the Met, in particular the discrimination I have been subjected to over a long period by the present Commissioner Sir Ian Blair,’ Ghaffur said.
   He added it also covered treatment he had faced in his current role as security coordinator for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
   Sitting alongside his client at a news conference in London, Ghaffur’s lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari suggested his case might not be an isolated one.
   Asked whether he thought Blair or the Metropolitan Police was racist, Mireskandari told reporters: ‘When there’s so (many) discrimination cases coming out by ethnic minorities, that speaks for itself...
   ‘I think that there are even further allegations against Sir Ian at the moment which are probably just as serious, I think it’s an accumulation of many allegations against him.’
   Alfred John, the chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association who was also at the press conference, added that Ghaffur’s claims were ‘not an isolated incident.’
   He said that racism on both an institutional and individual level continued in the Metropolitan Police, also known as the Met.
   Ghaffur is one of four assistant commissioners, who are the third most senior officers in the force after the commissioner and deputy commissioner.
   He is claiming a reported 1.2 million pounds (1.5 million euros, 2.2 million dollars) for alleged discrimination on grounds of race and religion.
   Blair is one of two people named in his claim, which is expected to be ruled on by the tribunal in the next month. The other is Richard Bryan, who works under Ghaffur on organising security for the next Olympic Games.
   Blair faced heavy criticism over his handling of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian shot dead by Met officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber two weeks after attacks in London that killed 52 people in 2005.
   The Met was fined 175,000 pounds for health and safety breaches over the killing.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has decided to press charge in the case against former law adviser to caretaker government Justice Fazlul Haque for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information about it.
   The commission has also decided to file a graft case against Nazim Ullah Chowdhury, former Bangladesh ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
   The ACC director general (admin), Col Hanif Iqbal, told the commission’s regular briefing on Thursday that the anti-graft watchdog had approved the submission of charge sheet against the law adviser to the president Iajuddin-led caretaker government and the filing of case against the former diplomat.
   The former Appellate Division judge will be charge-sheeted for acquiring wealth worth Tk 1.8 crore beyond known sources of income and concealment of information of wealth worth about Tk 91 lakh.
   The ACC assistant director, Mohammad Ibrahim, the investigating officer, would submit the charge sheet with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court either Monday or Tuesday.
   The charge sheet in the case filed on April 13 this year will be submitted under sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and section 15 of the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   Justice Fazlul, who stood in as head of the caretaker government for a short while after president Iajuddin had stood down, was one of the 35 corruption suspects whose names appeared on the fourth and final list published by the ACC on October 4, 2007 under the ongoing clean-up drive.
   On November 18, 2007, he was issued notice directing him to submit his wealth statement. Justice Fazlul complied with the ACC directive on November 26, 2007.
   Col Hanif told the briefing that the immediate-past ambassador to UAE would be accused of embezzlement of Tk 65 lakh by being in the service illegally for two years.
   Nazim was supposed to go on retirement on February 9, 2003. But, he had continued in service for two more years, as he gave ‘false information and made changes to his SSC certificate’.
   The former ambassador will also be accused of cheating and abuse of power.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday halted the High Court orders that granted bail to the detained former law minister Moudud Ahmed in two corruption cases.
   The three-member Appellate Division bench, presided over by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, issued the order after hearing a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission seeking permission to appeal against the High Court order.
   The Appellate Division also vacated the High Court order that also stayed the proceeding in the two cases against Moudud, also a senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader and Justice M Emdadul Haque Azad on August 20 granted bail to Moudud in the corruption cases which were under trial. The court stayed the proceedings of the cases asking the commission to explain the legality of the cases.
   The commission on September 16, 2007 filed one of the cases with the Gulshan police for amassing illegal wealth and hiding information in the wealth statement submitted to the commission and the other with the Tejgaon police on December 9, 2007 in connection with the Niko corruption case.
   The court on August 21 also granted bail to Moudud in liquor case filed against him during his arrest on April 14, 2007.
   Moudud, however, could not be released from jail although he was granted bail in all the three cases filed against him, his lawyer, Mahbubuddin, told the Appellate Division on Thursday.
   The army-led joint force arrested Moudud at his house at Gulshan under the Emergency Powers Rules on charge of keeping liquor in his house.

The High Court on Thursday asked the government and the Election Commission to explain in two weeks the legality of three provisions of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance 2007.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmed issued the rule after hearing a petition filed by the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, challenging the legality of the provisions.
   The provisions are related to keeping reserved at least 33 per cent of the posts of all committees for women and no registration of political parties based on religion and of parties having provisions in party constitutions running counter to the country’s constitution.
   Moving the petition, Abdur Razzaque argued the interim government had framed the three provisions in the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance 2007 in violation of the fundamental principles of state policy as contained in Article 8 of the constitution.

A bomb attack targeting policemen killed 10 people in northwest Pakistan on Thursday as Taliban-inspired violence threatened to exacerbate political instability in the nuclear-armed nation.
   A remote controlled bomb placed in a car ripped apart a police van in the northwest garrison town Bannu near the Afghan border, where tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers are battling Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
   It was the first such attack to hit Pakistan since the government Monday banned the main Taliban militant group behind a wave of suicide attacks in the country that has seen more than 1,000 people killed in the past year.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was Wednesday named the world’s most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine, putting her at the top of the prestigious list for the third year in a row.
   Merkel soundly beat the likes of the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who fell from fourth place last year to seventh place, and former US first lady and Democratic presidential contender, senator Hillary Clinton, who was ranked 28th by the magazine — three places lower than last year.
   Runner-up in the rankings was the little known Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the US agency that ‘maintains the stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system by insuring deposits, supervising financial institutions, and managing receiverships.’
   The third-place finisher was another unknown, Indra Nooyi, chief executive of US softdrink giant, PepsiCo, who was one of 54 business leaders on the list.
   The Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, one of 23 politicians on the list, is in 13th place.
   Other notable women on the list include the French economy, finance and employment minister, Christine Lagarde, in 14th place; Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, head of the Indian National Congress Party, ranked 21st; and Queen Rania of Jordan, in 96th place.
   Six of the top 10 women are American, with the remaining four from Germany, Australia, Singapore and France.

The two-day home-secretary talks between Bangladesh and India is scheduled to begin in Dhaka on Saturday to discuss issues of peaceful border management and other issues between the two neighbours stalled for decades.
   During the talks, Bangladesh will focus on outstanding issues such as demarcation of 6.5km boundary, exchange of enclaves, unfettered movement through Tin Bigha Corridor and an end to killing of Bangladeshis by India’s Border Security Force.
   Dhaka will press for the implementation of the 1974 Mujib-Indira Land Boundary Agreement. Bangladesh ratified the agreement in 1974, but India is yet to ratify it, leaving 6.5km land boundary undemarcated and the exchange of enclaves and land in adverse possession unsettled.
   Bangladesh and India will touch on the issue of increased cooperation and regular exchange of information to combat terrorism and extremism.
   As decided in the 2007 meeting in New Delhi, the officials of both the countries will also follow up on their decision of taking prompt action against subversive elements and criminals taking shelters in each other’s territory.
   The Bangladesh home secretary, Abdul Karim, will lead the home side while India’s home secretary Madhukar Gupta will lead his country to the ninth round of such talks.
   The Indian delegation is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka today.
   The bilateral institutional mechanism was set up in 1994 to resolve security and border management issues.