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Rice prices show no sign of declining soon while retail prices of edible oil and baby food have marked fresh gains, reflecting a cool response to the market monitoring initiated by law enforcers 13 days back.
   A decline by Tk 1 in coarse price rice was the only impact seen immediately after the much-hyped monitoring began on January 18, days after the government launched open market sale to rein in soaring rice prices.
   Prices of medium and fine varieties of rice as well as flour remained at the same peaks they reached earlier this month.
   Kitchen market, left out of the law enforcers’ intense monitoring, showed some improvement during the period with vegetables and fish prices declining on the back of good supply, market sources said. Chicken and egg prices also fell significantly last week due to spread of bird flu news.
   Joint forces announced retail commodity market monitoring from January 18 to keep a close watch on supply and prices of essential food items, particularly rice and edible oils.
   The day before, they visited some wholesale outlets in Dhaka and some other parts of the country to see the stocks of rice and cooking oils.
   But the drives seemed to have run out steam soon, leaving little or no impact on the real commodity prices.
    ‘We expected that after market monitoring, prices will come down. But we are yet to see any respite,’ said Nizam Uddin, a newspaper hawker who was shopping at the city’s Nakhalpara Bazar on Monday.
   An economist said no decline in prices meant that monitoring was not being done properly, while law enforcing agency officials said that they were lax in monitoring drive to stave off any negative impact on the market.
   Prices of edible oils and baby foods went up in the past week.
   Market sources blamed refiners for manipulating edible oil prices. Refiners suddenly hiked the mill gate rates, directly influencing the wholesale and consumer level prices of soybean and palm oils, they alleged.
   Non-packed soybean oil retailed between Tk 96 and Tk 100 per kilogram on Monday, gaining at least Tk 4 in less than two weeks.
   ‘Millers raised their rates, and both wholesale and retail markets responded subsequently,’ said a trader at Maulavibazar commodity wholesale outlet in Dhaka.
   Price of Nido baby milk in packs of various sizes increased between Tk 40 and Tk 80, or up to 18 per cent in a week and more than 40 per cent just in year. Some other milk brands also saw rise in prices.
   Coarse varieties of rice were selling between Tk 29 and Tk 32 per kilogram on Monday, marking an average decline of Tk 1 from the levels seen before January 18.
   Medium grade rice is selling between Tk 34 and Tk 38 per kilogram and fine varieties between Tk 38 and Tk 44, remaining unchanged at previous heights. Pilau rice in consumer packs sells for Tk 85 per kg.
   Coarse flour prices, which increased 14 per cent in a month and 67 per cent in a year, did not show any sign of declining till Thursday.
   ‘No decline in prices of essential goods indicates that proper market monitoring has not taken place,’ said economist Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.
   Authorities should effectively check hoarding of essential food items and investigate reasons behind the frequent commodity market volatilities, said Ahmad, who chairs the Bangladesh Economic Association.
   Uttam Kumar Dev, an agro-commodity marketing analyst said market monitoring should be aimed at gathering field level information of supply and tallying those with market supplies to work out an effective mechanism to check commodity market volatility.
   ‘The market became volatile following crop damage due to floods and cyclone. The authorities or market players could not assess the supply shortage and take adequate preparations,’ he said.
   Lack of timely forecasts and availability of reliable information on demand and supply greatly influenced rice prices, and market monitoring should address the issue seriously, said the economist.
   A senior official of the Bangladeshi Rifles, which was the key forces for initiating the market monitoring drive, said, ‘Market monitoring is going on, but we preferred go-slow as our intention is not to create any sort of panic.’
   He referred to previous observations that any such drive may disrupt supply and cause extra sufferings to consumers.
   The official said they were much careful this time as drives like the one against hoarding triggered off criticisms from the media, economists and traders in the past.
   ‘We are working with patience to detect flaws in supply chain and correct those,’ he said. Supply chain of essential goods is very sensitive and it will take some more time to get positive results from such efforts, the BDR official said.

The government has decided to extend the operation of open market sale of rice for one more month as it has increased the supply of rice for the dealers and consumers.
   The decision was taken at a meeting of the food policy
   and monitoring committee held at the food and disaster management ministry on Thursday.
   Under the new programme, now a dealer will be allowed to sell maximum 1,020 kilograms of rice instead of 850 kgs in open market on every alternative day and take the deliveries of four days’ rice at a time, food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali told journalists at his office.
   The OMS will require about 33,000 tonnes of rice for running the programme in February and the programme is likely to continue, he said after emerging from the meeting.
   The selling price of rice at the buyers’ level will remain unchanged at Tk 25 per kilogram with a Tk 1 profit margin for the dealers. A buyer will be entitled to get maximum four kilograms of rice a day which was three kgs earlier.
   In reply to a query about whether rice price will decline further, the adviser said, ‘We have no ‘romantic mechanism’ other than to make the supply available from the overseas market as well as better boro yield of the country.’ In India, one kilogram of coarse rice was selling at 16 rupees equivalent to Tk 27, he added.
   Regarding to the comments on rice price decline by the Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, the adviser made no comment. He, however, said it would be better for all, if the price declined.
   About rice import from India, the food adviser said, ‘We are hopeful that 5 lakh tonnes of rice will reach the country as soon as possible, and a team will go to India soon for negotiating the rice price.’
   The meeting also decided to increase the number of outlets in urban areas for growing demand for OMS rice.
   Some 13,540 tonnes of rice had been sold since January 9 when open market sale of rice started across the country. Food officials said the programme started at some 1,990 centres of 807 units across the country and the number of dealers was 1,990.

The economic losses from the November 15 cyclone Sidr would be about $1.6 billion or 2.8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, reveals an assessment done jointly by the government and development partners.
   Housing damages caused by the monstrous cyclone have been assessed at $800 million or half of the total loss estimate. Agricultural losses have been estimated at $440 million, while damages to transport infrastructures have been put at $140 million.
   The report was discussed Thursday at a meeting with Economic Relations Division secretary Aminul Islam Bhuiyan in the chair. Representatives from international agencies, bilateral donors and multilateral lenders attended the meeting.
   The report outlined four-tier rehabilitation programmes to be implemented over a period of 15 years at a cost of $4 billion.
   The fund excludes $1.5 billion so far disbursed or pledged in Sidr aid, ERD secretary said.
   ‘I am hopeful of getting the fund from development partners in short, medium and long-term perspectives,’ Aminul told New Age on Thursday.
   ‘The 15-year programes from 2008 to 2022 is likely to be undertaken by the government in three five-year phases.’
   The availability of foreign funds would depend largely on the country’s implementation capacity, he felt.
   Various ministries, including food and disaster management, teamed up with 11 global agencies to make the comprehensive assessment to shape up reconstruction needs. Global partners included UN, USAID, EC, IDB, JICA, JBIC, DFID, ADB, FAO, ILO and WB, sources said.
   The joint report proposed $16 million for risk identification and assessment, $700 million for strengthening and enhancing disaster preparedness, $2850 million for risk mitigation investments for reducing exposure to natural hazards, $380 million for disaster risk financing and $ 14 million for national and community institutional capacity building.
   ‘The donor agencies are committed to arrange the said fund,’ the ERD secretary said. How much of it would come as grants would depend on future negotiations with potential donors, he added.
   The government has so far received assurances of about $1.5 billion in grants and aid from donor agencies and multilateral lending agencies like WB, ADB, DFID, IDB and different countries including Saudi Arabia. The amount includes $130 million donation offered by an unnamed foreign benefactor, sources said.
   Nearly 69 lakh people of 16 lakh families were affected and crops on about 4.62 lakh acres completely damaged in 30 districts ravaged by cyclone Sidr on the night of November 15, according to a government report.
   The number of damaged educational institutions was 9,248, of which 1,355 were razed to the ground and the number of ravaged homestead was 12.08 lakh, of which 3.65 lakh were completely destroyed, the report added.
   The death toll from the decades’ worst cyclone and tidal surge was put at close to 4,000, with recoveries of decomposed bodies reported long after the official counts stopped.

Law adviser AF Hassan Ariff said on Thursday that the fate of the cases in connection with pre-emergency offences that were placed under the Emergency Powers Rules would ultimately depend on the Supreme Court’s judgment of a writ petition filed by Sheikh Hasina.
   Briefing newsmen at the secretariat, he said, ‘The Supreme Court’s interpretation of any law is final and applicable in all other similar cases.’
   When he was asked to comment on the views of the six amici curiae (court’s friends) that the placement of the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against Hasina under the Emergency Powers Rules was illegal, the adviser, also a Supreme Court lawyer, said the matter was pending with the court.
   Detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, filed a writ petition challenging the legality of placing the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against her under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam on January 28 engaged seven lawyers as amici curiae to get their legal opinions on the disposal of the writ petition.
   During the hearing of the writ petition, six amici curiae on Wednesday opined that offences committed before the declaration of the state of emergency could not be tried under the emergency rules.
   ‘If the trial of any offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency is held under the Emergency Powers Rules, it will be a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens as guaranteed in the constitution,’ said TH Khan, one of the six amici curiae.
   Responding to another question, Ariff, however, said the application and implications of the state of emergency were shrinking. ‘We should look at the impacts to determine whether it will require any amendments to the laws for continuation of the cases after withdrawal of the state of emergency.’
   About the allegations that many prisoners, including students, were tortured while in detention, the adviser, also a rights activist, said the home affairs ministry had already cautioned the lawmen against this practice. ‘I will personally motivate the government in this regard,’ he said.
   When he was asked whether the government would form any commission for investigating the alleged incidents of torture in custody, he said, ‘It is a good suggestion. I am taking it down.’
   Replying to another query, the adviser said it was the constitutional obligation of the Election Commission to hold the parliamentary elections within the 90-day timeframe after dissolution of the parliament. ‘There has been no such allegation yet that the government is obstructing the EC from holding the polls within the timeframe. The government is rather assisting the EC in holding the elections in a free and fair manner and making a level playing field for the contestants.’
   He claimed that the situation had improved greatly from the one before January 10, 2007.
   About the reaction of the Chief Election Commissioner to the latest amendments to the Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance which were approved on January 29, the adviser said, ‘There is still room for correction if there is anything conflicting with the constitution. But I do not find anything in the latest amendments that conflicts with the constitution.’
   He said the government was actively working to draft the right to information ordinance, which might be promulgated soon.

A garment factory worker, allegedly beaten by the management Wednesday night, died from his wounds in a Dhaka hospital Thursday morning.
   Another worker was critically injured in the incident. The factory management beat the workers as it suspected them of being involved in theft.
   The authorities later closed the factory for an indefinite period in fear of unrest, the workers alleged.
   The injured worker Thursday evening filed a case with the Mirpur police against the factory management on charge of killing his fellow and injuring him.
   The deceased was Khokon, 23, who worked at the World Dresses Limited, a sister concern of the Vertex Group housed at Khalil Bhaban at Mirpur Section 1.
   The police said Khokon and his fellow, Malek, had worked as iron men at the factory for five years.
   They both went to the washroom of the factory after their work at about 8:00pm Wednesday night when most workers had left.
   Manager Nazrul Islam, security guard Abdur Rahim, merchandiser Diamond, supervisor Babu and production manager Ashraf then stopped the two when they were going out of the factory.
   ‘We repeatedly told them we had gone to the washroom, but they beat us saying that we had stayed back to steal things,’ said Malek, the injured worker, in Dhaka Orthopaedics Hospital.
   ‘They broke my hands and legs and hit Khokon in the head, chest and abdomen until he fell unconscious,’ Malek said.
   When their conditions deteriorated, the management took them to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Khokon died from his wounds at around 3:00am. Malek was shifted to Orthopaedics Hospital Thursday morning.
   The management closed all the units of the factory in fear of unrest and to cover up the death and told the workers, who joined work in the morning, that the factory had been closed for an indefinite period because of power outage.
   The workers brought out a procession in the afternoon in protest at the incident, and the police dispersed them.
   The police, meanwhile, sent the body to hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   The deployment of law enforcers was reinforced at Mirpur to stave off any untoward incidents.
   Mirpur zone police deputy commissioner Anwar Hossain told newsmen, ‘We have informed the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association of the matter to take punitive action against the people responsible.’
   ‘The police have already launched drives to arrest the criminals and recorded the statement of Malek and Amena Begum, Khokon’s grandmother,’ Anwar said.
   Khokon, a resident of Boda in Panchagarh, lived with his grandmother at Mirpur.
   The factory management could not be contacted for comments.
   The police arrested the manager, Nazrul Islam, and the security guard, Abdur Rahim, on Thursday evening.
   The garment manufacturers and exporters’ association in a statement on Thursday said the worker died as he had been beaten by the security guards.
   The association offered its condolences on the death and said it would help lawmen to arrest the killers.
   It said the factory management agreed to provide Khokon’s family with Tk 4 lakh in compensation. The association will give Tk 1 lakh more to the family.
   The Crisis Management Committee for Garment Sector held a meeting at the labour and employment ministry after the death of the factory worker.
   Chaired by the secretary to the ministry, the meeting was attended by the representatives of labour organisations and factory owners.
   The meeting urged law enforcers to keep vigilance as it feared fresh unrest could break out over the death of the worker.
   The meeting demanded arrests of the killers. Labour leaders urged the government to arrest the owner of the factory.

Amar Ekushey Granthamela 2008 begins today at the Bangla Academy with the participation of 236 publishing houses, government agencies and non-governmental organisations.
   The academy’s director general Syed Mohammad Shahed at a briefing in its seminar room on Thursday announced the programmes chalked up on the occasion.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, will inaugurate the fair at 3:30pm, said Shahed. The academy’s president Harun-ur-Rashid will chair the programme.
   Rapid Acton Battalion and police personnel will remain deployed at the fair venue. Closed-circuit television cameras have been installed at different points to keep watch on people’s movement.
   Security measures have been taken to cover Suhrawardy Udyan. Six security archways have been set up at the two entrances to the fair.
   The decoration job of the fair has for the first time been given to an event management firm, Step Media, he said. The firm will do the job with financial assistance from the BRAC Bank.
   Information on the arrival of books will be provided on a digital display. There will be food stalls and sanitation facilities outside the fair.
   The fair will feature seminars at the venue beginning at 4:00pm every day. Twenty papers highlighting the achievement in literature, science and culture in 36 years will be presented at the seminars. Cultural function will follow the seminars every day.
   The Mutual Trust Bank and the BRAC Bank will have up two banking booths at the fair.
   Food stalls will be set up bordering Suhrawardy Udyan along the road going by the academy.
   The Dhaka City Corporation has been requested to make sewerage arrangements through Suhrawardy Udyan, sources in the academy said.
   There will be no entry fee to the fair. In the second week of January, the academy decided to charge Tk 2 as entry fee. The director general on Monday said it had revoked the decision.
   Academy director Fazlur Rahim, secretary Mainul Hasan, and public relations officer Murshid Anwar, acting BRAC Bank managing director Kaiser Tamiz Amin and its head of marketing and corporate affairs Abedur Rahman Sikder attended the briefing.

The Supreme Court on Thursday yet again asked the government to provide the judicial magistracy with the required number of employees and logistic supports and report back on the compliance by February 17.
   The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division again issued the order after the government had missed the January 31 deadline.
   The court also adjourned till February 17 the hearing in the contempt of court proceedings against 14 bureaucrats, including four top secretaries, for procrastination in implementing the court’s 12-point directives on the separation of the judiciary and for distorting and making adverse observations about the directives.
   The court on December 12, 2007 passed the order asking the government to equip judicial magistrates with all their requirements, including vehicles and manpower, and submit the compliance report by January 14.
   As the government missed the earlier deadline, the court on January 16 again issued the order setting a fresh deadline of January 31.
   Reprimanding the interim government for not complying with its order, the court told the attorney general, ‘We will hear the case on February 17… Our order must be complied with by this time.’
   The attorney general, Fida M Kamal, told the court the government was working in this regard. The government is now also working on framing rules on the recruitment of court employees, he said.
   Amirul Islam, counsel of the petitioner of the contempt of court proceedings, argued the government continued its non-cooperation with the highest court and the judiciary as well.
   ‘Now the employees of the judicial magistracy should be considered employees of the Supreme Court and they should be brought under the Supreme Court secretariat… The Supreme Court should frame the rules on their recruitment,’ he said.
   ‘We made draft rules in the past and we will not remain silent in future, if required,’ the court said.
   The judicial magistracy began functioning independent of the executive on November 1, 2007 in accordance with the 12-point directives issued by the Appellate Division in its verdict in the Masder Hossain case, widely known as the separation of judiciary case, on December 2, 1999.

The government has decided to make anti-viral drugs available at the district level throughout the country as a measure to protect the people from the possible risk of affliction by the bird flu virus.
   The decision was taken during the inter-ministry meeting on ‘National Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan Bangladesh 2006-08’, held on Thursday at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the health, food and disaster management adviser, Dr AMM Shawkat Ali, in the chair.
   The meeting was addressed, among others, by law adviser Hasan Ariff, education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser Manik Lal Samaddar, the secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Syed Ataur Rahman, and Jafrullah Khan of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
   The meeting expressed concern that now the disease has already become endemic in the backyard poultry farms and the people of the rural areas remain in risk of being afflicted by the bird flu virus, for which reason anti-viral drugs need to be available across the country.
   The meeting also decided to install anti-viral spray units at the entry points of the country’s 64 districts. The government has received some 10,000 personal protection items, like gloves and aprons, which have been donated by USAID.
   Referring to the above-mentioned initiatives, Dr AMM Shawkat Ali said, ‘The health ministry has already launched a programme to train some 2.82 crore volunteers throughout the country for teaching the rural people how to rear backyard poultry by using risk-free methods.’
   To identify the source of the bird flu virus, the government has also emphasised the need for a study which will be conducted jointly by the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute and the Department of Livestock Services and will submit its report by June, said the health adviser.
   The six city corporations of the country, the Department of Livestock Services and the LGRD ministry will take a decision over the hygienic management of poultry waste in the kitchen-markets of the metropolitan areas.
   The experts who attended the meeting, expressing concern over bird flu contamination, said that now in Bangladesh the disease is endemic in the backyard poultry farms, and it is likely to become pandemic and afflict the humans. Scientists across the world warned that that bird flu is likely to be severe in the Asian countries where backyard poultry farms are greater in number.
   Bird flu has caused the death of some 113 persons since 2003, and some 150 million poultry birds had to be exterminated all over the world.
   Our Khulna correspondent said that the livestock department on Wednesday night killed and buried 1,100 domestic chickens in an area of about one square kilometre, with Rupsha Strand Road in the centre, following detection of bird flu.
   The Khulna livestock department and Khulna health department are jointly launching a disinfection programme and providing treatment to the members of the families where bird flu was detected.
   The area to be covered by the programme includes the Koylaghat-Kalibari area, a part of Gagan Babu Road, Rupsha Strand Road and the area that stretches from KMP to Rupsha ferry jetty and adjacent places.
   The livestock department on Thursday launched a disinfection programme in the area, declaring red alert there, and prohibited the entrance and departure of any kind of domestic or poultry fowls.
   The department also declared high alert in all the poultry farms in the city and all the nine upazilas of Khulna district, and directed the people concerned to keep the poultry farms neat and clean and to take measures so that no germ can infect human beings.
   DR ABM Zakir Hossain, the Khulna metropolitan livestock officer, said that fourteen hens of local species died in residence of Khulna Development Authority’s secretary, Md Shahiduzzaman, in the last two days, and they have sent two specimen hens to the Livestock Disease Research Centre in Dhaka.
   Khulna’s civil surgeon, Dr AKM Abdus Samad Mia, told New Age that the health department and livestock department have launched a disinfection programme in an area of one square kilometre around the above-mentioned residence.
   He said that a dead crow was also found with the dead fowls, and the crow might have been the bearer of the bird flu virus.

The United States continues to violate basic human rights by keeping secret detention facilities abroad, holding people illegally as ‘disappeared’ and justifying torture, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
   The Human Rights Watch World Report 2008 found no improvement in the human rights situation in the United States, despite efforts by the US Congress to end the alleged abuses carried out in its war on terrorism.
   ‘There was no evident progress concerning the treatment of so-called enemy combatants, including those held at Guantanamo Bay, or the use of secret detention facilities’ in foreign countries, HRW said.
   The Pentagon in 2007 released more than 100 ‘war on terror’ detainees held in the prison facility at the US Navy base in eastern Cuba, but 305 continue to be imprisoned there, most of them without having been formally charged.
   After the 2006 legislative elections that put Democrats in charge of both houses of Congress, a bill restoring Guantanamo prisoners’ right to habeas corpus was proposed but has yet to be approved.
   HRW said in its report that by announcing in April that a Central Intelligence Agency prisoner had been transferred to Guantanamo, the Pentagon made it clear there still were US detention facilities around the world.
   The rights group said it believed 39 people were being held in US secret detention facilities and recalled that the US government had admitted to holding 100 prisoners in all.
   ‘Under international law those persons remain unlawfully ‘disappeared’ until the United States can account for them,’ the report said.
   And despite congressional pressure forcing the Pentagon to adopt new rules for prisoner interrogations to preclude torture-like abuses, HRW said the US government continues to justify such techniques in certain cases.
   ‘The CIA contends that it is not bound by these rules, and the administration has gone to great lengths to justify the CIA’s continued use of certain techniques banned for use by the military,’ said the report.
   On the domestic front, HRW said 2.2 million people were imprisoned in 2007 in the United States, a 500 per cent increase over the past 30 years and equivalent to five times the entire prison population of Britain.
   In addition to having the largest prison population in the world, the report added, the United States imprisoned blacks at a rate 6.5 times higher than that of whites.
   HRW also found that undocumented foreigners faced greater risk of arrest in the United States, had difficulty in asserting their legal rights in court and were imprisoned under sometimes abusive conditions.
   The report also criticised US laws listing people convicted of sexual offences in a national sexual offender registry that turns them into social pariahs with little chance of finding employment or housing, and making them the target of violence.

The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, Thursday said, ‘we won’t stay longer’ but initiate good works, though on a small scale, to be carried on in the future.
   General Moeen, whose force is backing the present interim government, made the remark while inaugurating a small dairy farm- cum-bio-gas project under a self-reliance scheme, financed by the army, at Saikat cluster village in Char Pakkhimari union under Sherpur Sadar upazila.
   He told his audience that country’s development would speed up faster if this process continued and hoped that public representatives, businessmen, administration officials and local people would come forward to carry on the good deeds.
   ‘Bangladesh has lots of resources. If those can be used properly there will be no poverty. This small dairy farm and biogas project is an example that we can do many things using small resource.
   ‘From this project besides meeting nutrition needs, electricity and fertiliser can be derived and cooking is also possible from what is available from a few cows.’
   He noted that the country incurred huge losses due to cyclone Sidr and two consecutive floods. All should work together to recoup the losses. ‘Hence, even an inch of land should not be left uncultivated during current boro season,’ he said.
   He said the government would ensure fertiliser, fuel and electricity for the farmers.
   The army chief assured the farmers that there was no fertiliser crisis in the country. He called upon them not to store fertiliser.
   The deputy commissioner, Shamsunnahar Begum, also spoke on the occasion. GOC of 19 Infantry division Major General Mohammad Mojahid Uddin, other military officials and public representatives were present on the occasion.
   After inauguration, General Moeen distributed 24 cows among 20 poor families and blankets and relief goods donated by Red Crescent among 300 destitute families.
   The twenty families are expected to be self-reliant through the dairy farming and 100 other families would get power facility for 4-5 hours daily trough energy-saving bulb. Besides, 30 families would be able to use fuel gas in their cooking.
   General Moeen flew in the helipad on the bank of the River Brahmaputra at about 10:40am, delayed by one hour due to dense fog. He left for Ghatail cantonment after Saikat cluster village programme.
   He went round the cluster village talking to the inhabitants.
   Local commander of joint forces Lieutenant Colonel Mujib briefed the army chief about overall situation in the district.
   In response to a demand an under-age journalist for ensuring nutrition and education for children of char areas here, General Moeen assured him of looking into the matter.

Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, on Thursday was admitted to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for proper treatment.
   Tarique, also senior joint secretary-general of the BNP, was admitted in the morning after a medical board of the university on Tuesday suggested that he needed treatment in a hospital with all modern facilites.
   He has been feeling pain in his shoulder, waist and some other parts of his body.
   ‘He left the Dhaka Central Jail in the morning and was admitted to the hospital for better treatment,’ said the deputy inspector-general of prisons, Major Shamsul Haider Siddique.
   He said Tarique would remain in the hospital as long as needed.
   Tarique was arrested from his mother’s cantonment residence on March 6, 2007. He is facing a number of corruption and extortion charges.
   Meanwhile, four high-profile prisoners, who have been staying at BSMMU for months were sent back to the Dhaka Central Jail.
   They are Sigma Huda, wife of ex-minister Nazmul Huda, BNP leaders Hannan Shah and Joynal Abedin Faruk, and Tayebur Rahman, the mayor of Khulna.
   The hospital authorities released them in the evening as their health condition was not bad enough to need treatment outside the jail.
   The jail authorities had earlier decided to take back the VIP prisoners, whose conditions are not critical, to make space for those who need urgent medical treatment.

The High Court on Thursday asked the government to submit the records of the extortion case against Sheikh Hasina to ascertain what ‘public importance’ had prompted it to place the case under the Emergency Powers Rules for trial for an offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam passed the order as additional attorney general Mansur Habib argued the government had placed the case under the emergency rules considering its ‘public importance.’
   ‘Offences committed before the state of emergency can be tried under the Emergency Powers Rules as the ordinance has empowered the government to apply the rules with retrospective effect for expeditious inquiry, investigation and trial of such offences,’ Habib argued.
   The court on Thursday adjourned till Monday the hearing in the writ petition filed by the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, challenging the legality of placing the extortion case under the emergency rules.
   The court earlier heard opinions of six lawyers, engaged as amici curiae (friends of court) on January 28, who had said offences committed before the declaration of the state of emergency could not be tried under the emergency rules.
   ‘The constitution does not allow the trial of any person under laws which are not in force when the crime is committed,’ argued TH Khan, an amicus curiae.
   He argued, ‘If the executive of the state makes any law in violation of the constitution, the Supreme Court has the power to declare it void to uphold the constitution as the judges have taken oath to do so.’
   Other amici curiae are Mahabubey Alam, Abdur Rab Chowdhury, Monsurul Haque Chowdhury, Mahbubur Rahman and Rafiqul Islam Miah.
   Rafique-ul Haq, assisted by Towfiq Newaz and Fazle Noor Tapos, moved the writ petition.

The Election Commission has planned to enlist the eligible people of only two enclaves on the electoral roll instead of 34 because of time constraints.
   The commission earlier selected 34 enclaves to register the eligible voters there under three northern districts.
   ‘Due to time constraints, now we have planned to start voters’ registration in Dahagram-Angarpota enclaves under Lalmonirhat likely from February 18 or 20,’ election commissioner Muhammad Sohul Hussain told reporters at his office on Thursday.
   He said the EC has already asked the foreign and home ministries to inform the Border Security Force of India of the EC’s plan to start voters’ registration in the two enclaves.
   The EC in October last year sent the list of the selected 34 enclaves to the foreign and home ministries and planned to sit with the Bangladesh Rifles later to discuss the ways of successfully including the enclave dwellers in the voters’ roll.
   It had also appointed 155 officials, including 107 enumerators and supervisors, for voters’ registration in those areas. The selected enclaves were Nalgram, Phalnapur and Dahagram-Angarpota under Patgram upazila in Lalmonirhat, Bagrigach and Kibagrigach under Aditmari upazila, Uttar Bashjani, Uttar Mashaldanga, Purba Mashaldanga, Madhya Mashaldanga, Pashchim Mashaldanga, Chhitkakua, Dakkhin Mashaldanga, Pashchim Chhitmashaldanga, Purba Chhitmashaldanga, Purba Chhitmashaldanga, Purba Mashaldanga, Poaturkuthi, Pashchim Bakalirchara, Madhya Bakalirchara, Purba Bakalirchara, Chattilat and Uttar Dhaldanga under Bhurungamari upazila and Chhitkarla and Chhit Prashad Mustafi under Phulbari upazila in Kurigram, Garati, Kajaldighi, Shalbari, Dykhatha, Najigaganj and Putimari under Boda upazila and Nataktoka, Behuldanga, Kotbhajoni, Dahla Khagrabari and Balapara Khagrabari under Debiganj upazila in Panchagarh.
   The estimated population of 51 enclaves is between 3 lakh and 3.5 lakh. The people are virtually isolated from the mainland and have no access to public amenities and basic rights.
   Enclave dwellers were also made voters in 1992 but the EC couldn’t enable them to cast their votes, said an election official.
   There are 111 Indian enclaves measuring 17,158 acres within Bangladesh territory while India has 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with an area of about 7,110 acres.
   Bangladesh ratified the 1974 Mujib-Indira boundary agreement and handed over a number of enclaves in Bangladesh
   to India but the Indian authorities have yet to do this, said officials.

The Jatiya Sangsad’s speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar, on Thursday expressed the hope that the interim government would hold the national elections as soon as possible and hand over power to the people’s representatives.
   ‘It does not take more than three months to complete the electoral roll. We hope that the government will hand over power to people’s representatives as soon as possible,’ Jamiruddin told reporters at the National Press Club.
   ‘For some reason the government did not hold the elections within the constitutionally stipulated three months, but that does not mean that the elections will not be held,’ he said while talking to newsmen after a milad mahfil in memory of late Tayeba Majumder, mother of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   ‘The sooner power is handed over to people the better it is for the country. From long political experience, I can say there is no substitute for democracy,’ he said. ‘When there is no elected government, the people do not think the government to be their own. This government is a constitutional government as it came to power through constitutional clauses. People are waiting for an elected government which will be closer to them.’
   ‘They are eagerly waiting for the election to be held. The parliament will form the people’s government.
   ‘The people have the ultimate right to elect their government, be it Awami League or BNP. No one else has any scope to make a decision in this regard,’ the speaker added.
   Jamiruddin said that when democracy existed, there was no such price-hike and suffering of the people. ‘If the election is held, the over-all situation of the people will be changed. In the 15 years of democracy, 10 years of BNP and 5 years of Awami League, there was no such price-hike.’
   Jamiruddin, a BNP lawmaker, felt the need for initiatives to unite the party, but expressed his inability to take such an initiative on his own because of constitutional and legal complexities.
   But he said he would surely take such an initiative if any leader of the two factions, Khandaker Delwar Hossain or M Hafizuddin Ahmed, gives him the charge to do so.
   He also believes that whatever the situation is, all will join the single stream of BNP as soon the election schedule is announced.
   ‘Whenever the election schedule is announced, all will be united under the leadership of Khaleda Zia as per the party’s constitution, and contest the elections. And there is no scope of doubt in this regard.’
   Before the prayer session for the salvation of Tayeba Majumdar, the BNP’s secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, denounced the government for its attitude to Ziaur Rahman’s family.
   ‘They were freed on parole to have a glimpse of Tayeba Majumdar.
   ‘But the BNP’s chairperson and her sons were not allowed meet each other. This was inhuman, barbarous and contemptible,’ he said.

More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the US-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain’s leading polling groups.
   The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 per cent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.
   The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.
   The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 per cent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.
   ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the revised figure.
   The research covered 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces. Those that not covered included two of Iraq’s more volatile regions – Kerbala and Anbar – and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work.
   Estimates of deaths in Iraq have been highly controversial in the past.
   Medical journal The Lancet published a peer-reviewed report in 2004 stating that there had been 100,000 more deaths than would normally be expected since the March 2003 invasion, kicking off a storm of protest.
   The widely watched web site Iraq Body Count currently estimates that between 80,699 and 88,126 people have died in the conflict, although its methodology and figures have also been questioned by US authorities and others.
   ORB, a non-government-funded group founded in 1994, conducts research for the private, public and voluntary sectors.
   The director of the group, Allan Hyde, said it had no objective other than to record as accurately as possible the number of deaths among the Iraqi population as a result of the invasion and ensuing conflict.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will send a proposal to the Energy Division for a fresh $250 million loan from Standard Chartered Bank as part of its plan to borrow $500 million to pay inflated oil import bills.
   Earlier it sought government approval for borrowing $200-$300 million from BNP-Paribas bank of France.
   The state-run corporation has planned to borrow $500 million from the two global banks as its fuel oil import bill this year is likely to cross $3.3 billion. It will get only around $1-$1.2 billion from the Islamic Development Bank and Bangladesh Bank will provide few hundred million dollars, officials of the corporation said.
   An economist, however, said that the government should arrange fund for BPC from local sources as Bangladesh Bank holds a foreign exchange reserve of over $5 billion. Or it can exempt fuel oils from import tariffs to reduce burden on the BPC as global oil prices continued to soar.
   The StanChart, which lent BPC $250 million in 2006 at an interest rate of LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) plus 1.97 per cent, recently offered another $250 million at LIBOR plus 1.79 per cent.
   The Energy Division forwarded in December another BPC proposal to the finance ministry to borrow $200-$300 million from BNP-Paribas at an interest rate of LIBOR plus 1.84 per cent.
   ‘We will send the StanChart offer to Energy Division by today. We need both the loans to make oil import payments,’ a high official of BPC said on Thursday.
   Officials at the state oil monopoly said that the corporation had to pay $13-$15 million in interest on StanChart loan of $250 million in 2006.
   The BPC turned to global funding sources as state-owned commercial banks like Sonali and Janata could not arrange adequate finance for oil import payments.
   The two state lenders were bled white by the BPC as it failed to repay loans in time because of financial loss caused by domestic sale of fuel oils at government-administered rates, which are much lower than import prices.
   Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies research director Zaid Bakht suggested that the government should not borrow from international commercial banks. Instead, it should borrow the fund from Bangladesh Bank and withdraw the import duty that BPC pays on fuel oils.
   ‘The BPC will have flexibility in repaying the loans taken from the government. There is no need to take loans from foreign banks paying higher interest rate,’ he told New Age on Thursday.
   Besides, these loans are time bound which will lead the corporation into further trouble, the economist warned.
   If BPC fails to repay the government loan, the government could issue bond against the outstanding loans as it did recently, he pointed out.
   About Bangladesh Bank’s unwillingness to deplete its foreign exchange reserve, the economist said, ‘It is a matter of consensus. If the finance ministry agrees, government agrees, I don’t see any problem in using the reserve. Once we had a reserve of $1 billion.’
   Besides, the government can withdraw the import duty on fuel oil import. ‘BPC pays around Tk 2000-3000 crore as import duty every year. If this duty is withdrawn, the corporation will not require additional loan,’ he said.
   Energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin told New Age on Thursday, ‘We have to see whether there is availability of fund locally. Let’s see the BPC proposal.’
   He said he would discuss the BPC funding issue with the finance ministry. ‘All we want is an assured source of fund to keep fuel import uninterrupted,’ he said.

The education ministry on Wednesday selected 63 non-government secondary schools in 63 upazila headquarters to upgrade them to model schools with some additional government facilities.
   The 63 upazilas, one in each of all the districts but Gaibandha, have no government secondary schools.
   ‘The schools will be provided with required infrastructure, furniture, library, computer laboratory, scientific equipment, teachers’ training under an education ministry project. Some other steps will also be taken to improve the quality of education,’ the education ministry circular said.
   The model schools, however, will not be government schools and the teachers and employees will keep receiving monthly pay orders as usual like non-government educational institutions.
   There are no government secondary schools in 326, out of the total 517, upazilas. There are now 317 government secondary schools in only 191 upazilas.
   ‘Each model school will have a Tk 2 crore trust fund. One hundred male and female students selected by the authorities will get residential facilities.
   ‘The income from the trust fund will be spent on hostel facilities,’ said an education ministry official.
   ‘The 63 schools have been selected in keeping with certain criteria. One school each in the remaining 263 of 326 upazilas will be upgraded in the next two financial years,’ he said.
   The education ministry in August 2007, in line with a directive issued by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, decided to upgrade 326 such schools in three phases.
   Fakhruddin in an April 10, 2007 letter sent to then education adviser, Ayub Quadri, observed, ‘Good schools are now mostly in urban areas and it creates discrimination in schooling between urban and rural areas.’
   In reply, the education ministry in the last week of April 2007 sent a summary to the chief adviser with some alternatives, including nationalisation of 326 non-government schools in upazila headquarters.
   The ministry proposal also said, ‘If a non-government school in each of the 326 upazilas is upgraded and qualified teachers from the existing government schools are transferred there, it may help the
   government to avoid investing a huge amount of money at a time.’
   ‘The chief adviser has approved the summary and asked the ministry on June 16 to set up at least a few model schools in rural areas in the financial year 2007–2008 and in line with the chief adviser’s directive, we have selected the 63 schools for this fiscal year,’ the ministry official said.

Thousands of Pakistani lawyers burned effigies of president Pervez Musharraf during nationwide protests Thursday to press for the release of the country’s deposed chief justice, witnesses said.
   A group of retired Pakistani military officers urged Musharraf to step down and hand over power to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since Musharraf sacked him on November 3.
   In Islamabad, hundreds of attorneys in black suits torched a small cloth dummy of Musharraf outside Chaudhry’s residence and chanted ‘Death to Musharraf’ and other slogans.
   Separately around 3,000 lawyers, joined by members of former cricketer Imran Khan’s opposition political party and hundreds of hardline Islamists, also burned an effigy of the president in the eastern city of Lahore.
   A further 4,000 protesters shouted ‘Go Musharraf, go’ in the southern city of Karachi and there were protests in the central Pakistani city of Multan and the northwestern city of Peshawar.
   A bomb exploded outside an anti-terrorism court in the southwestern city of Quetta earlier Thursday, wounding three people. It was not immediately clear if it was linked to the lawyers’ protests.
   Pakistan’s legal community has held weekly protests to call for the release of Chaudhry and several top lawyers who have been detained since November, despite the lifting of emergency rule on December 15.
   A group of 200 retired generals, air marshals and other officers from the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society made fresh calls for him to step down.

The High Court on Thursday declared illegal the detention of the Sylhet mayor, Badruddin Ahmed Kamran, also the Sylhet city Awami League general secretary.
   The High Court bench of Justice Mirza Hossein Haider and Justice Mamnun
   Rahman also asked the government to release Kamran if there are no cases pending against him.
   The court gave the ruling after hearing a habeas corpus writ petition filed by
   Kamran’s son Arman Ahmed, challenging the legality of the detention.
   The joint forces arrested Kamran at the Sylhet Gulshan Hotel on May 29, 2007.
   He was earlier remanded on bail in corruption case
   and released from the Comilla jail.
   The government on June 4 ordered him to be detained under the Special Powers Act.
   The High Court on June 17 issued a rule on the government to explain why the detention order should not be considered illegal.

Three Bangladeshis were shot dead by the Border Security Force of India on Ratnai frontier under Baliadangi upazila in Thkurgaon on Thursday.
   The deceased were Asiruddin, 20, son of Khair Mohammad of Thakbasti village, Shahidul Islam, 26, son of Rabiul Islam of Gariali village, and Akhtarul, 27, son of Hakimuddin of Morulhat village in the upazila.
   The Bangladesh Rifles and local sources said the BSF personnel of Sonamati camp fired on the three cattle traders when they went near the border at dawn to collect Indian cattle, killing them on the spot.
   They said BSF dragged the bodies of the young men into the Indian territories.
   BDR 20 battalion operations officer Major Tariqul Hakim said they had ‘already dispatched a letter to the BSF strongly condemning’ the shooting incident.
   They have sought return of the bodies.

The government on Thursday announced a list of shops, including grocers, food shops and medicine stores, which will remain exempt from the evening ban.
   Small shops of grocery items, rice, lentils, vegetable, fruit, meat, fish, bread, dairy products, pastry, sweetmeat, medicine and treatment-related materials, burial materials, betel leaf, bidi, cigarette, ice and newspaper can remain open after 8:00pm, a power and energy ministry release said.
   The other shops that are exempted from the ban include hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, filling stations (on condition of using minimum electricity), vehicle service centres not meant for repair works, salons and barbers, said the release signed by the senior information officer, Muhammd Iqbal Hossain.
   The government on Tuesday decided to enforce a section of the Labour Act 2006 that
   says shops, with some exceptions, across the country will shut down their daily businesses by 8:00pm to supply irrigation areas with more electricity.

The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, is expected to arrive in Dhaka on February 8 on a two-day official visit, an official said Thursday.
   The foreign secretary, Md Touhid Hossain, confirmed the visit schedule but he would not disclose details.
   ‘Yes, he is coming to Bangladesh,’ he said without elaboration.
   Other ministry officials, however, said Miliband would visit some of the projects funded by the Department for International Development.
   He would also learn about the work on the voter enrolment scheme by the Election Commission, they said.
   The DFID is one of the major funding agencies that support the electoral roll project.

Former chief forest conservator Munshi Anwarul Islam was awarded a three-year sentence on Thursday for abusing power in appointing 79 people in the forest department.
   Shahed Nuruddin, the judge of the special judge’s court-3 of Dhaka set up in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban’s MP hostel, also fined the convict Tk 50,000 or in default, asked him to serve one more month in jail.
   Munshi was in the dock when the judge pronounced the verdict.
   According to the prosecution, Munshi had appointed the 79 employees without approval from the establishment ministry abusing his power as the chief conservator between January 29, 2004 and August 31, 2005.
   Anti-Corruption Commission assistant director SM Shahidur Rahman filed the case with Gulshan police against Munshi on June 26, 2006.
   In the first information report, the employees were also accused of bribing Munshi to get the jobs, but later they were withdrawn from the case.
   The court indicted Munshi on Oct 30, 2007. Security officials arrested Munshi on March 7, 2007 and a court later sent him to jail.