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Malaysia is set to lift the ban on some 55,000 Bangladeshi jobseekers waiting for jobs there, said the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, on Thursday.
   The Malaysian government on March 10 cancelled the visas of more than 55,000 Bangladeshi workers on the plea of the adverse impact of the global economic recession.
   ‘I have come to know that the Malaysian parliament discussed the issue on Wednesday and gave a positive response to the proposal to lift the ban on Bangladeshi workers. I think lifting the ban is now a matter of time,’ Mosharraf told New Age.
   The minister, however, said the Malaysian government has not yet formally announced its decision.
   The foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, said most of the Malaysian parliamentarians had favoured the cause of Bangladeshi workers when the issue was brought up for discussion on Wednesday.
   He said Dhaka was waiting for an official announcement to this effect by the Malaysian government.
   When asked whether Bangladesh would get a response from Malaysia next week, Touhid said the government had instructed its mission in Kuala Lumpur to contact the local authorities to get the latest information.
   The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, and Mosharraf visited Malaysia in April and requested the authorities concerned to withdraw the restriction on Bangladeshi workers.
   The Malaysian government in March ordered the visas for 55,147 Bangladeshis, approved in 2007, to be cancelled to stave off unemployment at home, which is expected to rise to 4.5 per cent this year from 3.7 per cent in 2008.
   Malaysia’s home affairs minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said foreign labour was not needed because of the global economic crisis, adding that levies paid by Malaysian companies to recruit the workers would be refunded.
   He also said the approval for visas was given in 2007. No new approvals, he added, had been given since then.
   ‘At the time when the visas for Bangladeshis were approved, there was a real need for foreign labour. But the employers took such a long time bringing them in that the recession had set in by then,’ said Hamid.
   However, the Malaysian Employers’ Federation and other groups contend that foreign workers, who make up a fifth of the country’s workforce of 11 million, are still needed.
   Together with an estimated one million illegal workers, the expatriates work mainly for plantations, construction sites, factories and restaurants. Malaysia stopped the intake of new foreign workers in the manufacturing and service sectors in January this year.
   At present some 4,00,000 Bangladeshis still work in Malaysia, of whom 2,73,201 went there in 2007 and 1,31,762 in 2008. In 2006 the figure was only 20,467.
   They have traditionally worked in factories, restaurants and filling stations, but many have now learnt to tap rubber and harvest palm oil.
   Malaysia resumed recruiting Bangladeshi workers in August 2006 after an almost decade-long ban.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed said on Thursday that the world ‘Bismillah’ would remain on top of the constitution even if the Appellate Division upholds the High Court’s judgement that had declared illegal the Fifth Amendment to the constitution.
   ‘Neither will Bismillah be deleted from the constitution nor will one-party rule be restored in the country if the 5th Amendment to the constitution is revoked by upholding the High Court’s verdict,’ he said at a press briefing.
   Even if the Fifth Amendment is cancelled by the Appellate Division, the constitution will retain all the four fundamental principles of state policy — democracy, socialism, secularism and nationalism — that were stipulated in the original constitution framed in 1972, the minister explained.
   ‘The court’s verdict has not mentioned anything about Bismillah…As the constitution begins with a preamble, the world Bismillah will remain there at its top,’ stated Shafique Ahmed.
   He alleged that the main opposition in the parliament, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and its ally, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, were making misleading statements on the court’s judgement.
   Refuting the statement of former law minister Moudud Ahmed that the nation would plunge into anarchy if the 5th Amendment were revoked, Shafique Ahmed said the judgement in this regard was now being used to mislead the nation with self-seeking political motives.
   ‘I think everyone who upholds the spirit of the liberation war wants the Fifth Amendment to be cancelled. But those who had opposed the liberation war in 1971 and also the 1972 constitution are now raising questions against the High Court’s verdict to mislead the nation,’ he said.
   When asked whether the Fourth Amendment, through which one-party rule was enforced, was in accordance with the spirit of the liberation war, Shafique Ahmed, a technocrat minister in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet, said the basic principles of the constitution were affected to some extent by that amendment.
   The High Court, in a judgement in 2005, declared that the Fifth Amendment to the constitution was illegal. The Appellate Division, however, stayed the operation of the verdict on the same day as the BNP-led alliance government filed a petition seeking permission to appeal against the verdict.
   Shafique said the government had decided not to appeal against the High Court’s verdict as it had accepted the judgement. ‘The Awami League government wants to run the country in keeping with the ideology of our liberation war.’
   On May 4 the Appellate Division allowed the BNP’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, and three other lawyers to file a petition seeking permission to appeal in four weeks against the High Court’s verdict as the AL-led government had earlier moved the court for withdrawing the government’s petition against the judgement.
   The High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice ATM Fazley Kabir on August 29, 2005 delivered the verdict declaring illegal and void the Fifth Amendment and the Martial Law Regulations issued between August 15, 1975 and April 1979.
   The court delivered the judgement after hearing a writ petition filed over the dispute over an abandoned property, Moon Cinema, in Dhaka.
   The court, however, ‘condoned’ the work done for social development, action that is past and done, the orders cancelling the Fourth Amendment to the constitution and other acts that are not unconstitutional.
   The court also observed that the usurpation of state power through martial law proclamations, particularly by Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, Justice Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem and Ziaur Rahman, was unconstitutional.

The fiscal and monetary affairs coordination council at a meeting on Thursday sought to allay fears of inflationary pressure as it was planning to increase domestic borrowing to offset a projected five per cent budget deficit in the next fiscal year.
   The council also decided to increase borrowings from all possible sources and explore foreign funds to meet the major portion of deficit in next year’s budget and offset the impact of the on-going global recession, officials said.
   At present, the country’s revenue earnings are showing signs of decline due to global recession.
   The meeting, presided over by finance minister AMA Muhith, examined the macro-economic indicators and was convinced that making up for the 5 per cent budget deficit of the country’s gross domestic product would not push up inflation.
   The big domestic borrowing would be utilised for higher domestic production and consumption so that inflation could be kept at a tolerable level, meeting sources said.
   ‘In the next fiscal, most of the funds would be utilised in productive sector and most of the budget deficit would be met from local sources,’ said a senior official who attended the coordination council meeting at the finance ministry Thursday evening.
   The coordination council was formed on March 10, 2003 by amending the Bangladesh Bank Order 1972 that provided limited autonomy to the central bank and assigned it to coordinate crucial discussions on the government’s fiscal, monetary and exchange rate issues.
   The meeting observed that the country’s overall economy and GDP growth situation were still going strong compared to other South Asian countries, sources said.
   GDP growth in the current fiscal year has been primarily fixed at 5.9 per cent and the growth in next fiscal year has been projected at 5.5 per cent.
   The meeting also took a decision to increase money circulation from the present 17.5 per cent to 24 per cent, indicating adoption of an expansionary monetary policy by the Bangladesh Bank.
   According to the sources, the meeting agreed that the average inflation rate, which stood at 5.04 per cent in March would go up to an average 7 per cent during the next fiscal.
   Officials said the finance ministry’s macro economic wing is constantly monitoring the effects of global recession on the country’s economy.

A Chittagong court on Thursday placed arrested former director of the National Security Intelligence, Wing Commander (retd) Shahabuddin Ahmed, on a fresh six-day remand for grilling at the task force interrogation cell in Dhaka.
   The former NSI director was also shown arrested in the arms and ammunition smuggling case upon a petition filed by the investigation officer, assistant superintendent of police (CID) Mohammed Muniruzzaman.
     The police Criminal Investigation Department produced the former NSI director before the court of metropolitan magistrate Mahabubur Rahman on completion of a three-day remand and sought a fresh 10-day remand.
   The IO pointed out in his petition that Shahabuddin had tactfully dodged the questions regarding his involvement in the ever-biggest arms smuggling case during the three-day remand.
   He said NSI field officer Akbar, in his statement recorded under Section 164, confessed he has hired seven trucks for carrying the recovered arms and ammunitions as per the direction of Shahabuddin.
   ‘The former NSI director gave us no important information during three days in remand,’ the IO said adding that they needed to grill him at TFI cell to unearth the facts behind the incident.
   The public prosecutor, Kamal Uddin Ahmed, said an upper level interrogation was required to quiz the former NSI director.
   The PP said Akbar also had not given any information during two-day remand at CID but gave confessional statement before the court after being interrogated at TFI cell in Dhaka.
   ‘Shahabuddin could parry the questions tactfully during CID interrogation as he himself was an intelligence official,’ the PP said, pleading that the investigators needed to grill him at TFI cell to find out the influential quarter who were behind the arms smuggling.
   The lawyer for Shahabuddin opposed the remand prayer saying that the former NSI official might be tortured during a fresh remand.
   ‘Akbar named the former NSI director in his confessional statement after being tortured at the TFI cell,’ he alleged.
   Hearing both the sides, the magistrate granted a six-day remand to quiz the former NSI director in connection with the sensational arms recovery case, directing the investigators to cautiously interrogate him. The former NSI director was expected to be sent to TFI cell at Dhaka later on Thursday.
   Police had recovered a total of 4,930 different types of sophisticated fire arms, 27,020 hand grenades, 840 rockets, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 launching grenade tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 rounds of ammunitions while those were being off loaded on 10 trucks from two engine boats at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd on April 2, 2004.

Attack helicopters and war planes pounded suspected Taliban hideouts on Thursday as Pakistan vowed a decisive victory in the deadliest fighting to grip a northwest district in months.
   Thousands of civilians streamed out of the Taliban stronghold and former tourist paradise of Swat on foot or crammed into cars, as aid workers warned that the humanitarian crisis was escalating in the area.
   ‘A mortar shell hit the outer wall of my house last night. Luckily, we survived. I feel God has given me an opportunity I can’t miss. I’m leaving. Swat is not worth living in,’ said Nasir Jamal, a medical shop owner.
   The military said nine soldiers died in the last 24 hours in Swat, including seven killed when militants ambushed troop reinforcements at the entry to Mingora, the main town in the northwest district fast emptying of residents.
   It was one of the deadliest days for the military since government forces resumed offensives against the Taliban after they advanced further south towards the capital Islamabad, violating the terms of a February peace deal.
   The deeply controversial agreement between the government and a pro-Taliban cleric to put three million people in a wide region of northwest Pakistan under sharia law was supposed to end a nearly two-year violent Taliban uprising.
   The prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, told lawmakers from Buner, Dir, Shangla and Swat, areas where the sharia law deal applied and dogged by the worst fighting, that ‘strong measures would be taken to restore peace and order’.
   Army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani vowed victory and said the army would deploy ‘requisite resources to ensure a decisive ascendancy over the militants’ as the peace deal unravelled.
   Pakistan is under US pressure to crush militants, who Washington has called the biggest terror threat to the West and the US president, Barack Obama, has put the nuclear-armed Muslim country at the heart of the fight against al-Qaeda.
   ‘Thousands of people are emptying the area,’ a senior administration official said from Swat in reference to residents leaving Mingora, the main town, and the old Swat capital, Saidu Sharif.
   Residents said they were hard hit by both the bombardment by government forces and the guerrilla tactics of the Taliban, who have terrorised the population in Swat by kidnapping and killing their opponents.
   ‘Civilians are suffering at the hands of both the army and the Taliban. The Taliban are killing residents who don’t side with them,’ the shop owner Jamal said by telephone.
   The military said Ibne Aquil, described as a key Taliban commander leading attacks in one area was killed in a notorious Swat militant bastion on Thursday.
   A son of the pro-Taliban cleric who signed the February agreement was also killed when fighter jets bombarded an area in Lower Dir, a district adjacent to Swat, a spokesman for the cleric said.
   Maulana Kifayatullah, 50 was the eldest of Sufi Mohammad’s 12 sons, Ameer Izzat Khan said.
   The military said 10 militants, including Kifayatullah, were killed during an exchange of fire with paramilitary forces on the attack against rebels.
   Renewed clashes in Lower Dir suggested that an announcement could have been premature last month that an offensive against the Taliban had been won.
   In the same district, fighters attacked a paramilitary checkpoint and kidnapped 10 soldiers after heavy gunbattles, said the police official Falak Naz.
   Analysts said the short-lived ceasefire was over in Swat.
   ‘The militants are occupying government buildings and security forces are taking action against them, so where is the peace deal?’ political commentator Shafqat Mahmood said.
   The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that a humanitarian crisis was escalating in the northwest, where the government has made preparations for up to half a million displaced from Swat.
   The Taliban has claimed to control ‘more than 90 per cent’ of Swat.

The European Union on Thursday expressed cautious optimism about the performance of the Awami League-led government and underlined the need for healthy debates between the ruling party and opposition in parliament to deal with crucial issues.
   The ambassadors of the EU countries stationed in Dhaka came up with the views at a press conference on the eve of Europe Day to be observed Saturday.
   On the question of war crimes trial, EU head of delegation Stefan Frowein said that the EU supported the government’s move to bring the 1971 war criminals to justice as it was one of the ruling party’s election pledges.
   He, however, said the trials must follow international standard.
   The European diplomats also talked about global economic meltdown, climate change besides giving their views on government- opposition relations, counter-terrorism and extra-judicial killings.
   Dwelling on the political situation in the country, Frowein, head of the delegation and ambassador of the European Commission, said, ‘It it is important in parliamentary democracy that government and opposition work together for betterment of the country.’
   Frowein said that the government should give necessary space to the opposition, which had polled more than 30 per cent of popular votes in the last general elections, ‘and the present situation suggests that more difficulties are ahead.’
   He said discussions, debates and critical analyses of the problems should be there in a healthy democracy hoping that healthy debates and dialogues would take place in this country.
   Swedish ambassador Britt Falkman Hagstrom, who is the current chair of EU in Bangladesh, said they would like to see lively debates in parliament and solutions to the problems. Too much confrontational politics is not a solution, he added.
   About the first three months of the Awami League-led government, the European diplomats felt that it was too early to make comments but they found it so far so good.
   Frowein said, ‘Comparing with the past caretaker government it may seem that the present government is a bit slow. [It is] because the caretaker government had no parliament and bureaucrats and technocrats did [a few] things… quickly. But the present government has a “full-swing” parliament behind and it has to [go by] certain procedures and respect the interests of the vast electorates. Therefore, things are naturally a little slower.’
   Referring to their meetings with prime minister Sheikh Hasina and other ministers, the European diplomats said that they were very supportive of the government’s election manifesto and would observe how things were going in practice.
   Frowein said, ‘There is a lot of things on the plate, there have been starts and many things did not start in earnest. We are cautiously optimistic. We are supportive of the government objectives through our multilateral and bilateral programmes.’
   Swiss ambassador Mrs Britt Hagstorm, Danish ambassador Einar H Jensen, German ambassador Frank Meyke and acting British high commissioner Duncan Norman expressed almost identical views that four months were a very short time for a government elected for five years.
   When asked if the economic recession would harm the government’s ambitious targets, ambassador Frowein said indications so far showed that Bangladesh had not yet been threatened by the fallout but cautioned that the next fiscal year might be difficult for Bangladesh and, like other countries, it might be difficult to implement [everything] on the government’s agenda.
   He, however, gave an assurance that the EU would stand beside Bangladesh at difficult times and help it overcome crisis that could be caused by the recession.  He said that at the G-20 meeting in London, the EU countries insisted that the problems of developing and LDC countries must be taken into account and more aid should go to the worst-hit developing countries.
   About the human rights situation in Bangladesh and the ‘crossfire’ issue, the ambassadors said foreign minister Dipu Moni at a recent meeting in Geneva had pledged zero tolerance to extra-judicial killings but ‘if it happens we will be worried’ and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

Threats have been issued to the US embassy in Dhaka reportedly by militants.
   A message of threat was faxed Thursday afternoon to the embassy from an Asian country outside Bangladesh, a senior police officer said.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, AKM Shahidul Haque, said he had heard of the matter at night and had asked the policemen to gear up vigilance around the embassy.
   The Gulshan zone deputy commissioner, Hafiz Akter, said no additional security personnel were deployed, but the forces had been asked to keep vigil around the embassy.
   US embassy officials in Dhaka refrained from making any comments on the issue.
   The US ambassador in Dhaka, James F Moriarty, in a programme at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity on May 3 said, ‘We do have disturbing indications. There continues to be threat in Bangladesh and my government does believe that there is a threat [of Islamist militancy].’
   The comment was made only a day after the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, had said there were no such elements in Bangladesh.

The condition of Dr M Wazed Mia, husband of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a nuclear scientist, still remains unchanged.
   He has been kept under constant medical surveillance after he suffered a heart attack on Wednesday.
   ‘His condition is stable but he isn’t out of danger. It is not possible to say anything definite about a patient in his condition,’ said Dr Sanwar Hossain, director of medical services and consultant surgery of Square Hospital, while briefing newsmen on Wazed’s latest condition.
   The doctor said Wazed’s life-support system has been taken off as he has resumed breathing normally but he would be kept under close observation in the next 24 hours. He said Wazed Mia underwent MRI on Thursday. ‘We did not find anything unusual.’
   President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Hasina visited the hospital to see Wazed and inquired about his condition.
   Zillur went to the hospital at about 9:00pm and spent some time with Wazed, and Hasina visited him at about 3:25pm and sat for some time by the bedside of her ailing husband.
   Wazed has been suffering from multiple complications, including high blood pressure, renal failure, diabetes and asthma, for the past few years.
   Sanwar said Wazed was not taken abroad for better treatment as he could not be moved at such an unstable stage. He was admitted to the Square Hospital on April 7.
   Wazed, a former chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, recently underwent angioplasty at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. He also had bypass surgery in 1997.
   Ministers, state ministers and Awami League leaders thronged the hospital from the morning to see Wazed, but the hospital authorities allowed no one to see him in view of his precarious condition.
   Former president HM Ershad, deputy leader of the House Sajeda Chowdhury, LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam, PM’s health adviser Professor Syed Modasser Ali, posts and telecommunications minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, fisheries and livestock minister Abdul Latif Biswas, Dhaka city’s mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, state minister for liberation war affairs Captain (rtd) AB Tazul Islam, state minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak, whip Mirza Azam, Workers Party’s president Rashed Khan Menon MP, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin MP and Iqbalur Rahim MP, along with others, visited the hospital.

The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, and the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, on Thursday declined comments on lawmen’s carrying out extrajudicial killing even after government assurance to stop such incidents.
   A man was killed in the ‘crossfire’ with the Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka early Wednesday only a day after the ruling party spokesman, Syed Ashraful Islam, had announced no more extrajudicial killing would be allowed. Another man was killed in ‘crossfire’ with law enforcers in Rajbari on Thursday.
   Ashraful, however, refused to make any comments on the issue on Thursday. He was asked to comment about his Tuesday’s remarks and continuation of extrajudicial killing when he was talking with reporters after a programme at the Local Government Engineering Department.
   Shafique Ahmed also refused to make any comments when he was asked about the continuation of the extrajudicial killing at a press briefing held at the ministry on Thursday.
   ‘I will not make any comments as the state minister for home has already spoken on the issue,’ the law minister said, asking reporters why they did not ask about the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   The lawmen continued killing people in incidents of ‘crossfire’ despite heavy criticism at home and abroad amid repeated promise by the government that extrajudicial killing would not be allowed. The ruling Awami League in its election manifesto also pledged that it would stop such killings.
   Seventeen were killed in ‘crossfire’ after the Awami League-led alliance had assumed office on January 6.
   The state minister for home affairs, Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj, after a meeting of the ministry on Wednesday said, ‘The Awami League government will not allow any extrajudicial killing, but the law enforcers have the right to self-defence as per the constitution.’

The 148th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, who reshaped the Bangla literature in the late 19th and the early 20th century, will be observed in Bangladesh today.
   Tagore, who became Asia’s first Nobel laureate when he won the 19213 Nobel prize in literature, was a poet, playwright, novelist, educationist, social reformer, nationalist, business manager, artist and music composer.
   He was born on May 7, 1861, which was Baishakh 25, 1268 in the Bangla calendar, in an eminent zamindar family in Kolkata in India. The occasion came to be celebrated on Baishakh 25 in accordance with the date of his birth in the Bangla calendar.
   The anniversary of his birth will, however, be celebrated in West Bengal on Saturday as the Bangla calendar in use in Bangladesh was changed in 1988 in line with a modification done by a Bangla Academy committee headed by Dr Muhammad Shahidullah in 1963.
   The government, educational institutions, socio-cultural organisations, radio and television channels have chalked up programmes to mark the day.
   Newspapers will bring out special supplements featuring Tagore’s contribution to the Bangla literature and music. The electronic media will air special programmes, including soirees, recitation from his poems, discussions, film shows and dramas scripted or based on Tagore’s stories.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, said the extraordinary literature and all creative works of Rabidranath Tagore would inspire new generations.
   In a message issued on the eve of the anniversary, Zillur said, ‘Worship of truth and beauty, and expansion of values of the humanity are the main themes of his works.’
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in a message on the occasion said, ‘Rabindranath is a “lighthouse” for the Bengalis. He wandered in the hearts of the Bengalis. He was a source of inspiration in all movements, struggles, revolutions, thoughts and creativity of the Bangali nation.’
   ‘Rabindranath was an extraordinary talent with his poetic brilliance. He was a prolific author of dramas, plays, short stories and novels. He was also an artist, philosopher, singer, social reformer and educationist,’ Hasina said.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, in a message said Rabindranath Tagore had immense influence on the life of the people of Bangladesh. His works have not only enriched the Bangla literature, but have also projected it to the outside world.
   The cultural ministry will hold the national programme on the occasion in Dhaka, Shahjadpur, Patisar and Dakshidihi.
   The opening ceremony of the official programmes in Dhaka will begin at 4:30pm at the Osmani Memorial Hall.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, is scheduled to inaugurate the programme as chief guest. The cultural affairs minister, Abul Kalam Azad, will preside over the programme.

An Indian police officer credited with gunning down 112 gangsters was Thursday given his job back, nine months after he was sacked on charges of extorting millions of dollars from the underworld.
   The Mumbai police inspector Pradeep Sharma was cleared of charges that he had amassed three billion rupees (600 million dollars) from the western Indian city’s thriving underworld during his 25 years in service.
   The 48-year-old officer earned the nickname ‘encounter specialist’ for shooting 112 alleged criminals but was sacked last August after his superiors accused him of joining hands with Mumbai’s crime syndicates, officials said.
   Sharma, who was also linked to India’s most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim, denied the allegations.
   Officials said a state justice tribunal in Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, rejected the charges and ordered the reinstatement of Sharma into the city police department.

LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Thursday said that corruption has become pervasive in the local government division in the past two to three years.
   ‘The local government division had an image of honesty and competence, but in the last two to three years corruption has captured this sector. Even the donors have said so,’ he said while addressing a meeting on evaluation of the division’s development activities at the LGED Bhaban.
   The Local Government Engineering Department organised the meeting which was also addressed by post and telecommunications minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju. The additional secretary of the department, Manjur Hossain, presided over the meeting.
   Ashraf said many problems crop up if quality declines in any organisation or department. ‘In the last few years, the standard of the local government division has declined,’ he added.
   He said all should be careful about corruption in the local government division as allocation of foreign aid and the very existence of the department depends on its credibility.
   The minister said the government, to check corruption, would closely monitor the development work of the department.
   ‘The elected lawmakers, and not only officials, are involved in the activities of the LGED,’ he said, and urged the MPs not to get involved in any sort of corruption. ‘Digital Bangladesh cannot be built without freeing the country of corruption’, Ashraf asserted, adding that the government would not tolerate any sort of graft.
   He said the vacant posts in the local government division would be filled with immediate appointments of officials by the Public Service Commission.
   Post and telecommunications minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju said his ministry has a budget of Tk 4,000 crore and efforts are underway to provide broadband internet connection to every upazila.
   The meeting was addressed, along with others, by state minister for liberation war affairs Captain (rtd) AB Tajul Islam, Nazrul Islam Hiru MP, Shah Alam MP and ABM Mozammel Hoq MP. The chief engineer of the LGED, Wahidur Rahman, read out a report on the division’s overall development activities.

BNP’s standing committee member Moudud Ahmed on Thursday said the parliamentary committee to probe financial irregularities was out to assassinate characters of the former speaker, ex-deputy speaker and former chief whip in the name of investigation.
   ‘A media trial is being conducted. The former speaker himself does not know the specific allegations against him. It would be better if the committee maintained the secrecy of its investigation. They are undermining the institution of the speaker by speaking on such delicate issues before completion of investigation,’ said Moudud at a briefing.
   ‘As per the terms of reference, the committee was supposed to probe the allegations against the former speaker. But now they are speaking against the former deputy speaker and the former chief whip too. It is simply character assassination. It should not be done,’ he added.
   Moudud said that if probes were launched against all former speakers, it would require transparency. ‘It has become clear that there are political motives behind probe against one.’
   Referring to Section 66 of the constitution, the BNP leader said the parliamentary committee had no authority to strip lawmakers of their membership.
   ‘These are being done to weaken the opposition by the people who do not want the opposition to exist,’ he said.
   Responding to a question over the government’s plea for withdrawal of the petition, filed by the then BNP-led coalition government in 2005, seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict that declared void the fifth amendment to the constitution, Moudud said, ‘There will be a vacuum if the fifth amendment was cancelled. The government and the incumbent parliament will not be able to avoid responsibility,’ he said.
   Moudud said militancy had spread in Bangladesh during the 1996-2001 regime of Awami League. There were eight major bomb attacks during
   the AL’s rule but they failed to frame charges in a
   single case or arrest any of the culprits. ‘The BNP executed them after trial,’ he said.
   He said statements claiming that the county was in the grip of militants would tarnish the country’s image. ‘The government needs to take measures to wipe out militancy and, if needed, we will extend out cooperation,’ he said.

The World Health Organisation on Thursday said that in a pandemic situation it was ‘reasonable’ to estimate that a third of the world’s population would catch the swine flu virus.
   ‘If you look at past pandemics, it would be a reasonable estimate that a third of the population would be infected’ if the current swine flu outbreak became a pandemic, said Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director general of the UN health agency.
   Fukuda had made the point in response to mounting concerns that the WHO may have over reacted given that most swine flu cases have turned out to be mild.
   He said when considering how to deal with such outbreaks, the WHO had to take into account the fact in a full-blown pandemic, even if only a small percentage were to develop serious illness or die from the disease, a large absolute number of people would be affected.
   He stressed that the estimate was based on past pandemics and that it was ‘very premature’ to forecast how many could die from a pandemic as it remained unclear what proportion of infected people were getting seriously ill or dying from the influenza A(H1N1) virus.
   The situation was still ‘evolving,’ he said.
   With the southern hemisphere heading into winter, it was uncertain if the virus would take hold in that region where there were more developing countries than richer countries as in the northern hemisphere, he added.
   ‘We also have a population which are more vulnerable... this may be because of malnourishment, this may be because of war, this may be because of conditions like HIV infections,’ he said.
   He noted that in past instances, such flu outbreaks may turn out to have a ‘relatively mild’ impact on the developed world, but turn out to have a ‘quite severe’ impact on the developing world.
   Earlier Thursday, Fukuda told 13 Asian nations meeting in Bangkok to remain vigilant against the disease even if it now appears to be milder than what caused earlier pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu.

India’s marathon elections entered the home straight Thursday, with millions voting in a fourth round of polling that saw the two main parties going head to head in a number of key swing states.
   The penultimate phase of the five-stage election also brought in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley — the cradle of the Kashmiri separatist movement where polls have long been snubbed as symbols of Indian rule.
   A separatist boycott call, coupled with suffocating security, meant a very low turnout in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar, where voters were vastly outnumbered by the thousands of soldiers and the police on duty.
   ‘We have police all over the place. How can you have free and fair elections with these people so close by?’ complained 30-year-old Mohammed Yusuf.
   Thursday’s voting encompassed the capital New Delhi and the neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Haryana, as well as Communist-run West Bengal where sporadic clashes and attacks on polling stations left three people dead.
   In the 2004 general elections, the ruling Congress party dominated in Delhi and Haryana, while its main rival, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, took most the seats in Rajasthan.
   A significant swing in any of these races could have a major impact, with many observers predicting that just a handful of seats could separate the two parties once all the votes are counted.
   India’s 714 million registered voters will decide a total of 543 parliamentary seats, in what is touted as the largest democratic exercise in the world.
   The election — staggered for reasons of logistics and security — began on April 16 and ends on May 13. Final results are expected three days later.
   With the finish line now in sight and no clear winner expected, attention has already turned to the political horse-trading to come when parties scramble for coalition partners to govern India’s 1.1 billion people.
   Neither the Congress-led alliance nor the bloc headed by the BJP is seen as capable of securing an absolute majority.
   The inevitable post-poll rush for more allies is expected to witness the emergence of a shaky, vulnerable coalition at a time when many in India are looking for strong, policy-driven government.
   ‘These are uncertain times,’ the Times of India said in an editorial. ‘And when the numbers games have been played out, let’s remember there are policies to be made and implemented with determination.’
   The new administration faces a sharp economic downturn after successive years of growth, as well as numerous diplomatic challenges that include the deteriorating situation in neighbouring Pakistan.
   In Srinagar, troops used teargas and batons to disperse rock-throwing protesters defying a massive security clampdown, the police said.
   A number of prominent separatist leaders who helped organise a wave of protests in recent days were also under house arrest.
   The Kashmiri chief minister, Omar Abdullah, said his only responsibility was to ensure people had the opportunity to cast their ballots.
   ‘As long as I can provide an environment where there is little or no violence, and where people are free to come out and choose to vote or not to vote, that is as much as can be expected from me,’ Abdullah said.

Several hundred garment workers on Thursday took to the street in front of the BGMEA Building and blocked the busy road, demanding their arrears of three months’ salaries and overtime allowances.
   The agitating workers withdrew their programmes at around 6:30pm as they struck a deal with the officials of the factories and the BGMEA leaders.
   The sudden blockade obstructed vehicular movements on the street from 3:15pm to 6:30pm during the afternoon and evening rush hours.
   Witnesses said several hundred workers of Mark Up Design, a sister concern of the Fashion Trust Private Ltd, located at Road-2, House-4/6 Mirpur-7, had come to draw their arrears of three months’ salaries and overtime allowances on Thursday but as the authorities had left the factory without any prior notice they failed to draw it.
   This angered the workers and they instantly took to the street in front of the factory and put barricade on the road at around 11:30am.
   As the police assured them of resolving the problem after having a discussion with the BGMEA leaders, the workers moved towards the BGMEA Bhaban.
   The workers said that the factory authorities had announced its closure for an indefinite period on April 20 and asked them to take salaries and overtime allowances on April 28.
   Accordingly, the workers came to receive salaries and allowances on April 28 but the authorities paid them only Tk 500 each and asked them to come on May 7.

At least 10 people were injured in a clash between two groups of people over harvesting paddy on a piece of government land at Chandrapur of Kaliganj in Lalmonirhat on Thursday.
   The injured were treated in the local health complex, villagers said.
   Villagers said seven farmers cultivated boro on four bighas of canal bed and and the clash began when two of them went to harvest the paddy and the other group claimed the land ownership.

About 30 houses of landless people were burnt in an arson attack carried out by mercenaries of land lords at New Char in Haimchar upazila of Chandpur Thursday.
   The attackers also looted cattle and paddy of the poor people at about 9:00am.
   ‘Panicked by the mercenaries, all male inhabitants of the 8-sqkm char, surfaced in the River Meghna, fled the area fearing further attacks,’ says a spot account of the marauding.
   The attack was carried out in a sequel to conflict over paddy harvest and possession of land between land lords and landless people.
   The police super, Krishna Pada Roy, said after the attack the police were deployed in the area, 8 km west of the upazila headquarters, ‘to maintain law and order’.

The Ugandan vice-president, Gilbert Bukenya, arrived in the capital on Thursday on a six-day visit to witness the empowerment of the poor by BRAC, world’s one of the largest NGOs.
   The Ugandan high commissioner posted in New Delhi, foreign ministry and BRAC officials welcomed him at the Zia International Airport in the morning.
   A press release of BRAC said Bukenya would visit a number of its programmes in Savar, Manikganj and Gazipur.
   He will also see field-level activities of the NGO, including micro-credit, remittance, community development, education, health, water and sanitation programmes in Dhamrai, Sripur in Gazipur and Savar, the release said.
   On Monday evening, the visiting vice-president will see the BRAC chairperson, Fazle Hasan Abed.
   BRAC began its operations in Uganda in 2006.

At least 35 people, including three women, were injured in a clash between two rival groups of the Awami League at Chandranganti Bazar under Belkuchi upazila in Sirajganj Thursday.
   The police said the two groups — one led by local UP councillor Quddus Molla and another by former councillor Azizul Huq — had long been at loggerhead over establishing supremacy in the area.
   Twelve houses and shops were ransacked and looted during the dustup.
   The police brought the situation under control. Nineteen of the injured were admitted to sadar hospital.

Journalist Farazi Ajmal Hossain on Thursday sued Mainul Hosein, executive director-1 of the Ittefaq group of publications, and Saju Hosein, publisher and printer (temporary) of the daily Ittefaq, for defamation.
   After hearing the case, metropolitan magistrate Konika Biswas set May 10 for passing the order.
   According to Ajmal, the accused defamed him by publishing a notice in Ittefaq’s May 1 issue, warning readers that he was relieved on April 23 from his duties and no one should have any dealings with him.
   ‘I am still a senior reporter of the Ittefaq as its executive director-2, Anwar Hossain Manju, has reinstated me in my job,’ Ajmal told the court. ‘The accused have tainted my image at home and abroad by implying that I have done something wrong.’
   Ajmal told the court that he has been working for the Ittefaq for 36 years but the accused, citing no acceptable reason, on April 23, 2009 terminated his job, saying that he was Manju’s man. ‘Mainul harassed me for two years while he was law adviser,’ he said.
   A legal notice was also served to Mainul Hosein and Saju, his wife, for withdrawal of the termination letter and for publishing Ajmal’s rejoinder to the notice in the newspaper.