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About half of the readymade garment factories do not implement social and workplace compliances including minimum wages for their workers.
   This was disclosed at a quarterly meeting on social compliances in RMG sector held at the commerce ministry Tuesday with commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman in the chair.
   ‘The number of compliant factories in the readymade garment sector has fallen to 51 per cent in January from 56 per cent in December,’ the adviser told reporters, adding that the authorities would show zero tolerance in case of flouting compliance issues.
   The meeting asked the committee, led by commerce secretary, to identify the reasons behind the recent wave of labour unrest in the garment factories and come up with a comprehensive report on the RMG sector within two weeks.
   Asked whether he believed that non-compliances sparked off fresh labour unrest in the RMG sector, Zillur said, ‘I will be able to answer to such specific question after getting the report.’
   He said the committee had already started working to dig out the reasons for the unrest.
   The development economist-turned-adviser expressed concern over poor response of the factory owners to the much-stressed compliance issues. He felt that minimum wages for RMG workers needed to be reviewed keeping in view the competitiveness of the sector, though many factories even failed to implement the existing pay structure.
   Following series of violent protests that rocked the biggest export earning sector, a tripartite committee in October 2006 set Tk 1,662.50 as minimum pay for an entry-level apparel worker, up from Tk 930 fixed 12 years back.
   Labour rights groups said the minimum pay remained far away from a living wage for apparel workers, 90 per cent being women, hard hit by soaring food prices. Global rights groups earlier found Bangladesh’s pay in apparel industry to be the lowest in the world.
   Senior officials of the ministries of commerce, textiles and jute, labour and employment, forests and environment and representatives from readymade garment factory owners and non-government organisations were present at the Tuesday’s meeting.

More than 800 workers of the Jahanara Spinning Mills at Kharajora of Kaliakair in Gazipur on Tuesday blocked the Dhaka–Tangail Highway for an hour demanding payment of their dues.
   Local residents and the police said the workers also went on strike demanding payment of their salaries and overtime bills in arrears for January.
   The workers at about 10:00am blocked the highway. The blockade lasted for about an hour. Hundreds of vehicles remained stranded on both ends of the road.
   The police reached the place and controlled the situation. The workers went back home without joining work as the authorities announced to pay the salaries and bills in arrears on Wednesday.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday held back for a week the government’s petition seeking stay on the execution of the High Court verdict that quashed the extortion case against Sheikh Hasina.
   The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division, headed by the chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, also asked the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict by February 19.
   Shafique Ahmed, the counsel of the detained former prime minister, Haisna, also the Awami League chief, told reporters that the Appellate Division did not stay the High Court verdict.
   The High Court earlier quashed the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against Hasina and declared illegal the government’s action in placing the trial in the case under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   After the Appellate Division order, the High Court verdict that quashed the entire trial proceedings of the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court relocated to the high-security Jatiya Sangsad complex stands in force and the case remains quashed, Shafique said.
   Hasina, however, may not be released from jail as she has been shown arrested in the barge-mounted power plant corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The hearing in the framing of charges against her in the case is scheduled for today in the special judge’s court set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam delivered the verdict on February 6 after hearing a writ filed by Hasina challenging the legality of placing the extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   The case was filed by power company East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd managing director Azam Jahangir Chowdhury.
   The full court of the Appellate Division completed hearing both sides on the government’s petition seeking stay on the High Court verdict at around 10am.
   The court passed the order in its next session at noon in the jam-packed courtroom holding back the petition and asking the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.
   Moving the petition, the attorney general, Fida M Kamal, submitted that the High Court verdict had far-reaching consequences on the judicial system.
   He said the court should stay the execution of the verdict till the disposal of a government petition seeking permission to appeal, to be filed soon after the certified copy of the verdict is received.
   If the verdict is not stayed, the cases for offences committed before the declaration of the state of emergency and brought under the Emergency Powers Rules for trial would be hampered, he argued.
   He termed ‘outrageous’ the High Court verdict that also quashed the entire trial proceedings of the extortion case which Hasina did not ask in the writ petition.
   ‘How could the High Court give a ruling beyond its jurisdiction?’ the state attorney said. The court said, ‘We have not read the verdict… How can we stay its execution?’
   Expressing the government concerns about the fate of other corruption cases being tried under the emergency rules and of the people already convicted under the rules, Kamal said they could not submit the certified copy of the verdict as they were yet to get the copy.
   Opposing the attorney general’s contention, Hasina’s principal counsel Rafique-ul Huq said the High Court had delivered its verdict complying with the Appellate Division’s earlier orders that had asked resolving the writ petition as soon as possible.
   ‘If the stay is granted,’ he said, ‘it will amount to frustrating the High Court verdict that was delivered after the submissions by the contesting parties and a six-member panel of amici curiae.’
   The government on February 7 filed the petition seeking the stay on the execution of the High Court verdict saying that it would file a regular petition for permission to appeal.
   Azam filed the case on June 13, 2007, accusing Hasina and her cousin, former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, of taking Tk 2.99 crore in extortion during the 1996–2001 Awami League rule for the award of the installation of a power plant at Siddhirganj. After a month, Hasina was arrested on July 16 in connection with the case.
   Hasina has since then been detained in a special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   Hasina, along with her sister Sheikh Rehana, now living in London, and cousin Selim were indicted in the case on January 13.
   Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge M Azizul Haque began the trial in the case on January 30 with the recording of the deposition of Azam, who did not identify Hasina as accused.
   The trial, however, remains halted after the High Court verdict of February 6.

A Chittagong court on Tuesday ordered further investigation into the biggest-ever haul of 10 trucks of smuggled arms and ammunition to bring behind-the-scene big shots to justice and crack the hidden deal, court sources said.
   Chittagong metropolitan sessions judge ANM Bashir Ullah also asked the investigation officer to complete the reinvestigation in two months.
   The court passed the order after a hearing a petition filed by public prosecutor Ahsanul Huq Hena for reinvestigation of the case.
   The court in the order asked the investigation officer to find out the origin of the consignment of smuggled arms, its suppliers and recipients, court sources said.
   The judge also ordered reinvestigation regarding the ships which stayed in the outer anchorage at the night when the consignment of the arms and ammunition arrived.
   He also ordered the investigation officer to find out how the consignment of weapons was unloaded in the jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd, meant only handling only export goods, the sources said.
   The court asked the Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner to appoint a senior police official for reinvestigation into the case immediately and to submit a supplementary charge sheet in two months.
   Ahsanul told New Age the grounds shown in the order for reinvestigation would help to crack the deal regarding the arms cache.
   ‘We initiated a fresh move for further investigation into this sensational arms case as the political bigwigs involved in bringing the arms and ammunition managed to escape while charge sheets submitted were politically influenced,’ he said.
   ‘Some small fry were named on the charge sheets, which avoided naming political bigwigs behind the scene,’ he said. ‘The investigation carried out during the political government was not proper. It was incomplete. The charge sheets submitted were politically influenced to save bigwigs.’
   The police, tipped off, seized 10 trucks of smuggled weapons from the jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd on April 2, 2004. Two cases, one under arms act and the other related to smuggling, were filed with the Karnaphuli police.
   The Criminal Investigation Department filed the charge sheets accusing 43 persons in the arms case and 44 persons in the smuggling case, the police and court sources said.
   Hafizur Rahman, known for being involved in smuggling in Chittagong, was named as the prime accused on the charge sheet.
   Hafizur Rahman was sent to jail after his arrest later at Dhaka. He was not remanded in police custody for interrogation to know about the origin and destination of the consignment.
   The police said Hafizur Rahman, a resident of Patiya in Chittagong, was initially involved in the smuggling of foreign cigarettes after joining the Jatiya Party in 1986.
   He later got in touch with a smugglers’ syndicate in the Chittagong coast and international rackets, the police said.
   He was present at the jetty to supervise the unloading and transport of the arms and ammunition consignment, the police said.
   When police team raided the jetty to seize the consignment, Hafizur managed to get away, leaving behind his car. He then went into hiding.
   The police latter arrested him at Dhaka after the Criminal Investigation Department had submitted the charge sheets.

Supply shortage and high prices have compelled many marginal paddy farmers in the northern districts to limit use of fertilisers in the peak cultivation season, which could have a dampening impact on the prospects of boro output, a New Age field survey reveals.
   Though they could purchase limited quantity of urea fertiliser from authorised dealers, both triple super phosphate and murate of potash were not available in the locality, many farmers said during a field trip to remote villages.
    Prospects of a bumper crop and supports pledged by the government lured many farmers into expanding their acreage of boro farming this season, many of them said. But inadequate use of phosphate and potash fertilisers might ultimately affect the yield of boro rice, they apprehended.
   Shariful Islam, a contract farmer of Haldiabon village in Domar upazila, said he could not draw urea fertiliser from the authorised dealers since there was no provision in official arrangement for farmers like him to purchase urea directly.
   ‘I have told the landlord to draw the urea fertiliser from the dealer and give me that at proper rate. Though some urea is available, TSP and MOP are scarce,’ he said. Under locally practiced contract farming system, he planned to cultivate two bighas [33 decimals make one bigha] this season. ‘On completion of the cultivation, I have to go back to Dhaka for my livelihood through rickshaw driving.’
   Lavli Akhter, a housewife of the same village who helps her family in cultivation, said her husband bought one dhara [5 kilograms] fertilisers at a cost of Tk 200, which was much higher than normal price. ‘We are encouraged to cultivate rice by investing our money after seeing the good price of paddy this year. We need to grow rice to eat and get cash by selling the remaining quantity,’ she said.
   Supply shortage has inflated the prices of imported fertilisers like TSP and MoP, which are marketed by the private sector. Urea is produced locally and highly subsidised by the government, which controls its supply and price through a network of listed dealers.
   A 50-kg bag of TSP is selling at up to Tk 2,000 instead of rational price of Tk 1,470 while a bag of the same quantity of MoP is selling at Tk 1,600 instead of Tk 1,200, market watchers said.
   ‘We don’t know why TSP and MOP are not available. At the same time, private traders are charging very high rates although local officials say there is a slight difference,’ said Mohammad Zulfiqar, a farmer of Ketkibari area, who brought seven acres of land under boro cultivation alongside running two power pumps.
   And farmers like Bhabani of the same area felt that the quantum of urea fertiliser allocated to each farmer was much less than required. However, the supply of electricity for running irrigation pumps in the district has so far been regular, they said.
   Massive areas of cultivable land on the two sides of roads in Nilmaphari are almost covered by saplings of boro paddy. The district also witnessed better harvest of aman rice in the previous season unlike other northern districts, badly affected by two floods last year.
   Abu Alam of South Ketkibari Union Parishad said boro paddy was cultivated on at least 75 per cent land in the area. The rest is used for cultivation of potato, wheat, maize, chilli and tobacco.
   The government on January 21 revised the boro production target upward to 17.5 million tonnes to offset the aman output loss caused by twin floods and cyclone Sidr last year.
   The boro acreage has been expanded to 45 lakh hectares, including 12 lakh hectares for hybrid paddy, agriculture ministry officials said. Last year, boro was cultivated on 43 lakh hectares and the production was about 15.5 million tonnes.
   The government has also formed a six-member taskforce to oversee the boro farming and ensure maximum output. The taskforce, headed by an agriculture ministry joint secretary is assigned to respond to all possible problems faced by the farmers during the peak boro season.
   Besides, the agriculture ministry has involved some thirty officials to oversee overall boro production in particular districts.
   The officials would monitor allocation and distribution of urea and other fertilisers, diesel supply and payments of subsidy to the farmers and irrigation activities in districts.   Demand for urea has been estimated at 12 lakh tonnes for the current January-March boro season. Annual demand for urea stands around 28 lakh tonnes.
   The country has about 13,26,000 irrigation pumps and some eighty-five per cent of the pumps are operated by diesel due to poor rural electricity coverage. Estimated demand for diesel for irrigation purpose is about 1.2 million tonnes during the boro season.
   But farmers in the north are yet to get any benefit of the government’s said interventions.
   Agriculture extension officials said about seven lakh hectares have been brought under boro farming this year in eight northern districts — Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Thakurgaon, Panchagargh and Dinajpur. Boro was cultivated on over 76,000 hectares of land in Nilphamari alone.
   Yield in eight districts has been projected this year at somewhere close to 26.5 lakh tonnes. Farmers calculate the production cost this year would be more than last year’s average of Tk 750 per bigha.
   Marginal farmers in remote Nilphamari villages sought the government’s special attention and intervention so that they could get required quantity of fertilisers and have a good harvest.

The advisers’ committee on purchase on Tuesday approved import of 5.67 lakh tonnes of rice at a cost of Tk 1,592 crore to meet the local demand against the background of steep price-hike of rice in local markets.
   Five lakh tonnes of rice will be imported from India, and the remaining 67,000 tonnes will be procured from local importers to increase the stock of rice in the country.
   Rice import from India will start this month once the deal is finalised, and will be completed within 75 days of the signing of the contract, said Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam.
   ‘We have approved the import of 5.67 lakh tonnes of rice and the availability of rice in the country will increase soon after the signing of the agreement,’ Aziz, who presided over the meeting at the Cabinet Division, told reporters.
   The price of rice from India has been fixed at Tk 27.93 and the price for rice from local importers will be Tk 28.17 to Tk 29.40 per kg, said meeting sources.
   The West Bengal Essential Commodities Supplies Cooperative Ltd will supply the rice to the Bangladesh government under the deal between the two countries.
   The director-general of the Directorate of Food, Molla Waheeduzzman, who is now in Kolkata leading a delegation will sign the contract.
   The government will procure 25,000 tonnes of rice from a local importer at the cost of $402 per tonne and 42,000 tonnes more from 13 importers at the cost of $420-$430 per tonne, said sources.
   The purchase committee also approved import of 20,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid, used as raw material for fertiliser production, at a cost of Tk 102 crore.
   The committee asked the communications ministry to further scrutinise a proposal, placed at the meeting, to construct railway lines, said sources.
   It approved a policy paper in establishing a tannery in Savar.

Rice import from India resumed through Benapole land port on Tuesday after India had reportedly lifted the ban on rice export, officials and importers said.
   They said Indian trucks carrying rice which remained stranded on the other side of the border would start entering Bangladesh through Sonamasjid land port today.
   Rice import had been suspended since Saturday as India suddenly ordered a ban on rice export.
   Officials at Benapole land port said some 280 tonnes of rice entered Bangladesh on Tuesday.
   Importers said trucks carrying 20,000 tones of rice remained stranded at Petrapole land port in West Bengal of India till Monday. They said few Indian exporters were trying to file cases challenging the Indian government move terming it illegal. But holiday delayed the exporters’ move.
   Amit Dhar, an Indian exporter, told journalists over telephone that the Indian government had pushed them into a critical situation for which they had to incur financial losses.
   They expected that the problem will be over in two to three days. But the Indian government was unlikely to withdraw the restriction on rice export under $500 a tonne.
   Abdus Samad, an importer in Bangladesh, on Monday told journalists the stalemate over rice import would affect the market.
   Tajul Islam Taj, another importer, claimed he had incurred losses because of the ban on rice export by India.
   Some importers urged the Bangladesh government to find out a way to import rice from Myanmar, Bhutan and China.
   Earlier, 9,62,470 tonnes of rice were imported through Benapole, Bhomra and Darshana land ports in seven months of the current financial year.
   The Benapole customs said Bangladeshi traders imported 9,62,470 tonnes of rice through three land ports between July 1, 2007 and January 3, 2008.
   Benapole customs assistant commissioner Jakir Hossain said traders imported 2,16,622 tonnes of rice in January while 6,713 tonnes have been imported in three days of February. The import of rice is going on, he said.
   The import of rice has made the market stable, but the price did not decline, an importer told New Age.
   The New Age correspondent in Chapainawabganj, quoting officials, said rice import through Sonamasjid land port may resume today. A letter withdrawing the ban on rice export by India is learnt to have reached Mohdipur land port on the Indian side, said an official.
   Asked whether the decision was conveyed to the Bangladesh authorities, Arun Kumar Biswas, the assistant commissioner of Sonamasjid land port, said he did not know of any such decision..
   Traders said they came to know that the matter had been resolved. India set the price of a tonne of rice at $505.

The acting president of the Awami League, Zillur Rahman, on Tuesday warned the government that it would bear the responsibility if anything happens to his party’s president, Sheikh Hasina, due to lack of proper medical treatment.
   Terming Hasina’s physical condition as critical, he demanded immediate her release, at least on humanitarian grounds, for proper treatment.
   ‘The physical condition of our party president is not good. She fainted in the court due to want of proper treatment. The government will bear the responsibility if anything happens to Sheikh Hasina due to lack of adequate medical treatment,’ Zillur told reporters after the inter-party talks between the AL and Samyabadi Dal at his Gulshan residence in the afternoon.
   He also said that Hasina is being kept in jail on ‘false’ charges.
   ‘We demand that she be released immediately, at least on humanitarian grounds, for her treatment,’ said the AL veteran.
   The AL and the Samyabadi Dal held an inter-party dialogue at Zillur’s house and both the parties agreed to prepare identical proposals for submission during the proposed talks between the government and the political parties.
   Leaders of both the parties also demanded that the government should start the dialogues immediately and complete them within March to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
   The meeting also decided to base the proposals on the 31-point reform proposals announced by Sheikh Hasina on July 15, 2005 and also on the recent political developments after getting formal invitation from the government.
   ‘The proposals will be based on the 31-point reform proposals of the AL-led alliance and the present political, economic and social issues, including release of AL president Sheikh Hasina, general secretary Abdul Jalil and detained other leaders,’ AL presidium member Tofail Ahmed told reporters after the meeting.
   ‘We want free, fair and credible elections. But the government should not wait for a long time on the excuse of creating a congenial atmosphere for the polls,’ general secretary of the Samyabadi Dal, Dilip Barua, told reporters after the meeting, adding that his party would prepare identical proposals with the components of the AL-led alliance after getting formal invitation from the government.
   Dilip said, in reply to a query, that his party also demands the release of Hasina and Abdul Jalil, who is the coordinator of the alliance.
   AL’s leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Matia Chowdhury and Syed Ashraful Islam, and Samyabadi Dal’s leaders Abu Hamed Shahabuddin, Harun Chowdhury and Abul Khayer were present the meeting, along with others.

The Election Commission and five of the seven BNP standing committee members on Tuesday submitted separate replies to the rule issued by the High Court over the commission’s invitation for electoral reforms talks.
   The writ petition, filed earlier by detained BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, was posted on the list of the cases for hearing before the bench of Justice Mirza Hossein Haider and Justice Mamnun Rahman on Tuesday and the hearing might be held today.
   On behalf of the Election Commission, Dr Kamal Hossain submitted the reply saying that the HC ruling had no implication as the dialogue was scheduled for November 22, 2007 and the schedule already expired.
   Besides, BNP chairperson did not follow the party constitution in expelling Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan from the post of secretary general, the commission stated, defending its invitation to Hafizuddin Ahmed, who was made acting secretary general in a midnight meeting on October 29, 2007.
   Four standing committee members of BNP— RA Gani, M Shamsul Islam, Khondker Mahabubuddin Ahmad and Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiqui — in their separate replies before the High Court bench said that no meeting of standing committee was held on October 29.
   They claimed that they had just joined a tea party hosted by former finance minister Saifur Rahman at his Gulshan residence that day.
   Two ‘unidentified officials’ were present at the late evening party, the BNP leaders said, adding that they were to sign a resolution due to ‘special circumstance.’
   According to the BNP constitution, none but the chairperson can convene a meting of the standing committee, the four leaders told the court.
   In his reply, Hafizuddin said any decision taken by BNP standing committee is final and everybody has to follow the decision as per article 5(C) and 8(B)(2) of the party constitution.
   The High Court on November 18, 2007 issued the rule on the Election Commission and the government to explain why the commission’s invitation letter addressed to M Hafizuddin Ahmed, acting secretary general of a BNP faction, would not be declared illegal.
   After hearing a writ petition filed by detained BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, the court had also stayed the operation of the invitation letter to the government-backed BNP faction.
   The same rule was also issued on the seven BNP standing committee members, who attended the October 29 meeting that appointed former finance minister M Saifur Rahman as acting chairman and Hafizuddin as acting secretary general of the BNP faction.

A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced former Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Helaluddin, cousin of detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly extorting Tk 1 crore from a construction firm.
   The metropolitan special tribunal judge, Mohammad Shafiul Azam, also sentenced Helal’s associate Munshi Sayeeduzzaman to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and acquitted three others of the charge.
   The two convicts were also fined Tk 1 lakh each, non-payment of which will cause them to serve six months more in jail.
   The three accused who were acquitted are Shahin Chakladar, Khorshed Alam and AHM Kamal Hossain. All the five accused in the case are on the run.
   Mamtaz Uddin, project coordinator of road construction firm RCL, filed the case with the Kafrul police station on May 21, 2007.
   Mamtaz said, in the First Information Report, that he was awarded a contract by the Roads and Highways Department in May 2000.
   But Syeeduzzaman threatened Mamtaz, saying he would not be allowed to work if Sheikh Helal was not paid what he wanted. He later paid the accused Tk 87.9 lakh in cash and the rest through cheques.
   As the government placed the pre-emergency offence under the Emergency Powers Rule 2007 because of its ‘public importance’, the Kafrul police submitted the charge-sheet of the case against the five on July 31, 2007.

The detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah was released from the Narayanganj jail at 7:55pm Tuesday. The High Court granted interim bail to him on Sunday.
   After his release from the jail, Hannan got into a car, waiting for him, with his two sons, Rezaul Hannan and Reazul Hannan, and a group of party activists and headed for Dhaka.
   He expressed his gratefulness to the lawyers of Dhaka and Narayanganj who fought the battle for his release.
   The High Court on Sunday granted interim bail for three months to Hannan who was arrested on February 7 soon after his release from the jail on allegation of breaching the Emergency Powers Rules.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Choudhury and Justice MA Hye also issued a rule on the government to explain in four weeks why Hannan Shah would not be cleared of the general dairy filed with the Fatullah police against him for his alleged involvement in breaching the emergency rules.
   The Fatullah police on February 7 arrested Hannan again at the jail gate soon after he had been released on bail in another case. A Narayanganj court sent him to jail, rejecting his bail prayer.
   The Fatullah police officer-in-charge, Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan, filed the general dairy, accusing Hannan of leading a rally joined in by about 2000 party activists in violation of the Emergency Powers Rules after his release.
   The police on November 7, 2007 arrested Hannan on charge of violating the Emergency Powers Rules by gathering people, chanting slogans and assaulting some leaders by government-backed faction of the BNP, including former army chief Mahbubur Rahman, at Ziaur Rahman’s grave during the observance of National Revolution and Solidarity Day.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said the ultimate goal of the caretaker government is to give a sustainable foundation for democracy to flourish in the country in long term.
   ‘The government is taking all necessary steps to hold free and fair election within this year. We’ve taken multi-dimensional initiative also in social uplift and people’s welfare,’ he said at the 28th National Assembly 2008 of Ansar and VDP at the parade ground of Ansar-VDP Academy.
   Fakhruddin said so far, it has not been possible to establish a self-reliant prosperous Bangladesh for lack of proper distribution of resources and dedicated initiative.
   ‘In last one year, in 2007 after January 11, we’ve taken a good number of important and farsighted steps considering the national interest. At the same time, we’ve strengthened our stand against corruption,’ he told the function.
   The head of the caretaker government said massive improvement of law and order has taken place now and also the separation of judiciary from the executive has been accomplished as per directive of the constitution.
   Preparation of voters’ list with photograph is being implemented smoothly under the supervision of the recast Election Commission, he mentioned.
   The chief adviser gave a four-point directive to all members of Ansar and Village Defence Party for playing a more vibrant and effective role in building up the country.
   As per the directives, Ansar-VDP will have to be more sincere in preventing crimes and ensuring security in economic activities at the grassroots level, as they have scope and opportunity to make more contributions to establishing good governance at grassroots level and establishing reliable and cordial relations with the people and the government.
   The directives also include ensuring security of public life through strengthening the local government and building up the Ansar-VDP as a well-knit force for alleviating poverty, expansion of social security network and intensifying efforts to involve members of Ansar-VDP more effectively in facing disaster.
   Fakhruddin said all citizens of the country would have to make best efforts from their respective position to turn the beloved motherland into a modern and developed country.
   He praised the activities of Ansar, Battalion Ansar and VDP in maintaining law and order, curbing crimes and terrorism, and contributing to socioeconomic development.
   Presently, about 3 lakh Ansars are playing courageous role in ensuring security of life and property at airports, seaports, industries and other important establishments, he said.
   Through this, he added, it was possible to ensure suitable environment for production and investment, which is playing a positive role in keeping the wheels of economy running.
   The chief adviser said the Village Defence Party, apart from helping to maintain law and order for last 32 years, was investing voluntary labour for self-development and accelerating the rural economy.
   He expressed his firm belief that over 43 lakh trained male and female members of VDP can launch revolution in the field of socio-economic development in 80,000 villages of Bangladesh.
   Fakhruddin mentioned the courageous role of the members of Ansar Battalion in curbing terrorism and performing their responsibilities shoulder to shoulder with army in Chittagong Hill Tracts for protecting the country’s sovereignty and integrity.
   He said that Ansars after passing nearly 60 years and the VDP completing 32 years today have turned into matured forces.
   Before addressing the function, the chief adviser distributed Bangladesh Ansar Padak (Award), Rashtrapati (President) Ansar Padak, Bangladesh VDP Padak and Rashtrapati VDP Padak among Ansars and VDP members for their heroic role in curbing terrorism, crimes and in maintaining law and order as well as outstanding contributions to socioeconomic development.

The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, on Tuesday said the armed forces would play an important role in fulfilling the caretaker government’s commitment to hold free, fair, credible and meaningful election within the shortest possible time.
   ‘The caretaker government is fully committed to holding free, fare, credible and meaningful election within the shortest possible time and the armed forces will have to play an important role in reaching the goal,’ he said.
   Addressing as chief guest the 6th certificate-awarding ceremony of the Military Institute of Science and Technology at Mirpur Cantonment, General Moeen urged the certificate-receiving graduates and postgraduates to use their intellectual attainments for development of the country with patriotism, honesty and sincerity.
   A total of 176 students, including 51 military officers, were given certificates. A total of 45 students of Civil Engineering Department, 35 of Computer Science and Engineering department, 43 from electrical, electronics and communications engineering department, 26 from mechanical engineering were awarded BSc in Engineering Degree, while 27 students of Management Studies Department were awarded MBA degree.
   Mentioning the objective of establishing MIST, the army chief said the institute was established with a view to fulfilling technological education need of the Armed Forces as well as the nation.
   ‘I am confident that your good results will contribute significantly to fulfilling nation’s aspiration in the field of higher education,’ General Moeen said.
   Among others, chief of naval staff Vice-Admiral Sarwar Jahan Nizam, chief of air staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman, principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division Lt Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury, commandant of MIST, senior military and civil officials were present.

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returned home knowing the names and cell phone numbers of her possible assassins, she wrote in a book finished just days before her murder at a December election rally.
   Benazir wrote in ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,’ to be released worldwide on Tuesday, that Pakistani officials told her four suicide bomber squads had been sent by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza, and two militant groups to kill her.
   ‘I had actually received from a sympathetic Muslim foreign government the names and cell numbers of designated assassins,’ said Benazir, who accused the Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, of not doing enough to protect her or investigate the threats.
   Benazir, 54, who twice served as prime minister of Pakistan, said she sent a letter to Musharraf before returning to her homeland in October in which she identified people in the Pakistani intelligence service whom she said would be responsible for her assassination.
   ‘I told him if I was assassinated by the militants it would be due to the sympathisers of the militants in his regime, who I suspected wanted to eliminate me and remove the threat I posed to their grip on power,’ Benazir wrote in the 318-page book published by News Corp’s HarperCollins.
   Benazir survived a bomb attack – one of the deadliest in Pakistan’s history, killing at least 139 people – when she returned in October after an eight-year exile.
   But she was killed after a bomb and gun attack at the end of a December 27 rally ahead of planned January 8 national elections. The polls are now due February 18.
   ‘When I returned, I did not know whether I would live or die,’ wrote the mother of three. ‘I said farewell to my children, husband, mother, staff, friends and family not knowing whether I would ever see their faces again.
   ‘I wanted to reassure them, but I also told them, ‘Remember: God gives life, and God takes life. I will be safe until my time is up,’ said Benazir, whose father, Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister, was hanged by the military in the late 1970s.
   Musharraf’s government blamed al-Qaeda for killing Benazir, a staunch supporter of the US-led campaign against Islamist militancy, but many Pakistanis suspect her other enemies, perhaps from within shadowy security agencies, were involved.
   After the first attempt on her life, Benazir wrote that ‘a cover-up seemed to be under way from the very first moments of the attack’ that she said was ‘clearly meant to appear to be an al-Qaeda-style suicide attack.’
   ‘In Pakistan things are almost never as they seem. There are always circles within circles, rarely straight lines. This was meant to look like the work of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and I do not doubt they were involved,’ she said.
   ‘But the sophistication of the plan ... suggested a larger conspiracy. Elements from within the Pakistani intelligence service had actually created the Taliban in the 1980s, and certain elements sympathised with al-Qaeda ideologically and theologically. Some had recruited or worked for it,’ she said.
   Benazir’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has now become the de facto leader of his wife’s Pakistan People’s Party. Together with his son and two daughters, they wrote an afterword for Benazir’s book.
   ‘This book is about everything that those who killed her could never understand: democracy, tolerance, rationality, hope, and, above all, the true message of Islam,’ they wrote. ‘Or maybe they did understand these things and feared them, and thus feared her. She was the fanatics’ worst nightmare.’

Odhikar, a human rights organisation, on Tuesday cautioned the government about the continuation of torture of the arrested persons and violation of human rights under the state of emergency.
   ‘It is reported that allegations of torture and violations of human rights continue under the state of emergency. Suspects were picked up by the law enforcement agencies, detained and tortured while they were in custody or during remand in order to extract evidence to use against them or others,’ said Odhikar in a report on the eve of the 13th month of emergency.
   Allegations of torture were first made by Tarique Rahman, joint secretary-general of the BNP, about a month ago. Soon afterwards, allegations of harassment and torture were also made by a Dhaka University teacher who was detained after the campus protests in August 2007, said the report, adding that allegations of torture have also been raised by businessman Giasuddin-Al-Mamun and many others, including politicians taken into custody.
   Odhikar asked the military-backed government once again to look into the matter of harassment and torture of those in custody, which not only breaches every human right but also directly violates our Constitution, and to immediately put a stop to such acts if the allegations are found to be true.
   Extra-judicial killings also continued throughout the 13 months of emergency. Between 12 January, 2007 and 11 February, 2008, 184 people have reportedly been killed extra- judicially, said the report.
   A total of 92 persons, including ward commissioner and BNP leader Abdul Qayyum Khan, have died in police custody since the emergency was proclaimed.
   Allegations of ignoring the need for medical treatment of detainees were also raised in the cases of Sigma Huda, a human rights advocate, and Sabera Aman, wife of a former state minister, and many others.
   According to the report, during the 13 months of emergency, the government demolished a number of slums and evicted the slum-dwellers. In the last 30 days, the government has evicted has at least 200 families from the Mohakhali slum, which was a serious violation of human rights as the actions directly violated their rights of livelihood and shelter.
   Odhikar urged the government to publish a detailed list of detained workers and peasants arrested under the Emergency Power Rules 2007 while they were protesting against poor working conditions, irregular pay and other violations of their rights, and also urged it to release them and withdraw any cases against them.
   At least 929 persons, mostly politicians, were arrested under the Special Powers Act 1974 and were sent to jail for preventive detention between 11 January, 2007 and 10 January, 2008.
   Odhikar demanded that the government publish a detailed list of the people arrested and sent to jail during the state of emergency.
   The human rights body recommended immediate lifting of the emergency and an end to all forms of intimidation of the media.

The Electoral Roll Rules were initially vetted by the law ministry on Tuesday, about six months after promulgation of the Electoral Roll Ordinance 2007.
   The rules will be made official through a gazette notification within a day or two, said Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain while talking to reporters on Tuesday after the law ministry vetted the draft rules at a midday meeting chaired by law adviser AF Hassan Ariff.
   ‘It was urgent to frame the rules before holding the city corporation and municipality elections (in April)…We have to appoint revising authorities (for voters’ list) and publish the draft, displaying them (in suitable places), for correction and so on,’ he said.
   The EC on January 21 sent the draft rules to the law ministry for being vetted.
   After framing the rules, the EC will initiate the process of publishing area-wise draft voters’ lists, seeking claims and objections from registered and prospective voters.
   According to the EC’s electoral roadmap announced on July 15 last year, publication of the draft electoral rolls was supposed to begin in October last year, two months into the beginning of the field-level work of preparing the voters’ lists with photographs, but the EC could not maintain the self-declared timeframe.
   Now the EC wants to start the publication of draft voters’ lists soon for four city corporations and seven municipalities before holding the long overdue polls to the local government bodies.
   The army, which has been working at the field-level to prepare the voters’ lists with photographs, handed over the draft voters’ lists to the EC on February 5 for the four city corporations and seven municipalities so that they can be published.
   The EC has decided to announce, by mid-March, the schedules of the polls of the city corporations of Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet, and of the municipalities of Shariatpur, Sitakunda, Cox’s Bazar, Golapganj, Sripur, Fulbaria and Manikganj.
   It will require a month from the date of publication of the draft voters’ lists to complete the process of finalising them. Entertaining the claims and objections of registered and prospective voters will require at least 15 days. If the citizens find any mistakes, they will file objections within that time. Then the revising authorities, who will be appointed by the EC, will settle the claims and the objections in the next 15 days, said officials in the EC Secretariat.
   Once the process is completed, the EC will make the final voters’ lists of the four city corporations and seven municipalities, and print them. It will need another 15 days or more to finish printing the final lists.

The Asian Development Bank has reiterated its call for raising energy prices and reviewing the current fuel subsidy policy to make sure that it benefits only the poor.
   ‘Many of you may not like it, but it is very important for Bangladesh to adjust the prices of energy,’ ADB country director Hua Du told reporters Tuesday after a meeting of the visiting ADB mission with finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam at the finance ministry.
   She said the fuel subsidy should not allow the well-off to enjoy lower than import price of fuel oils.
   ‘I am getting the facility of subsidised energy prices, which is not right,’ she argued. ‘The subsidy should go to a target group of people - the poor and the farmers.’
   The Manila-based lender’s country chief said that the government should decide about suitable timing for adjusting the prices.
   The finance adviser said the issue of energy price adjustment did not come up in his meeting with the ADB team. ‘It might be her (Hua Du’s) general view.’
   He said the government would consider adjustment of the energy prices in appropriate time.
   Deputy director general of ADB’s private sector operation S Chander led the three-member consultation mission on ‘Private Sector Project in Power and Energy’.
   The mission had talks with the finance adviser about ADB’s future support to Bangladesh’s energy sector — gas, power and coal.
   Mirza Azizul Islam said they discussed possible cooperation in developing alternative sources of energy. ‘We have only coal as alternative energy source,’ he said, adding that the government could not yet take a decision on coal mining as the coal policy, is yet to be finalised.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has requested the leaders of the Group of 8 developed nations to concede market-access benefits to all of the least-developed countries for all their products ‘without discrimination’.
   The head of the interim government, as chair of the least developed countries, made the request in a letter to the G-8 leaders, who are preparing for holding the next summit of the bloc as an arbiter in world economy.
   Those to whom the letter was addressed are the US president, George W Bush, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, British prime minister Gordon Brown, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and Italian prime minister Romano Prodi.
   Disclosing this to the media on Tuesday, the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, said the letter was intended to ‘sensitise the global economic leadership to the problems confronted by the least-developed countries’.
   The foreign adviser said Fakhruddin in the letter pointed to the significant tariff and non-tariff barriers faced by LDC products on developed markets and asked for firm commitments on special and differential treatment for LDCs pending agreements on the Doha Round.
   Iftekhar further stated that the chief adviser asked for these market-access benefits ‘for all products from all LDCs without discrimination’.
   In the letter he has also emphasised the need for ‘liberalisation of Mode IV services’, that is, movement of natural persons across frontiers.
   ‘The issue of environmental vulnerability of most LDCs due to global warming and climate change was also underscored,’ the foreign adviser said, ‘as well as shocks from global economic downturn.’
   The chief adviser has expressed the hope that these issues would receive due attention of the leaders in the forthcoming G-8 summit in Tokyo, going to take place in July.

Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against six al-Qaeda detainees on murder and conspiracy charges in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pentagon said Monday.
   The defence department called the charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, and five others a ‘significant milestone.’
   But the move immediately came under fire from human rights groups, rekindling the heated controversy that has dogged the special process that the United States has put in place to try ‘war on terror’ suspects.
   Adding fuel to the reaction was the CIA’s admission only a week ago that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning widely denounced as torture, was used nearly five years ago in interrogations of Mohammed.
   In announcing the charges, Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann said the military judge hearing the cases will determine whether the evidence presented is admissible.
   ‘Every piece of evidence, every stitch of evidence, every whiff of evidence that goes to the finder of fact, to the jury, to the military tribunal will be reviewed by the accused, subject to confrontation, subject to cross-examination, subject to challenge,’ he said.

Four million Iraqis are struggling to feed themselves and 40 per cent of the country’s 27 million people have no safe water, despite oil wealth and a booming economy, the UN said on Tuesday.
   With annual economic growth of around 7 per cent, according to UN estimates, and a national budget of $48 billion, buoyed by oil exports of 1.6 million barrels per day, Iraq has the ingredients to be prosperous.
   But violence and sectarian attacks have displaced more than two million people and left nearly twice as many hungry.
   ‘Four million Iraqis cannot guarantee they’re going to have food on their table tomorrow,’ the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, David Shearer, told Reuters at the launch of a $265 million appeal to donor governments for 2008.
   The United Nations says the number of displaced people has roughly doubled since 2006 to nearly 2.5 million. High unemployment has left many others unable to feed themselves.
   Violence is down 60 per cent across Iraq since last June, thanks to a surge of 30,000 extra US troops, a decision by Sunni tribal leaders to turn against al-Qaeda and a ceasefire by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Shia Mehdi army.
   Shearer said 36,000 displaced people had gone home in this period, a tiny fraction of the total who fled the violence. ‘We seeing a plateauing of the displacement,’ Shearer said, adding Iraq was still too dangerous for foreign aid workers to move around or for the UN to have a large-scale presence.
   In August 2003, guerrillas blew up the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and triggering a pullout of most UN staff that has yet to be reversed.
   Shearer said the latest appeal should be seen as a stop-gap until the government has fully set up its own networks, not a bid to enlarge the long-term presence of aid agencies in Iraq.
   Underscoring the paradox of an aid appeal in a nation as wealthy as Iraq, the government said it would for the first time give $40 million from its own coffers.
   Elements of the appeal include food ($97 million), shelter ($37 million), health ($32 million), human rights ($26 million), water and sanitation ($21 million) and education ($18 million).

Russia proposed a treaty on Tuesday to ban the deployment of weapons in outer space, warning their development could lead to a new arms race and a repeat of the Cold War.
   The draft treaty, presented by Russia and China to a UN-sponsored forum, would prohibit the deployment of weapons in space and the use or threat of force against satellites or other spacecraft, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.
   ‘Weapons deployment in space by one state will inevitably result in a chain reaction,’ Lavrov said in a speech at the Geneva-based, 65-member Conference on Disarmament. ‘This, in turn, is fraught with a new spiral in the arms race both in space and on Earth.’
   Tensions between Russia and the United States have deepened in recent years over US plans to revive its stalled ‘Star Wars’ programme from the 1980s with a new generation of missile defence shields. Moscow has repeatedly denounced US plans to build part of the missile shield infrastructure in former Soviet states in Europe.
   Lavrov said the nuclear arms race had led to the Cold War, ‘which lasted over four decades and resulted in a gigantic waste of material and other resources at the expense of finding solutions to the problem of development’.
   ‘Is it worthwhile to repeat the history?’ he said.
   Nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction are banned from space under a 1967 international treaty, but Washington’s plans have caused concerns about non-nuclear arms in space.
   The Conference on Disarmament has failed in the last 10 years to reach the consensus needed to launch negotiations on any issue.

A group of Dhaka University students under the banner of ‘Aparajeya Chhatra Chhatri’ on Tuesday brought out a procession on the campus, demanding immediate release of the detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina.
   The students, mostly the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of Awami League, gathered at the foot of Aparajeya Bangla in the morning and stood there for few minutes, holding a banner inscribed with the demand of Hasina’s release.
   They also demanded ensuring proper treatment for the detained leader. Later they brought out the procession tying around their mouths with black clothes and paraded around the arts building.

A Dhaka court on Tuesday issued an order to arrest Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, secretary general of the Doctors Association of Bangladesh, and wife Rifat Hossain and their lawyer on charges of submitting false wealth records to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   Senior special judge Md Azizul Haque issued the arrest warrant and asked the police to submit what is called an ‘execution report’ of the warrant in legal jargon, on Thursday.
   The ACC submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court for Dhaka against the accused on February 7.
   Complainant Nasiruddin Ahmed, the assistant director of the ACC, said Zahid and his wife had concealed wealth of Tk 14 lakh in their statement.
   According to case details, the couple accumulated wealth of Tk 1.6 crore from undeclared sources.
   Advocate Mozahedul Islam was implicated in the case as he had allegedly helped file ‘false accounts of wealth’ by providing a lawyer’s certificate.

A student was shot by a classmate in the cafeteria of a Memphis, Tennessee high school in the latest of a slew of high-profile shootings across the country, officials said Monday.
   ‘A student was shot by a classmate in the cafeteria during a physical education class that was being held in that area,’ said Rita Cooper, spokeswoman for Memphis City Schools.
   ‘The suspect, who is also a student at Mitchell High, is in police custody,’ she added.
   The police spokeswoman Monique Martin told CNN that the student was shot at least twice and was in critical condition.
   ‘We don’t have a motive at this time,’ she said.
   Cooper did not comment on the student’s condition but said he had been taken to hospital and ‘our thoughts and prayers remain with this student and his family.’
   The shooting came following a bloody week in the United States.
   On Friday, a female student shot dead two other women before turning the gun on herself at a college in the southern state of Louisiana Friday
   On Thursday, a gunman opened fire at an Ohio school, wounding his estranged wife in front of her students before fleeing and later killing himself after a three-hour standoff.
   He had earlier stabbed another woman believed to be one of his wife’s friends prior to going to the school.
   Also on Thursday, a suburban city council meeting in the Midwestern state of Missouri became a scene of carnage when an enraged gunman burst in and shot seven people, five of them fatally.

An assistant subinspector of the Juri police station in Moulvibazar was suspended on Tuesday.
   With the latest incident, action has so far been taken against two police officials of the police station in 48 hours in separate cases.
   Local residents and the police said people of Dighalbhag of Juri on Tuesday captured assistant subinspector Azim Uddin as he was having an illicit relation with a married woman of the village.
   The people informed the officer-in-charge, Md Shahjahan, of the matter. Shahjahan visited the place and had Azim Uddin released. Azim was later suspended. Shahjahan said a case would be filed against him.
   The Moulvibazar police superintendent, Md Khurshid Hussain, confirmed the suspension. He said strict measures would be taken against the accused if he is found guilty.
   On Sunday, another subinspector, Sujit Senapati, of the same police station was closed to the Moulvibazar Police Lines. The police superintendent said Sujit had been closed on a few allegations.

The assistant police commissioner and two constables of Chittagong arrested early Monday on charge of committing robbery at the house of businessman will be produced in court today on completion of their remand for two days in custody.
   The police said the assistant police commissioner of the Panchlaish zone, Abu Saleh Mofazzel Huq, his bodyguard Esanul Islam and driver Abdur Rouf had admitted committing the robbery. They said the arrested were being interrogated for further details.
   The three were arrested on charge of looting Tk 5,50,000 in cash and gold ornaments from the house of Faruque Ahmed at Mehedibagh in Chittagong in the name of conducting a search at around 2:00am Sunday.

Mahmudul Karim, economic minister at the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, has been withdrawn and placed at the establishment ministry.
   Army officer Major Mohammad Emdadul Haque has been appointed on deputation assistant survey superintendent at the Survey of Bangladesh. Haque’s service has been placed under the defence ministry.
   The establishment ministry on Tuesday issued separate gazette notifications to the effect.