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The special judge’s courts set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex to try high-profile corruption suspects have so far jailed 102 people, including 75 involved in politics, and ordered confiscation of assets of about Tk 288 crore of the convicts in 84 cases since they began functioning on May 6, 2007.
   Only 27 people have so far been acquitted of charges in 12 cases out of the total 84 disposed of by the special anti-corruption courts.
   The 27 people acquitted of the charges were co-accused and charged with abetting the principal accused, mostly their close relations, in committing offences.
   Of the 84 cases, in which verdicts have so far been delivered, none ended in acquittal of all the accused or of the principal accused.
   The 102 convicts include 27 Awami League leaders and their relations, 47 Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and their relations, 1 from the Jamaat-e-Islami, 1 from the Islami Oikya Jote, 15 businessman, 3 former bureaucrats, 4 former police officers, and 4 other professionals.
   Five special courts started functioning on the Jatiya Sangsad complex on May 6, 2007 and four more courts were set up in November 2007.
   About 200 cases have so far been transferred to the special courts and 84 of them have so far been disposed of while proceedings in about 100 cases have been stayed by the High Court.
   Of the 84 cases so far disposed of, 48 cases are filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission for amassing illegal wealth or not submitting wealth statements defying notification issued by the commission. The remaining cases were filed on different charges.
   The commission has so far filed more than 250 cases while 170 of them have been stayed by the High Court and 108 have been stayed by only one High Court bench, said a senior official in the commission.
   In the Awami League camp, former minister Mohammad Nasim, former sate minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Awami Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath, Nasim’s wife Laila Arzumand Banu, Pankaj’s wife Monika Devnath, former Awami League chief whip Abul Hasanat Abdullah, former Awami League lawmakers HBM Iqbal, Haji Mohammad Selim, Maqbul Hossain, Sheikh Helaluddin, AL whip Mostafa Rashedi Suja, his wife Khodeja Rashid, Helal’s wife Rupa Chowdhury, Iqbal’s wife Momtaz Begum Dolly, his two sons Moyeen Iqbal and Imran Iqbal, and daughter Nowrin Iqbal, Selim’s wife Gulshan Ara, Maqbul’s wife Golam Fatema Tahera Khanom, his son Masudur Rahman and Masudur’s wife Salma Rahman were jailed for amassing illegal wealth.
   In the BNP camp, former communications minister Nazmul Huda, former state ministers Amanullah Aman, Salahuddin Ahmed, Mir Nasiruddin and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, former lawmakers Naser Rahman, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Ali Asgar Lobi, and Rashiduzzaman Millat, Huda’s wife Sigma Huda, Aman’s wife Sabera Aman, Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin, Lobi’s wife Khushnud Asgar and telephone board CBA leader Firoz Miah, Millat’s wife Sabera Suraiya, son Sayeed Bin Jamal, former state minister Shahjahan Omar, his wife Mehzabin Farzana, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s assignment officer Firoz Mahmud Iqbal and his wife Imtiaz Iqbal were jailed on similar charges.
   Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, her assignment officer Firoz Mahmud Iqbal and businessman Gaisuddin Al Mamun, also a close aide to Khladea’a eldest son Tarique Rahman, former National Board of Revenue member ATM Sarwar, and Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board official Shahjahan Miah were jailed for not submitting their wealth statements.
   In the BNP camp, former minister Mirza Abbas, former minister Shahjahan Siraj, his wife Rabeya Siraj, son Apu Siraj and daughter-in-law Farzana Khan, former foreign minister M Morshed Khan’s son Faisal Morshed Khan, former state minister Ziaul Huq Zia, his wife Nasima Haque and son Mashfiqul Haque, former lawmakers Rashiduzzaman Millat, Shahrin Islam Tuhin, and Lobi, Dhaka city ward commissioners Mirza Khokon and Monwar Hossain Dipjol, also a film actor, former minister Mirza Abbas’s wife Afroza Abbas, former lawmaker Mosaddak Ali Falu’s wife Mahbuba Sultana, former lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed’s wife Shamsunnahar, and sons Shahriar Ahmed, Tanveer Ahmed and Imran Ahmed were jailed for tax evasion.
   Former additional inspector general of police Shahidullah Khan and revenue board official ATM Sarwar Hossain, Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his wife and sons were also jailed on similar charges.
   Shamim Osman, Abul Hasnat and former AL state minister Obaidul Kader’s wife Ishratunnesa Kader were also jailed on the same charge.
   Of the businessman, Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam, his wife Afroza Begum and three sons Saadat Sobhan, Shafayet Sobhan and Sayem Sobhan have also been jailed for eight years for tax evasion.
   The owner of a chartered accounting firm, SM Quddus, was also jailed for three years for abetting the Bashundhara Group in committing the offence, Globe-Janakantha Group chairman Atiqullah Khan Masud, his wife Shamima A Khan, One Group chairman Giasuddin Al Mamun, and his wife Shahina Yasmin were jailed on corruption charges.
   The Orion Group chairman, Obaidul Karim, its former vice-presidents Shah Md Harun and AQM Mahmud Ullah and
   two former assistant vice-presidents Md Fazlur Rahman and AKM Neyamatullah of the Oriental Bank were jailed for misappropriation of the bank’s funds.
   Of the bureaucrats, former power secretary ANH Akhter Hossain, Akhter’s wife Nazneen Akhter and former Public Service Commission member Mahfuzur Rahman were also jailed on charge of owing wealth beyond their known sources and hiding their wealth statement submitted to the commission.
   Three officers of the Fatullah police station and two employees of the Abul Khair Group were also sentenced on bribery charge.

The Bangladesh Bank has proposed that the government should once again double the paid-up capital requirement for a bank to Tk 400 crore by 2010 to protect the interests of depositors and maintain the international standards of minimum bank capital.
   The paid-up capital threshold was last doubled to Tk 200 crore in August 2007 after the International Monetary Fund had suggested that the minimum paid-up capital should be increased to Tk 500 crore from Tk 100 crore.
   The central bank proposal has recently been sent to the finance ministry after an intensive study conducted by the Bangladesh Bank as asked by the government in March, official sources said.
   International trade, particularly the opening of letters of credit, through local banks having less than the required capital base could face a ban from foreign exporters and importers for not meeting the latest criteria, the sources said.
   The proposal will soon be placed before the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, for the green light before it is submitted for the approval of the council of advisers.
   The Bangladesh Bank in its report said banks having less than the proposed capital base could meet the criteria either by merging or through collecting funds from the capital market.
   The proposed increase in paid-up capital of banks would uphold the interests of depositors from any possible financial crunch of small private banks and cope with the international standards in many ways, the report said.
   The government in August 2007 raised the amount to Tk 200 crore by taking into account the banks’ financial strength. The amount was increased to Tk 100 crore in 2003 from Tk 40 crore, sending many banks to the capital market to raise funds.
   Now, 14 out of the 38 local banks have their paid-up capital ranging between Tk 100 crore and Tk 200 crore each, 11 banks have more than Tk 200 crore each, 16 have a capital base ranging between Tk 200 crore and Tk 300 crore and the remaining 7 banks have more than Tk 300 crore each as of December 31, 2007.
   ‘Our findings and study strongly justify the proposed increase in bank capital to Tk 400 crore,’ a high Bangladesh Bank official told New Age on Saturday.
   The international requirements under the Basel 11 guidelines are getting stronger, the official said.
   He, however, said only foreign banks operating locally would enjoy privileges from foreign sources in opening and settlement of letters of credit in case the capital footings of the banks are not increased to the required level.
   The banks with paid-up amount still falling below the Tk 200 crore mark will need to overcome the shortfall by June 2009, the current regulations stipulate.
   The Bangladesh Bank is, meanwhile, also considering an increase in the paid-up capital of financial institutions, particularly leasing companies, from Tk 25 crore to Tk 100 crore, sources said.
   Under the current provision, the Bangladesh Bank is authorised to increase such capital base without taking any approval from the council of advisers or the cabinet, but such increases are subject to consultation with the finance ministry.
   Both the issues are likely to be settled by June, hinted officials at the finance ministry.

The Awami League will start talks with its allies on Monday on the issue of whether to attend the dialogues with the government on conditions given by the chief adviser in his recent address to the nation.
   ‘We will sit with the Workers Party on Monday, on the first day of the inter-party talks’, AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age on Saturday.
   The party will hold talks with all alliance partners except the Gana Forum to reach a common decision on the dialogues with the government, party sources said.
   The AL central working committee on May 14 decided to hold talks with the components of the alliance before taking a decision on the government’s dialogue offer.
   The AL on Saturday asked grassroots level leaders to report to the extended meeting of its national council, central working committee and leaders of districts and city units on the overall political atmosphere, including the party’s organisational strength in their respective localities. The two-day extended meeting is scheduled for May 26-27.
   A meeting of the party’s secretaries held at its Dhanmondi office on Saturday also finalised the instructions for grassroots activists asking them to prepare lists of the arrested leaders and activists in their areas, meeting sources said.
   The secretaries demanded that the party president Sheikh Hasina should be freed before the dialogues with the government and decided to formulate a strategy for future action programmes during the extended meeting, if Hasina was not released.
   The extended meeting is scheduled to be held at the auditorium of the Institution of Engineers.
   ‘We have finalised the instructions for grassroots leaders’, Akhtaruzzaman, an organising secretary, told New Age after the meeting.
   The party’s agricultural affairs secretary Dr Abdur Razzak said that they believed that Hasina could not be freed through the legal process and decided to prepare action programme for her release.
   AL industrial affairs secretary Faruk Khan told New Age that the meeting also discussed the preparations for the hunger strike to be observed outside the capital on May 20.
   ‘We have instructed the district level leaders to ask permission of the administration to gather more than 200 activists at the respective unit offices for hunger strike’, he said.
   The secretaries also decided to monitor the programme from Dhaka through opening a monitoring cell, another secretary said, adding that they decided to start communications with the professional bodies before going for movement.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday ruled out the possibility of a joint declaration on unification and instead asked the splinter group to admit to their mistakes and return to the party.
   ‘The misguided leaders, who deviated from the party, are now trying to return to the mainstream. We always welcome them but they will have to gain the trust and confidence of the leaders and activists first’, Delwar told a delegation of Jhalakati unit of the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum which met him at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat on the day.
   ‘BNP is united under the leadership of Khaleda Zia. There is no division in the party… I thing there is no need for a joint declaration on unification’, he said responding to a question on progress in the unity move.
   ‘Why should I make a joint declaration [with the splinter group]? If they are sincere enough, let them admit to their mistake and join us in the party activities’, Delwar said in an oblique reference to M Hafiz Uddin Ahmed’s call for a joint declaration.
   Delwar saw the initiatives of some mainstream leaders for unity as their personal enterprise, not at the party’s instruction.
   Informal talks between the leaders of the party’s mainstream and the government-backed group over on unification continued for the past few days and an announcement was expected on Thursday.
   The move got stalled over the issue of whether a formal announcement should be made and how. The splinter group insists that a joint declaration should be made but the mainstream wants that everyone resume activities from their respective positions in the party.
   The mainstream leaders consider the October 29,2007 meeting at Saifur Rahman’s residence and its proceedings as a major obstacle to working together as it was planned by ‘certain quarters’.
   The October 29 meeting of some standing committee members made Saifur Rahman acting chairperson and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed acting secretary general deepening the crisis in the party.
   Hafiz on Friday accused the Delwar-led faction of delaying the unity moves.
   Delwar asked the party leaders and activists to get prepared for movement to press for release of the party chief Khaleda Zia.
   ‘The leaders and activists working for the party at this critical juncture will be honoured’, he declared.
   The forum’s Jhalakati unit leaders Khan A Karim and Hossain Ali Khan Hassan led the delegation. BNP central leaders Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Habibunnabi Khan Sohel and Sohrab Uddin were present on the occasion.

High inflationary pressure persisting for some time will continue to affect the poor in urban areas even after a bumper boro harvest, say economists on the basis of relevant studies.
   Fixed-income group people have also said there has been no respite from the ongoing essential goods price spiral except for a ‘consolation message’ that the country produced a huge quantity of rice.
   In a policy note on the next national budget submitted to the finance ministry, the International Monetary Fund has cautioned that the high inflationary pressure could still severely affect the livelihood of the urban poor despite the bumper boro harvest.
   ‘Domestic food prices are beginning to moderate with the arrival of the boro rice crop, but remain much elevated and continue to threaten the urban poor’s livelihoods,’ the Washington-based lending agency observed.
   Atiur Rahman, chairman of private research organisation Unnanyan Shamunnay, said the increase in essential goods prices would continue to affect the urban poor.
   ‘The rice to be procured by the government will not reach the poor until December while the urban poor usually remain out of the coverage of safety net,’ he told New Age, emphasising the need for a massive programme of open market sales of food grains to support the poor in city areas.
   Zahid Baht, a researcher at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said even after the bumper production of boro, the inflationary pressure on livelihood of the urban people would continue because of import of a huge number of consumer products.
   He forecast that the rising trends of prices of food stuff would not ease in two or three years. The economist also supported the idea of providing dearness allowance for government employees although the World Bank discouraged increasing salaries in view of probable increase in inflation under the impact of pay increase.
   Jafar Ahmed, a grocer at Jatrabari, said he now had to spend at least 40 per cent higher than recent years’ spending on food items because of the price spiral. ‘The price of a kilogram of rice has not come down below Tk 28 even after the bumper crop,’ he said, adding that rice sold for Tk 22 a kilogram just a year ago.
   ‘It was a mere consolation from government officials that Bangladesh has had a bumper crop this year. It has no positive impact on my life,’ said Kamaluddin, field officer of the RD Milk Company. He said salaries of private company employees had not been revised upwards in keeping with the price increase.
   The overall inflation rate on a point–to-point basis, meanwhile, registered a slight decline by 0.10 percentage point to 10.06 per cent in March in comparison with the figure of February. However, with the arrival of boro rice, food prices showed declining trends.
   Food price inflation in urban areas increased by 0.22 percentage point in March in comparison with the figure of February, reaching 13.81 per cent while it has increased by 0.19 percentage point in rural areas and stood at 12.54 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
   A separate inflation index prepared by Unnanyan Shamunnay showed much higher rates of inflation for the poor in both rural and urban areas. Food is a major contributory factor to the calculation of inflation for the poor.
   The inflation faced by the poor in urban areas is 22.86 per cent and in rural areas 18.20 per cent, according to the Shamunnay report. It said the increase in food price had affected the livelihoods of the poor.
   An IMF delegation which recently visited Bangladesh supported the interim government’s plan for safety net expansion to mitigate the suffering of the poor and to increase salaries of government employees.
   The lending agency, however, suggested that the government should carefully consider the increases in public sector pay as, it argued, ‘these are less targeted to social safety nets and could contribute to inflationary pressures.’
   The IMF mission is learnt to have told the government that additional efforts were needed to achieve the maximum benefits from the targeted safety net.
   It felt the government should also be careful in implementing subsidy policies, especially to stop or minimise leaks.

Thousands of Chinese fled to the hills on Saturday amid fears a lake formed near the epicentre of this week’s earthquake would burst its banks.
   The water level at the lake formed after aftershocks blocked a river was rising rapidly in Beichuan and ‘may burst its bank at any time,’ the official Xinhua news agency said.
   A paramilitary officer said the likelihood of the lake bursting its banks was ‘extremely big.’
   A witness said by telephone the military was evacuating everyone in Beichuan, even rescue workers.
   A Reuters journalist fled an area near the Beichuan Middle School, which the president, Hu Jintao, visited on Friday. Soldiers were talking on the radio saying ‘all retreat’ and there was a lot of dust in the air. Troops were leaving fast.
   China has said it expects the final death toll from Monday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.
   Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin, taking a long pause to compose himself as he read from an updated casualty report at a news conference, put the death toll so far at 28,881.
   The Sichuan vice-governor, Li Chengyun, said more than 188,100 people have been injured and about 10,600 people remain buried under
   rubble. About 2.6 million tents are needed to shelter 4.8 million displaced residents, he added.
   Hong Kong cable television said some 1.2 million people were also being evacuated in Qingchuan, 90 km northeast of Beichuan, as rising waters threatened to burst a lake’s banks.
   There has been growing concern about the safety of dams and reservoirs which have been weakened in the mountainous province of Sichuan, an area about the size of Spain.
   A cable repair worker was killed on Saturday, five days after the original disaster, when hit by rocks as a moderate aftershock, one of hundreds, hit Lixian county.
   Many survivors were also found, including a German tourist who was pulled from rubble in Wenchuan after being buried for 114 hours, Xinhua said.
   A 69-year-old villager was one of 33 people rescued in Beichuan. He was buried for 119 hours. Troops evacuated 18 scientists trapped in a forest in nearby Mianzhu.
   On Friday, soldiers pulled 2,538 people from rubble, only 165 of whom were still alive, the cabinet spokesman said, an indication hope of finding survivors was slim.
   ‘Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first 72 hours after an earthquake, has passed, saving lives remains the top priority of our work,’ president Hu told distraught survivors just over a week after a jubilant China celebra-ted the Olympic torch reaching the summit of Mount Everest.
   The premier, Wen Jiabao, said the quake was ‘the biggest and most destructive’ since before the Communist revolution of 1949 and the quick response had helped reduce casualties.
   That compares even with the 1976 tremor in the northern city of Tangshan which killed up to 300,000 people.
   And as the weather gets warmer, survivors were worried about hygiene and asking questions about their longer-term future.
   ‘What we don’t need now is more instant noodles,’ said truck driver Wang Jianhong in the city of Dujiangyan. ‘We want to know now what will happen with our lives.’
   In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, at least 17 reservoirs have been damaged, with some dams cracked or leaking water. Several are on the Min river, which tumbles through the worst-hit areas between the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuan plain.
   The Lianhehua dam, built in the late 1950s northwest of Dujiangyan, showed cracks big enough to put a fist in.
   ‘When the dam is in this shape, we cannot feel relaxed,’ said farmer Feng Binggui who has moved from his village below the dam into the hills.
   China is also on precautionary alert against possible radiation leaks, the ministry of environmental protection said. The country’s chief nuclear weapons research lab is in Mianyang, along with several secret atomic sites, but there are no nuclear power stations.
   China has sent 150,000 troops to the disaster area, but roads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have made it hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Saturday called upon individuals, private sector and non-governmental organisations to come forward along with the government for the welfare of the disabled people.
   He made the call while according a reception to the disabled sportspersons who won 71 medals in the World Special Olympics- 2007 held in Sanghai, China.
   Fakhruddin distributed crests and certificates among the disabled sportspersons amid clapping.
   In Sanghai Olympics, 48 disabled boys and girls won 71 medals, including 32 gold medals, 15 silver and 24 bronze medals in different events.
   The founder chairman of Special Olympics Bangladesh, Ashraf Ud Daula, gave the welcome speech with the secretary to the Chief Adviser’s Office, Kazi M Aminul Islam, in the chair.
   Fakhruddin congratulated the disabled sportspersons for achieving a rare honour for the country from an international sports competition. Success of the disabled in the Special Olympics has deeply impressed all, he added.
   Appreciating the officials of the Special Olympics, the chief adviser said selfless, skilled and devoted leadership was necessary to achieve something great.
   The disabled have earned the recognition as world class sportspersons through relentless training with patience, he added.
   He also thanked the guardians, coaches, sports organisers and sponsors for preparing the disabled to compete in such sports event.
   Fakhruddin directed the Ministry of Youth and Sports to take steps to provide playgrounds exclusively for the disabled in each district including Dhaka.
   He thanked the mobile phone company Grameenphone for sponsoring the disabled to participate in the Sanghai Olympics and urged other organisations in private sector to follow this example.
   The chief adviser said the government was aware of the problems of the mentally and physically handicapped people. It took various steps for their welfare including formulating law and implementing welfare projects for them.
   Bangladesh has already signed the UN charter regarding the rights of the disabled, he added.
   Kazi M Aminul Islam said the disabled needed more support from the society to prove their worth in different fields.
   Ashraf Ud Daula urged the government to allocate a respectable fund for the disabled in the next budget.

Local and foreign diplomats on Saturday discussed the future development of SAARC, with the idea of a common parliament being floated between the eight member South Asian countries.
   They joined a roundtable on ‘Future of SAARC: Expectations of Citizens’ at the National Press Club in the capital.
   The discussion focused on ways SAARC, an economic and political organisation, could better address their common problems and launch collective efforts to face challenges regarding food, energy and the environment.
   Stefan Frowein, high commissioner of the European Union, brought up the possibility of setting up a common parliament in the region to address common issues facing the SAARC nations.
   Referring to the European Union, Frowein said the EU provided funds to improve the region’s infrastructure and make a major contribution to the overall development of member countries.
   Frowein went on to stress the importance of the free movement of people within the region to spur development.
   The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, said a collective regional approach was needed to face growing challenges posed by the increasingly volatile global financial market.
   He also highlighted the problems of increased protectionism, the looming energy crisis and the ever changing international political environment.
   ‘We should concentrate on what unites us rather than what divides us,’ he said.
   The adviser asked for greater market access through a reduction and elimination of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers, and the introduction of other trade measures to maximise free trade.
   Iftekhar said the future of South Asia would depend on the political will of the member states.
   ‘The region’s per capita GDP is much below the developing country average. Intra-regional trade accounts for only about 5 per cent and flow of global FDI to South Asia is mere 1 per cent,’ he said.
   Hua Du, country director of the Asian Development Bank, highlighted the need for strengthening links between nations within the region.
   In another reference to the EU, Du said it was now possible to travel the all member states with a single visa and currency.
   ‘Only by working together, we can cope with manmade disasters,’ she said.
   Envoys from SAARC states were present at the discussion, which was also addressed by Afghan ambassador Ahmed Karim Nawabi.
   SAARC Citizens Council and Grameen Nagarik Federation co-organised the discussion presided over by Mostafa Allahma, president of the SAARC Citizens Council.

The formulation of a national charter will not be successful if it is either imposed or preconditioned, said panellists at the BBC Bangladesh Sanglap in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The constitution should be the only national charter and no other charter should be formulated beyond constitutional provisions, they said at the dialogue, organised by the BBC Bangla Service in conjunction with the BBC World Service Trust at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   The Awami League organising secretary, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies president ANM Muniruzzaman, and Supreme Court lawyer Tania Amir were on the panel at the dialogue, moderated by Kamal Ahmed of the BBC Bangla Service.
   There is no need to formulate any national charter if there is an understanding among political parties on national issues, code of conduct for them and functional political process, the panellists observed, referring to the chief adviser’s recent address to the nation.
   The presence of two top leaders — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia — in dialogues with the government is important to make the talks successful, both Saber and Nazrul said in reply to a query.
   ‘The constitution should be the only charter if we think about a national charter,’ said Saber, also political secretary to the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina.
   He said there should be an understanding among political parties, functional political process, and code of conduct for the parties, among others, to rid the country of politics of violence of the past.
   Nazrul Islam said the reason for general strikes would need to be stopped and a situation would need to be created so that no one needs to boycott the parliament. He said the chief adviser had put forth a number of conditions in his address, but what he said could not be executed before December.
   ‘I think no preconditioned concept could be successful,’ said retired major general Muniruzzaman, also a former director general of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies.
   The people will accept the proposed charter if it could be formulated in consultation with all the political parties, he said.
   ‘It is not possible to formulate any national charter going beyond the constitution,’ said Tania. ‘It is also not possible to make such a charter through legal process.’
   In reply to a query, Saber said Sheikh Hasina must be released to give her a chance to take part in the dialogue to make it fruitful.
   The presence of the chiefs of the two parties is a must to make the elections credible and the dialogue fruitful, said Nazrul Islam.

World frustration with Myanmar boiled over on Saturday, with accusations of negligence and crimes against humanity over the regime’s slow-moving response to the cyclone disaster.
   The US president, George W Bush, extended sanctions on Myanmar while the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, denounced the junta’s ‘inhuman’ treatment of around two million survivors battling to stay alive two weeks after the storm hit.
   With the toll of dead and missing now 134,000, the pressure appeared to mark a shift in tactics in the face of the junta’s reluctance to allow a full-scale emergency effort, despite fears more people could die of hunger or disease.
   ‘We have an intolerable situation created by a natural disaster,’ Brown, whose country was the colonial power when Myanmar was known as Burma, told the BBC.
   ‘It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do.’
   Wary of any foreign influence that could weaken its 46 years of iron rule in Myanmar, the junta has insisted on managing the operation itself and kept most international disaster experts away.
   But aid groups say the government cannot possibly handle the tragedy by itself, with hundreds of tonnes of supplies and high-tech equipment piling up in warehouses, bottle-necked by logistics and other problems.
   After announcing Friday that the toll from the tragedy had nearly doubled – to 77,738 dead and 55,917 missing – state television did not issue new figures on Saturday night.
   Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu wrote to Brown, Bush and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, calling on the UN Security Council to authorise aid drops over the objections of the generals.
   He said the regime had ‘effectively declared war on its own population and is committing crimes against humanity.’
   Jean-Maurice Ripert, France’s UN ambassador, told a meeting of all members of the United Nations that the situation was turning ‘slowly from a situation of not helping people in danger to a real risk of crimes against humanity.’
   Bush announced that sanctions on the junta would be extended for a year because of its ‘large-scale repression of the democratic opposition.’ The statement stressed it would not affect US humanitarian cyclone aid.
   Faced with the mounting criticism, the junta flew some diplomats and aid workers Saturday into the heart of the disaster zone – which has been all but sealed off to the outside world.
   ‘What they showed us looked very good,’ said Chris Kaye, Myanmar director for the UN’s World Food Programme. ‘But they are not showing us the whole picture.’
   One diplomat said: ‘It was like a steam-roller had gone through the entire delta region.’
   The junta has blocked journalists from getting to the southern Irrawaddy Delta, the rice-growing region hardest hit when Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2-3, bringing powerful winds and massive waves that wiped whole villages away.
   But those who have got through have returned with tales of unspeakable misery, including from some survivors who said they had received very little assistance from the government.
   Survivors have also reported that the military was pushing them out of temporary shelter in monasteries, whose revered Buddhist monks helped lead massive anti-government protests last year that were eventually put down.
   Navy ships from France and the United States are positioned off the Myanmar coast stocked with emergency supplies, but have not been able to enter.
   The regime is said to fear a possible invasion by the United States, which has criticised Myanmar for keeping democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest – and for its slow moves toward elections promised by 2010.
   The government said this week that 99 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots last Saturday in a referendum it said approved a new constitution which would bar her from office.
   Her party rejected the result and said the vote should never have been held amid the cyclone tragedy. The regime has scheduled round two of the vote, in the disaster areas, on May 24.

The government has backtracked from its decision on realising increased rents for NAM flats from resident former lawmakers after the speaker had informed the government that allotments of apartments to the members of parliament could not be cancelled now.
   ‘We cannot take any measures at the moment to realise the revised rates from former lawmakers residing in the NAM flats as higher authorities are yet to decide on the next course of action in this regard,’ a senior official at the housing and public works ministry told New Age on Saturday.
   The Jatiya Sangsad speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar, in a letter to the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on March 30 said 324 NAM flats were the parliament’s property and it was not possible now for them to cancel allotments to the former lawmakers as asked by the housing and public works ministry.
   The House Committee, responsible for accommodating parliamentarians, allotted the flats to lawmakers for staying till the results of the ninth parliamentary elections. ‘As the committee is not in place, it is not possible for the parliament secretariat to cancel the allotments now,’ the letter said.
   ‘We were preparing to file cases under the Public Demand Recovery Act 1913 against the former lawmakers residing in the NAM Building not paying the increased rents effective from January 2008. But everything has halted as there was no further directives from higher authorities in this regard,’ said the ministry official.
   On March 19, the housing and public works ministry in a letter to the parliament secretariat asked it to cancel all the allotments of the luxury apartments at the NAM Building by March 31, extending the deadline by three months to pave the way for realising increased rents.
   The ministry also requested the secretariat to ask the resident lawmakers to take fresh allotments from the Directorate of Government Accommodation for staying at the apartments.
   ‘The House Committee allotted the apartments to us. So the ministry cannot ask the parliament secretariat to cancel it. We are ready to face any legal battle over the matter,’ a former lawmaker residing in a NAM Building apartment told New Age.
   In December 2007, the government asked the parliament secretariat to immediately cancel all the allotment letters it had earlier issued to the lawmakers for the flats and increased the rents with a retrospective effect.
   The secretariat was requested to hand over the luxury apartments to the Public Works Department, but the decision was not implemented because of disagreement among the authorities concerned.
   The government earlier increased the rents from Tk 400–500 to Tk 20,000–25,000 a month effective from January 2007 for the resident former lawmakers. It later decided to put into effect the new charges from January 2008 at the request of the Jatiya Sangsad speaker for a review of the decision on rent increase with retrospective effect.
   On June 19, 2007, the government handed over the charge of the flats, constructed in 2001 to host the Non-Aligned Movement summit, to the housing and public works ministry for renting them out to government officials on a temporary basis.

The Awami League and its front organisations on Saturday observed the homecoming day of the party president, Sheikh Hasina, with the party leaders taking a fresh vow to get her freed at any cost.
   Several hundred leaders and activists of the party gathered at different points of the roads leading to the special jail on the Sangsad Bhaban complex with bouquets and sweets to greet her in the morning, but faced police obstructions.
   Hasina returned from exile May 17, 1981, six years after the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August, 1975, to join politics and take up the party’s reins after she was unanimously elected the party president by its council.
   The AL and its front organisations, including Mahila Awami League, Krishak League, Sramik League, Juba League, Chhatra League, Swechchasebak League organised various programmes marking the day.
   The party leaders and activists led by presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury gathered in Asad Gate area at about 10:00am as roads approaching the Sangsad Bhaban were closed off by barricades set up by the police halting traffic in large areas.
   Police set up a number of barricades on Mirpur Road, at Shyamoli Shishu Mela point and in Khamarbari and Mohammadpur areas in addition to a three-layer security measure in Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban area.
   Later, leaders of the AL central working committee were allowed to go in front of the jail and hand over bouquets to deputy jailer Tariqul Islam and convey greetings to Hasina through the prison authorities.
   Presidium members Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Suranjit Sengupta and acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam were present among others.
   Rest of the leaders and activists, however, could not approach the jail gate due to police obstructions.
   On the occasion, the party leaders took a fresh vow to free Hasina at any cost and participate in the upcoming general elections under her leadership.
   They also urged the leaders and activists to take preparations for waging a vagarious movement to get the party president freed.
   Leaders of the AL’s front organisations also handed over bouquets and sweets to the jail officials chanting slogans demanding Hasina’s release. The tight security measures caused major disruption of traffic in the areas for about three hours before the police withdrew road blockades at about 11:00am.
   The city unit of AL organised a prayer session at party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue in the afternoon.
   Swechchasebak League organised a discussion meeting at the party office in the afternoon. Speaking at the discussion, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Matia Chowdhury warned the government of a tougher movement if Hasina was not released before the dialogues.
   The AL will hold a discussion meeting at the auditorium of the Institution of Diploma Engineers this (Sunday) afternoon.

The police rescued a minor boy from Satghari village under sadar upazila in Chuadanga Friday night, four days after his abduction.
   They also arrested four suspected abductors — Raja, 20, Sajib, 23 and Tipu, 22 and his sister Shefali, 23 — at the village.
   The police said Sajib abducted Yasin, 5, son of Mohammad Wahab Ali, of Madhya Fateyabad under Dakkhinkhan police station, from in front of their residence Tuesday evening.
   On the following day, Sajib, the helper of a covered van owned by Wahab,
   demanded Tk 10 lakh as ransom over mobile phone and threatened to kill his son if he did not pay the money immediately.
   The gang members also informed that Yasin was in Sylhet and they would start for Dhaka along with Yasin after getting Tk 3 lakh in Chuadanga.
   As Wahab informed the police of the incident, they suggested agreeing with the proposal. Accordingly they started for Chuadanga on Friday.
   The gang gangsters changed their addresses frequently to receive the amount at Hotel Abasar in Chuadanga, Circus Field, Jhenaidah Bus Stand.
   As soon as they came to receive the amount from Wahab at the village, the plainclothes law enforcers instantly arrested Tipu and Raja from the spot.
   Based on the confessional statement of the arrested, the team conducted a raid at the same village and arrested main suspect Sajib and Shefali. The team also rescued Yasin on Friday night.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan returned home safely Saturday following his release after being held captive for 96 days by suspected Taliban militants, officials said.
   Envoy Tariq Azizuddin was heading to the Afghan capital Kabul with his driver when he disappeared in the troubled Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan on February 11.
   Relatives, friends and media thronged the ambassador’s residence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad after Azizuddin, 56, was flown here by a special flight from the northwestern city of Peshawar.
   The ambassador’s recovery comes amid recent headway in peace talks between the Pakistani Taliban and the six-week-old coalition government led by the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani.
   The head of the interior ministry, Rehman Malik, denied any deal was struck to get the envoy back.
   ‘We have exchanged no one, and released no one to secure his release,’ Malik told reporters, rejecting suggestions the ambassador was released after the government freed dozens of Taliban suspects.
   ‘His recovery Friday evening is purely a result of law enforcement efforts,’ Malik told reporters, standing beside the envoy who had grown a long beard and appeared exhausted.
   Malik did not explain what action the security forces took.
   The envoy who repeatedly waved at the media said he was thankful to God and praised the efforts of the government to secure his freedom.
   ‘I am thankful to Allah and the government of Pakistan and very happy to be back in life with my family.’
   He said he was treated well in the captivity. ‘When they kidnapped me I was hit twice in the head with a rifle but afterwards they gave me food and a place to sleep.’
   The foreign ministry earlier said Azizuddin driver and bodyguard were also safe and sound with the authorities.
   Taliban sources said the envoy was handed over to security agency officials in the tribal area after the government released some 12 people in its custody, including members of the Afghan Taliban, earlier this week.
   The release came nearly four weeks after Azizuddin appeared in a video aired by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel in which he said he was being held by the Taliban.
   Azizuddin had pleaded in the video for the government and the foreign ministry ‘to do all they can to protect our lives and to answer all the demands of the Mujahedeen of Taliban in order to secure our release.’
   The day of his kidnap coincided with Pakistani security forces seizing a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, in southwestern Baluchistan province, also bordering Afghanistan.
   Pakistan’s new government defeated the backers of the president, Pervez Musharraf, in elections in February and has pledged to completely overhaul the key US ally’s pursuit of the ‘war on terror’.
   As part of the ongoing peace process, the authorities last month also released some 30 tribesmen held in various prisons in return for the release of 55 soldiers detained by pro-Taliban militants, according to an official.
   The Pakistan government is also said to be holding the Taliban’s former defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund who was captured last year in March from the Baluchistan capital Quetta.

At least three persons were killed and about 300 injured as storms lashed Madaripur, Noakhali and Jessore on Saturday.
   In Madaripur, according to a UNB report, two persons were killed during a storm that swept over sadar upazila.
   Subarna, 10, daughter of Shahabuddin Bepari of Khoajpur in the upazila, died on the spot as a branch of a tree fell on her during the storm at about 11:30am.
   In Noakhali, another UNB report said, a storm lashed three unions of Hatiya upazila in the afternoon leaving a minor girl killed and more than 100 people injured.
   The storm flattened about 300 thatched houses and some educational institutions, uprooted trees caused damage to standing crops.
   Three-year-old girl of Serajul Haq at village Maichhara died in house collapse.
   Five fishing boats caught in the storm capsized in the River Meghna. But the fishermen were rescued by their nearby fellow men immediately.
   The Jessore correspondent of New Age said nor’wester lashed several areas in the district, injuring more than 200 and damaging more than 2,000 thatched houses.
   Over 100 people were injured in Sharsha upazila while another 100 people in Abhaynagar upazila.
   In Sharsha upazila, over 50 persons were taken to the upazila health complex. A good number of thatched houses were also damaged in the storm.

The government aims to use the full bandwidth of the submarine cable network in the shortest period to reach the internet and other ICT technologies to villages, said MA Malek, special assistant to the chief adviser, in a programme marking World Telecommunica-tions and Information Society Day on Saturday.
   He said only 15 to 20 per cent of the total capacity of the cable was in use and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission should sell bandwidth for competitive prices.
   Malek said access to the internet in villages and all educational institutions would create more job opportunities and skills ICT manpower. He was addressing as chief guest the programme organised by the commission at the Sheraton Hotel.
   The theme of this year’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is ‘Connecting persons with disabilities — ICT opportunities for all.’
   Malek, also in charge of the ministry of posts and telecommunication, said the ministries such as information, posts and telecommunications and science and ICT should come under one umbrella to develop this sector.
   Referring to the operation of mobile network only in municipalities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he said the hill districts all should come under the mobile network to involve people in development activities.
   ‘We should show a positive attitude towards ethnic minorities and modern technologies are there to monitor if mobiles are used in any anti-state activities,’ he said.
   The science and ICT secretary in charge, Manik Lal Samaddar, asked the stakeholders to develop affordable and accessible ICT equipment and infrastructure for all.
   The commission chairman, Manzurul Alam, urged all the stakeholders to help the commission to ensure access of all, including people with disabilities, to information and communications technologies.

ONE out of the four convicted extremists, who escaped from the Chuadanga district jail by scaling over its boundary wall, was arrested at village Saigharia under sadar upazila on Saturday.
   Local people surrounded a house where escapee convict Abdul Hamid, 55, was hiding. On information, the police went to the spot and fired three shots as Hamid tried to flee, leaving him injured.
   The Police caught Hamid at about 9:30am and then admitted him to Chuadanga Genera Hospital with wounds in both the legs.
   Hamid, hailing from Alamdanga upazila, was sentenced to 44 years in jail in two cases.
   He escaped from the Chuadanga jail along with three others on Thursday night, sparking uproar in the administration.
   Following the jailbreak, the local administration on Friday night distributed leaflets
   along with photographs of the four escapees, urging people to help the law enforcers capture them.
   Local BDR officials told the news agency that 24 border points in Chuadanga, Meherpur and Jhenaidah had been sealed off to prevent the three convicted prisoners
   from crossing into India. BDR personnel have also been provided with the photographs of the escapees for their recapture.
   Lack of manpower, poor building structure of the jail and negligence of duty by
   some were stated to be the reasons behind the escape of the prisoners from the jail, which was inaugurated near the district town on September 21, 2007.
   Meanwhile, seven warders of the jail were suspended on Saturday on charge of negligence of duty.
   The are Alauddin Malitha, Mokhlesur Rahman, Moniruzzaman, Abul Kashem, Monirul Islam, Abdul Latif Sarkar and Sirajul Mollah.
   DIG (Prisons, Khulna-Rajshahi) Abul Hashem took the action following an order issued by IG (Prisons) Brigadier General Zakir Hasan.

The British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, on Saturday morning said his farewells in tears as he left Bangladesh for London, ending his four-year extended diplomatic assignment in his paternal place.
   ‘Farewell Bangladesh, stay well, see you...(inaudible),’ he told reporters in emotion-charged broken words before boarding a British Airways aircraft at Zia International Airport.
   Anwar did not use the VIP lounge perhaps to avoid journalists from print and electronic media. But just before boarding the aircraft, he turned back to reporters and made the brief remarks. Emotion was so intense he could not finish off his last word.
   During his series of press interviews, Anwar has said he leaves Bangladesh as a fulfilled man. ‘I’m leaving Bangladesh with a song in my heart,’ he said.
   In London, Anwar will assume a critical senior diplomatic position at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
   His new role as director for the UK’s policy and relations with International Institutions, particularly the UN, the EU, NATO, the G8, the Commonwealth, the US, the World Bank and the IMF, encompasses one of the UK’s top international priorities, and will involve working very closely with Number 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister’s office). Stephen Nicholas Evans, a highly experienced and accomplished diplomat with in-depth experience of South Asia, replaces Anwar in June.

The Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, goes abroad tomorrow night on about a four-week holiday.
   The ACC chairman, accompanied by his wife, would depart Zia International Airport Monday night for the United Arab Emirates. They will later go to Australia and New Zealand.
   Mashhud, who in a recent press conference termed the trip personal, is scheduled to return home on June 12. He is expected to resume office on June 15.
   ACC commissioner Habibur Rahman would be in charge of the commission in his absence.