Joishthya 15, 1421

Rajab 29, 1435

Regd. No. DA 6238
Vol 2, No 59

US troops in Afghanistan

American forces will complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by end 2016,
says President Barack Obama

Soldiers
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION killed

20 pages | Price: Tk10

499

418

317

5 | CNG AUTO-RICKSHAW STRIKE POSTPONED

7 | PUNISHMENT FAILS, REHAB WORKS

Nizam wanted to
teach Ekram a
good lesson
er of Ekram and plaintiff of the murder case, told the Dhaka Tribune that
Ekram was Nizams aide and they used
to deal almost all political issues together in the district.
Asked if he suspected Nizam, Jashim
evaded the question, saying: As they
used to do politics together and contacted each other very often, it is very
natural they were obviously aware of
each others good and bad aspects.
On May 20, a group of assailants waylaid Ekram on the Academy Road of Fulgazi in broad daylight and killed him.
Investigation also pretty clearly suggest that Nizam was aware of the incident beforehand.
Abid, one of the prime accused in the
case, in his confessional statement to
the court said: soon after the murder
he contacted Nizam and district Awami
League Joint Secretary Jahangir Adel
over mobile phone about the incident.
A source in the district unit of the
ruling party said Abid had given the
statement to the court as had been suggested by Nizam. Abids mother and
district Mohila Awami League Secretary Layla Jesmin Boromoni met Nizam
at his Masterpara residence for a couple
of times.

With more days passing, the question

about Awami League lawmaker Nizam
Uddin Hazaris involvement in the
gruesome murder of Fulgazi upazila
chairman Ekramul Haque is coming to
the fore.
For the past seven days the whole
Feni town has been gossiping about
Nizams role in the plot to kill Ekram.
About a month back from the day of
murder, Nizam, also the district Awami
League general secretary, had told some
of his associates that Ekram deserved
slapping for his arrogant behaviour.
Talking to this correspondent, Forkan Chowdhury, treasurer of the district Awami League, said: Nizam bhai
was not involved in the murder but it
might have been in his knowledge that
Ekram would be assaulted for his insolent attitudes.
The lawmaker told us that he
would teach Ekram a good lesson to
keep a tight rein on him.
Even family members of slain Fulgazi chairman Ekram dropped quite a few
hints about Nizams involvement in the
macabre incident.
Rezaul Haque Jashim, elder broth-

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

15 | KKR STORM INTO IPL FINAL

155

49

99
52

48

21

FLY TO TAKE THE FLYOVER

Deployment history
2001

2002

2003

Thousands
100

98

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

August

2012

2013

2014

NATO assumes
leadership of
ISAF operations

First round in
presidential vote

December

US-led military
campaign
begins with air
strikes in
Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama

orders troops surge

60

October
40

2011

April 5, 2014

Oct 2001

80

2010

November

Karzai becomes
first democraticallyelected president

December

May
32,000

Karzai starts second

term as president

Hamid Karzai
becomes
20 interim leader
of Afghanistan

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Source : iCasualties/BrookingsAfghanistanIndex

A free flyover does not mean free access for those travelling on the airport road in the capital. Vehicles, mostly buses, that should travel along the left lane block the way of those who
want to take the Mohakhali flyover
SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

BB chief economist contradicts growth projection

n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Hassan Zaman yesterday said the country
may achieve maximum 6.5% growth in
the next fiscal year.
My personal view is that the
next year the best we can aspire to
6.5% growth, he said at a dialogue organised by Policy Research Institute in
the city.

He was critical of the projected

growth of the government and found it
unrealistic.
I would argue that actually it
[growth target] is not all that realistic
in next two to three years. I think to
get about 7% growth, we need DhakaChittagong highway to become fourlane, we need Padma Bridge to be built
and we need stronger financial sector,
he said.

These are needed to have 7%

growth on a sustainable basis, he said.
About the role of PRI, he questioned
why the institute did not suggest a realistic growth target while giving the
government advice.
The PRI was helping the planning
commission set the growth target.
Those who work on a future plan,
PRI or who are advising the government on the future plan that you do a

proper growth diagnostic and realistic about what target you set because
those targets will feed into the budget,
those targets will reflect revenue projections and those revenue projections
then affect expenditure, he said.
The growth target was 7.2% for the
last fiscal year, but the actual achievement was 6.0%.
Hassan said the US consumers paid
PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Khaleda: No mercy for Awami League ACC threatens TIB

EKRAM MURDER

Drives launched to
arrest 20 suspects n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
from Munshiganj
n Mohammad Jamil Khan from Feni Issuing a note of warning to the gov-

ernment, BNP Chairperson Khaleda

Zia yesterday said the ruling Awami
League would get no mercy for its
misdeeds and the crimes committed under its rule.
Khaleda reiterated that the BNP
would dissolve the crime-busting unit,
RAB and said if her party came to power, it would form another force instead
of RAB in consultation with all.
There is mercy for normal crimes,
but there is no mercy for the severe
crimes that you (Awami League) are
committing, she said.
You (Awami League) were not in
the office for 21 years, and this time you
will not be in the office for 42 years,
Khaleda told a rally at Munshiganj
Launch Ghat, held in protest against
the killings and abductions across the
country.
The BNP chief added that the people

Law enforcement agencies have

launched special joint drives to apprehend 20 more suspects of the Ekramul
Haque murder case who continue to
dodge arrest.
Investigators from Feni police, along
with Rapid Action Battalion and the
Detective Branch of police, are looking
for several district-level Awami League
leaders including district unit Joint
Secretary Jahangir Mohammad Adel,
local Jubo League leader Ziaul Alam
Mister, and a close associate of the slain
Fulgazi upazila chairman.
Although investigators declined
to officially comment on the name of
Ekrams associate, the Dhaka Tribune
has learnt from a source close to the
investigation team that the suspect is
Ekrams bodyguard Belal Hossain, who
did not attend his duty on the day of
PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

of the country had shed tears so far and

now it was the Awami Leagues turn to
shed floods of tears.
She said there would be no escape
route for the ruling party to flee by
when the people would take to the
streets in protest against the governments misrule.
We do not want to see any more
bloodshed and tears. Step down immediately and hold elections under a
non-partisan government, she said.
The BNP chief urged the country-

INSIDE
B1 | Business

8 | World

4 | News

9 Thailands junta yesterday freed leaders of

the Red Shirt movement allied to the ousted
government, as social media users reacted with
alarm to rumours of a block of Facebook.

Tax holiday for Information and Communication

Technology sector would continue in the
upcoming national budget for the fiscal 201415, aimed at achieving the target of Digital
Bangladesh by 2021.

The prevalence of tobacco use is increasing

among young people in Southeast Asia,
with nearly 15% of students aged 13-15
years using some form of tobacco in the
region.

6 | Nation

Spells of norwester
have killed three
people, injured about
50 and also destroyed
more than 400
houses in different districts across the country
yesterday.

7 | Juris

8 | US TO LEAVE AFGHANISTANBY 2016

127
117

US soldiers on patrol
in Logar province,
Oct 2012

12

Local MP talked over phone with

killers before and after the murder
n Mohammad Jamil Khan with Our
Correspondent from Feni

310

No one is born a
criminal. Criminals are
products of the social,
economic and environmental conditions. It is
believed that if the criminals are educated and
trained, they can be made competent to behave
well in the society.

The British media maintained a blackout yesterday on a photograph showing the bare bottom
of Prince Williams wife Kate, despite the picture
being used in other countries.

11 | Op-Ed

The indisputable fact

that any keen observer
of the Bangladeshi
scene will establish, is
that the big story in Bangladesh over the last 10
years is the irreversible emergence of a robust
middle class.

12 | Entertainment

Tarkanta, a much anticipated film featuring

three leading stars Moushumi, Arefin Shuvo and
Bidya Sinha Mim, will hit the theatres on June 6.

15 | Sport

Brazilian police fired

tear gas Tuesday on
indigenous chiefs who
joined forces with
anti-World Cup demonstrators to condemn the
money spent on the tournament.

men to arise and to not let any more

bloodshed happen.
Ousting the government from the
office, we will bring back democracy
and the rule of law to the country, she
vowed.
Munshiganj district unit BNP organised the rally that witnessed the convergence of thousands of party leaders
and activists from across the area.
The BNP chairperson repeated that
Sheikh Hasina had to be held accountable for the Narayanganj killings.
The BNP chief alleged that RAB
killed 11 people including four boatmen, because they were paid money by
ruling party men.
The BNP leader demanded maximum punishment for the RAB officials
allegedly responsible for the Narayanganj killings.
Regarding labour leader Aminuls
murder, Khaleda alleged that the elite
force killed Aminul and his body was
found three days after he went missing.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

n Tribune Report
The
Anti-Corruption
Commission
slammed the anti-graft watchdog
Transparency International Bangladesh yesterday for examining its financial transactions.
The Transparency International
Bangladesh [TIB] collects funds from
abroad to conduct its regular activities.
But what do they do with the money?
ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin
questioned.
We are well aware of their transactions and the commission will certainly
look into the matter, he threatened.
The commissioner made the statement while addressing an award-giving
ceremony of the ACC at the Bangladesh
Shilpakala Academy in the capitals
Shegunbagicha.
Questioning the accuracy of the researches carried out by the TIB, he said
it publishes so-called research reports
by collecting money from abroad and

sitting in air-conditioned rooms.

Where is the transparency of their
work? Shahabuddin questioned.
He also said the commission was
working independently in response to
the TIBs claim that the ACC was politically motivated.
We have sent many corrupt people, including the high officials of multi-level marketing companies, to jail.
Why do not you praise our good work?
he said.
Shahabuddin said the commission
was also probing allegations against the
government officials as the ruling party
leaders wanted to curb corruption.
ACC Chairman M Badiuzzaman,
Commissioner Nasiruddin Ahmed,
private television channel Channel I
Director and Head of News Shykh Seraj
also spoke at the programme.
A recent report published by the TIB
said the Anti-Corruption Commission
was largely ineffective in investigating
PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Selim Osman secures JaPa

ticket for Nganj by-poll
n Manik Miazee
Jatiya Party has nominated Selim Osman, elder brother of Awami League
lawmaker Shamim Osman, for the
Narayanganj 5 by-poll to be held on
June 26.
The decision came from JaPas Parliamentary Board meeting held at its
Banani office yesterday with its Chairman HM Ershad in the chair.
Meanwhile, Selim, former president
of the Narayanganj Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, collected
nomination papers from the district
election office.
JaPa Secretary General Ziauddin
Ahmed Bablu said: The parliamentary
board and Chairman HM Ershad have decided to nominate Selim Osman from the
party for the Narayanganj 5 by-election.
Meeting sources said Rawshan,
senior presidium member of JaPa and
also opposition leader in parliament,
proposed the name of her political secretary Golam Mochi for the seat while

Ershad favoured Selim. As a result both

leaders had a brawl centring the matter.
I have decided to give the party
ticket to Selim, Ershad said.
In response, Rawshan said: If you
have decided to give the ticket to him,
then why have you called the meeting?
Later, Rawshan added: Who is
Selim Osman? He is not our party man.
Mochi is a party leader and he has sacrificed for the party. So you should nominate him.
Turning down her claim, Ershad
said: Mochi left the party and joined
another party.
Another board member, Delwar,
said: The party should nominate
those who withdrew their nomination
papers following the party order on the
January 5 election.
Rawshan replied: Who told you to
withdraw the nomination paper?
Later, Rawshan left the meeting asking Ershad to announce Golam Mochis
name as the JaPa candidate.
The board decided to announce

Golam Mochis name when the

Narayanganj city unit leaders entered
the room and threatened the board
that they would resign unless Mochi
was given the ticket. However, party
Secretary General Ziauddin Ahmed
Bablu announced Selim Osman as the
candidate.
When contacted, Mochi said: The
board finalised my name as the candidate, but I do not know what has happened in just 15 minutes that the secretary general announced Selim as the
party candidate.
However, the ruling Awami League
decided not to nominate any candidate
for the seat from the party.
The Narayanganj 5 constituency fell
vacant following the death of Jatiya Party lawmaker Nasim Osman on April 30.
So far, 10 candidates bought
nomination papers to vie in the bypoll including late Nasim Osmans
wife Parvin Osman and Opposition
Leader Rawshans Political Secretary
Golam Mochi. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is touched, seeing the signature of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, her father, on the visitors' book
at Japan's National Press Club. The PM visited the press club yesterday
DHAKA TRIBUNE

MRP difficulties resolved PMs adviser favours using forex

n Rabiul Islam

The setback in issuing machine readable passports (MRPs) to Bangladeshi

nationals from Malaysia and some other regional passport offices within the
country has been resolved.
Differences between Dataedge
and IRIS, a Malaysian firm, have been
narrowed down and the next course
of action will begin now, Additional
Secretary (security and passport) of the
Home Ministry Md Shafiqul Islam told
the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Both the parties have agreed to team
up and work together, he said.
Sources said the crisis came to an
end at a meeting at the Home Ministry on Monday, with State Minister for
Home Asaduzzaman Khan in the chair.
Dataedge and IRIS reached a consensus and agreed that they would complete the integration within 10 days,
Director of MRP & MRV (Machine Readable Visa) Project at the Department
of Immigration & Passports Brig Gen
Masud Rezwan told the Dhaka Tribune.
In order to issue MRPs, Dataedge
has to be integrated with the central
system of IRIS.
We reached an amicable settlement, Dataedge Director Noor A Alam
Chowdhury said. He said the task of
issuing MRPs will begin today at Shah

Alam in Malaysia.
Preferring anonymity, an IRIS official
also said the problem had been resolved.
IRIS has been providing Bangladesh
with software solutions for passports
since the first MRP project was taken
on in 2010. It set up its central system
at the Department of Immigration and
Passports in the capitals Agargaon.
The Malaysia project is a pilot one
and upon successful completion, the
government plans to implement similar
projects in countries with migrant Bangladeshi workers. The Malaysia project
faced a setback at the outset as it could
not be started within the specified time.
The Malaysia project was contracted out to Dataedge on February 12 this
year on the condition that it would
begin issuing MRPs within a month
and the whole project would be implemented in 18 months.
It has, however, been almost four
months and Dataedge has yet to even
start the work. It was also assigned to
issue MRPs from 33 regional passport
offices but no progress has been made
so far in this regard either.
Earlier, the Dataedge director alleged that IRIS was not cooperating accordingly. IRIS Senior Manager Bahjat
Aman, however, denied the allegation
and said: We provided all the necessary support to Dataedge. l

reserve in Padma bridge

n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Prime Ministers Economic Adviser
Mashiur Rahman said the government
has enough strength to borrow foreign
currency from the central bank to carry
out quasi-fiscal operation like implementation of Padma Bridge project.
The basic question is if you have a
saving in terms of foreign currency reserve, can you use it without exposing
yourself to a shock that you can absorb
in terms of foreign currency requirement. I guess right now, we have that
kind of strength, he said at a dialogue
organised by Policy Research Institute
in the city yesterday.
Currently, Bangladesh Bank has
about $20bn foreign exchange reserve
and the government is planning to borrow a portion of it to finance Padma
Bridge project.
But the government drew criticism
from experts that forex reserve is not
meant for infrastructure project rather
it is meant meeting import payments
and providing a cushion for balance of
payment.
The adviser, however, said there was
a big debate between a former Reserve

NARAYANGANJ SEVEN MURDER CASE

Four days remand against Moshiur

n Our Correspondent, Narayanganj

A Narayanganj court granted four days

remand against Moshiur Rahman, 40,
yesterday for allegedly helping Nur
Hoosain, the key accused in the seven
murder case in Narayanganj, to escape
to India.
Senior
Judicial
Magistrate
Monowara Begum passed the order after police presented Moshiur before her
court, seeking five days remand.
Police said Moshiur was arrested in
Jessores Sharsha upazila on Tuesday,

acting on information given by another

arrestee of the case, Kamal Hossain.
Kamal was arrested from Sharsha
upazila on May 15 for the same allegation as Moshiur.
However, on his way to the court in
Narayanganj, Moshiur claimed to reporters that he was arrested in Dhaka
on Tuesday.
Moshiur also told reporters that he
had been supplying phensidyl to Nur
Hossain and claimed that he had had
no contact with Nur Hossain for the
past one year.

When asked about the contradiction

regarding the place of arrest, Narayanganj District Intelligence Officer no 1
Mainur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that he had no idea why the arrested had made such a claim.
Meanwhile, Narayanganj District
Bar Association President Shakhawat
Hossain told reporters that during yesterdays hearing, Moshiur had accused
Kamal of helping Nur Hossain to escape
to India, adding that Nur Hossain had
been sheltered at Kamals residence for
two days before fleeing to India. l

Bank of India governor and a chairman

of Indian Planning Commission who
argued that forex reserve should be
used for infrastructure development
and the RBI chief opposed it.
Later on, Indian central bank governor proved to be right, Mashiur said.
He said infrastructure, utility, power,
energy, connectivity and land scarcity
are serious constraints which are holding back investment from private sector.
These are the constraints to be addressed by the government, he added.
The adviser said the opposition parties should go by the constitution and
the court verdict which stipulated that
the government must be formed by
elected members.
One of the major rhetorical differences between the BNP and the Awami
League is who is more Islamic. The BNP
claiming to be more Islamic may carry
this message that you do not perform
even a religious duty if that disturbs
peace in society, he added.
Former adviser to the caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam said there
is a need for political stability for future
growth. Political understanding is
needed otherwise all the achievements

we have earned will be meaningless,

he said.
BNP leader and former commerce
minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said private sector has taken a
policy of wait and see.
There is a lack of democracy in
the country and an autocrat is talking
about development, mega projects and
other things.
Women entrepreneur Selina Matlub
said corruption and access to finance
are two big problems the private sector
is facing.
Former Bangladesh Bank governor
Salehuddin Ahmed said financial sector
management is very poor in the country.
Managing Director of Standard
Chartered Bangladesh Abrar A Anwar
said policy continuity, scarce land and
infrastructure are three major hindrances to private sector investment.
Ahsan Mansur of PRI in his presentation said political stability and rule
of law are critical to business.
The government should give special
attention to attract more foreign direct
investment and broaden export base by
correcting policies leading to anti-export biases, he said. l

BB chief economist contradicts

PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

about $800-$900 million for importing

apparel from Bangladesh.
If tariff is removed, it would help
create half a million job in the country and it would have more impact on
Bangladesh than by providing $200
million aid from the USA, he said.
He suggested that if tariff is not
removed, out of the total amount, a
portion of it should be channelled to
Bangladesh and other countries for
the improvement of factories as the US
is voicing concern over insecurity in
workplaces.
USAID Chief Economist Stephen O

Connell said it was a creative suggestion.

The recent WTO agreements have
committed the industrialised countries
to ramp up their trade facilitation process and it seems to me that if we, the
industrialised countries, cannot get it
together to fulfil the commitments, it
will be a shame, he said.
It seems to me that they are
long-waited and substantial and I am
hoping that USAID, other parts of the
US government and the government
of Bangladesh will be able to engage
productively in wrapping that up, he
added. l

Drives launched to arrest 20 suspects

ACC threatens TIB

PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

the incident and had reportedly updated the killers about Ekrams location.
Investigators have also found that a
senior AL leader of Feni was involved
in the murder, said the source, who is a
top official of Feni police.
When asked about the latest drives,
Rashedul Islam, officer-in-charge of
DB police in Feni, said raids were being
carried out in different areas of the district based on information collected by
the investigators.
Meanwhile, Feni police arrested

one more accused, Jubo League leader

Bappi, from the districts Daganbhuiyan upazila yesterday.
Abul Kalam Azad, inspector of Feni
Model police station and investigation
officer of the case, said they were using
information provided by the arrested
during remand to try and recover the
weapons used in the murder.
Investigators said they have learnt
that two suspects Sohel and Shahabuddin have hidden some of the
murder weapons. On the other hand,
the prime accused of the case BNP

leader Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Minar was placed on a seven-day remand yesterday. Senior Magistrate
Mohammad Khairul Amin passed the
order after IO Azad placed Minar before
the court seeking a 10-day remand.
The court also granted a five-day
remand against AL leader Abdur Rauf
and Sojib, after the investigation officer sought a seven-day remand.
So far, 20 people have been arrested
in connection with the murder of Ekram
who was shot and burnt alive by a
group of armed assailants on May 20. l

Nizam wanted to teach Ekram a good lesson

PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

According to Nizams suggestion Abid

gave the statement just a day after he
was taken on an eight-day police remand. Not only that rumour is also rife
that Councillor Shiblu surrendered to
police on Nizams instruction after the
former met the latter at his residence
soon after the media ran a report on
Shiblus involvement in the murder.
Moreover, investigators too found
evidence of Nizams complicity from
his phone record. Nizam contacted the
killers over his cell phone several times
before and after the killing.
According to investigators, Nizam
contacted Councillor Abdullah Mahmud
Shiblu, District Awami League Joint Secre-

tary Jahangir Kabir Adel and Jubo League

Leader Jiaul Alam Mister just a day before
and on the day of killing. Jihad Chowdury,
the main planner of the killing also talked
to Nizam over phone to ask for his help.
The investigators also came to know
from the interrogation of suspected killers that Jihad persuaded Abid, Shiblu
and others into the murder by assuring
them of the help of Boro Bhai (Nizam).
Sources in the Awami League said
although Nizam and Ekram had been
on good terms the relation began to get
soured last year soon after Ekram took
control of the diabetic hospital of Feni.
It even turned for the worse when
Ekram announced to run in the national election from Feni-1 challenging the

Nizams authority in the district.

Contacted, Nizam Uddin Hazari,
lawmaker from the Feni-2 constituency,
yesterday once again denied his complicity in the murder. If anyone can
prove it police should arrest me too.
Asked about his conversation with
the identified killers over cell phone
Nizam said: I am the secretary of the
district Awami League and involved in
politics of Feni. Other people too made
phone calls to me on that day and talking to someone over phone does not
mean and prove that I was involved.
Paritosh Gosh, superintended of Police of Feni, said they had had some vital
information on the murder. No one involved in the murder will be spared. l

and preventing corruption in Bangladesh. The report said: While the ACC
act clearly states that corruption shall be
the subject matter of investigation by the
commission alone, actual cases are rare.
During 2012, the commission submitted charge sheets in 588 cases but
only around 57 cases resulted in successful prosecutions in that year, the

report said adding that the cases which

are brought forward are often political
in nature.
The report said in 2009, the government set up a committee to investigate politically motivated cases filed
against politicians and others and by
March 2011, the committee had withdrawn 4,687 cases, most of which involved members of the ruling party. l

Muhith for allocating

20% power to
consumers during
peak hours

n Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith directed

the state minister for power yesterday
to set a target for allocating at least 20%
of total power generation to general
consumers during peak hours.
You [state minister] set a target, by
which time you should supply 20% of
installed capacity, since people have
become angry because we have the
capacity to produce 10,000MW but we
cannot produce 7,000MW, Muhith told
State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid.
Muhith came up with the directive at
a meeting at his Secretariat office.
Admitting that electricity generation was yet to reach the installed capacity, Muhith added that the power
projects had failed to reach the development target which was expected by
the government.
Not more than 70% of the installed
power generation capacity was actually being produced, while general power
consumers cannot get more than 18%
of the total production because of system loss, the minister added.
Currently, Bangladesh produces
around 6,800MW of electricity. l

State minister:
Both AL, BNP
involved in
Ekram murder
n Rabiul Islam
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan said both the Awami League
and BNP were involved in the killing of
Ekramul Haque, chairman of Fulgazi
upazila in Feni.
The feud between the different vested quarters led to the killing, the junior
minister pointed out.
No matter which party they belong
to, they will be arrested and brought
to book, the state minister said while
talking to journalists at his office at the
Secretariat yesterday.
Ekram, also president of Fulgazi
Awami League unit, was shot and burnt
alive on May 20.
Asaduzzaman said the criminals had
no party. For their own interest they pretended to become affiliated with a party
to serve their purpose. None involved
in the murder will be spared, he said. l

Khaleda: No mercy for Awami League

PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

We never used RAB for political purposes. We arrested militant Bangla Bhai
and Abdur Rahman alive and the forces
did not shoot at them.
Khaleda also demanded the release
of Mahtabuddin Minar, a Feni BNP
leader who was held in connection
with the killing of Phulgazi chairman
Ekramul Haque in Feni.
Terming the country a death valley,
Khaleda Zia said: I cannot say that I
am safe. People cannot say they are
safe. As long as the Awami League remains in the office, none can say they
are safe.
People have fallen victims to killings, abductions and forced disappearances since the ruling Awami League
assumed office this time.
The Awami League possesses
two qualities killing and abduction.

It is nothing new for them. After

the independence of the country,
it did the same thing, forming different
forces.
Reiterating
the
demand
for
elections under a non-partisan interim
government, Khaleda said, We have
said we would not take part in election
under the Awami League government
as election would not be held free and
fair under its rule.
The ruling party shuddered at the
thought of peoples campaign against
it and so it debarred the BNP from
holding rally, said the BNP chairperson.
Referring to Sheikh Hasinas letter
to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, Khaleda said: Modi was elected
through vote, but Sheikh Hasina was
not elected in that manner.
The BNP chief alleged that the Awami League had been conspiring to erase

Ziaur Rahmans role in Bangladeshs

independence from the countrys history.
I remember Abdul Hamid Khan
Bhasani. We named Novo Theater after
Bhasanis name. Bhasani was a great
patriot, but his name was also erased
from the history, she stated.
Slamming the Anti-Corruption Commission, Khaleda said: We formed the
ACC as an independent body, but now
it is under the prime minister.
About the repeated price hike in
electricity and gas, the BNP chief maintained that the commoners were bearing the brunt of it while the quick rental businessmen were cashing in on the
situation.
Mushignaj district unit BNP President Abdul Hai chaired the programme
which was addressed by senior leaders
of the party, among others. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Thursday, May 29, 2014

JS body opposes
subsidies to TCB
n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

In contrast to the government policy of

strengthening the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the
parliamentary watchdog on commerce
yesterday opposed providing subsidies
for years, terming it a bleeding of the
economy.
According to its election manifesto
for the ninth parliamentary polls, the
Awami League government had granted over Tk272 crore as subsidy to what
they say keep the price level of essentials down.

How long should the

subsidy continue? The
products marketed
by TCB are worst
standards; these are,
in most cases, edible.
This bleeding of the
economy must stop
The parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry strongly
opposed the TCB chairmans proposal for increasing its paid-up capital to
Tk1,000 crore from the existing Tk5
crore, asking the corporation to come
up with an idea that could stop the
subsidy from the public exchequer.
The 10-member watchdog, with its
chairman Ali Ashraf chairing, rejected
the ministrys offer of overseas trips for
the committee members to take part in
the trade fairs and recommended that
the Export Promotion Bureau prepare
a report on the outcomes of the overseas trade fairs costing public money.
How long should the subsidy continue? The products marketed by TCB
are worst standards; these are, in most
cases, edible. This bleeding of the
economy must stop, Ali Ashraf told
the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at
the parliament building.

The TCB chairman sought Tk1,000

crore as paid-up capital, but the committee rejected, said Ali Ashraf.
Given the context of globalisation,
the World Trade Organisation and the
free market economy, can the state do
business now? The state should only
facilitate and monitor the situation,
he said. The idea of business by the
state no longer exists.
The working paper presented in
the meeting reads that the Commerce
Ministry had put forward a proposal to
the Finance Ministry to create an interest-free current capital of Tk200 crore
for TCB aimed at reducing the amount
of subsidy.
Monjurul Islam Liton, the Awami
League MP from Sundarganj of Gaibandha, told the meeting that TCB
could not play its due role as expected.
TCB must perform better, he told the
Dhaka Tribune.
TCB has 12 warehouses in 10 districts with the capacity of 41,77 metric
tonnes. Of the total, eight rented warehouses have the capacity of 32,207
metric tonnes.
The corporation plans to increase
the capacity to 128,184 metric tonnes.
It had already started constructing four
more warehouses in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Rangpur divisions
each having the capacity of minimum
4,000 metric tonnes.
According to its development plan,
TCB is set to open regional offices
in Mymensingh, Bogra, Comilla and
Faridpur.
Before the start of the meeting, one
of the committee members requested
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to
sponsor the MPs overseas tour. The
minister then told the meeting that
the MPs could attend the trade fairs arranged by EPB.
This is not a necessity for the MPs
to go on foreign trips, said Prof Ali
Ashraf, adding that EPB should give
the watchdog a report on the gains of
the trade fairs as huge amount of money was spent for such purposes. l

Relatives of Mehedi Hasan, a class five student of Gazipurs Boromi area who was murdered, cry during a human chain organised by a human rights body in front of the National Press
Club yesterday, protesting the killing
DHAKA TRIBUNE

16 Prime Bank officials among 38 to be charged

n Tribune Report

The Anti-Corruption Commission will

soon press charges against 38 people,
including 16 officials from Prime Bank
Limited, on a charge of embezzling
around Tk96 crore from the bank.
A regular meeting of the commission approved the charge sheet
yesterday after an ACC investigation
had found that the bank officials, in
league with the others, had embezzled
Tk95.70 crore from several branches of
the bank between 2002 and 2012.
The accused bank officials include

former manager of Dilkusha Branch

Izbahul Bar Chowdhury, former
vice-president Mohammad Aminul Islam, former executive officer Kamrul
Ahmed, suspended vice-president of
the head office branch HM Zakir Hossain, and first assistant vice-presidents
Motaher Hossain and Mohammad Nasir Uddin Bali.
The other accused include owner of
New SK Enterprise Sazedur Rahman,
KS enterprise owner M Shahadat Islam,
SK Enterprise owner Mahmudul Islam,
SL Enterprise owner Kawser Ali, Tri
Tech 69 owner Tasnim Alam, Branch

Solutions directors Zahidul Islam and

Amirul Islam, Bangladesh Water Development Board official Abul Hashem
and Sub Valley Securities Limited Managing Director Mahbub-E-Elahi.
ACC officials said the accused
would be charged as the officials, in
league with each other, embezzled the
money by misusing passwords. During
2002 to 2012, Dilkusha branch former
executive officer Kamrul Ahmed misused his and other officials passwords,
and embezzled the money using the IT
system.
On March 2012, the Prime Bank had

initially filed a case against Kamrul for

embezzling Tk48.78 crore. Later the
ACC conducted an investigation into
the matter and found 38 people were
responsible for the irregularities.
The ACC meeting yesterday also
recommended departmental action
against 15 Prime Bank officials including its Senior Vice-President M Baki
Billah, suspended senior executive
vice-president Khandker Iqbal Hossain, Senior Assistant Vice-President
M Shafiquzzaman Bhuiyan and Assistant Vice-President Shah Mohammad
Mohsin. l

Imran bashes Babunagari for anti-religious remark Prosecutor stays away

n
during contempt case
Tribune Report

Gonojagoron Moncho spokesperson

Imran H Sarker protested the derogatory remarks of Hefazat-e-Islam Secretary General Junaid Babunagari yesterday, terming it an attempt to create
disorder in the country.
Babunagari called me an atheist
to gain political interests. But he actually has no right to give religious certification. I think Babunagari is trying
to create countrywide disorder in the
name of Islam, Imran said while briefing reporters at a park in the capitals
Farmgate area.
At a programme in Bogra on Tuesday, Babunagari termed Imran the
only atheist of the country. He also

said they would stay on the street until

Imran was buried.
Terming the Hefazat leaders comment anti-religious, Imran said the
Hefazat had been trying to capitalise
on the religious sentiment of the mass
people against the platform that raised
a mass movement last year to ensure
the death penalty for all war criminals
and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and its
student body the Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Imran alleged that there had been a
conspiracy to foil the war crimes trials
with a view to save Jamaat.
Babunagaris threat implies that
a strong group is hatching a conspiracy against the trial of war criminals.
This threat and conspiracy can create
a possibility of compromise behind the

screen, he said.
Imran said the Shahbagh-based
platform had become a major concern
for a quarter who were trying to reach
a compromise over the war crimes
trials. The sluggish trial process and a
part of the governments soft corner
for Jamaat and its financial institutions
made it obvious.
This is why many a scoundrels are
now working together against Gonojagoron Moncho, he said.
In reply to a query, Imran said creating division among the Moncho activists was a part of the conspiracy.
He also asked the government to
handle those who wanted to create anarchy with an iron fist.
Criticising the government for its re-

luctance to deal with the Hefazat issue,

he demanded that the cases related
to last years mayhem in the capitals
Motijheel and Paltan area on May 5 be
transferred to the Speedy Trial Tribunal for quick disposal.
Imran said they were not afraid of
threats made by Hefazat as many of
the Moncho activists had sacrificed
their lives to reach the target.
The briefing was called before commencing the platforms door-to-door
programme to create awareness in favour of the ongoing war crimes trials.
It will continue until June 26. After
the briefing, Imran and his associates
took part in distributing booklets in
Farmgate area to make people aware
about the war crimes trials. l

Two DU students
suspended for
abducting salesman
n DU Correspondent

Dhaka South City Corporation authority evicts illegal establishments on the footpath in front of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital
yesterday
DHAKA TRIBUNE

Barisal retuning officer withdrawn

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Election Commission replaced the

retuning officer under whom the Barisal 5 by-poll was supposed to be held,
yesterday, despite getting a positive
nod in favour of him from three commissioners of a four-member committee in an appeal hearing.
The letter, signed by Md Sirajul Islam, acting secretary of the EC, related
to the decision and stated that returning officer MirMdShahjahan has been
replaced with Barisal Deputy Commissioner Md Shohidul Alam.
When contacted, Shahjahan also
confirmed his withdrawal, saying he

was visiting Dhaka to attend a professional training programme.

Confirming the news, the DC said he
already started the tasks for June 12.
On May 11, Mir Md Shahjahan cancelled the nomination paper of independent candidate Syed M Moazzem
Hussain during scrutiny, stating that
there was a problem with the necessary documents.
Moazzem Hussain filed a petition
against the decision to the EC on May
17, and afterwards, a committee of four
commissioners including Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Raqibuddin
Ahmed, held a hearing in this regard.
The appeal was turned down as three

members were in favour of the nomination paper cancellation.

Dissenting commissioner Muhammad Abdul Mobarak stated that returning officer Mir Md Shahjahan had
breached the election rules during the
scrutiny.
On May 25, Mozzem Hussain lodged
a writ petition to the High Court that
issued a show cause notice on the officials concerned and directed them to
respond within seven days, showing
logic in favour of the cancellation decision.
However, the EC took the move at
last, without presenting any specific
reason. l

Two Dhaka University students who

had reportedly abducted a salesman
were temporarily suspended from the
university yesterday afternoon.
The suspension was confirmed by
DU Proctor Amzad Ali. He said: Further decision in this regard will be taken after investigation.
The two students were Alamgir Hossain, a masters student of World Religion
and Culture, and Nazmul Karim Shuvo, a
final year student of Sociology. However,
it could not be known if they had any affiliation with any political party.
Some DU students termed them Chhatra League activists but the hall and
university unit of the ruling party student wing denied that they were members of the wing.
On Tuesday, Alamgir and Nazmul
were arrested for allegedly abducting
Sohel, a salesman of Kazi Manufacturing Limited, from a street adjacent
to Salimullaha Muslim Hall. The two
students had locked Sohel in the halls
dormitory and demanded Tk4 lakh for
his release. The abducted was later rescued from SM Hall in a police drive in
the evening, the DU Proctor Amzad Ali
told the Dhaka Tribune.
Shahbagh police station Officer-in-Charge Shirajul Islam said: Sohel had filed an abduction suit in this
regard yesterday [Tuesday] evening
and today [yesterday] we have demanded a three-day remand for the
two detainees. l

n Udisa Islam
The war crimes tribunal did not give
order yesterday on the contempt of
court matter brought against the daily Kaler Kantho since the prosecution
pleaded for more time.
During the proceedings, the prosecution said senior prosecutor Syed Haider
Ali would submit his points before the
order was given. But he could not appear before it because of his illness.
On May 22, the International Crimes
Tribunal 1 set yesterday for the passing
of the order. On that day, prosecutor
Mohammad Ali pleaded that Haider
would place some points on another
day as he had been ill. The tribunal
then granted the plea and said the
prosecution could submit arguments
on the day of the verdict.
On both occasions, Haider was staying in his office.
Prosecutor Ali filed the petition on
May 15 seeking a rule against the editor,
the publisher and a reporter of the Bangla
newspaper for contempt. A report published on May 11 termed the prosecution
inefficient and blamed the team for a delay in trials. Ali also said the newspaper
had published his comments partially.
The same tribunal adjourned proceedings in the case of ATM Azharul
Islam, an alleged al-Badr commander
from Rangpur during the 1971 Liberation War, yesterday, until Sunday, as the
15th prosecution witness did not testify.
The prosecution placed Md Ezab
Uddin of the Bangla Academy yesterday as their second seizure list witness in the case. But he could not give
his deposition as there was a petition
pending with the tribunal regarding
the seizure document.
Meanwhile, the defence of war
crimes suspect Syed Mohammad Qaisar

ended the cross-examination of the 17th

prosecution witness, Phul Mia, who testified at the tribunal 2 on Tuesday.
During the cross-examination, defence counsel Abdus Sobhan Tarafder
claimed that the witness was not a
freedom fighter at all. Phul Mia opposed the suggestion saying that he
had fought the war in Gazipur.
Phones in the courtroom
Even though mobile phones are not
allowed inside the court room, it has
become a regular phenomenon for the
prosecution to violate the tribunal order.
The tribunal 2 noticed a mobile
phone ringing yesterday when the
defence was cross examining a prosecution witness in the case against Qaisar. It belonged to prosecutor Zead-alMalum who was sitting in the front row.
When he went outside, the tribunal
asked the defence about where they
kept their mobile phones. A senior defence counsel answered that they used
to leave phones on the ground floor.
The tribunal then asked the other
prosecutors about their practice and
they replied that their phones were
kept at their offices. When the tribunal
questioned about Malums phone, senior prosecutor Sultan Mahmud stood
up and apologised on behalf of the
prosecution.
The tribunal then said: The rule is
the same for both sides defence and
prosecution.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Rana Das
Guptas mobile phone rang during the
deposition of a witness. In February,
two of prosecutor Alis mobile phones
rang three times when he was placing arguments in a case. On July 10
last year, Malums phone rang loudly
during the cross-examination of a witness and the tribunal cautioned him. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Thursday, May 29, 2014

WHO: Tobacco use increasing

among young people
15% students aged 13-15 use tobacco in Southeast Asia
sulting in lives saved and healthier com- 30% to 49%; Nepal from 25% to 35%; Sri
n Moniruzzaman Uzzal
Lanka from 72% to 74%; and in Thailand
munities, the release added.

from 64% to 70%.

Under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC),
countries have set the target of reducing
tobacco consumption by 30% by 2025.
According to the press release, more
than 1.3 million people die each year
from tobacco-related deaths in WHOs
Southeast Asia region.
The health sector alone cannot
curb this epidemic; the vector in this
epidemic is the tobacco industry, which
can be dealt with only by multisectoral
actions, said Dr Poonam.
WHO will continue to support governments in their efforts to protect
present and future generations from the
damaging health, social, environmental
and economic consequences of tobacco
use, she added. l

The prevalence of tobacco use is increasing among young people in Southeast Asia, with nearly 15% of students
aged 13-15 years using some form of tobacco in the region.
The finding was disclosed in a press
release by the World Health Organisations (WHO) Southeast Asia Regional
Office (SEARO), which also stated that
the countries in SEARO are home to 25%
of the worlds smoking and 90% of the
worlds smokeless tobacco users.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day
on May 31, the WHO urged countries
to raise taxes on tobacco products to
decrease its use, especially among the
young people.
Higher taxes on tobacco products are
proven to reduce the number of tobacco
users, especially the young people, re-

Research shows that higher taxes

are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups
and in preventing young people from
starting to use tobacco said Dr Poonam
Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director
for Southeast Asia.
A 10% price increase due to tobacco
taxes would decrease tobacco consumption by up to 8% in most low and middle
income countries. Increasing excise taxes on tobacco will increase government
revenues significantly, and will allow
people to increase their consumption of
necessities such as food, education and
health care she added.
Tax share in the retail price of cigarettes have increased between 2009
and 2013 in countries such as Bangladesh from 67% to 71%; in Maldives from

BGP opens fire

at BGB

PGCL incurs huge losses for

suspension of new gas lines

n Our Correspondent, Bandarban

Myanmars Border Guard Police
opened fire on a Border Guard Bangladesh patrol team at Naikkhyangchhari
border in Bandarban yesterday.
Locals said several rounds of bullets
were fired at the BGB near Pillar no 52
around 9am, adding that security was
tightened in the area after this incident.
Earlier on Thursday, the BGP reportedly opened fire at the BGB near Pillar
no 41. Later, the BGB sent a protest letter to the BGP in this regard.
Officer-in-Charge of Naikkhyangchhari police station Rafikul Islam said
police had heard about the incidents
of shooting and were trying to consult
with the BGB in this connection.
Following yesterdays incident, a
flag meeting was held between the BGB
and BGP, which discussed bringing an
end to border crimes. Nakkhyangchhari 31 BGB zone Commander Shofikur
Rahman could not be reached on his
phone, despite several attempts. l

n Our Correspondent, Bogra

The Pashchimanchal Gas Company Ltd
(PGCL) lost nearly Tk50 crore in revenue over the past four years, due to a
government ban on new gas connections in Bogra town, said sources.
A senior PGCL official said they had
to suspend all new industrial and commercial gas connections in Bogra following an official order in September
2009, while new connections to homes
were stopped between July 2009 and
April 2013.
According to the revenue department, during the suspension period,
the state-owned company incurred
losses amounting Tk50 crore of probable revenue.
Md Aminur Rahman Khan, manager
(sales) at PGCLs Bogra office, said the
company resumed new domestic connections in May last year, providing
more than 2,500 lines. Moreover, 5,000
more connections will be provided in

the next few months, he added.

But the company has yet to decide
about industrial, commercial and CNG
filling station connections, Aminur
Rahman said.
At present, the gas company is earning Tk6.75 crore per month on average
from 15,000 residential connections,
Md Abdur Razzak, another PGCL manager, said.
Meanwhile, sources at PGCLs marketing department said there is enough
volume of gas in the west zone for providing commercial and industrial connections, but they need a government
order to do so.
According to PGCL figures, gas at 60
PSI (pounds per square inch) pressure
is available from the Bogra Cantonment area to the Thangamara point on
the outskirts of the town.
The company, however, will not be
able to give new connections if the gas
pressure falls to 30 PSI from 60 PSI, experts said. l

Private company employee rescued

one month after abduction
n Kailash Sarkar
An employee of a private company,
who had been abducted a month ago
from the capitals Mirpur, was rescued
from Munshiganj yesterday.
Detective Branch of police also
arrested four people, Rafiqul Islam
Nayan, 29, a former employee of Jaaz
Multimedia, and his associates Kamrul
Hasan, 27, Moinul Hossain Babu, 30,
and Arif Hossain Milon, 44, for their
alleged involvement with the kidnapping of Abu Bakkar Sabuj, account officer of Jaaz Multimedia.
Police said Sabuj had been abducted
from Mirpur section 10 on April 26 on
the way to his office located at Moghbazar.
After the abduction, the abductors
demanded Tk1.10 crore as ransom
from Sabujs family.

Following the kidnapping, Abdur

Rahim, Sabujs father, filed a case with
Mirpur police station, accusing Sheesh
Monwar, chief executive officer of Jaaz
Multimedia.
Later, police officials had arrested
Sheesh Monwar and Production
Manager Uzzal and placed them on
remand.
At a press briefing yesterday
afternoon, officials of the Detective
Branch (DB) said they had arrested
Nayan, Milon and Babu from the
capitals Mirpur after tracking the
mobile phones used to make the
ransom demands.
Following their statements, police
rescued Sabuj from Munshiganj and
also arrested Babu.
At the press briefing, Sabuj said
Nayan was his friend and being a
friend, he (Nayan) had asked him to get

into a car at Mirpur Section10.

After having a drink in the car, I became senseless, said Sabuj.
There were five persons, including the driver in the car, said Sabuj,
adding that the kidnappers had kept
him confined at a house in Fatulla,
Narayanganj for 25 days. Later, he had
been shifted to a house at Kosba under
Tongiibari upazila in Munsiganj.
Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam,
who was present at the press conference, said, Nayan had abducted Sabuj
with the intention of trapping Sheesh
Monowar and Jaaz Multimedia owner
Abdul Aziz.
During interrogation, Nayan told
the police that he had kidnapped Sabuj
to take revenge on some officials of
Jazz Multimedia as he had had been
sacked from the office because of
Sheesh Monowar. l

Rapist gets life sentence in Chittagong

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court sentenced a person

to life term in jail yesterday and fined
him Tk50,000 for raping a 12-year-old
girl in Chittagong citys Bandar area in
2005.
Judge of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal2 Md Zakir Hossain passed the verdict on Mohammad Sagir, 35, court sources said.
MA Naser, prosecutor of the tribunal, said the judge had sentenced the

verdict under section 9(1) of the Women

and Children Repression Prevention Act
as the charges against the accused was
proved beyond any reasonable doubt.
The court also ordered Inspector
General of Bangladesh Police to take
departmental action against the then
Sub-Inspector Mahmuda Sultana of
Bandar police station as she did not
appear before the court after repeated
summons, which seemed negligence
to the court, he said.
According to the prosecution, Sagir

raped the victim in Narikeltola area under Bandar police station on March 20,
2005 when she had gone to the area in
search of wood for fuel.
The victims farther lodged a case
with Bandar police station in this regard.
Police also submitted a charge sheet
against the lone accused on May 3,
2005 and the charge was framed on
August 16, 2005.
The court announced the verdict
after five witnesses, including the victim, had testified. l

3 abducted rescued after 20hrs

n Our Correspondent, Coxs Bazar
In a joint drive, police and BGB rescued three abducted people,
including a bank official, from Eidgarh area of Ramu upazila on
Tuesday night, 20 hours after their abduction.
The rescued were Jitendra Nath, a cash officer of Baishari
Krishi Bank in the upazila, M Selim Uddin, the son of Abdul
Gani of Gonarpara area, and Nurul Alam, a resident of Haludia area of the upazila.
Ramu police station OC Saiful Ahmed Bhuiyan said miscreants had abducted the trio from a CNG-run auto-rickshaw
on the Eidgarh-Baishari road around 11:30pm on Monday.
The following day, local BGB members and police started
an all-out drive in the forest and rescued the three around
8:30pm. l

Jaywalkers cross the road at a green light disrupting smooth flow of traffic. Though a daily scenario, people often refrain from using the
footbridge, risking their lives. The photo was taken yesterday in the capitals Mohakhali intersection
SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

HC clears way for Notre Dame College

to admit students through tests
n Nazmus Sakib
The High Court cleared the way yesterday for the capitals Notre Dame College
to conduct admission tests by staying a
government order that directed all colleges to admit students for higher secondary level on the basis of their secondary school certificate results.
The bench of Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Md Badruzzaman passed the stay order for six
months following a petition filed by
Notre Dame Principal Hemonto Peuse

Rozario, Deputy Attorney General

Motaher Hossain Sazu told the Dhaka
Tribune.
The government, meanwhile, was
yet to decide whether to appeal against
the stay order, Motaher said.
On May 18, the education ministry
issued a guideline for college admissions for the 2014-15 academic year.
The notification stated that colleges
with 300 seats would have to take
steps for online applications, while
online admissions were mandatory for
institutions with 500 places.

The notification also said 80 percent

of the seats should be open to all, while
10% could be reserved for alumni if the
institution was a school-cum-college
and 10% for special quotas.
The High Court order yesterday put
a stay on the provisions stipulated in
the notification for Notre Dame College only.
The popular boys college got a similar stay order from the High Court last
year and held admission tests after an
appeal by the government side was rejected. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

CNG auto-rickshaw strike postponed till June 9

Auto owners warn of further strike if
demands not met
mended extending the lifespan of aun Abu Hayat Mahmud
to-rickshaws from the existing 11years
The CNG-run auto-rickshaw owners
postponed their 72-hour strike in the
capital yesterday, until June 9, after receiving an assurance from the government that it would meet their demands
within the timeframe.
The postponement came at a meeting between officials of the Communications Ministry, Bangladesh Road
Transport Authority and Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto-rickshaw Malik
Samity Oikya Parishad, an association
of the auto-rickshaw owners.
The BRTA chairman assured us
that our demands will be met within
one week. So we decided to postpone
the strike, Barkat Ullah Bhulu, president of the Dhaka Metropolitan CNG
Auto-rickshaw Malik Samity Oikya Parishad told the Dhaka Tribune.
He, however, warned that the strike
will be enforced again after June 9 if
their demands are not met within the
timeframe.
On Tuesday, the metropolitan auto-rickshaw owners called the strike
aiming to press home their three-point
demands, including the implementation of the Buet recommendation for
an extension of the economic lifespan
of the three wheelers.
The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) recom-

to 15 years.
On Tuesday, the government and
the CNG auto-rickshaw owners, however, made confusing statements about
the withdrawal of the strike.
The ministry and the BTRA held a
meeting at the ministry on Tuesday
evening with a section of leaders of the
Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik
Federation, in an effort to put an end to
the strike.
Following the meeting, BRTA Chairman Nazrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that the leaders of the auto-rickshaw owners assured them that they
would suspend the strike from Tuesday evening.
But when contacted, Barkat Ullah
Bhulu said none of their members were
present at the meeting and there would
be no withdrawal of their strike until
their demands were met.
The ministry did not contact us and
we had neither suspended nor withdrawn the strike, he said, adding, If
the government meets our demands,
we will withdraw the strike.
The government banned all twostroke auto-rickshaws in urban areas
in 2002 giving permission to run the
four-stroke CNG-run three-wheelers
instead.
The lifespan of the three wheelers

Auto-rickshaw drivers hold a rally in front of the National Press Club in the capital yesterday, protesting the ongoing strike of CNG-run
auto-rickshaw owners
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
was first set for nine years, but was later extended to 11 in compliance with a
strong demand from the auto-rickshaw
owners association.
Nearly 13,000 CNG-run three-wheelers are now operating in the city and the
economic lifespan of an auto-rickshaw
is currently eleven and a half years.
A circular issued by the Communi-

cations Ministry on Tuesday said the

vehicles lifespan had been increased,
on condition, to 15 years instead of 11,
following recommendations from the
Buet.
Barkat Ullah Bhulu said: The government published the gazette on the
condition that the auto-rickshaw owners must overhaul the three-wheelers

engines in their 12th year.

But only six months are left till end
of the 12th year and it is not possible to
overhaul the engines within this time.
Barkat Ullah Bhulu demanded that
the gazette be revised in accordance
with the Buet recommendations for
the extension of the existing CNG-run
Auto-rickshaws lifespan. l

12 gold bars, 27
Fruits markets abound with chemically-treated mangoes
necklaces seized at
Sukumar Kundu, deputy director
to set an example by stern punishment Baneshor Bazar, told the Dhaka Trin Our Correspondent, Rajshahi
bune that he mixed medicines into his of Consumer Right Preservation Deagainst such corrupt people.
Shahjalal Airport
While talking to this correspondent, mangoes to give the fruit a better look. partment Rajshahi office, said they are
Almost all the fruit markets in and
When this correspondent wanted conducting drives to check the use of
around Rajshahi city are overflowing many fruit wholesalers confessed that
Kailash Sarkar
n
with chemically-treated mangoes, they were selling calcium carbide-rip- to know the name of the medicine, he chemicals and contaminants in food
Customs department officials at Hazrat
Shahjalal International Airport seized
12 gold bars and 27 gold necklaces
weighing around 1.5kg yesterday.
The gold, worth around Tk70 lakh,
was found in a courier delivery from
Singapore, said Quamrul Hasan, assistant commissioner of the customs department.
He also said they seized the gold bars
at 3:30pm after scanning a DHL envelope that had arrived in Dhaka around
12:30pm on a Tiger Airways flight that
came in from Singapore via Bangkok.
The officials found the gold bars and 27
gold necklaces in an envelope which was
addressed to an electronics shop named
New Khan Electronics in the capitals Baitul Mukarram Market, he said.
The filing of a case in this regard was
underway, the official added.
It is widely reported that airports in
Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet are being
used exclusively for smuggling gold,
currencies and various precious metals
and stones, in collaboration with a section of unscrupulous employees and
officials at the airports.
Intelligence sources said at least 60
rings are involved in this smuggling
business. The smuggling of gold centring the airports in Bangladesh has intensified since the Indian government
imposed some restrictions on the import of gold last year. l

WEATHER
THUNDERSHOWER
WITH RAIN

THURSDAY, MAY 29
DHAKA

TODAY
SUN SETS 6:41PM

TOMORROW
SUN RISES 5:11AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY

Dhaka

36

27

Chittagong

32

26

Rajshahi

38

28

Rangpur

36

24

Khulna

38

26

Barisal

36

27

Sylhet

34

23

Coxs Bazar

32

26

YESTERDAYS HIGH AND LOW

34.5C
Srimangal

23.8C
Jessore

Source: Accuweather/UNB

thanks to the negligence and lax monitoring of the authorities.

The Bangladesh Pure Food Ordinance 2005 has prohibited the use of
any poisonous or dangerous chemicals
or ingredients such as calcium carbide,
formalin, pesticides and intoxicating food colour or flavour in any food
which may cause injuries to the human
body.
Violating the law, wholesalers supply mangoes from Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj to the capital and other
parts of the country after treating them
with chemicals.
City dwellers blame law enforcement agencies for not taking adequate
actions against these fraudulent businessmen.
Abdur Rahman, a resident of the
city, said fruit traders continue to mix
chemicals into various kinds of fruits
as the law enforcement agencies failed

Fajar
Sunrise
Zohr
Asr
Magrib
Esha

3:46am
5:11am
11:56am
3:17pm
6:40pm
8:06pm
Source: IslamicFinder.org

said, I am not sure about the name,

but it works like magic and this medicine is available in every pharmacy in
the city.
Mustafizur Rahman, associate professor of agriculture at Rajshahi University, told the Dhaka Tribune that
advance processing and packaging systems are a must to ripen and preserve
fruits and to stop such adulteration.
Senior Scientific Officer of Rajshahi Fruit Research Station Abdul Alim
said farmers should use chemicals
only two times, before and after budding.
Kazi Giash, president of district
Consumer Association of Bangladesh
Rajshahi unit, said, We do not have
any authority to conduct mobile court
drives against food adulteration without an administrative magistrate. But
we are continuing our motivational
work.

products.
Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), the regulatory
body which monitors quality of foods,
emphasised creating mass awareness
about health hazards posed by chemically-treated fruits.
The BSTI conduct drives twice a
week against such malpractice, said
Rezaul Islam, deputy director in Rajshahi.
We do not even get magistrates in
time to conduct drives, he added.
When contacted, Mir Shahidul Islam, deputy inspector general of police
in Rajshahi, said necessary initiatives
will be taken in this regard.
Commanding Officer of Rapid Action Battalion 5 Kamrul Islam told the
Dhaka Tribune that the elite force is
trying its best to stop such illegal practice, but civic groups must come forward to help as well. l

Kidnapped college
student rescued
from Rajshahi
n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi
A college student, who was abducted
for ransom by miscreants from Dhaka
10 days ago, was rescued from Rajshahi
railway station area on Tuesday night.
The victim, Farhan Zaman Rilke, 18,
is a student of Bangladesh Taxes Engineering College.
In a press conference yesterday,
Deputy Commissioner (West) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) Proloy Cisima handed Farhan over to his
family members.
The commissioner said the abductors had picked Farhan up from Roopnagar area of the capitals Mirpur on
May 17, when he was heading to his
college. His father Bazlur Rashid then
lodged a general diary with Roopnagar
police station regarding the incident.
Afterwards, the kidnappers called
Farhans father on his mobile phone
and demanded ransom in exchange for
his sons release. Bazlur informed the
police station immediately. l

Police hand over college student Farhan, who had been abducted from the capital 10 days ago, to his family yesterday after rescuing him
from Rajshahi on Tuesday night
DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ward councillor jailed for 2 years, later freed

A mobile court yesterday sentenced
a Chittagong City Corporation ward
councillor to two years imprisonment
on charge of assaulting two female staff
of the court, but he was later released
under the auspices of CCC Mayor M
Monjur Alam.
The mobile court, led by Executive
Magistrate Nazia Shirin, passed the
order against ward 4 Councillor Mahbubul Alam at 2:30pm after handing
him over to Chandgaon police station.

SC stays HC order
halting REHAB
election
n Nazmus Sakib
The Appellate Division yesterday
stayed a High Court order which had
stopped further proceedings of the
election of REHABs executive committee for three months.
Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, the
chamber judge, also referred the matter to the full bench of the top court for
settlement.
The order came following a petition
lodged by Akteruzzaman Manju, chairman of the REHAB (Real Estate and
Housing Association of Bangladesh)
election board.
Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq and Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, in his
personal capacity, contended for the
petitioner while Supreme Court lawyers AM Amin Uddin and Raghib Rauf
Chowdhury opposed the petition.
The election for the term of 2014-16
was scheduled for May 31.
Petitioners counsels said the High
Court stay order of May 26 became ineffective since, on May 24, the election
board declared the uncontested candidates to be the winners.
However, the opposing party said
the announcement of the final result
was scheduled to be made on June 7
and the handing over of responsibilities to the new committee was to be on
June 30. These were part of the election
process and the High Court put a stay
on the process.
They also said the election board
chairman was not an aggrieved party,
so the stay petition by Manju was not
maintainable.
The High Court gave the stay order
following a petition filed by Prof Abu
Yusuf Md Abdullah, chairman of Prashad Nirman Ltd. He alleged that his
name had been dropped from the list
of finally nominated candidates even
though he was a valid candidate. l

Two armed land

grabbers held
n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong
In an overnight drive yesterday, police
nabbed two notorious land encroachers, possessing firearms and ammunition, in Chittagong citys Bayezid area.
Police said the arrested had been involved with land encroaching and terrorism in the area for a long time.
The arrested Sujon and Nur Mohammad, are the second-in-command of the
notorious land encroacher ring Yiakub
Bahini and the leader of another rival
ring, respectively, said Bayezid police
station Officer-in-Charge Saiful Islam.
He said acting on a tip-off, police
conducted the drive in the police stations jurisdiction from 12am to 6am to
nab the listed land encroachers of the
area and made the arrests.
Police also recovered a pistol, six
rounds of bullets, two light guns and
a cartridge from their possession, he
added.
An arms case was lodged with
Bayezid police station against the duo.
The OC also informed that the arrested had been encroaching on hilly
areas and using those lands as their
dens for drugs and arms peddling. l

Human haulier
workers to go on
strike from Sunday
n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

OBSTRUCTING MOBILE COURT ACTIVITIES, ASSAULTING FEMALE STAFF

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

PRAYER TIMES

ened mango to avoid suffering financial losses in the business of perishable

food items.
They said they used chemicals to
ripen the mangoes as well as to make
the colour rich and shiny.
A trader, who preferred to be unnamed, said customers wanted to
buy neat, clean, colourful and glossy
mangoes. But naturally ripened mangoes lose their bright colour, and
thats why they feel encouraged to
use chemicals.
Businessmen from Rajshahi region
said generally they used calcium carbide and formalin to ripen and preserve
mangoes.
Traders said they used 100 gram calcium carbide in 50kg of mangoes. This
calcium carbide produces heat and
acetylene gas that ripens and cleans
the mangoes automatically.
Joynal Abedin, who sells fruits at

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Nazia Shirin told the Dhaka Tribune

that the mobile court went to Tekbazar
area under Chandgaon police station to
evict illegal establishments along the
banks of a canal at 10am, when Mahbubul and his associates tried to obstruct the courts activities.
Mahbubul and his men engaged in
a scuffle with my force and the councillor himself assaulted two of our female
staff, said the magistrate.
Later, I ordered police to arrest him
and hand him over to Chandgaon police station. The councillor had been

sentenced to two years imprisonment

for assaulting female staff of the court,
she added.
Later around 4pm, Councillor Mahbubul Alam was released after a meeting chaired by Mayor M Monjur Alam,
but the CCC authority did not issue any
statement in this regard.
When contacted, the CCC mayor
said: I did not know anything about
the mobile courts sentence. There was
a misunderstanding between the councillor and the mobile court which was
later resolved amicably.

Abdu Rouf, officer-in-charge of

Chandgaon police station, said they had
taken Mahbubul to the police station
following the mobile courts order and
he was later taken to the Nagar Bhaban
as per an order of the magistrate.
Meanwhile, supporters of the
councillor
staged
demonstrations
in front of Chandgaon police station
and Nagar Bhaban, demanding his
immediate release.
The agitated supporters alleged that
the magistrate had punished the councillor because of a personal vendetta. l

Workers of shallow-engine run vehicles

in Rajshi will go on strike from Sunday,
if their three-point demands are not
met by Saturday.
Their three-point demands include
giving permission to the shallow-engine
run vehicles to operate on all routes in
Rajshahi and stopping the police from
harassing the transport workers.
Owners of shallow-engine run vehicles, locally known as Nasimon, Karimon and Bhotbhoti, submitted a memorandum to the office of the deputy
commissioner yesterday.
After submitting the memorandum,
Akbar Ali Lalu, president of Nasimon,
Karimon and Bhotbhoti Drivers Samity said they would start a tougher
movement if their demands are not
met by Saturday.
Owners and drivers of human
hauliers said they had to pay a huge
amount of money to police to ensure
that they could operate on highways.
He claimed that transport workers
said police had been collecting Tk100
per vehicle when any of these vehicles
travelled on the highway.
As the district administration has
started drives against unauthorised vehicles, human haulier owners are now
trying to put pressure on administration, said Mesbahuddin Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Narayanganj. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Norwester claims three lives,

damages houses in 3 districts

Businessmen demand end to

extortion on waterways
n Our Correspondent, Sunamganj
Hundreds of businessmen formed a
human chain at Traffic Point in Sunamganj town yesterday, demanding
measures to put an end to extortion on
waterways.
The businessman said they could
not operate their vessels on the Jadukata River, Chalti River and Surma
River without having to pay extortion
money to local goons who have close
links with local political leaders.
They said they had already
informed the district administration
about the matter, but law enforcement

n Tribune Report
Spells of norwester have killed three
people, injured about 50 and also destroyed more than 400 houses in different districts across the country yesterday.
A norwester hit Bakshiganj of Jamalpur yesterday morning left 30 people injured, three of whom later died.
Storms also destroyed 300 houses and
injured 20 in Tangail and damaged 40
mud houses in Sunamganj.
The severe norwester, which lasted
for nearly 15 minutes, hit Bakshiganj
around 10:30am and left at least 30
people injured and destroyed more
than 100 houses and numerous trees.
The injured were taken to Bakshiganj
Hospital, where three succumbed to
their injuries.
Officer-in-Charge of Bakshiganj police station Mostasinur Rahman said
Nesad Ali of Gopalpur village died at
noon on the way to Bakshiganj Hospital. Masum, 28, and Abul Kalam Salu,
50, who were critically injured, also
died before reaching the hospital.
The upazila experienced a power
outage because the storm had disconnected electric wires. Road communication between Bakshiganj and Sanandabari was also suspended.
Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner
Shahabuddin Khan visited the afflicted
areas and said the DC office would be
giving Tk25,000 to each of the families
of the deceased.
Those who received injuries would
be given Tk7,500 each and each of the

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Road crash kills

one in Gazipur

n Our Correspondent,
Gazipur
Locals roam around a damaged house after a storm swept over Bakshiganj village in
Jamalpur yesterday
DHAKA TRIBUNE
afflicted families would be given 30kg
of rice as well as supplying them with
materials to mend their houses.
More than 50 houses were destroyed
when the norwester struck several villages in Melandah and Sarishabari upazilas around the same time.
Masud Parvez Josna, chairman of
Pogoldiga union in Sarishabari upazila,
said the 30-minute storm destroyed
many houses and trees.

20 hurt, 300 houses damaged in Tangail

At least 20 people were injured and

nearly 300 houses damaged when a severe storm hit five villages in Dhanbari

upazila of Tangail yesterday morning.

Chairman of Dhanbari upazila Mir
Farukh said it was drizzling in the
morning before the storm suddenly hit
around 9am and lasted for 2-3 minutes.
It hit five villages including Mutshudi
West Para, Moulvi Para, Khandakar Para,
Pagla Para and Dukna, he said, adding
that hundreds of trees were uprooted.

40 mud houses destroyed in Sunamganj

40 mud houses were destroyed in Jararkona village of Sukhair Rajapur North

union under Dharmapasha upazila of
Sunamganj when the norwester hit
the area yesterday. l

A truck driver was killed

when a Dhaka-bound pickup pushed the truck from
behind on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Sadar upazila of Gazipur early
yesterday.
The victim, 35, could
not be identified immediately, said police sources.
Sergeant Kamal Pasha
of Naojore highway police
said the pickup pushed
the standing truck hard
from behind in Masterbari
area under Sadar upazila
around 4:30am yesterday.
The driver was sleeping
beneath the truck and he
was critically injured at the
incident.
He was rushed to the
Gazipur Sadar Hospital
where the on-duty doctor declared him dead, he
added. l

Lightning
strike kills 2
farmers

n Our Correspondent,
Madaripur
Lighting strike killed two
farmers while working in
a field at village Diapara of
Kunia union under Sadar
upazila in Madaripur yesterday morning.
The deceased are Abdul Hi Choukidar, 60, was
a tractor driver and son
of Kashem Choukidar of
village Diapara and Litan
Bepari, 42, son of Akubali
Bepari of the same village.
Locals said the two were
farming in a neighbouring
field while it started raining and they took shelter in
a nearby shallow machine
room.
They were struck by
lightning at that time leaving them dead on the spot.
Abdul was rushed to the
Madaripur Sadar Hospital
where the on-duty doctor
announced him dead, family sources said. l

CNG auto
rickshaw driver
killed

n Our Correspondent,
Brahmanbaria

Unknown miscreants allegedly killed a CNG auto

rickshaw driver in disguise
of passengers and snatched
the vehicle yesterday in
Brahmanbaria.
The victim Yasin, 28,
was recovered by police
with his hands and legs
tied up from village Chilokut of Sadar upazila yesterday afternoon.
Sources said Yasin drove
the auto rickshaw on Tuesday from Madhyapara bus
stand area and didnt return his home in North Pairotala area of the town.
Locals saw his body at
the village Chilokut yesterday and informed police.
Officer-in-Charge Md Abdur Rahman of Brahmanbaria Sadar police told the
Dhaka Tribune that police
sent the body to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital for autopsy. It is suspected that
he might have been killed
for the auto rickshaw by the
miscreants in disguise of
passengers, he added. l

agencies are reluctant to take action

against the criminals for reasons
unknown.
They urged the authority concerned
to take immediate measures so that
they could run their businesses properly.
The also vowed to start a tougher
movement, including a strike, if necessary steps are not taken in this regard.
Traders are facing multi-phased
and wide-scale extortion and harassment when going to the district town
with their goods, said President of District Balu Mohal Babsayee Somity Kamruzzaman Dhara Mia. l

Robbery committed;
house owner killed

n Our Correspondent, Narsingdi

Robbers looted valuables and cash
from a house in Pashchim Basail of
Sadar upazila yesterday, leaving the
house owner dead and four others injured.
Sadar police station Officer-inCharge Abul Kashem said about 1012 robbers, broke into Sultan Uddin
Khans house around 3am and held the
inhabitants hostage at gunpoint.
They stole five tolas of gold ornaments, cash amounting Tk2 lakh, five
mobile phone sets and other valuables
worth Tk5 lakh.
A case was filed in this regard. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Juris

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Punishment fails, rehabilitation works

Juridical Insight

Double jeopardy in
criminal proceedings
n Mohammad Nayeem Firoz

SYED LATIF HOSSAIN

n Muhammad Ziadul Islam

Chowdhury

o one is born a criminal.

Criminals are products
of the social, economic
and environmental
conditions. It is believed
that if the criminals are educated
and trained, they can be made
competent to behave well in the
society. Our existing legal framework
has inadequate provisions regarding
proper reintegration of prisoners to
the society. This article will throw
light on the issue of rehabilitation of
prisoners under international legal
instruments and national legislations,
along with the recent developments
that took place in this area in
Bangladesh.

International obligations and

guidelines
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) of 1948 laid the
groundwork for prisoners rehabilitation under International law, although
it did not expressly use the term
rehabilitation. The first covenant
that brings the issue of rehabilitation
in international limelight is the 1966
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, best known as ICCPR.
In Article 10, ICCPR pronounced that
the penitentiary system shall comprise
treatment of prisoners, the essential
aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation.
By using the word shall, article
10 creates a mandatory requirement
to provide rehabilitation. Moreover,
convention on the Rights of the Children (CRC) declares that incarcerated
minors should be treated in a manner
consistent with the promotion of the
childs sense of dignity and worth,
which reinforces the childs respect
for the human rights and fundamental
freedoms of others. Similar tones were
reiterated in 1984 Convention against
Torture, 1990 Convention on the Rights
of the Migrant Workers, 1998 Rome
Statutes of International Criminal
Court. Bangladesh being a signatory of
all these international instruments is
duty-bound to ensure proper rehabilitation of prisoners in society.
Another issue is pertinent here that,
in 1955 United Nations (UN) approved
Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners. These Rules

are not legally binding, but nonetheless can have powerful soft law impact,
especially given their promotion by
the UN. Rule 58 is very important to
our discussion, which states that the
purpose and justification of a sentence of imprisonment is ultimately
to protect society against crime. This
end can only be achieved if the period
of imprisonment is used to ensure that
upon his return to society the offender
is not only willing but able to lead a law
abiding and self-supporting life.

Rehabilitation under Bangladeshi

Legal Framework
The concept of rehabilitation is not
expressly provided in the constitution
of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.
However, the essence of some articles
can be extended to cover the rehabilitation issue. For instance, Article 11
provides that the Republic shall be a
democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect
for the dignity and worth of the human
person shall be guaranteed. Again, Article 35(1) states that No person shall
be subjected to a penalty greater than
that which might have been inflicted
under the law in force at the time of the
commission of the offence. The social
stigmatisation impliedly inflicts more
punishment to an ex-prisoner who
already served his times. Such stigmatisation and different treatment is a
clear violation of the right to equality
and equal protection of law enshrined
in Article 27 of the constitution.
Prison system in Bangladesh still
follows the outdated statute books of
the British colonial rulers, which were
framed in the 19th century. Jail Code
consists of the provisions of Prisons
Act of 1894, Prisoners Act of 1900, and
the Identification of Prisoners Act of
1920. According to these old statutes,
the main objective of the prison
system is the confinement and safe
custody of prisoners through suppressive and punitive measures. There has
been no significant modification in the
jail code, nor have the vital recommendations of the Jail Reform Commission, 1978 been implemented.
After independence of Bangladesh, though several discussions had
emphasised on humanisation of the
conditions in the prisons, a modified
Prisons and Prisoners Act emphasising on rehabilitation has not been
enacted.

Major challenges
The reformative or rehabilitative practice in prison is not working for several
factors. The existing legislations have
become outdated and the missing
provisions of counseling, capacity
building, etc are making the process a
complex one. Infrastructure problems,
overcrowding in prison, inordinate
delay in trial, prevalent corruption and
extortion, staff shortage, insufficient
prison programmes, etc are working
as barricades towards ensuring proper
rehabilitation process.
Moreover, Bangladesh made some
reservations and declarations to the
ICCPR to limit its application especially on the first part of paragraph 3
of Article 10 relating to reformation
and social rehabilitation of prisoners.
Bangladesh put herself away on account of financial constraints and for
lack of proper logistical support.

The positive developments

In order to ensure rehabilitation
and uphold the flag of reformative
theory, only law and legal reform is
not enough. First and foremost, we
all need to grow the consensus among
us that Hate the wrong, not the
wrongdoer. We need to change our attitude towards the persons who serve
times in prison. Despite the prevalent
lacunas in our legislations, the government especially the Ministry of Law
has already undertaken processes
towards reforming the Jail Codes.
Recently, Moulvibazar central jail
authority reportedly undertook some
income generation, skill development and education programmes for
prisoners. A garment factory having 26
knitting machines was established in
the Dhaka central jail aiming towards
skill development and rehabilitation
of the prisoners.
Recent years witnessed significant
judicial intervention in order to mitigate the plight of juvenile offenders.
In the cases of State v Md Roushan
Mondal alias Hashem and State v
Metropolitan Police Commissioner,
Khulna and others, the higher court
emphasised that young offenders
should be at all times kept separate
from the adult offenders from the time
of their apprehension, during the trial
and during confinement to ensure
the facilities for proper education and
upbringing of youth. Another good ini-

tiative was taken by the government

last year by enacting the Children Act,
2013 repealing the earlier Children Act
of 1974. The new Act conforms to the
provisions of the Convention of the
Rights of Child.

octrine of double jeopardy at

law means that a person who
has once been tried by a court of
competent jurisdiction for an offence
and convicted or acquitted of such
offence shall, while such conviction or
acquittal remains in force, not be liable
to be tried again for the same offence.
Interestingly, we found a movie
concerning this issue having the title
Double Jeopardy which is a 1999
American thriller directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Tommy Lee Jones,
Ashley Judd, and Bruce Greenwood.
The film is about a woman who was
charged for the murder of her husband.
She was tried for her husbands murder
and the idea was, once she was sentenced for it one way or the other, then
she could not be tried for it again, but
that was a baloney. She was tried for his
murder that supposedly took place at a
certain time in a certain way. Since her
husband was not dead, she was faultily
tried for a murder which did not take
place. That does not mean she can not
be tried for the murder that actually did
take place afterwards because that was
a different crime.
Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz criticised the movie for allegedly
misrepresenting the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment
of the US Constitution. There are

in Bangladesh through article 35(2) of

the Constitution of the Bangladesh.
It provides that no person shall be
prosecuted and punished for the same
offence more than once. This is based
on another principle which is: no
person should be vexed, prosecuted
or tried twice for the same offence.
This principle is further confirmed in
Section 26 of the General Clauses Act
of 1897 and in Section 403 of the Code
of Criminal Procedure of 1898.
Section 26 of the General Clauses
Act, 1897 goes as follows: Where an
act or omission constitutes an offence
under two or more enactments, then
the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished under either or
any of those enactments, but shall not
be liable to be punished twice for the
same offence. Section 403 has been
made in such a way that the above
named principles of natural justice
may have their full legal application.
Section 403 of CrPC states that
a person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence.
Explanation clause to this section
enunciates that the dismissal of a complaint, the stopping of proceedings
under section 249 or the discharge of
the accused is not an acquittal for the
purposes of this section.
Though the question as to whether
the accused persons who were acquitted under section 247 can or cannot be

What more can be done

Now what is urgently required is a
full-fledged legislation precisely for
rehabilitation purposes like that of
UKs Rehabilitation of Offenders Act of
1974. This Act enables some criminal convictions to be ignored after a
rehabilitation period. Its purpose is
that people do not have a lifelong blot
on their records because of a relatively
minor offence in their past. In our society, even one night prison time puts
the label of criminal on a persons face;
a Rehabilitation Act can help people to
maintain their self-esteem.
Policy makers should also focus
on promoting the human dignity
of prisoners as a legal value within
national discourse, as this strategy
can encourage legal recognition of a
concrete right to rehabilitation. Prison
authorities should make available to
all detainees, whether sentenced or
under trial, education programmes
and other co-curricular vocation
activities. Education programmes
should be integrated with the public
system so as to allow for continuation
of education upon release.
In conclusion, the basic principles
and the purpose of punishment is
not to torture a person but to reform
him, re-integrate him in the society and ultimately make him a good
citizen. This is only possible if the
government, international partner,
local NGOs and civil society work
hand-in-hand. People need to bear in
mind that, isolating any person from
society enhances the risk of further
criminality.
A service oriented, pro-active
and human rights-conscious police
force is equally important in this
journey especially for the effective
functioning of the criminal justice
system. Coordination and cooperation
among the bodies related with the
criminal justice sector can play a vital
role in ensuring the rehabilitation of
prisoners.
Muhammad Ziadul Islam Chowdhury works
at Rule of Law Programme of German
Development Cooperation (GIZ).

JURIS QUOTE
All reality hinges on moral foundations. In other
words, that this is a moral universe, and that there
are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the
physical laws.
Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929 - 1968)
American pastor, activist and leader

Send us queries for

Consult you counsel

and also your articles on any legal issues at:

law@dhakatribune.com

Dhaka Tribune
Visit our website at: www.dhakatribune.com
Join our Facebook community
https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune
RIO SHUVO

RIO SHUVO

two separate incidents, Dershowitz

claims. She was falsely accused the
first time. And maybe she could sue
for that or get some credit. However,
she committed an entirely separate or
at least planned to commit an entirely
separate crime the second time. And
theres just no defence of double jeopardy for doing it the second time.
Double jeopardy is not essentially
about being tried two times. The
number of trials is immaterial. What it
means is that nobody can be prosecuted for an offence arising out of
conduct in relation to which s/he has
already been convicted or acquitted in
accordance with due process of law.
Before entering into the details
of this doctrine, let us consider an
instance: Drawing a criminal courts attention in the order of acquittal under
section 247 of the Criminal Procedure
Code given by a competent trial court
in respect of the same accused persons
involving in the selfsame allegations
brought by the same complainant in
a given case, learned defence lawyer
argued that this case is barred by the
doctrine of double jeopardy to legally
proceed any longer and that is why the
accused persons can be exempted from
the criminal liabilities of this case.
Now we may enter into the jurisprudential aspects of the said doctrine
of criminal law.
In international aspect, 72 signatories and 166 state parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognise, under Article 14
(7), that no one shall be liable to be
tried or punished again for an offence
for which he has already been finally
convicted or acquitted in accordance
with the law and penal procedure
of each country. In some countries,
including Canada, Mexico and the US,
the guarantee against being twice put
in jeopardy is a constitutional right.
In other countries, the protection is
afforded by domestic law.
The age-old principle double
jeopardy has been given legal shape

tried again on the selfsame allegation

is a complicated question of law, it is
well settled that if the accused persons
are acquitted under section 247 CrPC,
second proceeding on the selfsame
allegations will definitely be barred
under section 403 of CrPC. The reason
is obvious that in view of the provisions of section 403, it is clear that the
provisions therein cover almost all the
circumstances involving subsequent
trial of a person who was tried earlier.
We are aware that several judicial
pronouncements of the Supreme Court
of Bangladesh have strongly authenticated this stance. From the case of Dewan Obaidur Rahman v State reported
in 7 BLT (AD) 227, it appears that when
the complainant failed to appear in the
court on the date fixed for appearance
of the accused, the concerned judicial
magistrate acquitted the accused under section 247 of the Code.
It is to be noted that in the cases
where the order of acquittal in any other case having the same cause of action
and between the same parties is still in
force, it can be legally presumed that
the present charges are tantamount
to be groundless as the case itself is
barred by section 403 of the CrPC and
an instance of double jeopardy. Hence,
at the stage of charge-framing all the
accused persons of the earlier case may
be legally discharged from the latter
case in accordance with sections 241A
and 403 of the CrPC.
The guarantee of protection against
double jeopardy in criminal proceedings is a significant notion of law. This
article discusses the juridical aspects
of the guarantee as a human right by
infusing the texts of different normative instruments. The protection
against double jeopardy is considered
as a cogent element of the right to a
fair trial and a peremptory plea of the
defence in any given judicial proceedings dealing with criminal matters.
Mohammad Nayeem Firoz is a Sr Assistant
Judge of Bangladesh Judicial Service.

World

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 29, 2014

US forces to leave Afghanistanby 2016 After seismic elections,

n AFP, Washington
US forces will complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end
of 2016, President Barack Obama has
said, unveiling a plan to end Americas
longest war.
Underscoring the continuing instability despite a 12-year deployment by
US-led Nato combat troops, two Americans were slightly injured in an attack
on a US consulate vehicle in Afghanistans western city of Herat yesterday.
Speaking in the White House Rose
Garden on Tuesday, Obama confirmed
that the 32,000-strong US deployment
inAfghanistanwould be scaled back to
around 9,800 by the start of 2015.
Those forces would be halved by
the end of 2015 before eventually being
scaled back to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.
Were finishing the job we started,
Obama said, as he outlined the end of
US involvement in a conflict which began when American-led forces invadedAfghanistanto oust the Taliban and
hunt Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
after the 2001 attacks on New York and
Washington.
US combat operations would draw
to a close at the end of 2014, meaning
US troops would no longer patrol Afghan cities, towns or valleys from next
year, Obama said.
The drawdown relies on Afghanistan signing a long-delayed Bilateral Security Agreement laying out the

Snowden: I worked
as a spy at all levels
n AFP, Washington
US fugitive intelligence leaker Edward
Snowden trained as a spy and worked
undercover overseas for intelligence
agencies, he told NBC News in excerpts
of an interview aired Tuesday.
In his first interview in US media,
Snowden hit back at claims that he was
merely a low-level contractor, saying he
worked at all levels from the bottom
on the ground, all the way to the top.
Snowden, who has been charged
in the United States with espionage,
was granted asylum by Russia in August 2013 after shaking the American
intelligence establishment to its core
with a series of leaks on mass surveillance in the United States and around
the world.
In the interview, taped last week and
aired in full on Wednesday, Snowden
defended himself against claims minimizing his intelligence experience
before he stole and leaked a trove of
classified documents revealing the
NSAs program of phone and Internet
surveillance.
I was trained as a spy in sort of the
traditional sense of the word in that I
lived and worked undercover overseas
pretending to work in a job that Im
not and even being assigned a name
that was not mine, he said.
He said he had worked covertly as a
technical expert for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National
Security Agency (NSA), as well as as
a trainer for the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA). l

American forces will complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by end 2016,
says President Barack Obama

499

Soldiers killed

418

317

310

Afghanistanis not ready

155
US soldiers on patrol
in Logar province,
Oct 2012

49

12
2001

99

98

52

48

2002

127

117

21

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Deployment history
Thousands
100

April 5, 2014

Oct 2001

NATO assumes
leadership of
ISAF operations

US President Barack Obama

orders troops surge

60

October
40

First round in
presidential vote

December

US-led military
campaign
begins with air
strikes in
Afghanistan

80

August

December

May
32,000

November

Karzai becomes
first democraticallyelected president

Karzai starts second

term as president

Hamid Karzai
becomes
20 interim leader
of Afghanistan

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Source : iCasualties/BrookingsAfghanistanIndex

The announcement was met with dismay by some observers inAfghanistan,

where there was a widespread belief
that a foreign presence was likely to
continue for up to a decade.
Afghanistan is not ready, said
Mia Gul Wasiq, a security analyst. If
they withdraw irresponsibly, Afghanistanwill become like Iraq.
We have not been able to establish
a strong government... the US has not
done its job, that was to root out terrorism from Afghanistan. Their plan and
timetable on paper is not practical.
Obama sharply stepped up the US
involvement in Afghanistan after his
2008 election victory, boosting troop
numbers there even as he brought
the parallel US operation in Iraq
to a close.
He also massively increased the
number of covert US drone strikes
on militant targets in neighbouring Pakistan, and ordered the May
2011 US commando raid that killed
bin Laden there. l

On Jerusalem Day, Benjamin

Netanyahu vows not to divide city
n AFP, Jerusalem
Police closed off the flashpoint Al-Aqsa
compound to visitors yesterday as Israelis marked Jerusalem Day, with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledging
to never allow the city to be divided.
The annual celebration, which began at sundown on Tuesday, recalls the
moment when Israeli forces took over
the walled Old City in what was then
Jordanian-held east Jerusalem on the
third day of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel later annexed the entire eastern side of the city in a move never recognised by the international community.

Forty-seven years ago, Jerusalem

was unified, and it will never be divided again, Netanyahu said at a special
parliamentary session marking the day.
Police closed off the Al-Aqsa compound after Palestinian youths threw
stones at the security forces as a group of
Jewish visitors was touring the site, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.
Located in the heart of the Old City,
the volatile compound is the third
holiest site in Islam but also the most
sacred site in Judaism because it was
the site where the two Jewish temples
stood. Due to the sensitivity of the site,
Jews are not allowed to pray there.

n AFP, Ramallah

Israeli soldiers yesterday raided the offices of a Palestinian newspaper in the West
Bank city of Ramallah, managers said,
ordering them to stop printing publications by the Islamist movement Hamas.
Officers informed us that Israel
would not allow the printing and distribution of Falastin, Al-Resala, and
Al-Istiqlal, three Hamas newspapers,
the West Bank-based daily Al-Ayyam's
managers said in a statement.
Al-Ayyam has been printing the
three papers since April, when a sur-

prise reconciliation deal between

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and
their rivals Fatah brought the Islamist
group's publications back to West Bank
newsstands.
The soldiers threatened to take
concrete steps towards stopping
Falastin, Al-Resala and Al-Istiqlal being
printed at l-Ayyam offices in the West
Bank administrative centre of Ramallah, the statement said.
Israel's army had no immediate
comment.
On April 23, Hamas and the Palestine
Liberation Organisation which Fatah

EU leaders assess damage

n Reuters, Brussels
European Union leaders, stunned by a
big Eurosceptic protest vote in European
Parliament elections, agreed on Tuesday
to seek a package deal of appointments
to top EU jobs with an economic agenda
to win back public confidence.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
the 28-nation bloc's most powerful
leader, acknowledged that her center-right party's candidate, former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude
Juncker, may not end up heading the
executive European Commission.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, under pressure after the anti-EU UK
Independence Party won the European
Parliament election in Britain, came to
the EU summit in Brussels determined
to block the nomination of Juncker,
seen in London as an old-style European federalist.
Sweden, the Netherlands and Hungary also voiced reservations and the
28 leaders mandated European Council
President Herman Van Rompuy, who
chairs EU summits, to hold consultations on a slate of candidates for senior
positions and a policy agenda for the
next European Commission, Merkel
told reporters.
The aim was to wrap up the contentious appointments before the summer
break, she said. EU leaders next meet
on June 26-27.
Merkel's center-right European Peo-

dominates revealed a reconciliation

deal under which they would work
together to form a new government of
political independents.
That was seized upon by Israel,
which said it would not negotiate with
any Palestinian government backed by
Hamas, putting the final nail in the coffin of the latest round of US-brokered
peace talks.
Earlier this month, Al-Quds daily, published in the West Bank, became available again in Gaza for the first time since
Hamas drove Fatah out of the territory in
a week of bloody fighting in 2007. l

n AFP, London
The British media maintained a blackout yesterday on a photograph showing the bare
bottom of Prince William's wife Kate, despite
the picture being used in other countries.
One of Rupert Murdoch's Australian
newspapers published the photograph
on Wednesday, saying it was refusing to
follow the ridiculous ban imposed by the
British press.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph published
the photograph the day after Germany's
biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, became
the first publication to use the image.
In Bild the photograph was accompa-

Egypt voting extended after low turnout

chief, after turnout fell below that in
the poll won by the Islamist leader
he ousted.
The move raised further question

marks about the democratic credentials of an election already marred by a

deadly crackdown on the main opposition since last year.
Electoral officials said over the
scheduled two days of polling Monday
and Tuesday just 37 percent of eligible
voters cast their ballot well below the
nearly 52 percent who voted in the 2012

election that brought president Mohamed Morsi to power.

The low turnout came despite a personal appeal from retired field marshal
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had been
seeking vindication from the voters
for his overthrow of Egypt's only freely
elected president last July after a single
turbulent year in power.

Egyptian soldiers guard an empty polling station in Cairo on May 28. Egypts presidential election entered into a third day yesterday after
polling was extended amid reports of low turnout
AFP

ple's Party won the most seats in the

751-member EU legislature but no party
has a clear majority. She paid lip service
to Juncker's candidacy for the top job
but said other outcomes were possible.
As a member of the EPP, I supported Jean-Claude Juncker as our candidate for the presidency of the European Commission and I haven't forgotten
that. But I still have to respect the treaty, she told a news conference, rebuffing questions from German reporters
about breaking her word to voters.
The Lisbon treaty governing the
EU says leaders have to take into account the election results but does not
specify that they have to nominate the
so-called Spitzenkandidat of the biggest party as Commission president.
Asked whether she was willing to
outvote Cameron, she said it was important to preserve the good working
atmosphere of the European Council of
EU leaders, especially in times of crisis.
With far-right, anti-EU parties
sweeping to unprecedented victories
in France, Britain and Denmark and
populists gaining ground elsewhere,
the leaders faced tough questions
about the future direction of European
integration.
Drawing initial lessons from a bruising
election, which handed a quarter of all
parliament seats to Eurosceptic or protest
parties, several leaders said they would
seek ways to reorient the EU's work to
make it more relevant to citizens. l

British press maintains

Kate photo blackout

Samri said the compound would remain closed to (non-Muslim) visitors

because of Jerusalem Day celebrations at
the Western Wall, which lies just below.
Tens of thousands of Jews were expected to march to the Western Wall
later in the day, in a traditional event
that tends to spark friction with Palestinians in east Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, police arrested a Palestinian near an entrance to the Old City
for spraying Jews with tear gas.
Israel considers Jerusalem its indivisible capital, while Palestinians
insist east Jerusalem be the capital of
their future state. l

Palestinian newspaper offices raided

Syrians stream to
embassies to vote
in controversial poll n AFP, Cairo
Egypt extended voting into a third day
yesterday in a presidential election
n AFP, Beirut
seen as a plebiscite on the former army
Thousands of Syrians, thronging streets
around their embassy in Beirut, yesterday streamed to the polls for Syrias controversial presidential poll being staged
as civil war rages in the country.
For the early vote by expats, the
Yarzeh district of east Beirut was festooned with Syrian flags and portraits
of President Bashar al-Assad, who is
expected to cruise to victory in the
June 3 election. With security tight for
the vote, which the official media back
home hailed as a moral triumph for the
regime, the yellow flags of Lebanons
Shiite militant movement Hezbollah,
a staunch ally of Assads forces in their
brutal three-year showdown with rebels, were also prominent.
Of the estimated three million Syrians living abroad, including both refugees and peacetime residents, only
around 200,000 were entitled to vote
yesterday, in 38 embassies abroad, a foreign ministry source said in Damascus.
Its a relatively acceptable figure,
if we bear in mind the fact that France,
Germany and Belgium have banned
Syrian citizens from voting, along
with the United Arab Emirates, said AlWatan, a pro-regime Damascus daily.
The ministry says 40,000 citizens
are listed on the electoral register in
Lebanon. l

terms and conditions of the US military

presence in the country after this year.
Afghanistans outgoing president
Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the
agreement, but both of the candidates vying to be his successor in next
months run-off vote Ashraf Ghani
and Abdullah Abdullah have said they
will sign the deal.
So Im hopeful we can get this
done, Obama said.

US troops in Afghanistan

Sisi, whose victory over his sole rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi,
was never in doubt, had urged 40,
45 (million) or even more of Egypt's
53 million eligible voters to turn out
to give credibility to an election boycotted not only by Morsi's Muslim
Brotherhood but also by influential
secular groups.
After reports of a meagre numbers at
polling stations on the first day of voting Monday, Sisi's backers in the staterun media harangued people to go out
and vote.
An electoral official said polling had
been extended to give a chance to the
largest possible number of voters to
cast their ballots.
On Wednesday, several Cairo polling
stations visited by AFP were deserted in
the initial hours of voting. They didn't
get enough votes, so they extended
polling into a third day, complained
filmmaker Mohamed Ali Hagar, who
said he would stay away regardless.
However, the extension of polling
hours in a bid to boost turnout did little
to raise the credibility of the vote in the
eyes of Western governments whose
longstanding alliance with Cairo was
seriously compromised by last year's
overthrow of the elected president.
The regime had projected Sisi
in a certain way, but that facade
has been undermined... support for
Sisi was overstated, said Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Institution's
Saban Centre. l

nied by a caption declaring that the future

queen had a beautiful bum.
It shows the Duchess of Cambridge's blue
and white summer dress lifted by a gust of
wind when the royal couple got out of a helicopter in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
The British press initially reacted with
outrage to Bild, with the Daily Mail calling
it a breach of privacy while blasting the
crude caption that appeared alongside.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail took a
different approach, publishing the picture
with the offending area pixellated alongside a piece by Australian-born columnist
Amanda Platell urging Kate to dress
differently to avoid another embarrassing
wardrobe malfunction.
The Times' columnist Carol Midgley
meanwhile described the decision by
foreign newspapers to use the picture as
sleazy and creepy and described the
fascination as perplexing as if people
somehow expected to find something else
under (her skirt).
The image was widely available on the Internet and Twitter. The official line from the
royal family was a resounding no comment.
The publication of the photograph
raises fresh questions about the royal
family's privacy.
In 2012, French magazine Closer
provoked outrage among the royals and
sections of the British press when it published paparazzi photos of a topless Kate
on holiday at a French villa. l

US unable to
confirm Nigerian
claim about
kidnapped girls
n Reuters, Washington
The United States said it does not have
information that would support Nigerias claim that it knows the whereabouts
of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls,
and US and European officials voiced
skepticism about the statement.
We dont have independent information from the United States to
support that statement, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told
reporters on Tuesday. We, as a matter
of policy and for the girls safety and
wellbeing, would not discuss publicly
this sort of information regardless.
Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff Air
Marshal Alex Badeh said on Monday
that the countrys military knew the
location of the schoolgirls, abducted by
the Boko Haram Islamic militant group
on April 14.
Five US and European security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had no credible information on the location of girls and
were skeptical that the Lagos government knows where they are.
The five officials said the United
States and some European allies had
provided technical intelligence, including information from spy aircraft
and satellites. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Pakistani Taliban
faction breaks away
n Reuters, Pakistan

been Mehsuds except for the current

chief who took power in a bitterly contested struggle last year.
On one side is a commander called
Khan Sajna Said, who supports peace
talks with the government of Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, Taliban commanders said.

The Pakistan Taliban split into two

groups yesterday, highlighting growing divisions within the movement and
diminishing the government's chances
of finding a negotiated settlement with
the insurgency.
The split is between two rival groups
from the powerful Mehsud tribe which
provides the Taliban the bulk of their
money and fighters from its base in the
South Waziristan region.
The breakaway group is in favour of
peace talks with the government while
the main insurgency has announced
that it will continue attacks against
government and security targets.
The (Taliban's) present leadership and fighters have become a band
of paid killers involved in un-Islamic
activities like killings, robberies, extortion and kidnappings for ransom,
Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the breakaway faction, told Reuters.
The Taliban leadership could not be
reached for comment.
The Pakistani Taliban separate to
but allied with the Afghan Taliban
is already fractured, a loose union of
groups who often fight with each other.
The latest split diminishes hopes the
government can find a negotiated peace
deal with the insurgents deeply divided
over whether to talk to the government.
All Pakistani Taliban leaders have

The split is between

two rival groups from
the powerful Mehsud
tribe which provides
the Taliban the bulk
of their money and
fighters
His rival, Shehryar Mehsud, is against
the tentative talks that began in February, and one of his commanders said
attacks on the government would go on
regardless.
Both Afghan and Pakistani insurgent leaders have issued a series of urgent appeals for unity in recent weeks
after clashes between rival commanders killed scores of Taliban fighters.
Senior Taliban commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Wednesday that they had called a meeting of
the leadership council to discuss the
latest split. l

World

Detentions silence
coup critics in
Thailand
n AFP, Bangkok
Their names read out on national television, politicians, activists, academics
and journalists are among scores of
influential people summoned by Thailands junta and arbitrarily held in secret locations.
Over 250 people have been called in
since the army seized power and took top
political figures into custody on Thursday during negotiations purporting to be
aimed at navigating a path through the
kingdoms debilitating political strife.
Dozens are still being held while 53
are in hiding, risking two years in prison for defying the military summons.
And while some people have been
freed, including former premiers Yingluck Shinawatra and Abhisit Vejjajiva,
the junta says more people will be called.
Military authorities have already cast
their net wide. Troops raided the house
of rights activist Sukanya Prueksakasemsuk, whose husband Somyot was jailed
for 11 years under the kingdoms strict
royal insult laws last year, briefly detaining her and her son in a move decried by
Human Rights Watch as disturbing.
Even academics and journalists traditionally thought to be close to the
army have been called in although
some have not been held.
After days of spiriting people into undisclosed military facilities, the junta on
Tuesday released footage of Red Shirt
protest leaders to show they were safe. l

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thai Red Shirts freed as Facebook

block sows panic
n AFP, Bangkok
Thailand's junta yesterday freed leaders of the Red Shirt movement allied
to the ousted government, as social
media users reacted with alarm to rumours of a block of Facebook.
Since seizing power last week the
military has summoned more than 250
people, curtailed liberties under martial law and imposed a nightly curfew
as part of a series of measures that have
sparked dismay among rights groups.
Analysts say the move to detain political figures from across the kingdom's
bitter divide is aimed at quelling potential opposition to the May 22 coup.
After an outcry on the Internet, the
army interrupted national television
to deny it had blocked Facebook after
the site briefly went down and caused
panic online.
Surely that would be suicide. Whole
country would protest, one user wrote
on Twitter of the rumours the site was
under siege in the kingdom.
Some users were unconvinced with
the junta's denial, speculating that it
could have been a trial run for a possible blackout in the future, or a warning
shot to social media users not to criticise the coup.
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are hugely popular
in the country, and have been used by
anti-coup protesters to organise small

A man check his facebook on his smart phone with a message reading error loading news
feed on the skytrain (bts) in Bangkok on May 28
AFP
protests against the military regime.
Despite warnings by the army of a
widening crackdown on dissent, protesters have been gathering in Bangkok
in small but vehement rallies against
the military takeover, while rival procoup rallies have also sprung up.

'Treated well'

But in a possible sign that the army is

more confident about its grip on power,
key members of the Red Shirts protest
group were released Wednesday after
nearly a week in detention.

The movement's chairman Jatuporn

Prompan said they were treated well.
What we have been most concerned about is that the losses (of life)
in 2010 should not happen again in
2014 we should learn the lessons,
he said, referring to a bloody military
crackdown on their rallies against
a previous government that left
dozens dead.
The army has said people who have
been detained and released since the
coup must sign a document promising
to cease political activity. l

Myanmar opposition
defies warning to push
charter change
n AFP, Yangon

People enjoy the sunset at Yangon jetty on May 27. Myanmars opposition party has launched a petition seeking changes to Myanmars military-drafted constitution despite warnings
from electoral officials, a party spokesman said yesterday
AFP

On board Flight MH370

Quotes are taken from

stories reported by AFP

Listed passenger and crew nationalities and what we know

about some of them
Captain: Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, Malaysian

Co-pilot: Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, Malaysian

Joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and has

logged more than 18,000 hours of flying time,
reputed by colleagues to be a superb pilot

Described by his neighbourhood mosques

spiritual leader as a mild mannered
good boy

Crew: 10

All Malaysian nationals

Chief steward who never missed a Liverpool football match, according to

daughter who has appealed on Twitter for him to come home so you can
watch the game on television
Passengers: 227
Oldest passenger, 79

CHINA 153

20 employees of Freescale
Semiconductor firm (US)

MALAYSIA 38

Joint youngest passenger, 2

19 Chinese artists who were in Malaysia for a state-sponsored

exhibition, including painter and poet Wang Linshi,
who had a lust for life

34-year-old dad on a business trip to Beijing who has left his

3-year-old son asking where is dad?

INDONESIA 7

AUSTRALIA 6

Sugianto Lo
and Vinny Chynthya,
couple

Friends on holiday,
Bob and
Catherine Lawton,
with Rodney and
Mary Burrows,
described by a
neighbour as
beautiful people

USA 3

CANADA 2

INDIA 5

Li Yuan and
Gu Naijun,
Sydney couple
reportedly returning
to China after their
petrol station
business was put
into administration

FRANCE 4

Couple and son

en route to visit
another son in
Beijing working
on post-doctoral
astrophysics
research who was
left wondering
I dont know
what happened

Three high school

students at the
Lycee Francais
international
school in Beijing

NEW ZEALAND 2

2
Joint youngest
passenger, 2

Muktesh Mukherjee,
Indian-born Canadian
working for US firm in
Beijing, heading home
with his wife Xiaomo Bai
after holidaying

UKRAINE 2

NETHERLANDS
RUSSIA
TAIWAN
1 each

Paul Weeks, en route

to a mining venture
in Mongolia, whose
wife Danica said of
the wait for information
every day it just
seems like its an
eternity

Identified by Interpol as
Pouria Nourmohammadi, 18
and Seyed Mohammed
Reza Delavar, 29, Iranian illegal
immigrants travelling on stolen
Austrian and Italian passports
One of them was on his way
to Germany in order to
be with his mother, Interpol said
Source: AFP/Malaysia Airlines

MH370 relatives
accuse Malaysia of
withholding data
n AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Families of passengers aboard missing
flight MH370 yesterday accused Malaysia of withholding crucial satellite
data, saying a long-awaited report is incomplete and does not prove the plane
crashed in the Indian Ocean.
Authorities on Tuesday released a
47-page summary of communication
logs from the Malaysia Airlines plane
recorded by British satellite operator Inmarsat, information which relatives and
independent experts had demanded.
No wreckage from the jet, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew on board, has been found
despite a massive international search.
Many relatives are frustrated over
the lack of progress, and have little
faith in the complex process used to
form the theory that the plane veered
off course for reasons unknown after
losing contact, and then crashed into
the southern Indian Ocean.
Michael Exner, a US-based satellite
engineer and one of the most prominent independent experts to analyse
the findings, said Malaysia had failed
to provide crucial supporting details
together with the Inmarsat logs.
There is a little bit more new information that may help us. But there is
just a very large body of metadata that
is missing, he told AFP. They are not
being transparent. It may not be possible to draw any conclusions. Why dont
they just release all? Why do they hide
so much of it? l

Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party

has launched a petition seeking changes to Myanmar's military-drafted constitution despite warnings from electoral officials, a party spokesman said
yesterday.
The
former
political
prisoner-turned-politician, who has been
campaigning to amend the charter
since she became a lawmaker two years
ago, is barred by the charter from becoming president.
Our signature campaign has made
good progress since we started. We
have had some interference some police officers came to us asking to give
them the list (of signatures), Nyan
Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy, told AFP.
The party, supported by other democracy activists, began collecting
signatures at NLD offices around the
country on Tuesday.
The 2008 constitution blocks anyone whose spouse or children are overseas citizens from leading the country
a clause widely believed to be targeted

at the Nobel laureate, whose two sons

are British.
It also ring-fences a quarter of the
seats in parliament for unelected military personnel, leaving the army with a
significant political role despite the end
of outright junta rule.
Earlier this month Suu Kyi addressed
a crowd of thousands and urged the
military top brass as well as rank-andfile soldiers to support the petition.
I would like you all to consider
whether getting more opportunities
than ordinary citizens is really fair,
Suu Kyi said.
But the top election body has
warned her to modify her language towards the soldiers participating in parliament. Words urging (and saying) 'I
challenge you' and so on, is beyond the
boundary allowed by the constitution,
it said in a letter.
Parliamentary elections due to be
held in 2015 are seen as a definitive test
of whether the military is willing to
loosen its grip on power.
The president is selected by the legislature and Suu Kyi has declared her
ambition to lead the country. l

Indias 13-year-long hunger striker

pins hopes on Modi
n AFP, New Delhi
An Indian activist who has been on
hunger strike for over 13 years said
yesterday she was pinning her hopes
of finally leading a normal life on new
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Irom Sharmila, 42, who is force-fed
by a drip through her nose, said she
wanted to meet Modi in hopes of ending the militarys alleged human rights
abuses in her northeastern home state
of Manipur.
Escorted by more than a dozen police
officers, Sharmila appeared in a court in
New Delhi in connection with long-running charges against her of attempting
to commit suicide, a crime in India.
Sharmila told a judge that she wanted a settled life as others do but
would not break her fast until a controversial law that covers large parts of
restive northeastern India and Kashmir
was repealed.
I love my life... I also want to live
life as others but only after this draconian law is removed, she told the
packed court.
Sharmila began her fast in November 2000 after witnessing the armys
killing of 10 civilians at a bus stop near
her home in Manipur, which is subject
to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA).
The law enables security forces,
battling long-running insurgencies,
to shoot on sight and arrest anybody
without a warrant.

Irom Chanu Sharmila (L) arrives to board a flight for New Delhi ahead of her court
appearance at the Patiala House Court, at the airport in Imphal
AFP
I will never stop my struggle until
this law is repealed completely. I have
many hopes from Mr Modi. I will try to
meet and ask him to help this cause,
she told AFP after yesterdays hearing.
Sharmila was arrested in Manipur
on the grounds of attempted suicide
three days after she began her hunger
strike in November 2000.
She has been in judicial custody in
hospital in the state since then.
The Delhi state government pressed
its own charges of attempted sui-

cide against Sharmila in 2006 after

she staged a hunger-strike protest in
the capital.
Modi, who was sworn in Monday as
prime minister after a landslide election victory, promised to tackle the
northeasts biggest problems of insurgency and infiltration at a campaign
rally in February.
But the pro-business leader known
for his hardline stance on security issues made no mention of repealing
the law. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Thursday, May 29, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

A valuable friendship

he prime ministers four-day visit to Japan provides a good

indicator of the friendly relations between our two countries.
Japan has always been a valuable friend to Bangladesh and
is a key investor and trade partner. Its commitment to provide 600
billion Yen ($6 billion) of additional financial assistance, within the
next five years, adds to the steadfast support JICA has given to the
metro rail project and Japans recent $1.18bn soft loan package.
We welcome these deals as an important vote of confidence in the
future of Bangladesh.
The proposal by Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
for a Bay of Bengal Industrial
Growth Belt to help Bangladesh
take advantage of its location
between South and East
Asia, adds an extra long-term
dimension to the discussions to
boost mutual trade and
co-operation.
More immediately, the
memorandum signed between
JETRO and the Bangladesh
Export Processing Zones Authority to reserve facilities in five EPZs
provides a major incentive to boost investment by private sector
Japanese investors in Bangladesh. The indications given that Japan
will review its rules for knitwear imports are particularly welcome as a
potential boost for our exports.
It is important to maximise the benefits of the new assistance on
offer, by investing strategically to improve the countrys infrastructure
and productivity.
We hope that by highlighting specific project proposals, such as
the Ganges Barrage, new Jamuna bridge and tunnels, restoration of
rivers and the multi-modal Dhaka Eastern Bypass, that this weeks
talks will encourage multilateral institutions and other nations to add
to Japans support.

Japans support
will encourage
other nations
to invest in the
country

Make census count

for slum dwellers

majority of slum dwellers living in Dhaka are believed to have

been excluded from the slum census which began last month,
despite Tk9.32 crore being allocated for the task.
The shoddy execution of this count is another example of the
neglect shown to the rights of slum dwellers by authorities and
policymakers. The census was intended to provide a platform for
helping policymakers to recognise the concerns and rights of slum
dwellers. Its poor implementation bodes poorly for the prospects
of improving their living
conditions.
Slums are the main housing
available to the millions of
working poor in the capital.
Their residents are the engine
behind our economic growth
and deserve better recognition
of their need for affordable,
decent housing.
The unregulated, unplanned
and often illegal development
of slums denies basic sanitation,
healthcare, and utilities to
literally millions of people and
exposes large numbers of residents to unacceptable hazards.
Even though the census is not complete, preliminary results do
confirm familiar problems such as exploitation by landlords and lack of
access to services.
The government should use the census to help it refocus policy to
alleviate these concerns.
Overcentralised industrial development is the key driver for the
concentration of working poor in and around the capital, and for the
spread of slums.
Public policy has to include furthering plans to decentralise
industry away from Dhaka. Improving communications and services
to allow better planned developments on cheaper land will be the
best way to reduce the growth of slums in the future.

Slum residents
deserve better
recognition of their
concerns

Be heard
Write to Dhaka Tribune
FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207
Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com
Send us your Op-Ed articles:
opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com
www.dhakatribune.com
Join our Facebook community:
https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Is Modi scaring Bangladesh?

May 24

Lalon Shah
Its beyond me why arm-chair analysts always beat
about the bush. The message to the new Indian
government is clear, as it has been since Bangladeshs inception treat us as an equal partner. This
means resolving the following issues forthwith:
a) Equitable sharing of waters of common rivers
(Teesta et al); b) ratification of LBA; and c) stopping
bloodshed at the borders.
Bangladeshis will continue to remain suspicious
of India if the above are not addressed immediately.
Conversely, addressing these will send a clear
message that India is comfortable with the presence
of a sovereign nation to her eastern flank. Contrary
to the paranoia some Indian policymakers hold about
Bangladesh, Bangladeshis are a practical lot. They are
not prone to cooking up imaginary issues to harbour
misgivings about a neighbour with whom they share
deep-rooted ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties.

brutishly, but they never do so publicly and prefer

to use RAW to carry out their nefarious agenda in
neighbouring countries. India has allegedly been
involved in acts of terrorism, assassination and
sabotage throughout the South Asia region.
Narendra Modi may well carry out his aggressive
agenda against Bangladesh but it is likely to be
behind a curtain with RAW doing most of the dirty
work. The entire Indian political, diplomatic, military, intelligence, bureaucratic, business and Hindu
religious elite are part of this national conspiracy to
achieve hegemony and control over the South Asia
region.
Narendra Modi will indeed be a great leader if he
can overturn 80 years of Indian foreign policy and
actually work with his neighbours, but that will take
a very exceptional leader indeed. And even if he
was so inclined it would prove an almost impossible
task.

Mohammad Munshi
All Indian governments since 1947 have behaved

Shah
This article makes no sense whatsoever.

How to solve: Each number in our

CODE-CRACKER grid represents a
different letter of the alphabet. For
example, today 5 represents H so fill H
every time the figure 5 appears.
You have two letters in the control grid
to start you off. Enter them in appropriate squares in the main grid, then use
your knowledge of words to work out
which letters go in the missing squares.
Some letters of the alphabet may not
be used.
As you get the letters, fill in the other
squares with the same number in the
main grid, and the control grid. Check
off the list of alphabetical letters as you
identify them.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

SUDOKU
How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the
numbers 1 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must
contain all nine digits with no numberrepeating.

Porn star Shanti Dynamite to

make Bollywood debut
May 24

musavvir
How is this newsworthy? And why should the
good people of Bangladesh be concerned about
this?
Anon
musavvir: Im sure there are plenty of good people in Bangladesh wholl google her right now. Not
so much out of concern, as out of curiosity and
to satisfy certain natural appetites. Just calling a
spade a spade. No point being in denial about it!

Study: 80% slum girls victims

of child marriage
May 23

vihan
Strange. Unicef recently congratulated the government with their progress regarding childrens
rights and education for all, especially concerning
girls. Progress??

Softex files $100m

compensation suit over factory
closure without notice
May 23

Mehedi Hasan
Did Softex provide proper and lawful compensation to the workers? Or did they cheat/ commit
fraud with the workers in terms of payment while
the factory was closed?

One computer, 43 trainees!

May 24
vik
The true face of Digital Bangladesh.

Tensions on the fault line

May 22

SD
Bangladeshs tolerant and inclusive self image is a
myth. In reality, intolerance is the hallmark of Bangladeshis. Yes, they (Bangladeshis) are inclusive, so
long as the minorities agree to get included in their
(the majoritys) terms; otherwise they are not. If
political parties represent the hopes, aspirations
and will of the people, then the question of Bangladeshis level of tolerance will be clear.
In this connection, I would like to draw attention
to the TV talk shows, which seem to be the
latest business venture of electronic media. The
participants are undoubtedly the most elite and
enlightened section of our society and you will get
a clear idea of our intellectuals tolerance level. The
moulanas and hujurs of this country represent the
guardians of our religion and try to measure honestly
the level of their tolerance. Taslima Nasrin, a thirdrate writer of this country, was sent into lifelong exile
for holding opinions that did not conform to the
preference of this so-called tolerant society.
As a matter of fact we are very fond of myths
which we love to believe in and follow, such as 1)
Ours is a society of communal harmony; 2) We are
a most hospitable nation; 3) We love the religion
of peace; 4) We like to build our society based on
the spirit of the liberation war; and 5) We have
100 years of cultural tradition etc, all of which are
rubbish, according to the language of one our
well-known ministers.

CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Former Iranian
leader (4)
5 Interior decoration (5)
8 Sea-robber (6)
9 Minute particle (4)
10 Male sheep (3)
12 Enigma (6)
13 Jubilant (6)
15 Seller (6)
18 Exploded mildly (6)
20 Flightless bird (3)
21 Chess piece (4)
23 English river (6)
24 Swarms (5)
25 Walk through
water (4)

DOWN
1 Gap (5)
2 Success (3)
3 Fragrance (5)
4 Poor actor (3)
5 Mocked (7)
6 Small rope (4)
7 Eternal city (4)
11 As well (4)
12 Returns to former
habit (7)
14 Machine for weaving (4)
16 Play (5)
17 Wash lightly (5)
18 Raw hide (4)
19 Unmixed (4)
21 Animals foot (3)
22 Marry (3)

Buddhist Architecture
What a tragic image portrayed in this article, but
it is good to share and let everyone think about
what the fall-out is of such vandalism.

CALVIN AND HOBBES

YESTERDAYS SOLUTIONS
CODE-CRACKER
Life isnt getting better
May 23

nds
What is your suggestion to get rid of this crisis?
I find no way out other than to commit suicide
en masse.

CROSSWORD

Breadbitten
nds: The first step is admitting it.

PEANUTS

Illegal govt has no right to

place budget
May 24

Ronnie
This is a tidy summary of the BNP chairpersons
comments today, all of which are completely
correct and with which I completely agree.

Culprits kill boy after failing to

rape mother
May 23

Vikram Khan
I demand the public execution of the
murderers!

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Stop the leak

n Md Sakawat Hossain

Young entrepreneurs are changing the country

BIGSTOCK

Trust no one (but yourself)

n Maneeza Hossain
he indisputable fact that
any keen observer of the
Bangladeshi scene will
establish, is that the big
story in Bangladesh over
the last 10 years is the irreversible
emergence of a robust middle class.
Gone are the days when our country
consisted of a thin layer of wealthy
families in control of the economy and
the politics, and the vast majority of
almost destitute, often illiterate masses. The Bangladeshis of today are well
educated and determined to climb up
a social ladder that they have built.
Bangladesh is a land of opportunities
and those deciding to take advantage
of those opportunities are no longer
the few. The new generation of Bangladeshis is set to transform this nation.
The government of Bangladesh
has taken considerable steps towards
empowering and enabling this transformation, not the least of it the Digital
Bangladesh initiative which recognises
that sustainable development in the
21st century requires a digital infrastructure to serve as a launch-pad for
the local talent into a global scene.
The government, as it should, is not
placing itself as the solution but as the
enabler of the solution. Ours is not the
age of the government as the parent,

the boss, or the miracle-maker. Ours

is the age of the private initiative that
decides the course for the individual,
the society, and the nation.
The main value for this new approach that will catapult our nation
to the place it deserves in the global
community is entrepreneurship. The
young in Bangladesh understand
entrepreneurship as being compatible
with their sense of social responsibility.

the needs of our own society not

run-of-the-mill formulas imported
as templates from elsewhere. This
is possible today in Bangladesh,
thanks to a generational change that
values education but also to the deep
realisation that the responsibility
and credit for success resides in the
individual and not in a paternalistic or
patronising collective.
The new Bangladeshi remains

Ours is the age of the private initiative that

decides the course for the individual, the society,
and the nation

The conflict between these two values

as stated by ideologues, used to lead
to a blunting of private initiative, in
the past deemed selfish and contrary
to the public good. We now know
that personal success is the building
block of national success. Away from
theories and ideologies, Bangladeshi
youth is putting into practice their
innovative potential and coming out
with ideas for solutions tailored to

in perfect harmony with his or her

society, in total coordination with his
or her government, in mutual respect
with his or her global environment.
The new Bangladeshi has learned the
important lesson that self-reliance is
the way forward.
In a recent meeting designed to
expose young Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to potential investors, it
was evident that the seed is ready,

but not the soil. The young entrepreneurs had their ideas conceived,
detailed, and planned. Carrying
these ideas to fruition requires an
ecosystem that includes an enabling
government as well as local capital that is willing to recognise the
dramatic potential for growth that
resides in this youth.
Administrative reform is a long
process that has been initiated in
Bangladesh, but will require everyones
renewed dedication to ensure that red
tape will not be the inhibitor of the
next generation. The wealth generated
through Bangladeshs industrial minds
ought to recognise that there is far
more to this society than affordable
labour and reliable production. This is a
society beaming with ideas, with young
people ready to compete with their
global counterparts. They are demanding attention and they will receive it.
It is neither charity nor magnificence that they see, but the realisation
on the part of their elders that they
are indeed relying on themselves and
trusting themselves first and foremost.
It is in everyone elses interest to follow
suit and to trust them. Trust the next
generation of Bangladeshis. l
Maneeza Hossain is a Director of Aegistex
and a determined supporter of the next
generation of entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.

ur education ministry is often

praised as one of the better
performing and less corrupted
ministries of the current government.
It is true, if someone judges the ministrys achievements in terms of the
number of student passing the SSC and
HSC, the number of GPA 5 achievers,
and the number of public and private
universities and medical colleges
established since 2009. However, this
superficial success is actually destroying not only our education system, but
also all the other ministries.
These so-called successes of the
education ministry were achieved
through some disgraceful, corrupted,
immoral, and heartbreaking ways
ways which demand an immediate halt. The most dangerous one,
something that is frequently happening these days, is the leaking of exam
question papers before the exams. It
is now crystal clear that the question
papers will be available in the open
market for sale. To get the questions
before the exam, you just need to
keep your eyes and ears open, contact
the right person, or open a Facebook
account. This is now happening for
nearly all sorts of examinations, especially during the tenure of the current
education minister.
How much control does our current
education ministry have on the education system? Frankly speaking, I am
in serious doubt. Those involved in
the process of making questions and
those delivering them to the exam hall
might be more corrupt than any other
government sector. After such mass
leaking of exam papers, our minister
was still arguing that these were all
rumours. The government had yet to
punish those responsible. The media
was not launching any investigative
report, an important part in unveiling
the facts.
In various occasions, the minister
had claimed that he had successfully decreased students tendencies
to copy answers in public exams, a
feat praised by members of our civil
society and the media. But the reality
is, there is no need to copy answers if a
student has already seen the question
paper before the exam. By observing
the extent of public exam papers being
leaked, it seems that elements in our
administration are glad to take on the
responsibility of leaking the question
papers secretly, so that students give
up their copying tendencies rather
than improve their level of education
by studying. In return, the ministry
receives the praise from civil society
members and the media for successfully lowering copying tendencies.
The second terrifying thing is the
extremely high pass rates in the public
exam, with marks given generously
out of ill political motivations. This is
completely destroying the motivation
of the good students who are always
striving for better results. After each
public exams (PSC, JSC, SSC, and HSC),
all teachers who are responsible in scrutinising exam papers are asked by the
ministry to give maximum marks without following proper evaluation methods. It is also instructed that if someone
writes something in his answer script,

irrespective of the exam questions

content, marks should be doled out just
by counting the number of pages the
answer comprises without considering
its quality and level of correctness.
More than 90% of students passing
with countless numbers of GPA 5s and
golden GPA 5s, are simply the result of
the question papers being leaked and
the intentionally generous marking.
Students who were expecting to get a
maximum of GPA 4 have been seen to
have gotten golden GPA 5s, simply due
to the ministry or education boards
instruction for excessive marking.
After getting such improbably good results, students and their parents expectations skyrocket. These students
face the harshness of reality once they
sit for the university admission tests,
where most of them are unable to even
secure a passing mark.
These victimised students lose all
hope and start to deteriorate mentally
after realising their uncertain futures.
In some cases, these students opt out
by committing suicide. However, the
lucky students whove already secured
unexpectedly good results in their SSCs
and HSCs due to the above mentioned
faulty education system, are again blessed by the leak of admission test question
papers or a defective admission process.
On the other hand, students whose
parents have either plenty of corrupted money or political connections are
able to buy their way into getting their
children admitted at the ever increasing
number of private universities, medical
colleges, or even sometimes at educational institutions abroad.
Those who are actually good students somehow get admitted to public
higher education institutions, and get
good results after years of hard work,
once again face another harsh reality.
These hardworking students, mostly
coming from lower-middle or even
lower-class families, are barely able to
secure any jobs in either the public or
private sector, seeing how the job market in our country is already in service
to people who have ample amounts of
black money, political affiliations, or
are blessed by nepotism.
Now, someone might argue that
the job market is not in control of the
education ministry. Yes, it is true if you
look to the matter from the surface.
Dig a little deeper, and the faulty
education system is again the centre
of everything, which is continuously pouring sub-standard graduates
into the job market and ultimately in
every sector of the government. These
sub-standard graduates are backed
by dirty money or have a powerful
uncle with some kind of political
affiliation.
I know it is really difficult to
convince the administration how
important the education ministry is,
and how much agony it has caused for
the ordinary people. In many sectors,
the effect of corruption is short-term
and quickly rectifiable, but in the education sector, the current system of
corruption and its ultimate damage is
long-lasting, and is already starting to
destroy not only the economy, but also
good governance. l
Md Sakawat Hossain is a faculty member at
Jahangirnagar University.

Safety nets do work

n Mamun Rashid

am privileged to have enjoyed very

good relationships with almost all
finance ministers and secretaries
in the last two decades. Be it M Saifur
Rahman, SAMS Kibria, Akbar Ali Khan,
Mirza Aziz, or Muhith one thing I
have seen in common in all, is an eagerness to reduce poverty and help out
the marginalised.
Many development partners earn
a lot of praise for social protection
programs in Bangladesh. No matter
whether we are dismayed about the
success of these social safety nets or
social protection, Bangladesh remains
a champion in reducing ultra-poverty
through multi-faceted social support
programs. Apart from the government,
through its Social Safety Net Programs
(SSNPs), many NGOs have also contributed significantly in this space.
Ironically, Bangladesh has an
almost 15 million passenger population riding on the back of the productive forces doing almost nothing.
There are, at present, four types
of SSNPs in Bangladesh. These are:
Employment generation program
(employment for the poorest of the
poor, food for work, vulnerable group
development, and such), cash transfer

(allowances for widows, destitute

women, etc), conditional cash transfer
(stipend for primary school students,
school nutrition program, etc), and
emergency relief (eg open market sale
or the feeding of vulnerable groups).
Absence of comprehensive data
makes it difficult to track the expenditure of SSNPs. In 2006, World Bank
estimated that during the period between FY1996-97 and FY2004-05, on
an average, the government expenditure on SSNPs was to the tune of 0.8%
of the GDP and 5.7% of the total public
expenditure. In fact, the definition of
SSNP is undergoing several changes.
For example, a pension for retired government employees and their families
was being operated, but was not recognised when a more comprehensive
data on SSNP budget was presented in
FY2006-07.
In FY2010-11, this program accounted for 20% of the total safety
net budget. Efforts towards widening
the SSNPs in recent years are evident
in Bangladesh. New programs are
being included. Budgetary allocations
for SSNPs as a share of total budget
increased from 8.4% in FY2006-07
to 14.8% in FY2010-11. As a share of
GDP, allocation for SSNPs also doubled
in the last five years, reaching 2.5%

in FY2010-11 compared to FY200607. The government, the ministry of

planning to be precise, has done some
extensive research to understand the
target market better and widen the
beneficiary net.
The Sixth Five Year Plan (SFYP)
document has proposed increasing
public expenditure on SSNPs to that of
3% of the GDP in FY2014-15. Budget for
fiscal 2014 has allocated Tk253.71bn (or
Tk25,371cr) for SSNPs, which is 11.4%
of the total budget and 2.13% of Bangladeshs GDP. Even with the recent
rise, Bangladesh seems to be spending
far less than other regions. The World
Bank showed that, on an average,
South Asian economies spent 4% of
the GDP in SSNPs, whereas the expenditure of East Asia and the Pacific
was about 8% of the GDP. Incidentally,
many developed countries are also
seen putting up large sums towards
building social protection.
With visible results, the ministry
of finance is reportedly ready to come
down more strongly on poverty. Some
are of the opinion that the target
market should be squeezed to make
this more effective. Some say the
allocation should be higher to make
this worthwhile. However, most feel
that only the ministry of finance will

not be able to ensure positive impacts

much unless line ministries like food,
agriculture, health, education, women, and childrens affairs come up with
a fitting, performance-driven execution plan. Increasingly, monitoring is
becoming the most important issue to
make sure the right target market is
being served and that the money is not
being used to buy luxury items for the
rural landlords.

intervention at the ground level. We

also need to decentralise these with a
performance stick at the Union Parishad level and make sure they reach
out further to the target market. Major
issues related to SSNPs still remain
to be targeting areas, targeting the
deserving poor, indentify the required
amount of allowance, and impact
assurance. The World Bank study
shows 60% of the SSNP beneficiaries

Safety net programs should continue, and

Bangladesh should be seen as a real test case
for development

People these days talk about decentralisation, since commuting takes

much time and often seriously deters
implementation. Many have focused
on quality expenditure management,
monitoring, and evaluation of the
programs at the ministry and directorate levels. Expected implementation
is also influenced by overt political

are not poor. Therefore leakage reduction is critical. Under-capacitated

or non-committal local government
institution, rent-seeking middlemen,
politicisation, and governance failures
are not allowing the benefits to reach
the real target segment and ensure
efficacy of the programs, despite much
eagerness at the top.

Employment-generation programs
should guarantee jobs. Bangladesh has
been trying to expand the guaranteed
job days. The party in power can think
of passing a law in the parliament like
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India. Modis government
has reiterated its commitment to rural
employment generation and is refocusing on the mentioned act put into
action in 2005. Efficiency and effectiveness of SSNPs should be increased.
At the same time we would like to see
diversity in the program architecture
as well. Allocation on SSNPs may be
increasing every year but with regard to
GDP it is decreasing.
Safety net programs should continue, and Bangladesh should be seen
as a real test case for development
through reducing poverty, and rural
employment generation, by its peers
and partners. Irrespective of party
affiliation, all public representatives
should get to see distribution economics working. Political accountability, integrated impact assessment,
and program quality assurance can
take this country on its next trajectory
in terms of growth. l
Mamun Rashid is a business professor and
financial sector entrepreneur.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Tarkanta: Hitting
cinemas June 6

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Nawsheens double role in

Bhalobasha Ek Polokei
n Entertainment Desk

n Entertainment Desk
Tarkanta, a much anticipated film
featuring three leading stars Moushumi, Arefin Shuvo and Bidya Sinha
Mim, will hit the theatres on June 6.
The film will be screened in 90
cinema halls all over the country. It
was initially scheduled to be released
on May 23, but later the release was
pushed back.
Claiming the film as his dream
project, director M M Kamal Raj
said that the movie will feature humour, action, romance and drama
and is bound to hold the interest of

the audience with its star cast and

unique script.
Moushumi plays Shuvos sister
and Mim, his girlfriend.
This is the first time Shuvo and
Mim will be seen together on the silver screen and the audience are in for
a treat as their onscreen chemistry
seems to be promising.
M M Kamal Rajs second film Chhaya-Chhobi featuring Purnima and
Arefin Shuvo is also in the pipeline for
release. Shooting of the film is complete and now it is in post-production,
after which the film will be submitted
to the censor board for approval.

A popular RJ, Nawshin appeared onscreen through RTVs live talk show
Jege Acho Ki. Her photogenic looks,
charming voice and infectious smile
quickly gained her acclaim and popularity.
Today, the viewers will find her
starring opposite Farhan Nisho in a
telefilm tiled Bhalobasha Ek Polokei
which will be aired on Maasranga TV
at 7:50pm. Nawsheen enacts a double
role in the romantic and mysterious
story. Nisho plays an architect named
Arif who falls in love with a woman at
a bus station. He never gets the chance
to express his feelings marries to another woman named Kaya, chosen by
his family.
Kaya is a doppelganger of the
woman he saw at the bus station. Later, when he finds the woman of his
dreams once again, it creates serious
crises in his married life.
About her role, Nawsheen said: I
chose to work in the telefilm for the
twist that has been created by the
double role. I hope the audience will
enjoy the climax.
For the upcoming Eid, she is working in several single-episode plays
and telefilms. The versatile artiste
will soon fly off to Coxs Bazaar to anchor a Grameenphone event attended

by star cricketers including Mashrafi

Murtaza, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur
Rahim.
Nawsheen, happily married to TV
actor Adnan Faruque Hillol, recently
decided against pairing up with her
husband onscreen. She reasoned:
As a couple, we value our
relationship. We dont want to appear
together onscreen anymore. We have

Style and Fashion

airs today
n Entertainment Desk
A lifestyle show titled Style and Fashion will be aired at 8:15pm tonight on
Desh TV. The programme will not only
present segments on seasonal trends,
but also will give style tips to the
viewers.
The audience will get a glimpse of
the latest fashion collections and accessories available in numerous shops.
Furthermore, the show features interviews of fashion designers who will
talk about the latest trends in fashion
and advise the viewers accordingly.
Segments on makeover and accessories will also be showcased. Healthy
food habits and beauty tips will also
be presented by beauticians and health
experts.
Style and Fashion is produced by
Amjad Sujon and anchored by Zabin.

TODAY IN DHAKA
Exhibition

Bornil Pandulipi
Time: 12pm 8pm
Gallery Shilpangon
Second Sight
Time: 12pm 8pm
The Daily Star Centre, 64-65
Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue
Dhaka
Mukh O Mukhosh 5
Time: 11am 8pm
Galleri Kaya, House no. 20
Road no. 16, Sector no. 4, Uttara

Theatre

Dog, Woman, Man

Time: 7pm 9pm
Goethe Institut Bangladesh
Road 9(new), House 10
Dhanmondi
Pussy Biral O Ekjon Prokrito Manush
Time: 7pm 9pm
National Theatre Hall
Shilpakala Academy
Shegun Bagicha

New bride Rani Mukherjee

back to work
n Entertainment Desk

Angelina Jolie pregnant with twins?

Hollywoods A-list couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may cancel their long pending wedding
plans as rumour suggests that Jolie is pregnant
with twins.
According to the popular US tabloid Star magazine, the couple is expecting their twins but
fears that the wedding cancellation would disappoint their other kids, gossip website classicalite.
com reported.
Brangelina are the biological parents of three
children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne and have
three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, Zahara.
However, in spite of the pregnancy, the
Maleficent Star has decided to go on with the
nuptials as they are planning their summer
wedding.
Brad and Angie have decided to just go ahead
with the wedding, even though she is pregnant,
mainly because they know postponing it would

n Shadma Malik
After a seven year hiatus, Shopnochura 4 is about to release tomorrow at
the Russian Cultural Centre. This time
around, the album will bring the tracks of
11 bands, all of which will be performed
at the launching ceremony. The coordinator of the album told Dhaka Tribune:
Shopnochura is my dream project. It has
got nothing to do with commercial gain.
The objective of the project is to promote
upcoming bands. I will consider it a success if we could introduce the music of
even one new band to the audience.
There is no specific genre in this
mixed album. All the bands will explore their own expertise.
About the new bands in the album,
Tony said: There are three senior
bands in Shopnochura 4. It adds value to the album if popular bands are
included. Along with many good composers and musicians, we short-listed
21 songs, among which we have selected 11 songs for the album. It is a collective decision to promote these bands.
About the launching ceremony, the
coordinator said: We are planning a
grand event for the launching of Shopnochura 4. We expect a large turnout
at the event. It will be the event for
music lovers and bands to celebrate
their passion for music.
The bands in the album include
Black, Yaatri, Project Neon, Aronno,
Xodiac, Sin, Somudro, 12 AM, Highway,
EF and Out Break. All the songs will be
available online.

Pompeii in Star
Cineplex
n Entertainment Desk
Pompeii (referred to as Pompeii in 3D) will start showcasing at
the citys Star Cineplex from May 30.
A 2014 German-Canadian historical disaster film produced and
directed by Paul W S Anderson, the film stars Kit Harington, Emily
Browning, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica
Lucas, Jared Harris and Kiefer Sutherland. It premiered in France,
Belgium, and Russia on February 19 and was released over the
course in many major territories, including the United States,
Canada, India, and Australia.
Set in 79 AD, Pompeii tells the epic story of Milo (Kit Harington), a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in
a race against time to save his true love Cassia (Emily Browning),
the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out
of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent
Pompeii crumbles around him.

Freddie Mercury:
Back from the Dead
n Entertainment Desk

Rani Mukherjee who tied the knot to filmmaker Aditya

Chopra in a secret ceremony in Italy last month, is
back to work.
The actor, who will be next seen in Pradeep
Sarkars Mardaani, is back on the sets post
her wedding to complete the remaining
scenes for the drama film.
Rani will be seen playing a policewoman
in the film and made her first post-marriage
appearance earlier this month when she was
spotted at Mumbai Airport without husband
Aditya.
On their return from Italy, Rani and Aditya hosted
a reception for their friends and members from the film
fraternity at their Mumbai residence on May 4. The party
was attended by big personalities of the Bollywood industry like Karan Johar, Anupam Kher and his wife Kirron and
Ranis close friend Vaibhavi Merchant, among others.
To prepare for her role in Mardaani, Rani apparently
met with Mumbai Police Crime Branch chief as part of
research. l

n Entertainment Desk

decided to enjoy our time together in

private.
Her first big screen venture Hello
Amit, directed by Shankha Dasgupta
is yet to release while she is in talks
to act in an upcoming film produced
by Impress Telefilm Ltd. Im looking forward to getting a dynamic role
where I can utilise my acting skills,
said the selective actor.

Shopnochura 4
out tomorrow

disappoint the kids. Angie couldnt care less

about having a baby bump under her dress. And
a summer wedding was something they were always planning on, a source close to the stars told
the US tabloid.
As per the tabloid, Joile had gone through IVF
treatment in order to get pregnant with twins,
the website reported.
When [Brad and Angie] had the eggs implanted, Angelina and Brad were warned it might
not take, so they didnt get their hopes up.
They didnt even tell their kids about it, because they knew how high the chance of disappointment was. But the IVF worked, and
now shes pregnant. Angie is so happy about it,
shes already calling this her miracle baby, the
source added.
While fans are still speculating about the wedding date and themes, Marie Claire UK reported
that the wedding might happen on a boat as per
the star couples childrens wishes.

Fans of legendary rock

band Queen can expect a
real treat later this year, as
Queen is to release their
first new album in 20 years,
and not only will the new
album be the first in two decades, but will also feature
previously unheard vocals
from Queen front man Freddie Mercury.
The new album has the
working title of Queen
Forever, will feature songs
from the 1980s and is
scheduled for release at
the end of this year, and
will have Freddie Mercurys vocals merged with
recently recorded instrumental tracks reports the
Telegraph.
During an interview with
a tabloid at the Hay festival, Queen guitarist Brian May said:
We found a few more tracks with
Freddie singing and all of us playing.
They are quite beautiful and people
will be hearing this work towards the
end of the year.
May then went on to say: We
are going to put out an album
which is probably going to be called
Queen Forever. It is a compilation
but it will have this new material
that nobody in the world has ever
heard.
Most of it comes from the 80s
when we were in full flight so it
is quite emotional. It is the big,
big ballads and the big, big epic
sound.
We had to start from scratch because we only had scraps, but knowing how it would have happened if

we had finished it, I can sit there and

make it happen with modern technology.
Furthermore, not only will the
new Queen album feature Freddie
Mercury vocals, but may even feature a duet between Freddie and Michael Jackson, with drummer Roger
Taylor helping Brian May to restore
the songs.
Taylor has said: Brian has been
active working on old tracks, a
couple of tracks that Freddie did
with Michael Jackson. Theyve
been hanging around for years
and Michaels estate havent really
been able to make their mind up
about what to do with them. So we
suggested we finish them and see.
Theyre pretty good one of them is
great.

Did you know?

Bora Milutinovic
coached in every
World Cup between
1986 and 2002 - but
for different countries:
Mexico, Costa Rica,
USA, Nigeria and China

Sport

Thursday, May 29, 2014

14

14 Tottenham hire
Pochettino as
new manager

DAYS TO
GO

Judgment delay
worries Nazmul
It might take some more time for the
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) tribunal to pronounce its judgment on
the fixing scandal which ravaged the
second edition of Bangladesh Premier
League. Justice Khademul Islam, the
tribunal head and also a former Supreme Court judge, had earlier told the
media that the tribunal would take a
little more time due to complications
before passing its final judgment.
The lingering has made BCB president Nazmul Hasan tensed. After inaugurating the Metropolitan Womens
Cricket League 2014 at Dhanmondi
Cricket Stadium yesterday, he informed
the media of his intention to write a letter to the tribunal if it failed to dispose
of the pending case by May 30.
According to sources, the tribunal
members could not find time to sit
together because of a few members
other engagements. The last time the
tribunal had any public activity was on
February 26. The tribunal, in its short
judgment, acquitted six of the nine individuals charged with match-fixing.
However, it did not pass any judgment
on Mohammad Ashraful and the two
remaining individuals.
I am really worried with the proceedings because the ICC wanted to know the
reason of the delay in its last meeting and
I could say nothing, said Nazmul.
The tribunal assured me of giving its

verdict in two to three weeks. This was 15

to 20 days ago but I am still to hear anything from them and it doesnt even seem
that anything is coming up in next seven
days to be honest. I will wait till 30th of
this month and if nothing comes up, I will
write to them personally, he added.
Apart from the delay, the BCB president is also tensed about the judgment
of Ashraful. Ashraful admitted to the
tribunal of receiving money from Dhaka Gladiators owner Salim Chowdhury
to fix games in BPL. But the tribunal
acquitted Salim in its short judgment
after holding full hearing.
Salim found not guilty means Ashraful didnt receive any money which
should mean he (Ashraful) is also not
guilty. But here the problem is Ashraful
is getting punished because he admitted while the one who gave money gets
acquitted because he was not proved
guilty. Taking Salims arguments into
consideration, no transaction ever took
place. Ashraful should not be guilty in
that case also. So these things are very
tricky and confusing, said Nazmul.
There are still many questions to be
answered. I had to face these questions
in the ICC meeting and unfortunately
I couldnt give answer to any of those.
This is why I am waiting for the report.
We (board) will sit with the report once
we get that and then sit with Acsu (ICC
Anti Corruption Security Unit), and
then with the ICC before finally drawing
a conclusion, said the BCB president. l

The Bangladesh Football Federation

has chalked out a plan to seek Tk350m
annually from the government for the
development of football in the country.
Footballs governing body has been
struggling to meet the financial demands in recent times due to a lack of
sponsors and has finally knocked the
door of the government for assistance.
In the past, the BFF sought money
from the government but failed to
come up with a proper plan as to how
they were planning to utilise it. However, this time they have prepared a plan
which they have already submitted to
the ministry of youth and sports.
The plan will now be recommended
as a project by the Planning Commission.

Sk Jamals Haitian playmaker Sony Norde (L) celebrates one of his two goals while teammate Wedson Anselme runs in to join him during
their Bangladesh Premier Football League encounter against Sheikh Russel at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday COURTESY

plan. It will be considered as a project focusing upon the development

of football in the country. We have included all the aspects of Bangladesh
football in the plan - the professional
league, the football academy, the expenses of the national team and the development programme - are all included in the proposal. All of our activities
are included in it, said Shohag.
The general secretary, however,
added it would not be a continuous
process. It does not mean that the
government will continue the project
forever. We have asked to continue the
support for a couple of years and we
have asked to monitor the results. We
are confident that if the proposal gets
the nod, we will be providing positive
results, said Shohag. l

The Ambassador of Brazil to Bangladesh Wanja Campos da Nobrega (R) presents

President Abdul Hamid with an official Brazil national team jersey at the Bangabhaban
on Tuesday
COURTESY

Lara to play in Lords bicentenary

West Indies great Brian Lara has been
added to the star-studded list of players who will take part in the MCC v Rest
of the World Lords Bicentenary match
on July 5 it was announced Wednesday.
Lara will play alongside fellow alltime batting great Sachin Tendulkar
for MCC, with Australias Aaron Finch,
currently the worlds leading Twenty20
batsman, also in the hosts line-up.
Fast bowlers Umar Gul (Pakistan)
and Tino Best are the final names to be
added to the MCC and Rest of the World
sides respectively.
Tendulkar will captain an MCC XI
that also includes another retired India

15 KKR storm into

IPL final with
convincing win

India in Bangladesh
Left-handed batsman Suresh Raina
was on Wednesday picked to lead an
under-strength Indian team for a threematch one-day series in Bangladesh
next month.
Seven senior players skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit
Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami and
Shikhar Dhawan do not figure in the
new-look 15-man squad.
Varun Aaron, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra, Pujara, Rahane and Ambati Rayudu
are the only players to be retained from
the squad that took part in the Asia Cup

in Bangladesh. The three one-dayers will

be played in Dhaka on June 15, 17 and 19.
The short tour, agreed in February
as part of a bilateral deal between the

Squad
Suresh Raina (capt), Robin Uthappa,
Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara,
Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar
Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha, Parvez Rasool,
Akshar Patel, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav,
Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Amit Mishra
two countries, has been squeezed in
between the end of Indias domestic
season on June 1 and the start of the
England tour on June 26. l

Haitian attacking duo Sony

Norde and Wedson Anselme
slammed a brace apiece as
Sheikh Jamal stamped their
authority at the top of the
Bangladesh Premier Football League points table after
crushing Sheikh Russell 4-1 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Sony Norde seemed to have rediscovered his goal-scoring touch as the
Haitian sensation grabbed his first brace
in the league this season, notching both
the goals in the opening half while his
compatriot Wedson Anselme did not let
his side feel the absence of the leagues
top-scorer Emeka Darlington by netting
twice in the either side of each half.
The victory saw star-studded Jamal
finish their second phase of the league
at the top of the table with 42 points,
eight ahead of second-placed Abahani.
If the Dhanmondi-based powerhouse,
who are still unbeaten in the league,
do not concede unexpected points in
the final phase then they will be wellplaced to become the champions.
It was Maruful Haques first match
as technical advisor for Jamal against
his former club and the former Russel
tactician could not have possibly envisaged a better debut. On the contrary,
Russels Montenegrin coach Dragan
Djukanovic is yet to taste his first victory in Bangladesh in five matches.
It took Jamal only 19 minutes to
break the deadlock and it was none
other than Norde. Skipper Mamunul
Islam provided a neat through pass for
Wedson and the Haitian forward did
even better to deliver a defence-splitting through pass to his compatriot
Norde, who slotted home past Biplob
from the middle of the box.
Wedson doubled Jamals lead just
two minutes later to register his 14th
league goal this season. Receiving a
through pass from Norde, Wedson ran
free through the left flank and entered
the penalty area before placing the ball
calmly into the far post.
The Haitian international scored
another at the half-hour mark. Gambian Zatta Mustafa released a superb
through pass from halfway for Norde
who beat the offside trap to receive the
ball and place it at the far post. Wedson
scored his 15th goal of the season to extend the lead to 4-0 in the 70th minute
when the Haitian fired past Bilpob.
Anwar though pulled one back for
Russel four minutes later. The local
striker outmuscled Kesto Kumar and
rounded off Ziaur before placing the
ball into an empty net. l

Spinners trying hard to improve

Narinda outclass
Mariner Club
Narinda Pragati Boys Club overpowered Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club by
40-16 goals in the Cute Premier Division
Handball League at the Shahid (Capt.)
M. Monsur Ali Handball Stadium yesterday. Narinda led the first half 22-4.
Indian players Hardev Singh and
Shamser Singh set the court ablaze
netting 13 and 10 goals respectively for
Narinda. Akteruzzaman of Mariners
scored six for his team.
In the other match of the day,
Prime Sporting Clubs prowess was too
much to handle for Old Ideal as Prime
thrashed Ideals by 50-10 goals. Imran
netted 14 goals for the victors. l

13

Norde, Wedson
propel Jamal

BFF seeks help from government Raina to lead new-look

If the Planning Commission gives their
nod to the project, the BFF will receive
the money from the government fund.
The BFF initially set up the plan
and submitted it to the National
Sports Council who then referred it to
the Sports Ministry. After doing the
required modification, the ministry
of youth and sports sent it to the
Planning Commission. The Planning
Commission, however, sent the plan
back to the Sports Ministry, asking
them to submit it as a project. Now, the
ministry of youth and sports is doing
the necessary adjustments to the plan.
If the plan is accepted by the Planning
Commission, it will be inserted in the
next budget.
BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem
Shohag elaborated the details of the

DHAKA TRIBUNE

batting star in Rahul Dravid, Pakistan

off-spinner Saeed Ajmal whose action was recently called into question
by Englands Stuart Broad and former
Australia fast bowler Brett Lee.
Meanwhile Shane Warne, arguably
crickets greatest leg-spinner, will captain a Rest of the World XI that includes
his former Hampshire team-mate Kevin Pietersen, now in England exile, as
well as Sri Lankas Muttiah Muralitharan and Pakistans Shahid Afridi.
Lords always holds a very special
place in any cricketers heart, and I am
very much looking forward to helping
celebrate its Bicentenary with MCC,
said Lara in a statement.
It was an honour to be asked to

be involved and it will be fantastic to

play at such an iconic place on such a
special occasion. l

MCC
Sachin Tendulkar (IND, capt), Saeed Ajmal
(PAK), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WIS),
Rahul Dravid (IND), Aaron Finch (AUS),
Umar Gul (PAK), Brian Lara (WIS), Brett
Lee (AUS), Chris Read (ENG, wkt), Shaun
Tait (AUS), Daniel Vettori (NZL)

Rest of the World

Shane Warne (AUS, capt), Shahid Afridi
(PAK), Tino Best(WIS), Paul Collingwood
(ENG), Adam Gilchrist (AUS, wkt), Tamim
Iqbal (BAN), Muttiah Muralitharan (SRI),
Kevin Pietersen (ENG), Virender Sehwag
(IND), Peter Siddle (AUS), Yuvraj Singh (IND)

The spin bowling department has been

the main strength in terms of bowling
for the Tigers, and two of their most
important spinners Sohag Gazi and the
experienced Abdur Razzak have been
leading from the front for quite some
time.
However, both of them failed to
make a mark in the recent home series
against Sri Lanka followed by the Asia
Cup and the World T20. But the duo is
now looking to stage a comeback and
working hard on their weaknesses in
training at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium ahead of the home series
against India.
Sohag has been outstanding since
his debut against West Indies in 2012
and has made his mark as an off spinner in all three formats of the game for
the Tigers. The 22 year olds rise to fame
saw him become the only cricketer in
the history of Test cricket to score a
century and a hat-trick in the same test
against New Zealand last year which
also established him as the newest sensation of Bangladesh cricket.
But the off spinner has also experienced the other side of the coin in his
short international career as the Potuakhali guys off from meant he could
manage only three wickets in his last
five ODIs with a high economy rate
which ultimately cost him his place in
the playing eleven.
As the Tigers are now preparing for
next months three match ODI series
against India, Sohag revealed that he
was working on introducing variations

in his bowling as opponents these days

analyse every single trick of every
bowler in international cricket.
Variation has become absolutely imperative for me. I am trying to
change areas, bring in more variation
to my bowling. Opponents analyse
me quickly through more video of my
bowling. Our next opponent will also
know my strength and weaknesses. So
I have to work harder. I must improve
day by day.

I like economical bowlers,

even in Test cricket. But
wickets are more valued
in our country and it is
same all over the world. If
someone takes 4 for 70, he
is talked about more than
someone who concedes
30 runs in 10 overs. A few
series later, the one who
didnt take more wickets
will be considered a
lesser bowler
Previously my skill training was on
bringing more turn to my bowling. Now
there are a few areas that I am working
on. I have kept Saqlain Mushtaqs advice
in mind and I am implementing that. A
bowler has to improve on his own in international cricket, said Sohag.
The 22 year old also added that compared to his batting, his primary focus
now was to improve on his bowling
skills and he also believes there should

be a coach for every department of

cricket to improve the skills.
On the other hand, the experienced
Abdur Razzak who has so far taken 206
wickets from 150 ODIs with an economy of 4.53 also went through a tough
time in the recent past. The worse was
when the left arm spinner conceded 72
runs from nine overs against Pakistan
in the Asia Cup as Bangladesh suffered
defeat despite posting their highest
ever ODI score of 326/3.
But the 31 year old is not worried
about statistics and opined that its
important to contribute according to
the teams requirements and remain
positive. I dont look at statistics but
I pay more attention on working hard
and giving what my team needs. I work
hard and I try to stay positive, said
Razzak.
However, the left arm spinner added
that its important to bowl economically in all formats of the game and the job
becomes much easier if bowlers can
bowl in tandem in partnership.
I like economical bowlers, even in
Test cricket. But wickets are more valued in our country and it is same all
over the world. If someone takes 4 for
70, he is talked about more than someone who concedes 30 runs in 10 overs.
A few series later, the one who didnt
take more wickets will be considered
a lesser bowler. But those who understand cricket well will support us, he
added.
Fans would be hoping Razzak and
Gazis hard work pays off and they can
once again produce heroics for the sake
of Bangladesh cricket. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Calf injury rules Van der Vaart out

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Brazil promises greenest World Cup

Netherlands midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has been ruled out of the
World Cup after the experienced international picked up a calf injury at a
training camp in Portugal, the Dutch football association KNVB confirmed
on Wednesday. Capped 109 times for his country, the 31-year-old Hamburg
midfielder suffered the injury at a training camp for the Brazil tournament
on Tuesday with KNVB saying he was not expected to recover in time to
participate in the June 12-July 13 finals.
Reuters

Brazil announced a package of pollution-cutting measures Tuesday aimed

at making this years World Cup more environmentally friendly, ranging
from an emissions-trading scheme to a green passport smart-phone application. We want to score green goals, said Environment Minister Izabella
Teixeira at a press conference announcing the initiative. Teixeira said this
years World Cup, which runs from June 12 to July 13, is expected to
directly add 59,000 tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere.
AFP

Schweini, Khedira back in training

Germanys hopes of having a fully fit squad at next months World Cup in
Brazil received a boost on Wednesday when holding midfielders Bastian
Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira trained with the team for the first time.
Bayern Munichs Schweinsteiger has endured an injury-hit season, with an
inflamed knee the latest setback to keep him out of action in recent weeks.
Khedira has only recently returned to action after a six-month layoff due
to a torn cruciate ligament in his knee last year.
Reuters

Brazil police fire

tear gas at World
Cup protesters
Brazilian police fired tear gas Tuesday
to break up a protest by bow-and-arrow
wielding indigenous chiefs who joined
forces with anti-World Cup demonstrators to condemn the money spent on
the tournament.
Wearing traditional clothing including
feather headdresses and face paint, about
500 chiefs mainly from the Amazon basin joined another 500 protesters rallying for various social causes in Brasilias
government square and began marching
toward the capitals World Cup stadium.
As mounted police moved to block
the march, some of the indigenous
demonstrators rushed their horses and
fired arrows in their direction.
A policeman was hit in the leg by an
arrow and was operated on to remove it.
Globo TV showed images of a police
motorcycle that had also been peppered with arrows.
Some of the indigenous protesters

could be seen throwing stones at some

of the 700 police encircling the stadium. Protesters also blocked streets
around the government plaza, where
the congress, presidential palace and
Supreme Court are located.
Earlier, the aboriginal leaders
climbed a ramp onto the roof of the
congress building in a protest they said
was aimed at protecting their rights.
The protest, which brought together 100 ethnic groups from across Brazil, included Kayapo chief Raoni, an
84-year-old leader famous for fighting
to protect the Amazon rainforest alongside pop music star Sting.
Climbing onto the congress building was an act of bravery, it shows
were warriors who defend our rights,
said Tamalui Kuikuru, an indigenous
leader from the Xingu region in the
western state of Mato Grosso.
Who is the Cup for? Not us! shouted
demonstrators. I dont want the Cup, I
want money for health and education.l

Police confront native Brazilians to prevent them from marching towards the Mane Garrincha football stadium during a demonstration in Brasilia on Tuesday. Indigenous people from
different tribes protested against the governments Indian policy and the costs of the 2014 World Cup
REUTERS

Germany WC duo in serious car crash

A steward has told how he tried to
stop the accident involving Germanys
World Cup stars when one of the cars
they were passengers in hit him and a
by-stander.
The accident at Germanys preWorld Cup training camp in north Italy
on Tuesday left the steward in hospital
and the German by-stander in a serious
condition following the crash during
the filming of a television advert.
SID, an AFP subsidiary, reported
on Wednesday that the 63-year-old
by-stander is out of immediate danger.
Germanys World Cup stars Julian
Draxler and Benedikt Hoewedes were
passengers in separate cars during the
filming of the commercial for Mer-

cedes, one of the German Football Associations (DFB) main sponsors, when
the accident happened.
The by-stander was airlifted to hospital, while the course steward, named
only as Michael K., is also being treated
after flying through the windscreen of
the car driven by 19-year-old professional touring car driver Pascal Wehrlein.
Schalke centre-back Hoewedes is reported to have been Wehrleins passenger in the Mercedes involved in the accident, but the 26-year-old was unharmed.
Formula One driver Nico Rosberg,
who was driving the other Mercedes car
at the time of the crash, wrote on Twitter:
The accident shocked me, my thoughts
are with both victims, while Wehrlein is
said to be very upset by the incident.
In an interview with the Hamburger

Morgenpost, Michael K. described how

he spotted the by-stander, thought to
be a holiday maker looking for an autograph from the German footballers, on
the closed Alpine course.
He wanted to take a picture and
also get an autograph, he said, having
suffered back, leg and elbow injuries in
the impact.
He wasnt on the road, but was
right next to it, a few metres in front of
the barrier. I shouted to him loudly. I
wanted to pull him back, but didnt get
to him in time. If it had taken two seconds longer, I would been directly hit
and I could have been killed.
The DFB cancelled a scheduled practise match between Joachim Loews
World Cup squad and Germanys Under-20 side on Tuesday evening. l

GREAT WORLD CUP SHOCKS

The game that came to be known

as the Maracanazo. Hosts Brazil
were drawing 1-1 and under the
old format were just 10 minutes
from winning their first World Cup
in the Maracana. However, their
hopes and that of a nation were
dashed as Alcides Ghiggia lashed
in a shot to make it 2-1. Despite
there being 200,000 fans packed
into the stadium Ghiggia, who
is now 87 and the only member
of the two teams still alive, told
AFP the crowd were reduced to a
great stunning silence. Brazil got
over the trauma and have won
the trophy five times since while
that was the second and last of
Uruguays wins.
AFP
Juan Schiaffino scores for Uruguay against Brazil at the 1950 World Cup

Jorge Jesus will stay as manager of

Portuguese champions Benfica next
season despite being linked to several
top European jobs, club chairman Luis
Felipe Vieira said.
The one thing I can say is that
Jorge Jesus will still be the coach at
Benfica for next season, Vieira
told the RTP television channel late
Tuesday. There is no need for further
speculation.
Jesus has been linked to several
top European clubs after the Lisbon
giants pulled off a triple on the
domestic front and reach the final of
the Europa League, where they lost on
penalties to Sevilla.l

France, US clinch
wins in friendlies
France, Japan and United States recorded solid victories on Tuesday as
the finalists continued their preparations with the start of the World Cup
just over two weeks away.
France winger Mathieu Valbuena
was in a class of his own as he set up
three goals in a 4-0 victory at home
to Norway to help his side start their
World Cup warm-up games in style.
Valbuena excelled in a one-sided
encounter, providing perfect crosses
for Paul Pogba and Olivier Giroud, who
netted twice, to get on the scoresheet

RESULTS
USA

Lionel Messi and his fellow Argentinian

World Cup squad members were
subjected to an unexpected antidoping test on Tuesday, a day after
the squad convened for the start of
a training camp in the Buenos Aires
suburbs.
According to Argentine sports
channel TyC Sports, six FIFA-appointed
doctors were sent to the teams training
base in Ezeiza, where players were
forced to train inside due to the cold,
foggy conditions.
Midfielders Fernando Gago and Ever
Banega trained separately from the rest

of the squad with the pair still working

their way back from injury.
Meanwhile Angel Di Maria, who
helped Real Madrid win the Champions League final on Saturday, touched
down Tuesday in Buenos Aires before
taking a private jet to his hometown
Rosario. He is scheduled to join the
group at the end of the week.
Two-time world champions Argentina, who havent been past the quarter-finals since the 1990 World Cup,
will play debutants Bosnia in their
Group F opener on June 15.
The South Americans have also
been drawn alongside Iran and African
Cup of Nations champions Nigeria. l

Tottenham hire Pochettino

as new manager

Simeone, Xabi
Alonso hit with
Uefa charges
Uefa opened disciplinary proceedings
against Atletico Madrid boss Diego
Simeone and Real Madrid midfielder
Xabi Alonso on Tuesday following Saturdays Champions League final.
Simeone rushed on to the pitch to
angrily confront Real defender Raphael
Varane in the wake of Reals fourth goal
in Lisbon.
The Argentines furious reaction apparently came in response to Varane
kicking the ball in Simeones direction.
Meanwhile Alonso, who was suspended for the final, was also charged for
breaching the general codes of conduct.
In addition, both clubs were also
charged over the use of pyrotechnics
and for the inappropriate behaviour
of their players. Five Real players were
booked during the final while seven Atletico players were cautioned. l

Champions League on a regular basis.

This is a club with tremendous history and prestige and I am honoured to
have been given this opportunity to be
its Head Coach, he said.
There is an abundance of top-class
talent at the club and I am looking forward to starting work with the squad.
We are determined to give the supporters the kind of attacking football
and success that we are all looking to
achieve. l

Italy bans
co-ownership of
football players

along with substitute Loic Remy.

The United States got their World
Cup preparations off to a positive start
with a comfortable 2-0 friendly win over

France

Nigerias World Cup warm-up friendly

against Scotland in London on Wednesday is the subject of a match-fixing investigation by Britains serious crime squad.
The National Crime Agency, which investigates serious and organised crime,
is said to have asked world footballs
governing body FIFA to issue an alert
over attempts to influence the game at
Fulhams stadium Craven Cottage.
The NCA are said to have told FIFA
they have general information from
Asian betting markets suggesting there
had been attempts to rig the friendly
and they hope to stop any suspect activities by issuing the alert. l

Argentina squad undergo

surprise drug tests

Tottenhams new manager Mauricio

Pochettino pledged to fulfil the clubs
desire for success with style after being
hired on a five-year contract on Tuesday.
Pochettino was tipped to take charge
at White Hart Lane following the recent sacking of Tim Sherwood and the
Premier League club confirmed they
have persuaded the former Argentina
defender, who had earned widespread
praise during his time as Southampton
boss, to quit his post at St Marys and
move to north London.
Pochettino admitted he was delighted to be given the opportunity to manage a club of Tottenhams stature.
The 42-year-old, Tottenhams 10th
permanent manager in the last 13 years,
promised to stay faithful to the clubs
philosophy of attacking play, while also
achieving their desire to play in the

Episode

Uruguay 2 Brazil 1
(1950)

Coach Jesus
staying at Benfica

Match-fix police
probe Nigeria,
Scotland game

4 0
2 0

Norway
Azerbaijan

a well-disciplined Azerbaijan at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Substitute Mix Diskerud pounced to
drive home from close range in the 75th
minute before Aron Johannsson headed a second eight minutes later. l

Italy is to ban clubs from co-owning

players, saying the practice is out of
line with the rest of Europe.
From the next transfer window onwards, the co-ownership of players will
no longer be possible, Italian Football
Federation (FIGC) president Giancarlo
Abete said on the organisations website.
This has been questioned many times
by public opinion and it is also evident
that it is atypical compared to the rest of
Europe, he added. One of the higher profile co-owned players is 19-year-old Sassuolo forward Domenico Berardi, whose
rights are shared with Juventus.l

Italys national footballers Andrea Pirlo (L) receives a tap from his teammate Mario
Balotelli as he eats a peach during a training session at Florence yesterday
REUTERS

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

15

Thursday, May 29, 2014

QUICK BYTES

SCORECARD, ENG v SL

Sri Lanka
L Thirimanne c Buttler b Anderson
T Dilshan c Buttler b Anderson
K Sangakkara c Buttler b Jordan
M Jayawardene lbw b Tredwell
D Chandimal c Bell b Jordan
A Mathews c Buttler b Jordan
A Priyanjan run out (Bopara)
N Kulasekara c Tredwell b Jordan
S Senanayake c sub b Tredwell
R Herath not out
L Malinga lbw b Jordan
Extras (lb3, w4)
Total (all out, 24 overs)

U-17 trail by 187 runs

The Bangladesh Under-17 cricket team
trail by 187 runs in their first innings
against Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) U-17 following the second
days play in the three-day game in
Indore yesterday. The hosts resumed
on 259 for 4 from day one and ended
their first innings with 345 runs on
the board. Number six batsman Suraj
Sengar scored 78 runs with 13 fours
in his 102-ball innings. Abdul Halim,
Afif Hossain, Kamil Ahmed and Sahfiul
Hayet picked up two wickets each for
Bangladesh U-17. Later, Bangladesh
U-17 batted 59.4 overs in the day and
scored 175 runs for the loss of five
wickets. Rayan Rahman scored 41 while
Shafiul added 34 runs to the board for
the visitors. Ritik Dawan and Nikhil
Sikarwar bagged two wickets each for
MPCA.
Tribune Desk

Fall of wickets
1-4, 2-13, 3-32, 4-45, 5-58, 6-60, 7-65,
8-65, 9-65, 10-67
Bowling
Anderson 7-2-10-2; Gurney 6-1-23-0;
Jordan 8-0-29-5; Tredwell 3-1-2-2
England
AN Cook* not out
30
IR Bell
not out
41
Extras
(w 2)
2
Total (0 wickets; 12.1 overs)
73

Kenya doping report

blames foreign agents
A probe into allegations of widespread
doping in Kenyan sports has
uncovered serious incidences of drug
use and sounded the alarm that the
countrys athletes are at risk of being
manipulated by some foreign sports
agents. However the governmentappointed commission, which
completed its work earlier this month
and has presented its findings to the
Kenyan sports minister, Hassan Wario,
did not uncover evidence of doping
among its record-breaking distance
runners. The reports has blamed
ignorance, lack of education and
manipulation by foreign agents as the
main reasons for the recent upsurge
in cases of athletes testing positive
for performance-enhancing drugs,
including the blood-booster EPO.
AFP

Atletico sign Argentine

forward Correa
Spanish champions Atletico Madrid
have agreed to sign teenage forward
Angel Correa from San Lorenzo in his
native Argentina on a five-year contract
pending a medical. Our club has
reached agreement with San Lorenzo
on the transfer of the young Argentine
talent, Atletico said in a statement on
their website (www.clubatleticodemadrid.com) late on Tuesday. The young
footballer is known for his speed, talent
and ability, which have made him one
of the attacking reference points for
his team, for whom he has scored eight
goals this season, added the Champions League runners-up.
Reuters

Disappointing Schuster
to leave Malaga
Malaga coach Bernd Schuster is
leaving the Qatar-owned La Liga club
a year into a five-year contract after a
disappointing season when they flirted
with relegation. Malaga has informed
coach Bernd Schuster that he will no
longer be employed from June 30, the
club confirmed on their website (www.
malagacf.com) on Wednesday. Malaga
would like to thank Schuster and his
coaching team for their hard work
during what was a very difficult season,
they added. Schuster had already told a
news conference after the final game of
the season that he would be leaving the
club, having been informed his services
were no longer required.
Reuters

Powell appeals
doping ban
Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, the
former 100m world record holder, has
appealed to the Court of Arbitration
for Sport (CAS) against his 18-month
doping ban. Powell and training partner
Sherone Simpson tested positive for
banned stimulant oxilofrine after the
100m finals at the Jamaican nationals
on June 21, 2013. Powell, who blamed
his positive result on a nutritional supplement, was banned until December
28, 2014 by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission Disciplinary Panel.
The 2008 Olympic champion in the
4x100m relay has requested that CAS
cut the suspension to three months,
the international bodys secretary
general Matthieu Reeb told AFP on
Monday. The date of the hearing has
not yet been fixed.
AFP

Bowling
Kulasekara 3-0-14-0, Malinga 3-0-13-0,
3.1-0-29-0, Senanayake 1-0-8-0,
Priyanjan 2-0-9-0
Kolkata Knight Riders allrounder Shakib al Hasan celebrates the wicket of Rishi Dhawan of the Kings XI Punjab during the first qualifier at Eden Gardens yesterday

KKR storm into final

Kolkata
Knight
Riders
stormed
into the final of
the Indian Premier League on the back of a convincing
28-run win over Kings XI Punjab, with
pacer Umesh Patel hogging the limelight with a fine display of fast bowling.
Defending 164 on a slow surface
that remained under cover for three
days, KKR speedsters Yadav (3/13) and
Morkel (2/23) shared five wickets between them, while Piyush Chawla also
bowled smartly to restrict Kings XI
Punjab to 135/8 in 20 overs and hand
KKR a record eighth victory on the trot.
Sent into bat, KKR had posted 163
for eight, riding on in-form opener Robin Uthappas 30-ball 42. In pursuit of a
second title, 2012 champions KKR will
take on the winners of second qualifier
in the summit clash on June 1.

Orange Cap holder Uthappa once

again laid the foundation with the help
of four boundaries and two sixes in his
10th consecutive 40-plus score, to push
KKRs total in a rain-interrupted match.
With KXIP at 17/1 in 3.2 overs, drizzle
had started to fall and they were well

BRIEF SCORE
Kolkata 163/8 (20ov)
Uthappa 42, Karanveer 3 /40
Punjab 135/8 (20ov)
Saha 35, Yadav 3/13)
Kolkata won by 28 runs
behind the Duckworth-Lewis equation of 37 required from five overs. The
umpires, though, decided to continue
with the proceedings.
Manan Vohra smacked Shakib Al
Hasan for two consecutive sixes in the
next over to make the equation in KXIPs favour with the scoreboard reading

39/1 from five overs.

But KKR bounced back to dismiss
Vohra when Morkel had the opener in
the next over to make the D-L equation
in the home teams favour.
Dangerman Glenn Maxwell (6) did
not last long and was trapped by Yadav
and KXIP were 55 for three in 7.5 overs,
11 runs behind the par score.
It was Saha, who looked steady
in the middle and kept KXIP in the
hunt with some stunning strokes, but
Morkel ensured that the wicketkeeperbatsman did not prolong his innings.
David Miller was dropped on 1 but
he could not make it count and was
castled by Piyush Chawla, while Yadav
claimed his third victim in the form of
the skipper George Bailiey.
Earlier, the spinning duo of Karanveer Singh and Akshar Patel shared five
wickets between them to help Kings XI
Punjab bounce back, before KKR struck
15 in the last over to prop up the total. l

BCCI

Player of the match: CJ Jordan (Eng)

England skittles Sri Lanka

for 67, lead series 2-1
England thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the third one-day international at
Old Trafford on Wednesday to go 2-1 up
in the five-match series.
Chris Jordan took five wickets as
Sri Lanka, after losing the toss, were
bowled out for just 67 in 24 overs their
third lowest total at this level.
England then cruised to their victory target of 68 in just 12.1 overs, with
captain Alastair Cook 30 not out and
Ian Bell, who ended the match with
a six, 41 not out. Just three days after
England collapsed to 99 all out in the
second ODI at Chester-le-Street in Sri
Lankas series levelling 167-run victory, they took spectacular advantage of
fit-again captain Alastair Cook winning
the toss in overcast conditions.
Kumar Sangakkara top-scored with

13 in an innings where the only other

batsmen to make it into double figures
were Mahela Jayawardene (12) and
skipper Angelo Mathews (11), with the
tourists losing their last six wickets for
nine runs in six overs.
Sri Lankas total was their third lowest at this level, following the 43 they
made against South Africa at Paarl in
2012 and 55 against the West Indies at
Sharjah in 1986.
It was also their lowest in England,
with their previous worst in the country also coming at Old Trafford when, as
a non-Test nation, they made 86 against
eventual champions the West Indies at
the inaugural World Cup in 1975.
Heavy cloud cover favoured Englands attack but conditions alone
could not explain how Sri Lanka were
bowled out on Wednesday with a mammoth 26 overs remaining. l

Serena crashes as Djokovic, Federer cruise at French Open

Defending champion and world number one Serena Williams was knocked
out of the French Open by Spains Garbine Muguruza on Wednesday as the
American star stumbled to her second
worst Grand Slam defeat.
The top seed lost 6-2, 6-2 in the second round to the world number 35 with
her defeat coming just an hour after
sister Venus also went out, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
to Slovak teenager Anna Schmiedlova.
It was the earliest exit for a defending champion at Roland Garros since
2005 when Anastasia Myskina of Rus-

sia went out in the first round.

With Li Na losing in the first round
on Tuesday, Serenas defeat marks the
first time in the Open Era that the top
two seeds had failed to get to the third
round at a major.
Wednesdays defeat was Serenas
worst at a Grand Slam in terms of games
won and was only the second time she
had been beaten at a major in the round
of 64. The last time that happened was
on her debut at the 1998 Australian Open.
Serenas defeat was good news for
Maria Sharapova who is now the overwhelming title favourite.
The Williams sisters had been

scheduled to meet in the third round

but their back-to-back exits represented just the fourth time they had lost on
the same day at a major.
Second seed Novak Djokovic, the
2012 runner-up who needs a French
Open title to complete a career Grand
Slam, restored order to the tournament
with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win over Jeremy
Chardy of France to reach the last 32.
Djokovic took his record over the
world number 42 to 9-0. Roger Federer, the 2009 champion and fourth seed,
also reached the third round with a 6-3,
6-4, 6-4 win over Argentine qualifier
Diego Sebastian Schwartzman. l

USAs Serena Williams reacts after being defeated by Spains Garbine Muguruza at the end
of their French tennis Open second round match at the Roland Garros yesterday
AFP

India recall Gambhir, drop BD A capitulates on second day

Zaheer for England Tests
TEST SQUAD

India on Wednesday brought back

opening batsman Gautam Gambhir
and axed fragile pace spearhead Zaheer
Khan for their first five-Test tour of England in 55 years starting in July.
The selectors, who picked a 18-man
squad for the back-to-back Tests, included seven seamers and Wriddhiman
Saha as reserve wicket-keeper for skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Left-handed Gambhir returns to the
Test arena for the first time since December 2012, having been ignored for
the home series against Australia and
the West Indies last year and the tour of
New Zealand this January.
Gambhir, with 4,021 runs and nine

MS Dhoni (capt), Murali Vijay, Shikhar

Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar
Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane,
Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,
Mohammad Shami, Ishwar Pandey, Ishant Sharma, Stuart Binny, Varun Aaron,
Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh
centuries from 54 Tests, is one of the
three openers in the squad alongside
Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay.
Khan, Indias most experienced new
ball bowler with 311 wickets in 92 Tests,
was not considered after missing a major part of the ongoing Indian Premier
League due to a hamstring injury. l

The Bangladesh A teams decent start

to the first four-day game against
Sagicor High Performance Centre
(SHPC) turned into a disaster as the
second-string side were bundled out
for only 140 runs at Winward Cricket
Club following the second days play
on Tuesday.
Bangladesh A had restricted SHPC
for 292 on day one and resumed the
second day with five runs on the board
without any loss in their first innings.
However, the situation changed
drastically for the visitors after the
departures of their two openers and
a humiliating collapse of the middle
order owing to SHPC paceman Carlos
Brathwaite who did most of the
damage.
Shamsur Rahman and Imrul Kayes

Bagerhat, Army
win TT team events

DAYS WATCH
Star Sports 2
11:30PM
Natwest T20 Blast 2014
Derbyshire v Northamptonshire
Sony Six
6:30AM
NBA Play Off 2013-14, Conf Final
Indiana v Miami- Live

7
2
13
12
6
11
2
5
0
0
2
7
67

Bagerhat District Sports Association pose for a photograph after winning the boys event in
the Natl Junior TT at the Shahid Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium yesterday
COURTESY

Bagerhat and Bangladesh Army

emerged as the respective champions
in the boys and girls team event in the
South Bangla Bank 2nd National Junior
Table Tennis at the Shahid Tajuddin
Ahmed Indoor Stadium yesterday.
Bagerhat beat BKSP by 3-0 sets to
win the boys title while Bangladesh
Army defeated Dhaka by 3-1 sets to
lift the girls title. Narail finished third
beating Rangpur by 3-0 sets. l

put on 66 runs for the opening partnership before Imrul was sent back to
the dressing room for 32 to become
Brathwaites first victim. Bangladesh

BRIEF SCORE, DAY 2

SHPC (1st innings)
292 allout in 86.3 overs
Bangladesh A (1st innings)
140 all out in 41.4 overs (Imrul 32, Muktar 31, Brathwaite 4/45, Cummins 3/25)
SHPC (2nd innings)
170/2 in 45 overs (Kraigg 96*, Leon 40*,
Nasir 1/23)
A lost their next three wickets for 77
runs with one-down batsman Marshal
Ayub managing eight runs before he
was dismissed. Only four deliveries
later Shamsur went back to the hut af-

ter scoring 28. The scenario worsened

for the second-string national side as
Naeem Islam was out for nought.
Bangladesh A skipper Nasir Hossain also departed without troubling
the scorers to continue his poor run
of form. Nasir faced 15 deliveries but
failed to get off the mark.
Tail-enders Muktar Ali and Taijul Islam salvaged some pride adding 31 and
14 runs respectively.
SHPC pacer Brathwaite grabbed four
wickets conceding 45 runs in 14 overs
while Miguel Cummins and Sheldon
Cottrell picked up three and two wickets respectively.
Later on in the day, SHPC batted 45
overs in the second innings and scored
170 runs losing two wickets. SHPC skipper Kraigg Brathwaite was unbeaten on
96 with Leon Johnson unbeaten on the
other end of the crease on 40 runs. l

Muktis overcome Baridhara

Muktijoddha
defeated Uttar Baridahra 2-0
in the second phase of
the Nitol-Tata Bangladesh Premier Football
League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Sunday
Chizoba
broke the deadlock in the 55th minute
after midfielder Enamul Haque paved
the way for him with a forward pass

and Sunday made no mistake beating

Baridhara goalie Osman Goni in the
near post.
Four minutes later substitute
midfielder Md. Ibrahim doubled
the lead after a combined attack.
Receiving the ball in the right flank
of the box, Ibrahim dodged past his
marker and hit the near post net with
a grounder.
Muktijoddha have 26 points from
17 matches while Uttar Baridhara
completed their second phase with 12
points from 15 matches. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Verdict in Ramna Batamul murder case June 16

n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
A Dhaka court yesterday fixed June 16
to deliver verdict in the murder case
filed in connection with the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb blasts that killed at
least 10 people on Pahela Baishakh
morning.
Judge Ruhul Amin of the Dhakas
Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court set the date after
completion of closing arguments from
both defence and prosecution sides.
Fate of the other case, involving
explosives, is uncertain as a petition
seeking the Supreme Court registrars
opinion is still pending.
On May 18, additional public prosecutor Sarder Md Zahid Hossain completed placing their arguments in the
murder case. The prosecution sought
capital punishment for the accused.
Earlier, the court recorded statements of 67 prosecution witnesses out
of 84 in the case filed with Ramna police station.
The terror attack killed 10 people and
injured scores of others who had gathered at Ramna Park early in the morn-

ing of April 14, 2001 to attend the traditional celebration of Pahela Baishakh
1408 the first day of Bangla year.
Chief of banned Islamist militant
outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji)
Mufti Abdul Hannan and 13 of his associates are charged in the case. Five of
the accused are on the run and one is
on bail while the rest are in jail to face
the trial.
Soon after the blasts and the casualties, police filed two cases one for
murder and the other one for illegal
possession of explosives.
Six charge sheets were pressed in
the cases in which the trial began in
2009. The last charge sheet was submitted in 2008.
The prosecution says the cases progressed in sluggish pace during the
tenure of the previous BNP-Jamaat-led
government because all the accused
had strong connections with the then
government ranks. During the trial, the
accused also threatened the prosecutors with life several times in front of
the judge.
At the final stage of the trial, the prosecution found that they had not dis-

played the draft map of the crime spot

before the court mistakenly during the
deposition of the investigation officer.
So, the prosecution on March 25
submitted a petition for recalling CID

The Supreme Court

registrars opinion was
sought in 2009 on
whether both the cases
could be tried together.
The registrar is yet to
respond to the petition
though several years
have passed
Inspector Abu Hena Md Yusuf, the sixth
IO of the case, for further deposition.
The court issued an order but a defence lawyer filed a petition with the
High Court on April 1, challenging the
legality of the recall order. Following
the petitions, the trial proceedings
again remained stalled. Later the court
fixed several dates for the defence law-

yer to submit the High court order but

the defence failed to do so.
On May 5, the court recorded further
deposition of the IO and fixed May 8 for
closing arguments.
There are allegations that the prosecution was not sincere enough to
produce witnesses before the court on
time, resulting in the delay in the trial
proceedings.
The Criminal Investigation Department pressed charges against 14 top
leaders of Huji on December 30, 2008
in both the cases.
Apart from Hannan, the other accused are Mufti Shafiqur Rahman,
Maulana Yahiya, Mufti Abdul Hye,
Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh
Farid, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Selim
Hawlader, Maulana Mohammad Tajuddin, Maulana Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Arif Hasan Suman, Maulana Akbar
Hossain alias Helaluddin, Maulana Abu
Taher, Maulana Abdur Rouf, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar and Shahadat Ullah
alias Jewel.
Eight of them Hannan, Suman,
Jewel, Abu Taher, Sheikh Farid, Sabbir,
Rouf, Yahiya and Akbar are behind

bars while the others are on the run.

The cases were sent to Speedy Trial
Tribunal on March 23, 2010 but it sent
the cases to Metropolitan Sessions
Judges Court after recording deposition of 50 witnesses since the stipulated 135 working days were over but the
court filed to complete the trials.
On May 25, 2010, the cases were
sent to the Second Additional Sessions
Judges Court. Now the cases are dealt
at the court of Judge Ruhul Amin.
Earlier, nine more judges were involved in the trial proceedings.

Blast case verdict pending

Though the court fixed date for verdict

in the murder case, another case filed
under Explosive Substances Act remains pending.
As the cases involve the bombing
incident and the accused and the witnesses are the same people, so the Supreme Court registrars opinion was
sought in 2009 on whether both the
cases could be tried together.
The registrar is yet to respond to
the petition though several years have
passed after filing of the plea. l

Kalyanpur
high-rise did not
tilt in explosion
n Tribune Report

An explosion, possibly because of

a leak in sewerage line, rocked the
12-storey Mizan Tower at Kalyanpur
bus stand yesterday evening, creating
huge panic in the area.
The blast originated in the sewerage
line beneath the building possibly because of gas accumulation, Fire Service
Control Room Duty Officer Vajan Sarker
told the Dhaka Tribune.
The fire fighters did not find anyone
injured in the incident that took place
around 6:30pm. However, Vajan said
he had heard that five people sustained
injuries while evacuating the building
hurriedly.
The building houses shops, offices
and a mosque on the first three floors
while the rest is residential.
Officials of the citys real estate regulator Rajuk visited the spot and declared it safe, said the official.
However, police did not allow residents of the buildings 90 flats to return
to their homes as of filing of this report
around 12:30am. Police said the building
would stay locked until further notice.
Soon after the explosion, rumours
spread fast as many people said the
building titled and also subsided. Even
a senior police official of Mirpur zone
confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that
the building had tilted to one side.
The panic forced all people to evacuate the building because of the shake
created. Traffic movement on the busy
main road was also halted for over
three hours creating tailbacks in and
around the area.
Hasan Khaled, one of the witnesses,
said: The building authorities started
evacuating the dwellers immediately
after the incident. A few people were
injured at that time.
Two fire units rushed to the spot to
rescue the panic-stricken people. The fire
fighters, as precautionary measure, also
closed the nearby shops and evacuated
the buildings adjacent to Mizan Tower.
Jasim Uddin, the additional deputy
commissioner of DMP (Mirpur zone),
said traffic on both sides of Mirpur
Road between Shyamoli and Gabtoli
were blocked in order to avert any accidents. Traffic movement was resumed
around 9pm. l

Panic-stricken locals gather on the road in Kalyanpur yesterday after a 12-storey building was rocked by an explosion, forcing evacuation of the buildings residents

NASHIRUL ISLAM

Social security allocation to rise by 10%

n Asif Showkat Kallol

The social security sector is going to get

nearly Tk28,000 crore in the upcoming
budget, an amount that is 10% higher than the allocation in the outgoing
FY2013-14.
The Social Welfare Ministry sought
over Tk28,000 crore and proposed a
20% rise in the number of beneficiaries
under the social security programmes.
The government wants to see a
greater number of people under the
social security network. That is why
we have recommended a 10% raise in
all kinds of allowances, Social Welfare
minister Syed Mohsin Ali told the Dhaka Tribune last week.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has

said on several occasions that the upcoming budget might abolish the food
for work programme. However, he
has promised a 10% hike in allowances
for hermaphrodites, dalits, people belonging to the scheduled caste and the
physically challenged.
The expanded budget in the upcoming FY2014-15 is likely to be used for
raising the allowances for elderly people, divorced women, the physically
challenge and will also contribute to
the freedom fighters grant.
Ministry data shows that the current
number of beneficiaries is 40.7 lakh.
In the fresh national budget, due
to be announced on June 5, the grant

for freedom fighters is likely to rise to

Tk5,000 from the existing Tk3,000;
and divorced women, who used to get
Tk100 per month, will now get Tk300.
At present, a total of 3 lakh physically challenged people are given a
monthly allowance of Tk350 each. The
next budget will increase the number
of beneficiaries by 30,000 and the allowance will go up to Tk500.
The existing Tk100 maternity and
divorced women allowances under the
Women and Children Affair Ministry
are likely to rise to Tk300 in the coming
budget.
The Social Welfare Ministry has
identified a total of 21 districts, which
are prone to these vulnerable financial

statuses. The budget proposal includes

a plan for crash programmes at the beginning of the upcoming FY2014-15 to
improve the standard of living of these
people.
The outgoing FY2013-14 budget envisaged old-age allowance for 25 lakh people; maternity allowance for 1,500 rural
women; lactation allowance for 30,000
working women in some districts; poverty allowance for nearly 10 lakh distressed
widows and divorced women.
At present 22 ministries are running 97 social safety net programmes
around the country.The social safety
net programmes were launched in the
FY1996-97 when the Awami League
was in power. l

Online submission of tax return to wait another year

n Asif Showkat Kallol and Syed
Samiul Basher Anik
Taxpayers cannot submit tax returns
online for at least another year as the
projects implementation has been delayed because of a row between the National Board of Revenue and the Asian
Development Bank over the systems
integration.
The NBR management wanted to
implement a central system for submission of import tax, income tax and
VAT; but the development partners, especially the ADB which is funding the
project, preferred separate systems for
this, an official of the NBR told the Dhaka Tribune.
The official said the dispute had left
the prospects of the automated NBR
services uncertain for quite some time
resulting in the delay.
NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hossain

yesterday sent a proposal to the cabinet

committee on public purchase for selecting a consultant for the project named
Strengthening Governance Management.
In the proposal, the NBR chairman
has admitted that the project, which
was supposed to complete in December this year, will now take time up to
December next year.
He, however, has not said anything
about the reasons behind the delay.
The NBR has taken up the project to
enhance transparency and accountability in tax filing with an aim of increasing tax revenue and enhancing public
trust in service delivery of the income
tax administration, the proposal reads.
The paper says through the project
taxpayers under a total of 649 circle offices, including 11 survey circles, will be
connected online and the circle offices
will share information with each other
to ease the process.

Once the online system is up, taxpayers will be able to access all services related to income tax by registering
themselves on the projects website.
The seven divisional towns Dhaka,
Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal,
Sylhet and Rangpur will come under
the project.
Presently, the online tax return submission system is in place covering tax
zone 8 of Dhaka and about 23,000 taxpayers under the zone are submitting
their tax returns online.
The project will be implemented at a
cost of Tk78.98 crore of which the government will provide Tk12.68 crore and
the ADB will fund the remaining Tk66.3
crore.
As per the proposal, the NBR evaluation committee selected Vietnamese IT
firm FRT Information System Corporation for Tk51.31 crore.
A major portion of the allocation

for the project Tk24.90 crore will be

spent for buying three pieces of software. Another Tk19.05 crore has been
allocated for buying the hardware for
the whole system and Tk8.28 crore for
procuring hardware for regional data
entry and information centre.
Other firms that participated in the
tender were Tata Consultancy Services, Infra-soft International JV with the
Techno Vista Ltd, Tech Valley Networks
Ltd and Info-tech Global Pty Ltd. Apart
from these, the Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd, Ernst and Young JV with
Wipro Ltd, and Invenio Business Solution JV with GPIT became ineligible after technical evaluation.
The NBR chairman yesterday told
the Dhaka Tribune that the board was
working on introducing the systems
for filing income tax returns and e-payment from July 1, 2015.
We will start piloting the e-return

filing next January and the project

along with e-payment method will
come into operation from July 1, 2015,
he said.
Terming the existing e-payment
system insufficient, Ghulam Hossain
said: The existing methods in different banks are not good enough. We are
working on building links among all
banks and introducing electronic signature. Some work in the process is still
pending it will be completed within
the remaining timeframe.
The direct tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh is the lowest in the sub-continent.
In India the ratio is 6%, in Pakistan 4%
whereas in Bangladesh it is only 2%.
According to a study, the number of
people eligible for tax is one crore but
only 10 lakh submit tax returns regularly. At present, the number of people
with the Tax Identification Number is
over 17 lakh. l

Crack in tribunal
building raises
concern
n Udisa Islam
The registrar office of the International
Crimes Tribunal is likely to request the
Law Ministry to take necessary actions
because a huge crack has been detected in the tribunal building.
In early March, the chief prosecutor
requested that the ministry immediately shift his office (west block of the
tribunal building) from the old High
Court building, stating that the roof
was damp.
The prosecution then also warned
that the whole tribunal building was at
risk of collapse.
On Sunday, officials of the tribunal
detected a crack on a first floor wall
near the main staircase, and called engineers to check the wall.
A team of engineers visited the
spot on Tuesday and after primary inspection suspected that it might have
developed after the earthquake on
May 22.
Tribunal sources said the roof of the
building was also risky.
They had known it since 2012, when
a part of the false ceiling broke down on
Investigation Officer Helal Uddin, who
was conducting a case.
At that time, the false ceiling was
replaced but the roof had not been renovated.
During heavy rains, the walls and
the roof of the building become damp
and water seeps through the ceiling.
More than 100 people including
tribunal officials, employees, law enforcers, journalists and accused come
to the tribunal building every working
day and 20 prosecutors and around 40
other staff and researchers always visit
the chief prosecutors office.
The government set up the first tribunal in March 2010 and the second
tribunal in March 2012 in the eastern
block of the old High Court building. It
allotted the western block to the prosecution office.
The two-storey old High Court
building was originally designed as the
official residence of the governor of
East Bengal province when Assam
was created in 1905.
Documents say a new building
was erected on the north side in
60s and the High Court was shifted
there.
The government should take immediate steps as many experts have
warned that the building may collapse
at any time, said prosecutor Zead-alMalum.
Arunabha Chakrobharty, deputy registrar of the tribunal, admitted that the cracks were not normal
and that they were taking the matter
seriously.
He said: We observed the condition
of the cracks, and informed the engineers and the authorities concerned to
take measures. l

Faster broadband
on Moon than
rural UK!
n Tribune Report
The Moon is a better place to browse
Internet or download data than some
rural parts of the UK as users can get
broadband speed of a little less than
20mbps there.
MIT and Nasa have broken records
with its new broadband transmissions
speeds on Earths satellite, where
it is now possible to receive large
amounts of data and stream video and
audio.
A download speed of 19.44mbps
was achieved through a laser-powered communication uplink through
RF signals, along with an upload
speed of 622mbps, which is 4,800
times faster than the previous record, reports British daily The
Independent.
With the Moon being 284,633km
away from Earth, the connection is
dependent on its rotation around our
planet (laser telescopes beam the data
through columns of air which experience bending effects from the atmosphere).
Communicating at high data rates
from Earth to the moon with laser
beams is challenging because of the
400,000-kilometre distance spreading out the light beam, Mark Stevens of MIT Lincoln Laboratory told
Wired.
Its doubly difficult going through
the atmosphere, because turbulence
can bend light-causing rapid fading or
dropouts of the signal at the receiver,
he added. l

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 Office: 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

B3 Is cotton the new

aluminum for US?

Robi employees
demonstration
halts customer
care service
n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

An agitation programme called by the

mobile phone operator Robis employees forced the authorities suspend
customer care service partially from
8:30am yesterday.
The employees stopped attending
calls of customers and staged demonstration on the road behind Mascot Plaza in the citys Uttara, placing a set of
demands.
Sajid Khan, a leader of the employees,
said Robi had contracted with an independent third party firm named Genex
Infosys in July last year for maintaining
its operation, but the firm was not honouring the contract it signed with Robi.
Khan alleged that Genex Infosys had
curtailed the facilities of the Robi employees. The protesters said the third
party firm did not grant sick leave,
registered delay as absence, forced
non-Muslim employees to attend office
during their festivals and didnt evaluate employees performance.
Sajid Khan said all of the 300 on-duty employees of the mobile operators
customer care division took to the
street, and the actions would continue
until their demands are met.
The demands include extension of
job contract to one year from the existing
three months, providing transport facilities and giving promotion to part-time
employees taking them as full-time staff.
Robi, however, said they have no relation with the issue as Genex Infosys
is an outsourcing company.
We are trying to find a permanent
solution to the problem. Robi assures its
customers that they wont see any such
type of problems in future, Atiul Islam
Nowshad, Chief Human Resources Officer of Robi, told the Dhaka Tribune. l

B4 Nike and Adidas get

personal in battle over

soccer World Cup

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Muhith: Tax holiday for ICT

to continue in FY15
Digital World 2014 begins Wednesday next

Experts for special fund

to build food stock

n Tribune Report

n Abu Bakar Siddique

Tax holiday for Information and

Communication Technology (ICT)
sector would continue in the upcoming national budget for the fiscal
2014-15, aimed at achieving the target of Digital Bangladesh by 2021.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith
yesterday came up with the assurance while addressing an advisory
meeting of Digital World 2014 at his
secretariat office in the city.
The minister, however, hinted that
there would be no waiver on value added tax (VAT) in the upcoming budget
and it would be applicable for all and
everybody have to pay 15% VAT as he
termed the amended VAT Act a good
one, which would take effect in 2015.
In 2012 vision, the government
had set a target that the ICT sector
would be the second most important sector in the country after RMG
in terms of export earnings and employment generation.
We have reached a new height

in the development of ICT sector

and we have to work in line with the
progress to maintain it, said Muhith.
Digital World 2014, the largest IT
expo of the country, will be held from
June 4 to 7 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).
The event is being jointly organised by the Technology Division of
the ICT ministry and Bangladesh
Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).
The exposition would have three
components software, e-governance and mobile innovation.
Addressing the meeting, the minister said ICT has made everything
transparent to us and it would also
help us to prevent corruption as a
good tool.
Jamilur
Reza
Choudhury,
vice-chancellor of University of Asia
Pacific, suggested the government
to strengthen marketing as well as
lobbying with the CEOs of the world
biggest IT companies to get more
IT-related job.

Because of the huge development in the ICT sector in Bangladesh,

we are now observing brain gains
instead of brain drain like situation,
said state minister for ICT Zunaid
Ahmed Palak.
He hoped that Bangladesh would
be the next IT destination in the
world as there are lots of talents and
potentials among the young generation.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services urged
the government to continue tax holiday for the ICT sector and demanded
VAT waiver from this sector.
It also requested the government to
fix VAT at 10% for the e-commerce and
e-tendering and special VAT for the
student for using internet facilities.
At present, over five lakh freelancers are working in the ICT sector
and so far earned $50m till now and
we have taken initiatives to train up
more young people to create more
entrepreneurship, said BASIS President Shamim Ahmed. l

Banks, NBFIs urged to frame CSR policy

n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur

Rahman has urged the banks and
non-bank financial institutions to
frame their own CSR (corporate social
responsibility) policy to deeply engage in socially responsible business.
A bank or NBFI will have to frame
their own respective CSR policies
and its board of directors will have
to approve and review it periodically.

Banks and NBFIs will have to publish

an annual publication on CSR, illustrating their respective CSR activities
on a regular basis, he said.
He made the call addressing the
5thh Standard Chartered-Financial
Express CSR Award ceremony held at
a city hotel yesterday evening. BSRM
emerged as the first prize winner,
followed by GP second and Uniliver
Bangladesh third.
CSR activities of our banks and

financial institutions have expanded

several fold over the past few years
for socioeconomic empowerment
of the less well off population segments, said the governor.
As per the new guideline, the banks
and NBFIs will have to spend at least
2.5% of their respective net profits on
CSR in three key fields concessional
loans, donation funds and allocations
for developing internal job environment and gender equality. l

Experts suggested allocating special

fund in the upcoming national budget
to procure food grains from international markets and build a good reserve
of food.
The reserve is likely to become vulnerability as the procurement rate of
Boro rice is almost similar to the local
market price, they said, arguing for the
special allocation.
Currently, the local market price of
per maund of Boro paddy is around
Tk750 while the government fixed the
procurement price at Tk800, discouraging the suppliers to make supply
agreement with the food department.
Just after the harvesting, the high
price of paddy at the farmers level is
quite surprising. If the trends continue, the government cannot meet the
procurement target, said Quazi Shahabuddin, former director general of
Bangladesh Institute of Development
Studies (BIDS).

In that case, he said, the government

has to import the food grains from international market at higher prices. The
agricultural economist said additional
budget should be allocated to face the
unexpected situation.
On March 20, the government fixed
the target of procuring 11 lakh tonnes of
Boro rice from the local market at a rate
of Tk31 per Kg as compared to 10 lakh
tonnes at Tk29 per Kg last year.
According to the Ministry of Food,
the government increased both the procurement target and price compared to
the previous fiscal year to ensure fair
price for the farmers so they do not turn
back from Boro farming the largest
food supply source of the country.
In last about one month period as of
May 26, the government procured only
around 53,000 tonnes of Boro rice as
most of the suppliers were reluctant to
sign agreement with the government
due to little difference between the procurement price and local market price.
B3 COLUMN 2

B2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

66,614,586
71,366

Traded Issues

293

Issue Gain
(Avg. Price Basis)

140

Issue Loss
(Avg. Price Basis)

146

Unchanged Issue (Avg.

Price Basis)

Market Capital Equity

(Billion. Tk.)

2,275.21

Market Capital Equity

(Billion US$)

27.58

CSE key features

May 28, 2014
Turnover (Million Taka)

220.67

Turnover (Volume)

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index :

3,212.05

Number of Contract

er large cap sectors pharmaceuticals, food and allied, and power

inched up.
Lanka Bangla Securities, in its
market analysis, said stock market continued to rally and scale up
the benchmark index on hopes of
a pro-growth budget outcome and
stable economic outlook.
It said market has found some
ground at current level after series
of slowed down move in index and
one of the benefits of sentiments
turning positive is the green shoots
seen in financial, cement and manufacturing stocks.
It said an allocation of Tk8,100
crore on Padma Bridge along with
other government projects are
likely in next budget. Adding to
this, theres hope of a pickup in the
countrys infrastructure story that
is leading to the segment witnessing positive interest, it said.
The infrastructure push will not
only aid the construction segment,
but all real-estate companies of the
country, it said.
IDLC Investments said budgetary expectation seemed getting
stronger day by day which subsequently revved up investor sentiment.
It said after a number of dull sessions, reversion in last day knocked
investors sentiment positively. l

Stocks saw modest gains for the

second consecutive session yesterday on hopes of pro-growth budgetary measures.
Cement sector shined, making
up one-fifth of the total market
turnover on expectation of beginning construction of Padma Bridge,
the largest infrastructure project in
the country, and rose more than 3%
in sectoral index.
The benchmark index DSEX rose
15 points or 0.4% to close at 4,431.
The comprising blue chips DS30
soared 10 points or 0.7% to 1,613.
The Shariah index DSES gained almost 8 points or 0.8% to close at
993.
Chittagong Stock Exchange
(CSE) Selective Categories Index,
CSCX, was up 15 points to 8,493.
Turnover recovered slightly and
crossed Tk300 crore after eight
consecutive sluggish sessions. The
total turnover at DSE stood at Tk321
crore, which was 33.7% higher over
the previous session.
All the major sectors saw green
except the financial sectors banks
and non-banking financial institutions which edged lower.
Heavyweight telecommunication sector was the market mover
as the sector gained 1.27%. The oth-

Company

Turnover
(Million Taka)
Turnover
(Volume)

5,799,844

Number of Contract

8,279

4430.98100

(+) 0.34%

Traded Issues

206

993.28119

(+) 0.79%

Issue Gain
(Avg. Price Basis)

95

1612.77381

(+) 0.65%

Issue Loss
(Avg. Price Basis)

105

CSE All Share Index:

13628.51240

(+) 0.33%

Unchanged Issue (Avg.

Price Basis)

CSE - 30 Index :

11255.63150

(+) 0.35%

Market Capital Equity

(Billion. Tk.)

2,181.67

8492.80890

(+) 0.17%

Market Capital Equity

(Billion US$)

26.44

DSE Shariah Index :

DSE - 30 Index :

CSE Selected Index :

DSE LOSERS

GeminiSeaFood-Z
Midas Financing-Z
Rahima Food -Z
Eastern InsurA
CMC Kamal Tex. -A
Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A
Eastern Housing -A
Meghna PET Ind. -Z

-5.69
-5.26
-5.13
-4.31
-4.05
-3.72
-3.54
-3.23

Average (%
change)
-6.27
-6.25
-1.82
-4.37
-3.04
-3.34
0.89
-3.23

GSP Finance-A
Stylecraft -A

-3.16
-2.68

-2.47
-2.91

Company

Closing (%
change)

CSE LOSERS

Standard Insurance-A
Hakkani P& Paper -B
Islami Ins.BD-A
NLI 1st M F-A
Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A
National Housing Fin.-B
Delta Brac HFCL-A
Mercantile Bank -A

-8.31
-6.83
-4.90
-4.17
-3.70
-3.06
-3.01
-2.69

Average (%
change)
-8.94
-3.24
-4.90
-3.66
-3.12
-0.92
-3.01
-1.36

Daffodil Computers -Z
H.R. Textile -A

-2.54
-2.40

-2.29
-2.30

Company

Closing (%
change)

ANALYST

Closing
average

Closing

Bank
NBFI
Investment
Engineering
Food & Allied
Fuel & Power
Jute
Textile
Pharma & Chemical
Paper & Packaging
Service
Leather
Ceramic
Cement
Information Technology
General Insurance
Life Insurance
Telecom
Travel & Leisure
Miscellaneous
Debenture

DSE
Million Taka
244.77
82.38
48.11
370.75
242.80
273.36
1.14
351.63
382.47
0.56
133.99
30.40
8.53
623.53
11.85
34.17
62.03
230.96
15.41
62.98
0.26

Turnover
in million

Daily low

Latest
EPS

Latest
PE

125.52
18.00
58.70
35.49
23.93
26.35
61.30
6.00

126.00
18.00
57.30
35.50
23.70
25.90
59.90
6.00

129.50
18.00
61.00
35.60
24.70
27.10
64.00
6.10

124.90
18.00
56.60
34.00
22.90
25.70
56.00
6.00

0.182
0.018
3.082
0.215
23.827
60.981
129.387
0.051

-11.90
-6.91
-1.01
3.44
1.32
4.64
3.19
-1.33

-ve
-ve
-ve
10.3
18.1
5.7
19.2
-ve

18.55
1000.00

18.40
1000.00

19.10
1000.00

17.10
1000.00

1.954
0.100

1.56
47.83

Closing
average

Closing

MeghnaCement -A
Kohinoor Chem -A
ACI Limited- A
Al-Haj Textile -A
JMI Syringes MDL-A
Golden Harvest Agro-N
LafargeS Cement-Z
Premier Cement-A
AramitCementA
BSC-A

Closing (%
change)
7.57
6.39
6.14
4.75
4.51
4.47
4.39
4.07
4.02
3.80

CSE GAINERS
Company
Samata LeatheR -Z
Phoenix Insur -A
ACI Limited- A
BGIC -A
Premier Cement-A
Eastern Cables-A
LafargeS Cement-Z
ConfidenceCement A
MeghnaCement -A
BSC-A

Closing (%
change)
8.04
7.03
6.56
5.91
5.25
4.74
4.68
4.51
4.51
4.31

Average (%
change)
7.20
6.44
3.66
3.05
2.80
2.73
4.46
3.75
3.94
3.63
Average (%
change)
8.29
7.03
4.94
6.18
4.86
4.67
4.68
4.22
7.38
3.73

Closing
average
133.63
374.17
224.95
122.07
165.43
32.35
73.03
89.65
44.06
518.17

Closing
average
30.97
35.00
226.69
23.36
90.21
126.07
73.12
131.92
134.55
518.47

Closing
135.00
376.10
229.80
123.50
166.80
32.70
73.70
89.60
44.00
519.00

Closing
30.90
35.00
230.50
23.30
90.20
126.00
73.80
132.10
132.20
520.50

Daily high
137.90
378.00
235.40
124.20
168.80
32.90
74.40
91.50
44.80
525.25

Daily high
31.00
35.00
235.00
23.50
91.80
126.90
74.20
135.00
138.50
523.50

Daily low
127.90
350.00
200.00
106.20
161.30
28.20
71.30
85.00
38.50
501.25

Daily low
30.90
35.00
210.00
23.30
86.10
125.80
71.20
129.00
132.00
508.00

Turnover
in million
42.642
1.417
64.938
30.521
13.648
12.558
414.171
14.702
21.169
36.860

Turnover
in million
0.046
0.042
2.584
0.033
0.920
0.315
23.692
2.451
0.686
3.816

Latest
EPS
7.00
9.37
5.28
2.00
2.08
1.55
2.16
3.67
0.68
23.48

Latest
EPS
0.09
3.00
5.28
1.36
3.67
2.03
2.16
8.52
7.00
23.48

Latest
PE
19.1
39.9
42.6
61.0
79.5
20.9
33.8
24.4
64.8
22.1

Latest
PE
344.1
11.7
42.9
17.2
24.6
62.1
33.9
15.5
19.2
22.1

News from trade server

EHL: (Q3): As per un-audited quarterly
accounts for the 3rd quarter ended on
30th April 2014 (Feb14 to Apr14), the
Company has reported net profit after tax
of Tk. 121.16 million with EPS of Tk. 1.50
as against Tk. 78.50 million and Tk. 0.97
respectively for the same period of the
previous year. Whereas net profit after tax
was Tk. 192.49 million with EPS of Tk. 2.39
for the period of nine months (Aug13 to
Apr14) ended on 30.04.2014 as against
Tk. 179.08 million and Tk. 2.22 respectively for the same period of the previous year.
UNIQUEHRL: Credit Rating Information
and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the
Company as AA+ in the long term and
ST-1 in the short term in consideration of
financials of the Company up to 31st December 2013 (audited) and other relevant
quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.
AMCL(PRAN): Credit Rating Information
and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the
Company as AA- in the long term and
ST-3 in the short term in consideration of
financials of the Company up to 30th June
2013 (audited) and other relevant quanti-

tative as well as qualitative information up

to the date of rating declaration.
RANFOUNDRY: Credit Rating Information
and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the
Company as AA- in the long term and
ST-3 in the short term in consideration
of financials of the Company up to 31st December 2013 (audited) and other relevant
quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.
EHL: The Company has informed that
the Board of Directors of the Company
has approved the investment of Tk.
3.00 million in IG Health Care Limited, a
healthcare project of Islam Group against
300,000 shares of Tk. 10.00 each out of
total 5,000,000 shares.
SAIHAMCOT: The Company has informed
that the Board of Directors of the Company has taken the following resolutions: 1.
has decided to go for commercial production of Saiham Cotton Mills Ltd. (Unit-2)
from May 31, 2014, the proceeds of which
were mainly received from Initial Public
Offering, 2. The total cost of setting up of
the additional unit is Tk. 1,12,17,48,482.00
and 3. The additional unit will generate

approximately extra revenue of Tk. 170.00

crore to the existing turnover.
RUPALILIFE: The Company has informed
that it has credited the rights shares to the
respective shareholders BO Accounts on
May 26, 2014.
WATACHEM: As per Regulation 30 of
DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has
informed that a meeting of the Board of
Directors will be held on June 01, 2014 at
4:00 PM to consider, among others, audited financial statements of the Company
for the year ended on December 31, 2013.
IPO Subscription: Tung Hai Knitting &
Dyeing Limited subscription date 18-22 May
2014, NRB upto 31 May 2014. @ taka 10,
face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Far
East Knitting & Dyeing Industries Limited
subscription date 15-19 June 2014, NRB
upto 28 June 2014. @ taka 22, face value
taka 10 and market lot 200. Shurwid Industries Limited subscription date 08-12 June
2014, NRB upto 21 June 2014. @ taka 10,
face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Saif
Powertec Limited subscription date 06-10
July 2014, NRB upto 19 July 2014. @ taka
10, face value taka 30 and market lot 200.

11.9
20.9

Daily high

Turnover
in million

Daily low

Latest
EPS

Latest
PE

31.76
28.35
23.30
9.20
26.37
28.92
64.50
18.16

32.00
27.30
23.30
9.20
26.00
28.50
64.50
18.10

32.00
28.90
23.30
9.20
27.20
30.00
64.50
18.40

31.50
27.30
23.30
9.20
25.80
28.30
64.50
16.80

0.031
0.057
0.012
0.009
8.595
0.564
0.032
2.397

2.88
0.28
1.92
1.36
4.64
2.32
5.05
1.16

11.0
101.3
12.1
6.8
5.7
12.5
12.8
15.7

11.50
28.50

11.50
28.50

11.50
28.50

11.50
28.50

0.063
0.057

0.68
1.62

16.9
17.6

The infrastructure push will not only

aid the construction segment, but all
real-estate companies of the country

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company
LafargeS Cement-Z
Grameenphone-A
Eastern Housing -A
BSRM Steels-A
Meghna Petroleum -A
Olympic Ind. -A
Square Pharma -A

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector

Daily high

Thursday, May 29, 2014

DSE GAINERS

DSE key features

May 28, 2014

Stocks see modest

rally with increased
turnover
n Tribune Report

Stock

% change
7.62
2.56
1.50
11.54
7.56
8.51
0.04
10.95
11.91
0.02
4.17
0.95
0.27
19.41
0.37
1.06
1.93
7.19
0.48
1.96
0.01

Million Taka
21.86
5.48
2.95
33.69
15.39
22.43
33.99
22.99
17.13
3.13
19.25
1.81
34.72
1.82
0.34
8.82
14.33
4.46
7.27
0.01

CSE

% change
8.04
2.02
1.08
12.39
5.66
8.25
0.00
12.50
8.46
6.30
1.15
7.08
0.67
12.77
0.67
0.12
3.25
5.27
1.64
2.68
0.00

Million Taka
266.64
87.86
51.06
404.44
258.19
295.80
1.14
385.63
405.46
17.69
137.13
49.65
10.34
658.25
13.67
34.51
70.85
245.29
19.86
70.25
0.27

Total

% change
7.65
2.52
1.47
11.61
7.41
8.49
0.03
11.07
11.64
0.51
3.94
1.43
0.30
18.89
0.39
0.99
2.03
7.04
0.57
2.02
0.01

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

HeidelbergCement -A
ACI Limited- A
Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A

Appollo Ispat CL -N
Mercantile Bank -A
Beximco Pharma -A
Emerald Oil Ind. -N
BD Submarine Cable-A
CSE TURNOVER LEADERS
Company
LafargeS Cement-Z

BSRM Steels-A
Grameenphone-A
Appollo Ispat CL -N
Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A
Meghna Petroleum -A
Rupali Life Insur.-A
Square Pharma -A
Hwa Well Textiles-N
BD Submarine Cable-A
UNITED AIR-A
BSC-A
UCBL - A
Emerald Oil Ind. -N
AFC AgroBiotech-N

Volume
shares
5,671,500
682,200
2,110,880
1,397,454
358,415
425,404
265,131
130,500
288,681
2,314,500

2,089,800
3,016,937
1,249,386
993,500
262,091
Volume
shares

324,000
142,140
38,400
357,000
326,000
24,200
72,000
18,199
99,000
22,100
338,781
7,360
141,136
15,500
64,500

Value in
million
414.17
183.58
129.39
106.67
101.25
98.64
71.80
69.81
64.94
60.98

58.69
55.71
52.96
48.77
47.38

Value in
million

23.69
10.88
10.33
10.00
8.60
6.86
5.94
4.93
4.13
4.00
3.86
3.82
3.76
3.64
3.54

% of total
turnover
12.89
5.72
4.03
3.32
3.15
3.07
2.24
2.17
2.02
1.90

1.83
1.73
1.65
1.52
1.47

% of total
turnover

11.17
5.13
4.87
4.71
4.05
3.23
2.80
2.32
1.95
1.89
1.82
1.80
1.77
1.72
1.67

Daily
closing
73.70
269.80
59.90
76.20
284.50
235.30
271.40
531.80
229.80
25.90

27.90
18.50
39.90
49.20
180.00

Daily
closing

73.80
76.50
269.50
27.90
26.00
284.20
76.70
271.10
41.30
180.60
11.30
520.50
26.60
49.00
54.60

Price
change
4.39
1.43
-3.54
2.83
1.93
3.57
0.74
0.53
6.14
-3.72

Daily
opening
70.60
266.00
62.10
74.10
279.10
227.20
269.40
529.00
216.50
26.90

Daily
high
74.40
270.50
64.00
77.40
286.50
236.50
272.00
539.80
235.40
27.10

Daily
low
71.30
263.50
56.00
68.00
255.00
213.00
255.00
529.10
200.00
25.70

Daily
average
73.03
269.11
61.30
76.33
282.50
231.87
270.81
534.96
224.95
26.35

Price
change

Daily
opening

Daily
high

Daily
low

Daily
average

1.09
-0.54
0.00
2.29
-0.88

4.68
3.38
1.58
1.45
-3.70
1.36
-5.07
0.63
-1.43
-0.71
-0.88
4.31
0.00
-78.34
-1.27

27.60
18.60
39.90
48.10
181.60

70.50
74.00
265.30
27.50
27.00
280.40
80.80
269.40
41.90
181.90
11.40
499.00
26.60
226.20
55.30

28.40
18.70
43.50
49.50
183.30

74.20
77.60
270.70
28.20
27.20
291.50
83.20
271.90
42.30
182.50
11.60
523.50
26.90
49.40
55.50

27.70
16.80
37.00
48.70
164.10

71.20
74.80
266.00
27.50
25.80
280.70
76.00
268.00
41.10
180.00
10.30
508.00
24.00
48.50
54.00

28.08
18.46
42.39
49.09
180.76

73.12
76.55
269.02
28.01
26.37
283.46
82.53
270.74
41.71
181.05
11.38
518.47
26.62
234.87
54.88

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

B3

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Is cotton the new aluminum for US?

n Reuters, New York

Oil prices mixed

with Ukraine
crisis in focus
n AFP, Singapore
Oil prices were mixed in Asia yesterday,
underpinned by concerns about the
Ukraine crisis as fierce armed confrontation between government forces and
pro-Moscow separatists continued unabated, leaving dozens dead.
US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in July, eased
four cents to $104.07 in afternoon
trade. Brent North Sea crude for July
gained 13 cents to $110.15 per barrel.
Ukraines interim pro-Western government said Tuesday it had recaptured an airport in the eastern city of
Donetsk from pro-Russian insurgents
after a day of air strikes and fierce gun
battles.
Donetsk
mayor
Oleksandr
Lukyanchenko said two civilians and
38 combatants had died and another 31
were wounded, including Russians and
possibly Chechens.
Traders are still keeping an eye on
Ukraine developments especially the
continued fighting in the eastern part
as well as developments in Libya, said
Singapores United Overseas Bank in a
note to investors.
The escalation in tensions comes a
day after billionaire chocolate baron
Petro Poroshenko was confirmed as
the countrys new president following weekend polls triggered after proRussian leader Viktor Yanukovych was
ousted in February.
Washington and its European allies
supporting Ukraines interim government have accused Russia of fomenting unrest in the country, allegations
Moscow denies.
Investors fear a full-blown conflict
in the ex-Soviet state, a conduit for a
quarter of European gas imports from
Russia, will disrupt supplies and send
energy prices soaring.
Kelly Teoh, managing director at IR
Resources in Bangkok, said prices were
also supported by hopes of a further
drop in US crude stockpiles, indicating
robust demand in the worlds top crude
consumer ahead of the busy summer
driving season.
US crude stocks plunged 7.2 million
barrels in the week to May 16, the Department of Energy revealed last week.
The weekly stockpiles report will
be released on Thursday instead of
Wednesday this week, because of the
Memorial Day holiday weekend. l

Cotton merchants are waiting months

to take delivery of fiber from US warehouses, tightening supplies and fueling
fears the niche market is in the grip of
a storage game that plunged aluminum
trading into crisis.
Traders that own the stockpiled cotton have raced to remove their bales this
year in order to cash in on higher prices
as inventories shrink to their lowest seasonal level in over seven years. But some
warehouse operators are shipping it out
at the slowest possible rate in order to
keep charging storage fees, 12 traders,
buyers, and warehouse operators said.
The issue, which has dogged the
market on and off for years, returned
with a vengeance this year at sheds
from Lubbock, Texas, to Memphis,
Tennessee. The logjams, which have
not been widely reported, are among
the worst seen since the existing minimum load-out rate was introduced in
2004, traders said.
U.S. merchants and growers US
merchants are missing out on sales
because it can take months to get shipments to buyers, said Kevin McDermott, vice president at Jess Smith &
Sons Cotton, a mid-sized merchant in
Bakersfield, California.
Frustrated merchants such as Singapores Olam International Ltd, the
worlds No 2 trader, are calling for measures that would force warehouse operators to release the cotton more quickly.
Those who own the sheds - a mix
of independent warehouse operators,
farmer cooperatives, and merchants say they are simply operating within
government-mandated load-out rates.
But the Cotton Growers Warehouse
Association, which represents warehouse operations affiliated with farmer
cooperatives, acknowledged the practice of stalling shipments to generate
revenue was still a possibility.
Thats because the load-out rate
stipulates only the minimum number

Experts for special

B1 COLUMN 6

For example, a major portion of the

suppliers from Noagaon district having
the highest Boro growers did not sign
the agreement till yesterday, though
the deadline expired on May 26. Nirod
Baran Saha, president of Noagan Rice
Wholesalers Association, told the Dhaka
Tribune of the unwillingness yesterday.
Regarding the high price of paddy
during this period of harvesting, Dr
Asaduzzamn, professional fellow of
BIDS, said that the farmers are getting
the benefit this year which is good, but
it will make the government insecure in
terms of food reserve as the government
will have to procure rice anyhow to
meet the social safety net programmes.
Currently, the government spends
around 20 lakh tons of coarse rice to
support different social safety net
programmes, including Vulnerable
Group Feeding (VGF) and Open Market
Sale (OMS).
The average rice production of the
country is around 3.4 crore tonnes and
the wheat is around 10 lakh tonnes. l

Farm worker Jose Luna holds a bundle of harvested cotton at Baxley & Baxley Farms in Minturn, South Carolina
of bales that needs to be shipped. As
long as warehouses stick to that minimum they are not breaking any rules.
We are trying to find a way either
through regulations or through market
channels to reward warehouses that
provide good service and provide disincentives for warehouses that might
sit on the cotton simply for revenue,
said association executive director Andrew Jordan.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture,
which oversees more than 350 warehouses across the country, is preparing
to step up monitoring next month in response to industry pressure, but critics
say more action is needed to speed the

cotton to market.
It is not clear just how much fiber is
stuck in queues, and market sources
would not identify sheds with the biggest wait times. Capacity at warehouse
sites can range from 1,000 bales to
more than 500,000 bales.
Several buyers said Louisiana,
which is near some of the countrys
major mills and shipping hubs, has
been a hot spot for logjams this year.
With mills buying on a just-in-time
basis, stocks running low and prices
volatile, dealers fear they will get
caught short and end up paying more
for alternative cotton supplies if their
bales are stuck in queues.

REUTERS

Louis Dreyfus Commodities, the

worlds No 1 cotton merchant, is the
biggest US merchant-operator, with at
least 18 warehouses in eight states. Other merchants include Ecom Agroindustrial which has at least six, and Cargill
Inc. and Olam with three. Noble Group,
which declined to comment, has at
least three. The other companies did
not respond to requests for comment.
The dispute has echoes of the
queues in aluminum warehousing,
where buyers sometimes have to wait
up to two years for their metal. That
logjam is under investigation by the
Department of Justice and Commodity
Futures Trading Commission. l

Need for an active

debt market
stressed
n Tribune Report
Speakers at a workshop in Dhaka have
stressed the need for an active debt
market to bring in an alternative source
of finance to bank loans for the corporate in Bangladesh.
To do that, they suggested introducing publicly listed privately-placed corporate bonds as a step towards a more
liquid debt market.
Vinod Kothari, an internationally
acclaimed financial consultant from India, while conducting the 2-day workshop concluded yesterday emphasised
on the importance of knowing global
market development for bonds that
could align with the local bond market.
Participated by over 30 financial
professionals working in banks and
some employees of IDLC Finance Limited that organised the workshop to
focus on development potentials of the
local bond market from both views of
the regulators and arrangers.
Arif Khan, member of Securities and
Exchange Commission of Bangladesh,
pointed out the problems of the countrys $20bn bond market and stressed
the need for addressing the problems
soon to create a debt market with sufficient liquidity. l

RBI chief
reiterates call for
global monetary
coordination
n Reuters, Mumbai
Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram
Rajan reiterated yesterday what he said
is the need for global central banks to
be mindful of the impact of their unconventional monetary policy measures on other economies.

Dollar holds steady in Asia

n AFP, Tokyo
The dollar held largely steady against
the yen in Asia yesterday after enjoying
a pick-up in New York thanks to an upbeat batch of US data and a record close
for the S&P 500 stock index.
The dollar bought 101.93 yen in Tokyo
afternoon trade compared with 101.96
yen in New York Tuesday afternoon.
The euro fetched $1.3632, against
1.3634, and 138.96 compared with
139.03 yen.
US shares and the greenback ticked
higher on Tuesday on Wall Street as
dealers returned after the Memorial
Day long weekend.
Fresh data showed a rise in consumer confidence for May, a surprising increase in durable goods orders
for April and a pick-up in home prices
for March on the widely watched S&P/
Case-Shiller index.
The news boosted appetite for higher risk assets, sending New Yorks three

main indexes higher. The S&P 500 set a

new high after breaking the 1,900 barrier for the first time on Friday.
The greenback was also supported
by demand from Japans importers,

US shares and the

greenback ticked
higher on Tuesday on
Wall Street as dealers
returned after the
Memorial Day long
weekend
analysts said, as attention turns to the
Bank of Japans next meeting, with
speculation growing that it could tinker with its monetary policy to boost
the economy.
The euro has been on a downward
trend for three weeks on expectations

the European Central Bank will loosen

monetary policy when its board next
meets on June 5.
Earlier this month ECB head Mario
Draghi indicated the bank was ready to
unveil new measures to kickstart the
economy and boost inflation, which is
sitting well below the banks 2.0 percent target.
The dollar was mixed against other
Asia-Pacific currencies.
The greenback rose to 59.04 Indian
rupees from 59.02 rupees on Tuesday,
to 43.90 Philippine pesos from 43.73
pesos, to 32.66 Thai baht from 32.59
baht, and to 11,610.80 Indonesian rupiah from 11,578.80 rupiah.
It weakened to 1,021.55 South Korean won from 1,023.60 won and to
Tw$30.08 from Tw$30.13. The US unit
was unchanged at Sg$1.2549.
The Australian dollar inched up to
92.63 US cents against 92.60 cents,
while the Chinese yuan eased to 16.26
yen from 16.34 yen. l

Rajan proposed that central banks

of advanced nations internalise the
spillover effects from such policies to
minimise volatility and disruptions in
financial markets elsewhere.
The current non-system in international monetary policy is, in my view,
a source of substantial risk, both to
sustainable growth as well as to the financial sector, Rajan said in the text of
a speech to be delivered at the Bank of
Japan in Tokyo.
It is not an industrial country problem, nor an emerging market problem,
it is a problem of collective action. The
sooner we recognize that, the more
sustainable world growth we will
have, he said, reiterating comments
he made earlier this month. l

Googles own self-driving

cars, no steering wheel
n AFP, Los Angeles

First Security Islami Bank Limited recently donated Ahsania Mission Cancer Detection
Centre & Hospital Tk1.97 crore for purchasing a digital X-Ray machine, ECHO machine and
establishment of 5-bed ICU. The banks MD, AAM Zakaria handed over the cheque to Kazi
Rafiqul Alam, president of Dhaka Ahsania Mission

KFC Bangladesh yesterday added a new tag for all KFC restaurants in the country. YUM
International the franchisor of KFC, a restaurant chain has launched the new tag-line, KFC
So good some while back. Akku Chowdhury, managing director and CEO of Transcom
Foods Ltd was present at the tag-line launching ceremony

bKash introduces
mobile balance top up
n Tribune Business Desk
Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL) recently organised a day-long training programme on scientific
methods of crop cultivation and plant protection for around 50 farmers at Union Parisad
of Mohishasi Bazar in Dhamrai, Dhaka. Md Khurshed Alam, head of SME banking of EBL
inaugurated the training session at the presence of the banks head of small business,
Anwar Faruq Talukder

bKash, a mobile financial service provider has recently launched Buy Airtime service that will allow bKash
wallet users to top up mobile balance
of Banglalink, Robi and Airtel numbers

through bKash.
Any individual bKash wallet user
can recharge his/her own or someone elses Bangalink and Airtels both
prepaid and postpaid connection and
Robis prepaid connection through this
service, said a press release. l

Google unveiled plans to build its own

self-driving car - minus the steering
wheel - that it hopes to begin testing in
the coming months.
They wont have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal ... because
they dont need them. Our software and
sensors do all the work, Googles Chris
Urmson said in a blog post.
Urmson said Google plans to build
about 100 prototype vehicles, and
later this summer, our safety drivers
will start testing early versions of these
vehicles that have manual controls.
He added, If all goes well, wed like
to run a small pilot program here in
California in the next couple of years.
For Google, the car marks a shift
away from adapting vehicles made by
others in its quest to pioneer individual
transport that needs only a stop-andgo function.
It was inspiring to start with a
blank sheet of paper and ask, What
should be different about this kind of
vehicle? the post said.
The top speed of the battery-powered prototypes will be 40 kilometers
(25 miles) per hour and are designed for
utility, not luxury.
Were light on creature comforts,
but well have two seats (with seatbelts), a space for passengers belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a

screen that shows the route - and thats

about it, Urmson said.
The blog post shows a photo of a
prototype and an artists rendering both rounded bug-looking vehicles.
We took a look from the ground up
of what a self-driving car would look
like, Google co-founder Sergey Brin
told the Re/code conference in Rancho
Palos Verdes, California.
The reason Im so excited about
these prototypes and the self-driving
car project in general is the ability to
change the world and the community
around you, Brin added.
Brin said Google is likely to partner
with a lot of companies on the project,
but declined to elaborate.
Until now Google has been re-fitting
Lexus and Honda cars to work as selfdriving ones.
In an interview with Re/code, Urmson said the new Google cars will have
numerous safety features learned from
the companys research.
In our car there is no steering wheel
so we have to design really fundamental capabilities, he said.
So we have effectively two motors
and they work so if one of them fails
the other can steer, so the car can always control where its going, and similar with brakes.
In addition to crash protection for the
occupant, the car has features to avoid
pedestrians and other road users. l

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Nike, Adidas get personal in battle over football World Cup

n Reuters, Berlin
US sportswear group Nike is banking on
its sponsorship of more of the worlds
best-known soccer stars than Adidas in
its battle to overtake the German firm
as the sports top-selling brand at its
World Cup this summer.
Nike has signed six of the 10 most
marketable footballers in the world, to
just three for Adidas and one for smaller German brand Puma, according to
a new ranking by sports marketing research group Repucom published on
Wednesday.
Portugals Cristiano Ronaldo, sponsored by Nike, tops the Repucom ranking, with almost 84% of people around
the world saying they know the Real
Madrid striker, helping to sell over one
million shirts with his name on the
back in 2013.
In second place is Lionel Messi of Argentina, front man for the Adidas campaign who scores 76% global awareness
according to Repucom - his marketability little dented by a mixed run of form
for Barcelona this season.
The appeal of the extrovert Ronaldo,
who took the crown as the worlds best
player from Messi in January, is helped
by his use of Twitter, where he has 26
million followers to just two million for
the more retiring Argentine.
Ronaldo probably helps sell shirts
even when he isnt wearing one - he
poses nude on the cover of the latest
Spanish Vogue with his model girlfriend Irina Shayk - though the branding benefits are shared as Adidas sponsors Real Madrid.
While it is primarily about
performance on the pitch, a players
appeal is about a whole range of
variables. With a footballer, you
see everything, on the pitch and off
the pitch, week in, week out, said
Repucom founder Paul Smith.
Athletes like Ronaldo have something unique that if you could bottle it

Footballs from Adidas, the worlds second largest sports apparel firm, are displayed before the company annual general meeting in the northern Bavarian town of Fuerth near
Nuremberg
REUTERS
and sell it, you would do nothing else.
Nike tries to do just that with a glitzy
ad featuring Ronaldo - and Shayk - in
which boys playing soccer in the local
park end up scoring a penalty in a huge
stadium against their heroes, including
others from the Repucom top 10 such
as Englands Wayne Rooney and Bra-

zils Neymar.
Adidas has retaliated with a new ad
launched last Saturday which shows
Messi dreaming about his rivals such
as Bastian Schweinsteiger of Germany,
Luis Suarez of Uruguay and Dani Alves
of Brazil, none of whom feature in the
Repucom ranking.

Ex-WTO chief: Trans-Pacific free

trade pact old-fashioned
n AFP, Sydney
Plans for a vast trans-Pacific free trade
pact including the United States and
Australia were good but old-fashioned, former World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said yesterday.
Lamy, who stood down from the
WTO in September, also said that cut-

They have been dead

for thousands of years
and you still see the
light of the star. Thats
what tariffs are like,
tariffs are dead
ting tariffs was no longer the force it
once was in advancing trade, in comments to Fairfax newspapers.
The
Trans-Pacific
Partnership
agreement Australia is negotiating with
the US and 10 other countries, its a
good, old-fashioned agreement, Lamy
told The Age.
Its about goods, services, government procurement, a bit of intellectual

property, but its the last of the big oldstyle agreements.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership has 12
prospective members - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,
the United States and Vietnam - with
trade ministers this month agreeing to
intensify talks on the deal.
The ambitious pact, which would
cover about 40% of the world economy, has stalled as the United States and
Japan lock horns over key details, including Japanese tariffs on agricultural
imports and US access to its allys huge
auto market.
If agreement between the US and
Japan could be reached, it would raise
hopes of a wider pan-Pacific agreement.
Look at the US-Japan agreement,
Lamy said. Its about pork, beef and
rice. They are not exactly 21st-century
trade opening topics, he said.
Pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership if you think theres something in it
for you. But its the last of the big oldstyle trade agreements.
Speaking about tariffs, the Frenchman likened them to dead stars
whose light could still be seen across
millions of kilometres despite them being long expired.

They have been dead for thousands

of years and you still see the light of the
star. Thats what tariffs are like, tariffs
are dead, he said.
Lamy was, however, enthusiastic
about a US-EU free trade pact which is
under negotiation, the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The new era begins with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, he said of the deal which would
vastly expand the US-EU economic relationship.
The TTIP includes tariff cuts and
improved market access but one of its
most ambitious objectives is common
regulatory standards for goods and services.
Lamy said agreeing to common standards would make an enormous difference to trade because global corporations could truly take advantage of
economies of scale.
Australia has just concluded freetrade agreements with Japan and South
Korea but Lamy, a former EU trade
chief, conceded that businesspeople
often did not use these kinds of deals.
They make ambassadors feel good,
but they are not worth the effort, he
said. l

n AFP, New York

German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles during an European Council summit in Brussels
AFP

global footprint and in all aspects of our

lives, said Moira Forbes, president and
publisher of ForbesWoman.
Forbes has named Merkel the most
powerful woman nine times.
Top businesswomen on the list include General Motors CEO Mary Barra
(No 7) - subject of the Forbes cover story
- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (No 9)

Adidas, which has long dominated

the market for soccer boots, shirts and
balls, is facing a fierce challenge from
Nike, the worlds biggest sportswear
company that has only been a serious
player in soccer for the last 20 years.
While Adidas has supplied the

match ball for the World Cup since 1970

and has extended its sponsorship of
the competition to 2030, Nike is for the
first time kitting out more teams - 10
out of 32 finalists - including hosts and
favorites Brazil.
Adidas, which is supplying nine
teams including reigning champions

Intel, Chinas Rockchip in

Android tablets alliance

German Chancellor Merkel tops

Forbes powerful women list
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
topped Forbess list of the worlds most
powerful women for the fourth consecutive year, followed by US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the magazine
said yesterday.
Behind them came Melinda Gates,
who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff and IMF chief
Christine Lagarde.
Hillary Clinton, former first lady,
onetime Secretary of State and possible
future US presidential contender, was
listed at number six.
The annual list includes women in
business, media, politics, technology,
entertainment, philanthropy and nonprofits, billionaires, and finance, a new
category for the first time.
As we mark the 10th anniversary of
publishing the Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women list, these impressive women from around the world continue to
make a dramatic, lasting impact on our

Adidas on the run

and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty (No 10).

Forbes said the list features nine heads
of state who run nations with a combined
GDP of $11.1tn and 28 corporate CEOs
who control $1.7tn in annual revenues.
In another measure of influence, the
100 women on the 2014 list have a combined social media following of over 812
million, the magazine said. l

n AFP, New York

US computer chip giant Intel announced
Tuesday a partnership with Chinese
tech firm Rockchip to produce low-cost
Android-based tablet computers.
The two companies will produce a
range of entry-level Android tablets
worldwide with the Intel Atom processors.
The strategic agreement with Rockchip is an example of Intels commitment to take pragmatic and different
approaches to grow our presence in the
global mobile market by more quickly
delivering a broader portfolio of Intel
architecture and communications technology solutions, said Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich in a statement.
We are moving with velocity to
grow Intels offerings for the growing
global tablet market.
Rockchip CEO Min Li added in the
same statement that the combination of Intels leading architecture and

modem technology with our leading

mobile design capability brings greater
choice to the growing global market for
mobile devices in the entry and value
segments.
Jack Gold, analyst at J. Gold Associates, said the deal will help Intel gain
access to the mass Chinese market
for lower end tablets and potentially
smartphones.
This is a win-win strategy, giving
Intel a massively expanded sphere to
sell chips to (via Rockchip) in the rapidly growing low-end tablet market,
primarily Android based, Gold said in
an email.
This gives Intel a better ability to
compete against the ARM ecosystem,
referring to devices using the platform
of British-based ARM Holdings.
Intel has been pushing further into
mobile devices and the Internet of
things to make up for slowing sales
of personal computers, a market it
dominates. l

Euro zones Dijsselbloem

says taxes on labour too high
n Reuters, Berlin
The chairman of the Eurogroup of euro
zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday the euro zone
must jointly reform and added that
high taxes on labor are an obstacle to
growth.
Speaking in Berlin, Dijsselbloem
said that national tax cuts should be
coordinated across Europe.
The tax wedge on labor in the euro
zone is high, probably too high, he
said. In almost all euro zone countries
we have a tax wedge that is higher than
the OECD average.
Dijsselbloem said that following the
European Parliamentary elections he
is more convinced that the European
Union must focus on job creation. Europe is no longer taken for granted, he
said. It is no longer undisputed ... the
elections have only strengthened my
belief that we have to focus on creating
jobs. He also said the EUs efforts must
be aimed at creating the right conditions for sustainable growth.
The key issue at the moment is
simply the return of jobs. The real
thing in life that people still feel, such
as in Portugal, is massive unemployment. So people ask, will this be jobless
growth?
Dijsselbloem said he was concerned
about a lack of movement for reforms
after the parliamentary elections.

After these elections, my fear is

that we are scared to do more, that we
will draw back and see what happens.
Then we will get stuck at a very low
level of growth, unemployment does
not go down and you will lose the next
elections, he said.
If you want the next elections
to be better of course it always
depends on the perspective you have
to act now.
Dijsselbloem, who is finance minister of the Netherlands, said he wasnt
sure if the Eurogroup needs a permanent chairman or not but believes it is
possible to continuing to hold two jobs
at the same time.
Whether it needs a permanent
president, I dont know. I like
combining both jobs. Of course, there
would be more time (for the Eurogroup
role) if I didnt have my daytime job,
but the combination is practically
doable, he said. l

DILBERT

Spain, as well as Argentina and Germany, expects to make a record 2bn

euros (1.6bn pounds) from soccer this
year, still exceeding Nikes $2bn of soccer turnover.
Football is the DNA of our company. We want to clearly show that we are
number one in football, Adidas Chief
Executive Herbert Hainer told journalists last week, adding Adidas expected
to sell significantly more balls than at
the last World Cup in South Africa four
years ago and about as many shirts.
Hainer acknowledged that Adidas
faced a head-to-head race with Nike
in the soccer shoe market, but predicted Adidas would still sell 2 million pairs
of special World Cup boots.
Nike believes it has already overtaken Adidas in boots, including in its
rivals home market Germany.
While Adidas will be supplying the
German kit, many of the countrys top
players now wear Nike boots, with nine
members of the team that started against
Poland this month sporting Nike.
However, Hainer dismissed suggestions Adidas had not signed the right
stars, saying 14 of the 27 members of
the German squad would be wearing
boots with Adidas trademark three
stripes.
Meanwhile, Puma, whose only
player in the Repucom top 10 is former
France striker Thierry Henry, is resorting to a stunt to attract attention: it
has persuaded players such as Italys
maverick striker Mario Balotelli, Marco
Reus of Germany and Cesc Fabregas of
Spain to wear one pink and one blue
Tricks boot.
I have to be honest, the first time
I saw the Tricks boots, I thought the
Puma guy was mad. But when I realized he wasnt, I was already excited,
Balotelli said.
It is exactly the reason why I chose
to be with Puma, they dare to be different and everyone knows that I do as
well. l

Britain tops
foreign investment
ranking, France lags
n Reuters, Paris
Britain and Germany topped an annual
ranking of foreign investment projects
in Europe while France lagged behind
though its numbers were on rise, a
study showed on Tuesday.
Retaining its top position, Britain
saw the number of foreign investment
projects in the country rise by 15% last
year to 799, according to Ernst and
Young.
Meanwhile, Germany, Europes biggest economy and industrial powerhouse, saw an increase of 12% to 701
foreign investments.
France appeared to have halted
some of its decline in recent years although the number of foreign investments grew more slowly than in Britain
or Germany.
With a nine percent increase last
year in investments to 514 projects,
Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg
seized on the study as a sign of the governments success in reviving French
firms competitiveness and improving
the countrys attractiveness.
In a move to improve competitiveness further, President Francois Hollande aims to phase out 30bn euros
($41bn) in payroll tax companies pay
over the next three years in exchange
for commitments to create jobs.
Ernst and Young said that the total
number of foreign investments in Europe rose five percent to a record 3,955
projects, creating 166,300 jobs which
was down from pre-crisis levels of
close to 200,000.
While intra-European investment
accounted for 54% of foreign investment, the United States was the single
biggest foreign investor followed by
Germany and Britain.
In one of the latest examples of US
investment in Europe, US conglomerate General Electric is seeking to buy
the energy assets of French group Alstom, once an icon of French industry.
However, it faces resistance from
the French government, which prefers
a European tie-up between Alstom and
German rival Siemens and which has
widened its control of foreign takeovers with a decree giving it powers to
veto deals. l