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The people in general and the voters in particular want the political parties to nominate genuine politicians to represent them in the Jatiya Sangsad, according to the ‘Charter of Aspiration of the People from the Parliament and its Members’ that was announced by Transparency International Bangladesh on Thursday.
   They also expect the political parties and their leaders, and the Jatiya Sangsad and its members, to work together irrespective of the partisan divide to bring about a qualitative change in the country’s political culture and parliamentary democracy.
   ‘We want the ninth parliamentary elections to be held in December, and also want the parliament and its members to play the role expected of them,’ said Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman, former chief adviser to the caretaker government, while addressing a seminar organised in the city to discuss and broadcast the charter.
   Criticising the previous elected governments for allowing the caretaker government to rule the country, he said, ‘We [people] give the responsibility of running the country to elected representatives…So why cannot they themselves hold the general elections?’
   ‘Many of us feel proud of the caretaker system. But most of the country will certainly not accept the system,’ he said. ‘Sri Lanka is very badly affected by civil war, but the regular governments are holding general elections there and handing over power to the winners peacefully.’
   The TIB revealed the charter that is an analytical study of the findings obtained by surveying 4,433 respondents, focused group discussions, workshops and interviews across the country.
   The politicians and former lawmakers, who participated in the discussion on the charter, suggested the striking of a judicious balance between the jurisdiction of parliament members and local government representatives.
   ‘Do not set the parliamentarians and the upazila chairmen against each other. Let them play complementary roles for the benefit of their constituencies,’ said Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury.
   Matia, a former minister of agriculture, suggested that a ‘suitable alternative’ should be incorporated in the national constitution before cancelling Article 70 [which restricts MPs from going against the decisions of their parties]. ‘We have seen horse-trading in the past to destabilise governments,’ she said.
   Former Awami League lawmakers Shawkat Ali and Abdus Shahid echoed Matia’s view.
   Shawkat Ali said intervention in the parliamentary system would not do any good to the country. ‘We must allow the parliamentary system to continue,’ he added.
   ASM Abdur Rob, convenor of the Unity for Political Reforms, said the country will be plunged into a crisis if the parliamentary elections are not held. ‘But the people will not accept an election of entente,’ he warned.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Haq Inu said the peoples’ aspiration can be fulfilled if everyone concerned, including the two top political leaders and the army chief, make a commitment before the elections that they will not try to be above the law.
   Professor Muzaffar Ahmed, chairman of TIB’s board of trustees, said the members of parliament and the voters need to be more conscious politically. ‘Many MPs are hardly aware of their responsibilities, the Rules of Procedure and the national constitution. On the other hand, most of the people still vote for party symbols, not the candidates. Many voters do not even know the names of the candidates and the MPs.’
   Most of the respondents of the study expected the political parties to base the selection of their candidates on honesty, educational qualifications, contribution to the people’s welfare, experience in politics and active involvement in local politics.
   They do not want to see a bigot, war criminal, land grabber, corrupt person, bill and loan defaulter and owner of black money as their representative in the parliament.
   Only 8.4 per cent of the respondents did not mind a businessman to represent them in the parliament while most of them [35.4 per cent] were willing to accept a person with any professional background as their representative. More than 20 per cent wanted to see lawyers to represent them while 17.3 per cent opted for teachers.
   The people want the MPs to stop boycotting the parliament; to resolve all disputes through discussion; take into consideration the people’s opinion before amending the constitution and approving laws on issues of public interest; let the parliament be run by a ‘neutral’ speaker; elect a deputy speaker from the opposition bench; ensure equal opportunity for members of the treasury and opposition benches to debate and discuss national issues; elect opposition members as chairmen of about half the parliamentary committees; form parliamentary committees for the under-privileged people; and prepare a ‘code of conduct’ for the parliamentarians, said the draft charter.
   They said there should be a provision to enable the voters of any constituency to recall a parliament member if he is corrupt or inefficient.
   Hafuzuddin Khan, Khan Sarwar Murshed and Iftekharuzzaman of the TIB, former chief election commissioner Justice Abdur Rouf, Professors Dilara Chowdhury and Dalem Chandra Barman also participated in the discussion.

The police foiled a human chain programme of Ganasanghati Andolan in Muktangan in Dhaka on Thursday.
   The police foiled the attempt at holding the programme by the party activists by keeping Muktangan surrounded from the morning.
   The Ganasanghati Andolan organised the programme
   to protest against the military-controlled interim government’s plan to lease offshore blocks to the multinational companies and formulate the coal policy.
   The leaders and activists of the party held a protest rally in front of Moni Singh-Farhad Smriti Trust Bhaban at the Paltan crossing the same day.
   The central coordinator of the party, Zonayed Saki, said the government was planning to lease offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal ignoring the national interest.
   ‘The caretaker government is not entitled to sign such deals. Only an elected government can deal with it, taking into account the national interest,’ Zonayed said.
   He also urged the government not to finalise the proposed coal policy which goes against people’s interest.
   Chaired by Zonayed Saki, the rally was addressed, among
   others, by central leaders
   Abul Hasan Rubel and Abu Bakar Ripan, and Chhatra Federation president Ariful Islam and general secretary Mahboob Iran.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has primarily unearthed massive corruption and irregularities where government property worth Tk 200 crore might have been illegally handed over to two private organisations.
   The ACC director general (admin), Colonel Hanif Iqbal, told the commission’s regular briefing Thursday afternoon that a special team constituted to look into graft in the land ministry had found out the irregularities involving Basundhara Housing and Borak Builders.
   He said the special ACC team that started work on September 15 was now investigating the two cases of irregularities — one involving exchange of government land with the Basundhara Housing and the other relating to construction of a multi-storey building by the Borak Builders on the government land leased to the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.
   According to the special team, a file is under process in the land ministry relating to exchange of 80.29 acres of non-agricultural government land in seven mouzas under the Gulshan police area with 85 acres of land bought by Basundhara in three mouzas of Dhaka’s Keraniganj upazila.
   During the process of the file, the Basundhara Housing illegally carried out earth filling on the 80.29 acres of government land, sold out plots and handed those over to different individuals and organisations.
   Due to such action, it is primarily estimated that government property worth Tk 100 crore can go out of hand.
   The ACC team is now engaged in writing letters to different government offices to examine the matter thoroughly.
   About construction of a multi-storey building by the Borak Builders on the government land leased to the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the ACC team found out that in 1979, then deputy commissioner of Dhaka at the directive of the land ministry leased 0.82 acre of land to the society for 30 years in Kakrail mouza, the prime zone in the capital.
   In 2001, the society applied for permanent allocation for constructing a multi-storey building on that land. But in 2004 the land ministry turned down the application and cancelled the lease.
   Later, ignoring the land ministry, the society applied again to the Dhaka deputy commissioner for permanent allocation of the piece of land. Then deputy commissioner Abdus Sattar along with permanent allocation gave the permission for constructing an 18-storey building. The DC allegedly had done this through abuse of power without informing the land ministry.
   Following the permanent allocation, the society signed an ‘unequal’ agreement with the Borak Builders — 75 per cent for Borak and 25 per cent for the society in the project. In light of the agreement, Borak constructed a 20-storey building on the government land though Rajuk had approved construction of a 14-storey building including basements.
   As a result, the government property worth about Tk 100 crore has been handed over to a private organisation, Colonel Hanif said, adding that the matter was being examined thoroughly with due importance.
   Replying to a question, he said the primary inquiries on the two matters were on and it would be known upon completion of the inquiries who were the individuals and what were the wrongdoings involved. ‘Legal action will be taken against those involved.’
   Asked about ACC’s earlier decision not to take many land-related complaints into consideration on grounds that those were outside their schedules, Hanif said that in the two cases, the commission was working as loss of the state is involved. ‘These are offences under ACC schedule. The ACC does not work if the crimes are not under its schedule.’
   About taking action against the so-called land grabbers, he said the ACC in no way could ignore those who were involved with the loss of the state.
   About land-related complaints from members of the public, Colonel Hanif said that mere lodging of complaints was not enough, there should be prima facie (on its first appearance) evidence for the ACC to work on.

The union parishad members of Puthia upazila in Rajshahi laid siege to the upazila nirbahi officer’s office on Thursday as they did not get the money for ‘Karmosrijon Project’.
   According to the sources, all the members of the upazila laid siege to the UNO office at noon as they did not get the money to be distributed among the labourers working under the project.
   The members alleged that the project official, Fazlur Rahman had not yet handed over the money to the members even two and a half weeks after the project started.
   They threatened to launch a tough agitation programme against the project official and the UNO if they did not solve the problem by Saturday.
   ‘As the official has not handed over the money, we cannot distribute it among the labourers’, Azizur Rahman, a member, said, adding that the labourers were creating pressure on them.
   Fazlur Rahman said after constituting a separate file he had sent it to the UNO, Kazi Anwar.
   But Kazi Anwar said he was yet to receive any file in this connection.
   ‘I will take steps in this regard soon after getting the file,’ he said.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has so far put forward 143 names of corrupt individuals to the Truth and Accountability Commission for considering their clemency applications in return for their ill-gotten wealth.
   Speaking at the commission’s regular briefing, the ACC director general (admin), Colonel Hanif Iqbal, said 15 names were sent Thursday taking the number to 143 from 128.
   He said another 30 applications were under process for sending to the TAC.
   Asked whether the name of the only politician who applied for referring his name to the TAC was there among the 15 sent Thursday, Hanif replied in the negative.
   He also said a case was filed Wednesday with the Tejgaon police station against former managing director of Essential Drugs Company Ltd Harun Al Rashid for causing a loss of Tk 15.82 lakh to the national exchequer.
   Besides, Hanif said, the commission has approved the filing of a case against UD assistant of Chittagong Customs House Rafiqul Islam Patwary and his wife Shahin Akhter for having unearned wealth worth Tk 66.3 lakh and hiding information of assets worth Tk 51.37 lakh.
   He said the ACC has approved the submission of charge-sheets against ex-postal operator (suspended) and assistant postmaster (suspended) in three graft cases. Three separate cases were filed against the duo for misappropriating a total of Tk 9.28 lakh deposited by subscribers.
   The ACC spokesperson said the commission had approved the issuance of notices to Roads and Highways Department superintending engineer Habibur Rahman and his wife Fatema Khairun Nesa directing them to submit their wealth statements.

Jurists and lawyers on Thursday called for a concerted and united effort to uphold the spirit of the constitution of the republic and the rights enshrined in it for a brighter future of the nation.
   They were addressing a discussion organised in remembrance of late Justice Naimuddin Ahmed by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium.
   ‘We all will have to make efforts in concert to uphold the values and ideals for which Justice Naimuddin Ahmed struggled all his life…It is an imperative today when the society is at a crossroads that we foster great ideals and values’, said politician and jurist Kamal Hossain who presided over the discussion.
   He said that the judiciary was the custodian of the constitution. ‘But we should not forget that every citizen has a role to play in upholding the constitution and rights enshrined in it.’
   ‘The liberation war in 1971 gave us a chance to steer the nation towards a brighter future. But over the last 37 years, evil forces have infiltrated into different sectors, launched attacks on progressive forces at different times and hindered the nation’s march forward. However, today we have a chance again to unite and steer the nation in the right direction’. Kamal said.
   The meeting was also addressed, among others, by former chief justice ATM Afzal, Justice Mohammad Badruzzaman, Justice Awlad Ali, former ambassador Waliur Rahman, also director of the Bangladesh Institute for Law and International Affairs, former executive director of BLAST Taslimur Rahman and Justice Naim’s son Naim Sultan, also a professor at Jahangirnagar University.
   Terming Justice Naimuddin Ahmed a person of absolute integrity and strong morals, Justice ATM Afzal said, ‘His contribution to the field of law, especially in imparting training to judges, was beyond comparison. He dedicated his life to the cause of helpless people, especially in providing the underprivileged with legal assistance’, said.
   Justice Badruzzaman said, ‘Justice Naimuddin never compromised with the evil forces. Even a few months before his death he was intimidated for criticising the policies of the caretaker government in his columns in newspapers. But he did not bow to the threats.
   Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, who was also vice-chairman of BLAST, died on July 30, 2008.
   On his retirement as a judge of the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court in 1988, Naimuddin Ahmed was made a member of the Law Commission. He was an election commissioner during the first caretaker government under Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed in 1991.

An ultra-left party operative was killed in a gunfight between his associates and the police in Kushtia on Wednesday.
   The deceased was Majid, commander of Gana Mukti Fauz. The police conducted a raid on Alampur Baliapara in sadar upazila.
   The ultra-left men fired on lawmen, who fired back, killing Majid on the spot.
   His associates got away. The police recovered a gun and six bullets from the spot.
   Majid was wanted in 24 cases, said the police.