ACC to probe rising fortunes ofthree ministers, four MPs n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday assigned seven o� cials to inves-tigate three former ministers and four members of parliament from the ruling Awami League, following reports of a phenomenal rise in their wealth and assets.

After the Election Commission pub-lished the wealth statements submit-ted by candidates last month ahead of the 10th parliamentary polls, media reports highlighted large discrepancies between the information they had pro-vided for the 9th general elections in 2008.

Following news reports of the huge increase in the fortunes of several prominent Awami League men and their family members over the past � ve years, the ACC started collecting news-paper clippings and analysing relevant documents, ACC o� cials said.

ACC Secretary Faizur Rahman Chowdhury on Monday told report-ers that the anti-corruption watchdog

would form a committee to investigate dozens of candidates and their rela-tives, who are suspected of accumulat-ing riches illegally.

The commission will initiate the probe by investigating former health minister AFM Ruhal Haq, former state minister for housing and public works

Abdul Mannan Khan, former state min-ister for water resources Mahbubur Rahman, and lawmakers Abdur Rah-man Badi of Cox’s Bazar 4, Aslamul Haque of Dhaka 14, Enamul Haque of Rajshahi 4 and Abdul Jabbar of Satkh-ira 2.

The ACC has designated six deputy directors and an assistant director to conduct the inquiry, commissioner M Shahabuddin Chuppu told reporters yesterday.

The o� cers are deputy directors Sheikh Faiyaz Alam, Mirza Zahidul

Alam, M Nasir Uddin, Khairul Huda, Syed Tahsinul Haque and Ahasan Ali, and assistant director Masudur Rah-man.

Ruhal Haque, had Tk88 lakh in his bank account in 2008, but the amount jumped to Tk2.63 crore in 2013. His wife Ila Haque’s bank balance showed Tk7.53crore, up from Tk4.64 lakh � ve years back, according to the a� davit they handed to the EC.

The value of the former minister’s movable property grew four times from Tk4 crore to Tk16 crore, while his wife’s rose to Tk8.39 crore from Tk95 lakh.

Mannan Khan’s assets grew 110 times from Tk10 lakh in 2008 to Tk-11crore.

Mahbubur Rahman now owns Tk5.25 crore in immovable property, which was worth Tk36.33 lakh in 2008. Just � ve years ago, his annual income was Tk2.15 lakh. He now earns Tk1.50 crore.

Abdur Rahman’s earnings rose as-tronomically, increasing by more than

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Drive against foreigners staying illegally soonn Rabiul Islam and

Mohammad Jamil Khan

The government is set to launch a spe-cial operation targeting the foreign na-tionals staying illegally and carrying out di� erent unlawful activities in the country.

“We have been keeping close watch on foreign nationals so that they can-not contribute to violence in the coun-try,” Home Ministry Additional Secre-tary (political) Kamal Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

A section of foreign nationals have been residing in Bangladesh illegally even after expiration of their visas.

Besides, they do not pay any tax to the government. They are sending money to their country of origin by earning here illegally.

Members of the intelligence agen-cies have already started their inves-tigations into their locations, move-ments and � nancial activities.

The intelligence wing of police, Fi-nance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank

will jointly conduct the operation coor-dinated by the Home Ministry.

Sources said illegal foreign nationals were staying in the country even after the expiration of their visas and some-times without visa and passport.

These nationals are not only doing jobs in di� erent Bangladeshi organisa-tions but also involved in VOIP business, drug smuggling, bank note forgery, dol-lar manipulation, and militancy.

As part of special drive, members of De-tective Branch of police arrested three African citizens including two females on Wednesday with fake currency and equipment.

On Sunday, DB police also arrested three members of the Pakistan-based militant group Tehrik-E-Taliban from the capital.

Of the arrestees, Fakrul Hassan’s visa was found to have expired while two of his accomplices Mehmood

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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BusinessB1 The government has sought a detailed legal suggestion from law ministry on a separate pay scale for Bangladesh Bank and four state-owned commercial banks.

International9 Delhi’s ‘anarchist’ chief minister Arvind Kejriwal faced savage press criticism Wednesday after a two-day protest in the capital that could check the dizzying rise of India’s new political star.

INSIDE

Manzoor murder case verdict on Feb 10 n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday set February 10 for delivery of the judgment on Major Gen-eral Manzoor murder case.

Dhaka First Additional District and Ses-sions Judge Hosne Ara Akhtar recorded the argument of the prosecution side and set the date after the � nal hearing which took place in a special court on the Nazimuddin Road adjacent to the Dhaka Central Jail.

Earlier, on November 20 last year the court completed the argument of the de-fence side.

Public Prosecutor of the First Additional District and Sessions’ Judge Ahaduzzaman Khan Rochi completed the argument of the government side.

The main accused in the case is former

military dictator HM Ershad who has re-cently been appointed a special envoy to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Ershad was present at the court during the arguments.

The defence counsel of Ershad in his argument said a total of 28 witnesses gave the deposition and none of them said Er-shad was involved in the murder. “He is the victim of circumstances and also the nasty politics.”

Other accused Major Retd Emdadul Is-lam and Lft Col (Retd) Mostafa Kamal Ud-din Bhuyain were also present at the court.

Legal proceedings against Lt Col Shams and Major Gen Latif have been stopped by an order of the High Court.

General Manzoor was killed in 1981, just two days into the assassination of BNP

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Children from four schools in Bandarban were made to queue for hours yesterday to welcome State Minister for CHT A� airs Bir Bahadur. Story on Page 3 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Jamaat: BNP to face trouble if it breaks ties n Manik Miazee

Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islam are con-� dent that the BNP would not break up ties with them, saying it wouldmake the BNP highly unpopular in the long run.

Several leaders of the party told the Dhaka Tribune that they were con� -dent the BNP would face political ob-stacles if it disowned the Jamaat – a key ally of the 18-party alliance. The BNP has maintained an alliance with Jamaat for more than a decade, calling the Isla-mist party a “strategic partner.”

Jamaat leaders pointed out that the two parties were working togeth-er at the grass-roots, and had already formed anti-government committees. They also said at present the BNP is not in a position to dissolve their part-nership; rather, they are very much in need of Jamaat if they want to win po-litically.

Wishing to remain anonymous, one of Jamaat’s working committee mem-

bers told the Dhaka Tribune: “In the last two years, every opposition polit-ical programme was a success because of Jamaat- Shibir’s participation.”

“In fact, we rarely saw enough BNP activists joining 18-party’s processions, demonstrations and rallies,” he added.

He said the government was trying to hamper the unity between the BNP and the Jamaat “because they want to eliminate a strong opposition.”

A Shibir central working committee leader said, “We know much better than BNP and Chhatra Dal about poli-tics, and we know how to resist govern-ment oppression.”

Jamaat Working Committee mem-ber Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher said: “The government wants to divide our alliance so that it can rule the coun-try as long as it wants.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina an-nounced that her government would hold talks with the BNP if the party sev-ered ties with the Jamaat. In response,

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

HC asks for judicial probe report on 2001 post-poll violencen Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday ordered the home secretary to submit within Feb-ruary 2, the judicial probe report into the attacks that were carried out on the minorities and the then opposition members following the eighth parlia-mentary elections on October 1, 2001.

The court also issued a rule seeking an explanation by two weeks as to why it should not direct the government to make public the inquiry report.

The bench comprising Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain passed the order yesterday in response to a petition lodged by Hu-man Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

In 2009, the High Court bench led by Justice ABM Khairul Haque (who later became chief justice) ruled that a three-member judicial probe commit-tee be formed to submit a detailed re-port on the attacks to the government by six months, and made the writ petition

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Cox’s Bazar MP increaseshis earnings by 500 timesin 5 years

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

Bomb threat disrupts state minister’s rally n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

A false bomb alert disrupted a rally attended by State Minister for Wom-en and Children A� airs Meher Afroz Chumki at Gazipur sadar yesterday af-ternoon.

Jangalia union Awami League presi-dent Humayan Kabir, who organised the rally, got a phone call during the event telling him that a bomb was planted near the stage at the Norun High School

� eld, Kaliganj upazila nirbahi o� cer Md Kamrul Ahsan Talukder said.

The anonymous caller told Kabir that the bomb would go o� any mo-ment. The state minister was deliver-ing her speech at the time, and a mass reception was to follow.

However, Chumki left the scene im-mediately after learning of the bomb threat.

Kaliganj police inspected the area, but did not � nd any bombs. l

Jubo League man killed, Jubo Dal leader hacked n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Police recovered the body of a Jubo League supporter from a roadside ditch in Satkania upazila while a Jubo Dal leader was hacked by unknown miscre-ants in Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong yesterday.

Upon information, police recovered the body of Mohammad Alamgir, 33, of Kanchana Adarsho Gram with several injury marks around 11am. They sus-pect that Jamat-Shibir activists might have killed him over a political feud.

The body was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital morgue for

post mortem examination. A case was lodged with Satkania police station.

Meanwhile, unknown miscreants hacked ward 3 Jubo Dal joint conve-ner Mamun Reza, 30, of Sobhanbagh in Godown Road area around 4pm. He was taken to Sitakunda Upazila Health Complex but later shifted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said police sources.

Iftekhar Hasan, OC of Sitakunda police station, said receiving informa-tion police had rushed to the spot and rescued Mamun. Police were looking into the matter but none was arrested in this connection yet, added the OC. l

Government marks 6 fast track projectsPadma, Rampal, Metro rail, Rooppur and Sonadia Deep Sea port are among thosen BSS

The government has identi� ed six projects including the much-awaited Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) as a fast track project and directed the au-thorities concerned to implement them with highest priority.

The � ve other projects are Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project, Rampal Coal-� red Thermal Power Plant, Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Metro Rail Project), Sonadia Deep Sea-port in Cox’s Bazaar and Lique� ed Nat-ural Gas Terminal Construction Project.

The projects were identi� ed at the � rst meeting of the reconstituted Fast Track Project Monitoring Committee held at the Prime Minister’s O� ce last morning.

Chairperson of the Committee Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting. After the meeting, Depu-ty Press Secretary to the Prime Minis-ter Bijan Lal Deb briefed reporters. He said the crucial meeting held a detailed discussion on the progress and future activities of the six projects.

At the meeting, he said, the prime

minister directed the authorities con-cerned to execute the projects within the stipulated time.

On the much-awaited Padma bridge project, she underscored the need for dredging of the river to check river ero-sion and run economic activities on the reclaimed lands, Deb said.

On the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and Rampal Power Plant projects, Hasina said the government has giv-en emphasis on producing electricity through multi-source power projects.

She also mentioned that a process was underway to generate electricity on joint venture with India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Com-munications Minister Obaidul Quad-er, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Environment Minister Anwar Hossain Monju, Land Minister Shamsur Rah-man Sharif Dilu, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Prime Minister’s Advis-er Moshiur Rahman, State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman and State Minister for Power Nasrul Ha-mid Bipu attended the meeting. l

ACC to probe rising fortunes of3 ministers, 4 MPs PAGE 1 COLUMN 3500 times over the past � ve years. His income was only Tk3.01lakh in 2008, but was Tk15.46 crore in 2013.

Aslamul Haque’s six acres of land turned into 145 acres over � veyears.

Enamul Haque’s annual income was Tk20 lakh from his salary and al-lowances, now makes nearly Tk50 lakh from agriculture, rented properties and other businesses. His wife owns Tk8.34 crore in movable property, up from Tk 2.89 crore in 2008.

Abdul Jabbar’s wealth information was not immediately available. l

Drive against foreigners staying illegally soon PAGE 1 COLUMN 5and Usman had no passport and visas.

Last month, Rapid Action Battalion o� cials arrested 37 foreign nationals from a resident of the capital’s Uttara area with huge VOIP equipment.

Rab o� cials think these foreign na-tionals are committing crimes staying illegally in the country for years.

Besides, a large number of Rohing-yas are living in Cox’s Bazar, Chit-tagong, Bandarban and Khagrachari illegally for years. No substantial steps have yet been taken against them.

For this reason, the Home Minis-try has been planning to take action against them in a bid to strengthen se-curity of the country and collect some revenues.

Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB police, told the Dhaka Tribune there were a number of foreign nation-als living illegally in the capital and oth-er parts of the country, and the number of African citizens was quite large.

Intelligence o� cials are keeping eye on their activities and movement.

Intelligence sources said a special monitoring team in collaboration with the Finance Ministry had already been formed to check the � nancial transac-tion of the foreign nationals in a bid to learn whether any of them was provid-ing � nancial support to criminal activi-ties in Bangladesh.

Sources also said the intelligence o� -cials were also verifying the activities of those foreign nationals doing jobs in the

country without any work permit and not giving any tax to the government.

It was learnt that the visas of around 13,000 foreign nationals had already expired.

They entered Bangladesh as tourists and are living in the country illegally.

Foreign nationals, who have come under investigation, belong to In-dia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kanga, Cameron, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, Su-dan, Tanzania, Uganda and Sri Lanka.

Of them, a large number of Pakistan and Afghan nationals are involved in criminal activities, and Rab o� cials have already arrested 250 African and Pakistani citizens in the last three years. l

HC asks for judicial probe report on 2001 post-poll violence PAGE 1 COLUMN 6mandamus so that any party could come to the court seeking direction in this regard.

The plea was registered with the bench led by Justice Reza-Ul in light with the verdict of 2009 so that prop-er actions could be taken against the perpetrators, said Manzill Murshid, the lawyer of the petition.

Also in 2009, the government formed a commission led by former district judge Md Shahabuddin to in-vestigate the incidents. Later, the judi-cial commission handed over a probe

report on April 25, 2011 to the then home minister Sahara Khatun. 

Manzill told the court that if the probe report was made public and prop-er punitive action was taken against the perpetrators, the recent attack on the minorities after tenth general poll of January 5 might not have taken place.

Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy represented the government yes-terday.

The same bench on January 15 di-rected the law enforcers to give protec-tion to the minorities and vulnerable groups across the country. l

Jamaat: BNP to face trouble PAGE 1 COLUMN 2BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia spoke at several media interviews claiming that the BNP would cut ties with Jamaat “at the right time.”

Pointing to PM’s suggestion one of Jamaat’s central leaders Rezaul Karim said it was a matter of BNP and Jamaat, not that of the government.

Since the alliance began its street movement last year, Jamaat activists have allegedly perpetrated a great amount of violence across the country.

After national election on January 5, Jamaat-Shibir was accused of at-tacking Hindu community members inseveral areas.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on January 17, urging the

BNP to distance itself from the Jamaat.The EU Parliament stressed that

“parties which turn to terrorist acts should be banned.”

On January 20, for the � rst time since the emergence of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, the BNP held a pub-lic rally alone yesterday in Dhaka, apparently keeping its distance fromthe Jamaat.

However, Jamaat leaders told the Dhaka Tribune their men had partic-ipated in the rally, but without the usual banners and festoons demand-ing the release of their leaders who were convicted for war crimes. This was part of their “strategy,” they said, but refused to disclose any furtherdetails. l

Manzoor murder case verdicton Feb 10 PAGE 1 COLUMN 2founder and military leader Ziaur Rah-man. The murder case was � led in 1995 and the charge sheet was submitted to the court the same year.

The trial related to the Major Gener-al Abul Manzoor murder case, � led 17 years ago, is being delayed as the pros-ecution has delayed in presenting its arguments.

According to the trial documents, 28 out of 49 witnesses, includingInvestigation O� cer Abdul Kahar Akand, testi� ed before the court. On June 2012, the court completed

prosecution witnesses. The court had previously granted

bail to all of the accused.On February 28, 1995, barrister Abul

Monsoor Ahmed, brother of slain Abul Manzoor, lodged a case with Panchlaish police station in Chittagong accusing Major Emdadul of killing Manzoor.

On July 15, the then assistant police super Abdul Kahar Akand, submitted the charge sheet to the court.

The then army chief Abu Saleh Md Nasim and metropolitan judge Abul Hashem gave testimony before the court on October 28, 2010. l

Drive against Jamaat continues n Tribune Report

Law enforcement agencies continued their drives throughout the country yesterday to arrest several Jamaat-e-Is-lam activists, while a mobile court also punished two Jamaat members on dif-ferent charges.

Our Barisal correspondent reported that the police arrested Abdul Alim, president of Jamaat’s Chandpura union unit, from the city’s Baitul Mokarram Mosque area at around noon.

Shakhawat Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said the police acted on a tip-o� and arrested Alim during a raid at the residential unit of the mosque, recovering a huge number of anti-state lea� ets, stickers, handbills

and books on Jihad. Alim would be shown arrested in a case of conspiracy against the state, he added.

Elsewhere in Satkhira, our correspon-dent reported that a mobile court has hand-ed di� erent jail terms to two Jamaat-Shibir men at the town’s Kaliganj area.

Ali Azam, the OC of Kaliganj police station, said Hossain Dablu, 38, and Yehia Khan, 22, were arrested on Tues-day for their involvement in subversive activists. Executive Magistrate Faruk Ahmed later sentenced Dablu to two years and Yehia to one year in jail, the OC said, adding that both the men were sent to Satkhira jail in the evening.

In Nilphamari, a Jamaat activist was held at Khalisha Chapani village under Dimla upazila yesterday afternoon.

The arrestee was Ajharul Islam, 35, a madrasa super of Sukandighi Dakhil Madrasa of the upazila.

Mansun Ali, Sub-Inspector of Dimla police station, said police acted on a tip-o� to detain Ajharul, who was ac-cused of arson, looting of ballot mate-rials and vandalising voting centres of the upazila on January 5.

Our correspondent in Sirajganj also informed that the Detective Branch of the police arrested district Swechch-hasebak Dal Vice-President Hasinur Rahman Hasi, 45, from Masumpur area.

Nasir Uddin, inspector of district DB police, said Hasinur was arrested for obstructing police work, while he was also accused in eight cases � led with the district’s police stations. l

No more new private med schools for now n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The health ministry has decided not to give approvals to any new private med-ical colleges and to review the 12 medi-cal colleges that had been given prima-ry approval over the last few months.

In a primary observation, the min-istry found faults in the process of the previous approvals and suspended all activities regarding the process until a report was submitted by a review com-mittee.

Newly appointed Health Minister Mohammed Nasim announced the de-cisions yesterday during a press brief-ing at the secretariat.

Asked if the ministry had plans

to relax the cut-o� marks for pri-vate medical college admission tests, Nasim said there would be no com-promise with the cut-o� marks, but added that the ministry had decided to extend the admission deadline toJanuary 30.

Eleven new private medical colleges had been given permission last year, al-legedly in violation of existing policies. There are claims that former health minister AFM Ruhal Hoque had grant-ed the permissions during his � nal days in o� ce.

The new private medical colleges were Addin Basundhara Medical Col-lege, Brahmanbaria Medical College, Shah Makdum Medical College, Care

Medical College, United Medical Col-lege, Universal Medical College, Ad-vocate Abdul Hamid Medical College, Khulna City Medical College, Park View Medical College, Port City Medical Col-lege, US-Bangla Medical College and Kachiruddin Medical College.

Seeking anonymity, several senior ministry o� cials said in� uential peo-ple including the president, several former ministers and state ministers, medical university teachers, and senior health sector o� cials had direct or in-direct stakes at the ownership of the colleges.

An o� cial of the health directorate, preferring to stay unnamed, said a large amount of money had changed hands

under the table, with some medical college owners bribing Tk40m-Tk50m for securing the � nal approval.

The country currently has 65 private medical colleges, a � gure which stood at 40 in 2008.

Most of the new med schools report-edly failed to follow the Private Medi-cal College Establishment and Manage-ment Policy 2011, as they did not apply for approval within January-April last year.

The authorities of the new medical colleges also failed to meet the require-ment of opening full-� edged hospitals with at least 250-bed capacity, two years prior to submitting applications to the ministry. l

Miscreants cut the tendons on arms and legs of UP Member and Awami League leader Nurjahan Begum of Mobarakpur union in Shibganj, Rajshahi, allegedly in reaction to the arrest of a local BNP leader DHAKA TRIBUNE

FAKE FREEDOM FIGHTER CERTIFICATES

3 bodies formed to probe allegations against govt o� cialsn Tribune Report

The government has formed three committees to investigate the allega-tion that many high o� cials have ac-quired freedom � ghter certi� cates ille-gally to raise their job tenures and get other facilities.

According to the Liberation War af-fairs ministry, which formed the com-mittees yesterday, an additional sec-retary and two joint secretaries of the ministry will head the probe bodies.

“All job-related documents of these o� cials have been sought from the public administration ministry within three days for veri� cation,” said Libera-tion War A� airs Minister AKM Mozam-mel Haque yesterday.

“I will examine the documents myself and I will reveal the names of the o� cials found to have taken fake certi� cates to the media within seven days,” he said.

He added that action would also be tak-en against Liberation War a� airs ministry o� cials found involved in the “unethical” activity of issuing fake certi� cates.

A total of 11,150 people took freedom � ghter certi� cates from the ministry in the past � ve years. A gazette noti� cation shows that several secretaries, includ-ing Health Secretary Nizamuddin Mia, Liberation War A� airs Secretary KH Ma-sud Siddique, Science and Technology Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, and prime minister’s former secretary Mollah Wa-heeduzzaman, took the certi� cates l

ACC grills Odhikar’s Adilur, Nasirn UNB

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday interrogated Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman and its Director Nasir Uddin in connection with misappropri-ation of foreign fund.

ACC Deputy Director Harunur Rashid questioned them for an hour from 3pm at the commission’s head o� ce.

Talking to reporters before leaving the ACC o� ce, Adilur said the ACC had sought some documents of Odhikar which they provided yesterday.

Adilur and some others had alleged-ly received money from foreign donors showing fake projects of the human rights organisation, and plundered it. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

A woman looks at the remains of her home which was gutted in a � re yesterday in Chittagong’s Nahar Monjil Colony DHAKA TRIBUNE

BNP: Nothing seditious in Khaleda’s speech n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The BNP has claimed that party Chair-person Khaleda Zia’s recent speech on government law enforcers’ drives did not contain any comment that was tanta-mount to being seditious.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the party, made the claim at a press brie� ng in BNP’s Nayapal-tan headquarters yesterday, ahead of the end of the 24-hour ultimatum set by Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam for Khaleda to withdraw her comment.

“Syed Ashraf does not have his facts clear. There was nothing seditious in Khaleda Zia’s speech. He lied to mislead the people,” Fakhrul told journalists at the brie� ng, where many BNP leaders, who had recently been in hiding, were also present.

At a rally in the capital on Monday, Khaleda Zia said: “It is di� cult to be-lieve that our law enforcers have con-ducted such violent drives against their own countrymen.” She also hinted the

involvement of outsiders with the joint forces operation in Satkhira district.

On Tuesday, Syed Ashraf gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the BNP chairperson for withdrawing Monday’s statement that “a� ected the credibility” of the country’s law enforcers.LGRD Minister Syed Ashraf also said: “Khaleda delivered a similar speech related to the crackdown on Satkhira Jamaat-Shibir members that the daily Inqilab had reported. The newspaper au-thority has since apologised for its false report.

“However, Khaleda still has not apolo-gised. She has to withdraw her statement immediately, otherwise the government would make necessary steps,” he added.

Meanwhile, Fakhrul also alleged that the government has made all sorts of arrangements to destroy the country’s democracy. The spokesperson claimed that the ruling party was moving forward with a plan to eradicate the BNP by bring-ing allegations of violence against the op-position party.

Fakhrul alleged that extrajudicial kill-

ings were increasing day by day, and said: “Ten bodies were found in the last 10 days while 187 leaders and activists were forcefully ‘disappeared’ and 227 were killed in the last three months. Three bodies were found in Nilphamari who were accused of attacks on Asaduzzaman Noor’s motorcade.”

Demanding neutral investigation into these incidents, Fakhrul urged the rights bodies to come forward for probing the incidents.

“It [extrajudicial killings] happens when there is no rule of law in the coun-try. People having di� erences in opinion were killed in this way, which is a threat for democracy.”

The BNP leader claimed that real de-mocracy was dead and the funeral pro-cession of democracy had started from January 5.

In the brie� ng, party’s Standing Com-mittee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Joint Secretary General Amanullah Aman, Mizanur Rahman, and Member Secretary of Dhaka city unit BNP Abdus Salam were present. l

Students forced to queue up to welcome state minister n Our Correspondent, Bandarban

School children had to wait in queue for hours with � owers and banners to wel-come State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts A� airs Bir Bahadur in Bandarban yesterday.

Students along with their teachers were brought to welcome the minister suspending their classes.

Students of Bandarban Town Model Government Primary School, Bandar-ban Adarsha Government Primary

School, Collectorate School and Govern-ment High School were reported to have been forced to join the queue to give a warm reception to the newly elected MP for the Bandarban-300 constituency.

Seeking anonymity the headmaster of a school said his students went to wel-come the minister due to pressure from the higher authorities.

Earlier, the education ministry im-posed a ban on using children in any political programmes or reception pro-gramme of ministers and lawmakers.

Ashraful Islam, a guardian of a school, said: “We sent our children to school for study not to stand in lines to receive a minister.”

It was learnt that Tk70, 000 was spent on � owers to decorate gate and stage.

Bohmong King Ongsroi Prue Chow-dhury was made food minister for the � rst time during the regime of Ziaur Rahman in 1973.

After 37 years Bir Bahadur took the o� ce as state minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts A� airs. l

Bail of 5 BNP leaders rejected once again n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail petitions of � ve BNP leaders in two cases � led with Motijheel police station and a case � led with Ramna police station.

The BNP leaders are Moudud Ahmed, Ra� qul Islam Mia, MK An-war, Shamsur Rahman alias Shimul Biswas and BNP Chairperson’s Advisor, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain.

Dhaka Metropolitan Session’s Judge Md Jahrul Haque passed the order in the afternoon.

BNP leader Moudud Ahmed, Ra� qul Islam Mia, MK Anwar and Shimul Biswas have been shown accused in two cases � led with Motijheel police station while Khonder Mahbub was shown accused in a case � led with Ramna police station.

Md Sanaullah Miah, the defence

counsel for the BNP leaders, � led sepa-rate bail petitions for each arguing that the government is now trying to harass these politicians by � ling false cases against them. During the bail hear-ing, he also argued that the accused were entitled to bail as they were not involved with the crimes stated in the cases.

However, the court rejected the bail pleas after the hearing.

Meanwhile, Sanaullah Miah said an appeal will be made to the High Court regarding the court’s bail rejection.

On the other hand, another BNP leader Shammi Akhter has received bail in a case � led against her with Ba-nani Police station for torching a bus.

Metropolitan Magistrate Hasibul Haque granted her bail after hearing the bail petition � led by her defence counsel Sanaullah Miah. l

Two sets of MPs at a time! Gazette on dissolution of ninth JS likely today n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The parliament secretariat is set to pub-lish a gazette noti� cation on dissolution of the ninth parliament today apparently acknowledging the fact that the legisla-ture has two sets of lawmakers – 295 of the 10th parliament and 350 of the previ-ous one –at the same time.

According to parliamentary practices, one constituency cannot have two MPs simultaneously.

In line with the charter the ninth par-liament will expire after the midnight of January 24 – � ve years since the � rst session that took place on January 25. But 295 MPs-elect of the 10th parliament took oath starting on January 9 without dissolving the ninth parliament.

On January 11, the parliament secre-tariat published a gazette noti� cation re-placing the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia (opposition leader of the ninth JS) with Jatiya Party’s Raushan Ershad as the op-position leader of the 10th parliament.

But the parliament secretariat earlier did not make it clear that the oath-taking of the newly elected MPs on January 9 had terminated the ninth parliament. The o� cial website of parliament shows the names and photos of the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, not the 10th parliament.

“According to the rules of procedure, a gazette (on dissolution of parliament) is a necessity. Hopefully, we can make it tomorrow (Thursday), subject to the approval of the honourable speaker,” Ashraful Moqbul, the parliament secre-tary, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

In accordance with the article 72 of the charter, a parliament will dissolve after � ve years unless the president dis-solves it. The rule 4 of the Rules of Pro-cedure says: “When parliament is pro-rogued or dissolved the secretary shall (must) cause a noti� cation to that e� ect to be published in the gazette.”

The parliament records show that the parliament secretaries of all previ-ous parliaments, in line with the Rules of Procedure, published the gazettes on dissolution of the legislatures after the

speaker approved the same.The article 123 of the charter says MPs

elected in a general elections “must not assume o� ce” before the expiry of the � ve-year tenure of the previous parlia-ment. Again, the article 148 of the constitution stipulates that MPs taking oath “must be deemed to have entered upon the o� ce immediately after he makes the oath”.

“At present the 10th parliament exists, not the ninth parliament as the MPs have taken oath,” ASM Feroz, the whip of the ninth parliament, told the Dhaka Trib-une on Tuesday.

“I have stopped using the � ag since I have become an MP of the 10th parlia-ment. I am no longer a whip of the ninth parliament,” he said.

Senior Awami League MP Suranjit Sengupta and barrister Ra� q-ul-Haque at a discussion at a private TV channel agreed that the oath-taking by the 10th parliament MPs had terminated the ninth parliament.

JS notice for vacating housesThe authorities on January 14 served no-tices to the ninth parliament MPs, who failed to contest or get elected in the January 5 polls, to vacate their � ats by January 30.

“The newly elected MPs are asking for � ats. So, the honourable MPs not re-elected in the 10th parliament must vacate the apartments,” Syed Ahmed, an additional secretary, told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday.

He said some of the outgoing MPs belonging to the Awami League had requested the parliament authorities to extend the deadline by 15 more days. Some 171 members of the ninth parliament were re-elected to the 10th parliament. l

DEMANDING BRIBE

HC suspends 35-year jail sentence for SPn Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday suspended a sentence of 35 years’ imprisonment for Superintendent of Police Mostafa Kamal in a case � led for demanding Tk50 lakh in bribe from the SA Paribahan proprietor in December 2002.

The bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed also granted the police o� cial bail as an appeal had been lodged against the sentence pronounced by Dhaka Special Judge Court 3.

According to the statement of the case � led on November 20, 2003, SA Paribahan owner Salauddin Ahmed and sta� members of his o� ce were going to Sylhet by a private car on December 22, 2002 with a bag of Tk 20 lakh.

A team of Habiganj police halted their car, seized the money and asked them to lodge a general diary with the

local police station asking for security.But after their arrival at the police

station, the then SP Mostafa Kamal ordered the policemen on duty to detain Salauddin and his o� cials and � led a money laundering case against them. The SP and Inspector (now retired) Wahid Miah also demanded Tk50 lakh from the SA Paribahan Head O� ce in exchange for their release.

In his verdict on December 19 last year, Judge Md Motahar Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court 3 acquitted the inspector and sentenced SP Mostafa, who is now posted at Syedpur Railway.

The court also � ned Mostafa Tk30 lakh, defaulting which he will have to spend another year in jail. Supreme Court lawyer Rokanuddin Mahmud contended for the police o� cer while Deputy Attorney General Khandaker Diliruzzaman represented the state. l

Investigation o� cer to testify against Yusuf Sundayn Udisa Islam

Md Helal Uddin, the Investigation Of-� cer (IO) of the war crimes case against detained Jamaat-e-Islami nayeb-e-amir AKM Yusuf will begin his depo-sition before the International Crimes Tribunal 2 on Sunday as the prosecu-tion ends the deposition of its witness-es.

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 yesterday adjourned the trial against Yusuf till Sunday after recording of the deposition of a seizure witness.

Meanwhile, the prosecution � led an application seeking rejection of the full defence witness list that was placed by

the defence on last September 5. The defence placed the names of 56 wit-nesses in front of the tribunal.

Yusuf is facing trial on 13 counts of crimes against humanity includ-ing genocide, murders, arson attacks, abduction, torture in con� nement, forced conversion of Hindu people to Muslim and deportation committed at di� erent places in Bagerhat during the Liberation War in 1971.

As the day’s proceedings began, the tribunal recorded the evidence of a sei-zure witness, Rabiul Anam Khan, a cat-aloguer of the Press Institute Bangla-desh. He is the second seizure witness. He said investigation o� cer Helal Ud-

din had seized copies of Daily Samakal and Janakantha from his o� ce and he had signed this list.

The prosecution submitted formal charges against Jamaat leader Yusuf, 84, on May 8, 2012 for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Before that on April 22, the investigation agency submitted their probe report.

In his background report, investiga-tion o� cer Helal Uddin said Yusuf was a member of Jamiat Talebi-e-Arabia during student life. He joined Jamaat in 1952 and in 1957 he became the top lead-er of Khulna. Helal Uddin will place his collected information and documents

as PW 26 and will describe how he com-pleted his investigation at Bagerhat.

Conducting prosecutor Hrishikhesh Saha said the prosecution had placed 25 witnesses including seizure wit-nesses against 13 charges.

“And we have collected enough in-formation to prove the case. We have many more witnesses to testify, but under the current situation, our wit-nesses are feeling unsafe. So we decid-ed to end the deposition of witnesses,” he said.

On July 1, 2012 Tribunal shifted the case against Yusuf to ICT 2 for quick disposal as the prosecution pleaded to the ICT 1 for transfer. l

Immigration alerted about entry of Pakistanisn Rabiul Islam

The home ministry has directed immi-gration authorities to be more cautious when checking documents of Pakistani nationals entering the country.

The directive comes following a re-cent intelligence report that a section of Pakistani nationals may be carrying out acts of violence in Bangladesh.

The order, signed by deputy home secretary Md Habibur Rahman, was sent to the Directorate of Passport and Immigration on January 15.

A senior home ministry o� cial said such a step was taken so that “hostile el-ements” cannot come into the country.

“We have no intention to make poor relations with any country, but we can-not allow any foreign national to carry out terrorism in our country,” Kamal Uddin Ahmed, additional secretary (po-litical) of the home ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The law enforcing agencies were closely monitoring the movement of a section of Pakistani nationals who may be planning to carry out terrorist acts in the country, Kamal added.

On Sunday night, the detective branch of police arrested three Paki-stanis outside Dhaka’s Shilpakala Acad-emy and seized bomb-making manuals and training methodologies from their possession.

The men, identi� ed as Usman, 23, and Fakrul Hasan, 50, of Kourangi dis-trict, and Mehmud, 26, of Malir district, are suspected to be trained members of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, a Paki-stan-based terrorist group.

Two separate cases were � led against the suspects with Ramna police station under the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009 and Foreign Act-1964. l

EU stresses ‘international standard’ for war crimes, BDR mutiny casesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The European Union has stressed the importance of following “international standards” for judicial proceedings in Bangladesh concerning the crimes com-mitted during the Liberation War and the mass trial in the Bangladesh Ri� es mutiny case.

In reply to questions in the EU par-liament related to the death penalty in Bangladesh, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said the position of Brussels on death penalty was very well known in Dhaka.

“In our contacts with the government of Bangladesh, we have also stressed the importance of following international standards for due process, in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other instru-ments rati� ed by Bangladesh,” she said.

“From the start of the trials, we have repeatedly stressed in public statements and in our high level contacts with the government, that while the EU does not favour impunity for crimes, we are opposed to the death penalty in any circumstances, even in the case of the worst crimes,” she said. l

The authorities on Jan 14 served notices to the ninth parliament MPs, who failed to get elected in the Jan 5 polls, to vacate their � ats by Jan 30

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

City High LowDhaka 28.2 12.5Chittagong 29.2 15.0Rajshahi 24.8 10.8Rangpur 26.4 13.0Khulna 23.5 11.8Barisal 26.4 12.6Sylhet 30.7 13.5Cox’s Bazar 29.8 16.2

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:24am

Sunrise 6:42amZohr 12:10am

Asr 4:02pmMagrib 5:38pm

Esha 6:57pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Temperature to remain unchanged n UNB

Weather may remain dry with tempo-rary partly cloudy sky over the country until 6pm today.

Moderate to thick fog may occur over the country during night till morn-ing, Met O� ce said.

Night and day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:38pm today and rises at 6:42am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 31.4 degrees Celsius was recorded yester-day in Sitakunda and lowest 10.0 de-grees in Ishwardi.

Highest and lowest temperature re-corded in some major cities yesterday were:

GOPIBAGH SIX-MURDER CASE

Police still in the darkn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Although a month has elapsed since the sensational murders of six members of a religious group at the capital’s Gopi-bagh, the Detective Branch of police was yet to unveil the mystery behind the killings, or arrest any perpetrator.

Despite having interrogated over 50 people in connection with the incident, the police have so far only been able to disclose that the murders were commit-ted because of “religious disputes,” but did not clarify details of their � ndings.

According to DB o� cials, all the per-petrators were “trained” and “profes-sional” killers who did not leave any clue at the murder spot. The investiga-tors were now reportedly taking a slow approach in solving the mystery with the help of technology.

Earlier on December 21, self-pro-claimed pir (religious preacher) Lutfor Rahman and his son Monir Hossain, along with the pirs’ assistant Manju Ahmed and followers Md Shahin, Md Rubel Mia and Mujibar Rahman, were killed at Lutfor’s RK Mission Road house.

Some eight to nine people, identify-ing themselves as followers of the pir,

entered the house and committed the murders after allegedly tying up the vic-tims in two separate rooms of the � at.

Following the incident, Lutfor’s younger son Abdullah Al Faruk � led a case with Wari police station, accusing 10 to 12 unidenti� ed people.

Jahangir Hossain Matubbor, deputy commissioner of the DB (east) police, told the Dhaka Tribune that maximum priority has been given to the investiga-tion of the case and several teams were working on it.

Separate interviews with Lutfor’s wife, son and close relatives have re-vealed that the killers were familiar to Lutfar, Jahangir said, adding that the kill-ers had carefully planned the murders.

The mobile phone connection used by the killers to contact Lutfor had stayed switched o� since the murders, the deputy commissioner said, adding that special investigative teams of the DB have been analysing several more mobile phone numbers.

The police suspected that the mur-ders had been committed by some professional killers over a con� ict sur-rounding religious sentiment, Jahangir said. l

Arguments in Ramna blast case on February 3, witness deposition ends n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday � xed February 3 as the date to hear arguments in the Ramna bombing case.

Dhaka Second Additional Metro-politan Session’s Judge Md Ruhul Amin declared that the recording of deposi-tions and cross-examinations was con-cluded, after he rejected a time petition by the defence lawyer.

Earlier in the day the defence law-yer failed to present a witness to give a deposition on behalf of the accused, Moulana Showkat Akbar.

Thus the court declared the record-ing of statements concluded.

The seven accused, including Mufti Hannan, were present before the court.

The court has recorded depositions

of 61 prosecution witnesses including investigation o� cer Abu Hena Md Yu-suf out of 84 in the case.

A powerful blast during the tradi-tional celebrations of Bangla New Year 1408 (April 14, 2001) claimed the lives of 10 people and left 50 others wound-ed at Ramna Batamul in the capital.

Following the incident two cases, one for murder and the other under the Explosive Substances Act, were � led with Ramna police station.

Seven years after the incident, in-vestigators were able to link the mili-tant organisation Harkat-ul Jihad Al-Islami (HuJi) to the blast.

On Nov 29, 2008, CID inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf, the sixth in-vestigating o� cer to work on the case, pressed charges in court against 14 ac-

cused, and showed 84 people as pros-ecution witnesses.

The court framed charges on April 16, 2009 against HuJi chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his 13 associates.

Seven of the accused; Mufti Han-nan, Arif Hasan Sumon, Shahadat Ul-lah Jewell, Hafez Maulana Abu Taher, Maulana Abdur Rauf, Maulana Sabbir Hossain, Moulana Yahiya and Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid; were produced before the court yester-day while Moulana Akbar Hossain, now on bail, was also present.

Five others; Moulana Tajuddin – brother of BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, Maulana Abu Bakar, Mufti Sha� kur Rahman and Mufti Abdul Hai; are ab-sconding. l

Four people killed n Tribune Report

Four people were killed in separate in-cidents in Lalmonirhat, Narayanganj, Jhenaidah and Faridpur yesterday.

Of the victims, two were school stu-dents and one was an infant, report our correspondents.

In Lalmonirhat, a schoolboy was found dead in Char Kurul of Dharla River in village Mogholhat yesterday.

The dead Rayhan Islam, 13, was a student of class eight at Kurigram Gov-ernment High School.

Rayhan was kidnapped from Row-mari para area in Kurigram town on January 18, said the police. The boy was strangled to death on Monday night and the dead body was thrown into sand hole in the char on the night.

The boy's alleged killer Shamim Rahman Sagar, 18, was arrested in this connection.

Earlier, the kidnappers took Tk3 lakh as ransom from the victim’s father and after receiving the money they killed the boy, said Ershadul Haque, fa-ther of the victim.

In Narayanganj, a school student named Jahidur Rahman was killed in Sonargaon upazila. Jahidur was a stu-dent of class VII of Kachpur Omor Ali High School. Family members said Ja-hidur had been missing since Tuesday and he was killed because they could not give the ransom money demanded

by the kidnappers. Police recovered the body of Jahidur

at 11am. The throat of the boy was slit and packed up in a sack from an em-bankment of Sadipur union under So-nargaon upazila.

O� cer-in-Charge of Sonargaon po-lice station Atiqur Rahman said anoth-er student of the same school named Shakil was also missing, he added.

In Jhenaidah, a two years old girl was strangled to death allegedly by her mother at Solaimanpur village under Kotchandpur upazila.

The kid was Sumaya Khatun, 2, and the mother was Rafeza Khatun of So-laimanpur village.

Sirajul Islam, a neighbour, said Rafe-za was a mentally challenged woman.

Kotchandpur police station O� cer-in-Charge Mizanur Rahman said Rafeza killed her daughter with a pillow and they arrested Rafeza.

A case was � led with Kotchandpur police station. The body was sent to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital morgue for post mortem examination, OC said.

In Faridpur, a driver was found dead at his rented house at village Algi under Bhanga upazila early yesterday. The dead was Rubel Sheik, 25, of village Heraldi under the same upazila.

Sub-inspector Lyakot of Bhanga po-lice station said they suspected that Rubel might have been killed and they arrested Pinki, wife of the deceased. l

Warrant against 64 activists of 18-party in Dinajpur n Tribune Report

Dinajpur Speedy Trial court yesterday issued a warrant order against 64 ac-tivists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance accusing vandalism and looting valu-ables.

The case was lodged by Parul Be-gum, an electoral agent for Awami League candidate Iqbal Rahman in the last election, who accused that he was attacked by the members of 18-party al-liance.

In his case statement Parul named 84 persons, including more 250 un-

named people as accused.Senior Judicial Magistrate Tauhidul

Haq Chowdhury issued the warrent af-ter examining the Charge sheet submit-ted by the investigation o� cer of the case Anisuzzaman.

Of the 64 activists, the court exclud-ed 9 person’s name from the charge sheet as their involvement with the in-cident could not be proved.

The excluded persons were the local leaders of the BNP.

Police said 11 persons among the ac-cused are in jail and the court rejected their bail petition. l

Chhatra League men vandalise district LGED o� cen Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

Chhatra League activists yesterday vandalised the LGED engineer’s o� ce at Kotalipara in Gopalganj cantering an argument over submission of papers to bid a tender.

Witnesses said a heated argument started between the league activists and the o� cer as he denied to accept the paper they brought to submit to bid the tender called for the construction of a bridge at Maranpara village under Kotalipara upazila of the district.

The tender worth Tk30 lakhs.The Engineer Khan A Shamim said

the reason behind the denial was the group came after 12pm while the dead-line for the submission was over.

After the denial Kayum Hajra and Kalam— the activists— involved in an argument and at one stage of the ar-gument one of the duo hurled a paper weight at the engineer, but the man managed to saved himself.

The activists also vandalised a door and windows of the o� ce.

Witnesses who wished to be anony-mous said after the incident locals and o� cers at the o� ce asked the activists to say sorry to the engineer to resolve the matter.

They did so and left the scene, wit-ness added.

But the accused Kayum Hajra de-nied the allegation against him and said that was a “misunderstanding”.

Sha� qul Islam, upazila Nirbahi o� -cer of Kotalipara upazila, admitted that the matter was resolved by the locals. l

3 foreigners held making counterfeit dollarsn Kailash Sarkar

Three foreigners, including two wom-en, were arrested with huge quantity of materials used for making counter-feit dollars from the capital’s Uttara yesterday.

The arrested foreigners are Perez Wise Perez Ifrain from Guatemala and his female associates Scen Karin Notre and Mikk Sandino Laurel from Camer-oon.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Media) Masudur Rah-man said, the three foreigners were nabbed from a house on Road 4 of Sec-tion 5 in Uttara.

“30 bundles of papers used for making of counterfeit banknotes, various manuals on making counterfeit dollars and di� erent types of chemicals were recovered from the detainees,” said the DC.

Detective Branch Joint Commission-er Monirul Islam, at a press brie� ng,

said the Detective Branch arrested the foreigners following a tip-o� from In-terpol on the dollar forgery syndicates in Bangladesh.

He further informed that all three of the detained foreigners have been stay-ing in Bangladesh from last October on tourist visas. Their passports have also been seized.

He also said nationals from di� erent foreigners countries, who are involved with various illegal activities like pro-ducing counterfeit banknotes of di� er-ent countries, are now residing in vari-ous places of the capital.

Last month, 37 citizens of China and Taiwan were arrested by members of the Rapid Action Battalion from the same area for running illegal VOIP business.

According to sources, over 600 for-eigners are now serving various jail terms in the country for illegal activi-ties, such as forgery, drugs smuggling or fraudulent activities. l The three arrested African citizens in front of DMP media centre yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

LPG prices go up, consumers su� ern Aminur Rahman Rasel

Prices of 12kg cylinders of Lique� ed Petroleum Gas (LPG) saw a Tk100-150 increase in local markets following a price hike in the international market and pipeline gas crisis in Dhaka city and adjacent areas, industry insiders said.

Private traders said the price of per tonne LP gas was $1,250 in October 2013, but it rose to $1,400 in November.

“The price of LPG in the internation-al market generally goes up in winter as its demand increases,” TOTALGAZ Ban-gladesh General Manager Mujibur Rah-man told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Lique� ed petroleum gas (LPG) is imported to Asia mainly from di� erent parts of Middle East.

“We are selling 12kg cylinders to dealers at Tk1,500. Dealers sell the cyl-inders at di� erent rates to retailers,” Petredec Elpiji Ltd General Manager Md Saidul Islam told the Dhaka tribune.

While a residential user has to pay a maximum of Tk450 a month for a 24-hour-gas supply through pipelines, a 12.4 -12.5 KG cylinder LPG cylinder now costs around Tk1, 650-1,700.

The cylinders are available from

four sources – government LP Gas Lim-ited and privately-owned TOTALGAZ Bangladesh, Bashundhara LP Gas Ltd, Jamuna Spacetech Joint Venture Ltd, Linde Bangladesh Limited and Pe-tredec Elpiji Ltd While the supply from private � rms often stays steady, their prices do not – because of the crisis of the government brand.

Md Eunusur Rahman, the chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), also the monitoring agency of LP Gas, told the Dhaka Tribune that the private � rms were importing 80,000 tonnes of LPG while the government produces 20,000 tonnes a year against an annual demand of 300,000 tonnes.

Expressing his helplessness, the chairman said the mismatch between supply and demand was the main rea-son for the high price.

Consumers said the seller compa-nies had hiked the price of the cooking gas by Tk100-150 per cylinder from the beginning of winter.

Kazi Hasan, a dealer of Petredec Elpiji Ltd companies, said, “We have raised the price by Tk50 per cylinder from this month.”

“We are su� ering a lot because of

the gas price hike,” said Sumuna Yas-min, a housewife from Mohammadpur.

A cylinder of BPC-produced LP gas is priced at Tk700 at the end-consumer level. But this subsidised gas is traded for Tk1,600-1,700, almost the same prices charged by private companies.

BPC chairman Md. Eunusur Rahman said that it is not possible to take control of the price due to low productivity.

“Besides we have no the work force needed to monitor the private sector about controlling price,” he added.

Our Correspondent in Barisal report-ed that the prices of LPG cylinders had gone up by Tk100-150 within a month and reached Tk1,500-1,550 per cylinder in Barisal city markets.

There was no supply of natural gas by pipeline and public sector LPG pro-ducing companies Padma, Meghna and Jamuna, which sold the cylinders for Tk678 per cylinder, had not sup-plied them to the region in the last four months.

Price of per 12.5kg cylinder of Ba-sundhara, Klinhit, Total Gas and Jamu-na at the city markets was Tk1,320/1,340 till June 2013.

However from July last year the

price increased to Tk1,380-1,420 and from mid-January 2014 it became Tk1,500-1,550, said Nurul Alam Shahin, owner of LPG retailer Sharif Enterprise of the Battala market in the city.

He informed that monthly total de-mands of LPG cylinders near about one lakh in Barisal region. But its supply never exceeded sixty thousand cylin-ders causing crisis, price hike and black marketing.

Usually dealers � x the retail price at about Tk80- 100 over the factory rate, the LPG dealers said.

Ranjit Dutta, the Barisal district co-ordinator of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said urban and middle class people and small food shops de-pended on LPG cylinders as there was no easy or cheap alternative of cooking fuel in the region.

Shohidul Alam, the deputy com-missioner of Barisal, said dealers and retailers of LPG in the city had decided at a meeting that LPG cylinders would be sold with a 10-15% mark-up over the factory rate.

Mobile courts would operate drives against illegal price hikes and hoarding LPG to prevent creation of any fake cri-sis, the DC said. l

A guest speaks in memory of former chief justice Habibur Rahman at a condolence meeting organised by Nagarik Committee in the National Shaheed Minar yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

Navy decommissions � rst two frigates n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The � rst two frigates of Bangladesh Navy, BNS Abu Bakar and BNS Ali Haid-er, were decommissioned from Bangla-desh Navy through a function at BNS Isha Khan Jetty in Chittagong yester-day morning.

The two renowned warships of the country’s navy force were going to be re-placed with newly procured 053H2 Frig-ate ships from China, said navy sources.

The new ships have already started from China and are set to arrive in Ban-gladesh at the end of this month, said the sources.

Chittagong Naval Area Commander Rear Admiral Akhtar Habib was present at the function as chief guest.

He said the two � rst frigates played a very important role when natural di-sasters struck the country.

“Both the ships discharged their du-ties appropriately on the Bay of Bengal

to protect the country’s economic mar-itime area and save the country from external enemies, terrorists and smug-glers,” he said.

The area commander also thanked present and former o� cials of the two ships for operating the ships with dis-cipline, and proved themselves as true patriots.

Present and former high o� cials of Bangladesh Navy in Chittagong were also present at the programme.

BNS Ali Haider was previously com-missioned as HMS JAGUAR with the Royal British Navy (RBN) in 1959. It was re-commissioned in Bangladesh Navy in 1978.

BNS Abu Bakar was previously com-missioned as HMS LUNX in 1957 in the RBN. It was re-commissioned in Ban-galdesh Navy in 1982.

However, Bangladesh Navy authori-ties are yet to decide about what to do with this two decommissioned ships. l

JU acting VC appointed n Tribune Report

The government appointed an acting vice-chancellor to Jahangirnagar Uni-versity yesterday.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof MA Matin was made acting VC on a temporary ba-sis, said a press release of the Ministry of Education. The ministry issued an order in this regard.

The press release said the acting vice chancellor would make a panel for ap-pointment of vice chancellor in a spe-cial senate meeting.

He would inform the chancellor and the president of the country about the decision of the meeting in the next 30 days.

The post of vice chancellor was vacant since Prof Anwar Hossain, the � fth VC of the institute, resigned on January 13. l

NHA housing schemes fall behind deadlineIne� ciency of authorities, legal loopholes cited as hurdlesn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The construction of mega housing projects under the National Housing Authority continues at a snail’s pace, with almost all of its housing develop-ment schemes behind their completion deadline.

The ine� ciency of the construction authorities concerned, wrong selec-tion of bidders, sheer dilly-dallying in land-recovering move and negligence in starting the groundwork are attribut-ed to the delay.

Sources in the National Housing Authority (NHA) said there had been little progress in the implementation of � ve apartment projects belonging to the government-owned agency due to lack of funds and land, the High Court ruling because of the grabbers’ writ pe-titions, and bureaucratic tangle of the relevant ministry etc.

“It may not be possible to imple-ment some of the projects within the

scheduled time,” said an o� cial of the NHA, preferring anonymity.

According to the NHA o� cials, there are � ve apartment projects for middle and low income people being imple-mented in and around the Dhaka city.

The � ve are Joynagar apartments for the government and semi-government o� cials in Mirpur, Anandanagar apart-ments at section 16 in Mirpur, 100-� at project at section 15 in Mirpur, Resi-dential-cum-commercial multi-storey building at Nababganj upazila in Dhaka and Residential � ats for middle income group at Dohar upazila in Dhaka.

The construction of Joynagar apart-ments is set to miss the deadline as much of the groundwork is yet to be laid. Undertaken in July 2011, the proj-ect was supposed to be completed by December 31 last year.

The government approved Tk321.86 crore for the housing project on a four-acre area at section 15 in Mirpur. Now the physical progress of the project

is zero percent and � nancial progress 0.034%.

The residential project will feature 520 apartments – each having 1,500 square feet – in � ve 14-storey build-ings. Sheer delay in land-recovering move and negligence in starting the groundwork are attributed to the pro-crastination.

The NHA o� cials now said the time-frame for the implementation of the government-run housing project had been extended to December 2016.

The construction of Anandanagar apartment delays is because land for the project is yet to be recovered from the grabbers. The project will have 1,456 � ats – each with 1,385 square feet – in the 14-storey building of double basement on a total of 15.12-acre land.

The implementation period of the Tk893.96-crore housing project was between July, 2013 and June, 2016. At present there has been no progress in the Anandanagar project.

The construction of the 100-� at project at section 15 in Mirpur also con-tinues at a very slow rate because of legal tangle. The High Court declared a stay order on the land recovery because of a writ petition by the land grabbers.

The 100-� at project, each with 1,500-square feet, in the 14-storey building will be constructed on a one-acre land.

The implementation period the Tk35-crore project was between July, 2011 and December, 2013.

The NHA has clearly failed to meet its implementation deadline and later extended time till June, 2016.

At present the physical progress of the construction project is only 7% and � nancial progress 0.38%.

According to the NHA o� cials, the construction of Nababganj residen-tial-cum-commercial 12-soriey build-ing is going on very slowly as a suitable bidder is yet to be entrusted with the task.

The Tk43.56-crore project time is scheduled to be completed in June 2014, starting from July, 2012, but its physical progress is zero percent and � nancial progress 3.74%.

Besides, the residential project in Dohar remains suspended since May 2013 as its bidder and construction companies have stopped work for rea-son unknown. Around 6% of the proj-ect work has been completed. The � -nancial progress of the project is 5.05%.

When contacted, NHA Executive Engineer Md Khaled Hossain, also the project manager, denied facing fund crunch. He said: “It will take more time to take possession of most of the proj-ects’ land occupied by the grabbers.”

“When we step in for an eviction drive, the grabbers � le writ with the High Court against us. But at last we got permission from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to re-claim the land from the grabbers,” he said. l

35 brick kilns, two wheat factories sued in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The Chittagong court yesterday sued a total of 35 brick kilns and two wheat factories on charges of producing, trad-ing and distributing of goods without maintaining quality measures.

A press release of Bangladesh Stan-dards and Testing Institution (BSTI) in Chittagong said the BSTI lodged a case with the court of Chief Judicial Mag-istrate against 23 kilns and two wheat factories at Fatikchhari upazila, 11 kilns at Lohagara upazila and one kiln at Sat-kania upazila.

Showkat Osman, one of the deputy directors of BSTI in Chittagong, said they conducted a drive at 50 kilns and at several wheat factories in three upa-zilas to check the quality measures.

During the drive they found that the 37 organisations— brick kilns and wheat factories— had no legal papers, while they were not following the instructions for maintaining the quality of produc-tion, sale and distribution of goods. l

Political clashes leave SBMC in disarrayn Anisur Rahman Swapan, Barisal

Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical Col-lege is in a turmoil following clashes between the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the ruling Awami League, and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student front of the BNP, on the campus.

Activists of BCL and Chhatra Dal were locked in clash at Jamiur Rahman Hall of the medical college in the early hours of yesterday.

Campus sources said BCL activists led by SBMC unit convener Harun Ur Rashid entering Jamiur Rahman Hall, assaulted Golam Sarwar, literature and publication secretary, and Rakib Hasan, library sec-retary of SBMC unit Chhatra Dal.

Later, their supporter were locked in the clash and were involved in chase and counter-chase, leaving the aforesaid two and Avishek Barman, � nance secretary of SBMC unit JCD, injured.

Later, police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Jamshed Ali, SBMC unit JCD presi-dent, alleged the BCL cadres attacking opponent activists created reign of ter-ror on the campus, hampering peaceful coexistence and the academic environ-ment.

He also alleged that authority of the medical college failed to control the sit-uation.

Denying the allegation, BCL conve-ner Harun said they were only trying

to be vigilant against anti-state and anti-government conspiracies by the opposition activists.

Harun also claimed that Tarik Aziz was engaged in anti-government and anti-state propagations through Face-book and other social media.

On Tuesday noon, BCL cadres beat Islami Chhatra Shibir activist and 42th-batch student Tarik Aziz, and handed him over to police, accusing him of be-ing involved in subversive activities.

Sub-Inspector of Kotwali police sta-tion Golam Kabir said Tarik was indict-ed in a case of assault on police.

On early Sunday, BCL activists beat ICS activists Md Jony, Afzal and Gaf-far, students of 43rd batch at the SBMC hostel No 2.

Later, campus police rushed to the spot controlled the situation.

BCL activists alleged that when Shi-bir men were planning to hold a con-spiracy meeting for sabotage, general students challenged them.

But Jony denied the allegation and said he called other two classmates to discuss about their study, curriculum and course.

Dr Ranjit Kha, principal of the SBMC, said he asked the authority to strength-en police presence on the campus to avoid any untoward incident.

Shakhawt Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said they were monitoring the situation and strengthening their presence to main-tain law and order on the campus. l

Post of CU registrar vacant for 18 yearsn FM Mizanur Rahaman

The post of registrar at the Chittagong University (CU), one of the most vital administrative positions of the insti-tute, has remained vacant for the past 18 years.

Since then, the duties of the post were carried out by teachers and mid-level o� cials in di� erent times under the post of ‘acting registrar’, breaching the university’s rules and regulations.

On Sunday, CU Vice-Chancellor Profes-sor Anwarul Azim Arif appointed the university’s chief engineer Md Alamgir Chowdhury as the acting registrar.

Md Alamgir Chowdhury, who had been the university’s chief engineer on a contractual appointment, will now hold both of the posts for the time.

Sources in the university’s adminis-tration said the recent appointment has triggered anger among the university’s teachers and o� cials.

Earlier, Professor Dr Sa� ul Islam from the Institute of Forestry and Envi-ronmental Science, has stepped down from the post of acting registrar, show-ing personal reasons.

Professor Sa� ul said: “I have re-signed because I want to get involved with academic activities again.’

He further added that he found it very uncomfortable to keep away from teaching students.

Administrative sources said, a total of 16 persons served the university as registrar since its inception in 1966,

and added that 11 of them had carried out their duties as acting registrar.

The last regular registrar of Chit-tagong University, Abdur Rashid, re-tired in 1995.

Sources said the university’s vice-chancellors had repeatedly kept the post vacant after Rashid’s retirement.

Even after issuing several circu-lars in di� erent times to � ll the post, the university has repeatedly failed to appoint a registrar for the past 17 years.

University sources said in April 21, 2011, CU authorities had issued circu-lars on newspapers for appointing a registrar. Even though several deserv-ing candidates applied for the post, the university authorities, however, halted the recruitment processes due to un-known reasons.

“Actually, the VCs intentionally keep this position vacant as it is the driving force of the university,” a dean of the university told Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity.

“The VCs appoint their preferred indi-viduals as acting registrar and use them for their personal interest,” he added.

Sources said a candidate must have at least 16 years of administrative ex-perience; however, none of the acting registrars appointed so far have met the criteria.

AKM Mahfujul Haque, president of o� cer association at CU, told Dhaka Tribune that the university authority had paid no heed to their repeated de-mands to appoint a registrar.

‘We sent an o� cial letter to the vice-chancellor, urging him to appoint registrar as per the requirements,” he added.

Meanwhile, Professor Ifekhar Ud-din Chowdury, pro vice-chancellor of CU, told Dhaka Tribune that eligible persons would have to be appointed in right capacities to run the university smoothly. l

NU teacher suspended n Tribune Report

The authorities of National Universi-ty have temporally suspended Dr Md Saleh Uddin, a lecturer of Islami Stud-ies Department of the university, be-

cause of his imprisonment. The matter was disclosed through a

press release sent by Director (acting) of Public Relations ad Information and Consultation Directory of the institu-tion yesterday. l

The duties of the post were carried out by teachers and mid-level o� cials in di� erent times under the post of ‘acting registrar’, breaching the university’s rules

An aspirant government primary teacher speaks at a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday, demanding job regularisation NASHIRUL ISLAM

A mobile court led by Razzakul Islam, upazila nirbahi o� cer of Poba, conducts a drive at Shyampur char in Rajshahi yesterday and set three dredging machines on � re following the publication of a photo in the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday about illegal sand lifting from the Padma River by in� uential quarters DHAKA TRIBUNE

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

Renovation of � ood control dyke goes on at snail’s paceSirajganj residents worried that a � ood next season might bring disastern Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Locals in the district remain vulnerable to � ooding as a 2.5-kilometre � ood con-trol embankment has been damaged by the recurrent cyclones over the past four years.

The embankment was yet to be re-paired though the deadline to repair it has been long over, sources said.

The damage was found at least at 10 points of the � ood control dyke and around 900 meter of its concrete part had been devoured by the Jamuna Riv-

er that misplaced the earth underneath the dyke.

Local administration and inhabitants expressed concern over the Water Development Board (WDB) o� cials’ reluctance to repair the embankment.

Even recurrent repairs to the dyke cost Tk200crore for the last couple of years have failed to control disaster.

The WDB has taken up a Tk80-crore project titled “Water Management Improvement Project” with the support of the World Bank, Nederland’s

Government and the Government of Bangladesh.

The objective of the project is to � ll up the bottom of the embankment with 1,23,450 cubic metres of rock to strengthen the dyke.

The rock were supposed to be im-ported from abroad or brought from the rock mine of Moddopara area in Di-najpur district.

Local contractor MA Munim Ltd was awarded the tender, but the company clearly fell behind the deadline.

Local and WDB sources said only

one-third portion of rock was brought till yesterday which had been stored beside the dyke and only three decimal of the embankment’s bottom had been � lled with the stones so far.

Although the renovation deadline had been extended to next April 30, the WDB o� cials were uncertain about � n-ishing the work within the stipulated time.

Executive Engineer Sajedur Rahman, who had been recently transferred, sent a letter to the higher o� cials con-cerned, alleging that lack of manpower,

equipment, experience were a bar to speeding up the project work.

Sub-divisional Engineer of WDB Ra� qul Alam Chowdhury said the WB had not entrusted BRE with the re-sponsibility and so it was not interested in the project.

The project team leader Drubo Ku-mar met journalists Monday noon, but Akhtaruzzaman of the contrac-tor company allegedly forbade him to talk anything about the renovation project.

Nurul Amin, WDB executive engi-

neer, said: “The construction has been going on at a snail’s pace because of lack of rock. We have nothing to do in this matter.”

Water Development Board Chief of Taskforce Tofayel Ahmed said, “MA Munim Ltd has no experience of con-struction work. Basically, it is the con-tractor company for Roads and High-ways department.”

The renovation had been delayed because the inexperienced company had been tasked with the responsibil-ity, he added. l

52 buildings at sorry state in Kushtia n Our Correspondent, Kushtia

At least 52 buildings in Kushtia town may collapse any time as most are in dilapidated condition with cracked ceilings and damaged walls, threaten-ing the lives of a large number of peo-ple residing in the buildings.

The buildings, though unstable, are used for commercial purposes, accom-modating di� erent o� ces and shops. O� ces of di� erent organisations and businesses have been set up in the buildings along with residences for people.

While talking to locals on the issue, they feared that the old buildings may collapse anytime. They said the num-ber of risky buildings in the town were also increasing as standard repairs and renovations were not conducted by landlords or the authorities con-cerned.

Visiting some of the spots, it was found that ceilings in most of the build-ings � oors had developed cracks and the walls in some of the rooms were damp with heavy moss coverings. Chunks of concrete plasters were also falling apart

from the walls at some of the places.Among the buildings visited, the

one at Amlapara which housed Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, district unit CPB party of-� ce and Amlapara Sporting Club were in the worst condition.

A three-storeyed abandoned build-ing at Mesua Bazar in the town, owned by Piar Khan Abdus Sattar, was also in sorry state. Mizanur Rahman, owner of Kushtia Hardware located on the building’s ground � oor, said though the building was unstable, he and his employees were carrying out the busi-ness with serious concerns about their safety

He said traders of Barobazar led by president of Barobazar Business-men Association, Mokarram Hossain Moazzem, had collected signatures from the association’s members to re-pair and renovate the building.

Later, an application was submitted along with the signatures to the dis-trict’s deputy commissioner to press home their demands but no initiative was yet taken, he added.

However, sources at the district’s Public Works Department claimed that

people were living in those buildings though the department declared the establishments risky and unsafe a long time back.

Abdus Sattar, an o� cial of the dis-trict PWD in-charge of abandoned property, said: “So far we have a list of 52 buildings, but the e� orts to repair and renovate those are being ham-pered mainly because of lack of fund.”

Executive Engineer Mohammad Shahin Mia of district PWD said they would inform the higher authorities again and urge them to take necessary steps as soon as possible.

When contacted, district Deputy Commissioner Syed Belal Hossain said it has not been possible to take neces-sary initiatives in this regard because of lack of directives.

Sources at the department said the government earlier had decided to sell the abandoned houses to the private sector but no directive was yet issued. However, they acknowledged that a tragedy similar to the Rana Plaza col-lapse in Savar might take place anytime for non-implementation of the deci-sion and negligence. l

Dense fog leads to accidents, three killed in Natore n Our Correspondent, Natore

Three people were killed as three trucks collided with each other as dense fog signi� cantly lowered visibil-ity in Baraigram upazila in Natore yes-terday morning.

O� cer-in-charge of Banpara highway police outpost Masud Parvez said two trucks collided as both drivers could not see vehicles coming from oppo-site direction. Later, another truck turned turtle on the road after hitting them and fell below the bridge at about 7:15am.

Truck driver Selim Reja, 35, son of Mozammel Haque of Chapainawab-

ganj sadar upazila, and helper, Nazrul Islam, 25, died on the spot. Police re-covered body of Mohibul Hossain from under a truck wrecked in the accident.

The accident happened because of poor visibility, the OC said.

Meanwhile, Shaker Hossein was crushed under the wheels of a train while he was trying to get on board at Abdulpur rail station under Lalpur upa-zila.

On the other hand, Rezaul Sarker was critically injured after a speeding motorcycle hit him in Fulbari area. He was taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

In Khulna, an elderly man died when a train ran over him at the rail crossing adjacent to Goalkhali tempo stand area in the city.

Police said the man who has been identi� ed as Osiar Rahman, 50, hailed from Demra area in the capital city.

Osiar died instantly as he was crushed under the wheels of a Khul-na-bound running train while he was crossing the rail track around 11am. l

Child marriage foiled in Rajbari n Our Correspondent, Rajbari

A child marriage was foiled in Pangsha upazila under the district on Tuesday.

According to sources, marriage of Rumana Sultan, 14, class IX student of Patikabari Mohammadi Uchha Bid-daloy and daughter of Kurban Ali of

Patikabari village under Bahadurpur union in the upazila was � xed with Ab-dul Alim, 32.

On information, Upazila Nirbahi O� cer (UNO) Aminul Islam Khan, along with a team of upazila o� cials went to the spot and stopped the marriage. l

Clash over buying a SIM card, 30 hurt n Tribune Report

At least 30 people were injured yester-day while several houses and shops were torched in Sherpur-Jamalpur dis-trict’s peripheral border as hundreds of people of two neighbouring villages of the districts locked in a clash following an argument over purchasing a mobile SIM card.

They also vandalised houses and looted valuables from shops during the series of clashes among the villagers.

Jamalpur sadar police, Sherpur po-lice, armed police and the RAB mem-bers were deployed in the area and ten round bullets were � red to bring the situation under control.

Witnesses said a villager of Chonkan-da village in Jamalpur had an altercation with a villager of Kulurchar village in Sherpur on Tuesday night at the bridge over the River Brahmaputra. They then, also involved themselves in a scu� e.

After the altercation between the two, a wave of anger spread among the villagers of Chonkanda and Kulurchar—the two neighbouring villages situated in the two sides of the bridge.

At � rst, the agitated villagers of Chonkanda rampaged through Kulur-char yesterday in the morning. They made the attack with local sharp weap-ons and sticks and vandalised eight houses and 10 shops.

After that the villagers of Kulurchar made a counter-attack and rampage through the village Chonkanda.

Later, Jamalpur sadar police went to the spot, but they failed to control the situation. Then Sherpur police, armed police and the RAB went to the spot to foil the fray. l

The photo taken on Tuesday shows that labourers are engaged in the renovation work of Sirajganj � ood control embankment DHAKA TRIBUNE

Two trucks collided as both drivers could not see vehicles coming from opposite direction. Later, another truck turned turtle on the road after hitting them and fell below the bridge at about 7:15am

Mongla Export Processing ZoneMongla, Bagerhat.

Web: www.epzbangladesh.org.bd

No.03.371.007.01.00.455.2010. 2462 Date: January 15, 2014

Invitation for TenderNo. 09/2013-2014

Sealed Tenders are hereby invited from the eligible contractors for the following works as per terms & conditions stated below:1 Ministry/Division Prime Minister’s Offi ce2 Agency Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA)3 Procuring Entity name Executive Engineer (Civil), Mongla EPZ.4 Procuring Entity district Bagerhat5 Invitation for Works6 Invitation Ref. no and date 03.371.007.01.00.455.2010 Date: 15.01.2014

KEY INFORMATION7 Procurement method Open Tendering Method (OTM)

FUNDING INFORMATION8 Budget and source of funds Self fi nance of BEPZA9 Development Partners (if applicable) Not applicable

PARTICULAR INFORMATION10 Project/Programme Code (if applicable) Not applicable11 Project/Programme Name (if applicable) Not applicable12 Tender Package No. Not applicable13 Tender Package Name Not applicable14 Tender Publication Date On or before January 28, 201415 Tender Last Selling Date February 18, 2014 During offi ce hour16 Tender Submission Date & Time February 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM17 Tender Opening Date & Time February 19, 2014 at 3.00 PM18 Name & Address of the offi cer(s)

Selling of Tender Document (principal) Accounts section, Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat.

Selling of Tender Document (others) (i) Offi ce of the Divisional Commissioner, Khulna.(ii) Offi ce of the Deputy Commissioner, Bagerhat.

Receiving of Tender Document(i) Executive Engineer (Civil), Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat.(ii) Offi ce of the Divisional Commissioner, Khulna.(iii) Offi ce of the Deputy Commissioner, Bagerhat.

Opening of Tender Document Executive Engineer (Civil), Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat.

19 Place/DatelTimie of Pre-Tender meeting (Optional) Not applicable

INFORMATION FOR Tenderer

20 Eligibility of Tenderer

The invitation for tender is open to all eligible tenderers who satisfy the following: (a) The Tenderer must have successful completion experience of at least 01 (one)

building construction work including sanitary, water supply, electrical works for a single work amounting not less than Tk. 124.00 lac during last 5(fi ve) years in Govt./Semi-Govt./Autonomous Bodies. The work completion certifi -cates shall have to be issued by the Offi cer not below the rank of Executive Engineer or equivalent Offi cer of concern Department/Organization.

(b) In case of JVC / JVCA eligibility and other conditions are shown in Tender Data Sheet (TDS) of tender documents.

(c) The required minimum average annual construction turnover is Tk. 635.00 lac. Which will be based on work completion certifi cates.

(d) The required minimum liquid asset is Tk. 124.00 lac. (e) Black listed 1 debarred bidders from any Govt./Semi-Govt./Autonomous or-

ganization will be treated as ineligible to participate in the Tender. (f) Up-to-date trade license, Income Tax clearance certifi cate, VAT registration

certifi cate, valid A,B,C category electrical contractors and supervisory license from electricity licensing board, Government of Bangladesh.

(g) Other required conditions and documents of the tenderer are shown in Tender Data Sheet (TDS) of tender documents must be fulfi lled.

(h) All other criteria will be taken according to the Public Procurement Act-2006 and its amendment.

21 Brief description of related works Dismantling, RCC work, MS work, Brick work, Aluminum windows, Tiles, painting, Sanitary and plumbing works, Electrical works etc.

22 Price of Tender Documents TK. 2,500.00

23 SI. no Identifi cation of lot LocationTender Security

Amount (Tk.) (In favor of BEPZA)

Completion Time

i.Construction of 3rd fl oor of Standard Factory Building # 01 at Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat.

Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat. Tk. 6,80,000.00 210 days

PROCURING ENTITY DETAILS24 Name of Offi cial Inviting Tender Md. Abdul Matin Miea25 Designation of Offi cial Inviting Tender Executive Engineer/Civii26 Address of Offi cial Inviting Tender Mongla EPZ, Mongla, Bagerhat.27 Contract Details of Offi cial Inviting Tender Phone: 04662-75195, Fax: 04662-7519828 Special Instruction:

(a) Eligible fi rms 1 authorized representative may purchase tender documents from the offi ces mentioned in SN-18 on submitting written request in their letter head pad.

(b) Any false, forget and miss leading documents furnished by Tenderer shall result in rejection of the Tender.(c) In case of any confusion arises due to printing mistake or other reason, the Public Procurement Rules-2008 will govern.(d) Tender should be submitted original along with one duplicate copy and it should be mentioned on the cover sheet.

(e)Tender shall be valid for a period of 120 days from the date of opening the Tender(s).The tender notice is also available at web site: www.cptu.gov.bd of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) andwww.epzbangladesh.org.bd of BEPZA

29 The procuring entity reserves the right to accept any or reject all the Tenders or annul the Tender Proceedings.

(Md. Abdul Matin Miea)Executive Engineer (Civil)Tel. :04662-75195. DG – 07/14 (16”x4c)

LAW CARTOON

JurisDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014 7

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CARTOON BY RIO SHUVO

JURIS QUOTE

n Md Raziur Rahman

If you are an entrepreneur and hoping to start your own business, you need to register your � rm under the Com-panies Act, 1994. Here is a general guideline for new en-

trepreneurs who want to get their company registered in Bangladesh.

The regulatory authorityThe Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) is the regulatory authority which facilitates formation of com-panies and � rms. The body is also responsible for keeping track of all ownership related issues as prescribed by the laws in Bangladesh. The Registrar is the head of the o� ce of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, Bangladesh.

Types of companiesThere are many types of business entities. So, before you start the process of registering your � rm, you need to make sure what kind of a company you are going to open. RJSC deals with the following types of entities:l Private companiesl Public companiesl Foreign companiesl Trade organizationsl Societies, andl Partnership � rms

The laws involvedRJSC accords registration and ensures lawful administration of the entities under the provisions of applicable act as under:

l Companies and trade organisations: Companies Act, 1994 (Amendment of Companies Act, 1913)

l Societies: Societies Registration Act, 1860l Partnership Firms: Partnership Act, 1932

Name ClearanceThis is a pre-requisite for registration of a new company (other than Foreign Company) or a society or a trade organ-isation.

The search for the availability of a company name was computerised in 2003. After checking that the proposed company name is available for registration, the entrepre-neur has to apply for name clearance through RJSC website.

RJSC provides name clearance for one of the proposed names upon satisfaction that it does not closely match or resembles with any of the names that have already been taken. The status of the application can be checked online and is usually accepted or rejected within one working day. If accepted, the company name is reserved for six months. A print out of the name clearance certi� cate must be submitted to the RJSC, along with the other required documents for incorporation.

Payment of stamp feesOne has to pay adhesive stamp fees at a designated bank. Payment can be made to the designated bank accounts of the Treasury. Previously all the fees were supposed to be de-posited only in selected branches of Sonali Bank. RJSC has now allowed one of the leading private sector banks with extensive national coverage ie BRAC Bank to collect fees.

For an authorised share capital of up to Tk1,000,000, the total stamp duty fees are Tk2,500. These include Tk2,000 for a� xing stamps on the Articles of Association, and Tk500 for stamps on the Memorandum of Association.

Submission of necessary documentsTo register a company, the following documents must be submitted to the registrar:l Name clearance certi� catel Memorandum and Articles of Association l Form I (Declaration on the registration of the

company)l Form VI (Notice of the registered o� ce) l Form IX (Consent to act as directors) l Form X (The list of persons consenting to act as direc-

tors)l Form XII (Particulars of the directors, managers,

and managing agents)l Proof of payment (ie receipt from the designated

bank) for Treasury Stamps

The registration fees payable at a designated banksl For � ling six documents (� ve � lled in forms and the

Memorandum and Articles of Association, the fee is Tk200 per document): Tk1,200

l For an authorised share capital of up to Tk20,000, the fee is Tk360.

l An additional fee of Tk180 is applicable for every Tk10,000 or part from the � rst Tk20,000 up until Tk50,000

l An additional fee of Tk45 is applicable for every Tk10,000 or part from the � rst Tk50,000 up until Tk1,000,000

Obtain a tax identification number (TIN)In order to start business operations, every company must register for taxes at the appropriate taxation authority (Deputy Commission of Taxes of Company Circle, Zonal Taxation Department) under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and obtain a tax identi� cation number.

Register for VAT For VAT purposes, companies register with the Customs, Excise, and VAT Commission under the National Board of Revenue. The company’s VAT is regulated by the Cus-toms, VAT and Excise Department of the region in which itoperates.

Obtain a trade license Companies have to obtain a trade licence from the city corpo-ration. Recently, Dhaka City Corporation has been divided into two zones: the North Zone and the South Zone. The proposed company will have to � le its application at the nearest city cor-poration o� ce.

Contact RJSC officesNow RJSC has four o� ces in Bangladesh. The head o� ce is situated in Dhaka and three divisional o� ces are located in Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi. l

The writer is a lecturer of law at De� odil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Rights at stake: Free speech and expressionn Mohammad Habibur Rahman

The right to freedom of expression upholds the rights of all to express their views and opinions freely. Un-doubtedly, in the technological era freedom of ex-

pression became a basic foundation of democracy and can be considered as one of the most fundamental aspects of all kinds of freedom. However, there may be some extreme forms of expression which need to be curtailed for the pro-tection of human rights of others. Because in the course of exercising fundamental rights one cannot infringe or abuse right of others.

Hence, our constitution guaranteed this right namely freedom of thought, conscience and of speech under article 39. However, recently government has made an amendment of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act of 2006 which may cause a big threat to the freedom of expression which is one of the fundamental rights of the citizens. The amended act authorises the police to arrest any person without warrant, and increases the punishment of convicts minimum seven years to maximum 14 years im-prisonment.

Previously in the original ICT Act of 2006 the maximum punishment was 10 years and police had to seek permission

from the authorities to � le a case and to arrest any person un-der this act. Most importantly, one of the harsh provisions of this amended act is that the crime under this act is non-bail-able. With regard to the current ICT Act most of the experts argued that the government through this amendment further blackened an existing exploitative law. A constitutional expert Dr Shahdeen Malik urged the government to remove section

57 of the ICT Act saying that the clause will take the country towards the medieval age (The Daily Star, September 7, 2013).

Further, the unclear wordings of section 57(1) of the act may create possibility of abuse by the distinct authorities. For example, this section clearly failed to spell out the na-ture of the information which will ‘tend to deprave’ or ‘cor-rupt persons.’ Moreover this act does not contain any clear

provision as regards ‘pub-lication of information’ and the ‘type of informa-tion’ that may degrade and distort others while Right to I n f o r m a t i o n Act, 2009 has recognised the freedom of ex-pression as an important funda-mental right of the citizens (Preamble of RTI Act, 2009).

Thus, at the outset it can be said that section 57 of the ICT (Amendment) Act, 2013 is in con� ict with the provision of article 39 of the constitution which guaran-tees the right of freedom of speech and expression. Secondly, we must say that the pro-vision of the detention without any warrant is in con� ict with the article 43 which guarantees the

right to privacy. Therefore, as per the article 7(2) of the constitution section 57 should be declared void as article 7(2) of the constitu-

tion stipulates that, “This constitution is, as the solemn expression of the will

of the people, the supreme law of the Republic, and if any other law is inconsistent with this Constitution that other law shall, to the extent of

the inconsistency, be void.”To conclude, I must say that we

all have to raise our voice against such provision which is totally absurd and ri-

diculous. Otherwise democracy cannot exist as freedom of expression lies at the heart of

democracy. At any time this law may be used against us in the name of preventing cyber crimes. And we all need to remember that free speech and expression is a basic and valuable characteristic of a democratic society which can never be undermined. l

The writer is a student at Department of Law, BRAC University. Email: Mhr25@student.london.ac.uk.

BIG STOCK

Opening a company in BangladeshCompanies Act, 1994 provides the basics of incorporation of a new company

With regard to the current ICT Act most of the experts argued that the government through this amendment further blackenedan existing exploitative law

BIG

STO

CK

Thursday, January 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

Frigid temperatures to persist as north-eastern US digs out from snown Reuters

Residents of the north-eastern United States on Wednesday looked to dig them-selves out from a storm that has dumped over a foot of snow in many places, snarl-ing tra� c and forcing the Philadelphia school system to shut down.

The weather system packing snow and Arctic cold forced the cancellation of over 3,000 � ights.

Before the end of Tuesday, parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey had seen about 15 inches of snow, said Stephen Cor� di with the National Weather Service.

States across the northeast, includ-ing New York, declared emergencies and warned residents not to travel during the fast-moving storm.

Far less snowfall is expected for Wednesday, but � urries will touch parts of New England as the weather system moves north toward the Cana-dian Maritimes, Cor� di said.

“The real story is going to be a per-sistent period of cold in the wake of this system,” he said.

Temperatures in western Penn-

sylvania will dip below 0 Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius), and many other areas in the northeast will not see the mercury rise above 20F (minus 7C), Cor� di said.

In anticipation of the harsh weather, Philadelphia closed its schools and all city o� ces. In New York, school chil-dren would have to go without a snow day on Wednesday, as the public school system planned to remain in operation, according to the city’s Department of Education.

Metro-North, the suburban com-muter rail service serving northern suburbs of New York City, warned on its website of possible weather-related delays on Wednesday.

Amid heavy snowfall on Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of federal workers in Washington were ordered to stay home. City schools and o� ces also shut down, and the White House called o� its Tuesday press brie� ng.

But the Supreme Court remained open to hear cases, and organizers of the annual anti-abortion March for Life said Wednesday’s rally would go on re-gardless of weather.

The federal government was slat-ed to be open on Wednesday, but employees have the option of tak-ing unscheduled leave or working from home.

On Tuesday, state governments in Delaware and Maryland shut down due to the storm and Connecticut sent nonessential state workers home in the afternoon.

The streets of downtown Rockville, Maryland, were mostly empty on Tues-day afternoon, except for crews remov-ing snow.

Mike Rogers, 49, of Howard County, a contractor for Ruppert Landscaping, had been clearing the sidewalk with a snow blower since late morning. “I like the snow, personally,” he said. “I’m not working if it doesn’t snow.” l

Regional nations approve military force for South Sudann AFP, Nairobi

East African nations have approved a 5,500-strong military force for war-torn South Sudan to end weeks of bitter � ghting that has devastated the young nation, Kenya’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Thousands have been killed and half amn civilians forced to � ee the � ghting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels allied to his sacked dep-uty Riek Machar.

“The Security Council within IGAD has already adopted a resolu-tion allowing 5,500 troops into South Sudan.”

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told reporters, referring to the seven-member Intergovernmen-tal Authority on Development.

IGAD is mediating deadlocked talks in Ethiopia between the warring parties, to end a con� ict in which the United Nations says atrocities have been committed, including mass kill-ings, sexual violence and widespread destruction.

Uganda, an IGAD-member, has al-ready sent troops to South Sudan on its own and taken a key role in the � ghting in support of Kiir.

Rebel chief Machar has demanded

Kampala withdraw all forces, claiming Ugandan � ghter jets have tried to kill him, and has questioned the neutrality of IGAD as a mediator.

It was not clear what role an IGAD force would play – or if Ugan-dan troops would be part of it – but a draft cessation of hostilities deal seen by AFP proposes an IGAD-led team to monitor the proposed deal on the ground.

Mohamed said that Kenya – which deployed troops in South Sudan to help evacuate citizens trapped in the � ght-ing – has been approached to send in troops as part of the force.

“Some countries have already agreed to send troops, others are con-sidering,” Mohamed said, initially say-ing Kenya would be willing to take part, but then later saying a decision had yet to be made.

The draft IGAD cease� re accord pre-sented to peace delegates meeting in Addis Ababa, notes the “scale of hu-man su� ering... with great loss of hu-man life,” since � ghting broke out on December 15.

It also speci� cally highlights that both sides must “refrain” from attack-ing civilians, including summary exe-cutions, use of child soldiers as well as “rape, sexual abuse and torture.” l

Russia hacking hundreds of foreign companiesn Reuters, Washington

A US cyber security � rm says it has gathered evidence that the Russian government spied on hundreds of American, European and Asian com-panies, the � rst time Moscow has been linked to cyber attacks for alleged eco-nomic - rather than political - gains.

According to the � rm, CrowdStrike, the victims of the previously unreported cyber espionage campaign include ener-gy and technology � rms, some of which have lost valuable intellectual property.

CrowdStrike declined to go into de-tail about those losses or to name any victims, citing con� dentiality agree-ments related to its investigation.

O� cials with the Russian Interior Ministry could not be reached for com-ment early on Wednesday in Moscow.

“These attacks appear to have been motivated by the Russian government’s interest in helping its industry maintain competitiveness in key areas of national importance,” Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology o� cer of CrowdStrike, told Reuters on Tuesday evening.

Cybersecurity researchers have in the past said that China’s government was behind cyber espionage campaigns against various corporations dating back as far as 2005, but China has vehe-mently denied those allegations. Alp-erovitch said this is the � rst time the Russian government has been linked to cyber intrusions on companies.

Governments have been using com-puter networks to spy on each other for more than 30 years in the type of surveillance programs conducted by virtually every nation, according to CrowdStrike. It is only in the past de-cade that some nations have started using cyber espionage as a platform for gaining data to help promote their

national economic interests, according to Alperovitch. CrowdStrike has been following the activities of the Russian group of hackers, which it dubbed “En-ergetic Bear,” for two years. The � rm believes the Russian government is behind the campaign because of tech-nical indicators, as well as analysis of the targets chosen and the data stolen, according to Alperovitch.

“We are very con� dent about this,” he said. Victims include European energy companies, defense contrac-tors, technology companies and gov-ernment agencies, according to the CrowdStrike report.

Manufacturing and construction � rms in the United States, Europe and Middle East as well as US healthcare providers were also cited as targets in the report that was posted on the web early on Wednesday morning, here

CrowdStrike described the activi-ties of the Energetic Bear hackers in its annual cyber threat report, released on Wednesday. It also documented at-tacks by hacking groups in China and Iran and described the activities of the activist Syrian Electronic Army.

Alperovitch, who is of Russian eth-nic origin and now lives in the Wash-ington, D.C., area, is an expert on cyber espionage who rose to prominence while working for McAfee Inc. While there he managed a team of research-ers who produced a landmark January 2010 report that described how Chi-nese hackers had launched an unprec-edented series of attacks known as “Operation Aurora” on Google Inc and dozens of other companies.

In 2012, he co-founded CrowdStrike, which collects intelligence about the activities of hacking groups around the world and sells software to thwart such attacks. l

Syria peace conference opens with rifts over Assadn Reuters, Montreux

Syria’s government and opposition, meeting face to face for the � rst time at a UN peace conference, angrily spelled out their hostility on Wednesday as world powers also restated contrasting views on the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

Opposition leader Ahmed Jarba ac-cused Assad of war crimes that recalled Nazi Germany and demanded the Syri-an government delegation at the one-day meeting in Switzerland immedi-ately sign up to an international plan for a transition of power.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem insisted Assad would not bow to outside demands and painted a graphic picture of “terrorist” rebel atrocities supported by Arab and West-ern states who back the opposition and were present in the room.

The United States and Russia, co-sponsors of the conference which UN o� cials hope can launch further negotiations at Geneva, also revealed their di� erences over Assad in speech-es that began what will be a day of for-mal presentations.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who exchanged sharp words with Moualem when the Syri-an minister spoke for more than three times the 10-minute limit Ban had set, opened proceedings at Montreux on Lake Geneva by calling for immediate access to humanitarian aid for areas under siege.

“After nearly three painful years of

con� ict and su� ering in Syria, today is a day of fragile but real hope,” Ban said, urging both sides to reach a com-prehensive settlement based on the UN Geneva Communique, under which world powers called in 2012 for a tran-sitional government to oversee change in Syria.

“Great challenges lie ahead but they are not insurmountable,” he added.

Western powers and Russia have sought to set aside their own sharp di� erences over whether Assad must be forced to make way for an interim

administration and have backed the conference as a way to stop the spread of communal and sectarian violence spreading across the region.

Moscow and Washington di� er, however, over whether the 2012 accord - known as Geneva 1 - means that Assad must step down immediately. Western powers say that it does.

The new conference, known as Ge-neva 2, has raised no great expecta-tions, particularly among Islamist reb-els who have branded Western-backed opposition leaders as traitors for even

agreeing to be in the same room as As-sad’s delegates.

Showing the opposition’s determina-tion to see through the demands of the rebels, Jarba called for the government delegation to turn against their presi-dent before negotiations start: “We agree completely with Geneva 1,” he said.

“We want to make sure we have a partner in this room that goes from being a Bashar al-Assad delegation to a free delegation so that all executive powers are transferred from Bashar al-Assad,” he added. l

Turkey debates reforms amid purgesn AFP, Istanbul

Turkey launched a mass new purge of the police and judiciary on Wednesday as parliament debates controversial reforms that have heightened the crisis engul� ng Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Around 470 police were sacked or reassigned in the capital Ankara alone, NTV television reported, in the latest fallout from a corruption scandal tar-geting several top politicians and busi-ness leaders including Erdogan allies.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) re-moved 96 judges and prosecutors from their posts.

The shakeups came as Erdogan, on a visit to Brussels to try to advance Tur-key’s EU membership bid, defended government moves to tighten its con-trol of the judiciary.

Those removed in the latest purge include � ve chief prosecutors and oth-er senior � gures who oversaw the trials against hundreds of top military o� -

cers convicted of plotting against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

At least 2,000 police and prosecu-tors have been dismissed or reassigned in recent weeks in what critics have blasted as government e� orts to sti� e the graft probe.

Dozens of people including the sons of ministers, civil servants and busi-ness leaders, including the head of a state-owned bank, were rounded up a month ago. l

Two feared dead as police clash with protesters in Ukraine capitaln Reuters, Kiev

Two demonstrators were on Wednes-day reported killed in new anti-govern-ment unrest in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, in� aming protesters who con-fronted police shouting “Murderers” and “Glory to Ukraine!.”

Reports spread that a man had been shot dead by a police sniper overnight and that another demonstrator had fallen to his death atop the Dynamo football stadium, scene of the clashes in central Kiev.

A Reuters cameraman was shown the body of a man identi� ed as a protester who had gunshot wounds to the head but police denied that they had used any � rearms in repelling protesters.

As snow fell, riot police staged a ba-ton-charge to push back protesters and seized canisters of harmful chemicals which they said the demonstrators had been readying to use against them.

But after the riot police, known as Berkut, withdrew, protesters returned to the spot confronting police lines

across a 40-metre ‘no-man’s land.The latest clashes broke out when

police, using teargas, tried to disman-tle a protest camp but were repelled by demonstrators hurling home-made petrol bombs, witnesses said.

The demonstrators have been out in the street for several weeks, angered by President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to shun a trade pact with the European Union and instead accept � nancial aid from Russia. l

Morsi backers call for 18 days of protestsn AFP, Cairo

An Islamist alliance backing deposed president Mohamed Morsi called for 18 days of protests from Friday, as Egypt on January 25 marks three years since the revolt that ousted his predecessor.

The Anti-Coup Alliance said in a statement on Wednesday that protests will last until February 11 – the day when Morsi’s predecessor, long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak, stepped down in early 2011 after an 18-day uprising against his decades-old regime.

Saturday, the third anniversary of the 2011 revolt, promises to be a tense day.

Interim interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim has also called for demon-strations on that day to counter what he said was an Islamist “plot to spark chaos,” an unusual appeal from the top police o� cial tasked with enforcing a law that restricts protests.

Morsi supporters have staged reg-ular protests demanding his rein-statement despite a brutal govern-ment crackdown that has left more than 1,000 people killed since his ouster in July.

The alliance said the objective of its protests was to “end the military rule which has committed most if not all the awful and shameful crimes since January 25 2011 which peaked during the military coup” that ousted Morsi.

Morsi, Egypt’s � rst democratical-ly elected president, was removed by the army on July 3 after mass protests against his year-long rule.

The alliance said its protests will be “non-violent... and peaceful,” but their rallies have often turned into street clashes with Morsi opponents and se-curity forces. l

 Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem leads his delegation at the opening of the Geneva-2 peace conference in Montreux REUTERS 

Ukrainian opposition activists stand next to a barricade on a � re AFP

A view down 5th Avenue in the snow as New Yorkers get hit with a winter storm that could bring up to a foot of snow in the city AFP

States across the northeast, including New York, declared emergencies and warned residents not to travel during the fast-moving storm

9Thursday, January 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalKejriwal’s Delhi protest stumblesDelhi’s chief minister faces savage press criticism and calls o� protest

n AFP, New Delhi

Delhi’s “anarchist” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal faced savage press criti-cism Wednesday after a two-day protest in the capital that could check the diz-zying rise of India’s new political star.

The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner, who took o� ce less than a month ago amid a wave of support for his ideals, called for mass demonstrations on Monday to press for police reform.

After two days and a night sleeping rough on a pavement in the centre of the capital, he called o� the agitation late Tuesday with few of his demands heeded and his credibility shaken.

“It seems Kejriwal, who brand-ed himself an anarchist, is unable to transform himself from rabble-rouser to a responsible chief minister,” the Hindustan Times said in an editorial Wednesday.

Kejriwal formed his Aam Aadmi (common man) Party just over a year ago, and it made sensational gains in Delhi’s state election in December with its no-tolerance approach to endemic corruption.

Its core support came from the poor and the educated middle-class who saw an alternative to India’s graft-tainted Congress party, in power nationally, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

After taking o� ce, he won plaudits for shunning the VIP culture of Indian politics, taking the metro to his inau-guration and travelling elsewhere in his trademark small blue car.

Early moves such as providing aban-doned buses for the homeless to sleep in earned favourable headlines, as did pledges to provide cheap electricity and free water.

A � ood of members, including en-trepreneurs and a television anchor, joined AAP and the party suggested it would contest up to 400 seats in na-tional elections due by May.

But the radical tone of recent an-nouncements from Kejriwal, who threatened to disrupt the annual Repub-lic Day military parade on Sunday, and his decision to protest in a city he was

elected to run, were widely criticised.The Times of India said the sit-in

had been a distraction from an op-portunity to improve Delhi and show good governance, adding that “the middle class is unlikely to fall for such gimmickry.”

Others supported his cause and saw courage in his actions, meaning the episode might have lost him fewer voters than editorial writers in the En-glish-speaking media have assumed.

“Who is he � ghting for? Us!” said Vishesh Sharma, who sells snacks on a street in central Delhi. “What he did was right. These cops are corrupt and extort bribes from poor people like us.”

Samir Ahmad, who works in a park-ing lot in the same area, said Kejriwal’s target was “a very good cause.”

“Take our case, whenever there is any controversy or con� ict in the park-ing lot and we call the cops, � rst they come late and then they try and extract money from us,” he said.

Kejriwal launched his protest on Monday to demand that � ve policemen whom he accused of misconduct be suspended and the city’s police force be put under his control, instead of the central government.

Some of the police he targeted were involved in a late-night incident last week when Delhi’s state law minister, AAP member Somnath Bharti, identi-� ed a house suspected of being used for prostitution and drug-dealing.

In front of the media, Bharti became angry when police refused to raid the property in the absence of a warrant.

Bharti and his supporters were then accused of detaining four African women, trapping them in a car and forcing one of them to urinate on the street, according to their lawyer and a police complaint.

The Hindu said in its Wednesday editorial it was “strange” that Kejriwal “should be defending vigilantism by his ministers.”

“Forgotten here is that Indian law does not permit arbitrary search and seizure, especially involving women in the dead of the night,” it added. l

Controversial Japan dolphin hunt continues n AFP, Tokyo

Japanese � shermen were out at sea attempting to trap more dolphins on Wednesday, campaigners said, after the bloody slaughter of dozens of the animals the previous day was hidden from view behind screens. Clouds of blood drifted through the waters of the cove in Taiji on Tuesday as metal spikes were driven into the spinal col-umns of bottlenose dolphins that had been trapped for several days, environ-mentalists said.

Activists from the militant Sea Shepherd group, who are keeping vigil at the site in western Japan, said several dozen animals were killed behind specially-erected tarpaulin sheets. Video footage from the group showed fishermen in wetsuits grap-pling with the dolphins as they herd-ed them into the screened-off area to be butchered.

On Wednesday the hunters’ boats

were out on the ocean looking for more pods, the group said on its Twitter feed, but added that the pod they had initially been chasing had got away.

The group said on its Facebook page that 41 dolphins had been killed so far, and 52 had been removed from the cove. It says the � shermen sell the captive creatures to aquariums and dolphinariums, sometimes for six-� g-ure dollar sums.

A further 130-140 had been driven back out to sea, the group said, adding that it believed many of them would die over the coming days from injuries sus-tained during captivity or from hunger.

The mass slaughter of the animals came to worldwide attention with the Oscar-winning 2009 � lm The Cove, which graphically showed the cull in the bay at Taiji.

Local o� cials say the hunt is an eco-nomic necessity for an area that has little else in the way of industry, and accuse campaigners of cultural insensitivity. l

Chinese activist refuses to defend himselfn Reuters, Beijing

Prominent Chinese rights advocate Xu Zhiyong went on trial on Wednesday in the country’s most high-pro� le dissi-dent case in years, but his lawyer said he refused to o� er any defence and called the court unjust.

Outside the courtroom, Xu’s sup-porters chanted slogans and raised banners in his support. Police pushed away the crowd and at least three pro-testers were taken away to a police van.

The government has waged a 10-month drive against Xu’s “New Cit-izens’ Movement,” which advocates working within the system to press for change, including urging o� cials to disclose their assets. The campaign against the movement exposes the ambivalence in Beijing’s bid to root out corruption, even as the authorities claim greater transparency.

Xu, 40, is charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb public order,” pun-ishable by up to � ve years in prison.

His prosecution will almost certain-ly spark fresh criticism from Western governments over Beijing’s crackdown on dissent. Xu’s lawyer, Zhang Qing-fang, told Reuters by telephone that Xu told the judge: “This court is not just so I will maintain my silence.”

The judge tried to persuade Xu and Xu’s lawyers to speak but to no avail, so the judge called for a recess.

Zhang had earlier said both he and Xu will maintain silence during the closed-door proceedings because they do not believe the court will grant a fair trial.

After proceedings are concluded, Xu will “express his viewpoints about the trial and all that has happened to him over the past 10 years,” Zhang said, adding that he was frustrated that the court only allowed him to produce two witnesses.

Five witnesses that he had request-ed testify in court have been put under police guard and been prevented from moving around freely. One of them, he said, has been taken to a motel. l

Protests threat mars Nepal parliament debutn AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal’s former ruling Maoists threat-ened to embark on a wave of street pro-tests Wednesday as the newly-elected parliament convened for the � rst time to begin work on drawing up a post-war constitution. Party leaders have set themselves a 12-month deadline to reach a consensus on a draft constitu-tion, promising to overcome their out-standing di� erences eight years after the end of a decade-long civil war.

But a senior member of the Mao-ists, which su� ered a humiliating de-feat in a November 19 general election, warned his party’s resolve should not be underestimated despite its reduced presence in the constituent assembly, which doubles up as a parliament.

“We will have to be vigilant and may

resort to street protests to ensure that our agendas are addressed by the con-stituent assembly,” Ganesh Man Pun told AFP on Wednesday ahead of the formal opening ceremony. The Maoists only reluctantly agreed to take part in the assembly after initially threaten-ing to boycott it over accusations of electoral fraud.

They were soundly beaten by both the � rst-placed Nepali Congress and the Uni� ed Marxist-Leninist (UML) parties who are still locked in negoti-ations about forming a new coalition government. The Maoists won the last elections in 2008 by a landslide, only two years after signing a peace agreement to end their 10-year up-rising against the monarchy. As part of the deal, King Gyanendra agreed to stand down. l

Sri Lanka arrests politician over killingn AFP, Colombo

Sri Lankan investigators arrested a rul-ing party politician who failed to turn up to his trial for the Christmas Day killing of a British tourist two years ago, police said Wednesday.

Sampath Vidanapathirana, a coun-cillor in the southern region of Tangal-le, was tracked down and arrested in the capital Colombo on Tuesday night after he failed to answer a court sum-mons nearly two weeks ago.

“He was arrested by the CID (Crim-inal Investigation Department) in a house at Kotte,” police spokesman Ajith Rohana said, referring to a suburb in the capital.

Vidanapathirana from the ruling People’s Alliance is the main suspect in the killing of British tourist Khuram Sheikh who was shot dead on Decem-ber 25, 2011, at a hotel in Tangalle. l

Thai capital under emergency as pro-government leader wounded

n Reuters, Udon Thani

A leading pro-government activist was shot and wounded on Wednesday in Thailand’s northeast, a stronghold of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as a state of emergency began in the capi-tal where protesters are trying to force her from power.

The government issued the 60-day emergency decree late on Tuesday, handing security agencies wide pow-ers to detain suspects, impose a cur-few and limit gatherings in and around Bangkok.

O� cials said it was aimed at pre-venting an escalation of the protests that have gripped the capital for more than two months and brought parts of the centre to a halt.

Bangkok appeared normal and peo-ple went about their business as usual. Police did not try to break up the pro-tests, including one outside a complex

where Yingluck was working.But highlighting the risk of the po-

litical deadlock turning violent, “red shirt” leader Kwanchai Praipana, who had warned of a nationwide “� ght” if the military launched a coup, was wounded in the arm and leg in a drive-by shooting at his home in the north-eastern town of Udon Thani.

Police said they believed it was po-litically motivated.

“From the way the assailants � red, they obviously didn’t want him to live,” his wife, Arporn Sarakham, told Reuters. Police said they had found 39 bullet cases at the house.

Kwanchai Praipana leads thousands of pro-government supporters in Udon Thani province.

On Tuesday, he told Reuters that if the military attempted a coup: “I can assure you, on behalf of the 20 provinc-es in the northeast, that we will � ght. The country will be set alight if the sol-

diers come out.”So far the military, which has been

involved in 18 actual or attempted coups in the past 81 years, has kept out of the fray. The police are charged with imposing the state of emergency, un-der orders from Yingluck to treat pro-testers against her government with patience.

Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Af-fairs in Chiang Mai, said the emergen-cy decree was designed largely to give Yingluck legal protection if there is vi-olence and the police step in.

Nine people have died and doz-ens have been wounded in violence, including two grenade attacks in the capital over the weekend, since pro-testers took to the streets in November to demand Yingluck step down and a “people’s council” be set up to bring sweeping reforms to Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. l

US � eet chief says N Korea is top security concernn AFP, Singapore

North Korea remains Washington’s “number one security concern” in Asia, the US Paci� c Fleet commander said Wednesday, despite simmering terri-torial disputes elsewhere in the region.

Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr also ex-pressed concern over “coercion” by China in its maritime disputes with neighbours.

He said an increased deployment of US military assets in the region as part of an Asian rebalance announced in 2012 would ensure that “we are where it matters and when it matters.”

“Our number one security concern is North Korea,” Harris told reporters in Singapore on board the destroyer USS Spruance.

“I am concerned as a commander for the provocations that come from North Korea. I don’t understand them, I don’t understand their leadership and I don’t understand their intent,” he said.

Pyongyang last week warned of “calamities and disasters” if the Unit-ed States and South Korea push ahead with a series of annual joint military drills from next month. l

Gloria Steinem: Indian battle against sexual violence gathers steam n AFP, New Delhi

India has a new intolerance to violence against women sparked by the fatal  gang-rape  of a student in Delhi but the deeply patriarchal nation still has a long way to go to overcome injustice, says veteran US femi-nist Gloria Steinem.

The brutal attack in December 2012, which touched a raw nerve in the coun-try and sparked mass public protests, “lit a match to the movement opposing violence against women,” Steinem told AFP.

“People found their voice,” she says, re-ferring to the seething public anger over the death of the 23-year-old, which prompted parliament to toughen laws against rapists and other o� enders.

“It’s heartening, but there’s a long way to go,” Steinem cautions, referring to the bat-tle to overcome sexual injustice entrenched through India’s ancient caste system, reli-gious beliefs and ideas of female “honour.”

Stark evidence of the problems India faces was provided last week with the gang-rape of a 51-year-old Danish woman in the capital –

the latest incident to shine a spotlight on the country’s record of sexual violence.

Steinem, co-founder of Ms magazine in 1972, which became a powerful voice for the women’s movement in the West, is in India to headline Asia’s biggest literary festival, which began on Friday in the city of Jaipur.

The American, who is nearly 80 and has spent a lifetime � ghting gender injustice, � rst came to India on a fellowship in the 1950s.

Her Indian experience – studying land re-form – taught her “there’s no grass without roots” and that “change is wrought by peo-ple on the ground.”

Crucial to change, she says, “is develop-ing a consciousness and getting a critical mass to believe in it. That’s what I think is happening here.”

Steinem, who hit fame in 1963 when she wrote an expose on life as a Playboy Bun-ny, is attending the Jaipur festival to talk about her new essay anthology bearing the tongue-in-cheek title “As If Women Matter.”

She insists during the interview in New Delhi that younger women are “more fem-inist” than her generation and have better

“bullshit detectors” in spotting injustice.After years of writing about and railing

against inequality, what angers her most is when people say the world has entered “a post-feminist era.”

“I say: ‘Are you blind? Can’t you see we still don’t have equal pay for equal work?’”

“When you look in the power closets (corporate o� ces) the occupants are mainly men,” she adds.

And she rejects the notion that wom-en can have it all – marriage, career and children.

“No way,” says Steinem. “That means we women do it all. We can’t be superwomen. We’ve got to come up with better fami-ly-friendly work situations.”

“Of course, we’ve made a lot of prog-ress,” she adds, saying she believes former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a fair shot at becoming the � rst female pres-ident in US history if she runs.

“People saw her every day as Secretary of State, they got used to her in a position of power. Making her president would not be such a big jump in their minds.”

Steinem had a tough childhood – her mother su� ered from depression, which meant she became her carer at 10 after her parents split. But later she won en-trance to the prestigious Smith College in New England.

Re� ecting on her early years as a femi-nist, she confessed she was “naive.”

“I thought injustices against women are just so great – if we just explain them to peo-ple, they’ll get rid of them. I was wrong. It’s been much slower progress,” she said.

Regularly lampooned as a “feminazi” by conservative US talkshow host Rush Limbaugh, Steinem says she understands why some women shy away from describ-ing themselves as “feminists” because it’s a word “mocked by men.”

Steinem, who turns 80 in March – “I feel like a Russian doll with my 20-year-old self inside” – remains feisty and funny and re-markably youthful, which she attributes to yoga and keeping perpetually busy.

How does she plan to celebrate her 80th birthday? “I’m going to ride elephants in Bo-tswana!” she says gleefully. l

A Thai policeman stands next to a window with bullet holes at the house of Kwanchai Praipana, a pro-government ‘red shirt’ leader, shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting outside his house in Udon Thani REUTERS

Bottlenose dolphins trapped in the cove during the selection process by � shermen AFP

Ruling party men grab another school landJanuary 15

Petros Mendes I wonder how many schools will lose their land in the next five years.

Zia Ahsan So, business as usual, eh!?

Some are more equalJanuary 15

ndsThe author has excellently portrayed the mental and psychological picture of our society which ad-mits of no contradiction. The problem is, though, at an intellectual level, many of us believe it to be not fair and desirable, and speak for the reformation of our mental and cultural attitude to have a far more egalitarian society, but somewhere in our inner self we like to surrender ourselves to the irresistible temptation of elitism. Is it not very common that most of us feel proud and comfortable to speak of our rich and influential acquaintances while scrupu-lously avoiding identifying ourselves with our kith and kin of poorer and modest means?

AliOne of the few left worth reading when it comes to matters of Bangladesh. No agenda. Fresh, articulate and intelligent.

MarinaPeople needed to have read Orwell in a Bangladeshi context to be more aware. Glad to see at least

someone has. The dystopian picture is grim. The writer does a stellar job painting it. It is high time we accept some harsh realities about our country. Then we can move forward towards a bright future. If we fail to acknowledge the sorry state we are in then the end will be the same as the current “Orwellian nightmare.” Thank you Dhaka Tribune for giving us such an exceptional op-ed.

AshikI have heard too many people spout Orwell or refer to his books without really understanding what they are. Most don’t even bother reading them; they just think it makes them look intelligent to talk about him. This writer is unique in understanding Orwell better than I have seen him understood. He also shows extensive knowledge of politics and he’s not scared to say things that need to be said. Nobody important is thinking or talking along these lines. If more were then we would actually be able to move Bangladesh in the right direction. I hope people are inspired by this man’s knowledge and bravery.

AL should not backtrack on next polls

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has told reporters that he expects the government to complete a full � ve year term. His remarks echo the statement by Finance Minis-

ter AMA Muhith on Tuesday that he thinks “there is no chance of holding an early election’’ as the government is now busy implementing its election pledges.

This represents a reversal of indications given before the January 5 election for the 10th parliament, that the government would hold dialogue with the BNP to quickly bring about inclu-sive 11th parliamentary elections.

We have previously made clear our view that in the absence of the main opposition party, the January 5 election could only be justi� ed on the basis of constitutional necessity, and that its re-sults should not be viewed as a mandate to rule for a full term.

The ruling party must keep to its word before the election, that it will take all steps necessary to reach a mutually accept-able compromise with the BNP to allow fully participatory elections to be held as soon as practicable.

For compromise to be achieved, the BNP must also co-op-erate in good faith. Its actions before January 5 only brought about unconscionable violence and deadlock. The BNP needs to follow up on the positive moves it has been taking this month to suspend blockades and issue statements against violence.

Without peaceful fully contested elections, political crises may endure. The government owes a responsibility to the people to ful� ll its promise to the country that it will bring this about through early dialogue.

Save the Buriganga

Bangladesh is a country of rivers. In order to take care of our environment, then, it is crucial that we take care of the state of our rivers and water bodies.

A recent survey conducted by the Poribesh Bachao Andolon showed that the level of water collected from di� erent parts of the Buriganga river were too contaminated to support life. It was revealed that the level of dissolved oxygen present in the water was too low to support � sh or other aquatic life forms.

Irresponsible human activity is solely the cause of the polluting of the Buriganga, since ram-pant waste dumping into the river is what made the waters of our major water body so toxic. Water treatment plants have failed to purify the water, and the river has tragically lost just about all life. The Buriganga is now e� ectively a “dead” water body.

The pollution in the river is a direct culprit for a variety of diseases, from skin dis-ease, to respiratory problems, to diarrhea.

It is of paramount importance that we stop dumping pollution into the Buriganga and take seriously the project of cleaning it up. Despite allocated funds and constant newspaper reporting on the matter, our once-great natural asset su� ers from appalling neglect. Monies allocated to sewage works and cleaning water must be properly spent.

The Buriganga is on the verge of extinction. It is high time we moved forward to save it, because its survival is tied with our own.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Kamal for curbing crimeJanuary 14

Very impressed with the state minister’s statement. His body language and ap-pearance is very impressive and � rm. Best of luck and my prayers for him so he can run the ministry well.

faizul

Inquilab: We are sorryJanuary 18How many times have they stated this message in their lifetime? I have been seeing it since I was a child. They should o� er some evidence. If it’s true, we eagerly await the news. If false, as Inquilab has past records, it should be punished.

Nazmul Khair

‘Nation expected Khaleda’s apology’January 16

Hasina owes us a bigger apology.

Parveen Ahmed

Good news for the Artcell fansJanuary 16Welcome back Artcell!

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid

Dialogue if BNP leaves Jamaat, says ministerJanuary 16

BNP will leave Jamaat ... and Jamaat will leave democracy.

Muhaiminul Islam Jaan

New ministers attend o� ceJanuary 14Congratulations and happy new year.

Mahmubur Rahman Khan

The pollution in the river is a direct culprit for a variety of diseases, from skin disease, to respiratory problems, to diarrhea

The BNP needs to follow up on the positive moves it has taken this month to suspend blockades and issue statements against violence

Be HeardWrite to us at: Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C PanthapathSukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Email us at: letters@dhakatribune.comSend us your Op-Ed articles:opinion@dhakatribune.com

Visit our website: www.dhakatribune.comCome join our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Increasing income tax reliefJanuary 22This is in connection with a letter on the subject published on January 21. I fully agree with the writer, that the minimum taxable income should be raised. In my opinion, it should be over at least Tk240,000 per year, given that the prices of all daily necessities, like electricity, fuel, and services, as well as the cost of local travel and transport, water, gas, food, and other daily necessities have shot up by a minimum of 50%-75%!

I would further propose that for men and women over 70 years old, additional earned income relief be allowed of at least Tk60,000 X 2 = Tk1,20,000 (for husband and wife) or half, if only one. The elderly must also pay for medical attention and medicines, and for caregiver services, as they are incapable of doing common household tasks. For them, therefore, the minimum tax free income should be Tk240,000 + Tk120,000 = Tk360,000 per year.

For a widow or widower, this would be Tk300,000 per year. This is a reasonable and justi� ed extra annual expense that is normally needed for the elderly.

Elderly Taxpayer

Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Outer covering (4)4 Dash (4)8 Female deer (3)9 Edible rootstock (4)10 Minute particle (4)11 Skip like a goat (5)12 Tibetan priest (4)14 Lair (3)15 Ship’s record (3)17 Tree (3)19 Uncooked (3)21 Pleased (4)23 Unaccompanied (5)26 Replete (4)27 Tolerable (4)28 Female swan (3)29 Meat dish (4)30 Harvest (4)

DOWN1 Mode of standing (6)2 Worshipped image (4)3 Wanderer (5)4 Greek letter (3)5 Part of a coat (5)6 Land measure (3)7 And not (3)11 Waterway (5)13 Combine (5)16 Fast pace (6)18 American elk (5)20 Thin biscuit (5)22 Low sand hill (4)23 Donkey (3)24 Fate (3)25 Present (3)

The need for safety nets

11Op-Ed Thursday, January 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Mamun Rashid

The question came from a bank executive friend of mine. The gentleman stud-ied at Dhaka University, worked at home and abroad

at a few banks, and is now managing a large branch of a local commer-cial bank. He thought, if Mahathir Mohammad in Malaysia, or Hun Sen in Cambodia could rule for more than 20 years, why couldn’t Sheikh Hasina rule Bangladesh till 2021 and ensure its entry into the league of middle income countries and lead us towards a more prosperous and economically advanced Bangladesh?

He thought, as long as the economy was progressing, and people had more money to spend, they wouldn’t raise their voices. Besides, he thought, peo-ple should not forget that the Awami League’s founding father Bangaband-hu Sheikh Mujib was the real force be-hind the creation of Bangladesh, hence only the AL should enjoy the rights to rule this country.

This sounded very interesting to me. As long as the country was moving forward, more people could get jobs abroad and send money home, farm-ers could get their inputs and the right prices for their produce, entrepre-neurs could get more electricity, gas, � nancial support and incentives to build up and run enterprises, women would be given their due share, more government o� cials would get senior positions, people in the rural areas would sleep well.

Economic growth during the recent past AL regime was quite good. Power generation, inward remittance, foreign

exchange reserves, exports, social safety net for the marginalised people, distribution of books to students, timely supply of agriculture inputs, modernisation of armed forces, eleva-tion of civil bureaucrats, licenses for new banks and insurance companies, approvals for private universities, hos-pitals, � shing trawlers, and airlines, due honour for freedom � ghters, all happened during this time.

We could see more women in deci-sion-making roles, and the govern-ment taking a few noteworthy steps for children. My friend was right: “Why spend almost the equivalent of $100m for an unnecessary election?”

Like many, he said we should spend this money for building up more rural education and health infrastructure. I was almost scratching my head. Yes, there are issues with corruption, governance, a failing judiciary, and political killings, but my young friend argued that these were regular scenes in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, but nobody bothered. In coun-tries like Sri Lanka and Cambodia, they almost don’t have any opposition, he added.

Yes, government and leaders in the ruling party are seen involved in

corruption, small and large. At the same time, we have a very vocal and independent media. They can high-light these, and the government would be forced to take action.

There are so many television, radio, and newspapers. They could do a great job against minority repression and violence against women, and for ensuring civic rights. Elections mean violence, arson, illegal money going

around, and killings. We should there-fore avoid elections as far as possible.

We can’t allow the losers of 1971 to rule this independent country. The same goes for their friends. The op-position has not been able to come up with an acceptable formula to topple the government through peaceful movement.

Moreover, with corrupt politicians, large bene� ciaries of misrule, and partisan law enforcing agencies, a gov-ernment can never be ousted through peaceful movement. You can make the movement violent, but you will lose your international and local civil society friends.

Ruling party politicians smile, my friends shift their loyalty once again to the ruling party, and civil society members decide to give breathing

space to the new government, barring all controversies about the election process.

We curb our expectations. The sen-iors in the opposition camp take a step back to reconcile with a hard reality – while they are � ghting the AL, they are in fact � ghting with an emerging global power, India, and its articulate media.

So, what do we do? We settle for less governance and more corrup-tion to grab a bigger piece of the pie, and we apple-polish the politically appointed regulators to get our jobs done. We settle in order to make more money to send our children abroad, or to buy a new � at or get a government plot. We know for sure that if we have more money in our hands, we can even buy justice.

There are a few people talking about democracy, or peaceful demo-cratic transitions, like Rehman Sobhan or Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. To hell with them. They will soon be made to accept reality, and the latest version of democracy.

Otherwise, they will become known as “nabya razakars” by ruling party loyalists and their journalist friends. It does not matter whether one is the author of the two nation theory, or the creator of the world’s largest non-gov-ernment solution provider for the marginalised.

My friend turned out to be so logical. He is happy with a government staying in power for 15-20 years, as long as they deliver. So are many of my friends. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

T H I R D E Y E

Why not just stay in power?

We settle for less governance and more corruption to grab a bigger piece of the pie

n Shazia Omar and Saidur Rahman

Social protection is now recog-nised as the single fastest way to � ght poverty. Developed nations

around the world invest heavily in so-cial protection and welfare to prevent the recurrence of severe poverty in their societies. It is this investment that keeps them in the “developed countries” status, and prevents the decay of their human capital.

Bangladesh is globally recognised for taking a proactive stance with social protection. Our government this year allocated 2.13% of the GDP to so-cial protection, which amounts to ap-proximately $3bn. This is a signi� cant amount. Furthermore, the govern-ment has over 90 safety net programs, underscoring its commitment to social protection.

However, if we want to become a pro-poor middle income country by 2021, we need to speed up our e� orts to eradicate extreme poverty and streamline our social protection system and budget so that it tackles poverty in the most e� ective way possible.

Safety nets in Bangladesh have historically focused on food rations and disaster relief. This has gradually widened to include life cycle needs. The safety net budget is approximately 50% for food and disaster relief, with the rest going to work for cash, human develop-ment stipends, and old age allowance.

While most of these social transfers are not enough to support a person’s livelihood, they do provide a regular cash � ow and some alleviation ofdeprivation, enabling poor recipients to survive. This protective statefunction is necessary for peopleexcluded from the market eco-nomy.

Alongside this, the country needs wide-scale transformative programs which enable able-bodied recipients to engage with the market and climb out of extreme poverty. Together, this two-pronged approach can lead to rapid eradication of extreme poverty, if done right. To ensure optimal e� ciency, there are some gaps that need to be addressed.

Insufficient coverage Though the budget allocation to safety nets is signi� cant, it is not enough to mitigate the su� ering of the 25 million people who are extremely poor. A large portion of the budget goes to funding social pension rather than the needs of the poorest. Furthermore, each stipend or transfer, at an average of Tk300 per person per month, isinsu� cient to enable the recipientto meet basic consumption needs(far from save anything for rainy days) and is often referred to as “token-ism.” Both the total coverage and the amount per transfer need to be increased.

Need for coordination No single ministry takes ownership of the disbursement of safety nets. This creates cumbersome bottlenecks. While numerous ministries may contribute to the budget, it is helpful if there is a single organising agency that manages the process of disseminating funds to the poorest. The social welfare ministry might play this coordinating role while a private sector company might be well positioned to take re-sponsibility for fund distribution.

Targeting As there is not enough money to go around, the selection of the neediest becomes a murky issue. Safety nets are often used for purposes of patronage and UP chairmen decide somewhat unfairly who is eligible and then distribute funds accordingly. Eligibility does not lead to access. While some might argue that a universal social protection package might overcome this problem, in reality, some amount of targeting is necessary to ensure that the poorest of the poor receive the safety nets because the most margin-alised members of society tend to be “invisible,” living in the most remote regions of the country.

Payment mechanisms Most social transfers are disbursed by government banks. Vulnerable people often have to line up in long queues

outside banks that are far from their homes. With Bangladesh’s dense mo-bile coverage and rapidly expanding mobile transfer programs, perhaps it is time to explore more digitally savvy payment mechanisms.

Grassroots realityShiree is a government of Bangla-desh and UK partnership livelihoods program that provides transformative asset transfers and skills training to 250,000 extreme poor households across Bangladesh. On average, house-holds receive about Tk15,000 worth of assets at one go, along with a holistic range of services.

This large outreach gives Shiree an opportunity to monitor households and helps generate a better under-standing of the dynamics of extreme poverty and the e� ectiveness of inter-ventions intended to address extreme poverty in Bangladesh. From Shiree data, we � nd, 91% of extremely poor bene� ciaries (before joining the Shiree program) had not received any safety net support from the government, though they all fell within the bottom 5% of the population, and were in desperate need of support.

The � gures have improved over the years, as e� orts to make the poorest more visible at the union level, have helped them gain access to the safety nets that they are entitled to. NGOs have helped in this process by setting

up support group networks and arranging workshops where govern-ment o� cials, UP chairmen, health clinic workers can meet bene� ciaries. This sort of GO-NGO partnership has been successful in various parts of the country. One success, for example, was in the Pabna region, where an NGO was able to help 400 extremely poor adivasi bene� ciaries access safety net allowances.

As we move towards a reformed social protection agenda, we hope to see the policymakers embrace some of the best practices of other nations to improve the transparency of safety net disburse-ment, e� ciency of safety net targeting, and the enhancement of safety net budgeting to meet the growing needs of the poorest, most disenfranchised citizens of our nation. l

Shazia Omar is Head of Advocacy at Shiree. Saidur Rahman is Program Manager at Shiree.

Halting the falln M Abdul Latif Mondal

Records suggest that manpower export from Bangladesh began in 1976. In the � rst year, only

6,008 people left the country to � nd jobs abroad. Seven Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait were their main destinations.   

The number of expatriate workers did not reach 300,000 in any year prior to 2006. In that year, a total of 381,516 Bangladeshi workers went abroad for jobs. 2007 saw a big jump. In that year, 832,609 Bangladeshi workers went abroad for employment.

In 2008, a total of 875,055 Bang-ladeshi workers were sent abroad. This remains the highest � gure so far. In 2009, there was a sharp fall in the number of expatriate workers. A total of 475,278 workers went abroad for employment that year.

In 2010, 2011, and 2012, the total number of Bangladeshi workers sent abroad stood at 390,702, 568,062 and 607,798 respectively. 2013 again saw a sharp fall in our manpower export. Quoting the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a report in Dhaka Tribune said a total of 389,229 people had migrated to dif-ferent countries for jobs till December 12, 2013. Compare that to the 607,000 workers who migrated to di� erent countries for jobs in 2012.

A recent report of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Em-ployment shows that migrant workers’ remittance in the � rst year (1976) of manpower export business amounted to only $23 million. It increased to $3.56 billion in 2004, which stood at $12.17 billion and $14.16 billion in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

An UNCTAD report titled “Report on the Least Developed Countries 2012” said Bangladesh had emerged as a top remittance recipient among 48 LDCs, as it alone received around 44% of the $27bn received by LDCs as remittance in 2011.

The Bangladesh Bank data released recently shows that remittance in� ow decreased by 2.39% in 2013, compared to a rise of 16.49% in 2012. It stood at $13.83bn last year, against $14.16bn in 2012.

The views expressed by the govern-ment and the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) regarding the sharp fall in the export of manpower in 2013 are somewhat contradictory. At a press conference on December 17, the day before the International Migration Day, Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Khand-ker Mosharraf Hossain said that the manpower export had fallen because of global recession.

The minister also claimed that the manpower sector was not a� ected by hartals and blockades, although other sectors were badly a� ected by these strikes. According to BMET o� cials, the recruitment of Bangladeshi work-ers to Kuwait and the UAE virtually stopped, while it substantially reduced for Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia over the years. Moreover, Bangladeshi workers were earning low wages abroad due to global economic reces-sion, hence sending less remittance to the country.

Manpower exporters are blaming the government’s policies for the sharp decline in overseas employment. Ac-cording to BAIRA, the main platform of private recruiting agencies, manpower exports fell drastically because of the wrong policy pursued by the govern-ment. It claims the government wants to export manpower through the government to government (G-to-G) system, which is not feasible. Such a system does not work anywhere in the world. It stresses on the need for joint initiatives of the government and pri-vate recruitment agencies to improve the situation.

On the other hand, the minister blames the illegal practices and visa businesses of private recruiting agencies for damaging the overseas employment market for Bangladeshi workers. He claims thousands of Bangladeshis are staying illegally in a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, as they were sent by private recruiting agencies through uno� cial channels.

While there may be truth to both sides, the need of the hour is to take corrective steps by both the gov-ernment and the private recruiting agencies, so that Bangladesh can regain its lost market and the number of Bangladeshi workers abroad reaches the 2008 level, if not more.

The question may arise: Why is it necessary to arrest the fall in man-power export? Expatriate workers’ remittances play an important role in our socioeconomic life. It can be broadly explained in two ways. At the macro-level, remittance helps Bang-ladesh make investments for indus-trial development and modernise its industries. This helps us increase our export of manufactured goods, which ultimately helps in making the balance of payments favourable.

Furthermore, remittance in Bang-ladesh arises as a poverty alleviation policy tool. Available sources suggest that in 2011, remittance was almost double the value of FDI in Bangladesh. 

Micro-level bene� ts encompass both the community and family. At the community level, it generates multiplier e� ects in the local economy, creating jobs and spurring new services.

The year-long political unrest has adversely impacted the country’s economy, but the manpower sector is not a� ected by this unrest. Nobody knows how long the unrest will contin-ue. In such circumstances, it is the expatriate workers’ remittances that can help Bangladesh maintain a rea-sonable growth rate. This stresses the need for arresting the fall in manpower export. l

M Abdul Latif Mondal is a former government secretary.

The manpower sector is not a� ected by this political unrest

Developed nations around the world invest heavily in social protection and welfare

Gaudiya dance show todayn Afrose Jahan Chaity

A Gaudiya dance evening will be held today at 6:30pm at the Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. A dance artist of Nrityan-chal, Rachel Priyanka Perris is performing a solo Gaudiya dance, under the direction of dance guru of Kolkata Dr Mahua Mukharjee.

Besides this performance, Rachel also con-ducted a seven-day-long Gaudiya dance work-shop from January 17-23, where 80 students of Nrityanchal School participated.

Rachel Priyanka Perris completed her gradu-ation and post graduation from Rabindra Bhar-ti University. She received advance training in Gaudiya dance from exponent guru Dr Mahua Mukharjee, who is a researcher and teacher at Rabindra Bharati University and dean of the fac-ulty of � ne arts. Now, Rachel is doing her MPhil in Gaudiya, which has been recently introduced to the dance arena of Bangladesh.

About the genre, Rachel said: “Gaudiya Nritya originated from Gauda, also known as Gaur, in Bengal. The dance form was lost over the centuries. It has been reconstructed by Mahua Mukherjee.”

Gaudiya Nritya originated in the western In-dian state of Bengal. The word “Gaudiya” itself means “old Bengal”. The dance form can trace its roots back to the Natya Shatra.

What you are going to perform in today’s programme?I will perform Ganeshvandana, which express-es respect towards God, with the students who participated in the workshop. Then, the students will perform the basics of Gaudiya Nritya named

Angasadhana and Nrittanga. I will also perform solo numbers: Alapchari which is a rhythm based dance: Kalinamabali, which is about the di� er-ent names of the deity Kali and her image: Ard-hanariswar and another Lilakirtana. Students will perform on two Bangla songs which is choreo-graphed with Gaudiya steps – Lassya and Tandav.

As the dance form is new here, what kind of feedback did you receive from the workshop?Response and feedback from the students are positive. They are very interested in Gaudiya Nri-tya. As I am � nding them really involved to learn, I think we should take more steps to promote classical dance here. We have to practice and de-vote ourselves to it. Because, I � nd that dance is a form of worship for me. l

It’s di� cult to resist coming back to limelight: Raima on Suchitra Senn Entertainment Desk

Raima Sen, actor and granddaughter of late legendary actor Suchitra Sen, says that her granny wanted her to get married.

“I should have spent more time with my grandmother? I guess the time you get with those you love is never enough. Thank god I wasn’t somewhere else when she went,” said Raima in an interview with IBN Live yesterday.

“Her last wish was to see me get married. I want her wish for me to come true,” she added.

Suchitra, the reclusive Bengali screen goddess, died on January 17 at the age of 82.

“My mother (Moon Moon Sen), my sister (Riya) and I are the only family she had, the only people she wanted to connect with. We felt responsible towards her. It’s a terrible loss,” said the actress credited with some timeless � lms like Chokher Bali and Anuranan.

Recalling Suchitra’s last days, Raima said: “She was conscious of her condition in hospital. But none of us thought she would go away. Her health didn’t seem so bad. She was chatting asking about how her home was doing in her absence.”

According to her, Moon Moon has become shattered after Suchitra’s death. “I really don’t know what my mother will do without my grand-mother now. They were one another’s universe. To my mother, her mother mattered the most. My mom’s bonding with my grandmother can’t be compared with what my sister and I shared with our grand-mother. Riya and I have our lives. But for our mom, her mother was her universe,” said Raima.

Raima, who has been in Kolkata for more than a month, says right now there is an incessant � ow of guests in the house.

However, as a child Raima knew nothing about the legendary aura

surrounding her grandmother.“When my sister Riya and I were kids, grandma had already given up

� lms and public life. So, we only knew her as our grandmother and not as this iconic star until the time we became actresses ourselves. It was only then that we re-alised what a huge reputa-tion our grandmother had.”

Raima praised her grand-mother’s determination.

“She took a decision to stay out of public view and she stuck to it. It’s easy to withdraw from the limelight, but di� cult to resist coming back to it. Once she made up her mind, she stayed away. She left everything and ev-eryone behind. My mom, sister and I were all she had.”

Both Moon Moon Sen and Raima will be playing them-selves in an upcoming � lm titled Sadarghat which pays tribute to Suchitra Sen. Though the � lm revolves around her, she’ll not be seen in person anywhere in the � lm. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 201412

Film Shimana Periyee Directed by Alamgir Kabir Time: 6pmBangladesh Film Institute Auditorium 160, Lake Circus (4th Floor), Kolabagan

Chawa PawaTime: 6:00pm – 8:30pm

National Music and Dance Centre, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Shegun Bagicha

The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugThor: The Dark WorldPaci� c Rim in 3DTime: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Level 8, Bashundhara City 13/3 Ka, Panthopath

Theatre GondarBy Prachyanat, Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pmNational Theatre, Shilpakala Academy, Shegun Bagicha 

Panchanari AkhyanBy Dhaka Theatre, Time: 7pm – 9pmExperimental Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy

TODAY IN DHAKA

MOVIE6:50pmZee StudioNotting Hill 7:00pmFox Movies PremiumRed Dawn

COMEDY12:30pm Z CafeBeing Erica8:30pm Star WorldSuburgatory

DRAMA10:00pm ColorsRangrasiya11:00pm Star PlusVeera

DRAMA11:30am Fox TtravellerJamie At Home10:00pm Channel VV Superstar Preview

ONTV

Jonakir Alo wins Audience Choice Award in Mumbain Entertainment Desk

Director-artist Khalid Mahmud Mithu’s latest � lm Jonakir Alo won the Audience Choice Award at the 12th Asian Film Festi-val held in Mumbai recently.

“The honour boosted the enthusiasm of the cast and crew of the movie,” shares Mithu, who previously gained much ac-claim with his debut feature � lm Gohine Shabdo.

The � lm is also participating in four international � lm festivals: Tribeca Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Melbourne Internatinal Film Festival and Jaipur Film Festival.

The National Film Award-winning di-rector is going to portray his criticism on social obstinacy through the eyes of an ur-ban woman.

The � lm revolves around Kabita, who dreams of working for children’s welfare, and is torn between adopting a child and her responsibility as a daughter-in-law of a conservative family. Most interestingly, the protagonist meets the legendary artist SM Sultan and becomes inspired his philosophy.

The story develops with a love triangle. Gazi Rakayet enacted the role of SM

Sultan and Bidya Sinha Saha Mim is the lead actress of the movie. Imon and Kaly-an play the two lovers of the heroine. l

Frank Göhre narrates a tragic tale of migrants in his � lmn Probir K Sarker

Screened at the Dhaka International Film Festi-val 2014, Si-o-se Pol (33-acre bridge in English) is a “haunting portrait of an immigrant” comment-ed Frank Göhre, winner of German Script Award. The � lm tagline is the Last days of Parvis Karim-pour. But he continues with life with the hope of � nding his daughter in Madrid – one of the largest migrant’s cities in Europe.

In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune, direc-tor Henrik Peschel talks about the � lm: “Parvis travels to Europe illegally. He has no passport. Today many people go to Madrid from Asia and Africa for work, for its geographical location and to get a better life. For example, now, many Syri-ans are trying to get into Europe, � eeing their war-torn country.”

This is a global problem as well as Europe’s, says Peschel.

“So, we want to spread the � lm across coun-tries. I’m happy to be able to screen it in Bangla-desh. I want to go to every country. We’ve been in many festivals. The Dhaka International Film Fes-tival is also known in Germany for its good � lms. Not too many people know about Bangladesh.

“I will be going to the Berlin Film Festival, to be held in February and will tell people about the Dha-ka International Film Festival and Bangladesh.”

He also served as a jury at the Dhaka festival. “It’s been good for me as I could watch many qual-ity � lms from di� erent countries.”

Winner of Montblanc Script Award 2010 at Filmfest Hamburg, Peschel last year shot the � lm about a Persian fugitive in the old town of Madrid, where he had conducted research on the migrants beforehand. The seven languages spoken in Si-o-se Pol, shows the real diversity of immigration in Europe in 2012. Peschel cast the main roles with successful German cinema actors Ramin Yazdani (Iron Sky) and Pheline Roggan (Soul Kitchen).

“We’re a multicultural team: I’m a German director and writer, main actor is a Persian man, we’ve Italian and Arabic and have used seven lan-guages, which is unusual for German � lms.”

Peschel says: “People in Bangladesh under-stand this � lm because many people go abroad. It’s a common problem here. Audiences in Dhaka, after the screening, told me that they totally un-derstand what the � lm is about, and they liked it. I was happy to see the reactions here. It was very interesting how they react in Germany too.”

Facing death, terminally ill Parvis Karimpour (Ramin Yazdani) wants to reconcile with his daughter Nasrin. He and his fellow African trav-ellers are dumped from a boat near the Spanish coast at dawn. He makes his way to Madrid where he believes his only child, who � ed from Iran years ago, may now live.

Finding shelter in a city which is battered by the economic crisis, Parvis meets two other strug-gling migrants. The Italian Fabrizio (Christian Concilio), a failed piano player, survives on odd cleaning jobs and a spoilt young German, Almut (Pheline Roggan), who followed her boyfriend to Madrid. Looking for a direction in life, she dreams of opening a jewellery shop. The search for Nas-rin becomes their common quest. Parvis regains hope, while his newfound optimism snaps Fab-rizio and Almut out of their lethargy. Following a new clue, the unlikely threesome set o� north-wards in Almut’s car. l

Schwarzenegger dating physical therapist

n Entertainment Desk

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ended his 25-year marriage to Maria Shriver two years back, seems to have found love again with physical ther-apist Heather Milligan. The two were recently spotted driving away together in a silver Mercedes convertible, from a private residence in Brentwood, Cal-ifornia. The couple appeared cool and relaxed as they left the premises, re-ports a website.

They were once spotted together earlier in 2013. Back then, it had dis-pelled all rumours of the actor getting back with his ex-wife.

The 66-year-old has four children, Katherine, 23, Christina, 22, Patrick, 20, and Christopher, 16, with Milligan. l

Angelina Jolie shows o� her evil powersn Entertainment Desk

Angelina Jolie comes out of the shadows in a TV spot for the upcoming Disney � lm Malef-icent. Jolie, with her razor-sharp cheekbones and purring English accent, is the unforget-table and stylish Disney baddie.

The new trailer for Disney’s Male� cent opens with footage from the Disney � lm that inspired it: 1959’s animated classic Sleeping Beauty. “Behind the kiss, behind the mag-ic, behind the legend of Sleeping Beauty,” promises the trailer for this year’s Male� cent, which cuts between the two � lms in an e� ort to draw a direct connection between them.

The key di� erence in Male� cent is a mat-ter of perspective. The live-action � lm aims to do for the titular Sleeping Beauty baddie what Wicked did for The Wizard of Oz by re-telling a familiar story from the perspective of the ostensible villain. Angelina Jolie plays Male� cent, in her � rst starring role since 2010’s The Tourist

On paper, Male� cent sounds like a can’t-miss proposition for Disney, but the � lm’s suc-cess isn’t exactly assured. In recent months, Disney has earned major kudos for Frozen, which upended many of the genre conven-tions that Disney itself helped to popularise.

Male� cent comes out May 30, the same weekend as Seth MacFarlane’s comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West. They’ll both be competing against X-Men: Days of Future Past, which opens the week before. l

Prem O Shomoyer Golpo airs todayPrem O Shomoyer Golpo, a tale of a love triangle, will be aired today at 7.50pm on Maasranga TV. The tele� lm, written and directed by R A Rahul, features Kushum Shikder, Kalyan, Bakar Bakul and others.

The story of Prem O Shomoyer Golpo revolves around a university student portrayed by Kushum Shikder, who falls in love with a student leader named So-han. Meanwhile, Kushum’s friend Anik

was in love with her for a long time, but could not face up to confessing his feel-ings. Sohan on the other hand values his political career more than his per-sonal life and despite his commitment to Kushum, he marries the daughter of a powerful political leader. Heart-broken, Kushum marries an expatriate chosen by her parents and goes abroad with her husband. She faces dire cir-cumstances and returns home. l

Gaudiya dancer Rachel Priyanka Perris

A scene from Prem O Shomoyer Golpo

13DHAKA TRIBUNEThursday, January 23, 2014

SportDid you know?Poland’s Radwanska has won for the � rst

time against Belarus’s Azarenka. She lost all seven previous

meetings against the Belarusian

14 Gervinho sees Roma past Juve in Cup quarters

15 Loss to NZ robs India of top ODI rankingDAYS TO GO

0 5 2

Sheikh Jamal’s Haitian forward Sony Norde goes airborne after a rough tackle by Cameroonian defender Bayebeck, (L) consequentially sent o� during their Bangladesh Premier League match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

Afusi content with drawn Raihan Mahmood

The thrilling draw between Sheikh Jamal DC and Mohammedan was fol-lowed by an exciting post match con-ference as the two coaches - Josef Afusi and his Portuguese counterpart Rui Jose Capela Batista - expressed contrasting emotions over the 1-1 result yesterday.

Both parties had di� erent displea-sure with Afusi focusing on the missed chances while Batista cursed the ref-ereeing along with the seven minutes stoppage time. “I inserted an all attack-ing eleven ahead of our Indian tour and I was hapless to see my forwards miss the scoring chances,” said Afusi. “The match should have been closed in the � rst 20 minutes if we had not squan-dered the opportunities. We have to work on what was wrong.”

The Nigerian also defended the lengthy stoppage time and said it was

justi� ed. “All the negative elements were there, they were taking too much time for throw-ins and the goal kicks and there were two red card incidents too. The DVD of the match should be reviewed and I think it would be justi-� ed,” he said.

However, the Jamal coach was happy with the character his players showed against the “negative” ap-proaches and said, “It’s all about team-work. It’s not Sony or Mamun alone, Toklis came o� the bench and scored the equalizer. We remain top of the ta-ble though we lost two points, it’s also important in a 27 match league.”

National forward Toklis Ahmed, who played his � rst match in four months after he injured himself on Un-der-19 national duty in Kuwait said, “I was looking forward to help my team and the strike de� nitely will boost my con� dence.”

Meanwhile, Batista was frustrated

over the way the referee conducted the match and labeled him as the third team in the match. “I had a good strat-egy to implement and we took the � eld to win, but due to a bad third team we did not win. Seven minutes (stoppage time) was too much and you also have to consider that we were playing two big matches within four days,” said the Mohammedan coach.

Mohammedan manager Amirul Islam Babu, also an executive committee member of BFF, echoed his coach’s sentiments. “Baybeck’s red card was justi� ed, but Zahid’s one was not. The referee should have warned him. I also want to say that the seven minutes stoppage time � nished before the throw-in that resulted in the equaliser.

“Now we will miss two key players in a crucial tie against Sheikh Russell. We have been wronged in many ways,” said Babu. l

BCB to discuss Big 3 proposalsn Mazhar Uddin

The ICC is considering a comprehen-sive structural overhaul of world crick-et administration that will e� ectively cede most executive decision-making to the Big 3 - India, Australia and Eng-land– and the matter will be on top of the agenda as the directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) meet at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan will discuss the proposal with his col-leagues and may provide Bangladesh’s stance on the issue before the ICC Ex-ecutive Board gathers for its quarterly meeting in Dubai on January 28 and 29.

According to the proposed draft which has been reported widely in the world media in the last couple of days, new executive committee (ExCo) will be set up permanent memberships for BCCI, CA, and ECB – who will also have the power to override all other commit-tees. Promotion and relegation in Test cricket will be determined, with the exceptions made in the cases of BCCI, CA, ECB. ICC will not have the power to have FTP arrangements, with bilateral agreements only taking over. A new � nance model of ICC revenue distribu-tion is also on the cards.

There is also a suggested two-tier Test cricket system in which England, Australia and India are guaranteed to avoid relegation from the top tier be-cause of their commercial value.

Some of the Test playing countries have already raised their voice in dis-sent against the proposed draft and even South Africa, the top placed Test

team,also coming up with a strong statement. South Africa directly stated that the proposals were unconstitu-tional and that they should not be dis-cussed at the next ICC board meeting, but their stance has been rejected by the ICC.

Sri Lankan Sports Minister opposed the changes as well and scheduled a meeting this week to provide an o� cial stance on it.The proposals need seven votes from the ICC’s 10 leading nations to pass. Therefore in the wake of situa-tion, Bangladesh needs to make an of-� cial decision on it.

“Everything has its positive and nega-tive impact, so we’ve to read it careful-ly. The directors will discuss the matter at the meeting and then we’ll provide our stance on it,” said BCB acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.

Bangladesh’s chance to play Test cricket will e� ectively diminish de-spite if the proposals are put into ef-fect.Nizamuddin however, was cau-tious in commenting on this aspect of the matter.

“The proposals are still being re-viewed. Before our meeting is takes place, we can’t say anything about these implications,” he said.

Other topics that will be discussed at the meeting are the � nancial aspects of the board and process of formal ap-proval from the board for announcing a squad before an international series. l

National Cricket League ready to gon Minhaz Uddin Khan

The National Cricket League is set to start from January 30. Though the � rst-class cricket tournament, which features eight teams, was scheduled to start on December 20, the pre-elec-tion political turmoil pushed back the schedule.  

“The divisional sports associations requested 2-3 days to conform their respective 15-men squads. There will not be any hike in the match fees. A side will be able to register � ve foreign-ers but make only one play. We have already handed over Taka � ve lakhs to every team for their initial expendi-tures,” Ziaur Rahman Topu, member of the BCB tournament committee, told the media.

Most of the sides will start practicing from today and the � rst round matches of the league will be played at Rajshahi, Khulna, Bogra and Fatullah.l

Tamim urges saving Test cricket n Minhaz Uddin Khan

The amendments in the ICC (Interna-tional Cricket Council) constitution planned by the Big Three – BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), ECB (England Cricket Board) and CA (Crick-et Australia) - will see the ninth and tenth ranked Test teams sidelined from the long format of the game. The pro-posed draft, which seeks to give great-er control of the global game to India, Australia and England and vehemently shake up the game’s governance, has become a major talking point in crick-eting fraternities around the world.

Bangladesh national opening bats-man Tamim Iqbal also showed concern on the issue and said that the plan, if implemented, will hamper the promo-tion of the game.  

“I have played Test cricket in quite a few countries and I don’t think any other country is as cricket-crazy as Bangladesh, whether it’s India, Paki-stan or whichever (nation). ICC wants to promote cricket. If this (Test cricket) goes away from here, how will that work?” Tamim said to the media fol-lowing his training session yesterday.

The left-hand batsman hoped that the Bangladesh Cricket Board will take the necessary steps to stop the damage.

“I want to request that this thing does not happen. I don’t know much about the details of the draft, so I can-not comment much on it. However, I am sure that the BCB will take the right steps in this regard,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh are about to start a home series against Sri Lanka from January 27, with the � rst Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Ta-mim thought the national players had bene� ted by playing in the Bangladesh

Cricket League for the challenge ahead. “We played two four day games –

everyone is in touch and the prepara-tion has been better than before. We have to take the con� dence form the two matches that our cricket board ar-ranged for us in the BCL, and bring it into the Test series.  

“They (Sri Lanka) also played a good Test series (against Pakistan) and we are aware that they are a quality side. This time we are facing them on our own ground which will be an added advantage but we still need to play well. If we do play well, then I am sure that we will be able to cause a surprise,” said Tamim. 

The wickets in the BCL games, which were held at BKSP,have been

criticized for not being fair.The opening round of the � rst-class

tournament produced 8 � fties, 5 hun-dreds and a double hundred, while the bowlers leaked 2,201 runs and picked up just 45 wickets. 

“It is true that the wickets were bad for the bowlers because they were too � at but as a batter, I feel it was a decent track to bat on. I was very con� dent. When there are big performances ahead of a Test match, like (Imrul) Kayes and Shamsur (Rahman), it is a plus point, since they will be con� dent.

We play cricket after long gaps, but this time I would like to thank the cricket board for arranging the BCL games. We are better prepared than last time,” said Tamim. l

Toklis rescues Jamal against 9-man MSCn Shishir Hoque

Nine-man Moham-medan side put an end to Sheikh Jamal’s 10-match

winning streak, in all professional competitions, as they held the table toppers to a 1-1 draw in an exhilarating Bangladesh Premier League encounter at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

A 96th minute majestic header by substitute forward Toklis Ahmed res-cued Sheikh Jamal from conceding their � rst defeat in the season after Mezbabul Hoq Manik’s screamer put the traditional Black and Whites ahead at the hour mark.

The game had literally all the ele-ments possible - suspense, two red cards and an injury time equaliser followed by the post-match clash be-tween the referee and the players while the spectators also broke into the � eld to punt on the referee.

After thoroughly dominated by the opponents in the opening half, Mo-hammedan managed to take the lead and tried to do everything to hold onto it, but two send o� s in space of 10 min-utes made the job di� cult for the Moti-jheel out� ts. And when the clock ticked closer to the end of the seven-minute added time, left back Rayhan took a � awless free-kick from left as  Toklis Ahmed beat all his obstacles to head home past Mohammedan keeper Titu-mir Titu to steal a point for his side.   

On a brighter note, it was argu-ably one of the best matches so far this season where for the � rst time in the league, Mohammedan managed to salvage at least a point against the new powerhouse of Dhaka. Despite the draw, Sheikh Jamal stood comfortably at the top of the chart with three points clear of Abahani, though the Sky Blues played one game less. Mohammedan moved to sixth spot with six points from � ve matches.

Haitian international striker Sony Norde returned from the injury he sustained during the Federation Cup and made his premier league debut for Jamal while skipper Mamunul Islam also returned to the squad. Mohammedan coach Batista made three changes to the squad bringing in goalkeeper Titu, mid� elders Sabuz and Manik.

Jamal dominated the � rst 45 min-utes and could have easily secured the game inside the � rst 25 minutes.

In the 32nd minute, Jahid Hossain tried his luck with a looping shot from 30 yards that almost beat Jamal keeper Ziaur Rahman, who was a yard away from the six yard box, but eventually he � sted it away for a corner.

Mohammedan staged a come-back after the breather and to everyone’s surprise Mezbabul Hoq Manik’s pow-erful strike from 20 yards put Moham-medan ahead. Jahid Hossain’s corner de� ected o� a defender and fell to Manik who � red the ball past Zia. Man-ik’s delight however was short lived as he had to leave the pitch injured two minutes later.

Jamal unleashed all their weapons for the equaliser and put more pressure on their opponents. Mohammedan’s Cameroonian defender Bayebeck was sent o� in the 71st minute after receiv-ing his second booking for a poor foul on Sony just outside the box. Moham-medan strengthened their defence line replacing Emily with Tapu Barman, but they were further reduced to 9-man 10 minutes later after Jahid Hossain was shown a straight red after he fouled So-hel Rana o� the ball.

The decision made the Mohammed-an supporters go wild while the players crowded the referee and got involved in a war of words.

The Black and Whites inched closer to the win as they held on to their lead until the 96th minute before Toklis, who replaced Linkon, snatched the point right under their nose. l

BHF distributes high class hockey sticks Dhaka schoolsn Raihan Mahmood

Mizanur Rahman, a class eight student of Barnamala Adarsha High School in Dania, Dhaka, was excited to hold the composite hockey stick for the � rst time at the kits distribution pro-gramme of the Bangladesh Hockey Federation yesterday.

Ahead of the First Security Islami Bank National School Hockey, scheduled to start from February 1, the hockey federation distributed 16 latest composite sticks and nine balls to each of the 21 participating school of the Dhaka district. A total of 102 schools from all over the country will be participating in the tournament in spread over ten venues.

Meanwhile the sponsors declared that they will step up with their mon-etary scholarships for higher education of selected players who will undergo long term training. Dr Mahfuzur Rah-man, the chairman of the organising committee, also declared a monetary award of Tk100000, 50000 and 25000 for the top three goal scorers in the competition.

The participating schools are - Nara-yanganj High School, Joy Gobinda High School, Fatullah Pilot High School, Po-lice Line High School and Hariharpara High School (Narayanganj), Satirapra KK Institution, Narsingdi, Poisha High School, Munshiganj, Motijheel Gov-ernment High School, BAF Shahin High School, Barnamala Adarsha High School, Dania, Armanitola High School, Ahmed Bawani Academy, PM Pilot High School Zinjira, Shahid Nabi High School, West End High School, Nawab Habibullah School, Rayerbazar High School and Barnamala Pathshala. l

Tamim in jovial mood after speaking to the press at SBNS yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

The directors will discuss the matter at the meeting and then we’ll provide our stance on it

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 201414

Benzema edges Real Madrid towards Cup semisn AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid took a huge step towards the Copa del Rey semi-� nals with a 1-0 win away to Espanyol in

the � rst-leg of their quarter-� nal tie on Tuesday.

Karim Benzema got the only goal of the game as he headed home Alvaro Arbeloa’s cross on 25 minutes.

Espanyol were indebted to goal-keeper Kiko Casilla for not having an even greater de� cit to overcome next Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as he made a string of � ne saves to keep

his side in the tie.However, they should have

snatched a draw on the night as Colom-bian striker Jhon Cordoba � red straight at Iker Casillas when played through on goal eight minutes from time.

Real boss Ancelotti named a strong side with Xabi Alonso the only � rst team regular to drop onto the bench.

And the Italian was rewarded with a commanding display from his side as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 18 games.

Cristiano Ronaldo � red an early ef-fort across goal before Espanyol passed up a huge chance to take the lead when Pizzi blasted over Sergio Garcia’s neat

cut-back from inside the area.Thereafter it was one way tra� c

before the break as Casilla turned an-other low e� ort from Ronaldo onto the inside of the post. Madrid did take the lead midway through the half as Ga-reth Bale � icked on Arbeloa’s cross and Benzema powered home a header for his 14th goal of the season.

Casilla then saved from Benzema and a Bale free-kick, whilst Angel di Maria ballooned another clear opening well over the bar.

Espanyol posed more of a threat at the beginning of the second period as Garcia curled an e� ort inches wide of Casillas’ right-hand post. l

Fenerbahce boss de� ant over jail term on returnn AFP, Istanbul

The head of Turkish football giant Fenerbahce returned home in de� ant mood just days after a court ruling upheld a jail term against him for match-� xing.

About 5,000 supporters, wearing the blue and yellow Fenerbahce co-lours, massed alongside several club players outside an Istanbul airport to greeted Aziz Yildirim as he arrived back in Turkey late Tuesday.

“Fenerbahce is a stronghold and we will not surrender,” the 61-year-old Yildirim declared to the cheers of the crowd.

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals on Friday con� rmed a prison term of six years and three months against Yildirim as well as sentences against several other Fenerbahce o� cials.

The ruling also bars Yildirim and all others convicted in the case that rocked the country’s domestic football league from serving as club o� cials. l

Gervinho sees Roma past Juven AFP, Milan

A late goal from Ivorian striker Gervin-ho helped Serie A title challengers Roma book their ticket for the Italian Cup semi-� nals with a deserved 1-0 win over Serie A leaders Juventus on Tuesday.

Roma, defeated in last year’s � nal by city rivals Lazio, will � nd out their last four rivals following the quarter-� nal tie between Napoli and Lazio on January 29.

Roma had su� ered a 3-0 league de-feat to Juventus a fortnight ago and with the hosts losing last season’s � nal to Lazio, coach Rudi Garcia � elded a full-strength side at a packed Olympic Stadium.

Juve counterpart Antonio Conte, meanwhile, took the opposite ap-proach. He rested ‘keeper Gianluigi Bu� on, a number of mid� eld stars in-cluding Paul Pogba, Kwadwo Asamoah and Stephan Lichsteiner and strikers Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente.

In the end, Conte’s strategy back-� red as Roma’s far more enterprising approach paid dividends.

Captain Francesco Totti told Rai Sport: “We wanted this win at all costs, tonight we matched a great Juve side.”

Asked who Roma would prefer to

meet in the � nal four, Totti added: “That’s their problem, not ours.”

Roma dominated the early exchang-es but it took until late in the half for them to threaten the Juventus goal.

Vasilis Torosidis whipped in a su-perb curling ball at the far post with which Kevin Strootman, at full stretch, narrowly failed to make contact.

Totti then saw his volleyed snapshot go wide, while Alessandro Florenzi failed to reach Gervinho’s ball when it was � red across the box. As the game stalled, Garcia replaced Florenzi with Miralem Pjanic while Conte attempted to waken his team from their relative slumber by replacing striker Sebastian Giovinco with Llorente on 77 minutes.

Garcia’s switch was to pay divi-dends, Pjanic reaching the ball, before Andrea Barzagli, to stride forward and feed Strootman deep on the left.

The Dutchman’s cross arrived in the box and Gervinho did well to tap the ball home with the side of his right boot in the 79th minute.

Roma were � red up and Totti deliv-ered the ball for Gervinho which the striker missed, and minutes later the Ivo-rian sent a low, weak shot into the arms of Storari after late substitute Adem Ljajic had carried the ball from mid� eld. l

India plans anti-graft unit after match-� x bidn AFP, New Delhi

India’s football chiefs will set up an anti-corruption unit after reports emerged that an I-League club may have been targeted by illegal betting syndicates, a top league o� cial said yesterday.

Mumbai FC club o� cial Atul Bag-damia told a joint workshop organised by FIFA and Interpol in New Delhi last week that he had been approached by a businessman last year who o� ered to sponsor a visit by his team to Malaysia to play a series of friendlies.

When subsequent calls indicated that the mystery Malaysian wanted to � x

matches, the club broke o� contact but did not report the matter to the All India Football Federation. The Indian Express newspaper quoted Bagdamia as saying: “When they mentioned match-� xing, I immediately broke contact with them.”

I-League chief executive Sunando Dhar said that although no damage was done, clubs had been told to report all such approaches in future even as the setting up of an anti-corruption unit was being planned.

Last month � ve players and three team o� cials from a Malaysian club were handed life bans and � ned 20,000 ringgit ($6,000) each after being found guilty of match-� xing. l

City building on my foundations, says ex-boss Mancinin Reuters

Galatasaray manager Roberto Mancini says he has no bitterness towards his former club Manchester City and be-lieves their success this season is partly due to the foundations he laid during his three-year tenure at the club.

In an interview with the BBC’s World Service, the Italian, who made way for Manuel Pellegriuni and moved to Galatasaray after leaving City last year, said: “Chelsea changed and bought some new players, City bought four or � ve new players.

And Mancini said that City’s current situation is partly down to the players he signed for the club.

“The players scoring the goals are players that I bought - Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure and David Silva,” he added.

“I think Pellegrini is doing a good job but what is happening now at Manchester City, we did three years ago.” l

Negredo sends City to Wembley in stylen AFP, London

Manchester City swept into the League Cup � nal

with a ruthless 3-0 win at West Ham on Tuesday which completed a 9-0 ag-gregate victory in a brutally one-sided semi-� nal.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side had already e� ectively booked their place at Wem-bley after winning the � rst leg 6-0 at Eastlands, but they didn’t take it easy in the return at Upton Park.

Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero put City two goals up before half-time in east London and Negredo struck again after the break to cap another clinical display from one of the most potent strike-forces in Europe.

City will face arch rivals Manchester United in the � nal on March 2 if David Moyes’ side can overturn a 2-1 de� cit in the second leg of their semi-� nal against Sunderland at Old Tra� ord on Wednesday.

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce hand-

ed Andy Carroll his � rst start since the � -nal game of last season after the England striker’s long struggle with a foot injury.

City’s teenage Portuguese winger Marcos Lopes had time and space to � oat a cross into the six-yard box, where Spanish striker Negredo rose completely unmarked to power a header past Jussi Jaaskelainen from close-range.

The muted City celebrations suggest-ed even they were slightly embarrassed at the ease of both the goal and their path to Wembley.

West Ham’s Kevin Nolan had the ball in the net moments later but his strike was ruled out for o� side and City were quickly back on the attack as Aguero � red into the side-netting.

Aguero, making his � rst start since December after a calf injury, threatened again with a surging run and shot which Jaaskelainen pushed away for a corner.

But Aguero wasn’t to be denied for long as the Argentine forward punished more woeful West Ham defending to in-crease City’s lead in the 24th minute.

West Ham centre-backs Roger

Johnson and James Tomkins stood statuesque as the impressive Lopes advanced into the penalty area, where the ball ran for Aguero to calmly sweep a low shot past Jaaskelainen for his 22nd goal of the campaign.

Aguero’s class is undeniable but he showed the ugly side of his game soon after when he was fortunate to escape with a yellow card for a stamp on Tomkins.

West Ham held the record for the most goals scored in a League Cup semi-� nal, when Martin Peters, Geo� Hurst, Bobby Moore and company racked up a 10-3 aggregate win over Cardi� in 1966.

And City had that achievement in their sights when Negredo barged his way through the Hammers defence once again before stretching to clip his shot over Jaaskelainen in the 59th min-ute for his 23rd goal of the season.

In the end, City settled for just three goals and their thoughts had already turned to Wembley long before the � nal whistle put West Ham out of their misery. l

Nice condemn Marseille to barren season in Cup thrillern AFP, Paris

Struggling French giants Marseille face a trophyless season after they were knocked out of the French Cup in a nine goal thriller on Tuesday, go-ing down 5-4 at home to fellow Ligue 1 side Nice.

Marseille, lacking the � nancial clout to compete with well funded bitter rivals Paris Saint-Germain and also Monaco, showed some spirit in the second-half with Andre-Pierre Gignac bringing them back to 4-3 with a won-derful overhead kick, his second goal of the game.

However, former Marseille player Fabrice Abriel restored the two goal advantage and although veteran Sou-leymane Diawara -- who had scored an own goal in the � rst-half -- made it 5-4 the fans had run out of hope and al-ready headed for the exits.

Earlier, three Ligue 1 clubs had been eliminated by sides from lower divisions including Corsican duo

Ajaccio and Bastia.Ajaccio, bottom of Ligue 1, went

down 2-1 at home to Ligue 2 side Caen while Bastia also lost 2-1 away at an-other second tier team, former French champions Lens – Bastia’s city rivals Ligue 2 CA Bastia saved Corsican hon-our by defeating Niort 5-4 on penalties after the all second tier clash ended 2-2 after extra-time. l

Spanish judge hears case over Neymar dealn AFP, Madrid

A Spanish judge yesterday agreed to hear a case lodged against Barcelona president Sandro Rosell over the sign-ing of Brazilian striker Neymar.

Judge Pablo Ruz of the National Court in Madrid issued a ruling ac-cepting the case but adding that there was no “urgency or necessity” to hear Rosell’s testimony at this stage. A member of the fan-owned club, lodged a complaint last month against Rosell alleging misappropriation because members do not know the “real desti-nation” of 40 million euros supposedly paid to Neymar family business N&N. l

AS Roma's forward Gervinho (L) celebrates after scoring against Juventus during their Coppa Italia match at Rome's Olympic stadium on Tuesday AFP

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema (C) is challenged by Espanyol's Joan Capdevila (L) and Sidnei Rechel (R) during the King's Cup match at Cornella El Prat stadium, in Barcelona on Tuesday REUTERS

Manchester City's Alvaro Negredo (C) celebrates scoring against West Ham United with teammates Sergio Aguero (L) and Dedryck Boyata (R) during their English League Cup semi� nal second leg match at Boleyn Ground on Tuesday REUTERS

RESULTS AC Ajaccio 0-2 Caen

Angers 1-0 Sochaux

Boulogne 0-2 Rennes

CA Bastia 2-2 NiortBastia win 5-4 on penalties

Concarneau 2-3 Gunigamp

Croix 0-3 Lille

Lens 2-1 Bastia

Marseille 4-5 Nice

Sete 2-0 Jura Sud

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014 15

New ZealandM. Guptill c Shami b Raina 44J. Ryder C Dhoni b Shami 20K. Williamson st Dhoni b Jadeja 77R. Taylor c Dhoni b Shami 57C. Anderson c Dhawan b Sharma 44B. McCullum c & b Shami 0L. Ronchi not out 18N. McCullum b Kumar 1K. Mills not out 2Extras: (lb1, w7) 8Total: (seven wickets; 42 overs) 271

BowlingKumar 7-1-43-1, Shami 7-0-55-3 (2w), Sharma 6-0-46-1 (4w), Jadeja 8-0-46-1, Kohli 2-0-12-0, Ashwin 8-0-50-0 (1w), Raina 4-0-18-1IndiaS. Dhawan b Southee 12R. Sharma c Ronchi b Southee 20V. Kohli c sub b Southee 78A. Rahane c Ronchi b McClenaghan 36M. Dhoni c Williamson b Anderson 56S. Raina c Southee b Mills 35R. Jadeja b Anderson 12R. Ashwin c Guptill b Southee 5B. Kumar c N. McCullum b Anderson 11M. Shami not out 1I. Sharma not out 1Extras: (lb3, w7) 10Total: (nine wickets, 41.3 overs) Q277

BowlingMills 9-1-50-1, McClenaghan 8-1-45-1 (1w), Southee 9-0-72-4 (1w), N. McCul-lum 8-0-40-0 (3w), Anderson 7.3-0-67-3 (2w)ResultNew Zealand won by 15 runs (D/L method)

SCORECARD

Pascal departs without playing any match Pascal Millien, the Haitian international and former Tampa Bay and Sligo Rov-ers mid� elder who arrived in Dhaka on January 16 to play for Sheikh Russell, left the country yesterday. It was learnt that the Irish First Division out� t Sligo Rovers player was not satis� ed with the money he was o� ered by the club and decided not to play in Dhaka. After arriving in Dhaka, the Haitian was enthusiastic about taking the � eld as soon as possible. Sheikh Russell presi-dent Nurul Alam Chowdhury said the player was not satis� ed with the overall infrastructure of Dhaka football and he thought that it would not be helpful for him and decided to leave. 

–RM

Usha come from behind to beat Azax Usha Krira Chakra came from behind to earn a 3-2 victory over Azax Sporting Club and continue their winning streak in the Green Delta Insurance Premier Division Hockey League at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. Krishna Kumar took the lead for Usha just two minutes into the game before Md Rahat Sarowar and Ibrar Ahmed Babor scored two goals in the 10th and 23rd minute to put Azax in the lead. Moinul Islam Koushik restored the parity in the 37th minute and Rimon Kumar Ghosh sealed the victory two minutes later. Abahani Lim-ited will face Sadharon Bima in today’s game at the same venue.

–SH

Tribunal seeks to muzzle media Mr. Jonathan Taylor on behalf of the prosecution placed a news report pub-lished in Daily Independent yesterday and claimed that it amounts to the intimidation of witnesses whose testi-mony the tribunal is going to hear and asked for an appropriate order from the Tribunal. A press release from the BCB yesterday stated, “The publica-tion of day to day proceeding in the newspaper violates the con� dentiality of Tribunal proceedings in public. All concerned and all media persons are requested to maintain con� dentiality of the proceeding of the Tribunal not disseminating any con� dential matter in public.” Opening arguments on behalf of the prosecution continued yesterday and the tribunal has � xed today, 23rd January for the examina-tion of witnesses.

–MU

James’ Heat defeat struggling CelticsLeBron James scored 11 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter as the Miami Heat held on for a 93-86 win over the strug-gling Boston Celtics on Tuesday. The Heat led by as many as 18 in the open-ing half, but fell behind by two in the fourth before James collected seven of the game’s last nine points. James also had eight boards and added four assists for Miami, which was coming o� a 2-4 road trip. Kris Humphries had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, who have lost 12 of their last 13 games. James went seven-of-eight from the foul line as the Heat scored the last nine points of the game.

–AFP

Double points a ‘fake � x’ for FernandesAwarding double points for the � nal Formula One race of the season is a ‘fake � x’ for pressing problems the sport must address, according to Cater-ham team owner Tony Fernandes. The Malaysian, who also owns English sec-ond tier soccer club Queens Park Rang-ers, said Formula One needed to act so the performance gap between teams could be reduced and all could have a chance. Caterham � nished last overall in 2013 and have yet to score a point in four seasons that have seen Red Bull and Germany’s Sebastian Vettel rack up four successive championships.

–Reuters

QUICK BYTES

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DAY’S WATCH

Mitchell McClenaghan (2L) from New Zealand celebrates the wicket of India batsman Ajinkya Rahane during their second ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton yesterday AFP

ULAB start with a win n Reazur Rahman Rohan

Hosts University of Liberal Arts Bangla-desh had a � ying start in the 7th ULAB Fair Play Cup Inter Private University Cricket Tournament as they compre-hensively beat State University of Ban-gladesh (SUB) by eight wickets at the ULAB ground at Ramchandrapur, Mo-hammadpur, yesterday.

Asked to bat � rst, SUB posted a modest 125/8 in their allotted 20 overs, despite a half century from skipper Palash Ahmed, who made 50 from 54 balls. Meanwhile, Tanvir Ahmed grabbed three wickets for ULAB.

However, the small target was made easier for ULAB as SUB’s poor � elding e� orts cost them heavily. Three catch-es went down during the powerplay

as the eventual winners comfortably edged closer to the win. An unbeaten 45-ball 54 from Ijal Ahmed, who was later adjudged man of the match, took ULAB to 129 for two with an over and half to spare.

Earlier, chairman of Game Develop-ment, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), and former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud inaugurated the tournament while ULAB Board of trustee’s member and BCB director, Kazi Inam Ahmed and ULAB vice chancellor Prof Imran Rahman were also present.

Two matches are scheduled today - defending champions North South University will take the � eld against Northern University Bangladesh and Eastern University will face Indepen-dent University Bangladesh. l

Players of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh celebrate after winning against State University of Bangladesh (SUB) during their 7th ULAB Fair Play Cup Inter Private University Cricket Tournament match at the ULAB ground at Ramchandrapur yesterday MUMIT M

Loss to New Zealand robs India of top ODI rankingn AFP, Hamilton

India surrendered their world num-ber one ODI ranking Wednesday when they su� ered a second successive de-feat to New Zealand in a rain-abbrevi-ated game in Hamilton.

India were 20 runs short of their Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target of 297 when further rain ended the game with three balls remaining.

India’s second loss to the eighth ranked New Zealand saw them slip be-hind Australia on the world rankings.

A two-hour rain break during the New Zealand innings and big hitting by all-rounder Corey Anderson conspired to give India a daunting target which they threatened to reach until the loss of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

When the skipper went for 56 in the 40th over India were 257-6 and their tailend batsmen were unable to main-tain the required run rate.

New Zealand, sent into bat � rst, made 271-7 after rain reduced their in-nings to 42 overs.

Anderson was the central � gure

in a 101-run slog in the 8.4 overs after the rain break which, under the Duck-worth-Lewis system, saw India’s target scaled upwards to 297.

They made a rocky start to their re-ply when Tim Southee removed Shi-khar Dhawan (12) and followed with the dismissal of Rohit Sharma (20) to claim his 100th ODI wicket.

When Mitch McClenagham removed Ajinkya Rahane for 36 to have India 127-3 they needed a further 170 o� 18.2 overs. With Virat Kohli and Dhoni at the crease it remained possible until Southee came back for his second spell and captured the prized wicket of Kohli for 78.

Suresh Raina plundered a run a ball until he went for 35 and then New Zea-land claimed the break they needed when Anderson removed Dhoni.

It started a collapse that saw four wickets fall for 18 runs as India’s run chase crumbled.

The New Zealand innings followed a similar pattern to their performance when they won the � rst ODI in Napier on Sunday by 24 runs.

Opener Jesse Ryder hit a few quick boundaries before being dismissed while Martin Guptill was more cau-tious, reaching 44 before he was re-moved, leaving Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor to build the innings.

They took New Zealand to 170 for two when the rain came, and after the resumption Williamson was quickly re-moved opening the way for Anderson’s charge.

Three weeks after he smashed the fastest ODI century in 36 balls, An-derson had the fastest 50 in his sights when he was dismissed.

He belted 44 o� 16 deliveries and needed a six o� the 17th ball to tie the record set by Sri Lankan Sanath Jaya-suriya in 1996, but was caught by Shi-khar Dhawan on the boundary at long on o� Ishant Sharma.

Mohammed Shami then removed Ross Taylor (57) and Brendon McCul-lum (duck) to put the brakes on the New Zealand charge.

Shami � nished with the � gures of three for 55, while bowling for New Zealand Southee took four for 72. l

Radwanska shatters Azarenka jinxn AFP, Melbourne

Agnieszka Radwansa played the role of un-derdog to perfection as she � nally broke her jinx against two-time defending champion

Victoria Azarenka and knocked her out of the Australian Open Wednesday.

The determined Pole battled to a 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 win to send the Belarusian pack-ing with the top three seeds now out of the Grand Slam following the defeats of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.

It was a major scalp for Radwanska, who had lost all seven previous meet-ings with the Belarusian, and now goes into a semi-� nal with Slovak 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova.

The win also ensures the tourna-ment will have a new champion with none of the semi-� nalists – Radwan-ska, Cibulkova, Li Na and Eugenie Bouchard – having won before.

One of Radwanska’s challenges was to block out Azarenka’s grunting, which she complained about at the 2012 Australian Open.

Fairfax Media said it had recorded a 90 decibel grunt in Azarenka’s � rst-round match – louder even than re-nowned shrieker Sharapova.

Whatever the reason, Radwanska has always struggled against her. The pair, both 24, had met 15 times before with the Belarusian leading 12-3.

But the dam broke as Radwanska battled into her � rst semi-� nal in Mel-bourne, having made the quarters four

times before without going further.Azarenka had not dropped a set all

tournament, but 47 unforced errors cost her dearly to end her 18-match win streak at Melbourne Park.

She was disappointed to be going home early and blowing the chance to win her third Australian Open in a row, a feat not achieved since Martina Hingis between 1997-99. Azarenka was struggling and she needed to repel four break points in a 10-minute � rst game of the second set to hold.

Radwanska showed grit to bounce back and come through a tense 11-min-ute game to get the break and a 1-0 lead in the third. She held serve, then broke again for 3-0 with a frustrated Azaren-ka having no answers to the Pole’s all-court game. l

Federer subdues Murray to set up Nadal classicn AFP, Melbourne

Roger Federer fought back from a mid-match stumble against Andy Murray Wednesday to set up a classic Austra-lian Open semi-� nal with Rafael Nadal.

After Nadal battled through an un-expectedly tough quarter-� nal with

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Federer showed both his vintage best and his fallibility in beating Murray 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3.

The Swiss great was electric in the � rst two sets but he tightened as he neared the � nishing line, and was bro-ken when serving for the win before passing up two match points in the third-set tiebreaker.

However, he extended Murray in a 19-minute hold at the start of the fourth set, then got the crucial break for 5-3 and, after setting up a third match point, he grabbed the opportu-nity with an ace.

“I thought Andy did well, he kept the ball in play and put the pressure on me and unfortunately I couldn’t get it done in the third set, with either the serve or the forehand missing. So I am happy to get the win in four,” Federer said.

Nadal also � irted with disaster be-fore getting out of jail against rising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The 13-time Grand Slam champion, troubled by a huge blister on his rac-quet hand, went a set down against the exciting young prospect and, facing set points in the third, he was tottering. l

Wawrinka ready to step out of Federer’s shadown Reuters, Melbourne

Stanislas Wawrinka has the opportunity to truly step out of Roger Federer’s im-mense shadow if he can only overcome a stubborn Tomas Berdych in their Aus-tralian Open semi-� nal on Thursday.

Wawrinka’s match against the Czech is the highlight of three semi-� nals at Melbourne Park on Thursday with wom-en’s title favourite Li Na facing exciting teenage prospect Eugenie Boucahrd in one of the women’s last four clashes.

Diminutive Slovak Dominika Cibulko-va, who knocked out 2008 champion Maria Sharapova and destroyed 11th seed Simona Halep in the quarter-� nals. l

Victoria Azarenka gestures during her women's singles match against Agnieszka Radwanska on day ten of the 2014 Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday AFP

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

One held over police barrack murdern Kailash Sarkar

Extramarital a� air allegedly led to the brutal murder of a man in the tra� c po-lice barrack early Tuesday, said sources in police.

A police constable Shawkat Hossain was arrested yesterday for the killing of 42-year-old Nannu Munsi of Jessore.

Meanwhile, the severed head of the body was found in a pond of Rajarbagh Police Lines late afternoon yesterday, said Md Ashrafuzzaman, Deputy Com-missioner (DC) at Motijheel Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

Police recovered the beheaded body of the unidenti� ed man from the roof-top of tra� c police barrack on Tuesday and a white coloured shirt from a drain near the police barrack with Tk935 in its pocket.

Family members of the victim yes-terday morning identi� ed the body at the morgue of Dhaka Medical College.

Following their information police arrested constable Shawkat who con-fessed his involvement in the murder of Nannu in association with two oth-ers for his extramarital a� air with his wife.

Shawkat said after the murder he dumped the severed head into the

pond at Rajarbagh Police Lines.Hailing from Jhenaidah district

constable Shawkat was a driver at the Public Order Management unit. But he was suspended several months ago af-ter following an allegation of his wife to the higher authorities of the police, said Masudur Rahman, the DC at the DMP Media Centre.

According to sources, Nannu of Pot-khali village under Jhikargachha upazi-la in Jessore was a quack by profession. He developed a relation with constable Shawkat and his wife through his pro-fessional activities.

Nannu had a 20-year-old daughter named Tumpa and two sons – Rabbi, 18, and Raj, 6.

Shawkat had some physical com-plexities and Nannu came to the police barrack to meet Shawkat for his treat-ment.

Nannu used to meet wife of Shawkat at his village home in Jhenidah in ab-sence of Shawkat while he was away in the police barrack. Shawkat and his wife had not been on good terms be-cause of extramarital relation between his wife and Nannu.

Constable Shawkat brutally killed Nannu in a planned way. He invited Nannu to the police barrack on January

19 and killed him early in the morning on January 20.

“Following information from the family members of deceased Nannu we arrested Shawkat and he confessed to the murder,” said DC Ashrafuzzaman.

On information extracted from Shwakat the head was recovered from the pond at Rajarbagh Police Lines, he added.

Asked, the DC of Motijheel said during primary interrogation Shawkat said he alone had killed Nannu. “But investigating is on to � nd out whether other people were involved.”

But Joint Commissioner Monirul Is-lam of the Detective Branch said two others assisted the constable in the murder of Nannu.

The joint commissioner said a three-member committee led by Joint Commissioner (Tra� c) Meer Rezaul Is-lam had been formed to investigate the matter.

The mystery surrounding the death was unravelled when Nannu’s broth-er-in-law Joynal Abedin identi� ed the beheaded body.

When Joynal informed police that Nannu had come to Dhaka to meet con-stable Shawkat law enforcers detained the constable. l

Over 5 crore children to get vaccines against measles-rubellaOne of the largest ever vaccination campaigns to start from Jan 25

n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

One of the largest ever vaccination campaign is set to take place across the country between January 25 and February 13, with the government planning to administer measles-rubel-la (MR) vaccines to around 5 crore 20 lakh children between the age of nine months and 15 years.

The health ministry has also set a target of providing oral polio vaccines to over two crore children under the age of � ve during the three-week long national campaign.

Dr Abu Zafor Md Musa, director of primary health care at Directorate Gen-eral of Health Services (DGHS), told the Dhaka Tribune that as far as he knew, it would be one of the largest vaccination campaigns of the world, with one-third of the total Bangladeshi population being brought under the vaccination coverage.

Saying Bangladesh had remained polio-free since 2006 and was set to be certi� ed for the achievement in March, Musa added that the aim of the nation-wide campaign was to sustain the po-lio-free status, and eliminate measles and rubella diseases.

Dr Sha� qur Rahman, programme manager of Expanded Immunization Programme, said children were the usual victims of measles and rubella – both of which are communicable dis-eases.

Measles causes pneumonia, di-arrhea, malnutrition, encephalitis, blindness and deafness; while, rubella infection of the pregnant mother with-in three months of pregnancy could result in miscarriage, or the child could be born with Congenital Rubella Syn-

drome.Senior o� cials at the health minis-

try said 211 measles and 2,911 rubella patients were found in the country in 2013. They also expressed hopes that the countrywide vaccination pro-gramme would save thousands of chil-dren and pregnant mothers from being e� ected with measles or rubella.

The Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) has report-edly provided over $33.5m to conduct the nationwide MR vaccination cam-paign, while Unicef has bought Tk287 crore worth of vaccine with the budget.

The target of this programme was to increase the MR vaccine coverage up to 95% within 2016 and reduce the rate of the infected by 90% compared to � g-ures from 2010.

In the � rst week, MR vaccines would be given to around 3 crore 35 lakh stu-dents of 171,000 schools, while during the second and third weeks (February 1 to February 13) MR vaccines would be given at 120,000 � xed sites of Expand-ed Immunization Programme across the country. A total of 66,993 skilled vaccinators and 241,000 trained vol-unteers would work to make the cam-paign a success.

Speaking at a press brief ahead of the programme, Health Minister Mo-hammed Nasim yesterday urged citi-zens to get vaccines from their nearest centres. He also sought help from the media for creating mass awareness amongst the general people throughoutthe country.

Nasim also blamed some unscrupu-lous people of spreading rumours to tarnish the ministry’s image, and called on citizens to keep their eyes open to avoid the rumours. l

Tourists � ock back to sea and sandn Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

As the country’s political climate has be-come stable, tourists are � ocking back to the beaches and hotel resorts of Cox’s Bazaar. Businessmen hope to pro� t again following more than two months of political insecurity which had de-

railed the country’s tourist industry.Abul Kashem Shikder, general sec-

retary of Cox’s Bazar Hotel-Motel and Guesthouse Owners Committee said: “Tourists have been booking hotel rooms. With their return, we hope to see some pro� ts after a two-month lull due to political instability.

Nurul Absar, general secretary of Cox’s Bazar Sea-Beach Hotel-Motel Owners Committee, said: “We had sustained heavy losses in the last two months, and I am pessimistic whether we can recoup that this season. Never-theless, with political stability return-ing, anything is possible.

Sources said December and January were the peak season for tourists and resort owners. It’s during this time that tourist come to relax with their fam-ilies, and end the year in comfort and through relaxing. But the hotel occu-pancy rate was almost zero during the peak season this time around.

Owners of around 50 hotels and motels were busy decorating rooms for tourists.

Probal Dip, St. Martin, Teknaf, Inani, Himchari, Dariyanagar, Dulahajara Bangabandhu Safari Park, Ramu’s Bud-dhist Temple, Adinath Temple of Mo-heshkhali and other tourist spots have been redecorated.

Ataus Samad Titu, general secretary of the Cox’s Bazar District Restaurant Owners Committee said, “We opened our restaurants for tourist amid risk, but I don’t know what will happen next.”

SM Kibria, president of the Cox’s Ba-zar Tour Operator Association, said: “All ships on the Teknaf-St. Martin route were cancelled due to lack of tourists, but now we have been o� ering di� erent packages for tourists. I hope the tour-ism industry will bounce back again.”

Local businessman related to the industry said the peak season from November to February had passed o� without any tourists. Besides, holi-days like Eid, Puja, Christmas, Victory Day and New Years Eve also passed o� without making any di� erence. l

SIX MONTHS OF FY2014

Five ADP power projects show little progressn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The planned addition of 930MW to the national grid will be delayed as there has been no progress in the implementation of � ve ADP power projects in the � rst six months of the current � scal year.

This will eventually hamper power saving as well as service to consumers, says an o� cial report.

The projects are: the construction of Sylhet 150MW combined cycle power plant and transmission system; prepaid metering for Chittagong south zone; the construction of Shahjibazar 330MW plant; e� cient lighting initiative for Bangladesh (parts 1 and 2); and Ashuganj 450MW combined cycle plant (north).

The report of the Power Division shows that out of 56 projects eight have made only 1-5% progress, nine 6-25%, and the rest completed 25-88% of the implementation work during the period.

The Power Division also missed its ADP target set for the July-December period, according to the report released at a recent meeting.

The agencies responsible for com-pleting the projects implemented 23.92% of the ADP allocations during the period against a target of 32.93%.

The progress rate, however, dropped 3.2% from one year ago – the imple-mentation was 27.12% in the � rst half of the last � scal year.

According to the report, the Pow-er Division spent Tk2,094.76 crore for these ADP projects. Of the amount, the government contributed Tk1,543.96 crore (29.55%) and foreign loans and aids were Tk550.80 crore (15.6%).

Against a target of 45.21% physical implementation these projects have completed 42.48% – a 3.17% increase from the period of the last � scal year.

The FY2013-14 budget earmarked Tk65,872 crore for total ADP, and of the amount, Tk8,756.14 crore was allocat-ed for the Power Division.

Of the total ADP projects, the Power Development Board is implementing 22, the Rural Electri� cation Board 11, the Power Grid Company of Bangla-desh 10, the Dhaka Power Distribution Company three, the North West Zone Power Distribution Company � ve, the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh two, and the Power Cell, West Zone Power Distribution Compa-ny and Ashuganj Power Station Compa-ny are implementing one each.

“We have been able to increase the pace of physical implementation com-pared to last year. But we still lack speed in the progress of � nancial im-plementation,” said Power Secretary Monwar Islam.

He expressed hope that the � nancial implementation would also get mo-mentum in the next � scal year. l

Diplomacy for hilsa!n Tribune Report

Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Sa-ran has requested Bangladesh govern-ment to withdraw its restriction on hil-sa export.

The envoy said hilsa � sh was very popular in India and made the request when he met with Fisheries and Live-stock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque at the Secretariat yesterday.

Sayedul told Saran that hilsa ex-

port had been suspended to increase local supply and that a decision made in consultation with the commerce ministry and government high-ups would be conveyed to the Indianauthorities.

The minister said Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka could be economically bene� tted by conducting research on the Bay of Bengal. He emphasised the need for cooperation in joint research in this regard. l

Rs1 crore seizedn Kailash Sarkar

Around Indian Rs1 crore was seized from a Bangladeshi man immediately after his arrival at the Hajarat Shahjalal Interna-tional Airport from Dubai yesterday.

Personnel from the Customs Depart-ment and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) made the seizure, but they claimed the man identi� ed as Nannu Sarder, 35, ran away leaving his luggage and passport dodging the customs and CIID o� cials.

CIID Assistant Director Ayesha Akhter claimed, “Although we seized the currencies from Nannu’s luggage, but he ran away during the scanning, leaving his luggage and passport.”

A source at the airport, however, claimed the concerned o� cials had let the smuggler go in exchange of bribe.

Akhter said Nannu’s passport showed that he had visited Dhaka, Pa-kistan and Dubai at least eight times in the last three months.

“We suspect Nannu was a member of a gang involved in the smuggling of currencies,” said the CIID o� cial.

According to the airport sources, Nannu Sarder, who hails from Nariya upazila in Shariyatpur, arrived in Dha-ka from Dubai by a � ight of Emirates Airlines around 11am.l

A numbers of cars stuck in tra� c in the capital’s Hatirjheel yesterday afternoon. Though built as a bypass road, it is still not enough to accommodate the capital’s ever increasing number of vehicles BANGLAR CHOKH

With the political situation in the country stabilising, tourists are seen returning to Cox’s Bazaar in droves, raising the spirits of local hotel owners and businessmen DHAKA TRIBUNE

CAUGHT IN A MAZE

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

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Business

www.dhakatribune.com/business THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014

B3 Current Boro season unlikely to face urea defi cit

B4 CEOs confi dence in economy rising

S T O C K SDSEX 4640.56 1.22% ▲

DS30 1640.07 1.57% ▲

CSEX 9116.4 1.48% ▲

EU to provide trade support beyond GSP n Tribune Report

The European Union renewed its com-mitment to work on boosting trade with Bangladesh through diversi� ca-tion of business.

“The EU will continue GSP facilities for Bangladesh and they would pro-vide even more to improve trade be-tween the two countries,” Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told a press brie� ng at the commerce ministry in Dhaka yesterday.

He expressed the hope after a meet-ing with EU Ambassador to Bangla-desh William Hanna as they discussed on how to boost bilateral trade and commerce.

“We had talks on how to improve trade with the EU and the ambassa-dor assured us that they will continue GSP facilities for Bangladesh and they would provide even more to boost trade.”

Tofail said his ministry’s main aim is to promote the country’s trade and commerce as he assured to work hard in improving the trade.

In � rst half of the current � scal year, Bangladesh exported products worth US$7.91bn to EU countries, while the country’s RMG export rose to over $7bn, which is 21% higher com-pared to the same period of previous � scal year.

EU Ambassador Hanna reiterated the EU’s commitment not to review the GSP facilities, but stressed on im-plementation of the factory safety and inspection issues.

“We’ve discussed commitment in the area of factory safety and inspec-tion … I think there is a good progress in safety, which should continue and Keep watching them closely,” Hanna said, talking about safety and sustain-able compact that has been declared in last year in Geneva after the Rana plaza factory disaster.

“I hope there would be favorable and peaceful environment for trade and commerce and continuation of dialogue for trade and commerce until the country takes forward.”

About the further cooperation in improving further the cooperation, he said: “We have projects for further di-versi� cation of trade and automation of GSP.”

He said trade is one of the most im-portant issues of cooperation between EU and Bangladesh while export growth of Bangladesh to EU marked remarkably last year.

British High CommissionerEarlier at a separate meeting, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Gibson expressed the willing-ness to improve bilateral trade be-tween the two countries.

He apprised the Bangladesh minis-ter of 66 UK companies having around £2bn investment in Bangladesh and expressed the willingness to increase

the investment. Gibson also pointed out some prob-

lems that create noise in doing busi-ness as the minister assured him of re-moving the obstacles to facilitate them doing business here peacefully.

Bangladesh fetched US$1.37bn from UK by exporting di� erent products during the July-December period of current � scal year. l

African Region 1%

American Region 21%

ASEAN Countries 1%

Asian Region 10%

BIMSTEC 1%

D 8 Countries 4%

East and Other European Region 3%

EU Countries 48%

LDC 0%

Middle East 2%

Ocenia Region 2%

OIC Countries 5%

Others 1% SAARC

1%

RReeggiioonn--wwiissee eexxppoorrtt dduurriinngg JJuullyy--DDeecceemmbbeerr 22001133

Stocks post sharp rise n Tribune Report

Stocks posted sharp rise yesterday with turnover crossing Tk800 crore-mark af-ter two months.

The market opened on upbeat mood and the momentum continued till close of the trade.

The benchmark DSEX index surged almost 56 points or 1.4% to end at 4,640, extending the gaining streak for the second consecutive session.

Shariah-based DSES index edged 13 points or 1.5% higher to 961.

The blue-chip comprising DS30 in-dex rose 25 points or 1.6% to 1,640.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Se-lective Category Index, CSCX, rallied 118 points to close at 9,115.

High turnover was one of the main highlights of the day.

The total turnover at DSE stood at Tk803 crore, which was the highest since November 21 last year and 7.4% higher over the previous session.

The strength of the rally was part-ly due to outstripping performance of some sectors as they saw cyclical rally, said Lanka Bangla Securities in its mar-ket analysis.

Among the major sectors, fuel & power sector generated buying interest with market capitalisation up by 1.5%, while cement and engineering sector kept moving northward in continuation of previous trading session with 0.5% and 1.4% increase in market capitalisa-tion respectively.

Such upward movement in the indi-ces has mainly resulted from the gains by some large cap sectors, including pharmaceuticals, banks and power, ac-cording to IDLC Investment.

Textile made a strong rebound, gain-ing 3.3% following previous downbeat sessions.

Power sector posted the high-est liquidity among all sectors andcontributed 14.2% to the total market turnover.

Padma Oil was the most traded stocks with shares worth almost Tk29 crore, followed by Meghan Petroleum, Active Fine Chemical, Square Pharma-ceuticals, Lanka Bangla Finance, Olym-pic Industries and Summit Purbanchal Power Company. l

BTRC � xes new QoS for telecom operators n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Bangladesh Telecommunication Reg-ulator Commission (BTRC) has intro-duced a new benchmark with some key performance indicators to assess mobile phone operators’ service quality and to protect the customers from below-stan-dard services.

The telecom watchdog also � xed two types of benchmarks-� rst one is short-term, which is for less than two years pe-riod, while the second one is long-term, which is for more than two years period.

The service providers should main-tain the benchmarks while the regulator will audit it time to time, according to BTRC � xed bench mark.

“The regulator will also make public all the reports and they will prepare a rating with the operators’ service quali-ty, said the directives.

Meanwhile, mobile phone operators have welcomed the newly introduced directives of BTRC with some reserva-tions as they believe that there should be proper consultations between the op-erators and the regulator.

Regarding the newly introduced bench mark, Association of Mobile Tele-com Operators (AMTOB) on 8 January sent a letter to BTRC, which was signed by its secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir.

“Under the new directives, the tele-com regulator has � xed some param-eters, which does not re� ect any local context, said AMTOB in its letter.

In reply BTRC said, “It is being ob-served that all the operators, excepting few, are not paying any attention to the quality of their respective services. As a

result, the overall quality of the network has followed deteriorating trends, in-stead of further improvement.’’

It also said, though the subscriber base has been increased but the custom-ers’ complains have also been increased simultaneously.

“Frequent call drop, poor network coverage and unsatisfactory customer care support are the common issues be-ing faced by the subscribers. As a result, customer’s dissatisfaction is increasing and complains against the network are also increasing day by day,” reads the BTRC directive.According to the directives of BTRC, op-erator’s call set-up success rate must be at least 95% while it must be increased further by 95% within the next two years.

The directives � xed the call setup time 8 seconds for now, which should come down to 7 seconds within next two years. However, AMTOB demanded this call set up time 9 seconds and 8 seconds respectively.

The telecom regulator also claimed that operators are now implementing new features in their networks without performing proper pre-trial, which is also a reason for poor quality of services.

According to the directives, com-plaints per 100 customers should be re-duced fewer than 2.5% within two years and it must come down to less than 1%.

Regulator also � xed the time dura-tion for subscribers assistance in cus-tomer care.

If subscribers � led any com-plain electronically customer care should response 100% within 20

seconds while voice to voice complain service should be addressed within 30 seconds, according to the directive.

But, AMTOB demanded 60 seconds and 120 seconds for those responses.

BTRC has � xed the standard call drop rate, which is less than 3% for short terms and 2% for long terms.

The performance of service provid-ers against the quality of service bench-marks is to be reported to BTRC through a monthly monitoring report in the � rst week of every month, according to the directives.

BTRC has introduced � ve categories of performance benchmarks rating one for excellent, two for good, three for fair, four for poor and � ve for bad. And to ob-tain fair performance at least 90% rating point needed.

Regulator made it mandatory for the operator to keep the records service quality performance at least for three years.

“We always welcome the quality of service guideline but it needs proper consultation before formally introduc-ing the benchmarks,” Mahmud Hos-sain, Chief Corporate A� airs O� cer of Grameenphone (GP), told the Dhaka Tribune.

He said parameters should be � xed in line with international standers as well as local context.

A high o� cial of BTRC said, “It is a temporary directives and we need to formulate a complete guideline regard-ing the service standard.”

Earlier, BTRC had approved the qual-ity of service guideline in a commission meeting on 2 January. l

EPZs see above 26% investment growthn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The country’s eight Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have experienced a 26.50% investment growth to over US $190m in the � rst half of the current � scal year, braving all the adversities.

In July-December, 2012, the total investment in the eight EPZs had stood at $150m. Meanwhile, during July-December 2013-14 Bangladesh’s export earnings from the EPZs rose to $2.6bn, which is 16% higher compared to the same period of 2012.

In the � rst six months of the current � scal year, the Chittagong EPZ has witnessed investment of around $45m followed by, Dhaka EPZ of $64m, Karnaphuli EPZ of $19m, Adamjee EPZ of $41m Commila EPZ of $6.59m, Uttara EPZ of $8.68m, Ishwardi EPZ of $2m and Mongla EPZ of $4.17m. The cumulative investment stands at $2975.71 million up to December 2013. The cumulative investment stands at $2975.71 million up to December 2013.

According to BEPZA data, export earnings from EPZs rose by 16% by the enterprises of Eight Export Processing Zones under BEPZA in the � rst six months of the � scal year 2013-2014.

The enterprises of EPZs had exported goods worth $2.6bn during July-December, 2013 of the current � scal year. It was $2.24bn during the same period of 2012.

Currently, a total of 425 industrial units are operating while 136 other are still at di� erent implementation stages in 8 EPZs under BEPZA. l

Banks’ pay scale awaits ‘adequate’ legal advice Government wants to know how to amend the relevant law to introduce a separate salary structure for BB and four state banks

n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has sought a detailed legal suggestion from law ministry on a separate pay scale for Bangladesh Bank and four state-owned commercial banks.

Earlier, the ministry gave an opinion which, according to the o� cials, was not complete as it only suggested amendment of the relevant law but didn’t say how to amend it.

Now the � nance ministry wants suggestions on how to amend the Services (Reorganisation and Conditions) Act, 1975 to implement a separate pay scale for the banks.

Bangladesh Bank’s pay scale is out of the purview of the act.

To bring the sta� of the central bank under a separate pay scale with the state-owned four commercial banks, the law will have to be amended.

“The previous legal advice from the law ministry was not enough

and lacked adequate instructions on amendment of the law,” said a � nance ministry o� cial.

“Due to pressure from Bangladesh Bank, the law ministry might have done it hurriedly.”

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday reiterated that the government would soon implement aseparate pay scale for Bangladesh Bank and four state-owned commercial banks.

He said: “The process of implementation would start from where it got stuck.”

According to the o� cial sources, the implementation division of the � nance ministry sought suggestion again from the law ministry on a separate pay scale before January 5 election.

Implementation of separate pay scale for the employees of Bangladesh Bank and four state banks has been stuck due to legal complexities.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed the recommendations of the secretaries’ committee on separate pay scale on November 12 last year.

Under the new 11-grade pay scale which will replace the existing 20-grade pay structure, the basic salary for those in the lowest grade will be Tk6,000 and for the highest grade will be Tk55,000.

Currently, the four banks have around 90,000 employees while the central bank has nearly 6,000. l

'The previous legal advice from the law ministry was not enough and lacked adequate instructions on amendment of the law'

MCCI urges parties to keep business out of politicsn Tribune Report

Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has urged the political par-ties to come out of the culture of suicidal politics and leave business out of politics.

They made the appeal during a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the � -nance ministry in Dhaka yesterday, putting forward nine-point recommendations for economic growth.

MCCI suggested issues included reduc-ing political unrest, ensuring security of businessmen as well as trade and business, strengthening the macroeconomic situa-tion, improvement of investment situation, allowing businessmen to invest in foreign countries, improve the country’s image abroad, and ensuring political programmes on the holidays.

They also urged the � nance minister to ensure a balanced monetary policy, reduce

the public borrowing from the banking sys-tem and establish the good governance in the capital market and banking sector.

“These are good suggestions and would be better for all,” Muhith said in response to the suggestion by the MCCI delegation, led by its president Rokia Afzal Rahman.

He, however, said more time would be required to execute the recommendations while holding the political programmes on the weekly holidays would not be possible

due to religious sentiment.The minister also expressed dissatisfac-

tion over delays in setting up of LPG terminal due to the complexity of tender process and appointing contractors.

He suggested the business community to run vigorous campaign for holding the political programs at the weekend.

To maintain public order and security of citizens and businesses, the chamber pro-posed that the political programmes, which

call for large gathering, be held only during the weekends as in neighbouring city of Kolkata.

About the proposal to revise the work-week from existing Sunday-Thursday to Monday-Friday to keep pace with the inter-national practice of working days, Muhith said the government has considered the issue several times, but it is still sticking to the existing holiday schedule.

Advocating widening of the tax net to

improve revenue collection, MCCI stressed on further simplifying the tax forms, mak-ing the VAT scheme more business-friendly and bring it under single VAT registration system with allowable � exibility for SMEs.

Speaking at the meeting, MCCI pres-ident Rokia Afzal Rahman said that the business su� ered severely in the last few months due to political instability and tur-moil, and all are trying to gear up their activ-ities in the coming days. l

Textile made a strong rebound, gaining 3.3% following previous downbeat sessions

Padma Oil most traded stockn Tribune Business Desk

The shares of Padma Oil Company Limited, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, continued to rally for 7th consecutive sessions at Dhaka Stock Exchange by regis-tering a gain of 4.5% yesterday.

The most traded stock of the day c losed at Tk346.6 each with a trade value of Tk28.6 crore or 3.5% of the total trade value at the bourses.

The company did not disclose any price sensitive information re-cently.

The board of directors recom-mended cash dividend of 90% on face value of Tk10 along with a stock dividend of 10% for the year ended on June 30, 2013.

The record date for entitlement

of the dividends was on December 23 last year.

The management further in-formed in November about its an-nual general meeting to be held at Guptakhal in Chittagong on Febru-ary 15 this year.

The unaudited quarterly report (ended on September 2013) shows the company’s pro� t is Tk67 crore after tax, which is higher than the pro� t of Tk43.2 crore during the same period in 2012.

The oil company’s June-ending annual earnings stood at Tk206 crore in 2013, which is higher than Tk146 crore in 2012.

The increased pro� tability is due to higher non-operating income of Tk239 crore in 2013 from Tk154 crore in 2012. l

B2 Stock Thursday, January 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

News from trade serverMARICO: (Q3): As per quarterly accounts for the 3rd quarter ended on 31st December 2013 (Oct'13 to Dec'13), the Company has reported pro� t after tax of Tk. 346.76 million with EPS of Tk. 11.01 as against Tk. 283.90 million and Tk. 9.01 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas pro� t after tax was Tk. 1,099.25 million with EPS of Tk. 34.90 for the period of nine months (Apr'13 to Dec'13) ended on 31.12.2013 as against Tk. 657.79 million and Tk. 20.88 respectively for the same period of the previous year.ECABLES: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 31.12.2013 (July'13 to Dec'13), the Company has reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 16.71 million with EPS of Tk. 0.70 as against Tk. 15.89 million and Tk. 0.66 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas net pro� t after tax was Tk. 12.58 million with EPS of Tk. 0.52 for the period of 3 months (Oct'13 to Dec'13) ended on 31.12.2013 as against Tk. 8.83 million and Tk. 0.37 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

ZAHINTEX: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on January 21, 2014.FUWANGCER: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on January 21, 2014.DACCADYE: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on January 21, 2014.RIGHT SHARE: ARAMITCEM: Subscription 23.03.2014 to 17.04.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.01.2014. RUPALILIFE- Subscription 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014. BRACBANK: Subscription 20.04.2014 to 15.05.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 10.02.2014.

IPO Subscription: Matin Spinning Mills Lim-ited subscription date 26-30 January 2014, NRB upto 08 Feburay 2014. @ Tk. 37/-, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Hwa Well Textiles (BD) Limited subscription date 17-23 February 2014, NRB upto 04 March 2014. At per, face value taka 10 and market lot 500.Dividend/AGMECABLES: 10% cash, AGM: 01.03.2014, RD: 29.12.2013. USMANIAGL: 11% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: postponed, RD: 07.11.2013.POWERGRID: 15% Cash, AGM: 25.01.2014, Time: 10:00 AM. RD: 01.12.2013.EASTRNLUB: 30% Cash, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013. JAMUNAOIL: 90% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013. SAVAREFR: No dividend, AGM: 30.01.2014, RD: 19.12.2013.PADMAOIL: 90% Cash, 10% Stock, AGM: 15.02.2014, RD: 23.12.2013. SAMORITA: 30% Stock, AGM: 11.01.2014, RD: 25.11.2013.

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Appollo Ispat CL -N 940,800 34.94 4.84 37.10 0.27 37.00 37.70 36.70 37.14Moza� ar H.Spinning-N 771,500 32.92 4.56 42.10 -7.27 45.40 45.40 41.60 42.67People`s Leasing-A 841,009 22.49 3.11 27.50 8.27 25.40 27.80 25.60 26.74UNITED AIR-A 1,155,133 20.43 2.83 17.60 -1.12 17.80 17.90 17.60 17.69BSRM Steels-A 237,695 19.46 2.69 82.90 4.80 79.10 83.30 79.80 81.87Orion Pharma-N 272,140 17.89 2.48 65.70 2.66 64.00 66.50 58.00 65.72BSC-A 35,485 17.03 2.36 474.50 -3.36 491.00 499.00 472.30 479.84Active Fine Chem.-A 156,713 15.76 2.18 102.60 5.66 97.10 99.90 100.00 100.54Generation Next Fashions-A 424,600 15.14 2.10 36.40 4.30 34.90 36.50 34.70 35.66UCBL - A 450,222 13.06 1.81 29.10 1.04 28.80 29.30 28.70 29.01Meghna Petroleum -A 48,285 12.59 1.74 260.50 2.72 253.60 263.80 257.80 260.69Grameenphone-A 59,200 12.46 1.73 209.20 1.01 207.10 212.80 208.80 210.45Padma Oil Co. -A 35,299 12.18 1.69 346.20 3.93 333.10 351.20 337.00 345.09Square Pharma -A 53,066 12.04 1.67 229.70 4.22 220.40 230.00 223.90 226.88aamra technologies-A 307,775 11.41 1.58 36.90 1.37 36.40 37.50 36.80 37.06LankaBangla Fin. -A 142,019 11.03 1.53 77.80 1.83 76.40 78.30 76.70 77.68BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 304,819 10.95 1.52 35.70 0.85 35.40 36.30 35.50 35.92National Bank - B 825,379 10.78 1.49 12.90 1.57 12.70 13.90 11.50 13.06Aftab Auto.-A 116,629 10.76 1.49 91.90 2.00 90.10 93.60 91.00 92.25Unique Hotel RL - N 120,390 10.40 1.44 87.00 3.33 84.20 87.50 84.20 86.38

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Padma Oil Co. -A 830,575 286.52 3.43 346.60 4.46 331.80 349.50 310.00 344.97Meghna Petroleum -A 969,695 252.46 3.02 260.00 2.77 253.00 263.60 245.00 260.35Active Fine Chem.-A 2,478,243 249.54 2.99 102.50 5.34 97.30 103.00 90.00 100.69Square Pharma -A 796,237 180.96 2.17 229.30 3.76 221.00 230.00 210.00 227.27LankaBangla Fin. -A 2,197,175 170.19 2.04 77.40 1.44 76.30 80.00 69.00 77.46Olympic Ind. -A 959,279 167.23 2.00 172.60 0.17 172.30 176.20 163.00 174.33Summit Purbanchol Power-N 2,169,020 162.43 1.95 74.10 0.68 73.60 76.40 68.00 74.89Con� denceCement A 1,112,829 159.81 1.91 141.40 -2.55 145.10 149.00 139.80 143.60Grameenphone-A 731,284 153.55 1.84 208.70 0.58 207.50 212.80 206.00 209.97Delta Life Insu. -A 554,800 151.35 1.81 272.00 1.19 268.80 275.00 270.20 272.80ApexAdelchi Ftr -A 262,000 149.38 1.79 563.30 0.57 560.10 580.00 560.00 570.16Appollo Ispat CL -N 3,983,600 147.16 1.76 37.00 0.27 36.90 37.50 36.60 36.94People`s Leasing-A 5,172,784 139.17 1.67 27.60 7.81 25.60 27.90 23.50 26.91Orion Pharma-N 2,080,480 136.73 1.64 65.40 2.19 64.00 66.90 57.90 65.72Golden Son -A 2,147,748 135.63 1.62 63.00 0.00 63.00 64.00 58.00 63.15UCBL - A 4,506,051 130.58 1.56 29.00 1.05 28.70 30.00 26.00 28.98LafargeS Cement-Z 3,145,500 126.19 1.51 40.30 3.07 39.10 40.50 39.70 40.12Moza� ar H.Spinning-N 2,923,000 124.72 1.49 42.00 -7.28 45.30 45.30 41.50 42.67BSRM Steels-A 1,468,644 119.87 1.44 83.10 4.40 79.60 83.50 75.00 81.62Generation Next Fashions-A 3,191,060 113.00 1.35 36.10 4.03 34.70 36.30 31.50 35.41

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 662.19 7.93 55.99 7.74 718.18 7.92NBFI 677.16 8.11 68.22 9.43 745.38 8.22Investment 284.45 3.41 20.77 2.87 305.22 3.36Engineering 1142.94 13.69 114.39 15.82 1257.33 13.86Food & Allied 240.88 2.89 29.17 4.03 270.06 2.98Fuel & Power 1177.20 14.10 69.81 9.65 1247.01 13.75Jute 2.04 0.02 0.00 2.04 0.02Textile 970.86 11.63 109.96 15.21 1080.81 11.91Pharma & Chemical 918.16 11.00 70.55 9.76 988.71 10.90Paper & Packaging 1.61 0.02 0.38 0.05 1.98 0.02Service 35.46 0.42 6.17 0.85 41.63 0.46Leather 205.12 2.46 5.76 0.80 210.88 2.32Ceramic 56.73 0.68 9.80 1.36 66.54 0.73Cement 463.29 5.55 24.30 3.36 487.59 5.37Information Technology 91.90 1.10 17.78 2.46 109.68 1.21General Insurance 336.79 4.03 12.53 1.73 349.32 3.85Life Insurance 556.71 6.67 25.07 3.47 581.78 6.41Telecom 205.78 2.46 17.48 2.42 223.25 2.46Travel & Leisure 160.17 1.92 30.83 4.26 191.00 2.11Miscellaneous 158.58 1.90 34.11 4.72 192.68 2.12Debenture 0.86 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.90 0.01

WEDTUEMON 20-Jan

SUN 19-JanTHU 16-Jan

WED 15-Jan

22-Jan21-JanCapital Market Highlights

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4640.55812 (+) 1.22% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1640.06507 (+) 1.57% ▲

DSE SHARIAH Index : 961.07627 (+) 1.41% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 14384.1235 (+) 1.34% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 11949.5142 (+) 1.55% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9116.3992 (+) 1.33% ▲

DSE key features January 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 8,348.87

Turnover (Volume) 177,874,456

No. of Contract 170,405

Traded Issues 295

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

232

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

61

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Cap. Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,229.75

Market Cap. Equity (Billion US$)

27.03

CSE key features January 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 722.27

Turnover (Volume) 18,793,552

Number of Contract 26,643

Traded Issues 232

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

184

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

45

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,131.06

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

25.83

ANALYSTSuch upward movement in the indices has mainly resulted from the gains by some large cap sectors, including pharmaceuticals, banks and power

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Moza� ar H.Spinning-N -7.27 -7.82 42.67 42.10 45.40 41.60 32.919 1.56 27.4Imam Button -Z -5.05 -4.34 9.47 9.40 9.90 9.40 0.090 -2.20 -vePragatiLife Insu. -A -4.40 -2.57 234.56 232.50 240.00 232.50 1.759 2.38 98.6Alltex Industries -Z -4.26 -2.38 9.02 9.00 9.30 8.80 0.221 -1.56 -veQuasem Drycells -A -3.62 -2.63 43.26 42.60 45.00 42.00 1.592 2.04 21.2BSC-A -3.36 -2.11 479.84 474.50 499.00 472.30 17.027 5.16 93.0MeghnaCement -A -2.41 -1.71 161.91 162.00 163.50 160.00 1.020 6.29 25.7Bangas -A -2.39 -1.65 576.19 572.80 590.00 570.00 1.469 4.24 135.9Phoenix Insur -A -2.30 -1.09 47.28 46.70 47.70 46.20 0.246 3.81 12.4BDCOM Online-A -2.01 -1.28 29.33 29.20 30.60 29.00 0.692 1.70 17.3

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Moza� ar H.Spinning-N -7.28 -7.44 42.67 42.00 45.30 41.50 124.721 1.56 27.4Shampur Sugar -Z -6.25 -5.25 9.02 9.00 9.20 8.90 0.046 -45.28 -veZeal Bangla Sugar -Z -6.12 -7.24 9.09 9.20 9.50 9.10 0.030 -5.64 -veProgressive Life-A -5.07 -3.43 151.04 149.90 160.60 142.50 4.772 2.30 65.7Apex Tannery -A -4.74 -0.08 177.93 174.90 183.60 173.50 40.194 6.28 28.3Alltex Industries -Z -4.35 -2.38 9.02 8.80 9.40 8.80 2.053 -1.56 -vePragatiLife Insu. -A -4.33 -1.00 236.92 230.00 245.90 225.00 48.980 2.38 99.5Dulamia CottonZ -4.21 -3.77 9.20 9.10 9.20 9.10 0.069 -1.90 -vePeoples Insur -A -4.21 0.11 35.16 34.10 35.80 33.50 5.883 2.20 16.0Republic Insu.-A -3.89 -0.85 47.77 47.00 49.60 45.00 10.541 3.03 15.8

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

ICB AMCL IslamicMF-A 9.71 9.71 19.20 19.20 19.20 19.20 0.010 4.16 4.6AMCL (Pran) -A 8.78 8.95 215.32 216.80 216.80 203.90 8.053 5.08 42.4Prime Islami Life -A 8.35 13.66 131.10 131.10 133.00 121.00 0.584 4.95 26.5People`s Leasing-A 8.27 5.69 26.74 27.50 27.80 25.60 22.491 1.17 22.9Dutch Ban. Bnk- A 7.99 10.96 117.40 116.20 118.30 116.00 1.878 9.21 12.7Kay & Que (BD) -Z 7.84 7.75 21.98 22.00 22.00 21.90 0.055 -0.89 -veNational Polymer -A 7.77 5.51 66.25 68.00 68.00 64.90 1.387 2.24 29.6Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A 7.02 5.28 5.98 6.10 6.10 5.90 0.051 0.88 6.8Marico BD Ltd-A 7.01 5.58 840.10 840.10 843.90 825.00 0.252 46.53 18.1Saiham Tex.A 6.94 4.88 30.32 30.80 31.40 29.40 3.751 2.48 12.2

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Dutch Ban. Bnk- A 9.87 9.36 116.44 118.00 118.10 105.00 42.653 9.21 12.6AMCL (Pran) -A 8.78 7.76 213.45 216.90 216.90 196.50 37.084 5.08 42.0Monno Ceramic -B 8.41 5.74 35.36 36.10 36.40 34.00 7.350 0.64 55.3People`s Leasing-A 7.81 5.82 26.91 27.60 27.90 23.50 139.174 1.17 23.0National Polymer -A 7.80 5.68 66.37 67.70 68.80 59.00 34.966 2.24 29.6National Tubes -A 7.39 6.40 113.11 113.30 115.70 96.00 36.493 1.84 61.5Saiham Tex.A 6.94 4.43 30.17 30.80 31.20 29.00 63.971 2.48 12.2ICB Emp. PMF-A 6.67 5.16 6.32 6.40 6.60 6.10 2.688 0.64 9.9ICB AMCL IslamicMF-A 6.53 7.02 21.35 21.20 21.80 20.20 7.100 4.16 5.1

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B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

Eight � les nomination papers for DSE electionn Tribune Report

Eight stakeholders yesterday submitted nomination papers to contest for four posts of director of the demutualised Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The election is scheduled for February 12 to form its � rst board after demutuali-sation two month back.

The candidates are Shakil Rizvi of Shakil Rizvi Stock, Ghulam Rasul of Khwaja Equity Services, Mohammad Shahjahan of Jahan Securities, Sharif Anowar Hossain of Sahidullah Securities, Kazi Firoz Rashid of Kazi Firoz Rashid Securities, Ahmad Rashid of Rashid In-vestment Services, Mohammad Shamim Afzal of Desa Securities and Lailun Nahar Ekram of AENZ Securities.

The date of nomination withdraw-al is January 30, when the � nal list of eligible candidates to be published. The election is being held under the regulation of DSE shareholder director election regulation - 2014. Chairman of the DSE will be elected at the annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled for February 13. The 250 members of the DSE turned into shareholders after the demutualisation.

The new board will be comprised of 13 members, four from its existing share-holders, seven independent candidates, DSE chief executive o� cer and one from strategic investor, according to the De-mutualisation Act 2013. Prior to holding the AGM, the DSE would have to send a list of independent directors to the BSEC for regulatory approval. l

Emerald Oil IPO gets 39 times subscription n Tribune Report

The initial public o� ering (IPO) of rice bran edible oil producer Emerald Oil has been oversubscribed by more than 39 times, indicating strong investor interest in the company.

Investors ordered shares worth over Tk784 crore against the o� er of Tk20 crore, according to the Chittagong Stock Exchange. The company would issue 20 crore ordinary shares of Tk10 each under the � xed price method.

The company has been producing rice bran edible oil since 2011.

Rice bran oil is the oil that is extracted from the inner husk of rice plants.

The IPO proceeds will be used for repayment of term loan, IPO expenses and strengthening the capital base. The company’s earnings per share was Tk2.85 and net asset value Tk14.06, according to its � nancial statement as of June 30, 2013.

Of the total IPO, 10% kept for non-resident Bangladeshis, 10% for mutual funds, 20% for the investors a� ected by the late 2010 market crash and 60% for resident Bangladeshis.

The subscription started from January 6, and ended on January 12 for general investors and January 21 for non-resident Bangladeshis.

On November 19, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission approved the IPO. l

BTRC sues IGW operator Vision Tel for Tk181.5cr duesn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The telecom regulator has � led cer-ti� cate case against the IGW operator Vision Tel Ltd to recover outstanding Tk181.5 crore.

The suit has been � led on Thursday last with a Dhaka court for the dues aris-en from revenue sharing and annual li-cence fees of IGW operator, said a high o� cial of Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday.

He said the case has been � led un-der the Public Demands Recovery Act (PDRA).

Vision Tel Ltd is owned by the three non-residential Bangladeshis (NRB) and all of them currently is out of the coun-try, which has made it di� cult to collect

the money, said the BTRC sources.Of the owners, Shariful Islam owned

80,000 shares of Vision Tel Ltd, Rashel Mirza 70,000 shares and Ziaur Rahman 50,000 shares.

“We never found this three people. As they live in abroad, the recovery of the dues will be tough,” said a BTRC of-� cer handling the issue.

The international gateway (IGW) op-erator provided a bank cheque to pay a part of the dues, but the cheque was dishonoured by the bank.

Under the Negotiable Instruments Act, BTRC will � le another legal suit for giving bank cheque dishonoured by bank.

The o� cial said the telecom regula-tor will also � le criminal case under the telecom law against the use of equip-

ment illegally by the operator.The telecom watchdog � led their

� rst certi� cate case against IGW oper-ator Telex Ltd to recover Tk92.5 crore dues as revenue sharing.

According to the guideline, the IGWs can earn 3 US cents per minute incom-ing international call. The operators are required to share 51.75% of revenue to the telecom regulator.

Earlier, BTRC had sent a recommen-dation to the government to cancel the licence of Telex Ltd, along with Ratul Telecom Ltd, which owes Tk96.5 crore to BTRC. Same recommendation was made in the case of Vision Tel Ltd as it owes Tk181.5 crore.

Although Telex Ltd and Vision Tel Ltd face legal suits, another defaulting operator Ratul Telecom Ltd still remains

immune from such action.Ratul Telecom Ltd is owned by

former state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak’s daughter Syeda Amrin Rakhi and his wife Syeda Arzuman Banu, holding a total of 70% shares.

BTRC sources said on the govern-ment’s instruction the regulator has tak-en legal steps against the two operators while another operator Ratul Telecom was given time to pay the outstanding revenue.

Ex-Telecom Minister Advocate Sha-hara Khatun allowed Ratul to pay the dues in instalments though the ministry had no such authority.

But the operator has already missed two deadlines of instalments have al-ready expired. The third deadline is Jan-uary 31. l

Basic Bank donates blanketsBASIC Bank Limited (BBL) donated 30,000 pieces of blankets to the Prime Minister’s relief fund for distributing cold stricken poor people of the country recently. At an

occasion at Prime Minister’s O� ce, these blankets were handed over to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by BBL chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu. l

Shah Cement-AKS hold golf tournamentShah Cement-AKS Cup Golf Tour-nament was held at Bogra Golf Club at Bogra cantonment recently. Lieu-tenant Colonel Tariqul came out as the titled winner amongst 100 golfers at the tournament.

Senior vice president of Bogra Golf Club and general o� cer commanding Major General Abdullahil Baquee pre-sided as chief guests of the closing cer-emony at the tournament sponsored by Abul Khair Group. l

Toshiba releases 5 new laptop modelsSmart Technologies (BD) Limited un-veiled � ve new models of Toshiba lap-top at a press conference recently.

Rezaul Karim Tuhin, product man-ager Toshiba was the keynote speaker of the program. In his speech he pre-sented the new arrivals of the note-books to the audience, said a press

release. Mohammad Mazharul Islam, chairman of Smart Technologies (BD) Ltd was present at the press conference as chief guest while Zafor Ahmed, gen-eral manager and Muzahid Al Beruni Suzon, assistant general manager of Smart Technologies were also present in the programme. l

Trust Bank receives fund for power projectTrust Bank received a fund of $6.79m from IPFF project cell of Bangladesh Bank for its 50 MW power project, Baraka Patenga Power Limited at Po-tenga, Chittagong.

Managing director and CEO of Trust Bank Limited Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury recently received a cheque from the Governor of Bangla-desh Bank. l

City Bank donates blanketsCity Bank donated blankets to Ban-gladesh Bank recently for distribution amongst the cold-a� ected poor people across the country. Faruq Moinuddin,

additional managing director of City Bank handed the blankets over to A F M Asaduzzaman, general manager, Gover-nor Secretariat of Bangladesh Bank. l

Iraq oil exports dip in 2013: o� cial datan AFP, Baghdad

Iraq’s oil exports in 2013 declined com-pared with the previous year, new � g-ures showed yesterday, despite the country’s e� orts to dramatically ramp up crude sales to fund much-needed re-construction.

Exports in December recovered from multi-month lows earlier in the year, but were still below their peak, with overall exports and revenues for the year lower than similar � gures for 2012, according to oil ministry data compiled by AFP.

Overall, Iraq exported 72.6 million barrels of oil in December, an average of 2.34 million barrels per day (bpd), bring-ing in revenues of $7.47bn (5.5bn euros).

Those � gures were higher than in November, and also represented marked increases on September, when Iraq managed to export just 2.07 million bpd.

“The exports and income in Decem-ber was an increase... even though there was bad weather and technical repairs in the southern ports,” oil ministry spokes-man Assem Jihad said in a statement.

Jihad also said e� orts to remove remnants of decades of war from the Shatt al-Arab waterway in south Iraq, through which the country ships the lion’s share of its exports, had held back overall sales. l

Current Boro season unlikely to face urea de� citn Tribune Business Desk

The current Boro season is unlikely to face supply shortage of urea fertiliser due to its enough stock to meet the demand.

The stock would be 777,777 tonnes at present after supplying 1,436,831 tonnes till January 20 of the current � scal year. At the same period last year, the supply of urea was 1,243,831 tonnes.

Senior o� cials of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) apprised of the supply-stock po-sition of the essential agriculture input at a meeting with Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu at the ministry in Dhaka yesterday, said a press release.

The minister assured BCIC of ensur-ing uninterrupted supply of gas to the fertiliser factories on a priority basis as it is related to national food security.

He, however, asked the o� cials to

take strict administrative measure to prevent misuses and irregularities at the factories under the corporation. The ministry would provide them all out cooperation in this regard.

AMU stressed the need for taking realistic and innovative initiatives to reopen the closed factories of BCIC. He also emphasised on taking e� ective steps to reopen potential factories, in-cluding Dhaka Leather Company Lim-ited.

The minister assured positive deci-sion from his ministry even in case of any proposal like joint-venture with the private sector.

The meeting was told that BCIC would reopen Chittagong Chemical Complex (CCC) at a cost of Tk114 crore in December next. Besides, a feasibili-ty study is being conducted on setting up an energy-e� cient fertiliser factory at Ghorashal. l

Sri Lanka to sack o� cer over ‘false’ GDP data rown AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka’s main statistics o� ce Wednesday said a senior o� cial who de-nounced alleged government pressure to in� ate economic growth data would be sacked after he was found guilty of leaking con� dential information.

Accounts Director HS Wanasinghe faced two separate disciplinary hearings after he complained to the Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB) and an opposition lawmaker that the government was ma-nipulating data.

“We have recommended to the PSC (Public Service Commission) to sack him and it will be done soon,” Census and Statistics chief DCA Gunawardena told reporters in Colombo.

Wanasinghe alleged that he was or-

dered to increase GDP growth rate for the � rst quarter of 2013 to 6% when his calculation showed it was only 5.4%.

Sri Lanka’s main opposition last month read out a statement by Wanas-inghe narrating how he was under in-structions to change national accounts to suit the government, an allegation which the authorities deny. The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency Internation-al (TI) said the senior o� cer should be treated as a “whistle-blower” and be pro-tected instead of being sacked.

“What we see is a systematic ap-proach of a cover up rather than an in-vestigation into what he has revealed,” TI Sri Lanka chairman JC Weliamuna told AFP. “Sacking a senior o� cer for raising this issue is completely unac-ceptable.” l

Of the total IPO, 10% kept for non-resident Bangladeshis, 10% for mutual funds, 20% for the investors a� ected by the late 2010 market crash and 60% for resident Bangladeshis

Rotary Governor distributed blankets to cold a� ected peopleRotary Governor SAM Sawkat Hossain distributed blankets to cold a� ected people of Dhaka and Tongi recently. Rotary Leader Rubayet

Hossain, Khairul Alam, A K Chowdhury, Shohid Iqbal, Kamruzzaman Tipu, Saber Hossain were also present. l

Banks asked to cooperate individuals in BGTBS investmentn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all the scheduled banks and the � nancial insti-tutions to cooperate the individual in-vestors in issuing Bangladesh Govern-ment Treasury Bonds (BGTBS) to meet the growing demand for such bonds at individual level, says a BB circular.

The central bank yesterday issued such a circular in the wake of banks’ overall failure in providing necessary information as well as supports to the individuals, who are now keen to in-vest on the BGTBS.

According to the circular, Individu-als and Institutions resident in Bangla-desh such as banks, non-bank � nan-cial institutions, insurance companies,

bodies corporate, authorities responsi-ble for the management of provident funds, pension funds etc shall be eli-gible to purchase the BGTBS as per the related instruction.

The circular reads-individuals and in-stitutions not resident in Bangladesh shall also be eligible to purchase the

BGTBs, with coupon payments and re-sale/redemption proceeds transferable abroad in foreign exchange, provided that the purchase is made with funds from a non resident foreign currency account with a bank in Bangladesh in the name of purchaser and the BGTB purchased by a non resident may free-ly be resold to a resident in Bangladesh or to another non-resident.

Banks or � nancial institutions hav-ing MI Module account can collect and stored such Treasury Bills/Bonds for the clients in primary auction by open-ing an account named Business Part-ner ID (BP ID). And such bonds can be sold or bought in the secondary market through OTC (over the counter), said the circular. l

Banks or � nancial institutions having MI Module account can collect and stored such Treasury Bills/Bonds for the clients in primary auction by opening an account named Business Partner ID

A farmer casts urea fertilizer in a rice plantation REUTERS

CEOs con� dence in economy risingn Reuters

Business leaders gathering for their annual high-pro� le networking forum in Davos are feeling a bit better about their companies’ prospects and a lot more so about the broader economic outlook.

But they still have a long list of worries.

Half a decade on from a � nancial crisis that brought the world economy to the brink, the immediate threats to corporate pro� ts are receding and chief executives are encouraged by a brightening outlook in both the United States and Europe.

Yet they do not have to look far for future threats - from a worrisome slowdown in emerging markets to uncertainty over the tapering of Federal Reserve stimulus and concerns over increased regulation.

The annual PricewaterhouseCoo-pers (PwC) survey of more than 1,300 CEOs found that 39% were “very con� dent” their company’s revenues would grow in 2014, up from 36% a

year ago.While the trend is encouraging,

the reading is still down on the 50%-plus levels seen in 2007 and 2008, highlighting how the return to growth remains fragile and uncertain.

Signi� cantly, CEOs were more upbeat in assessing the macro-economic outlook than that of their own companies, with 44% now believing the global economy will improve in the next 12 months against

just 18% a year ago.The di� erence re� ects the fact

that economic issues are not the only ones weighing on executives’ minds, according to Dennis Nally, the chairman of PwC International, who

presented the � ndings on the eve of the January 22 to January 25 World Economic Forum.

“Even though there is a higher degree of optimism about the global economy, there are still some pretty big challenges elsewhere to do with the volatility of certain economies, concerns around regulation and shifts in technology,” he said.

In fact, concerns about over-regulation have moved to the top of the agenda in the past year as new rules - many of which have been debated since 2008 - are now being implemented, raising the cost of compliance and taking up management time.

Emerging problemsThe weakness in some emerging markets and uncertainties about where this leaves corporate strategies is a big talking-point for many multinational companies, since it coincides with recovery in the West and signs of progress in Japan’s e� orts to counter years of economic stagnation.

In response, a number of CEOs are turning back to advanced economies for growth, with the United States, Germany and Britain now seen as more promising than previous high-� yers such as India and Brazil.

Nally said the trend was a key “headline” for Davos 2014 - a view shared by other pundits converging on the Swiss ski resort for four days of high-level discussions and networking.

Economies considered “dull and old” like the United States, Britain,  Germany  and Japan will actually turn out to be the new

locomotives of growth in 2014, according to Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS.

The emerging economies, by contrast, are losing steam as a commodities “super-cycle” - which has buoyed the likes of Brazil and Russia - wanes and political uncertainties grow ahead of 2014 elections in Turkey, South Africa, India,  Indonesia  and Brazil.

“Business leaders are generally feeling better about the developed markets and the prospects for the next couple of years but are worried about certain emerging markets, perhaps even to the point of curtailing some investment,” said Barry Salzberg, global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Other issues keeping top managers awake at night include concerns about � scal de� cits, increasing tax burdens, the availability of talent to � ll key jobs, exchange rate volatility and unstable capital markets, the PwC survey found.

The prevailing business mood paints a improving picture for job prospects, with half of CEOs interviewed worldwide expecting to add to sta� in 2014, versus 45% a year ago.

But that modest pick-up in hiring plans may not do much to dent chronic unemployment levels in many countries.

Worldwide unemployment hit nearly 202 million in 2013, an increase of some 5 million compared with a year earlier, according to a report from the International Labour Organization on Tuesday. l

B4 BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, January 23, 2014

Indian coal imports up 21% in 2013 - research firmIndia’s coal imports rose 21% to 152 million tonnes last year as power producers bought more due to low prices and a domestic shortage, research � rm OreTeam said, adding that shipments could rise to 170 million tonnes this year. –Reuters

IBM misses revenue targets again after stumbling in ChinaIBM Corp missed revenue expecta-tions for the fourth consecutive quar-ter as the world’s biggest technology services’ company grappled with weakening demand for its servers and storage equipment, particularly in growth markets like China. –Reuters

Boeing 787 transponder failure causes Air India return to LondonA Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner operat-ed by Air India Ltd this week returned to London due to a communications problem, but has since been oper-ational, the Indian state-run carrier said yesterday.The aircraft’s transponder failed during the � ight on Sunday from Lon-don to New Delhi, Air India spokes-man G P Rao said, adding there was no immediate safety concern. –Reuters

Gold futures fall in line with overseas marketsIndian gold futures fell for a second straight day yesterday in line with overseas markets, and on a � rmer rupee. –Reuters

BOC to lease Airbus jets to new Tata-SIA airline: sourcesSingapore-based BOC Aviation looks poised to supply aircraft to India’s latest airline as new players jostle to capture growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy, two industry sources said. –Reuters

BSE Sensex hits record closing high as drug makers rallyThe BSE Sensex closed at a record high yesterday as drug makers rallied on optimism about their quarterly earnings, although analysts still re-main cautious about how far broader gains can sustain. –Reuters

Japan’s Nikkei edges higher, Tokyo Steel jumpsThe Nikkei stock average eked out modest gains yesterday, with Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co Ltd jumping after a robust earnings report.The Nikkei ended 0.2% higher at 15,820.96 after trading as low as 15,631.41 following a BOJ decision to keep monetary policy steady. A trader said some investors had been hoping that the BOJ might further ease this time. –Reuters

NEWS IN BRIEFCorporate cash may not all � ow back with recoveryn Reuters

When the corporate cash dam bursts, everything will be ok, right? Well, may-be.

Investors betting that the past year of more than 20 percent gains in west-ern stock markets can be echoed, or at least sustained, through 2014 have long assumed that a corporate spend-ing revival will nurture a building eco-nomic recovery.

The argument is simple. Years of banking crises, credit droughts and economic uncertainty have prevented businesses investing for the future. In-stead, they have clipped costs, wages and jobs and built up huge stockpiles of cash rather than investing in new plants, sta� , updated technology, equipment or acquisitions.

As the economic fog lifts, this idle, near zero-yielding cash will surely be put back to work eventually, they argue, creating a potentially virtuous circle of greater demand, higher growth, earnings and employment all round.

The problem, however, is that as-sumes cash stockpiling has all been due simply to a hiatus in the economic cycle. Many argue the hoarding is in-stead driven by more durable demo-graphic trends and political reforms

that are stirring corporate anxiety about exposure to soaring pension and healthcare costs as workforces age and government co� ers shrink.

If that's true, then this brewing eco-nomic recovery may not release pent-up business cash on any scale close to that suggested by the eye-popping cashpiles.

According to Thomson Reuters data, companies around the world held almost $7tn of cash and equivalents on their balance sheets at the end of 2013 - more than twice the level of 10 years ago. Capital expenditure relative to sales is at a 22-year low and some strategists reckon the typical age of � xed assets and equipment has been stretched to as much as 14 years from pre-crisis norms of about 9 years.

To be sure, some of this money has been eked back to shareholders via buybacks and dividends over the past year or so and there was also a small � urry of mergers and acquisitions late last year. But M&A as a share of mar-ket capitalization remains lower than it was in 2002, JPMorgan data shows, and share buybacks are also below his-torical averages.

The extremity of the cash bias re-mains.

According to this week's monthly fund manager survey by Bank of

America Merrill Lynch, a record number of investors think companies are under-investing and some 58 of respondents want � rms to deploy their cash on capital expenditure.

Standard Life Investments chief executive Keith Skeoch said this week that the extent to which � rms put cash balances to work was key to the pace of recovery this year. "Without this, fears of the secular slowdown will persist."

"Whether corporate cash is put to work or not, however, is not just a question of economics. Politics remains just as important," Skeoch added. "We are still a long way from a strong socio-political consensus that might see animal spirits driving a world-wide investment boom."

Unhealthy balancesPolitical reforms can take on many shapes and sizes, of course - those a� ecting systemic stability or short-term taxation. But changes to companies' long-term � nancial exposure to the claims of their own employees are pretty fundamental.

The annual 'Global Risks 2014' re-port prepared for the World Economic Forum by consultant Oliver Wyman - a report based on 700 industry leaders - cited corporate exposure to "skyrock-eting" healthcare costs and "buckling"

domestic healthcare systems as a key threat over the years ahead.

And the theme of corporate uncertainty about future liabilities and growing insensitivity to the economic cycle is spotlighted in a recent US Federal Reserve Board working paper by sta� economists Steve Sharpe and Gustavo Suarez.

Examining quarterly Duke University survey responses from some 550 chief � nancial o� cers over the past two years, the paper said companies are far less sensitive to interest rate changes than investment theory suggests and CFOs cite ample cash and historically low rates among the reasons for that.

Less than a third of � rms said moves of up to 200 basis points in key borrowing rates up or down would a� ect their investment plans at all.

So what would get companies to hoard or invest these days? The two most commonly chosen drivers in the survey cited in the paper were "ability to maintain margins" and the "cost of health care."

There's little doubt a sustained recovery and greater earnings visibility could encourage some investment of the cashpiles. But it's clearly not all about the cycle and temporary corporate caution. l

US one-hundred dollar bills are seen in this photo illustration at a bank in Seoul REUTERS

A Swiss special policeman patrols on a roof before the start of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014 in Davos REUTERS

Bharti Airtel to sell Bangladesh tower assets?n Tribune Report

Bharti Airtel has put the company’s Bangladesh tower assets on its divestiture list as it seeks to raise more than $2bn from selling its infra networks.

The world’s fourth largest mobile telephony � rm is planning the move to bolster its cash reserves, said people directly aware of the matter.

According to them, the � rm has already received o� ers from potential acquirers to sell its tower networks in Africa and Bangladesh in separate deals, reports Times of India.

However, a spokesperson of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd here in Dhaka declined to make any comment on the matter.

When contacted yesterday, he said: “According to the company policy, we do not comment on any speculation related with market.”

The mobile operator expects at least $200m from divesting its towers in Airtel Bangladesh, said sources who did not wish to be named since talks are private.

Bharti Airtel took full control of its mobile service operations in Bangladesh last year, buying out a 30% stake held by Warid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Group.

The Delhi-headquartered telco has about 6.7m subscribers in Bangladesh.

Sources said the US and Middle Eastern tower management companies — in some cases backed by � nancial investors — have bid for both the Bangladesh and African assets.

Bharti is possibly bolstering its war chest for the impending spectrum auction and may be looking at inorganic growth on its home turf as a new-look telecom M&A regime kicks in, the report said.

The latest fundraising move coincides with India’s upcoming spectrum auction, where Airtel will be pitched against the cash-rich Vodafone and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio to renew its airwaves in the 900MHz band.

Sectoral analysts said the sale of tower assets could be an independent move, and possibly aimed at securing the company’s balance sheet carrying a $9.3-billion debt, mainly emanating from the acquisition of Kuwaiti telecom giant Zain’s African unit four years ago. l

Even though there is a higher degree of optimism about the global economy, there are still some pretty big challenges elsewhere to do with the volatility of certain economies, concerns around regulation and shifts in technology

According to the company policy, we do not comment on any speculation related with market