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More than 50 people, including the member-secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, Anu Muhammad, were injured when police charged into marchers heading for Petrobangla headquarters in the capital midday Wednesday in protest against the government’s decision to award three offshore blocks to international oil companies.
   About 1,000 leaders and activists of the committee gathered at Muktangan where they held a rally in the morning before marching towards the Petrobangla office at Karwan Bazar where the protesters were to lay siege.
   The national committee announced the programme in protest at the government’s decision to award three blocks to two IOCs with a provision allowing them to export up to 80 per cent of gas. The committee feared such a move would threaten the country’s energy security.
   Police swooped on the protesters and clubbed them indiscriminately after they broke through the barricades set up by the lawmen at Paltan crossing at around noon and tried to march towards the Petrobangla office.
   Angry protesters fought pitched battles with police at Bijoynagar for about half an hour before dispersing. They attacked vehicles during the clash forcing traffic to make a detour.
   Both legs of Anu Muhammad, also a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, were badly fractured in the police attack while a number of other left-leaning political leaders and activists, including Saiful Huq, Mushrefa Mishu, Jannatul Marium Tania, Montu Biswas, Srikant Samaddar, Biplab Mandal, Gazi Shafiullah and Sumi Akhtar sustained injuries.
   The injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and most of them were released after first aid. Professor Anu Muhammad was shifted to Square Hospital from DMCH.
   Journalists trying to visit Anu Muhammad at Square Hospital were refused permission to see him. When contacted, the hospital management said it might have been done at the advice of the attending doctors.
   Condemning the police action Anu Muhammad told reporters that their campaigns were aimed at protecting the natural resources of the country. ‘We are not against the government; we are against the move to export our natural resources. It is the government’s responsibility to protect the lives and property of the citizens. I don’t understand why the police pounced on us,’ he said.
   Later, the committee held a meeting at the office of the Communist Party of Bangladesh at Paltan.
   The committee convener Sheikh Mohammad Shaheedullah at a press conference said that the police had charged baton on their peaceful demonstration because the government was desperate to protect the interest of international oil companies instead of national interest.
   ‘We strongly condemn the unprovoked attack. This has exposed the fascist attitude of the government,’ he said demanding immediate action against the police officers involved in the attack.
   Shaheedullah warned that the government would not be able to foil their movement by resorting to repression. He vowed to continue the movement until the decision to allow gas export was scrapped.
   The committee announced fresh programmes protesting at Wednesday’s police action.
   The programmes include countrywide demonstrations and a protest rally at Muktangan in the capital this afternoon.
   The committee will march towards the Prime Minister’s Office from Muktangan at 11:00am on September 10.
   Besides, it will hold rallies and processions in different thanas of Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country.
   The committee will announce further action programmes, including hartal and siege, if the government does not refrain from leasing the offshore gas blocks, he said.
   Shaheedullah, justice Golam Rabbani, Syed Abul Maksud, CPB general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, Workers Party general secretary Bimal Biswas, Workers Party (reconstituted) convener, Haider Akber Khan Rano, Gana Front leader Tipu Biswas, CPB leaders Ruhin Hossain Prince and AN Rasheda, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal leader Bazlur Rashid Firoz and professors MM Akash, Shamsul Alam, Mesbah Kamal, Pias Karim, ethnic minority leader Rabindranath Soren and former state minister for power and energy Anwarul Kabir Talukder attended the Muktangan rally.
   The speakers said that the prime minister’s approval of offshore oil and gas exploration deals in the Bay of Bengal with two international companies, ConocoPhillips and Tullow Oil plc, ran counter to her poll campaign pledges.
   The cabinet committee on economic affairs, headed by the finance minister, on August 24 approved offshore oil and gas exploration deals with the two companies in three sea blocks in the resource-rich Bay, on condition that they would not operate in the disputed areas in the blocks.
   At the rally, Shaheedullah said they demanded cancellation of the Model Production Sharing Contract 2008, approved by the last interim government, saying pressure from ‘colonialists’ had been behind it.
   Anu Muhammad said the present government was not working as the true representatives of the people.
   ‘The energy ministry and Petrobangla are working for multinational companies,’ he said.
   ‘Till now three of 28 blocks have been allocated to international companies and gradually the rest will be given to them,’ he said.
   Mujahidul Islam Selim said that Sheikh Hasina during her first stint as prime minister had told the then US president Bill Clinton in 2000 that Bangladesh would not export gas without ensuring a 50-year domestic supply.
   ‘After such a promise, this latest agreement is extremely treacherous,’ he said.
   Different left-leaning political parties and organisations, meanwhile, condemned the police attack on the ‘peaceful’ march of the national committee.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh president Manzurul Ahsan Khan and general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim in a press statement termed the police attack fascist and contrary to democracy and basic rights of the people.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon and general secretary Bimal Biswas, condemned the police attack and called on the government to drop the plan to lease out the three offshore gas blocks to international companies.
   Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener Khalequzzaman, Ganatantri Party president Mohammad Afzal, general secretary Nurur Rahman Selim, Democratic Revolutionary Party president Nirmal Sen, general secretary Mushrefa Mishu, Revolutionary Workers Party president Khandaker Ali Abbas, general secretary Saiful Huq, Workers Party (reconstituted) convener Haider Akbar Khan Rano, Ganasanghati coordinator Zonayed Saki, Jatiya Mukti Council president Badruddin Umar and secretary Foizul Hakim, Garments Workers Unity Forum, Anti-imperialist Students Unity, Nayaganatantrik Gana Morcha, Chhatra Oikya Forum, Bangladesh Khetmajur Samiti, Green Voice and Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan leaders also condemned the police attack.

Amici curiae Kamal Hossain, Mahmudul Islam and Azmalul Hossain on Wednesday told the Appellate Division the Army Act could not be applied to the trial of the February 25–26 rebellion in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters.
   They made submissions in the fifth day’s hearing in the full court of all the 11 judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the presidential reference that asked for the court’s opinion on whether the Army Act 1952 could be applied to the trial.
   Five out of the eight amici curiae who have so far made their submissions have expressed similar views that the BDR rebellion cases could not be tried under the Army Act.
   Another amicus curiae, Rokanuddin Mahmud, argued the court should return the reference to the president without rendering any opinions.
   Rafique-ul Huq on August 26 warned the Appellate Division about giving its opinions in the reference.
   Another amicus curiae, AF Hassan Ariff, also a former adviser to the interim government, had started making submission immediately before the court adjourned the hearing till this morning.
   Ariff and the remaining amicus curiae AFM Mebashuddin will make their deliberations today.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, on August 17 sent the reference asking for the Appellate Division’s opinion on whether the provisions of the Army Act, 1952 could be applied against the BDR personnel involved in the rebellion in which 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed.
   If the court gives its opinion in the negative, the reference further asks whether the Army Act can be applied against those BDR personnel by issuing notification under Section 5 of the act.
   Kamal, in his second day’s deliberations, said the Army Act could in no way be applied to the trial of the BDR rebellion cases.
   Neither the BDR rebellion cases can be tried under the Army Act nor the act can be applied to the Bangladesh Rifles with a retrospective effect by issuing a gazette notification for the trial, Kamal said.
   Section 2 of the Army Act defines the persons who are subject to the act and the BDR personnel do not fall within the definition, Kamal said.
   The power of the government to issue a notification making the Army Act applicable to a disciplined force is a delegatory power and in exercise of such power, the government can issue no notification with a retrospective effect, he said.
   Arguing for classifying the accused BDR personnel based on their offences through investigation, Kamal said, ‘We want punishment for the perpetrators, but not any innocent BDR personnel.’
   On behalf of former attorney general Mahmudul Islam, now abroad, his associate Probir Niyogi submitted his written statement.
   In the statement, Mahmudul said there was no scope for applying the Army Act to the trial of the BDR rebellion cases as the BDR personnel are not subject to the act.
   The Bangladesh Rifles is guided by the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1973, which excludes the application of the Army Act to the border guards, he said.
   The Army Act cannot also be applied to the BDR with a retrospective effect by issuing a notification under Section 5(1) of the act as the act does not provide for giving any retrospective effect to the act, he argued.
   He, however, said the BDR rebellion cases could be tried by a special court or a summary court as stipulated in the Bangladesh Rifles Order.
   On behalf of Azmalul Hossain, who is also now abroad, his associate AB Siddiqur Rahman Khan submitted his written statement.
   In the statement, Azmalul also gave his opinions against the application of the Army Act to the trial of the BDR rebellion cases.
   Rokanuddin told the court the first information reports of the BDR rebellion cases were filed under the Code of Criminal Procedure and the police officers were investigating the cases under the code.
   About 2,500 people have so far been arrested in the cases and statements of most of them have already been recoded by police officers or magistrates under the code.
   Immediately after the submission of the charge sheets, the chief metropolitan magistrate needs to transfer the cases to sessions judge’s court for trial and with such a transfer, the trial process can be initiated.
   In such a situation, how the court can give an opinion on whether the cases could be tried under the Army Act, he said.
   At this stage, the question cannot arise at all, he said, adding, ‘Now who needs the opinion — the government, the court or the police officers investigating the cases?’
   ‘If the Army Act can be applied, then who will apply it? The government cannot apply any law to the trial of any case. Investigation officers cannot press charges under the Army Act at this point. And the court needs to conduct the trial based on the charge sheet,’ he said.
   Citing from the reference, Rokanuddin argued that it had asked whether the provisions of the Army Act could be applied against the accused BDR personnel, but it did not ask ‘whether the act is applicable.’
   ‘Moreover’, he contended, ‘in the text of the reference, the government has identified difficulties in applying the Army act to the trial of the BDR rebellion. So, already they have the answer, then why have they sent the reference?’
   In such a situation, the court should return the reference without giving any opinions, he suggested.
   He also mentioned that the Indian Supreme Court in 1995 returned the presidential reference on the Babri Mosque and the Pakistan Supreme Court returned a presidential reference in 1973 that asked for the court’s opinion on whether Pakistan should recognise Bangladesh as an independent state.
   M Amirul Islam on Tuesday argued the BDR rebellion cases could be tried under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 although the law was not mentioned in the reference.
   On this point, Rokanuddin argued the court could return the reference to the president seeking some new questions to be included.
   He also referred to the judgement of the Pakistan Supreme Court, in which the court in 1955 sent back the governor general’s reference asking for inclusion of two more questions in addition to two questions originally made in the reference.
   The governor general, accordingly, sent the reference with two new questions suggested by the court and then the court replied to the questions but the first one stated in the original reference.
   Amici curiae TH Khan, Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmed and Rafique-ul Huq earlier made their submissions.
   Rafique on August 26 also told the court the BDR rebellion cases could be tried under the Army Act.
   He, however, said the issuance of notification applying the Army Act to the BDR with a retrospective effect might violate the Article 35 of the constitution.
   Mahbubuddin on August 26 told the court the cases could be tried under the Army Act, but two gazette notifications — one making the act applicable to the Bangladesh Rifles and the other suspending the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1950 — would be required to do so.
   TH Khan on August 25 argued the accused in the BDR rebellion cases could not be tried under the Army Act 1952 as the act is applicable only to army personnel.
   ‘The offences committed during the rebellion cannot also be tried under the Army Act and they can only be tried under the Penal Code by general criminal courts under the Code of Criminal Procedure,’ TH Khan said.

The committee on education policy on Wednesday submitted its report to the government, recommending extension to primary education up to Class VIII, in place of the present Class V, and introduction of one-year pre-primary education for 5-plus children.
   The committee also suggested making primary education free, universal and compulsory.
   The committee also recommended that the first public exams should be held on completion of secondary education extended up to Class XII, repealing the SSC exams on completion of Class X.
   It also recommended decentralisation of the National University, by setting up centres in all the divisions and upgrading the centres to affiliating universities in phases.
   The education policy unfortunate that at least eight education committees or commissions or policies have been formed or framed since the birth of Bangladesh, but none of them has been implemented.’
   The committee also recommended uniform curricula for different school systems and modernisation of madrassah education.
   As for qoumi madrassahas, the committee recommended that all types of madrassahs should be run with the approval of the government.
   The final primary exams will be held at the end of Class 8 and secondary school scholarships will be given out based on the results.
   The cabinet on August 31, however, decided that the students of Class V would need to face a public examination like the SSC exams from this year.
   When his attention was called to the matter, the minister said, ‘We have just received the report. We will review all the recommendations and then send the report to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and then finally to the cabinet.’
   Some basic subjects should be made compulsory for students up to Class VIII. The subjects are Bangla, moral instruction, Bangladesh studies, mathematics, nature and environment, social studies, information technology and science.
   It also recommended an increase in the number of polytechnic, textile and leather institutes for the expansion of technical education.
   The committee also recommended formation of a permanent education commission to implement the education policy.
   The report said the commission would help the education ministry and the University Grants Commission to implement the national education policy.
   The existing three-year bachelor’s (pass) course would need to be upgraded spanning four years in colleges in phases, the committee said.
   As for recruitment and training of non-government teachers, the committee said a commission for non-government teachers should be established. The committee also recommended increase in the salaries of teachers.
   The 17-memebr expert committee was given three months to make recommendations in the light of the education policy adopted in 2000.
   The education policy 2000 was formulated by the Awami League government of the time and the BNP government cancelled it in 2002.
   The committee held its first meeting on May 3 and the committee’s three-month deadline expired on August 3. The committee was later given one more month, till September 3.
   Others on the committee are National University vice-chancellor Kazi Shahidullah, writer Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Dhaka University sociology professor Sadika Halim, English professor Fakhrul Alam, Institute of Education Research professor Siddiqur Rahman, public administration professor Jarina Rahman Khan, National University treasurer Quazi Faruque Ahmed, Directorate of Technical Education director general Nitai Chandra Sutradhar, former additional secretary Siraj Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Teachers’ Association president MA Awal Siddiqui, former Dhaka Aliya Madrassah principal ABM Siddiqur Rahman, Nihad Kabir and retired additional secretary Mohammad Abu Hafiz.

The communications ministry has sought Tk 19,00,000 from the finance ministry to pay the expenses to be incurred during the first 20 days of the ongoing special drive for improvement of the city’s traffic situation.
   Nearly Tk 7,50,000 as rent for 25 micro-buses hired each day, allowance of Tk 1,000 per day for each magistrate and Tk 300 per day for each traffic sergeant are some of the costs included in the fund sought, said sources in the ministry.
   The special drive was launched on August 24 to rid the city-dwellers of severe traffic congestion during the month of Ramadan. The drive is scheduled to continue throughout the holy month.
   A senior finance ministry official said that about Tk 1,00,000 per day had been spent for the drive although it had not brought about any major improvement in the city’s traffic.
   People are still suffering because of congestion caused by lack of space for the movement of too many motorised and non-motorised vehicles. Besides, faulty automatic signals and constant violation of traffic rules remain the other major causes.
   The coordinator of the special drive, Shafique Alam Mehdi, also additional secretary of the communications ministry, admitted that traffic management had not improved although it had not deteriorated any further.
   This [no further deterioration] is the major achievement of the special drive despite limited resources and logistics, he told New Age.
   Some 699 cases were filed and Tk 5,60,450 was realised as fine by the mobile courts, while 23 unfit vehicles were dumped until August 31 by the special drive.
   The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Dhaka Metropolitan Police have intensified checking of invalid documents and unfit vehicles.
   Mehdi said they had made some recommendations, both short- and long-term, to the government. He hoped that the city’s traffic management would improve if the recommendations were executed.
   Among the short-term remedies the committee recommended changes in the schools’ and offices’ timings and continuation of the special drive at a meeting with HT Imam, one of the prime minister’s advisers.
   Mehdi also informed New Age that the communications ministry had taken over the responsibility of constructing six over-passes in level crossings in the capital from the Dhaka City Corporation.
   The level crossings are said to be one of the major impediments against smooth movement of vehicles in key points of the capital like the Staff Road at Banani, and the intersections at Sonargaon, Maghbazar, Malibagh, Jurain and Syedabad.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni is scheduled to leave for Washington on September 14 on a three-day official trip at the invitation of her US counterpart Hillary Clinton.
   Foreign ministry officials told New Age Tuesday that the foreign minister would hold bilateral talks with the US secretary of state on September 16 – the last day of her visit. They will discuss issues of mutual interest, especially trade and counter-terrorism.
   According to a high official of the ministry, Dipu Moni would hold meetings with some US senators and Congressmen as well as attend discussions during her first trip to the United States since her assumption of the office of the foreign minister on 6 January, 2009.
   When asked whether the issue of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement would come up prominently during Dipu Moni’s visit to the US, the official answered in the affirmative saying Washington was interested in the issue.
   On the issue of whether Washington has provided a new draft for the deal, the official said that since the Obama administration took office, the United States was yet to come up with a new proposal on TIFA.
   During a meeting with commerce minister Faruk Khan last week, US ambassador James Moriarty expressed his government’s desire to sign TIFA.
   Diplomatic sources said that Washington would raise the issues of cooperation on combating climate change, human trafficking and terrorism, upholding human rights, expansion of trade relations, oil and gas exploration and investment in power generation.
   Dhaka will lay stress on Washington’s cooperation in getting the US trade bill passed in the Congress for duty-free access of Bangladeshi products, especially readymade garments, to the US market and assistance from the Millennium Challenge Account.

Statements of the authorities on the availability of treatment of swine flu patients have made physicians, people and pharmacy owners confused as the government says the medicine will be available only with hospitals, but some pharmacies in city are selling the medicines.
   Fourteen more swine flu cases were detected on Wednesday, taking to 261 the total number of such patients in Bangladesh. One of the patients died.
   ‘The people are confused about the availability of the drug needed for swine flu treatment,’ the Consumer Association of Bangladesh president, Borhan Ahmed, told New Age on Wednesday.
   M Nazrul Islam, professor of virology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said, ‘People will suffer if we cannot make the medicine available at the earliest. And we must avoid irrational use of the drug.’
   ‘We should consider how far a people can go to collect the drug. We need to make a balance between rational and quick supply of the drug,’ he said.
   The health minister, AFM Ruhal Haq, on Tuesday suggested patients suspected of having contracted swine flu should contact physicians and get immediate treatment instead of waiting for H1N1 virus infection confirmation.
   He said the government had a large stock of the medicine needed to treat swine flu infection.
   The Dhaka Shishu Hospital director, Professor AR Khan, however, told New Age they advised suspected patients to mix the medicine in water before administration as the syrup used for swine flu treatment was not available.
   Physicians generally prescribe the syrup of child patients.
   The prime minister’s health affairs adviser Dr Syed Modassir Ali on Wednesday suggested withdrawal of value added tax on raw materials of oseltamivir, the drug for the swine flu infection, so that it could be produced for low prices.
   Pinaki Bhattacharya, a physician, said each oseltamivir capsule was selling for Tk 180. ‘It is possible to produce the capsule for lower price if the government withdraws VAT on raw material.’
   They said this at a seminar on swine flu in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   When asked about the price, Dr Mushtuq Husain, senior scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told New Age the question of price did not arise as the government would make the medicine available only with designated hospitals to avoid hoarding and indiscriminate use.
   The pharmaceutical companies producing the medicine should sell it only to hospitals, he said, adding the medicine should not be supplied to the general pharmacies.
   Designated private hospitals can, however, recover the price from their patients, he said.
   He told the seminar that 14 more cases of swine flu were detected after testing the samples of suspected swine flu cases referred by different hospitals.
   He said as the virus was spreading, there is no need to test to confirm the present of the virus.
   He said the IEDCR did not test patients who went there for diagnosis on personal initiatives, but took the samples from the patients referred by other hospitals to establish whether any mutation of the virus was taking place in human body.
   The daily Bhorer Kagoj and Desh TV organised the seminar at the National Press Club. Health expert Abu Mohammad Zakir Hossain and UNICEF communications officer Shamsuddin Ahmed also spoke.
   The government on Monday confirmed the first H1N1 death in Bangladesh.

Climate change threatens to bring food and water shortages to 1.6 billion people in South Asia, with the region’s poorest likely to be worst hit, the Asian Development Bank said here Wednesday.
   New research commissioned by the ADB shows that if current climate trends persist until 2050, maize yields in South Asia will fall by 17 per cent, wheat by 12 per cent and rice by 10 per cent.
   Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Nepal are ‘particularly vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by glacier retreat, floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts,’ the to suffer most as a result of unchecked climate change.’
   Almost half the world’s poorest people live in South Asia, where they tend to depend on agriculture and live in areas highly exposed to changes in the climate, the ADB said.
   Senga was in Nepal for a conference of South Asian nations that ended Tuesday with a call for international assistance for poor communities most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
   The ADB’s research was carried out by the International Food Policy Research Institute and will be published in full at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Bangkok later this month.

A parliamentary watchdog has finally given backing to two of the proposed routes for the Asian Highway Network through Bangladesh, amid continued opposition from the BNP.
   The parliamentary standing committee on communications suggested Wednesday that the government should select one of the two routes, which will enter from India and re-enter into India, for Bangladesh’s AHN link.
   Nazrul Islam Manju, the lone BNP MP of the 10-member parliamentary panel, gave note of dissent on the recommendations terming it ‘against national interests’.
   Instead, he stressed that the highway should cross Bangladesh and exit through Myanmar via its Teknaf point.
   ‘We have recommended choosing Benapole-Dhaka-Tamabil or Banglabandha-Hatikumrul-Dhaka-Tamabil routes for the Asian Highway,’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the standing committee chairman, told journalists after the meeting at parliament building.
   He said the parliamentary panel suggested the routes considering Bangladesh’s weight of bilateral trade with India.
   ‘I have given note of dissent on the recommendations as the two routes do not meet the ESCAP criteria for the Asian Highway,’ Nazrul Islam Manju told bdnewsw24.com after the meeting.
   ‘The recommendations are against national interests,’ he said.
   Manju said as per the ESCAP conditions the highway should connect a capital with another, but none of the two routes would connect Bangladesh with the Indian capital.
   Besides, the highway should also connect ports, railway links and have trade and tourism activities.
   ‘If it passes through Tamabil, a hilly region, it will not meet the ESCAP criteria,’ said Manju.
   ‘We are going to construct deep sea port in Kutubdia (Chittagong). If the AHN bypasses Chittagong, it will not bring any benefit to the nation’.
   The BNP MP said he told the meeting that the government must hold discussion in parliament to decide the routes for securing national interests.
   The Ruling Awami League and the BNP are sharply divided over the selection of the routes of the Asian Highway which will ultimately connect Asia with Europe.
   The Awami League says the highway should come from India and re-enter into India’s north-eastern states bordering Bangladesh. But the BNP said the highway must enter Myanmar via Bangladesh with ultimate target of reaching China through the former Burma.
   The BNP and its allies say, if the highway passes from and back through India instead of Myanmar, it will make Bangladesh too dependent on India with regard to the international road network.
   The opposition says the government wants to give India transit facilities, a very politically sensitive issue in Bangladesh, in the name of the Asian Highway.
   Some ministers of the Awami League talked in favour of giving India transit facilities, but they were highly criticised for their stance on the issue.
   The BNP earlier warned that it would launch mass movement if the government gave transit facilities to India.

The Election Commission on Wednesday notified another ruling Awami League lawmaker, Kabirul Huq, asking him to explain why he should not be stripped of the parliament membership for contesting polls while holding a public office of profit.
   The commission on Monday issued a similar notice to the AL lawmaker for the Jhenaidah 3 constituency Shafiqul Azam Khan.
   Kabirul was elected lawmaker for the Narail 1 constituency as an independent candidate and joined the Awami League.
   Joint secretary (law) of the Election Commission secretariat Nurul Islam Khan on Wednesday said a notice had been issued asking Kabirul to explain why he should not be declared ineligible and a gazette should not be published cancelling his membership of the parliament.
   Both the ruling party lawmakers were asked to reply to the notice in 10 days as they were elected lawmakers after holding posts of mayor in two municipalities —Maheshpur and Kalia.
   In addition to the two lawmakers, Nasrin Jahan Ratna, wife of the Jatiya Party’s Ruhul Amin Hawlader, elected in a reserved seat, also run the risk of losing her
   membership of the ninth parliament as a High Court verdict has declared mayors and municipal chairmen disqualified from being elected lawmakers, according to the Election Commission secretariat.
   Nasrin Jahan moved the Supreme Court in this connection and the commission decided to settle the case of Ratna in court.
   According to Article 67(1) (d) of the constitution, lawmakers should vacate their seat if they have ‘incurred a disqualification under clause (2) of Article 66.’
   Article 66(2) says a person, who holds any office of profit in the service of the republic other than an office which is declared by law not to disqualify its holders, will be disqualified from being a member of the parliament.
   Article 12(1) (a) of the Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act 2009 says, ‘A person shall be disqualified from being elected as, and from being, a member, if he is a person holding any office of profit in the service of the republic or of a statutory public authority.’
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, filed a writ petition challenging the November 17, 2008 EC decision, which declared mayors and municipal chairmen disqualified from national polls, considering their posts to be offices of profit in the service of the republic or of a statutory public authority.
   The High Court, however, on December 4 rejected the petition upholding the commission’s decision, declaring that the position of city mayor was an office of profit.
   Sadeque Hossain contested the December 29, 2008 national elections after obtaining a stay order from the Appellate Division on the High Court verdict. The three municipal chairmen also, accordingly, contested the elections and were elected lawmakers.
   The Appellate Division asked Sadeque to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict. But he did not file any such petition, presumably because he lost the election.
   The office of the Supreme Court registrar on May 6 sent an office order to the Election Commission secretariat, informing it that the period of time to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict had expired, but no parties turned up.
   People leaving offices of profit in the service of the republic or of a statutory public authority can contest polls.

The public prosecutor at Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court has recommended cancellation of a case against BNP’s senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman on Wednesday.
   Businessman Abu Shahed Shahel had filed Tk 4.89 crore extortion case against controversial businessman Gias Uddin Al Mamun with Gulshan police station on May 4, 2007.
   Tarique was shown arrested in the case after Mamun admitted his involvement in the confessional statement under 164 section although Tarique was not named in the statement by the complainant.
   Abdullah Abu, the prosecutor, told bdnews24.com on Wednesday evening, ‘I recommended his exemption from the case.’
   The BNP chairperson Khaleda’s elder son was released from prison a day shy of completing a year behind bars.
   Eleven cases were filed against him and 24 more cases against the family of Khaleda.
   A press briefing on Wednesday noon at BNP’s Naya Paltan central office demanded withdrawal of all cases filed against Tarique.
   The government earlier decided to withdraw one case against BNP leader Moudud Ahmed.

The government will soon announce the proposed export policy for the 2009-12 period, and is likely to include country’s service sectors in the policy for the first time.
   ‘The country’s export sector will be diversified by including the service sectors in the export policy,’ said an official of the commerce ministry.
   The official said the government would restrict the export of petroleum generated by natural gas and petroleum-related products as there was no restriction on the export of those products.
   According to the new proposals naphtha, furnace oil, lubricant, bitumen, condensate, MTT and MS can be exported only with the permission of the energy ministry.
   The proposed 2009-12 export policy will be placed before the Cabinet committee on economic affairs on Sunday.
   The main features of the new export policy include seven thrust sectors which comprise agro-products and agro-processing, light engineering products, shoes and leather products, pharmaceutical products, software and ICT products, textiles and ocean-going ships.
   Products of the special development sectors in the new export policy have also increased from nine to eleven.
   They comprise finished leather goods, frozen foods, handmade products, electronic products, fresh flowers, jute and jute products, hill handloom and textile cloths, rough diamonds, herbal plants, medicines, ceramics and melamine and plastic products.
   The commerce minister has prepared draft proposals for the 2009-12 export policy with several new recommendations to expedite exports.
   The present 2006-09 export policy has already expired in June. The draft proposal includes 156 proposals from business houses, chambers and trade bodies, and government offices.
   The new policy also recommends that the government should offer cash incentives for the export of some items, including plastic products, fresh flowers, environment-friendly herbal products, coir products, toys and products made from bamboo and cane.
   At present these agro-based products do not enjoy cash incentives.
   The government will allow sending of pharmaceutical products’ samples worth $30,000 instead of $10,000 to the importing countries while samples of cut and polish diamonds can be worth $50,000, according to the new policy.
   It has also been proposed that the government should ensure basic utilities like power, gas and other services to the prioritized industries.
   ‘Economic diplomacy should be expedited to increase the country’s exports,’ according to the proposed the export policy.
   Besides, the government should ensure infrastructure development for reduction of the cost of doing business, recommended the policy.
   ’Being given such priority, we were supposed to receive facilities such as easy access to loans, preference in being provided power and other utility services and government assistance to find new export markets. But we were not given such services,’ said Abdur Razzaque, president of Bangladesh Engineering Shilpa Malik Samity.

Pakistan’s religious affairs minister was wounded and his driver killed Wednesday in a shooting in the heavily guarded capital Islamabad, the police and hospital officials said.
   Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi was travelling in his official car when he was attacked by gunmen riding a motorbike near his office in the city’s busy Melody Market area, local police official Mansha Hussain said.
   Doctors said that Kazmi was hurt in his shin and that his injuries were not critical.
   ‘A bullet has caused a compound fracture in the lower leg of the federal minister,’ government hospital chief Shaukat Hameed Kiani said.
   ‘His condition is stable but he is in a state of shock,’ Kiani said.
   Another doctor in the hospital, Shazia Nazir, said that Kazmi’s driver was brought in dead with a bullet wound in his forehead and that the minister’s guard was seriously injured.
   Islamabad police chief Tahir Alam said that according to preliminary information, two men riding a motorcycle opened fire on the minister’s car before fleeing.
   The police were investigating and collecting evidence from the site, Alam said.
   No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

A powerful earthquake killed at least 32 people and forced thousands to evacuate on Indonesia’s main island, where more than 1,300 homes were damaged, government agencies said.
   The 7.0 magnitude quake, as recorded by the US Geological Survey, shook buildings in the capital Jakarta and flattened homes in villages closer to the epicenter in West Java.
   An official at the social ministry said that so far, 32 people had died, more than 700 houses were badly damaged and about 600 others had suffered moderate damage in the quake.
   However, Priyadi Kardono, an official at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, warned the death toll could be much higher, as scores of houses and office buildings had collapsed or suffered severe damage, and it was proving difficult to contact some of the affected areas.
   ‘Communications with the coastal areas were completely cut, so we don’t know the conditions there,’ he said. ‘No reports have come from those areas, although we assume those were the most affected ones. It’s possible the death toll could grow higher.’
   The health ministry said it was sending medical teams to the affected areas in West Java. State news agency Antara repor-
   ted that villagers were clearing away the rubble from collapsed buildings to try to find survivors and bodies.
   ‘Many houses are flattened to the ground,’ said Edi Sapuan in Margamukti village, not far from Tasikmalaya. ‘Only the wooden houses remain standing. Many villagers are injured, covered in blood.’
   The quake was felt as far away as Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, about 500 kilometres northeast of Tasikmalaya, and on the resort island of Bali, about 700 kilometres to the east.
   Hundreds of people sheltered in a military base in Tasikmalaya, fearing the initial temblor would be followed by aftershocks, an official at the disaster management agency said.
   Indonesia’s 17,000 islands are scattered along a belt of volcanic and seismic activity known as the Pacific ‘ring of fire,’ and the area is one of the most quake-prone places on the planet.

Giving up 27 years’ official dress code, bureaucrats at the Bangladesh Secretariat have started attending their offices wearing trousers and shirts in a more business-like fashion.
   At the last cabinet meeting, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, instructed senior bureaucrats to shun suit and tie and instead wear trousers and shirts to cut electricity consumption caused by the use of air-conditioner.
   Following the prime minister’s order, the Cabinet Division issued a circular on Tuesday about the dress code for officials of the government, semi-government and autonomous bodies amending its previous circular of May 17, 1982.
   According to the new circular, male officials have been asked to wear trousers and shirts (half or full sleeve) during the summer time of March-November. The new dress code will be applicable at all time barring formal occasions where formal dress is compulsory.
   Officials above the rank of deputy secretary are entitled to use air-conditioner in their offices. But the rule was not respected in many cases.
   Although the new dress code is not applicable for government ministers, many ministers left aside their suit and tie, and wore trousers and shirts.
   Saving electricity in government offices through limited use of air-condition is nothing new in many countries of the region. Even in Japan, China and India top officials were seen using limited air-condition to cut electricity consumption.

The Barisal Veterinary Institute, which is the outer campus of Patuakhali University of Science and Technology, was on Wednesday closed for an indefinite period. The students were asked to leave their hostels by the afternoon.
   The authorities decided to close the institution after they had failed to control the institute students rallying for reinstatement of the provision for a year’s internship and scrapping of changes in the curriculum for about a week.
   The campus dean,
   MA Latif, said as the institute had been closed, the final exams of the fifth and the eighth semester, scheduled to begin on Thursday, had also been postponed.
   Campus sources said the students had boycott classes and held protests since August 26, 2009. They had also threatened tougher programmes such as blockde of the Barisal–Dhaka Highway.
   The animal science and veterinary medicine dean of the university, AKM Mustafa Zaman, said the institute had been closed on a decision of the university’s academic council made at a meeting on Monday. The vice-chancellor, Dr Syed Shakhawat Hossain, presided over the meeting.
   The meeting on Monday decided that if the University Grants Commission did not accept the students’ demand or the students did not call off the movement in 48 hours, the institute would be closed on Wednesday for an indefinite period, the dean said.
   Police deployment has been reinforced to stave off any untoward incidents.
   The students when they were rallying to push for their demands said shortening the internship period by six months and the changes in the curriculum would affect the previous students.
   In line with FAO guidelines, five-year veterinary and medicine course, including one-year internship, is approved by the Bangladesh Veterinary Council, they said.

A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing the deputy head of Afghan intelligence and more than 23 other people, officials said.
   The assassination of such a high-profile member of the Western-backed Afghan security services, which have been on the frontline of an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency, shocked the country just weeks after key elections.
   The attack in the relatively peaceful eastern province of Laghman was the second high-profile bombing in Afghanistan since the August 20 presidential and provincial council elections, held under a cloud of Taliban intimidation.
   More than 50 people, including women and children, were wounded after the bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of people leaving the main mosque in Laghman’s provincial capital Mihtarlam following a meeting, officials said.
   ‘I saw people coming out of the mosque and some of them were getting into their vehicles. I didn’t know them. Then the explosion happened. I was wounded. When I opened my eyes I was in hospital,’ one witness said.
   The insurgent Taliban militia claimed responsibility and said the deputy chief of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, Abdullah Laghmani, was the target.
   ‘Abdullah Laghmani is among the dead,’ provincial governor Lutfullah Mashal told a news conference in Mihtarlam.
   The deputy spymaster’s Land Cruiser was completely destroyed and a vehicle used by his bodyguards was partially damaged at the site, where the blast scattered shoes and sandals across the main road, said an AFP reporter.

Former Awami League MP Joynal Abedin Hazari was released from Feni jail on bail on Wednesday.
   Hazari walked out at around 10:00am and held a brief rally in front of the prison where he vowed to purge Feni of narcotics and terrorism.
   Local AL leaders and activists greeted him with flowers.
   The High Court on August 27 quashed an arms case against him in which he was sentenced to life.
   In August 2003, a Feni court sentenced Hazari, and his personal assistant Farooq Hossain, to life after police recovered illegal arms and ammunition from his house in 2001.
   Following last Thursday’s High Court ruling , Hazari’s counsel Shahjahan Shaju told reporters his client, now secured bail, had been shown released or had charges dropped in all 23 cases that had been filed against him in the past.
   ‘There is now no bar to his release from prison,’ said Shaju.
   Hazari stood accused in a raft of cases during the AL’s 1996-2001 tenure, but fled the country on Aug 16 when a caretaker government came in at the end of that administration.
   The previous AL government had been widely condemned for shutting it eye to Hazari’s criminal activities during the period.
   The Feni native, after eight years away, returned to Bangladesh, reportedly from India, soon after the incumbent AL government took power.
   Hazari surrendered in a Feni court on April 15 this year, and was immediately sent to Comilla jail.

The results of the written examinations of the 28th BCS were published Wednesday.
   According to a press release of the Public Service Commission, 5,881 candidates passed the exams provisionally. The results will be available on PSC web site www.bpsc.gov.bd
   The viva of the passed candidates will begin on October 4, the release said, adding that the detailed timing of the viva will be informed through the media.
   The interview cards of the candidates for the viva will be sent in time by post, the release said.

A female physician allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her in-laws’ residence at the city’s Purba Rampura Tuesday night.
   The deceased was Nusrat Sharmin, 33, a lecturer of Uttara Womens’ Medical College and wife of ANN Badruddoza Dipu, a doctor of United Hospital.
   Sharmins’ family members said she hanged herself from the ceiling fan of her bedroom at night following a dispute with her husband.
   She was taken to Apollo Hospital where the attending doctors declared her dead. Sharmin has two minor daughters.
   Informed, the Khilgaon police recovered the body and sent it to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue. An unnatural death case was filed.