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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, two arch-rivals in politics, have separately said on Wednesday that they were ready to sit together for talks.
   While Sheikh Hasina preferred to take part in such talks on formal invitation from the military-controlled interim government and on specific issues, Khaleda Zia wanted an ‘unconditional’ dialogue without any ‘scheduled agenda’.
   Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia came across each other for the last time on November 21, 2006, at a reception hosted by the Armed Forces Division marking the Armed Forces Day at the Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment. But they didn’t talk.
   The two leaders, except for exchanging cursory greetings on a few occasions, had not talked to each other for the last 17 years.
   ‘Our leader Sheikh Hasina is ready to sit with Begum Zia for talks if the government comes up with a formal proposal for such a meeting [between the two top leaders] specifying the agenda’, AL’s spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam on Wednesday in reply to a question from the media.
   ‘We have not received any formal invitation from the government in this regard, he said.
   Ashraf was talking with reporters at the AL chief’s Sudha Sadan residence after a meeting between Sheikh Hasina and three ambassadors of European Union countries – Bea M ten Tusscher of the Netherlands, Britt Hagström of Sweden and Itala Maria Marta Occhi of Italy.
   ‘The three envoys asked our leader Sheikh Hasina whether she would agree to sit with Khaleda Zia and our leader replied, “of course, I am ready to sit [with BNP chief] for discussion” ’, Ashraf, who was also present at the meeting, said. ‘But a formal invitation must come for such a dialogue between Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia and there must be a specific agenda’, he added.
   Ashraf, however, said that Hasina would not sit with anybody just for tea. ‘No formal proposal has come from either the government or others…If we get a formal proposal for such talks, Awami League will take a decision after discussion in the party forum.’
   On Tuesday ambassadors of three European Union countries met Khaleda Zia and stressed the need for the two top politicians to stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ to face challenges in future.
   After the meeting with Hasina, Britt Hagström said they had laid emphasis on participation of all political parties in the election adding that the December 18 election was a unique chance at the present difficult time for the political parties to work hand in hand for the sake of a healthy political culture in the country.
   When asked if they [EU envoys] thought after their talks with the two leaders that the election was going to take place on December 18 with all political parties contesting it, she said, ‘We hope so. That is up to the parties to decide upon. We want to see peaceful and successful transition to parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh.’
   Ashraf said the envoys had wanted to know if the election was going to take place on time and ‘we told them that election must be held on December 18 as there is no alternative to it.
   BNP spokesperson Nazrul Islam Khan said, ‘The chairperson [Khaleda] expressed her willingness to sit with the Awami League leader. But the talks will have to take place without any condition and without any agenda.’
   ‘She [Khaleda] came to know from the media about Sheikh Hasina’s gesture and asked me to convey her position’, Khan told the media at the BNP chief’s Gulshan office in the evening.
   ‘Such talks tagged with any condition or scheduled agenda will not bring the expected result’, he said adding that issues like overall situation of the country, economy, politics and the upcoming elections could be discussed by the two leaders.
   Replying to a question, Nazrul said, ‘Anyone can take the initiative for such talks. The government can also take the initiative but we do not think their efforts are necessary in this regard.

The Election Commission on Wednesday proposed deployment of troops on polls duty to help the civil administration to keep order during December 12–31 in connection with the general and upazila elections.
   ‘The probable timeframe for the deployment of the armed forces has been considered to begin December 12 if the parliamentary polls take place on December 18,’ the secretary to the EC secretariat, M Humayun Kabir, told reporters after a law and order review meeting.
   He said troops were usually deployed four to five days before such events. An official who attended the meeting said the commission had proposed that troops should be deployed till December 31 as upazila elections are scheduled for December 28.
   The home affairs ministry will take necessary measures to deploy the forces in line with the Election Commission’s plan for parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18 and upazila polls, Humayun said.
   He said the army during the deployment period would act as reserve and striking forces. ‘The number of troops required will be decided later and publicised through home ministry circulars,’ the secretary said.
   The meeting on he ‘9th national parliamentary elections 2008 and law and order’ was held between the Election Commission and the heads of various law enforcement agencies in the commission’s conference room. The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, presided over the meeting. The inspector general of police, Rapid Action Battalion director general, Bangladesh Rifles director general and heads of intelligence agencies also attended.
   In reply to a question, Humayun said the commission had yet to finalise the budget for keeping law and order. The budget for law and order maintenance will be worked out as soon as the number of the troops to be deployed is decided, he said.
   The government on November 3, a day after the election schedules were announced, relaxed the state of emergency to allow parties to participate in the election campaign. It also called back the members of the armed forces from emergency duties from across the country. Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since January 2007 when the military-controlled caretaker government scrapped the election plans and vowed to clean up the ‘notoriously corrupt politics.’

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance on Wednesday accused the military-controlled interim government of putting more obstacles to a fair election and asked the incumbents to make it clear whether they were sincere about polls at all.
   The alliance also accused the government of interfering in the activities of the judiciary in the name of the state of emergency and asked it to refrain from such meddling.
   ‘Do you really want to hold the polls? If so, create a level playing field in the true sense of the term. We will not play under a biased referee on a ground created for others. The state of emergency has to be withdrawn completely’, BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told a rally in the city. The alliance organised the rally at the Institution of Diploma Engineers to push its seven-point charter of demands and in protest at taking three top alliance leaders into custody and the police attack on Jamaat-e-Islami’s rally on Tuesday.
   ‘You [government] are interfering in the activities of the courts. The hands of judges are tied…They cannot give verdict as per their wisdom for the restrictions of emergency… Stop such meddling or you will face dire consequences’, Delwar said adding that the court had sent the three leaders to jail for restrictions under emergency power rules.
   Delwar said the government had relaxed some provisions of the emergency to facilitate arrival of a leader without hassle but they were afraid seeing the ‘huge public response’ to Khaleda Zia’s rally in Chittagong on the following day and promptly imposed restrictions on rallying. ‘Open the field and judge the public support.’
   He said the government was plotting to install a ‘puppet’ government and a ‘rubber-stamp’ parliament for legitimising their ‘misdeeds’. ‘We won’t tolerate a got-up election, an election of entente. They have set their chosen people, who are known as people of the so-called janatar mancha, at every strategic point in the administration and are eager to conduct the polls by them. No fair election could be held by them’, Delwar said.
   Referring to the government’s dialogue with BNP on October 23, he said that after the talks the government had announced an understanding on six of the party’s seven demands, but no step was taken even after the passage of 18 days. ‘Do you really want us to contest the polls? Meet our demands and pave the way for fair elections’, he said.
   The demands of the alliance include total lifting of the state of emergency, repeal of the amendments to the Representation of People Order, deferral of upazila elections, withdrawal of ‘false’ cases filed against the alliance leaders and release of persons detained on political ground.
   Delwar said, ‘This government came to power through conspiracy to implement their agenda. They do not bother about what the people want….’
   BNP chairperson’s adviser Salauddin Quader Chowdhury referred to ‘a leader’ who had said she would legitimise the activities of the government. ‘An illegal thing requires the seal of legitimacy…’
   He also blasted the shuttling of diplomats between doors of different parties saying, ‘Whenever they became active, disaster descended on the country.’ Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Muhammad Quamaruzzman asked the people to get prepared for struggle if the government barred the alliance from contesting the polls.
   Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis amir Muhammad Ishaq, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, and Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Shamim Al Mamun also spoke at the rally.

The Highway Police Unit has failed to check reckless driving and frequent accidents even about three and a half years of the formation of the unit, performing duties without any speed guns on the highways having almost no dividers.
   The wing has also failed to check overloading and carrying passengers beyond the capacities of vehicles, plying unfit vehicles and take action against drivers having unauthorised licenses for what it blamed acute shortage of manpower and logistic support.
   The unit also failed to improve safety of the travellers and check crimes on the country’s regional and national highways that increased from 4,000 kilometres in 1971 to 22,379km at present, sources in the unit said, adding that the unit is yet to get its organogram and rules and regulations approved.
   This unit was formed on June 11, 2005 with 24 highway police stations and 48 police outposts dividing the country into two regions — east and west. The east region comprises four sub-regions — Cox’s Bazar, Comilla, Bhairab and Gazipur — and the west comprises three sub-regions — Bogra, Kushtia and Barisal.
   Manned by 2,042 law enforcers under the leadership of a deputy inspector general, the unit is performing activities with 76 jeeps, pick-up vans and microbuses, 151 motorcycles and 40 walky-talkies.
   A high official at the police headquarters said despite being an individual unit, the highway police had to depend on the district police administration for fuel supply, repairing vehicles and getting other logistic supports. ‘All these hamper round-the-clock vigilance on the highways.’
   ’The highway police department is operational apparently on papers as it is yet to get its proposed rules and regulations and organogram approved by the authorities concerned,’ he said.
   One of the superintendents of highway police told New Age, ‘The wing now suffers from serious transport, accommodation and other crises as the authorities are yet to provide it with the facilities required for performing duties.’
   He said all the outposts and police stations are situated either at dilapidated Roads and Highways Department buildings or in rented houses. A few others are housed at the police stations, which have now brought under the highway force.
   Even now an outpost has one patrol vehicle to cover an area of 60 kilometres, he added, saying ‘The unit is yet to get any speed gun to determine the speed of vehicles and go for action accordingly.’
   Asked about their poor performance in preventing accidents on highways, another official said, ‘As most of the highways have no divider and we cannot check reckless driving due to the want of speed guns, we can do a little in this regard.’
   ‘Constant vigilance on the highways is also necessary to check accident, but we cannot do that due to acute shortage of manpower,’ he said.
   The force has been entrusted with patrolling on highways, controlling traffic, enforcing traffic rules, ensuring order on highways, bus and tuck terminals, petrol pumps, toll plazas, bus stoppages and parking lots.
   The highway police chief, deputy inspector general Sohrab Hossain told New Age, ‘It is true that we have some limitations, but we are trying our best to carry out duties with the existing facilities provided.’

The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday assured Bangladesh of reducing trade gap between the two neighbourly countries.
   Manmohan said steps would be taken to maintain a balance of trade by importing more from Bangladesh and removing non-tariff barriers further.
   The assurance came when the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, called on the Indian premier at the latter’s residence in New Delhi. Earlier, the chief adviser arrived in New Delhi to attend the 2nd BIMSTEC summit beginning in the Indian capital today.
   The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, press secretary to the chief adviser, Syed Fahim Munaim, and the Bangladesh high commissioner to India, Liaquat Ali Choudhury, were present.
   From the Indian side present were the foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, national security adviser, K Narayanan, foreign secretary, Shibsankar Menon, and the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty.
   After the meeting , the foreign adviser and the chief adviser’s press secretary briefed the newsmen.
   Iftekhar said the meeting was held in a very cordial atmosphere and both the leaders expressed satisfaction over the existing bilateral relations and hoped it would be strengthened further in the days to come.
   Manmohan appreciated the success of Bangladesh in food production during the last year saying the country achieved remarkable progress in different social sectors.
   He lauded the completion of the huge task of voter list with photographs of more than 80 million voters across the country using own resources.
   Appreciating the role of garment sector, he said it helped poverty reduction as well as women empowerment in Bangladesh.
   On the reduction of trade gap, the Indian prime minister said his government was trying to remove non-tariff barriers with Bangladesh so that more Bangladeshi products could enter into the Indian markets.
   In this connection, he said, India is importing a good number of garment products from Bangladesh.
   Bangladesh is, Fakhruddin said, in favour of more trade facilitation from the Indian side so that a win-win situation prevails in bilateral trade. He said both the countries had the similar stand against terrorism in its all forms.
   Referring to Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit to Washington against the backdrop of world economic slowdown, Fakhruddin said the developing countries should raise their voice so that progress of their development programmes was not hampered and Millennium Development Goals could be achieved in time.
   The Indian prime
   minister appreciated the proposal of Bangladesh to form BIMSTEC Food Bank for
   ensuring food security in this region.
   Iftekhar said New Delhi BIMSTEC summit which begins today would mainly focus on issues like world economic slowdown, food security, energy crisis and climate change.
   Earlier, on his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport the chief adviser was received by Indian Minister of State Aswini Kumar.
   Later in the evening,
   the chief adviser attended a banquet hosted by Indian prime minister in honour of the BIMSTEC leaders at a Delhi hotel.

Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, a waste of talent given that their access to education and healthcare is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum said on Wednesday.
   In its 2008 Global Gender Gap report, the think tank ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as the countries with the greatest equality between the sexes, while Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen were the least equal.
   Averaging 130 national scores, the report found that girls and women have reached near-parity with their male peers in educational attainment, health and survival, in both rich and poor countries.
   But economically, in terms of workforce participation and earning opportunities, and politically, in terms of empowerment, the gap between the sexes remains large.
   ‘The world’s women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making,’ said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum, a Swiss-based think tank best known for its Davos summit held in January.
   ‘Given that women have almost closed the gap with men on health and education, it is a waste of their talents if they are not catching up in economics and politics,’ she said.
   The report uses United Nations and other data to weigh how evenly each country shares its resources and opportunities between men and women.
   ‘The index does not penalise those countries that have low levels of education overall, for example, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men,’ said study co-author Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard University.
   Outside the Nordic region, which traditionally scores well on measures of gender parity, New Zealand placed fifth, in part because of its female political empower- ment including the tenure of Helen Clark as prime minister.
   The Philippines, whose president is a woman, followed in sixth place, and Ireland, the Netherlands, and Latvia placed eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
   The United States ranked 27th, ahead of its neighbour Canada for the first time since the gender gap report was launched three years ago. Canada fell 13 spots to 31st place.
   Trinidad, Argentina and Cuba were rated highest among Latin American and Caribbean countries, and Lesotho was the top-rated African state in gender parity.

President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to help middle-class US homeowners facing foreclosure, but he has said little about how he will help low-income families made homeless by a worsening economy.
   Obama has spoken broadly about boosting affordable housing and restoring public housing subsidies. But with economists forecasting a deep recession in 2009, he may find it hard to find the money to fulfill those promises soon.
   At the same time, advocacy groups and the country’s czar for combating homelessness say immediate action is needed to halt the foreclosures of tens of thousands of homes and rehouse thousands of families amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
   ‘President-elect Obama understands the economy will only get back on track if we end the foreclosure crisis. And he realises that part of ending the crisis is both preventing and ending homelessness for families losing their homes,’ said Jeremy Rosen of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.
   It is a quandary that will require help for the overall economy to aid people who slide into homelessness because they lose their jobs. Measures will also be needed to address the mortgage crisis, especially foreclosures on rental properties that house lower-income residents who then wind up homeless when their apartment buildings are repossessed.
   Homeless advocacy groups have called for targeted housing subsidies that help homeless families get back into more permanent accommodation as well as helping those on the brink of foreclosure. But Obama will need to do more, and there are no magic wands.
   Families are flooding homeless shelters across the United States in numbers not seen for years, camping out in motels or staying with friends and relatives, homeless advocates say.
   ‘There are lots of families haemorrhaging into homelessness and we need to figure out how to put a tourniquet on the haemorrhaging,’ Philip Mangano, the homelessness czar appointed by the president, George W Bush, in 2002, said.
   There is little time to waste. The US unemployment rate is at a 14-year high and more job losses are forecast, while the Mortgage Bankers Association says nearly 1.5 million homes are in the process of foreclosure.
   The US Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill in July that sets aside $3.9 billion that can be used partly by local authorities to buy foreclosed properties. Those could potentially house homeless families.
   Mangano, whose official title is director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, described the $3.9 billion as an ‘opening salvo’ and said the new administration and Democratic-controlled Congress must be prepared to move quickly to invest more money to help homeless families and slow the flood of foreclosures.
   While the latest official figures show the number of homeless declining by 12 per cent from 2005 to 2007, Mangano said there was sufficient data and anecdotal evidence to suggest that family homelessness was now on the rise.
   In New York, the number of newly homeless families entering shelters has hit a record high, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, which says 1,464 families entered the New York shelter system in September.
   San Francisco’s four shelters are ‘beyond full,’ according to Paul Boden of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, whose organisation has identified 450 families with 800 children living in single-room hotels in the city.
   In Virginia’s Fairfax County, one of the richest counties in the United States, there are about 100 families on a waiting list to enter shelters, local officials say.
   The public perception is that newly homeless families borrowed money they were unable to repay or were the victims of greedy banks that sold them mortgages they could not afford.
   But homeless advocates say most are actually renters whose landlords were foreclosed on, or who lost their jobs, and were then unable to find the first and last month’s rent and security deposit to secure new accommodation.
   Local and state homeless groups have seen a 61 per cent rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is scheduled to meet the Myanmar prime minister, General Thein Sein, to discuss on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit the dispute over territorial waters of the Bay of Bengal.
   Leaders of the eight-nation Bay of Bengal rim gathered in India’s capital New Delhi for the 2nd summit scheduled for Thursday.
   The recent military face-off in the Bay of Bengal resulted from Myanmar’s intrusion into Bangladesh’s territorial waters for oil and gas exploration.
   Tension was finally defused as Myanmar withdrew its war ships along with the installation of hydrocarbon exploration equipments from Bangladesh’s territorial waters after Dhaka’s multi-pronged diplomatic manoeuvre involving Beijing and Seoul.
   The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, said Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to continue with high-level contact to resolve the issues peacefully to further cement friendly ties.
   The agreement was reached at the meeting of two foreign ministers of the next-door neighbours in New Delhi on Wednesday following the face-off over gas exploration in the Bay.
   Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and his Myanmar counterpart U Nyan Win are in New Delhi now to attend the 2nd BIMSTEC summit.
   The meeting was characterised as ‘cordial,’ according to a message received in Dhaka on Wednesday from the Bangladesh mission in New Delhi.
   Quoting Iftekhar, the message said, ‘We agreed to continue with high-level contacts, including a meeting between the Myanmar prime minister and the chief adviser, when they both arrive in New Delhi.’
   The foreign affairs adviser said, ‘It was a meeting that was both frank and cordial. We both wanted differences resolved peacefully through negotiations conducted in a sprit of mutual understanding. We also saw the value in continuing cooperation in the political and the economic spheres as two close neighbours.’
   Iftekhar further said, ‘We need to follow up on the ground after the very useful discussions during vice senior general Maung Aye’s recent visit to Bangladesh.’

The High Court on Wednesday granted interim bail for two months to former ministers M Saifur Rahman, Matiur Rahman Nizami, also the Jamaat-e-Islami amir, and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, also Jamaat’s secretary general, in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
   The court also stayed for two months the proceedings of the case against the three and asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain in four weeks why the case against them would not be quashed.
   The High Court bench of Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice Afzal Hossain passed the order after hearing separate petitions filed by the three former ministers seeking the case to be quashed.
   On the other hand, AK Roy, the judge of the special judge’s court 2 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, ordered all the accused who are on bail to appear in court on November 23 and asked the prison authorities to produce the accused, now in prison, in court on the day for the next proceedings of the case.
   Although the Anti-Corruption Commission’s prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol appealed for setting a date for the hearing in charge framing in the case, the court posted for November 23 its ruling on the next proceedings.
   The court fixed the date as the counsels for Saifur, Nizami and Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain argued the next date should be fixed after November 20, the last date for the filing of nomination papers for the December 18 national elections, as the counsels and the accused would remain busy filing nomination papers.
   The same High Court bench asked Nizami on November 4 and Saifur and Mojahid on November 5 to surrender in trial court on Monday and adjourned till Wednesday the hearing in their petitions.
   On Monday, AK Roy, the judge of the special judge’s court 2, sent the trio to jail after they had appeared in court and sought bail.
   The same court on Sunday ordered former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain to jail after he surrendered in the same case.
   The same High Court bench on November 4 granted bail to two other accused in the case — former ministers Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury — and stayed for two months the proceedings in the case against them.
   On October 16, the High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Hussain and Justice Farid Ahmad stayed for three months the proceedings of the Barapukuria case against Khaleda Zia. She had earlier been granted bail in the case.
   The commission on October 5 pressed charges in the case against 16 people, including former prime minister Khaleda Zia, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, and her 10 former cabinet colleagues.
   Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge M Azizul Haque on October 16 transferred the case to a special judge’s court set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex for an expeditious trial.
   The commission lodged the case on February 26 accusing Khaleda, 10 of her former cabinet colleagues and five others of embezzling Tk 158.71 crore by awarding Chinese CMC Consortium the contract for Barapukuria mining in 2005.

The Truth and Accountability Commission chairman, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, has said he firmly believes that the activities of the country’s administration are not running properly and that it has been plagued by rampant corruption.
   The whole system would have to be overhauled to get rid of pervasive corruption, he said at the commission’s regular briefing in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   Replying to a question, Justice Khan said: ‘It’s my firm belief (that administrative activities are not functioning properly). It has been plagued by rampant corruption. The whole system needs to be changed… a system should be in place where there will be no corruption.’
   He added: ‘The whole method will have to be changed. In order to root out corruption, everything needs to be changed.’
   The TAC chairman said though politicians and businessmen did not come to the commission, the picture of institutional corruption has been exposed.
   ‘We will be able to provide details in our reports for the government to take measures. If measures can be taken the administrative system will get easier.’
   About the TAC activities so far, he said it was a matter of satisfaction that the commission had dealt with good number of cases in short time.
   Justice Khan said due to the extension of deadline till November 16, the commission had received 59 more applications. ‘There will be no more extension.’
   The commission could be taken as a model in terms of disposing of the cases swiftly, he added.
   TAC member Asif Ali said lack of planning in the government offices was to be blamed for delay in taking decisions that cause sufferings for the people.
   Detailing the activities of the commission, he said 389 individuals had applied for clemency in return for their ill-gotten wealth. Of them, 20 have applied directly, 192 applications came through the Anti-Corruption Commission, 167 through the National Coordination Committee on serious crime and corruption, and 10 through courts.
   Among the 389 applicants, there are two politicians, 28 businessmen, 303 government servants, wives of 39 of them and 17 belonging to other professions.
   The hearing of 259 individuals has so far been completed and they have pledged to pay Tk 27.79 crore. One hundred and fifty-four individuals have already deposited Tk 14.46 crore to the government treasury. Mercy certificates have been distributed among 65 individuals while another 40 are ready to be distributed.
   Ali said that if the number of applications did not exceed 500 by the deadline they would be able to finish hearing by the end of the commission’s tenure on January 2, 2009.
   Another TAC member, Manjur Rashid said while dealing with clemency seekers they could know about rampant corruption in the service-providing organisations.
   Talking about widespread graft in the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited, he said corruption as well as effort to cover up corruption had been detected. ‘From top to bottom (in the BTCL) no one is free from corruption.’
   Mentioning a case filed against seven BTCL employees, Rashid said four of the accused sought clemency and some high officials were called in for substantiating the statements of the clemency seekers. ‘They (high officials) denied corruption allegations. But, corruption is not possible without them.’
   He said the case would be referred back to where it came from for full investigation.
   The TAC member said aspects of the institutional corruption would be given in a report so that the government could work on that.

Thieves early Wednesday took away motor parts worth Tk 3 lakh of two cars from the house of the commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, in Chittagong.
   The police said the thieves had entered the garage of the house at Panchlaish in the city sometime between 1:00am and 5:00am and took away the motor parts.
   The owner of one of the two cars, Dr Mahsin Zillur Karim, also brother of the commerce adviser, filed a case, the police said adding that another car was given to Mahsin’s wife from her office.
   Banaj Kumar, deputy commissioner (north) of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said they had interrogated the drivers and guards of the house. He said efforts were on to arrest the thieves.

The population of Bangladesh has reached 16.13 crore marking a 1.7 per cent growth in the last one year, according to the latest global population report released by the United Nations Population Fund in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   The Bangladesh population with the present growth rate will reach 25.41 crore in 2050, says the report, released simultaneously in other countries of the world. The country’s population in 2007 was 14.71 crore.
   The total fertility rate has, however, decreased to 2.81 in 2008 compared to 2.98 in 2007, says the report.
   It said the per capita gross national income dropped to $1,230 in 2008 from $2090 in 2007. The GNI of Bangladesh lies far below than other countries of the subcontinent like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka where the per capita income is $4,000, $2,410 and $3,730 respectively. The Bangladesh’s GNI is slightly better than Nepal where it is $1,010.
   Unveiling the report on the State of World Population 2008 at the National Press Club, UNFPA acting representative Pornchai Suchitta said this year’s report was focused on culture, gender and human rights.
   ‘This year is the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the report calls for culturally sensitive approaches to development, promote human rights in general and women rights in particular,’ he said.
   Gender inequality remains widespread and deep-rooted in many cultures and the report calls for action to increase cultural knowledge, Pornchai added.
   ‘Men are primary decision makers about child bearing, contraceptive use while women themselves have no power to decide issues of their reproductive health,’ the UNFPA official said.
   He said the denial of women’s right to take decision on reproductive life along with malnutrition, early marriage and violence are the reasons of incredibly high population growth, maternal mortality and child mortality and key impediments to achieve the millennium development goals.
   ‘It is a striking fact that women and girls are three fifths of the world’s one billion poorest people, women are two thirds of 960 million adults who cannot read and girls are 70 per cent of the 130 million children who are out of school,’ he said portraying the global situation.
   The UNFPA executive, quoting the report, said cultural constraints rather than poverty held women back from using family planning and programmes could succeed even if there had been little economic development.
   ‘In Bangladesh, some laws are not women friendly and therefore they do not enjoy equal rights to marriage, divorce, guardianship and inheritance although the constitution provides equal rights to men and women in public life,’ he observed.
   Despite Bangladesh’s commitment to the Beijing platform for action to enact and periodically review domestic legislation to punish and redress violence against women in the home, workplace, community and society, very little is progressed in amending discriminatory laws and some of the provision of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, he said.
   In all stages of life, women suffer from malnutrition more than men and lack access to healthcare, the UNFPA executive said.
   ‘The UNFPA is committed to contribute towards achieving the goals of international conference on population and development and the millennium development goals.’
   Other demographic, social and economic indicators of the report show that the energy consumption per capita is very much low in Bangladesh, which is 158 units compared to 491, 490, 338 and 477 units respectively in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
   Additional director general of health services Hosne Ara Tahmin and UNFPA’s programme officers Noor Mohammad and Mozaharul Islam Khan were also present.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of Jatiya Party leader Rawshan Ershad and six others in the Janata Tower corruption case.
   In a judgement, the four-member Appellate Division bench, led by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, upheld the High Court verdict which fined Rawshan, wife of former president HM Ershad, and six others Tk 10,000 each for their involvement in the Janata Tower corruption.
   The court also allowed the government to appeal against the High Court verdict delivered on August 20, 2001 asking the government to hand over the land of the Janata Tower to Shukur Ali Pradhan and three others.
   According to the judgement, the Janata Tower belongs to the government, said deputy attorney general Zahirul Islam Mukul, who moved the government appeal.
   If Rawshan and the six fail to pay the fine, they will need to serve two years in jail, according to the judgement.
   The Appellate Division, however, rejected seven other government appeals against the High Court verdict delivered on August 24, 2000 which commuted the sentence of seven years’ imprisonment to fines of Tk 10,000 for each of the seven, including Rawshan.
   The now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption on April 14, 1991 lodged the corruption case with the Motijheel police against 19 people, including Ershad and Rawshan.
   In the case, BAC alleged Ershad, former Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha chairman Rahmatullah and others had helped 13 people to get illegally the lease of the land in their favour.
   Dhaka additional district and sessions judge’s court on May 7, 1993 sentenced 18 people, including Ershad and Rawshan, to imprisonment for seven years each and ordered confiscation of the Janata Tower.
   The court, however, acquitted one Amjadul Haque of the charges.

At least 11 people were killed and 15 injured as a truck skidded off into a roadside tea stall at Dhobra Bazar under Kansat in Chapainawabganj Wednesday night.
   The victims are Ismail, son of Setu, T Islam, son of Abdus Sattar, Soybur Rahman, son of Nurul Islam, Masud Rana, son of Anu, Zenarul Islam, son of Abu Sayed, Khairul Islam, son of Mohasin Ali, Abdul Latif, son of Azahar Ali, Bodiur Rahman, son of Tunu Biswash, Chiku, Benu and Tohur — all of Dhobra Bazar at Shibganj upazila. Police and witnesses said a truck carrying imported fruits from Sonamasjid Land Port overturned and hit the roadside tea stall where the village people were watching television.
   The Shibganj police went to the spot and rescue operation was going on.
   The injured were admitted to sadar hospital and Shibganj Upazila Health Complex.

Odhikar, a human rights organisation, on Wednesday called upon the military-controlled interim government to lift the state of emergency immediately and allow the people to exercise their right to vote in a free environment.
   Releasing its report on the state of human rights during the 22 months of the state of emergency, the organisation said that the parliamentary elections should be held without further delay for the country’s transition to democracy.
   ‘Election is the only legitimate means to form a government and the government and political parties must ensure successful holding of the elections by acting sensibly,’ it added.
   The political parties’ manifestos should not only contain references to human rights but also a concrete action plan to ensure them, it said.
   The manifestos should also state how the wrongs in the past including violence against women and extrajudicial killings would be addressed, to end the culture of impunity, the report said.
   It demanded that the Right to Information Ordinance should be suitably amended to ensure easier access to information and remove restrictions and exclusions.
   Odhikar maintained that the citizens who were the sovereign source of all authority should not be denied any information.
   It asked the government to stop extra-judicial killings, stating that such incidents should be investigated independently and the guilty should be brought to book and prosecuted in accordance with law. The government must compensate the families of the victims of such killings and other violations, it said.

Seven additional judges were appointed to the High Court on Wednesday.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, appointed deputy attorneys general Delwar Hossain and Syeda Akhtar Jahan, Supreme Court lawyers Abdul Hakim, Borhanudd and Kamal-Ul-Alam, Rangpur district and sessions judge Abdus Samad and Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Azizul Haque as additional judges to the High Court for two years in line with Article 118 of the constitution. The new judges will be sworn in this morning in a ceremony to be conducted by the chief justice.
   Kamal-Ul-Alam, however, regretted his appointment. He told New Age Wednesday evening, ‘I regret my appointment on health and personal grounds and already informed the chief justice of the matter.’
   The law adviser, AF Hassan Ariff, told New Age on Wednesday that for the first time in the history of the judiciary in Bangladesh, judges were appointed to the High Court in keeping with the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Commission.
   The Supreme Judicial Commission on November 5 recommended 14 eligible candidates from among lawyers, law officers and lower court judges for the appointment as seven additional judges of the High Court.
   Headed by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, the nine-member commission at its third meeting prepared the final list of hopefuls.
   The law adviser, two senior-most judges of both the divisions of the Supreme Court, the attorney general, and the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association attended the meeting.
   The president appointed the seven from the panel of 14 recommended by the commission, he said.
   The government on March 13 promulgated the Supreme Judicial Commission Ordinance establishing the commission to recommend appointment of Supreme Court judges.
   The ordinance was, however, challenged in court and the High Court on August 7 scrapped the president’s power to ignore the commission’s recommendations on the appointment of Supreme Court judges.
   The interim government took the initiative in view of a strong public demand as all the successive governments in the past had allegedly appointed judges to the apex court on political grounds, without considering academic qualifications, professional skills, honesty and reputation, said Hassan Ariff.
   The new appointments were made at the time when 2,84,469 cases were pending with the High Court, as of October 1, with 61 judges to hear them. No judge has been appointed to the High Court in about four years.

The Dhaka Electric Supply Company on Wednesday launched its automated central data acquisition system which will enable the company to manage the power supply smoothly and reduce the system loss identifying the system loss-prone areas.
   Special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, inaugurated the system which was installed by the Institute of Information and Communication Technology of BUET at the Gulshan sub-station under a Tk 1.91 crore contract with DESCO.
   The system will show on the computer monitor through the internet network all real time data of the feeder lines including how much electricity each feeder is receiving and supplying and if there is any fault in the line or any problem in the voltage.
   The system will help DESCO identify the system loss-prone areas and take remedial measures, DESCO officials said.
   Under the second phase of the project, the Institute of Information and Communication Technology will install a control system at a cost of around Tk 5,00,000,00. Once the control system is installed, DESCO will be able to control the electricity flow of any feeder line from the central office with a computer.
   Currently DESCO’s central office gathers information from the substations manually and often the sub-stations consume more electricity than they are allocated because of problems in the manual system, creating imbalance in the supply system.
   The former Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, which later turned into Dhaka Power Distribution Company, installed a central control system at a cost of Tk 90 crore few years ago.
   Tamim said it was praiseworthy that BUET had installed such a system locally at a low cost. He asked the Dhaka Power Distribution Company to get a data acquisition system installed by BUET.
   Director of IICT, SM Lutful Kabir asked the power agencies to provide a Tk 10 crore fund to BUET for more research work on improving the power system in Bangladesh.
   Power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, DESCO managing director, Saleh Ahmed and DPDC managing director, Ataul Masud attended the programme.

Myanmar’s ruling junta is stepping up efforts to curb dissent ahead of 2010 elections, rights groups said Wednesday after a labour activist became the latest dissident to receive a lengthy jail sentence.
   A crackdown on people involved in protests in mid-2007 that were brutally crushed by the military has seen at least 31 activists imprisoned this week, ranging from pro-democracy veterans to a popular blogger.
   The latest case saw prominent labour advocate Su Su Nway sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in jail on Tuesday for putting up anti-government posters in the wake of the demonstrations, her lawyer Khin Htay Kywe said.
   Her colleague Bo Bo Win Naing, who was arrested with her in November last year, received an eight-year sentence, said the lawyer, who is also a member of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party.
   Another 23 activists were each sentenced to 65 years in prison on Tuesday, while a leading blogger and a poet who wrote a coded criticism of junta leader Than Shwe were among six people sentenced on Monday.
   Fourteen of those jailed on Tuesday are former students who were members of the ‘88 Generation,’ which led a major uprising 20 years ago that the military regime also brutally suppressed, a western diplomat based in Yangon said.
   ‘We understand and are proud for them although we cannot do anything right now. We are not frightened,’ said Amar Nyunt, 63, whose son Jimmy and daughter-in-law Nilar Thein were among those to receive 65-year jail terms.
   She said she was caring for the jailed couple’s 19-month-old daughter, adding: ‘She is in good health. We will take good care of her while her parents are in prison.’
   Sein Linn, 67, the father of Pannate Tun, another of the activists sentenced on Tuesday, said he fell sick after hearing of the punishment.
   ‘I got high blood pressure when I heard the news Tuesday,’ he said. ‘I do not understand politics but I cannot afford to do anything apart from feeling for him.’
   New York-based Human Rights Watch called the trials ‘unfair’ and called on the Myanmar regime to free 70 activists on trial, mostly in relation to the protests in August and September 2007.
   ‘These last few weeks show a more concentrated crackdown on dissent clearly aimed at intimidating the population,’ said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
   The military regime has promised to hold elections in 2010, and Pearson said the convictions were likely an attempt to stifle any dissent ahead of the polls, which critics say aim only to entrench the army’s power.
   ‘Burma’s leaders are clearing the decks of political activists before they announce the next round of sham political reforms,’ Pearson said, referring to Myanmar by its former name, which was changed by the generals in 1989.
   The Yangon-based diplomat agreed, saying that the junta ‘wants to give a deterrent effect by sending a signal to opponents ahead of the elections announced for 2010.’
   The sentences were, however also a strong response by Myanmar to international calls for the freeing of political prisoners, the diplomat added.
   Britain slammed the latest sentences, saying that until Aung San Suu Kyi was freed and restrictions on political parties were lifted ‘there can be nothing approaching free elections’.
   The Canadian foreign minister, Lawrence Cannon, called in a statement for Myanmar authorities ‘to release all political prisoners immediately.’
   Hundreds more activists remain in jail following the protests, which began as small rallies in August 2007 against the rising cost of living but escalated into huge protests led by Buddhist monks that posed the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
   At least 31 people were killed in the crackdown, according to the United Nations.

A US development worker and his driver were shot dead Wednesday in northwest Pakistan, where a wave of violence has been blamed on militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
   They were ambushed in the provincial capital of Peshawar, in an area close to where a senior US diplomat in Pakistan, a close ally of Washington in the US-led ‘war on terror,’ escaped an assassination attempt in August.
   ‘I can confirm that an American citizen and his Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,’ US embassy spokesman Wes Robertson said.
   ‘The attack is currently under investigation and we are coordinating with the local authorities,’ he said.
   Officials said the American worked with FDP, a programme funded by the United States to help develop the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border where Islamist militants have been flourishing.
   ‘He was heading towards his office in the University Town area,’ when the ambush happened, said an FDP official.
   Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border, has a population of more than 2.5 million people, in addition to about 1.7 million Afghan refugees uprooted during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
   The city, capital of North West Frontier Province, is witnessing a surge in violence blamed on Taliban militants, as Pakistani troops have launched operations against guerrilla fighters in the frontier region.
   US forces have also launched airstrikes in the region aimed at top militants which have caused friction with the new Pakistan government of the president, Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded Pervez Musharraf earlier this year.
   Musharraf turned Pakistan into a loyal US ally after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, when US forces invaded neighbouring Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.
   Separately Wednesday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled van into the gates of a school in a northwestern town, killing at least three paramilitary soldiers, police said.
   The school, at Subhan Khaur village in Charsadda district, was not occupied by any children but was being used by security forces battling Taliban militants in the region, police official Marjan Ali said.
   ‘At least three paramilitary soldiers have been killed in the suicide attack,’ Ali said.
   It was the second suicide attack in the area in 24 hours. A suicide bomber on Tuesday killed four people outside Peshawar’s sports stadium.
   The military said eight Taliban fighters and one solider were also killed Wednesday in the northwestern Swat valley, where militants have been waging a bloody campaign to impose strict Islamic law..

The neck arteries of obese children and teenagers experience similar strain as those of middle-aged adults, US researchers said Tuesday.
   ‘There’s a saying that ‘you’re as old as your arteries,’ meaning that the state of your arteries is more important than your actual age in the evolution of heart disease and stroke,’ said Geetha Raghuveer, professor of paediatrics at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Kansas.
   ‘We found that the state of the arteries in these children is more typical of a 45-year-old than of someone their own age,’ she said.
   Researchers, who presented their work at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008 in New Orleans, used ultrasound to measure the thickness of neck arteries — carotid arteries — that supply blood from the heart to the brain.
   Increased carotid artery intima-media thickness indicates a fatty buildup of plaque, which can clog the arteries and lead to a heart attack or stroke.
   Researchers analysed data from 34 boys and 36 girls who were deemed ‘at-risk’ due to obesity, abnormal cholesterol and/or a family history of early heart disease.
   The group’s average age was 13 and 89 per cent of the participants were white.
   It was discovered the children’s ‘vascular age’ — the age at which the level of artery thickening would be normal for their gender and race — was approximately 30 years older than their actual age, Raghuveer said.
   Researchers also found that having a higher Body Mass Index and higher blood pressure had the biggest impact on CIMT.
   Further research is needed to determine whether the build-up of artery thickness decreases if children lose weight and exercise, according to the study. ‘I’m optimistic that something can be done,’ Raghuveer said.
   ‘In children, the buildup in the vessels is not hardened and calcified. We can improve the vessel walls and blood flow in adults through treatment, and I’m sure we can help children even more.’

The High Court on Wednesday asked the government to explain why the detention orders for former public works minister Mirza Abbas and former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar would not be declared illegal.
   The two High Court benches issued the rules on the government after hearing separate habeas corps writ petitions filed by the relations of Abbas and Babar challenging the validity of the detention order.
   The High Court bench of Justice Triq ul Hakim and Justice Farah Mahbub gave the government eight days to explain Mirza’s detention while the bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui gave the government 10 days to explain the detention of Babar.
   On October 30, the government held back Abbas in prison by issuing a one-month detention order for him just before his release from jail on bail in all the cases.
   The home affairs ministry issued the detention order after a general diary had been filed by a special superintendent of the Special Branch.
   The detention order referred to an SB report apprehending that ‘if Abbas is released from jail, law and order might deteriorate.’
   Abbas was arrested on February 25, 2007 when he went to the Anti-Corruption Commission at Segun Baghicha to submit his wealth statement after the January 11, 2007 changeover.
   Abbas, also a joint secretary general of the BNP, has been sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for tax evasion. He recently obtained bail from the High Court in all the corruption cases filed against him.
   On October 26, Babar was placed in detention for 30 days while he was about to be released on bail from the Dhaka central jail.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday exempted Anti-Corruption Commission’s counsel Khurshid Alam Khan from the fine of Tk 25,000 imposed on him for trying to mislead a High Court bench by not informing the bench of the progress in a corruption case.
   The five-member Appellate Division bench, chaired by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, passed the exemption order after hearing a petition filed by Khurshid against the July 20 High Court ruling.
   The High Court bench of Justice M Abdur Rashid and Justice M Ashfaqul Islam imposed the fine accusing Khurshid of misleading the court by concealing the latest developments from the proceedings of the case in the special court.
   The special judge’s court of Tanzila Ismail on July 17 delivered the verdict in the case jailing Abul Kalam for 13 years, but Khurshid on July 10 appealed to the High Court seeking the hearing to be deferred till July 20.
   On July 20, the counsel filed an affidavit with the High Court and said the writ petition filed by former Roads and Highways Department administrative officer Abul Kamal Shamsuddin challenging the placement of his case under the Emergency Powers Rules should be dismissed as the trial of the case had been completed.
   The Appellate Division, however, upheld the High Court judgment, annulling the verdict delivered by the special court and declaring illegal the placement of the corruption case under the emergency rules.

The time for submission of income tax return by the individuals expired Wednesday night.
   The National Board of Revenue extended the deadline for the third time this year at the request of individuals, chambers and different associations.
   The NBR, till Sunday, received around Tk 8 billion tax against 6,25,000 individual tax returns. Last year, the NBR received Tk 7.39 billion tax from 6,40,000 million tax returns, NBR sources said.

South Asian economies, still reeling from food and energy crises, have little scope to boost their economies in the face of the global financial turmoil, a World Bank official said Wednesday.
   South Asia is ‘not in a strong position to carry out counter-cyclical policies, which is what the rest of the world is trying to do,’ said the Bank’s South Asia vice president, Isabel Guerrero.
   The region is unlikely to see stimulus packages like the one unveiled by China on Sunday that is worth more than half a trillion dollars, she said.
   ‘South Asia does not have the same resources to respond to the shock,’ she told reporters on a visit to Tokyo.
   South Asian countries have already drained down their reserves by offering fuel subsidies.
   Pakistan reportedly will send a request by the end of this week for a loan from the International Monetary Fund as it struggles to secure funding from other donors to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt.
   The World Bank expects growth in South Asia to fall to 5.4 per cent next year, down from 6.3 per cent this year.
   But growth will rebound by 2010 to 7.2 per cent, supported by economic giants such as India, whose ‘fundamentals are strong,’ Guerrero said. The region also includes Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives.
   Guerrero was speaking ahead of a Group of 20 summit this weekend where authorities and financial bodies including the World Bank will discuss ways to respond to the current crisis.
   But ‘we won’t have all the answers (to the crisis) coming out of the G20 meeting,’ she warned.

The Bangladesh Bank has found four business groups and six commercial bank branches to be involved in under-invoicing in connection with edible oil export to India.
   ‘Four business groups exported edible oils to India at prices much lower than on the market when the country was facing supply shortage in 2007,’ a central bank official told New Age quoting a recent investigation report.
   ‘The business groups exported a huge amount of edible oil to India for prices lower than the prices on the domestic and international market for tax benefits with the connivance of Indian traders,’ a senior central bank official said.
   The branches of the six commercial banks helped traders in the fraud, he said.
   Another source in the central bank said the investiga-
   tion report, which has recommended harsh measures against the bank branches and the traders involved in the scam, would be placed at the governor’s council meeting to be held soon.
   Three investigations have found that the Bay Fishing Company Ltd, United Edible Oils Ltd, Raj Kamal Corporation and the Advance Food Industries were involved in the under-invoicing to help their Indian partners to get tax benefits.
   The four traders exported edible oils worth Tk 3.94 in 2006 and 2007 through the Chittagong branches of the Citibank NA, State Bank of India and Prime Bank, principal branch of the Mutual Trust Bank, Dhaka’s Malibagh branch of National Bank and the Moulvibazar branch of the Prime Bank.
   The annual requirement of edible oil in Bangladesh is about 14 lakh tonnes, and about 90 per cent is imported from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina and Brazil.
   Bangladesh also has 50 edible oil refineries which import bulk edible oil in crude form.

Former secretary of state Warren Christopher and respected Democratic former senator Sam Nunn will head president-elect Barack Obama’s transition teams in key government departments, CNN reported Wednesday.
   Christopher, 83, will lead the transition team for the State Department. He led it from 1993 to 1997 under Democratic president Bill Clinton, and was deputy secretary of state 1977-1981 under Democrat Jimmy Carter.
   Nunn, 70, will lead the handover team for the Department of Defence. He represented Georgia in the US senate from 1992 to 1997, and for eight years headed the Senate Armed Services Committee.
   Since retiring he has focused on national security issues, especially on nuclear disarmament.
   Names floated in the media as possible Obama secretaries of state include Democratic former presidential candidate John Kerry, and New Mexico governor and former UN ambassador Bill Richardson.
   Obama’s presidential transition team on Tuesday sidestepped a flurry of speculation that he would ask the defense secretary, Robert Gates, to stay on in his administration.