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While Awami League is divided over the idea of two top leaders, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, sitting across the table to discuss crucial problems the country is facing, the BNP leadership is sceptical about the outcome of such talks.
   Rafique-ul Huq, counsel for both Hasina and Khaleda, initiated the move to organise a meeting between the two leaders at a neutral venue. Later the interim administration requested him to persuade them to sit across the table with the government.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is reportedly willing to join the talks unconditionally with her archrival, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, and the latter also initially welcomed the move but said she would make a decision after she returns home and consults her party leaders.
   ‘They should sit together in the interest of the country and democracy’, Barrister Rafique said at the Supreme Court Bar Association on September 9.
   He said on September 21, ‘I have talked with both Hasina and Khaleda over telephone and they have welcomed the move. Khaleda Zia has told me that she is ready to join the dialogue, without any condition, at a neutral place. Hasina has also welcomed the move and said that she would talk with me on the issue after consulting her party’s leaders on her return from the United States.’
   When asked if there was any specific agenda for the proposed dialogue, Rafique, said, ‘There is no specific agenda. As a citizen, I think enough is enough. There has been enough squabbling. The Awami League and the BNP have to stop this and work together in the interest of the country.’
   ‘The two top leaders do not talk to one another. Such a political culture must be changed. They should work for the nation’, he added.
   Rafique also mentioned that there might be some other move on behalf of the government to get Hasina and Khaleda to sit across the table.
   The commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, said on September 11, ‘We are trying to get the two leaders to sit across the table to create an atmosphere of trust, and introduce a new mode in politics.’
   The Awami League leadership set a number of conditions for the holding of the proposed meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.
   The acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman on September 13 said Hasina would make a decision on whether to sit with Khaleda only after she [Hasina] obtains a regular bail. ‘Sheikh Hasina, when she will be as free as Khaleda, will take a decision on a meeting with the BNP chief. But Hasina will not talk with anyone until she is permanently released.’
   On September 14, Awami League presidium member Suranjit Sengupta set two conditions for talks between Hasina and Khaleda, saying that the BNP chief would have to apologise for the ‘misrule’ of her regime, including the August 21 grenade attack, before the meeting.
   Syed Ashraful Islam, the general secretary of the party, said the party forum would take a decision in this regard after Hasina’s return. ‘We have not received a formal invitation from the government… We will take a decision after the government approaches us’, he said on September 16.
   On September 23, BNP standing committee member M Saifur Rahman said the proposed dialogue between Khaleda and Hasina might give the people a respite, but, he felt, it would not produce any tangible result, according to United News of Bangladesh.
   Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, joint secretary general of the party, on Wednesday said, ‘It would be better for the people and the democracy if the two leaders could meet together upon their own initiatives as there are great differences between the political cultures of the two parties.’
   ‘However, the initiative by an individual for a meeting between them is a positive step’, he said. ‘But the meeting would not produce any tangible results for the nation if it is held under the auspices of the [incumbent] government as it has many agendas which it wants to be approved by the two leaders and the next parliament, including legitimacy to its actions.’
   There has reportedly been a move to keep both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina off politics after the military-controlled government assumed office in January 2007 on the heels of a political confrontation mainly between the then ruling BNP-led alliance and the Awami League-led opposition camp.
   The army-led joint forces arrested scores of leaders, including Sheikh Hasina in May 2007, and Khaleda Zia in September 2007. Hasina was temporarily released on June 11, 2008 for treatment overseas and Khaleda was released on September 11on bail granted by the court.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rafique-ul Huq, now in focus for his move to bring the two top archrival leaders, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, across the table, on Wednesday expressed his disappointment about the move as the state attorney opposed Hasina’s bail petition.
   ‘How will a paroled Hasina sit with the free Khaleda?’ Rafique, also the chief counsel for both the leaders, told reporters after coming out of the court moving the petition filed by Hasina seeking bail in the Tk 5 crore extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali.
   They must be put on a balance for the proposed dialogue, he said, adding Hasina should return home as a free person, being released on bail.
   The High Court earlier posted for September 29 its ruling on Hasina’s petition for bail in the extortion case after it had ended hearings on Wednesday.
   ‘I am trying to sit the two top leaders across the table and the government has also told me they too want to hold dialogue with Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. But the government attorney has opposed Hasina’s petition seeking bail,’ he said.
   Expressing his disappointment, the lawyer said, ‘The law adviser has told me to obtain bail for Hasina from the High Court to facilitate the dialogue between the two top leaders.’
   ‘Now I am confused about the government’s intention. I do not know whether the attorneys go by the decision of the law ministry and the government,’ said the counsel.
   Additional attorney general Mansur Habib, who opposed the bail petition, however, told reporters, ‘The bail was sought on medical grounds, but the counsels argued Sheikh Hasina needed to be granted bail to ensure the national polls. We need to know the actual ground for the bail petition.’
   After returning home from Singapore, Rafique told New Age on September 19, ‘I talked with both the top leaders over telephone from Singapore. Both of them welcomed the move. Khaleda Zia told me she was ready for the dialogue.’
   ‘Hasina also welcomed the move and said she would talk with me on the issue after consulting her party leaders on her return from the United States,’ said Rafique.
   ‘I cannot go ahead until Sheikh Hasina comes home. In the meantime, I may talk with the government and Khaleda Zia. But no practical initiative can be taken before Sheikh Hasina’s return,’ said Rafique.
   Rafique, also the chief counsel of the two leaders, on September 9 first made the calls to Hasina and Khaleda for a dialogue in the interest of democracy, and to end mud-slinging and feud between the two parties.
   On September 11, the education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, told reporters the government would try to sit with the two top leaders.

The Truth and Accountability Commission chairman, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, has vented his frustration that no ‘big fish’ have appeared before the commission to confess to their graft and seek clemency to avoid criminal proceedings against them.
   ‘Where the big fish have all gone, we got only small fry….’ said the High Court judge, who now heads the temporary quasi-judiciary body, appointed by the military-controlled government to allow corrupt people to seek mercy giving back the ill-gotten assets to the exchequer.
   Briefing newsmen at his office on Wednesday, the TAC chairman said it should be investigated how they managed to be exempted from the present anti-corruption drive as his commission received only 252 petitions, mostly from lower-ranking public servants, confessing to their grafts.
   ‘Are the bosses of these petty offices are clean? Have the big shots never been involved in corruption?’ wondered the TAC chairman referring to general perception that it was difficult for anyone to get things done at certain public offices without bribing the officials.
   ‘How come the lower-ranking employees indulged in corruption without knowledge of their superiors’, he asked citing Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, Titas Gas, Bangladesh Telecom Company Limited (formerly Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board), National Housing authorities, Dhaka City Corporation, Local Government and Engineering Department, forest department and sectors like education and health as dens of corruption.
   ‘It should be investigated whether top officials are clean or they should be taken to task for corruption’, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan said adding the commission would be happy if they were found clean.
   In the situation, the commission is contemplating extension of the timeline for mercy seekers to file petitions.
   ‘We are thinking about extending the timeline until October 30’, said the chairman of the TAC, the tenure of which will end in December this year.
   According to the commission, 10 of the petitions came directly from individuals, 73 came through the Anti-Corruption Commission and 166 through the National Coordination Committee on Serious Crime and Corruption.
   The commission has completed hearings in 103 cases. It sent two cases back to the National Coordination Committee while acquitted four individuals as their case were not found to match the descriptions given by the NCC.
   They [the four individuals] are rather passing days in hardship.
   Justice Habib regretted that the TAC had been accused of being lenient. But the fact is that the commission finds it difficult to deal with cases referred to it by the ACC or the NCC.
   The commission faced a lot of problems in dealing with such complicated cases, he said.
   He said the TAC had acquitted four such individuals of charges as they were found really unable to return the money or assets they confessed – possibly under compulsions – to the investigation authorities they had.
   Referring to a petition from one Yusuf Ali who retired from government service in 2008 and was suffering from Perkinson’s disease, the TAC chairman said that the man was hardly in a position to pay what he had declared, possibly under certain circumstances, he had. The case was referred to the commission by the NCC, he said.
   The cases of three others acquitted of the charges were similar.
   The commission has ordered that over Tk 16.44 crore, declared by the mercy seekers, be deposited to the exchequer. About 25 per cent of the clemency seekers have already deposited their money to the government exchequer.
   The commission will start issuing mercy certificates today so that the individuals, who have confessed voluntarily to their grafts and deposited the illegal chunk of the wealth, do not face criminal charges in any court of face any investigations.
   ‘We have already printed the mercy certificate’, said the chairman of the commission.
   He responded to comments made by former adviser Akbar Ali Khan that the functions of the TAC and the ACC were parallel. ‘It is not true. Actually, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Truth and Accountability Commission are supplementary to each other’, he said adding that the TAC had no power of investigation, but it can reduce the burden of the ACC through legal process.

The components of the previous ‘grand’ alliance led by the Awami League appear to be divided over the idea of its revival in the new context, particularly with Workers Party of Bangladesh and Gana Froum expressing strong reservations about the AL’s plan to take the Ershad-led Jatiya Party and Mesbahur Rahman’s Islami Oikya Jote aboard.
   The differences became obvious after an iftar party hosted by the Awami League and attended by different political parties at Priyanka Community Centre at Dhanmondi on Wednesday.
   However, leaders of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh of former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Jatiya Party of former president HM Ershad and Liberal Democratic Party of Col (retd) Oli Ahmed were optimistic about forging a broader electoral alliance with Awami League and its traditional allies.
   Acting Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said a final decision on the issue of a ‘grand’ electoral alliance would be made after the party chief Sheikh Hasina’s return from the United States.
   Earlier, on Sunday the party declared that it would contest the upcoming parliamentary elections under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina after forging a ‘grand alliance’.
   ‘We are considering expansion of the alliance before parliamentary elections, scheduled for December 18’, Asharful said.
   Responding to a query, he said Gana Forum chief Kamal Hossain was not invited to the iftar party because [the AL] had reservations about him for some of his remarks and activities in recent times. But he said that Gana Forum was still with the grand alliance.
   Ashraful said it was a religious function and they did not consider it as a political programme. ‘The parties have responded to our invitation’, he said.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said the ‘grand’ electoral alliance was formed before the stalled January 22 elections last year and the platform became inactive later. ‘The grand alliance no longer exists… it has vanished into the air.’
   ‘In the changed circumstances a new decision will be taken about the grand alliance but our stand against the Ershad-led Jatiya Party remains the same’, he said.
   The Workers Party will work for strengthening the Awami League-led alliance but it will not be a part of an electoral alliance if formed with communal and autocratic political forces.
   Gana Forum presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya also opposed the idea of forging a broader alliance with ‘autocrat’ Ershad and ‘communal’ Islami Oikya Jote.
   He said Ershad would have to apologise for the killing of Nur Hossain, who died during the struggle against his autocratic regime if he [Ershad] wanted to join a grand alliance.
   Talking to reporters, Ershad said they had previously forged a unity against the ‘evil forces’ that had destroyed the country during their five years’ rule. ‘We have to revive the grand alliance against the same evil forces called the BNP-led coalition’, he said.
   Ershad, however, said a decision in this regard would be made after Hasina’s return.
   B Chowdhury said he had no doubt the ‘grand’ alliance would be revived and that he had no objection to taking HM Ershad aboard. He also said he had no doubt that parliamentary elections would be held on time.
   LDP leader Sheikh Razzak Ali contended that the ‘grand’ alliance remained united.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu said the alliance would have to be broadened to thwart the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s bid to return to power. Terming the BNP-Jamaat alliance as ‘killers’, he said that the main objective of forging a grand alliance was to keep the murderous forces out of state power.
   Leaders of Zaker Party, Islami Oikya Jote faction and Jatiya Party (Manju), Islami Front Bangladesh and components of the existing AL-led alliance, editors of daily newspapers, leaders of doctors’ and teachers’ communities and AL’s front organisations attended the iftar party.
   Leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh did not attend the iftar party as it ‘does not like politics using the name of religion’.
   ‘We came to know that it was an iftar party of the grand alliance… we did not attend the function as we are not a part of the alliance’, CPB general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim told New Age.
   Acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman was not present at the iftar party as he was attending another iftar party at his village home in Bhairab. Party general secretary Abdul Jalil is also visiting Azmir Sharif in India.
   It was the AL’s first get-together with its allies and sympathisers since they last met on January 10, 2007 weeks after forging a ‘grand alliance’ to contest the stalled January 22 elections last year.
   The party and its long-time allies had formed a ‘grand’ alliance on December 18, 2006 incorporating the Jatiya Party of Ershad in it ahead of the ninth parliamentary elections originally scheduled for January 22, 2007. The alliance became virtually inactive since then in a difficult time for political parties with most of their top leaders landing in jail on corruption charges.

Beijing has assured Dhaka of help in peaceful use of nuclear technology for the implementation of Rooppur nuclear power plant to meet the growing demand for energy.
   Beijing positively responded to Dhaka’s request as the interim government chief, Fakhruddin Ahmed, held meetings with the Chinese officials during his recent visit to China.
   A Bangladesh official who accompanied Fakhruddin in China said Beijing has suggested that Dhaka should examine the nuclear power plant in Pakistan, set up with Chinese assistance. Once Bangladesh is impressed with the plant, Dhaka and Beijing can start negotiation to replicate the China-Pakistan model of nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.
   The foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, on Wednesday told New Age Fakhruddin had sought Chinese cooperation for nuclear power generation in the Rooppur plant during his official talks with his counterpart Wen Jiabao and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, on September 16 in Beijing.
   He said China’s response was good to the Bangladesh proposal.
   ‘The follow-up action to this end will soon be made,’ Touhid said.
   A Bangladesh official who
   accompanied Fakhruddin during the China visit said Beijing has suggested that Dhaka should examine the nuclear power plant in Pakistan, set up with Chinese assistance. Once Bangladesh is impressed with the plant, Dhaka and Beijing can start negotiation to replicate the China-Pakistan model of nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.
   The ministry officials said Bangladesh had so far approached Russia, Japan and South Korea in connection with the nuclear power plant, was but yet to get any positive response.
   ‘Among the countries that we have approached for peaceful use of nuclear power for energy generation, Russian wants to provide technical support, Korea like to provide a portion of amount for the project and Japan’s response towards the nuclear power plant is very lukewarm as it does not provide support for such project,’ said an official.
   A document of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission said in view of the growing need for electricity against inadequate supply of local primary energy resources, the proposal for building a nuclear power project was first conceived in 1961 and the Rooppur site was selected in 1963 and 292 acres of land was acquired.
   Since then a number of feasibility studies have been conducted each of which established the project was technically and economically feasible.
   The latest feasibility study conducted in 1986-87 reconfirmed the earlier findings on technical, economic and financial viability of the nuclear project.
   Officials in Dhaka claimed Fakhruddin’s China visit had given a boost to the existing bilateral ties, forged 33 years ago, as leaders of the two countries agreed to focus on infrastructure development, and agricultural, scientific and technical cooperation apart from trade and economic ties.
   The two sides signed three deals during the visit which included economic and technical cooperation for providing additional money to build the Bangladesh-China friendship exhibition centre, exchange of hydrological information on the River Brahmapurtra during flooding season and scientific and technical cooperation in the filed of agriculture to produce hybrid seeds.
   China also assured Bangladesh of positively considering its proposal for the construction of the seventh and eighth Bangladesh-China friendship bridges over the Meghna and the Gumti to ease traffic congestion on the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway.

About 7,000 Class III employees of recently corporatised government-owned banks — Sonali, Janata and Agrani — are going to be promoted as officers soon as part of a move to satisfy both the government, World Bank and the employees concerned deprived of being promoted for long, sources in the banking sector told New Age.
   On the other hand,
   Posts of more than 3,000 Class IV employees now working with the three banks are, on the other hand, likely to be abolished in near future and their services will be outsourced from the private sector, the sources said.
   In another move, the finance ministry is likely to put restriction on the promotion from the ranks of general manager to deputy general manager while new posts of senior general manager and additional managing director are likely to be created soon, sources in the bureaucracy said.
   A voluntary retirement scheme for bank staff is also set to be put into a final form soon, it is learnt.
   Upgrade of the government-owned banks as has been done with private banks through by restructuring the existing human resources regulations with attractive remuneration is the prime objective of the ongoing moves, a finance ministry official said.
   ‘Competing with banks in the private sector is our main objective, as desired by the World Bank and the government,’ an Agrani Bank director told New Age.
   The finance ministry has recently asked the managements of all the three banks to prepare an officer-based organogram for each bank to rid them of the tyranny of trade unionism, the sources said.
   The managements of all the banks concerned had talks with the leaders of their trade unions, who frustrated at no promotion for long are learnt to have given green signal to the bank managements.
   The leaders, however, sought assurance of promotion and attractive package for the implementation of government-WB plan.
   ‘Trade union leaders will accept the offer of being promoted if remuneration package becomes good for them,’ a managing director told New Age.
   The World Bank has for long been pressing the government to bring about reforms in the government-owned banks, offer voluntary retirement scheme, recruit efficient manpower with higher remuneration and eliminate the strong influence of trade unionism.
   The collective bargaining agents of three banks have for long been identified as one of the major deterrents to the ill-health of the three banks, bank officials said.
   Rampant corruption by bank officers and influence of political leaders on giving bank loans to the people of their choice have, however, remained unattended both by the World Bank and the government, it is learnt.
   The board of directors and managements of three banks still enjoy no independence in hiring, firing and formulating policy to run banking business efficiently, sources alleged.
   The bank managements, as before corporatisation, need to obtain permission from the finance ministry for almost all the cases which hampers the planned growth of the banks, it is also learnt.
   Banking positions such as cashier, field assistant, computer operator, lower division assistants and upper division assistants are some of the posts which are treated as Class III employees.
   The positions could be renamed as assistant officer, junior officer and officer, the sources said.
   As for abolition of the positions of Class IV employees, it is learnt posts falling vacant because of retirement will be filled up from private companies.
   The Class IV employees willing to accept the planned voluntary retirement scheme have been advised to form new companies so that they could be recruited in the banks again, said a general manager of the Agrani Bank.
   ‘The dialogue with Class IV employees are going on and the outcome is likely to be positive,’ the general manager told New Age on Wednesday.
   A trade union leader at the Janata Bank said they were in a dilemma as they had been deprived of being promoted for long and the present situation did not allow them to hold any meeting or congregation.
   ‘We are waiting for a democratic environment,’ a union leader told New Age.
   A finance ministry official, however, said the entire process should be completed by December.
   Panic, meanwhile, gripped people in the banks who fear forced retirement, but a bank chairman brushed aside any such fears.
   ‘Till date, no decision on forced retirement has been made and as far as I know no such incident will take place,’ the Janata Bank chairman, Sohel Ahmed Chowdhury, told New Age on Wednesday. ‘Only the people willing to go for voluntary retirement scheme will be considered… The package is likely to be finalised soon.’
   The finance ministry officials confirmed the view of Sohel, who is also a former commerce secretary.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Wednesday said his party would consider expanding the alliance led by the party if would become necessary for electoral polarisation.
   He also brushed aside the idea of forming a grand alliance led by the Awami League again, saying they had formed the alliance much ago and it was nothing new.
   He also iterated that the final decision on the BNP’s contesting the polls or registering with the Election Commission would be made after meetings with the alliance partners and when it would be required.
   Delwar again termed the opinions of the party’s vice-chairman MK Anwar his ‘personal views.’
   Delwar made the remarks after an iftar party of the party’s Mohammadpur unit at Lalmatia. The party’s standing committee members Khandakar Mahbubuddin Ahmed and Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui also attended the iftar party. Confusion was rife in the BNP after MK Anwar on Tuesday told reporters the party would register with the Election Commission under the revised provisions of the Representation of the People (amendment) Ordinance. Delwar in the evening on Tuesday branded the opinions as Anwar’s personal views and on Wednesday said, ‘Everybody should not talk about policy decisions.’

Some unknown quarters seem to have unleashed a clandestine propaganda against some Supreme Court judges, especially against those who have granted bail to politicians sued on corruption allegations, blaming them for corruption.
   The propaganda first came to light on September 20 when posters were seen in different city places naming some Supreme Court judges as ‘most corrupt.’
   Leaflets have also been circulated in different city areas on the same issue. In some areas, the leaflets were found inserted in newspapers in recent days, said a number of people who received such in the newspapers they buy.
   The authorities of the newspapers concerned, however, said they had not inserted any such leaflets in newspapers.
   On September 21, a crude bomb was exploded at the residence of a Supreme Court judge in the Judges’ Complex at Kakrail in Dhaka. The next day, some reporters asked the family of a Supreme Court judge about a rumour of a gunshot in the house.
   The leaflets, circulated in the name of Conscience Citizens, read: ‘Question to the conscience of the judges? Why the corrupt are out of jail? Want to know from the judges. Do the judiciary have the right to cause insecurity to people by freeing the corrupt and terrorists in the name of justice? What will be the future of the peace-loving people, if the corrupt and godfathers are freed?’
   Questioning the recent High Court orders granting bail to a number of politicians sued on corruption charges, the leaflet said, ‘By granting bail to the corrupt en masse, the politically benefited judges have set a scandalous precedence.’
   Although the leaflets did not specify the identity of the people behind, the posters were issued in the name of ‘Purba Bangla Communist Party (Lal Pataka)’ while the outfit writes its name as ‘Purba Banglar Communist Party (M-L).’
   Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rafique-ul Huq, who moved the bail petitions of most of the politicians including Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, meanwhile, argued the ‘politicians have been granted bail by the High Court following due process of law.’
   ‘As the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission have failed to follow laws in suing them and also in investigating the cases, the judges concerned were left with no option but to grant bail,’ Rafique observed.

The director-general of the Department of Environment has requested the secretaries to all the ministries to take steps so that noise pollution in the city can be reduced significantly.
   ‘A significant number of vehicles of the country is owned by the government, and if their drivers use the horns judiciously, noise pollution in the metropolitan cities can be reduced considerably,’ said the semi-official letter sent to the secretaries to all the ministries by Khandakar Rashidul Haque, director-general of the Department of Environment, on September 3.
   ‘You [secretaries] are requested to see whether the drivers of the cars are using the horns unnecessarily. If they are, please ask them to stop doing so,’ he wrote.
   ‘Please request all of your colleagues and advise them not to do so, and issue directives to all the organizations under your ministry to abide by the rules in this regard,’ the letter added.
   The letter also mentioned that various types of awareness campaign against noise pollution have been launched by the department already.
   ‘You know that the major cities of the country are victims of noise pollution and the Dhaka city’s situation is the worst at present. Severe noise pollution can even cause death,’ he wrote.
   The Department of Environment filed cases against a number of vehicles, including buses, mini-buses and cabs, in the city in the past week for noise pollution.
   The cases were filed under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983 during the DoE’s four-day awareness campaign against noise pollution.
   After Ramadan a massive drive will be launched and action will be taken against those who violate the Noise Pollution (Control) Rules 2006, said the DoE official, adding that the rules do not allow people to use horns, whose sound level is over 85 decibels, on the main thoroughfares.
   There is a strict restriction on using horns near the educational institutes and hospitals, but the people continue to violate the rules as they are not aware of them, he said.

Pakistan’s army said Wednesday that it was investigating the crash of a suspected unmanned US spy plane near the Afghan border amid claims by tribesmen they had shot it down.
   Separately Pakistani air strikes on a militant tunnel network in another frontier tribal region killed 20 Taliban, as military operations continued in the wake of the deadly weekend bombing of a top Islamabad hotel.
   The air strikes happened in the troubled district of Bajaur, where a major army operation launched in August has killed more than 800 people — most of them militants — and displaced 300,000 civilians.
   In a further sign of the unrest gripping the country, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military vehicle in the southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing a girl and injuring 13 people.
   The drone crash late Tuesday in the South Waziristan tribal zone, a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, came as tensions grew between Washington and Islamabad over US missile strikes and incursions on Pakistani soil.
   ‘A surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle, while flying over the Pak-Afghan border on Tuesday night, crash-landed on this side of the border... apparently due to malfunctioning,’ a Pakistani military spokesman said in a statement.
   ‘The wreckage of the UAV has been recovered from the site by the security forces personnel and the matter is under detailed investigation,’ the spokesman said.
   It did not say who the drone belonged to but security officials said it was an American aircraft.
   The Pentagon said it had no report of any crash, while the CIA declined to comment. ‘We have no reports of any loss of Department of Defence drones,’ said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright.
   Pakistani officials said troops had not fired on the drone and that intelligence operatives had no reports of any gunfire when the vehicle was shot down.
   But residents in the town of Angoor Adda, where the spy plane crashed, insisted tribesmen shot it down.
   Public anger has mounted in Pakistan over an increase in US missile strikes in recent weeks, and the subject came up during talks in New York on Tuesday between the US president, George W Bush, and Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari.
   Pakistani tribesmen have come to fear the sound of US drones flying over their villages near the Afghan border, knowing they often presage deadly missile attacks targeting Islamist militants.
   Residents said the unmanned aircraft resumed flights over South Waziristan and neighbouring North Waziristan on Wednesday morning. They also launched sorties over the wreckage of the downed drone.
   In North Waziristan, tribesmen perched on hills opened fire on another spy plane that flew low over the militant hot-spot district of Mir Ali, residents and local government officials said.
   The crash came two days after Pakistani officials said troops opened fire to repel two US helicopter gunships that crossed into North Waziristan.
   South Waziristan was the scene on September 3 of the first officially acknowledged operation by US forces on Pakistani soil, in which 15 people were killed.
   Pakistan is already on high alert following a suicide truck bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday, which killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 260.
   In the Bajaur tribal region further north, security officials said jets and helicopter gunships pounded underground militant tunnels, killing 13 militants overnight and another seven Wednesday morning.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday announced it would by October decide on Petrobangla’s proposal for an increase in gas price by about 66 per cent.
   The commission, a quasi-judicial body, held a public hearing in its office where stakeholders gave their opinions in favour and against the gas price increase. Some stakeholders asked how members on the staff of Petrobangla companies received additional bonuses when Petrobangla said it incurred losses by selling gas to consumers.
   ‘After reviewing opinions, suggestions and recommendations of the stakeholders and their post-hearing submission of views and analysis, we will give a verdict on gas price increase by October,’ the commission chairman, Golam Rahman, said at the hearing.
   Golam told New Age they would increase gas price, but they would determine by October how much the price could be increased.
   Energy experts and Petrobangla officials recommended increase in gas price, which was last increased in 2005, while representatives of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Transparency International, Bangladesh and different business associations opposed the proposal for gas price increase.
   Officials of the Power Development Board and the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, on the other hand, said any increase in gas price would put power and fertiliser sectors in further trouble as production cost would increase.
   According to the Petrobangla proposal, gas price for domestic use should be increased to Tk 550 for a single burner from the existing rate of Tk 350, to Tk 600 for a double-burner from Tk 400 and to Tk 208 a unit for metered gas from Tk 133.
   Petrobangla also proposed the gas price for power and fertiliser plants should go up to Tk 93.73 a unit from Tk 76.91 and Tk 63.48, for industries and captive power plants to Tk 182.25 from Tk 148.13 and Tk 105.59 and for commercial use to Tk 291.54 from Tk 233.12.
   Participants asked Petrobangla officials questions to find out the justification of Petrobangla proposal for gas price increase while Petrobangla officials also asked stakeholders questions on different aspects of their opposition.
   The Petrobangla officials said because of low gas price at consumer level, the corporation was incurring losses and its cumulative loss stood at about Tk 1,905 crore.
   They said if gas price was not increased as proposed by the corporation, it would not be able to invest in producing more gas and in finding new gas. They said the current shortfall of 200mmcfd of gas would increase further if no new gas was found.
   As an expert-witness in the hearing, Professor Nurul Islam of the Institute of Appropriate Technology of BUET said gas price should be increased, but before that the level of increase in gas prices for different companies —production, transmission and distribution — should be set.
   He said the share of gas of international oil companies in total gas, which was 21 per cent in 2003, had increased to 49 per cent in recent times, resulting in the increase in the cost of gas supply by Petrobangla.
   Nurul Islam suggested the government should specify how much subsidy it would give to consumers once the gas price is increased.
   Consumer Association of Bangladesh representative Shamsul Alam opposed the Petrobangla proposal, saying any increase in gas price would result in an increase in prices of essential goods at a time when people are grappling with soaring prices.
   He also asked why Petrobangla was asking for gas price increase when the members on the staff of its get additional incentive bonuses worth lakhs of takas.
   State-run Power Development Board officials also wondered about the bonuses that the Petrobangla companies get.
   The Transparency International representative claimed crores of taka was being misappropriated in the name of system loss in gas sector.
   The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association representative said they did not get gas at the required pressure although Petrobangla companies take gas bills in keeping with the contract. ‘We get gas at 1–3PSI although we have contract with Titas that we will get gas at 10PSI. Titas is collecting bills at the rate of 10PSI. We are ready to pay higher gas bills if Petrobangla could ensure that we will get gas at the required pressure.’
   The regulatory commission officials said they would take into account the gas pressure issue.
   Representatives of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said industries would lose international market if gas price was increased as their cost of production of export items would increase.
   The BCIC representative said the cost of fertiliser production would increase by Tk 1200 a tonne if the gas price was increased at the proposed rate. ‘Fertiliser factories are struggling because of the government-administered price of urea at the consumer level. A further increase in production cost will ultimately hurt agriculture,’ he observed.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Tuesday underscored accelerating different health projects and programmes with further focus on maternal health and said the projects should be completed in shortest time.
   The head of the caretaker government made the remark when the UNFPA executive director, Thoraiya Obaid, called on him at his Barclay New York Hotel suite on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly.
   Fakhruddin expressed his happiness that the UNFPA in line with the government’s
   priority continues to focus on safe motherhood, social and reproductive health information, family planning and
   services for adolescents and youth.
   He also appreciated the UNFPA campaign ‘End Fistula’ that has helped Bangladesh in the treatment of the disease in government hospitals.
   The UNFPA executive director said the UNFPA was thinking of setting up a centre of excellence in Bangladesh to help the country attain MDGs in this area.
   The chief adviser said emphasis should be given on primary and community health services, birth control and training of midwives.
   He said birth attendance services should be brought closer to people.
   Recalling the Bangladesh’s excellent and cooperative relations with UNFPA for a long time, Fakhruddin said the UN organisation had supported the country in its national capacity building to implement
   the MDGs.
   Chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, who was present at the meeting, briefed the newsmen.
   Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations Ismat Jahan was also present at the meeting.

The High Court on Wednesday posted for September 29 its ruling on the petition filed by former premier Sheikh Hasina, seeking bail in the Tk 5 crore extortion case filed against her by businessman Noor Ali.
   The High Court vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice M Rais Uddin also asked Hasina’s counsels to submit some certified copies of the both the Appellate Division’s and the High Court Division’s orders that had granted bail to politicians on grounds of health.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, who is now in the United States for medical treatment after being released by an executive order on June 11, filed the petition seeking bail in the case on September 21.
   Moving the petition, her chief counsel, Rafique-ul Huq, told the court that Hasina should be granted bail on health grounds as she was suffering from severe ear and eye ailments.
   Rafique argued that the Appellate Division had earlier granted bail to several persons, including rights activist Sigma Huda and former premier Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, on health grounds.
   He also mentioned some current orders issued by the High Court granting bail on health grounds to high-profile corruption suspects, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, her two sons and others.
   ‘Both the government and I are trying to persuade the two archrival top leaders, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, to sit at the same table,’ said the counsel. ‘But how can a paroled Hasina sit with a free Khaleda?’
   The additional attorney-general, Monsur Habib, opposed the bail petition, saying that the medical report submitted by Hasina’s counsel was issued in June, and the government, because of the report, released her by an executive order for treatment abroad.
   ‘Sheikh Hasina, while staying abroad on medical grounds, is making political statements and attending meetings and marriage ceremonies,’ said the state attorney.
   The present health condition of Sheikh Hasina has to be ascertained by forming a fresh medical board to test her before the court can consider her bail petition, he argued.
   If she wants to seek bail, she must appear in the court like her party’s general secretary, Abdul Jalil, who was granted bail after he appeared in the court during his parole, Monsur contended.
   The Unique Group’s managing director, Noor Ali, lodged the case with the Tejgaon police station on June 13, 2007, accusing Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury of extorting Tk 5 crore from him.
   The three were accused of taking Tk 5 crore for helping Ali’s firm win a contract of the Power Development Board in 1997.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Hasina at Sudha Sadan, her residence, on July 16, 2007 and sent her to jail on the same day, showing her arrested in a Tk 2.99 crore ‘extortion’ case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury with the Gulshan police station on June 13, 2007.
   She was later shown arrested in the extortion case filed by Noor Ali.
   The High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman on September 16 granted bail to Hasina in the Azam case, now under trial at a Special Judge’s Court set up in the Jatiya Sangsad complex. The court also stayed, till October 19, the proceedings of the case.

The BanglaLion Communications, BRAC BDmail Network Ltd and the Augere Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Ltd won licences for establishment, operation and maintenance of broadband wireless access services.
   The three companies will provide broadband wireless internet services through WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) technology which allows wireless data to travel over long distances by various means, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access.
   In exchange for Tk 215 crore each, the three firms won the bid held at the Radisson Water Garden Hotel. The bidding began at about 11:30 am continued till about 3:45 pm.
   The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission organised the auction.
   Other firms vying for licences are the Bangladesh Internet Exchange Ltd, Clearstream-Ranks (BD) Ltd, Mango Teleservices Ltd, P1 Consortium, TelStar Commu-nications Ltd and VTEL Bangla.
   The chief adviser’s special assistant MA Malek, who is in charge of the posts and telecommunications ministry, attended the auction. The BTRC chairman, Manzurul Alam, vice-chairman Hasan Mahmood Delwar, commissioner SM Monir Ahmed, commissioner Aliwardy Khandkar and the posts and telecommunications secretary, Iqbal Mahmud, were present.
   ‘It is a milestone in the history of telecoms in Bangladesh. The operators from now on will be able to provide subscribers with internet services through WiMAX technology,’ MA Malek said. ‘It, however, would not be expanded throughout the country overnight. People will need to be acquainted with the technology first. This is why the people will also need to be trained. The government is planning on how people would be trained. We are also thinking about training programmes through the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training in Gazipur.’
   Asked whether subscribers will be benefited in terms of internet charge, he said, ‘This is for the commission to monitor. The commission did not have the full regulatory powers in the past, but from now on the commission will look in the issue.’
   Calling on the winners to roll out the internet network up to rural areas, the commission chairman said, ‘The main objective of allowing private companies to use WiMAX technology is to enable rural people to have the internet facility.’
   The commission has estimated that the number of internet users in the country will cross one crore once the three companies starts functioning.
   The telecoms regulatory commission on August 30 invited applications from entrepreneurs and it set September 11 for the last deadline for the submission of applications. Twelve bid documents were sold; but nine of them took part in the auction.
   According to the licence conditions, the winners will set up at least 90 base stations in the first year and the entire country will need to be brought under the WiMAX network in three years.
   The licence acquisition fee, set by the commission auction, will be supplemented by an annual licence fee of Tk 3 crore.

The Election Commission is going to set up about 10,000 new polling stations across the country for both the upcoming parliamentary and upazila elections in addition to the 29,978 polling centres used in the 2001 general elections.
   ‘We are planning to use the same polling stations for both national and upazila elections, and for this reason the commission will increase the number of polling stations to 40-42 thousand,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told a group of reporters on Wednesday.
   In the last general elections held on October 1, 2001, a total of 29,978 polling stations were used for 7,50,00,656 voters. This time the number of voters is over eight crore. A polling station has usually five booths with facilities for secret balloting for an average number of 2,500
   voters.
   At least 15 days before the polling day, the EC will publish in an official gazette the final list of polling stations, specifying those where the electors of particular areas will be entitled to vote.
   As part of its preparatory task for the ninth parliamentary elections, the EC has already compiled a draft list of polling stations for each constituency.
   According to the rules, a polling station must be set up in a public building with facilities for secret balloting for an average of 2,500 voters, and under no circumstances should it be housed in a place that is under the influence of any candidate or political party. Easy despatch of election materials to the polling station, arrangement for their safe and proper storage, easy movement of the polling personnel, convenience of voters and sufficient accommodation will also determine the selection of a polling station, say the rules.
   Sakhawat on Wednesday said the submission of nomination forms for both the parliamentary and upazila elections might be completed in a single day, but the scrutiny could be completed within a day or two thereafter.
   Replying to a question, he said the additional deputy commissioners would act as returning officers in the upazila elections.
   The EC on Wednesday received the first consignment of transparent ballot boxes from Canada and soon started sending them to some district election offices in Dhaka division.
   The joint secretary of the EC Secretariat, Rafiqul Islam, and deputy election commissioner for the Dhaka Division, Biswas Lutfar Rahman, received the first consignment of 36,000 ballot boxes out of some 2.40 lakh on behalf of the EC.
   Election commissioner Sakhawat told reporters that one trainer from the Canadian company would train 30 people to introduce the use of the imported ballot boxes.
   ‘The trainer will initially conduct a training programme for one hour for 30 people to teach them how to use the transparent ballot boxes,’ he said.

Two planets about 300 light years from Earth slammed into each other recently, US astronomers said Tuesday, the first time evidence of such a catastrophic collision has been seen by scientists.
   Astronomers from the University of California, Los Angeles and the California Institute of Technology said the crash involved two planets orbiting a star in the Aries constellation.
   The collision was uncovered while astronomers were attempting to measure the star’s age, and found an unusually large amount of dust orbiting the star.
   ‘It’s as if Earth and Venus collided with each other,’ said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy.
   ‘Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system.’
   The astronomers’ research will be published in the December issue of Astrophysical Journal. The collision was an ‘ultimate extinction event’ that would have wiped out any life on either planet in minutes, the report said.
   The prospect of Earth suffering an apocalyptic collision with another planet or asteroid has been fodder for science-fiction writers and film-makers ever since Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer’s 1933 novel ‘When Worlds Collide.’
   Astronomers said however the odds of such collisions occurring remained low.
   Tennessee State University astronomer Gregory Henry
   said scientists in the United States and France have long studied the stability of planetary orbits.
   ‘Their computer models
   predict planetary motions into the distant future and they
   find a small probability for collisions of Mercury with Earth
   or Venus sometime in the next billion years or more,’ Henry said.
   Zuckerman noted, however, that collisions have occurred in our solar system’s past. ‘Many astronomers believe our moon was formed from the grazing collision of two planetary embryos, the young Earth and a body about the size of Mars, a crash that created tremendous debris, some of which condensed to form the moon and some of which went into orbit around the young sun,’ he said.

Flamboyant conservative Taro Aso took charge as Japan’s new prime minister Wednesday, pledging to work to build a ‘cheerful’ nation by reviving an economy in the doldrums.
   The divided parliament voted along party lines to install the former foreign minister, who appointed a cabinet filled with fellow conservatives including pro-spending Shoichi Nakagawa as finance minister.
   With elections expected within months, the comic book-loving Aso started the job with an unusually sombre tone. He said he would push for emergency measures to revive Asia’s largest economy, which contracted in the last quarter.
   ‘To make Japan a cheerful and strong nation — that is my mission,’ Aso said. ‘I truly feel the heavy responsibility of being prime minister.’ ‘I am especially aware of people’s worries about the economy, complaints about their everyday lives and distrust of politics,’ Aso said.
   Aso replaced Yasuo Fukuda, a mild centrist whose ratings dived after he raised medical costs for the elderly.
   The ruling Liberal Democratic Party picked Aso on Monday as its new leader by an overwhelming majority.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has congratulated Taro Aso on his election as the prime minister of Japan.
   In a message to his Japanese counterpart, the chief adviser said, ‘Your election to the highest office in Japan is a manifestation of the trust and confidence of the people of Japan has in your leadership’.

The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has taken a move for the first time to import low-cost gas oil blend to minimise the cost of diesel import.
   One lakh tonnes of gas oil blend will be imported in phases with the approval of the advisory council committee on purchase, a senior official of BPC said.
   The procurement proposal has already been sent to the committee through the ministry concerned, he said.
   ‘We want to procure the gas oil blend to mix with the diesel supplied by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. We will be able to save Tk 12 crore through the blending of the gas oil blend and diesel here,’ he said.
   ‘Gas oil blend has low percentage of sulphur and cetane while the KPC supplied diesel contains high amount of sulphur and cetane. If these two items can be blended here properly, the expenditure against diesel import will come down surely,’ he added saying that the quality of diesel will not fall with the blending.
   A Singapore-based firm has agreed to supply the gas oil blend with the premium of $4.65 per barrel, he said. BPC procures diesel from KPC with the premium of $6 per barrel.
   KPC is the major supplier of diesel and other petroleum products to BPC that annually imports 3.8 million tonnes of fuel, BPC sources said. Bangladesh needs to spend $1,800 million annually for importing fuels, mostly diesel, they said.
   The BPC, which is looking for alternative fuel sources to reduce dependence on KPC that demanded higher premium, earlier sent another proposal to the purchase committee for its approval on buying diesel, jet fuel and kerosene from a Malaysian company at a competitive price, BPC sources said.

Garment factory workers on Wednesday blocked a road stretch at Sadarghat in Chittagong suspending traffic for an hour deman- ding payment of wages in arrears and festival allowance.
   The police said several hundred workers of the Fashion Export International took to the streets at about 1:45pm, demanding payment of wages for August and September and festival allowance before Eid.
   The workers called off the barricade after the police and the factory management had assured them of paying the wages and the allowance before Eid.