n Julfi kar Ali Manikwith Udisa Islam

As justice seekers in every corner of the society are now blaming the pros-ecution and the probe agency for their incompetency in dealing with the his-toric cases at the war crimes tribunal, none of the designated high o� cials of the government are ready to shoulder the responsibility.

Those conducting the cases in the two tribunals were supposed to be praised by people for dealing with the historic war crimes cases. But many of them came under spotlight negatively for their in-competency and suspicious role.

Against these criticisms, the attor-ney general, the former law minster and the former junior law minister, while defending themselves, are now blam-ing each other for recruiting incompe-tent people and lack of supervision.

Frustration and grievances mount-ed among people in the last 48 hours after senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Del-awar Hossain Sayedee’s death penalty was commuted to imprisonment until death at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

They are raising questions on the poor performance of investigators and prose-cutors, incompetency, commitment to get appointment for the jobs and the appointment process. There is also ap-prehension of money making through secret deals with the defence side.

Open criticisms surfaced occa-sionally in the last four years over the performance of some prosecutors and grouping among them.

But after Wednesday’s verdict, criti-cisms, questions and suspicions about the role of prosecutors and investiga-tors have been discussed widely.

Not only the justice seekers, the attorney general – country’s top law o� cer, and the law minister are also talking openly to the mass media over these issues.

After the verdict, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam at a talk show with a private television channel said: “If you come to know what type of people

have been appointed as prosecutors it will give you the creeps.”

He said a lawyer who did not have any experience in dealing criminal cas-es was also appointed as prosecutor. Mahbubey also cited an example by strongly criticising performance of the investigators.

When asked how such unquali� ed and incompetent people were ap-pointed and who were responsible for recruiting them, he denied his respon-sibility saying that he was not involved

with the recruitment process. He, how-ever, gave a hint that former law min-ster Barrister Sha� que Ahmed had been behind the controversial appointments.

Recently, the Appellate Division bench dealing with the war crimes ap-peal cases blasted the attorney general for not having a helping hand from the tribunal during a hearing.

A judge commented: “There is no court in Bangladesh where so much money is spent. Why then is your

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

PM: Verdict spoils Sayedee’s face n Kamran Reza Chowdhury and

Emran Hossain Shaikh

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day told parliament that Jamaat-e-Is-lami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee’s reputation as an Islamic preacher would exist no more following the Su-preme Court’s � nal verdict.

Speaking at the end of the third session, the Leader of the House said Sayedee’s capital punishment, instead of imprisonment until death, would have made people happier.

She also said the constitution amendment act would protect the ju-diciary more, trashing the allegations that the government had made the ju-diciary accountable to the legislature for political reasons.

In her around 45-minute speech, the premier for the � rst time blamed the main opposition Jatiya Party.

Opposition Leader Rawshan Ershad had to endure some criticisms made against her husband, JaPa chief HM Er-shad’s rule.

“Yesterday [Wednesday], a judge-ment was pronounced. What happened was not desirable to anyone. People would have been happy if [the Appellate Division] upheld the death sentence [of Sayedee],” Hasina said, mentioning that a free and independent judiciary, not her government, had given the verdict.

“We have nothing to say,” she said.“Sayedee was known as a religious

preacher. But this verdict will portray him as a violator of women, a killer, a looter and a war criminal.”

People now know what a “heinous”

person Sayedee was during the war, she said.

The Awami League chief also slammed Jamaat for calling a shut-down to protest the verdict.

“Is Jamaat unhappy? Possibly they would be happy if the capital punish-ment order was upheld. What is the justi� cation of calling hartals? Why will people support a hartal if it is called in favour of a war criminal?”

The premier said it was a hartal against the judgement of the judiciary. “The judiciary will look into it.”

Hasina thanked JaPa for its support in passing the constitution amendment bill. She said the previous three-mem-ber Supreme Judicial Council headed by the chief justice could not protect the judiciary.

“The fate of the judges lay on three persons. But now, it has to be made with a two-thirds majority in legisla-ture,” she said adding that the amend-ment would “protect the sanctity and dignity” of the judges and the judiciary.

Before her speech, the opposition raised widespread food adulteration, water logging in Dhaka, bad roads across the country, poor conditions in jails and other public interest issues.

“You have to address the use of chem-icals and formalin in food at any cost. This problem cannot be stopped over-night. It has been on for three decades,” said Rawshan in her closing speech.

The opposition leader said Dhaka gets waterlogged during the mon-soon and the problem must be solved. The frequent power outages in posh

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

ONE FOR SORROW, TWO FOR JOY

WEEKEND

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Ashwin 4, 1421Zilqad 23, 1435Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 168

8 | WorldEgypt has moved to close down one of the last bastions of Muslim Brotherhood dissent with sweeping new rules to curtail violent protest at Al Azhar University, among the world’s most venerable centres of Islamic learning.

3 | NewsThe International Crimes Tribunal 1 has kept another case, six cases in the last six months, awaiting for verdict after hearing arguments in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam.

4 | NewsThe passage of the 16th constitutional amend-ment bill was brie� y thrown into confusion when parliament chamber’s sound system nois-ily malfunctioned, apparently embarrassing the speaker and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

15 | SportChina’s two-time Grand Slam-winner Li Na is poised to retire, state media reported Thursday, in a move which would bring down the curtains on Asia’s most successful tennis career.

5 | NewsThe Social Welfare Ministry is seeking permission from the prime minister’s o� ce to use mobile courts against beggars in nine selected areas of the capital frequented by foreigners.

6 | NationEven after 15 years, Khulna Textile Palli project continues to struggle against legal cases � led against it. Consequently, a project that could have ensured jobs for 28,000 people has fall-en under great uncertainty as a direct result of these unresolved cases.

I N S I D E

FACING IT TOGETHER

11 | OP-EDTAX FAIR DRAWS HUGE CROWD IGNORING STRIKE

B1 | BUSINESS

20 pages plus 24-page weekend supplement | Price: Tk12

RMG INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

7 | LONG FORM

Muhith: Political hiring in govt bank boards back� redn Asif Showkat Kallol

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday admitted that political appointments in the boards was one of the reasons behind the poor performance of the state-owned banks.

Emerging from meetings of the cabinet committees on economic a� airs and public purchase, he told reporters: “When we came to power last time [in 2009], we made some political appointments in the state-owned

banks. We thought they would consider the banks as their own institutions. But that de-cision has back� red.”

He also said: “We have already appoint-ed experienced banking professionals in the boards of the state-owned banks instead of appointing people on political considera-tions.”

On Wednesday, the government appoint-ed former Krishi Bank chairman Sirajud-din Ahmed Chowdhury as the chairman of state-owned Janata Bank.

There is an allegation that when he was the CEO of state-owned Sonali Bank, Sira-juddin went to visit a Sonali Bank-� nanced project by the entrepreneur’s helicopter.

Yesterday, when a reporter reminded the � nance minister of that, he said he knew about the matter and it was a “misconduct.”

Muhith’s remark comes on the back of a heated exchange of words between him and Professor Abul Barkat, the immediate past chairman of Janata Bank. The stando� was ignited after the government had suspended the bank’s CSR activities, saying some of its funds were in question.

Barkat, who was at the helm of the bank for two consecutive terms, alleged that Mu-hith had sought money from the bank’s CSR fund for a boat race in his home constituen-cy. As his demand was not entertained, he stopped the bank’s CSR activities, Barkat alleged.

But Muhith said the funds should be put into “better” use and Barkat could not stay the bank’s chairman forever.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Investigators have found that the directors of Sonali Bank were largely responsible for Hall-Mark loan scam

If you knew what sort of prosecutors were appointed it wouldgive you the creeps

You better ask Qamrul.He brought most of the prosecutors. He looked into the political interest

None of the prosecutors was appointed without his [Sha� que] recommendations

Blame game after Sayedee verdictNow all top state o� cials admit � aws in appointing prosecutors, investigators

Mahbubey Alam Sha� que Ahmed Qamrul Islam

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

1 held for forgingInu’s signature n Our Correspondent, Jessore

Border Guard Bangladesh has handed over a youth to Jessore police on the charge of landing a job at the force us-ing a recommendation letter that con-tained a fake signature of Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu.

SM Emon alias Sumon, son of Ba-daruddin in Raipur Krishnanagar vil-lage under Bagharpara upazila, was handed over to the police by BGB 26 battalion members on Wednesday night.

In a compliant lodged with Kotwali police station on Wednesday, Junior Commanding O� cer of the battalion Md Abdullah said Sumon had submit-ted an application in the minister’s of-� cial letterhead pad containing his seal in response to a job advertisement and

sought appointment as a soldier. The BGB began recruiting on September 2.

The letter, addressed to the BGB di-rector general, recommended Sumon be given a job as a soldier.

Sumon on September 4 was selected initially but a group of people attacked him when he came out of the battal-ion’s o� ce and took away his certi� -cate.

Sumon, alongside his guardians, was asked to come to the BGB o� ce the following day when he reported the in-cident.

However, he has neither shown up nor made any contact with the o� ce since then.

His absence was reported to the BGB headquarters and o� cials there detected that the recommendation letter he had submitted was fake. l

n Tribune Report

The 24-hour countrywide general shut-down enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami protesting the conviction of its leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee passed with no major untoward incidents yesterday.

Leaders and activists of the Ja-maat-e-islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir brought out pro-cessions in di� erent parts of the capi-tal.

Mirpur, Bouddha Mandir area, Jatra-bari, Dhaka Collage, Jagannath Collage, Government Titumir Collage, Savar, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Hajari-bagh and Dhamrai saw some brisk pro-cessions.

Police arrested six Jamaat men from Mirpur, Savar and Dhamrai areas.

O� cer-in-charge of Mirpur police station Md Salauddin said: “They were arrested from Mirpur’s Shialbari Square while picketing.”

Meanwhile, the ruling Awami League and its associated bodies yes-terday brought out procession in dif-ferent parts of the capital opposing the Jamaal-sponsored shutdown.

Chittagong: City life was as usual like other days while no untoward incident was reported in the Chittagong city.

The hartal supporters brought out brisk processions in di� erent areas of the city.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-7) members recovered four crude bombs from Halishahar area at noon but none was arrested in this connection, said

Assistant Superintendent of Police Del-war Hossaion.

Anti-hartal supporters were also seen in di� erent points of the city pro-testing the shutdown.

Khulna: Police arrested three Ja-maat-Shibir activists from the city’s Tutpara, four from Khalishpur and two from Doanana and Fulbarigate areas. The pickets brought out procession in di� erent points including, Kobir Both-tola, Mohsin squire of Doutolpur and Goalkhali of Khalishpur areas.

Rajshahi: Pickets brought out pro-cession in di� erent areas like Shalba-gan, Dingadoba and other areas. They hurled brick chips at police and lighted tires. Police in retaliation hurled tear gas canisters to disperse the hartal activists.

Saidur Rahman, o� cer-in-charge of Shahomokdum police sation said, law enforcers detained RUET unit Islami Chhatra Shibir’s General Secretary Ha-run-ur-Rashid with weapons – 20 iron GI pipes and one machete.

Motihar police station O� cer-in-charge Alamgir Hossain said, a work-shop was going on with engineers in RUET auditorium and the activists were planning to launch an attack on it.

The authorities later announced an inde� nite closure of the university and asked the students to vacate the dormi-tories by 10am today.

Barisal: Pro-hartal  activists brought out processions on the C and B roads, Kashipur, Nabagram, Kawnia, Hatkho-la  and the College Avenue areas in the city early in the morning.

Except for long-distance transports other vehicular movement in the city was as usual.

Comilla: Pickets torched a cot-ton-laden truck in Debidar upazila of Comilla. Debidar upazila O� cer-in-charge Mizanur Rahman said: “The pickets torched the truck in Bharela

area of the upazila and we arrested one in connection with the arson attack.”

Gaibanda: A large number of vehi-cles were seen plying the city streets. O� ce, shops and school remained open as usual. A few number of pro-cessions were brought out by the hartal supporters.

Meanwhile, police arrested Hab-iganj Municipality Ameer Kazi Mohsin Ahmedur and Laxmipur Municipality Ameer Nur Nabi Faruq as the hartal was in progress.

Police also arrested 21 pickets from Jessore, four from Sylhet and six others from Thakurgaon. l

‘AL reaping political bene� t out of war criminal issue’n DU Correspondent

Gonojagoron Moncho yesterday said the Awami League-led government deviated from its stance on the war crimes trial issue, which was its elec-tion mandate, for political gain.

“The government has pointed its gun at the minor war criminals who are less important in Jamaat-e-Islami and is sparing the key � gures,” said spokes-person of the platform Imran H Sarker while addressing a rally at Shahabagh.

Imran said the way the trials of war criminals and the issue of slapping a ban on the Jamaat-Shibir politics were delayed, it is clear that the government does not want to try them.

“The government pounced on those who raise their voices against Jamaat-Shibir in a bid to save the war criminals,” he alleged condemning the police attack on the Moncho activists on Wednesday.

Jubo Union Organising Secretary Khan Asaduzzaman Masum said the government attitude towards Jamaat showed that the war criminals would again come to state power with the help of the Awami League. l

Case � led against 63 Jamaat men for attacking police n Gazipur Correspondent

Gazipur district unit Jamaat Secretary SM Sanaullah, Kapasia upazila unit Ameer Sa� ul Haque and 61 others have been sued for attacking police on Wednesday night.

Kapasia police Sub-Inspector Afsar Ahmed � led the case aginst them yes-terday.

Of the accucsed, � ve have already been arrested.

Jamaat supporters took out a pro-cession protesting the verdict on war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee and attacked police at Khirati triggering a clash between them.

At least 20 people, including OC Ah-san, Sub-Inspector Afsar Ahmed, con-stable Abul Kalam and Ansar Yousuf were injured. l

Khaleda’s district tour rescheduledn Abu Hayat Mahmud

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has sud-denly rescheduled her political tours to Brahamanbaria and Jamalpur without mentioning any speci� c reasons.

She will now visit Brahamanbaria on September 23 instead of 22 and Jamalpur on September 27 instead of 25 to drum up support for her party, said a party statement released yesterday.

Meanwhile, sources at the party told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that Sau-di Ambassador in Dhaka Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Basiri is expected to meet Khaleda tomorrow.

However, the source unable to dis-close the agenda of the meeting. l

Revised cost of Dhaka airport upgradation project okayedn Tribune Report

The cabinet committee on public pur-chase has approved the proposal to raise by Tk36 crore the cost of upgrad-ing Dhaka airport.

The cost rose as the consulting � rm did not notice earlier that there was a four-feet layer of soil under the taxi-way, which must be removed.

The proposal put forward by the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry was approved yesterday at the com-mittee’s meeting, presided over by Fi-nance Minister AMA Muhith.

On January 30 last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the upgradation project which was supposed to be completed within two years of commissioning.

After yesterday’s meeting, Joint

Secretary of Cabinet Division Masta� zur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) had agreed with the increased cost of the proposal, which is now Tk481crore.

The original proposal estimated the cost to be Tk445 crore, provided by Danida as a grant. The government has exempted around Tk85 crore in duties on the import of equipment.

The revised proposal says the ad-ditional Tk36 crore will be needed by South African contractor Munch As-phalt for removing the clay from the taxiway and replacing it with suitable sand to reconstruct the pavement.

It says Danish consultant Ramboll did not notice the clay while preparing the plan. l

Fakhrul granted bail in a vandalism casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a case regard-ing vandalism and assaulting police members in December 2012.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Mag-istrate Alamgir Kabir Raj granted the bail after Fakhrul surrendered before the court.

On September 14, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Yunus Khan issued an arrest warrant against Fakhrul, Nasir Hossain and Mohammad Ali, as they did not appear before the court on the scheduled date.

On January 16, Sub-Inspector Zahid Khan of Kadamtali police station sub-mitted the charge sheet against 61 peo-ple, including Fakhrul.

According to the case, the accused blocked Postagola-Narayanganj road at Kadamtali in the capital during a protest programme. They also torched and vandalised vehicles, attacked law enforcers with brickbats and set a fuel tanker on � re.

The charge sheet accuses Fakhrul of provoking the BNP activists to carry out the violence. l

With a few unpleasant incidents reported, on-duty police spent relaxed hours during the 24-hour nationwide hartal called by Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday. The party called the hartal demanding unconditional release of its Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee. The photo was taken from capital’s Shahbagh area RAJIB DHAR

Slack hartal observed across the country

Blame game after Sayedee verdict; top state o� cials admits � aws in appointing prosecutors, investigators PAGE 1 COLUMN 4condition so dismal? When the [tribu-nal] prosecutors are on television, they talk a lot...they even tilt their heads to ensure that they are visible on screen. But when it comes to paper, there are no similarities [with their talks on TV]. We can now see what they actually do.”

Against the backdrop of age-old popular demand and 2008 electoral pledge, the Sheikh Hasina-led govern-ment in 2010 formed the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), a special pros-ecution team and the investigation agency to try local war criminals who committed crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in col-laboration with the Pakistani occupa-tion forces.

At that time, Barrister Sha� que was the law minister while Advocate Md Qamrul Islam (now food minister) was his deputy.

Sha� que at that time was widely criticised by some leading war trial campaigners for not facilitating ade-quate support and logistics to deal with the cases.

He was seen in a corridor near the chief justice’s courtroom just after the verdict in Sayedee’s case was delivered.

Instantly reacting, he told the Dhaka Tribune: “The Supreme Court delivered

the verdict examining deposition of the witnesses and hearing arguments of both sides of the case. So questions can-not be raised about the verdict.”

When yesterday he was contacted for comments on the ongoing contro-versies, Sha� que said: “You better ask Qamrul Shaheb as it is a matter of trial. He brought most of the people in the prosecution team. I only recommend-ed Rana Das Gupta, Zead-Al-Malum, Syed Haider Ali while I had to struggle lot to appoint Tureen Afroze. They are competent.”

The former minister claimed that he had earlier told his colleagues that most of the prosecutors were “good for nothing” and their appointment “waste of money from the exchequer of our poor country.”

“When I talked about appointing competent people, Qamrul Shaheb told me ‘you have always practised law at the High Court and the Supreme Court, so you do not know people in the trial court [where Qamrul practiced before his appointment as the state minister for law].’”

“He [Qamrul] looked into political interests,” Sha� que alleged.

Criticised the role of Attorney Gen-eral (AG) Mahbubey Alam Sha� que said when the lack of skill surfaced

within the investigation agency and the prosecution team, he could have asked the prosecution and the probe agency to address the problems.

“Being a minister, I did not have the scope to go to the tribunal, but the at-torney general has access to any court. I know he went to the tribunal on several occasions,” said the former law minister.

He also posed a question: “Why is the attorney general saying all these things now after so many years?”

About a dozen of signi� cant war crimes cases have already been dis-posed of by the two tribunals; verdict on several others are still pending.

The prosecutors became vocal yes-terday following Mahbubey’s criti-cisms though many wished to remain anonymous. They think there was a gap between the o� ces of the AG’s and the prosecutors’, disabling documen-tary evidence to be placed before the Appellate Division during the hearing in Sayedee’s appeals case.

Prosecutor Shahidur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is obvious that the state counsel who stands for hear-ing at the apex court needs to consult with the prosecutor concerned who conducted the case at the tribunal.”

On the other hand, Coordinator of the probe agency Sanaul Haque tried to

defend performance of the investiga-tors on the same TV programme where the AG openly expressed disappoint-ment over their performance.

Investigator of Sayedee’s case Md Helal Uddin after the verdict told the Dhaka Tribune: “It was the � rst case of the tribunal and we were not mature enough at the time. We tried our best. If we had started this case now, there would have been a di� erent outcome.”

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday reiterated that his ministry had taken initiatives to remove incompetent, in-e� cient prosecutors considering their failure.

“They will be removed immediately after the verdicts of the pending cases. The ministry has already started work-ing in this regard,” he told the Dhaka Tribune at his secretariat o� ce yester-day.

Two worst examplesAKM Saiful Islam, one of the worst ex-amples of the most incompetent pros-ecutors was brought from the US and appointed mysteriously. While con-ducting cases against Jamaat leaders Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and ATM Azharul Islam, the tribunals were irked because of his “misconduct” and “lack of preparation.”

He appeared before the tribunal late, repeatedly. On Oct 2, 2012, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, then chairman of the tri-bunal 1, told Saiful: “First learn how to behave with the court, then practise.”

Tribunal 2 Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan also expressed disappointment over his performance and behaviour, who was � nally removed from the prosecution team few weeks back for his “misconduct”. Saiful left the coun-try for the US.

Mystery still shrouds his appoint-ment, similar to that of the � rst chief of the investigation team, Abdul Ma-tin. Matin was found to be an activist of Islami Chhatra Sangha, student front of Jamaat during the war who had ac-tively been involved in committing genocide, crimes against humanity in collaboration with the Pakistani occu-pation forces.

Against the backdrop of criticisms, the government removed Matin. But it is yet to be known who had recom-mended his appointment.

Qamrul blasts ShafiqueFollowing Sha� que’s remarks, the Dha-ka Tribune last night contacted former state minister for law Qamrul Islam over the phone.

“Sha� que Shaheb was the law min-

ister and he appointed all the prose-cutors. None of the prosecutors was appointed without his recommenda-tions,” he said.

Expressing disappointment over the remarks of the AG and his former colleague Sha� que, the food minister said: “No practising lawyer can blame prosecutors and investigators because of change of punishment in a case. I will not talk about quali� cation of the prosecutors but I can say there was con� ict and di� erences of opinion among the prosecutors and Mahbubey and Sha� que can say about it.”

“I can tell you there was a com-munist block and an anti-communist block [in prosecution]. He [Sha� que] was leader of the communist block. I was with him [in the law ministry] for � ve years. I have seen his behaviour. I do not want to talk about it now.”

Qamrul said: “Prosecutor Saiful [who has been removed for miscon-duct] was his [Sha� que] junior and he appointed Saiful who did not have any experience in conducting cases. But he [Sha� que] brought Saiful from America and appointed him. He left for America without informing anyone.

“Sha� que Shaheb kept Tureen Afroze’s appointment pending for a long time.” l

Prime Minister: Verdict spoils Sayedee’s face PAGE 1 COLUMN 6areas like Gulshan-Baridhara make people frustrated.

“Electricity disruptions do not occur at the prime minister’s residence; so she will not understand the problem.”

Suggesting the prime minister to wit-ness the country’s problems, Rawshan said the people around Hasina do not give her the right information. The JaPa leader said she had led a miserable life in-side a condemned cell at the Dhaka Cen-tral Jail without food and clothing. Many innocent women languish in the jails.

Hasina said: “You made the mistake [water logging]. You built box culverts

killing the canals [that worked as out-lets]. The box culverts have aggravated water logging. Jatiya Party was in pow-er at that time.” She said the military in 1983-84 during HM Ershad’s rule had whisked her and two other women lead-ers and kept them con� ned blindfolded, providing inedible food and bedding.

Hasina said food adulteration had also taken place during the Ershad’s rule.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury read President Abdul Hamid’s winding up message as Hasina � nished talking.

Five bills were passed in the 14 sit-tings of the third session that began on September 1. l

Muhith: Political hiring in govt bank boards back� red PAGE 1 COLUMN 2During its 2009-2014 tenure, the Awa-mi League government appointed 25 chairmen and directors in the four state-owned banks namely Sonali, Ja-nata, Agrani and BASIC banks. All those appointments were said to be made un-der political considerations. Barkat, a teacher of economics at Dhaka Univer-sity, was one of them.

Earlier this year, Jatiya Party law-maker Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, who was the board chairman of BASIC Bank, stepped down following allegations of � nancial irregularities involving Tk4,500 crore.

After that, the BASIC Bank board was dissolved – the second instance in less than two years of � ring the

board of a state-owned bank for � nan-cial anomalies. In December 2012, the board of Sonali Bank was reconstituted following the Hall-Mark scam.

Investigators have found that the di-rectors were largely responsible for the loan scam. Former Sonali Bank directors and Awami League leaders Jannat Ara Henry and Saimum Sarwar Kamol pulled the strings when the Hall-Mark group took Tk2,686 crore as loan from the bank on the basis of forged documents.

Mamun Rashid, former country head of Citibank NA, told the Dhaka Tribune: “While serving as chairmen, university professors have badly dam-aged the � nancial condition of the state-owned banks over the past six years. They were all politically appoint-

ed directors.“The big scams such as the ones

staged by Hall-Mark and Bismillah groups and the loan fraud in BASIC Bank are all results of that,” he said.

In its recently published Financial Stability Report 2013, the Bangladesh Bank asked the banks to reduce bad loans by writing them o� saying the ma-jor � nancial scams had had their toll on the country’s banking sector because there was a lack of corporate governance.

This, it said, was re� ected in the increasing classi� ed loans, the large amount of existing bad loans and the declining quality of assets owned by the commercial banks, which turned out to be a major concern for the bank-ing sector. l

JaPa de� es itself as oppositionn Tribure Report

All lawmakers of HM Ershad’s Ja-tiya Party, the main opposition in parliament, voted in favour of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2014 on Wednesday, defying a party decision to oppose the bill.

Even those who proposed the House to verify public opin-ion before passing the bill, even-tually spoke in favour while dis-cussing their proposal.

On August 31, in a meeting of the JaPa parliamentary party, a decision was made to oppose the bill.

A total of 14 members of parliament – eight from JaPa and the rest independent – pro-posed the House to seek public opinion before passing the bill, which empowers the legislature to impeach judges for “miscon-

duct and incapacity.”Former military dictator,

now a JaPa MP and special en-voy to the prime minister, HM Ershad said: “If we term the bill perfect, we will be called a pet opposition. If we oppose it, we would be an opposition in the real sense and would be appre-ciated at midnight talk shows. But we do not care what people said in the talk shows.”

JaPa, which is the main op-position party in parliament, also has representation in the cabinet.

Ershad also said: “We think the parliament should have the power to remove judges.”

Referring to senior lawyers Dr Kamal Hossain and Amirul Islam, Rawshad Ershad, leader of the opposition in parliament, said they, who actually coined

the provision in 1972, were now opposing it.

“We are in favour of the bill but we proposed to verify pub-lic opinion because we want it to be accepted by all quar-ters,” she said. Although eight JaPa lawmakers proposed the House to seek public opinion, just one of them – MA Hannan – spoke on his proposal.

Moreover, when Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury placed the JaPa lawmakers’ public opinion proposals on voice vote, none of them chanted “yes.” But when it was time to shout “no,” all of them, including Ershad and his wife Rawshan, did it.

Eventually the bill was passed by 327-0 votes, meaning that none of the opposition law-makers actually opposed it. l

RAB asked to speed up Sagar-Runi proben Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday directed the Rapid Action Battalion to gear up its investigation into the murders of jour-nalist couple Sagar-Runi in 2012.

Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Kumar Dey passed the order after Investigation O� cer Wares Ali, also an assistant superintendent of RAB, submitted a progress report before the court regarding the investigation of the case.

In the progress report, the IO said he needed more time to complete the investigation properly, adding that he would submit the report as early as possible.

The court then asked the IO to sub-mit the probe report by November 2.

Court sources said RAB was also directed to immediately record the statements of the slain couple’s only son – Mahir Sarowar Megh – along with those of Runi’s mother and brother as witnesses in the case.

The elite force has also been direct-ed to immediately produce the trio before magistrates for recording their statements.

Sagar Sarowar, news editor of pri-vate TV station Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter of ATN Bangla, were killed at their rented � at in the capital’s West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012.

The Detective Branch of police was � rst tasked with probing the murders, while the case was handed over to RAB by the High Court in April 2012. l

Ministry to ready justice removal bill in 3 monthsn Mohosinul Karim

The draft bill of the Removal of Su-preme Court Justices Act will be � nal-ised within three months following consultations with stakeholders includ-ing senior jurists, legal experts and leg-islators, Law Minister Anisul Haq said.

The minister yesterday told the Dha-ka Tribune: “We have already taken steps to prepare the draft of the justices removal act after passing the Constitu-tion (16th Amendment) Bill in parlia-ment. It will take about three months.”

Parliament on Wednesday passed the constitution amendment bill reinstating article 96(2) and section 96(3) of the 1972 constitution which empowers the legis-lature to remove Supreme Court judges for “misbehaviour and incapacity.”

Ministry sources said parliament lost the power to impeach judges when the fourth amendment to the consti-tution was passed in 1975. Three years later, a Supreme Judicial Council head-ed by the chief justice was established by military ruler Ziaur Rahman with

the power to remove apex court judges for “misbehaviour and incapacity.”

The new law will abolish the council and give parliament the power to in-vestigate the alleged misbehaviour and incapacity of Supreme Court judges and to recommend their removal.

Probe reports into judges in ques-tion would come before parliament, which would then recommend their removal to the president after success-fully adopting a resolution by a two-thirds majority. The judges will have the chance to defend themselves.

The law minister said making the judiciary accountable to the legislature would in no way interfere with the in-dependence of the judiciary.

“The Removal of Supreme Court Judges Act will incorporate the provisions required to remove judges. The draft will take into account consultations with senior jurists, legal experts and legislators and will take three months to complete. It will then be sent to cabinet for approval,” he added. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

Trial of Azhar ends, verdict any dayn Udisa Islam

The International Crimes Tribunal 1 has kept another case, six cases in the last six months, awaiting for verdict after hearing arguments in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam.

After announcing the order, when prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum mentioned that the number of pending cases was increasing, the tribunal answered with smile: “When it [pronouncing verdict] starts, you will not get a chance to take rest.”

Malum claimed that they had been able to prove individual criminal re-sponsibility, joint criminal responsibil-ity and superior responsibility of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt.

With this, a total of six cases are awaiting verdict at the two tribunals in-cluding four with the tribunal 1.

Cases kept for verdict earlier by the tribunal 1 are of Jamaat chief Mo-tiur Rahman Nizami, BNP leader and Nagarkanda municipality Mayor (fugi-tive) Zahid Hossain Khokon and former Awami League leader Mobarak Hos-

sain. Moreover, the cases of senior Ja-maat leader Mir Kashem Ali and former Jatiya Party lawmaker Syed Md Qaisar are pending with the tribunal 2.

The three-member tribunal 1, led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, kept Azhar’s case for verdict after the prosecution concluded submitting rebuttal on the legal points raised by the defence.

Prosecutor Tureen Afroz gave the rebuttal saying: “The accused cannot deny his liability over the crimes. Since he played a role in those crimes, he can be held liable for that.”

She said the accused had maintained strong relation with the Pakistani Army during the 1971 Liberation War.

Citing the tribunal law, she di� ered with the defence that the prosecution could not demand compensation for war victims if the accused gets death penalty. According to section 20 (2), she said the accused may get death penalty or any other punishment, if convicted.

Azhar’s defence earlier claimed that compensation might not be applicable since the provision of punishment con-tained an “or.” Tureen argued that the term “or” was not optional if the tribu-

nal considers the context.Tureen concluded saying that the

defence had miserably failed to create any doubt over the prosecution case. “We are demanding capital punish-ment for the accused considering all his crimes and also pleading for com-pensating for the rape victims.”

The prosecution concluded their clos-ing arguments on August 26 while the defence on September 14. A total of 19 witnesses testi� ed against Azhar. Of them, the seventh witness was de-clared hostile. The defence placed a relative of the accused to testify on his favour.

The 62-year-old Jamaat assistant secretary general faces six charges in-cluding murder, genocide and crimes

against humanity committed during the war. An alleged al-Badr command-er of Rangpur, Azharul was the former president of Rangpur district unit Isla-mi Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat.

He was arrested on August 22, 2012 and indicted on November 12 last year.

Meanwhile, the tribunal 2 yesterday set November 3 for submitting probe report against alleged razakar Forkan Mallik.

Forkan, 62, was arrested on June 25 following a warrant issued by a Patu-akhali court in a case � led by Abdul Hamid of Shoulabunia on July 21, 2009 against Forkan for killing people in 1971.

After police investigation, the case was sent to the court.

In another case against two new war crime suspects from Chapainawabganj, the tribunal ordered to produce them before it on September 21.

Alleged razakars Mahidur Rahman, 84, a resident of Kaitanitola; and Afsar Hossain alias Chhutu, 65, from Rasun-chak under Shibganj, were arrested on September 15. l

According to section 20 (2), the accused may get death penalty or any other punishment, if convicted

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

Child marriage act criticisedn Tribune Report

Steps Towards Development, an NGO working on gender equality, has criticised the revised age limit for marriage in the new draft of Child Marriage Restraint Act 2014 recently approved by the cabinet.

In a press statement issued yesterday, Ranjan Karmakar, the NGO’s executive director, said lowering the minimum age for marriage to 16 years for girls and 18 years for men would set back the movement to stop child marriage in the country.

“The punishment has also been extended to a maximum two years’ imprisonment and a � ne of Tk50,000, when according to the current law it is six months in prison and Tk1,000 � ne,” he said. Reducing the legal age limit of mar-riage for girls was also incompatible to di� erent national and international commitments and contradicted with the current laws and policies, the statement said. l

EC starts taking photographs of new voters in cityn Tribune Report

The Election Commission yesterday began taking photographs of new vot-ers in the capital to complete their en-rollment in the updated voter list.

The commission also announced plans to continue the registration of new voters up to November 15 at around 120 schools and colleges in the capital as reg-istration centre. Earlier, the EC appoint-ed enumerators to visit every household

in the capital to collect information on new voters from September 1 to 13.

After collecting their basic informa-tion, aspiring voters were asked to visit registration centres in their respective areas to take photographs and complete the � nal stage of their registration.

“However, those who failed to be enlisted during data collection period can also get themselves enrolled at the registration centres,” EC o� cials told the Dhaka Tribune. l

EU parliament hails Sayedee verdictUrges opposition to engage in peaceful protests n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The European Union Parliament has adopted a resolution, welcoming the Supreme Court decision to commute the death sentence of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee to im-prisonment until death and urged the opposition political parties to engage only in peaceful protests.

It urged the government to use min-imal force to restore public order and strongly condemned the violent attacks by opposition groups against both the civilians and government targets.

It also urged the government to abol-ish death penalty and expressed concern over human rights violations, including enforced disappearances and extraju-dicial killings of opposition activists, by the RAB and other security forces.

The joint motion on human rights violations in Bangladesh put forward by over 40 European lawmakers was adopted yesterday.

It emphasised the importance of an independent, impartial and accessible judicial system to enhance respect for the rule of law and for the fundamental rights of the population, and of reform-ing the International Crimes Tribunal.

“[It] recognises that it is more im-portant than ever to build public con-� dence in the judiciary, security and human rights institutions, given the in-creased threats in the region from ter-rorist organisations such as al-Qaeda,” the resolution said.

The resolution, however, commend-

ed the government for the progress made towards achieving the Millenni-um Development Goals and acknowl-edged that these improvements were made under di� cult domestic circum-stances, including the constant threat of violent attacks by radical groups such as the BNP-a� liated Jamaat-e-Islami.

About RAB and the abduction and killing of seven people in Narayan-ganj in April, the resolution said: “[It] strongly calls on the Bangladeshi au-thorities to put an end to the RAB’s impunity by ordering investigations and prosecutions in respect of alleged illegal killings by RAB forces.”

The EU Parliament would close-ly monitor the proceedings in the Narayanganj murder case as three RAB o� cers had been arrested and were awaiting judicial proceedings.

It also urged the government to im-mediately released them unless they can be charged with a recognisably criminal o� ence. It called on the Bangladeshi authorities to investigate the perpe-trators, taking into account command responsibility, and to bring those found responsible to justice in a fair trial.

The government should recognise and respect freedom of the press and media and allow human rights groups to play an important role in strengthen-ing accountability and documenting hu-man rights abuses, the resolution said.

“[It] urges the Bangladeshi authori-ties to revoke the new media policy and abide by their obligations to allow free speech and expression,” it said. l

Glitch disrupts constitution amendment bill passage n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The passage of the 16th constitutional amendment bill was brie� y thrown into confusion when parliament chamber’s sound system noisily malfunctioned, apparently embarrassing Speaker Shi-rin Sharmin Chaudhury and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The chamber’s sound system start-ed to emit an ear-splitting noise around 8:29pm just as JaPa chairman HM Er-shad started his speech in favour of proposals for eliciting public opinion and sending the draft law to the Select Committee of the Jatiya Sangsad for further examination.

The audio coverage of the live tele-cast of the session stopped. Panic was

clearly visible on the faces of many MPs because of the deafening noise.

For around one minute, the prime minister and the speaker looked at each other. Parliament secretary Ashraful Moqbul and serjeant-at-arms Ashraful Huq rushed to the sound system room.

But the situation persisted.The frantic e� ort of the engineers

� nally restored the internal sound sys-tem to order, enabling the speaker to continue the sitting.

This is the second known episode in Bangladesh parliamentary history that the speaker and parliament secretariat o� cials have been embarrassed by a technical glitch.

During the inaugural session of the conference of the Commonwealth Par-

liamentary Association in 2003, speak-er Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar and then prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia were embarrassed by a sound sys-tem failure.

At the opening function of the con-ference, an announcement was made asking delegates from all 52 common-wealth countries to stand up to honour the national anthem of Bangladesh.

All the guests stood for several min-utes, but the anthem was not played because of a technical fault. Begum Zia repeatedly looked at the speaker and the parliament secretary o� cials, but the anthem still was not played.

Finally, BNP MP Moazzem Hossain Ratan went up to the podium and sang the national anthem. l

With few days left to Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of Hindus in Bangladesh, an artist is painting an idol of goddess Durga in capital’s Bangla Bazar area yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

BAT employee � ned for promoting tobacco products n Our Correspondent, Khulna

A mobile court yesterday � ned an em-ployee of the British American Tobacco (BAT) for putting up � yers containing advertisements of tobacco products in Khulna city.

Mobile court sources said Biswajit Saha, the BAT employee, was hang-ing strings of � yers from the poles on the side of the streets in the city’s Koylaghat area, where Executive Mag-istrate Mosta� zur Rahman’s mobile court was conducting a drive.

The court, with the help of the mem-bers of police led by Assistant Sub-In-spector Saifur Rahman, stopped the BAT employee and � ned him Tk20,000 under the Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005 and con� scated all the advertisement materials.

Later, the � yers containing cigarette ads were destroyed by � re in the dis-trict magistrate’s o� ce compound. l

One sentenced to death for murdering sister-in-law n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

A Kishoreganj court awarded death penalty to one for murdering his sister in- law and two nephews in Hossainpur upazila of Kishoreganj.

The convict is Burhan Uddin, 43, son of late Sadar Ali of Namsidla village of the upazila.

According to the case statement, Bur-han murdered his younger brother Faruk Mia’s wife Nazma Akhter and their two sons, Shahjahan and Liman, over a land related dispute, on August 1, 2013.

The next day, Faruk Mia � led a case against Burhan with Hossainpur police station in this connection.

Earlier, Burhan was sentenced with life-imprisonment for murdering his elder brother Suhrab Uddin following a dispute over land.

A week after his release from jail, Bur-han committed the three more murders.

District and Sessions Judge AMM Sayeed handed down the verdict in presence of the convict yesterday. l

Two Bangladeshi workers die in KSA n Rabiul Islam

Two Bangladeshi migrant workers died in Saudi Arabia, as a � re broke out at their workplace around 12am on Wednesday (Saudi local time).

The deceased were identi� ed as Ra-biul Islam and Iqbal Hossain, both hail-ing from Muradnagar, Comilla, Ban-gladesh’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Shahidul Islam con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Talking to the correspondent over the phone, Mohammad Mizanur Rah-man, second secretary of Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, said the duo were sleeping at their workplace in a sofa factory when the � re broke out from electric short circuit.

The family members of the de-ceased would get compensation as the duo had been working there legally and died in their workplace, he added.

“We are trying to send the bodies back home as soon as possible,” Mi-zanur said. l

SCBA protests 16th amendmentn Ahmed Zayeef

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) strongly protested the latest amendment to the constitution that restored parliament’s authority to im-peach judges, and demanded its imme-diate abolition.

The protest came a day after the lawmakers unanimously passed the 16th amendment to the constitution.

During a press conference organised by the SCBA at its auditorium yester-day, the association’s President Khan-daker Mahbub Hossain said the change

was brought to put the independence of the judiciary under threat.

“The Awami League government will have to answer to the people for this one day,” he said.

He also alleged that the amendment was made illegally and immorally to empower the parliament that was formed through a voter-less January 5 election.

“Although distinguished experts, in-tellectuals and the media were against this amendment, the government made the changes to control the judi-ciary,” he added. l

11 non-resident Bangladeshis get CIP status n Rabiul Islam

The Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry yesterday awarded 11 non-resident Bangladeshis the status of commercially important person (CIP) in recognition of their contributions to the country’s economy.

Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hos-sain handed over CIP cards to the re-cipients at the conference room of the ministry.

Ten of the recipients were given CIP status for sending remittances through banks last year. They are Md Mahtabur Rahman, Md Abul Kalam and Md Abul Kalam in the United Arab Emirates; Md Shamsul Alam, Md Ra� qul Islam and Abdul Aziz Khan in Qatar; Abul Kalam Azad and Kazi Sha� qul Islam in Oman; Mohammad Ali Talukdar and Md Ad-nan Imam in the United Kingdom.

Besides, Firize-ul-Alam in Russia received the status for importing prod-ucts from Bangladesh.

Seeking anonymity, a senior o� cial at the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board said Tk110,000 was spent for arranging the card distribution ceremony.

Terming the CIP recipients the coun-try’s ambassadors, Mosharraf urged them to play their due role in building

the country’s positive image abroad. A non-resident Bangladeshi is given

CIP cards if he/she sends remittances of at least $150,000 in a � scal year or import Bangladeshi goods worth $500,000 to their countries of residence.

Cardholders, their spouses and children will have the privilege of getting cabins if they are admitted to public hospitals. They will also have access to the Bangladesh Secretariat for a year. While meeting high o� cials at home and abroad, they will get special treatment. l

Expatriates’ Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain hands over CIP cards at his o� ce yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

8 army men injured in accidentn Our Correspondent, Bandarban

At least eight army personnel and two Ansar members were injured in a road accident in the Raichha area under Bandar-ban sadar upazila yesterday. Police said the army personnel and Ansar members were injured severely after their pick up van fell into a roadside ditch as it lost control over steering.

Of the injured who were identi� ed are Warrant o� cer Md Khalirur Rahman, Soldiers – Sha� qul Islam, Minhaz, Nurul Islam and Ansar members – Moazzem Hossain and Babul.

On informers, � re � ghters rushed to the spot and took the injured to hospital. l

National ICT Fair starts from today n Tribune Report

Oxford International School is organ-ising a three-day-long National ICT Olympiad from today at Dhanmondi.

Students from 27 schools, colleges and universities of both National and International curriculum in Bangla-desh will participate in the Olympiad.

The fair will be inaugurated by chief guest Minister of State, Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

Winners of the competitions will be awarded on the closing and award cer-emony event which will be held at the Qudrat-I-Khuda Auditorium of Oxford International School main campus on September 22, 2014 at 5pm. l

Welder electrocuted to death n Tribune Report

A welder Nazim Uddin, 45, died after being electrocuted at Halishar area in Chittagong city yesterday at 6pm.

Nayek of CMCH Police Outpost Abul Bashar said the victim came in contact with a live electric wire. Later duty doc-tors at CMCH declared him dead. l

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:31am Sunrise 5:45am Jumma 11:52am Asr 4:16pm Magrib 5:58pm Esha 7:14pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:58PM SUN RISES 5:47AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW37.5ºC 25.0ºC

Rajshahi Rangamati

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 31 26Chittagong 31 26Rajshahi 32 26Rangpur 31 26Khulna 31 26Barisal 30 26Sylhet 29 25Cox’s Bazar 29 26

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Beggars to be evicted for cosmetic reasonsThe Ministry of Social Welfare to evict beggars from posh areas in the capitaln Mohosinul Karim

The Social Welfare Ministry is seeking permission from the prime minister's o� ce to use mobile courts against beg-gars in nine selected areas of the capital frequented by foreigners.

The Ministry of Social Welfare says the objective is to improve the coun-try's image.

The ministry seeks to evict beggars from the environs of Dhaka airport, Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Hotel, Hotel Ruposhi Bangla, Radisson Blu Water Garden Ho-tel, Bailey Road, Gulshan, Banani, the parliament complex and the diplomat-ic zones of Dhaka city.

“We have sent a letter seeking per-mission for this. The operation will be

started immediately after we receive a nod from the prime minister's o� ce (PMO),” the State Minister for Social Welfare Promod Mankin told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

On July 22 this year, the ministry de-cided to “recover the image of the coun-try” in areas frequented by foreigners by targeting beggars with mobile courts.

According to the Vagabond Shelter-less Person (rehabilitation) Act, 2011 begging is a punishable o� ence. The minimum punishment for the o� ence is three years' imprisonment, and the maximum sentence is seven years in jail. Sentences are to be doubled for the repetition of the o� ence.

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) has crit-icised the law saying it had become a

“tool” to put the shelterless behind bars. The law brands homeless people as possible criminals. It also gives law enforcers the authority to pick up any person at any time.

Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohsin Ali told the Dhaka Tribune on July 22 that the ministry had instructed the au-thorities to take steps against beggars, following an inter-ministerial meeting.

Mohsin Ali said the government's target was “no more begging any more throughout the country.” According to the ministry, at least 20,000 � oating beg-gars operate in the capital city on a reg-ular basis. This number rises to 70,000 during Ramadan and the Eid festivals.

The use of mobile courts for this ef-fort is legal, ministry of social welfare

o� cials said, but the PMO permission was being sought because it is a sensi-tive issue.

Under the proposed drive, beggars who are willing to go to rehabilitation centres will be provided training and initial start-up money to begin a new life in a trade of their choosing.

Those who refuse to go or return to begging will be charged by the mobile court under the 2011 law.

The ministry is expected to request the city corporations to declare the nine selected areas as beggar-free zones and will limit their drive to these areas.

The government earlier assisted 58 beggars under the rehabilitation pro-gramme, providing them with Tk20,000. But each one of them later returned to

the capital to beg, Social Welfare Secre-tary Nasima Begum said in July.

In line with the law, the government also arranged for the accommodation of 1,900 people at state-owned rehabil-itation centres for � oating beggars. This select group was trained to develop their skills in income-generating activities and were given Tk2,600 per month each.

ASK researcher Nur Khan said his organisation had no objection to the scheme provided the government pro-vided evicted beggars with alternative employment.

Mobile court operations against beg-gars were slated to begin in August just after Eid-ul-Fitr, but the ministry could not begin the operations without the permission of the PMO. l

Battery run-rickshaws to ply Ctg roads for more six monthsn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Battery-run rickshaws have been per-mitted ply the roads of Chittagong for a further six months according to a High Court order claimed Salamat Ali the president of the Chittagong City Rick-shaw Malik Federation, a platform of battery-run rickshaw owners, at a press conference held at the Chittagong city yesterday.

He said after having failed to get any solution from the Chittagong Metropol-itan Police (CMP), the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and district admin-istration over the plying of battery-run rickshaws, they had � led a petition in the High Court seeking solutions in this regard.

“The HC bench after a hearing on  September 11  allowed us to ply battery-run rickshaws for six more months while the copy of the HC order has already been placed before the CCC

mayor, the CMP commissioner, and the Deputy Commissioner,” he said.

When contacted, Additional Com-missioner of the CMP (tra� c, � nance and administration) AKM Shahi-dur Rahman said they had receivedorder copy and were looking into the matter.

On  August 5, the HC imposed ban on operating battery-run rickshaws on the city roads rejecting the appeal of the owners and pullers and the author-ities concerned executed the order on August 31.

From the very beginning of the ban, battery-run rickshaw owners and pull-ers started demonstrations in the city. The also held meetings with authori-ties concerned several times.

After the ban,  paddle-run  rick-shaws  and CNG-run auto-rick-shaw drivers started charging commut-ers at their will in the port city, causing su� erings for the city dwellers. l

Parimal case moves at snail’space even after two yearsn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

More than two years have passed since the trial of rape charges against Parimal Joydhar, a former Viqarunnisa Noon School teacher, began, but the case is yet to make any signi� cant progress due to the absence of witnesses.

Parimal has been accused of raping his Class X student in 2011.

The deposition recording in the case has been going on at Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tri-bunal-4 with Judge Md Arifur Rahman.

Since the start of the trial, the tribunal has only been able to record depositions of 19 out of 40 witnesses in the case.

According to the tribunal sources, the much-talked-about rape case trial began on June 6, 2012 but the trial proceeding deferred in many scheduled dates as the witnesses could not appear before the tribunal to give their depositions.

Lastly on Sunday, the case was scheduled to recording deposition of witnesses but the tribunal again had to defer the trial proceeding until October 30 as no witness could appeare before it.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday, Md Forkan Miah, special public prosecutor at the tribunal: “We are trying our best to get the trial com-pleted within short time.”

When asked about slow progress, he said: “What can we do if the witness-es do not appear before the tribunal to give their deposition in the case”.

According to the case details, Parimal on May 28, 2011 forcefully violated a

schoolgirl at his private coaching centre and recorded the incident on his mobile phone. He also threatened her not to share the matter with anyone. Parimal allegedly abused her again on June 17.

Upon written complaint by the victim, the school’s governing body sacked Parimal on July 5, 2011. The same day, the victim’s father � led a case with Badda police station in the capital accusing Parimal, the school’s Bashundhara branch head Lutfur Rah-man and former principal Hosne Ara Begum, for the incident.

On July 7, 2011, detectives arrested Parimal at one of his relatives’ house in Keraniganj.

On August 11, 2011, police submitted the charge sheet before the Chief Met-ropolitan Magistrate Court dropping the names of Hosne Ara and Lutfur Rahman while the court framed charg-es against Parimal on March 7, 2012. l

Eight hurt in Barisal BM College students-outsiders clashn Our Correspondent, Barisal

At least eight people were injured as Barisal Government Brojo Mohun Col-lege students and some unruly locals locked in a clash over stalking on the campus yesterday.

Sources said some outsiders alleg-edly enter the campus and made ob-jectionable remarks at the female stu-dents regularly as well as take drugs and other criminal activities, who on Monday beat up Nazimuddin, a third-year student of Sociology department of the college as he protested an inci-dent of stalking.

When the fellow students were tak-

ing preparations to hold human chain on the campus around noon protesting the incident, the outsiders attacked them, creating the clash that left the eight from both sides injured.

Being informed, police rushed to the spot, brought the situation under con-trol and detained � ve outsiders, said Kotwali police station OC Shakhawat Hossain.

During the clash, the college can-teen and several shops outside the campus were vandalised.

Prof Fazlul Haque, principal of the college, acknowledged the unethi-cal activities of the outsiders on thecampus. l

Youth killed in Ctg road accident n Tribune Report

A youth was killed when a speedy truck rammed a CNG-run auto rickshaw from behind at Sitakunda upazila in Chit-tagong yesterday.

The deceased was Md Mohibullah, son of Altaf Hossen, resident of Dohaz-aripara of the upazila, said Nayek Abul Basher of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) police outpost.

Nayek Basher said a truck rammed into a CNG-run auto rickshaw from its back near a Mazar area of Fakirhat of Sitakunda at around 2:00, leaving the passenger critically injured.

He was taken to CMCH where the on duty doctors declared him dead, said Nayek Basher. l

15 RMG workers injured in attack by factory owner’s musclemenn Tribune Report

At least 15 female workers of a ready-made garment factory in the capital’s Badda area were injured in an attack by the goons, who were allegedly the factory owner’s musclemen, whenthey went to negotiate their salaries yesterday.

At least ten of the injured workers were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Names of injured workers who could be identi� ed were Aleya, Masuda, Farida, Sathi, Popy, Ha-nufa and Nilufa; all of them were aged from 20 to 25.

The victims complained that the thugs, paid by the owner of Life Style Fashion Limited at Middle Badda, at-tacked them when they went to nego-tiate their salaries. The miscreants at-tacked the garment workers with sticks and hit them on their heads and other parts of the body.

Sub-inspector of Badda police sta-tion Humayun Kabir con� rmed the in-cident, but claimed that it was a clash between two groups of workers from the factory. l

Child found deadat Chandrima Udyan lake n Tribune Report

Police recovered the dead body of Champa, 6, around 8am on September 17 from the Chandrima Udyan lake.

The body was sent to Dhaka Medical Collage and Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Sher-e-Bangla police station Sub In-spector Samsul Haque said: “The child was dressed in a green kamiz and red salwar. We suspect drowning as the cause of the death but full details will be revealed after the postmortem re-port is received.” l

Road crash kills woman, son in Ctg n Tribune Report

A woman and her 13-year-old son were killed as a covered-van ran over them on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in the Faujderhat area of the Sitakunda upazila, Chittagong early yesterday.

The woman, Kulsum Begum, 40, from Barguna, was a domestic help, said Syed Jakir Hossain, o� cer-in-charge (OC) of Baro Awolia highway police outpost.

The OC told the Dhaka Tribune that Kulsum and her son Monirul Islam were on their way to Kulsum’s work-place around 6:15am when a Chit-tagong-bound covered van ran over them in a bid to overtake their vehicle, killing mother and son on the spot.

Police succeeded in nabbing the van driver and seizing the van, the OC said, adding that a case has been � led with Baro Awolia highway police outpost in this regard. l

Fire damages Tk70,000 of goods in CEPZn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The washing section of Siraz Towel Factory at the Chittagong Export Pro-cessing Zone (CEPZ) caught � re early yesterday, damaging valuables worth Tk70,000.

Deputy Assistant Director Md Jasim Uddin of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters of Chittagong said the � re had originated from an electric short circuit.

On being informed, two � re � ghting units from EPZ Fire Station rushed to the spot and doused the � re after an hour long attempt, he added. l

Students and outsiders engage in a clash on the Brojo Mohun College campus in Barisal yesterday following harassment of a female student DHAKA TRIBUNE

Students formed a human chain in front of the Raju Memorial Sculpture yesterday, demanding permanent job suspension of Professor Saiful Islam, chairman of Theatre and performance studies department of Dhaka University, by September 22 RAJIB DHAR

Parimal allegedly violated a schoolgirl at his private coaching centre in 2011

AL leader arrested in GopalganjDetective Branch (DB) of police on Wednesday night arrested an Awami League (AL) leader from Gopalganj on allegation of murder, extortion, torture and other anti-social activities. The arrestee Nasir Uddin Khandkar is the president of Mochna union Awami League of Maksudpur upazila. Police nabbed him while gambling at Ghunsi village of the same union at 11pm. O� cer in-Charge of police (DB) Alimul Haq said, Nasir Uddin Khokon was an accused in the murder case of Shahin Talukdar, son of Mannan Talukdar of the area. On June 30, Shahin was taken to the nearby Bongram, killed and left at a Hindu home. – Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

10 injured in gun� ght Ten people, including three policemen, were injured in a gun� ght with criminals at Chan-draganj village in Sadar upazila yesterday. Mizan Sha� ur Rahman, superintendent of police, said on a tip-o� police launched a drive in Duttapara area of the village at night while the criminal-gang, led by listed criminal Solaimanuddin Jisan, was preparing to commit robbery. Sensing the presence of police, the criminals opened � re on the law enforcers who also retaliated with � ring, triggering a gun� ght. The gun� ght continues till early hours of the morning leaving three policemen injured. Later, police conducted drives at several other places and arrested six people including mother of Jisan. Jisan has several cases � led against him with Sadar and other police stations for murder, robbery and extortion, said police.– Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

Man to walk gallows in Kishoreganj for double murderA court here on Thursday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife and son in Hossainpur upazila in 2013. District and Sessions Judge AMM Sayeed passed the order convicting Borhan Uddin , a resident of Sidla village in Hossainpur upazila, for the killings and sentenced him to death. The court also � ned him Tk5,000. Returning to his home at Sidla village after serving 20 years in prison for killing his elder brother, Borhan claimed his inherited property that had led to disputes in the family. As a sequel, Borhan beat up his wife Nazma Khatun and son Shahjahan, 8, indiscriminately in the house on August 1, 2013, leaving both dead on the spot. He � ed the scene after the incident. Later, police arrested the killer who gave confessional statement to the magistrate about the killings. – Tribune Report

Cattle laden truck recovered, 2 robbers heldPolice recovered 26 stolen cattle and a truck on early hours of Thursday from Kumiradah village under Shailkupa upazila of Jhenidah At the same time they also arrested two rob-bers while � eeing the spot. Those held are Razu Ahmed, son of Abdur Rahim of Gorepara village, Jessore and Mo� zul Islam, son of Monirul Islam of the same village. OC Sagir Mia of Shailkupa police station said, some cattle traders of Kushtia purchased 26 cattle from Jessore Putkhali area and set out for Dhaka. When they reached at Navaran in Jessore, a group of robbers took over the truck and threw out the driver and the helper.– Our Correspondent, Jhenidah

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

NEWS IN BRIEF

The picture shows thousands of men and women of di� erent ages gather on the side of Doal canal in Kaliganj area of Gopalganj yesterday to enjoy boat race held in celebration of Vishwakarma Puja DHAKA TRIBUNE

Khulna Textile Palli trapped under legal casesA person � led a writ petition claiming himself a share owner of the closed milln Our Correspondent, Khulna

Even after 15 years, Khulna Textile Palli project continues to struggle against le-gal cases � led against it.

Consequently, a project that could have ensured jobs for 28,000 people has fallen under great uncertainty as a direct result of these unresolved cases.

Khulna Textile Mills was closed down on June 19, 1993 in the face of incurring incessant losses and the Min-

istry of Finance in 1999 took a decision of setting a textile village there, and � outed a tender in 2002 to sell the mill equipment to make way for the village.

In 2008, Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) divided the mill area into 25 plots to establish the tex-tile village and announced a tender in this regard.

With the announcement, one Mo-hammad Ali � led a writ petition claim-ing himself a share owner of the de-

funct textile mill, and as a result the BTMC compelled to halt its move.

At one stage, the Rupali Bank Khulna branch � led a case with the High Court seeking a status quo on the tender and demanded repayment of its Tk2.9 crore loan from the mill authorities, of which Tk50 lakh was paid, with a promise of full payment in the next six months. However, the case has remained under trial as the bank has yet to resolve dif-ferences with the mill authorities.

In 2011, a man named Majid Sarker � led a case with a local court claiming his land falls inside the mill area, which was later dismissed as he failed to show any papers in favour of his claim.

However, he on May 30 this year � led a new case with another court on the same claim, which is now under trial.

Khulna Textile Palli Project General Secretary Md Saifur Rahman particu-larly blamed the land related case as the chief obstacle, and said all the prob-

lems could be dealt with if this particu-lar case was resolved soon. However, the High Court has yet to � x any date for the hearing.

Greater Khulna Unnayon Songram Committee President Sheikh Ashraf Uzzaman said the locals have become very hopeful of the project following assuming power by the ruling AL for the second time, and he urged upon the government to implement it at any cost. l

Vishwakarma Puja boat races held n Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

Boat races in celebration of Vishwakar-ma Puja were held yesterday in three villages of Gopalganj – Kaliganj, Go-palpur and Guadhana.

More than a hundred people from Gopalganj, Madaripur, Barisal and Piro-jpur took part in the race in Kaliganj held across a 2km area from Kaliganj Bazar to Khejurbari. Thousands of men

and women of di� erent ages gathered on both sides of the canal to enjoy the race.

In Gopalpur of Tungipara upazila, the boat race is a tradition that dates back to nearly 200 years. It was held in Doal canal with the participation of 25 boats. A fair was also arranged on the bank of the canal.

Samir Kumar Biswas, a teacher by profession who came to enjoy the race,

said tradition was still alive after all these years and was a source of joy for the locals.

Seventy-three-year-old Sushanta Biswas said the locals prepare special foods on occasion of the boat race.

Meanwhile, 15 boats took part in the race in Guadhana which was arranged by Guadhana Jubo Sangha.

The winners in the race were also awarded. l

Karam Puja festival held in Thakurgaon n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon

Members of the Oraon community in Thakurgaon celebrated Karam festival on Wednesday night amid merriment and worship. Organised by Karam Puja Udjapon Committee, the festival was held at Salandar Panchpir Danga village in the sadar upazila around 8pm.

More than 50 people attended the fes-tival where DC Mukesh Chandra Biswas was present as the chief guest. The par-ticipants sang and danced in celebration, and several hundred people from nearby villages came to enjoy the festival. l

Robber leader killed in gun� ghtn Our Correspondent, Narail

A leader of a robber gang was killed in a gun� ght with law enforcers in Barnal area under Kalia upazila of the district yesterday.

The deceased was Sekander Ali Sarder alias Seken Dacoit, 45, son of late Rahim Sarder of Harishpur village of the upazila.

O� cer-in-charge of Kalia police sta-tion Matiar Rahman said Sekander was wanted in several cases, including rob-bery and murder.

He was arrested on Wednesday. According to his confession, police reached the place with Sekender for recovering arms. Sensing the presence of law enforcers his cohorts opened � re on them.

The law enforcers also returned the � re leading to a gun� ght which con-tinued for some time. Sekender was caught in the line of � re and died on the spot. l

Income tax fair inauguratedn Our Correspondent, Joypurhat

A four-day long income tax fair was in-augurated in Joypurhat Housing Estate yesterday.

Alamgir Hossain, assistant tax com-missioner of Joypurhat tax area, pre-sided over the inauguration ceremony, while District Paraishad Administrator SM Solaiman Ali inaugurated the fair.

Two tax payers, Khalequzzaman Panu and Shamim Faruq, were award-ed at the ceremony as the best tax pay-ers from the district. l

7Long Form Friday, September 19, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Faruque Hassan

The readymade garments in-dustry acts as t he backbone of our economy and as a catalyst for the develop-ment of our country. We

take pride in the sector that has been fetching billions of dollars as export earnings and creating jobs for millions of people in the country.

The “Made in Bangladesh” tag has also brought glory for Bangladesh, making it a prestigious brand across the globe. Bangladesh, which was once termed by cynics a “bottomless basket” has now become a “basket full of wonders.” The country with its limited resources has been maintain-ing 6% annual average GDP growth rate and has brought about remarkable social and human development.

It is really a matter of great interest to many – how the economy of Bang-ladesh continues to grow at a steady pace, sometimes even when rowing against the tide. Now we envision Bangladesh achieving the middle-in-come country status by 2021. We � rm-ly believe that our dream will come true within the stipulated time and the RMG industry will certainly play a crucial role in materialising the dream.

After the independence in 1971, Bang-ladesh was one of poorest countries in the world. No major industries were developed in Bangladesh, when it was known as East Pakistan, due to dis-criminatory attitude and policies of the government of the then West Pakistan. So, rebuilding the war-ravaged country with limited resources appeared to be the biggest challenge for us.

The industry that has been making crucial contribution to rebuilding the country and its economy is none other than the readymade garment (RMG) industry which is now the single big-gest export earner for Bangladesh. The sector accounts for 81% of total export

earnings of the country. When our lone export earner – the

jute industry – started losing its golden days, it is the RMG sector that replaced it, and then, to overtake it.

The apparel industry of Bangladesh started its journey in the 1980s and has come to the position it is in today. The late Nurool Quader Khan was the pioneer of the readymade garment industry in Bangladesh. He had a vi-sion of how to transform the country. In 1978, he sent 130 trainees to South Korea where they learned how to pro-duce readymade garments.

With those trainees, he set up the � rst factory – Desh Garments – to pro-duce garments for export. At the same time, the late Akhter Mohammad Musa of Bond Garments, the late Mo-hammad Reazuddin of Reaz Garments, Md Humayun of Paris Garments, Engineer Mohammad Fazlul Azim of Azim Group, Major (Retd) Abdul Mannan of Sunman Group, M Shamsur Rahman of Stylecraft Limited, the � rst President of BGMEA, AM Subid Ali of Aristocrat Limited also came forward and established some of the � rst gar-ment factories in Bangladesh.

Following their footsteps, other prudent and hard-working entrepre-neurs started RMG factories in the country. Since then, Bangladeshi garment industry did not need to look behind. Despite many di� culties faced by the sector over the past few years, it has carved a niche in world market and kept continuing to show robust performance.

Since the early days, di� erent sources of impetus have contributed to the development and maturity of the industry at various stages. We learned about child-labour in 1994, and successfully made the industry free from child labour in 1995.

The MFA-quota was a blessing to our industry to take root, gradually develop and mature. While the quota was approaching to an end in 2004, it was predicted by many that the phase-out would incur a massive upset in our export.

However, the post-MFA era is an-other story of success. Proving all the predictions wrong, we conquered the post-MFA challenges. Now the apparel industry is Bangladesh’s biggest export earner with value of over $24.49bn of exports in the last � nancial year (from July 2013 to June 2014).

Despite the epic growth of our RMG industry, and its bright prospects, challenges are still there. One of the biggest challenge currently faced by our RMG industry is to ensure workplace safety and better working

conditions for the millions of garment workers.

Two major accidents, the Tazreen � re and the Rana Plaza collapse, have brought the issue of workplace safety to the fore and led all stakeholders to act accordingly. Following the unfortu-nate incidents, various platforms such as the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, the Alliance for Bang-ladesh Worker Safety and National Plan of Action have been formed to improve building and � re safety of Bangladesh’s garment industry.

All members of the BGMEA and BK-MEA are working all-out to carry out the corrective action plans suggested by the Accord, Alliance and National Plan of Action after inspections, even investing huge amount of money.

Moreover, the factories which were set up in an unplanned way and housed in risky buildings have started relocating to safer buildings. Besides, a project has been taken to set up a well-planned garment industrial park beside the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway where the structurally weak garment factories will be able to relocate.

However, ensuring workplace safe-ty at all garment factories is a gigantic task and will take time to accomplish. But we believe the government of Bangladesh, BGMEA and BKMEA, with the support of global brands and inter-national development partners, will be able to ensure the safety of the RMG industry and maintain the momentum of socio-economic development in the country.

With challenges on one side, a more glittering future is waiting for the ready-made garment industry of Bangladesh on the other side; at least facts and � gures have made us believe so. A recent study jointly conducted by the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) and the University of Rhode Island (URI) has made us more optimistic about the potentials of our RMG industry.

According to the study, the US-based fashion companies are expected to boost their sourcing from Bangla-desh in the next two years. McKinsey, a global management consulting � rm, described Bangladesh as the next hot spot in apparel sourcing. The renowned � rm forecasts export-val-ue growth of 7-9% annually and our apparel export will double by 2015 and nearly triple by 2020 provided that we can successfully overcome a few challenges including developing infra-structure and skill workforce.

It is the responsibility of all of us to protect the interest of this industry which has given our economy a strong

footing, created jobs for millions of people, especially for women, lifted them from the abyss of chronic pov-erty and given them a digni� ed life. Now what we need to do is deal with all the challenges facing our garment industry, paving the way for its further development.

The main highways namely Dha-ka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Mymensigh, Dhaka-Tangail through which our apparel products and the raw materi-als for apparel and textile are trans-ported from factories to port, are being

widened (from two lanes to four lanes) and drive-worthy for tapping our ex-port potential. This work needs to be completed as urgently, preferably by December 2014.

Connection of gas to the factories and uninterrupted power supply are prerequisite for the steady growth of the industry. So, the government should consider giving gas and elec-tricity connections to RMG and textile units as the top priority. Producing the required number of skilled workers is another challenge and overcoming it will determine whether the country will be able to sustain the boom that is waiting to happen.

Although BGMEA along with the government and other international organisations has taken the initiatives of developing skills of workers, yet more initiatives as such are required to meet the demand of the industry and enhance the productivity of the industry. The budget allocation of the government for the skill development also needs to be increased.

BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT) is o� ering graduate and post-graduate degrees to students on fashion design, knitwear technology and apparel merchandis-ing related subjects. Nonetheless, to meet the current shortfall of compe-tent professionals in the mid-level of our garment factories, fashion, textile

and industrial merchandising related departments need to be established at all of our major public and private universities.

Bangladesh mainly produces � ve products – T-shirts, sweaters, trousers, men’s and women’s shirts. Moreover, we are dependent mainly on two mar-kets namely the EU and North America (the US and Canada). Though we reduced our dependency on these two markets from 93% to 85% in last � ve years (From � scal 2009-10 to 2013-14), we need to diversify the destinations

of our apparel export and concentrate on high-end products like suits, linge-rie, etc more for the sustained growth of our apparel industry.

Inadequate infrastructure, bureau-cratic ine� ciency and corruption are still the major problematic factors in industrialisation and for growth of an industry. These are also increasing entrepreneurs’ cost of doing business. We are also losing price and deliv-ery competitiveness to our business competitor. The last but not the least, political stability of the country is the key to steady growth of the industry.

Starting from scratch, Bangladesh has come a long way and is now one of 10 new emerging countries in the world. The macroeconomic stability, 6% annual average GDP growth, robust performance of remittance and export, strong foreign currency reserve, and remarkable social and human develop-ment over the past decade – all re� ect our underlying strengths.

Given the dominance of the RMG industry in the overall economy of Bangladesh, we have to protect this sector. Rather than basking in the glory we should work hand in hand to retain sustainable growth and compet-itive edge of this industry. l

Faruque Hassan is an ex-vice president of BGMEA, and the managing director of Giant Group.

RMG industry of Bangladesh: Past, present and future

Despite many di� culties faced by the sector over the past years, it has carved a niche in world market and kept continuing to show robust performance

Our apparel export will double by 2015 and nearly triple by 2020 provided that we can successfully overcome a few challenges

CREDIT: COURTESY

(1) Piper Ryan Randall leads a pro-Scottish independence rally in the suburbs of Edinburgh on September 18, as Scotland went to voting yesterday in a referendum on their independence. (2) Front pages of the English editions of Britain’s national newspapers are pictured in London. (3) Pro-union supporters, opposing Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, look on during a rally in Trafalgar Square in London. (4) A pro-Scottish independence campaigner poses with her ‘Yes’ sign and stickers. (5) Pro-independence and pro-union literature surrounds a polling station in the south of Edinburgh during the referendum. (6) Voters walk past campaign posters outside a polling station in Edinburgh AFP/REUTERS

Egypt targets Al Azhar, imposes new rulesMuslim Brotherhood enjoys strong support among students and faculty members, many opposing Sisi

n Reuters, Cairo

Egypt has moved to close down one of the last bastions of Muslim Brother-hood dissent with sweeping new rules to curtail violent protest at Al Azhar University, among the world’s most venerable centres of Islamic learning.

Egypt has banned the Muslim Brother-hood and jailed thousands of its support-ers since July 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mohamed Mursi, Egypt’s � rst freely elected presi-dent and a senior member of the group.

As the noose tightened around the Brotherhood, Al Azhar emerged as a hotspot in its battle against Egypt’s new rulers. The grand mufti, Egypt’s top re-ligious authority, and the grand imam of Al Azhar, have long lent their prestige to those in power and issued religious edicts to back government policy.

But the Brotherhood enjoys strong support within the student body as well as among faculty members, many of whom oppose Sisi and his crackdown on Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.

With students preparing to return to their campuses this month after the long summer hiatus, the government on Wednesday amended the university rules to discourage renewed unrest.

The new rules state that any student or faculty member who incites, supports or joins in protests that disrupt learn-ing or promote rioting or vandalism will be expelled or � red.

Students have sprayed gra� ti on buildings, blocked college entrances and staged strikes, prompting Al Azhar to request police intervention. This in turn has fuelled anger among students and professors who say the campus is

a sacred space. Students loyal to the Brotherhood have repeatedly clashed with police inside the campus over the past year, setting � re to tyres and throwing rocks to counter teargas.

In May, a week before presidential polls that were won by Sisi, gunmen killed three policemen at Al Azhar.

“The amendments came as part of security measures aimed at frighten-ing and clamping down on the Muslim Brotherhood and all related groups,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University.

“This is their aim and in my opinion security measures will not be enough to deal with the issue,” he added

Before the uprising that removed Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011, a special police force was dedicated to university campuses, clamping down on protest and monitoring dissent.

A court ruling shortly before the re-volt banned police from entering cam-puses. But another ruling this year stat-ed that police could enter if laws were being broken. l

Friday, September 19, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

After Abbas, who will lead the Palestinians?n Reuters, Jerusalem/Ramallah

Most Palestinians have known only two leaders: Yasser Arafat, the stubble-chinned � rebrand fond of chequered scarves and olive fatigues, and Mahmoud Abbas, a smooth-shav-en father � gure who favors Western suits and ties.

Arafat died in Paris in 2004, having led the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion since 1969, and Abbas has been in the driving seat since, trying to forge a still-elusive peace deal with Israel.

Abbas, 79, shows no signs of ill health and continues to travel widely, visiting France this week before head-ing to New York for the UN General Assembly next week, the annual jam-boree that provides Palestine with a global stage.

But he says he will not stand in future elections, so it is only a matter of time before he passes the baton to a new leader, one whom the vast majority of Palestinians - 4.4 million in the West Bank and Gaza and nearly 7 million elsewhere around the world - hope will lead to the foundation of an indepen-dent Palestinian state.

The problem is that Abbas has not named a successor and shows no in-clination to do so, and no one has emerged as a natural heir. Even those closest to him are left guessing who is best placed to take on the leadership.

It is a strategy that may serve a short-term purpose, but it raises lon-ger-term questions about democratic accountability, political vision and the sort of personality that will eventually take the helm in statehood negotia-

tions with Israel, if and when they ever resume.

“He doesn’t have a protégé, he hasn’t facilitated a system in which people feel they can rise to the top,” said Grant Rumley, an expert on Palestinian af-fairs at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.

What’s more, political analysts say, he has moved to sideline several po-tential rivals over the years, most re-cently Salam Fayyad, his former prime minister, who perhaps spoke too freely when he mentioned to a US newspaper in 2012 that he might try his hand at the presidency some day.

“It’s becoming an urgent matter,” Rumley said of the absence of a single leader-in-waiting.

Others are more blunt about what they see as the failure of the political class to plot a clear course.

“There’s really no strategy,” said Rami Khouri, a researcher at the Amer-ican University of Beirut. “Abbas is acting like a typical Arab leader who is comfortable in his position and doesn’t quite know what to do about what may come next.”

Closer to home, one Palestinian dip-lomat who works in Ramallah, where Abbas is based, describes him as be-coming “a bit like Samson in the tem-ple, ready to bring the whole structure down” around him with little heed to the consequences.

Since Abbas formally took o� ce as Palestinian Authority president in January 2005, the ground has shift-ed beneath him, complicating almost every political calculation he and his once-dominant party, Fatah, has had to make.

The Islamist movement Hamas, founded in Gaza in the 1980s, has ris-en to prominence, winning Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and shaking the foundations of Abbas’s power by opening people’s minds to an alternative to Fatah.

Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas served as prime minister under Abbas for a year before being dismissed in June 2007, when tensions between the two parties boiled over in Gaza, resulting in the Is-lamists seizing full control of the terri-tory. l

BBC journalists attacked in Russian Agencies

The BBC has made a formal complaint to Russian authorities after journalists from its Moscow bureau were attacked and had their camera equipment smashed, The Guardian reported.

The incident happened after Steve Rosenberg, the BBC’s Moscow corre-spondent, and a newsgathering team had interviewed the sister of a Russian soldier who had been told he was killed in military exercises “on the border with Ukraine.” According to the BBC, the cameraman involved is continuing to receive treatment for concussion and other injuries.

A statement released by the BBC said: “After � lming in the city of As-trakhan, our team was assaulted by unidenti� ed men in a co-ordinated attack. Our sta� were badly beaten, their camera destroyed and then taken. After alerting the emergency services, the team was then taken to a police sta-tion for four hours of questioning after which they discovered that recording equipment – which was in their ve-hicle, at the police station – had been electronically wiped. l

Death toll in West Africa Ebola epidemic reaches 2,622n Reuters, London

At least 2,622 people have died in the worst outbreak of Ebola virus in history, which has so far infected at least 5,335 people in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

In an update on the epidemic, which is raging through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and has spread into Nigeria and Senegal, the WHO said there were no signs yet of it slowing.

“The upward epidemic trend con-tinues in the three countries that have widespread and intense transmission - Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,” the United Nations health agency said.

It added that a surge in Ebola in Li-beria is being driven primarily by a con-tinued increase in the number of cases reported in the capital, Monrovia. l

Islamic State seizes villages in Syria as drone scouts skiesn Reuters, Beirut

Islamic State � ghters encircled a Kurd-ish city in northern Syria near the border with Turkey yesterday after seizing 21 villages in a major assault that prompted a commander to appeal for military aid from other Kurds in the region.

With the United States planning to expand military action against Islamic State from Iraq to Syria, a surveillance drone was spotted for the � rst time over nearby Islamic State-controlled territory in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s civil war, said.

It was not immediately clear who was operating the drone.

US President Barack Obama last week said he would not hesitate to strike the radical Islamist group that has used Syria as a base to advance its plan to reshape the Middle East accord-

ing to its radical vision of Sunni Islam.The United States is conducting air

strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and last month Obama authorised surveil-lance � ights over Syria.

Islamic State � ghters, armed with heavy weaponry including tanks, seized a group of villages near the city of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish, in an o� ensive which the Observatory said had started on Tuesday night.

It said 21 villages had fallen to Islam-ic State in the last 24 hours as the group advanced on the city.

“We’ve lost touch with many of the residents living in the villages that ISIS (Islamic State) seized,” Ocalan Iso, dep-uty head of the Kurdish forces in Koba-ni, told Reuters via Skype.

He said the group was committing massacres and kidnapping women in the newly-seized areas, giving the names of 28 members of a single fam-

ily he said had been taken captive. It was not possible to immediately verify his account.

The Kurds were appealing for mil-itary aid from other Kurdish groups in the region including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), he said. Support from Kurds who crossed from Turkey helped to repel an Islamic State attack on Kobani in July.

The Observatory said there were fears of massacres in the areas seized by Islamic State. “This is a very import-ant advance for them,” Rami Abdulrah-man, the Observatory’s founder, told Reuters, speaking by phone.

Footage posted on YouTube on Wednesday by the YPG, the main Kurd-ish armed group in Syria, appeared to show Kurdish � ghters armed with as-sault ri� es and rocket-propelled gre-nades battling a tank � ying the Islamic State’s black � ag west of Kobani. l

Putin: Sanctions violate principles of WTOn Reuters, Moscow

President Vladimir Putin said yester-day Western sanctions against Russia violated the principles of the World Trade Organization and the main way to combat them was to develop the do-mestic market.

At a meeting with senior o� cials, Putin said Russia had no intention of punishing the West for the sanc-tions, imposed over Moscow’s role in Ukraine, and said instead they had challenged Russia to strengthen its economy, boost competition and spur lending.

“In taking responsive measures, we � rst of all think about our own in-terests regarding the task of develop-ment and protecting our producers and markets from unfair competition,” Putin said.

“And our main goal is to use one of Russia’s main competitive advantages - a large domestic market, and to � ll it with high-quality goods produced by our nation’s � rms.”

The Ukraine crisis has plunged ties between the West and Russia to their lowest since the Cold War, and Pu-tin criticized countries that imposed sanctions for violating the spirit of the WTO, which he said was fair and free economic competition.

Russia joined the WTO in 2012 after 18 years of on-and-o� negotiations on the terms of its entry.

Countries enforcing trade sanc-tions do not have to justify them at the WTO unless they are challenged in a trade dispute. Justi� cations for restricting trade can range from en-vironmental and health reasons to religious scruples. l

The law means university campuses are among the last remaining spaces in Egypt where dissent can be expressed

The problem is that Abbas has not named a successor and shows no inclination to do so, and no one has emerged as a natural heir

An entrance to the mosque and university WIKIPEDIA

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9Friday, September 19, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Border stando� brie� y overshadows Xi’s India visit Modi talks tough on border row, China to invest $20bn in India

n Reuters, New Delhi

China is not a warlike nation, President Xi Jinping said yesterday, during a rare trip to neighbour India that was domi-nated by a stando� on a barren Hima-layan plateau between soldiers from the world’s two most populous nations.

Robust comments from India’s new prime minister Narendra Modi about the dispute in territory claimed by both Asian giants overshadowed Xi’s pledge of $30bn investments in South Asia over � ve years, including $20bn in India.

“A warlike state, however big it may be, will eventually perish,” Xi said in a speech, adding that China believed its neighbours were key to its wellbeing.

He said China was committed to the path of peaceful development, ad-dressing concerns in Asia about Bei-jing’s increasingly assertive territorial claims including in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route.

But the mood was stern when Modi and Xi emerged from a long meeting to address reporters soon after o� cials con� rmed that soldiers had pulled back from their positions in a western Hima-layan region claimed by India and China.

“I raised our serious concern over repeated incidents along the border,” said Modi, with Xi sitting to his right.

“There should be peace in our re-lations and in the borders. If this hap-pens, we can realise (the) true potential of our relations,” added Modi, a nation-alist elected in May partly on promises to build a more assertive India.

Dozens of soldiers from both sides had faced o� on the Ladakh plateau for over a week in a dispute about infra-structure works near the de facto bor-der, where the two countries fought a brief war in 1962.

Raising hopes for a new push to re-solve their territorial di� erences, Modi called for an early border settlement with China. The two sides have held 17 rounds of border talks since the early 1990s without making signi� cant prog-ress. Modi has yet to appoint a special envoy to restart the talks.

“We have to address the boundary question very soon,” Modi said, urg-ing “clari� cation” of the Line of Actual Control - the frontline where � ghting ended.

In his comments, Xi played down the tensions and agreed with Modi that

they should work to settle the border question, using language China has used in the past.

“Sometimes there might be certain incidents, but the two sides are fully capable of acting promptly to e� ective-ly manage the situation,” he said.

Srikanth Kondapalli, a China watch-er with Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity, said Modi’s tough words were aimed at a domestic audience ahead of regional elections, including in Lada-kh, a remote corner of Indian-adminis-tered Kashmir.

“As a nationalist, he stood his ground, but the fact of the matter is that he cannot control the other side,” he said, saying fast progress on a per-manent border � x was unlikely.

“Both sides have given a diplomatic but sti� response, both sides have said (the border) should be resolved early but there is no deadline.”

Despite the tension, the two sides were able to agree on investments aimed at signi� cantly upgrading their commercial relationship, with China pledging $20bn over the next � ve years for industrial parks and infrastructure including railway technology. l

Thai PM sorry for bikini comment n Agencies

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has apologised for suggest-ing that tourists in bikinis were vulner-able to attack - unless they were unat-tractive, BBC reported.

His comments came just days after two British holidaymakers were mur-dered on a beach on the island of Koh Tao. Gen Prayuth was quoted as telling o� cials: “Can they be safe in bikinis ... unless they are not beautiful?” The comments sparked outrage and the British embassy said it had contacted o� cials to seek clari� cation.

“I’m sorry that it hurt people,” Gen Prayuth said at a press conference yes-terday.

He had made the original remarks while speaking to government o� cials on Wednesday, with reports quoting him as saying: “They [tourists] think our country is beautiful and is safe so they can do whatever they want, they can wear bikinis and walk everywhere.”

Thai police admit they are strug-gling to � nd the killers of two British tourists, after it emerged crime scene DNA did not match that of any suspect.

The bodies of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found in Koh Tao on Monday. British broth-ers Christopher and James Ware were questioned but police now say there is no evidence against them. l

Spy claims over absent China envoyn Agencies

A prominent Chinese newspaper has called for clari� cation about Chi-na’s envoy to Iceland, who has gone missing amid rumours he was a Japanese spy.

Ma Jisheng left Reykjavik in Janu-ary, but has not returned, with the Chi-nese government telling Iceland this was for “personal reasons.”

Some reports say that Ma has been detained by Chinese state security, but there has been no o� cial word. The se-nior diplomat previously worked at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.

China rarely comments on allega-tions or cases of domestic espionage and a foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday told reporters: “I have no information on this.”

But in an editorial the Global Times newspaper urged the government to clarify the situation saying: “In ac-tuality, reporting such incidents will educate many people by letting them know how close those manipula-tors of overseas intelligence agencies are to us.”

On the website of the Chinese em-bassy in Iceland, information about the ambassador is blank. l

Developing world revives nuclear power prospects, but yet to commitn Reuters, London

Developing nations are leading a re-vival of interest in nuclear power, say atomic plant builders, but orders re-main elusive as more safety features post-Fukushima have in� ated invest-ment costs.

Three-and-a-half years after Japan’s reactor accident shook con� dence, around 25 countries are thinking of turning nuclear to sustain strong growth and provide cleaner and reli-able power.

“It’s not so much growth in the de-veloped countries but we’re seeing a lot of other countries that are want-ing to develop nuclear. We’re � nding money in places we didn’t even know existed,” Danny Roderick, chief execu-tive of Toshiba-owned nuclear reactor maker Westinghouse, told Reuters at a nuclear industry conference last week in London.

Rival reactor designer GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy , a joint venture be-tween the US and Japanese companies, said it has held meetings with o� -cials from India, Mexico and Vietnam, among others.

Countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Turkey or Jordan, are also considering building nuclear plants and around 160 reactors are expected to come online over the next decade, according to the World Nuclear Association.

On paper, that should provide plen-ty of work, but the industry continues to lick its wounds in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Japan in March 2011, which caused triple melt-downs and hydrogen explosions at Tep-co’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The accident put a break on much of the world’s nuclear plans as govern-ments re-assessed the risks of running nuclear reactors and some, such as Ger-many, decided to part ways with nucle-ar altogether.

Looking east?As of July this year, 67 reactors were under construction globally, with 56 of those in Asia and eastern Europe, ac-cording to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014, whose lead authors are industry consultants Mycle Schnei-der and Antony Froggatt.

For US-based Westinghouse, oppor-tunities in eastern Europe and new or-ders from China will be key to � lling its order book, while GE Hitachi will seek to bene� t from interest from nuclear newcomers across the globe.

“There certainly is some interest by some of the emerging markets com-pared to where we were 10 years ago,” Preston Swa� ord, chief executive of Canadian reactor maker Candu Energy, told Reuters.

France’s Areva, struggling with a slump in core earnings, is pinning its hopes on fresh orders for Britain’s nu-clear new build programme, as well as from Turkey, India and Saudi Arabia.

Russia’s recent gas supply restric-tions to some European buyers and the threat to oil supplies from con� icts in Iraq and Libya have increased the need for diversi� ed energy supplies, espe-cially in the West.

For Russian state nuclear energy cor-poration Rosatom, sanctions against Russia amid diplomatic disputes over violence in Ukraine will likely add to its struggle to sell new reactors.

Rosatom’s deputy director general of international business and develop-ment, Kirill Komarov, told Reuters that emerging markets in South Asia, China, India, South Africa, Latin America and North America will be of high impor-tance over the next 20 years.

However, many countries have scaled back more ambitious develop-ment plans and some have been can-celled or halted, Schneider and Frog-gatt said in the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014. l

Gunmen in Pakistan kill professor who faced blasphemy accusations from colleaguesn Reuters, Islamabad

Unidenti� ed gunmen yesterday shot dead a professor of Islamic studies in Pakistan who had faced accusations of blasphemy and threats from colleagues over his moderate views, police said.

Blasphemy is a crime carrying the death sentence in the mainly Sunni Muslim nation of 180 million people.

The south Asian country is experi-encing a spike in the number of cases of blasphemy, which activists attribute to its growing use as a tactic to settle

grudges or extort money.Dr Muhammad Shakil Auj, the dean

of the faculty of Islamic Studies at the university in the southern port city of Karachi, had received threats following complaints that his teaching was too liberal, a colleague said.

Among the articles the 54-year-old had written was one arguing that Mus-lim women should be allowed to marry non-Muslim men, the colleague said.

On Thursday morning, two gunmen riding a motorcycle � red on the car tak-ing Auj to a function at an Iranian cul-

tural centre in the city, police said.“A bullet pierced through his head,

proving fatal,” senior police o� cer Pir Mohammad Shah told reporters.

“We are investigating the killing. It would be premature to state the motive at the moment.”

In 2012, Auj had complained to po-lice that four colleagues had threatened him and sent him text messages accus-ing him of blasphemy, said Deputy Su-perintendent of Police Nasir Lodhi.

The crime is not de� ned by law, so anyone can � le a case saying their re-

ligious feelings have been hurt. Fre-quently, those accused of the crime who are not lynched on the spot can � nd themselves jailed inde� nitely.

Judges and lawyers are often too afraid to show up in court to try the cases, as mere description of the of-fense can itself often be viewed as a fresh o� ence.

The court case was proceeding and the threats had continued, Auj’s col-league said. Police said it was unclear if Thursday’s shooting was linked to the case. l

Scotland’s referendum stirs Kashmiri demands for vote on futuren Reuters, Srinagar

Kashmiri separatist leaders have seized on Scotland’s referendum on inde-pendence to demand that India follow through on a promise to grant a sim-ilar vote in the disputed Himalayan region.

Scotland voted yesterday on wheth-er to split away from the United King-dom in a ballot moderate Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said was an example of how Kashmiris’ demands for a say on their future could be solved peacefully.

“We hope India will also change its approach and realise the fact that peo-ple’s rights can’t be trampled upon,” Farooq, the head Muslim priest on the Indian side of Kashmir, where a violent insurgency against New Del-hi’s rule raged through the 1990s

and resentment still runs high, said on Wednesday.

“It is encouraging that in a peaceful manner people will be deciding their future.”

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since a war after in-dependence from Britain in 1947, and the two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the territory.

India has never carried out a prom-ise made more than six decades ago to hold a plebiscite that would determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

It now considers the entire region of snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys an integral part of its territory and maintains a massive military pres-ence in Jammu and Kashmir, its north-ernmost and only Muslim-majority state.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj blurted out her horror at the thought of New Delhi’s former colonial master splitting apart, when questioned at a news conference last week.

“A break-up of the UK? God forbid,” she said. “I don’t think any such possi-bility exists at the moment.”

After a senior civil servant whis-pered in her ear, Swaraj corrected her-self, commenting: “It is up to the peo-ple of Scotland to decide.”

Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani praised the Unit-ed Kingdom for giving Scotland the vote, adding that London should now put pressure on India to grant Kash-miris a referendum.

“India should learn lessons from UK and honour its commitment of grant-ing right to self-determination to peo-ple of Kashmir,” Geelani said. l

Senate: Chinese hacked US military contractorsn Reuters, Washington

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly in� ltrated the computer systems of US airlines, technology companies and other con-tractors involved in the movement of US troops and military equipment, a US Senate panel has found.

The Senate Armed Services Com-mittee’s year-long probe, concluded in March but made public on Wednesday, found the military’s US Transportation Command, or Transcom, was aware of only two out of at least 20 such cyber intrusions within a single year.

The investigation also found gaps in reporting requirements and a lack of information sharing among US govern-ment entities. That in turn left the US military largely unaware of computer compromises of its contractors.

“These peacetime intrusions into the networks of key defense contrac-tors are more evidence of China’s ag-gressive actions in cyberspace,” Dem-ocratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee’s chairman, said in re-leasing the report.

Cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alpero-vitch, chief technology o� cer with the security � rm Crowdstrike, said China had for years shown a keen interest in th

the logistical patterns of the US military.The investigation focused on the US

military’s ability to seamlessly tap civil-ian air, shipping and other transportation assets for tasks including troop deploy-ments and the timely arrival of supplies from food to ammunition to fuel.

Those companies typically do not have the level of defense against hack-ers as major weapons makers or the military itself.

“The military uses secret or top-se-cret networks that are not on the In-ternet, but private companies do not,” said Alperovitch. “That’s a real chal-lenge.”

The FBI said in a statement that it “continues to aggressively investi-gate cyber intrusions emanating from state-sponsored actors and other criminals.

“We remain committed to work-ing with our interagency partners to identify threats, protect the nation’s infrastructure from potential harm, and hold accountable those groups and individuals that pose a threat in cyber-space,” the statement added.

In a 12-month period beginning June 1, 2012, there were about 50 intrusions or other cyber events into the comput-er networks of Transcom contractors, the 52-page report stated. l

Tibetan exiles scu� e with police during a protest outside the venue of a meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi REUTERS

‘ N E W E R A O F C I V I L D I S O B E D I E N C E ’

Security ask a demonstrator to move prior to speeches by members of Occupy Central’s banking and � nance group outside the stock exchange building in Hong Kong on September 18. Pro-democracy groups have vowed to start a ‘new era of civil disobedience’ after Beijing refused to give full universal su� rage to the southern Chinese city AFP

Privatisation Commission must stand � rm

The Privatisation Commission is right to reject calls to reopen the loss-making silk factory at Rajshahi.

It would go against the mission of the commission to support such calls, given that it exists to divest the government of unsuccessful state-owned enterprises and to make better use of state assets.

The government previously sought to reopen this factory during its last term of o� ce. However, despite persuading the Bangladesh Bank to o� er soft loans, the factory which was established in 1961 and closed in 2002 did not attract su� cient interest under the Public Private Partnership program.

This should be accepted as proof that spending more taxpayer money on this failed enterprise is not justi� ed.

We are disappointed therefore that the government is seeking to pressure the commission to hand the factory to the Ministry of Textile and Jute for development by the Bangladesh Silk Development Board.

It is precisely this type of pressure and calls by vested interests that keeps so many loss-making enterprises as a drain on state funds.

It is a mistake to compound such losses to the taxpayer by reopening a factory which has been proven not to work as a going concern.

The government should be speeding up, not slowing down, the work of the commission.

Scarce taxpayer funds should not be wasted on subsidies for loss-making enterprises, while sectors such as education and health care continue to need more government attention.

This factory and others like it should be leased or sold to the private sector so that the land and assets can be put to more productive use.

Investigate cross� re deaths

According to Ain O Salish Kendra, at least 88 people were killed by law enforcers in “encounters, gun� ghts, and cross� re” in the last seven months of this year.

This is highly concerning. Rule of law is not secured by any forms of extra-judicial punishment or killing.

The public relies on law enforcers to uphold the law and to defend human rights while providing safety and security.

Both AL and BNP-led governments have promised to take action to end extrajudicial killings, but the number of such cases has risen over the last year after falling to 91 in 2012, following a peak of 377 in 2005.

If circumstances arise from time to time where law enforcers have to act in self-defence, the government and police must still ensure open and independent enquiries into any deaths occurring.

It is in the interests of the law enforcement authorities, and their reputation and trust with the public, that they should support independent investigations in all such cases, so that any claims of unlawful killing can be credibly tested.

Only by guaranteeing that any allegations of the law being broken in the name of law enforcement are properly investigated can the public be reassured that appropriate action will be taken if the law is found to be broken.

Due process requires that criminals should not be unlawfully punished or shot. The public depends on law enforcers to respect all people’s rights. No security or trust is gained by undermining this principle.

Najib new twist in BCB VP electionSeptember 11

ziaOur team is going through a time of disaster, and the management is busy with its involvement in politics.

BCB, please reorganise our team � rst. That is your highest priority.

Coping with water crisisSeptember 13

Chowdhury Aktaruzzaman “Residents in di� erent parts of Dhaka city have to collect drinking water from several spots as a water crisis plagues the capital.

“This photo was taken at Harish Chandra Basu Street in Old Dhaka.”

This is our daily life. Thanks for sharing.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 In a frenzy (4)4 Fragment (5)9 Male sheep (3)11 Eternal city (4)12 Tendency (5)13 Monkeys (4)14 Outlet (4)15 Nimble (5)19 Make up for (5)21 Mountain lake (4)25 Dry (4)26 Fruit (5)28 Pit (4)29 Vast age (3)30 Army chaplain (5)31 High mountains (4)

DOWN1 Crafts (4)2 Spoil (3)3 Greek letter (5)5 Cowardly (6)6 Thick cord (4)7 Prayer ending (4)8 Nuisances (5)10 Let in (5)16 Male goose (6)17 Faithful (5)18 Postal receipt (5)20 Discharge in disgrace (5)22 Operatic air (4)23 Peel (4)24 Marshes (4)27 Cut o� the top (3)

CROSSWORD

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 number repeating.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 4 represents G so � ll G every time the � gure 4 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate 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, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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Age limit of entry-level jobsSeptember 15

Md Ashraf HossainThe present maximum age limit for entry into a government job is 30 years for all citizens except children of freedom � ghters. There is no scienti� c rationale behind the existing age limit, though there may be some arguments over it. But the logic, of course, is not beyond controversy.

According to media reports, speakers at a seminar recently favoured raising the age limit to 35 for entry into government jobs. In my opinion, if the authorities � x the maximum age limit at 40, then a government o� cer will be able to serve for 19 years, as the current retirement age is 59 years. The government has re-� xed the retirement age to 60 years for the workers who are under

the purview of Labour Law 2006. The present government has also raised the retirement age for workers of a public enterprise to 60 years.

Many candidates here cannot get a government job as they cross the present age limit for various reasons, including session jams in universities, and migration to foreign countries for jobs. Besides, after serving in private organisations, many desire to enter government jobs, but are too old to apply. As a result, the government sector does not get an experienced workforce, which is essential for revitalising the traditional performance of civil servants in government. The government should consider raising the maximum age limit to 40 years.

The public relies on law enforcers to uphold the law and defend human rights

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZScarce taxpayer funds should not be wasted on subsidies for loss-making enterprises

What citizens can doSeptember 11

Ashraful Alam SagarThought-provoking and insightful! The writer deserves thanks for such a piece.

Mehedi Hasan FuadI have read articles on similar subjects, but none were as clear or as relevant as yours. I look forward to reading your next article. Best wishes for your mission to save the planet.

‘PM also the opposition leader in JS’September 12

Osmania“Jatiya Party Secretary General Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu made the remark while addressing a press conference at the party’s Banani o� ce in the capital on Thursday.”

Do these people think before they speak? And with so much else on her plate, is the PM really going to care?

Whose body is it?September 11

Ms KeaneIt doesn’t seem like people’s mentality is going to change any time soon. Better to be more careful if you have nude photos or videos.

How to maintain a healthy weight

September 13

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid People, who are careless like me, read the

article and try from next Monday!

10 bank accounts identi� ed for � nancing militants

September 13

PD“DB police are investigating account holders who

sent money to Ansarullah chief.”Some real hard news!

Draft of Child Marriage Restraint Act set to be placed

before cabinet on MondaySeptember 13

PBStop #ChildMarriage you perverts!

WeMen for WoMen“Bangladesh has one of the highest number of

under-15 child marriages in the world.”Well, another law is now here. Now comes the

hardest task, to implement it.

n Risalat Khan

The Merriam-Webster dictionary de� nes a “tipping point” as the critical point in a situation,

process, or system beyond which a sig-ni� cant and often unstoppable e� ect or change takes place.

We are at the cusp of three impor-tant kinds of tipping points whose complex interactions will largely govern what the world will look like as soon as 2040, and maybe even decide the fate of humanity.

The � rst kind is the climate tipping point – which, for the purposes of this article – I will de� ne as a warming threshold that, when crossed, will trigger a disproportionate, catastroph-ic, and irreversible climate disruption that signi� cantly exceeds human civilisation’s ability to adapt to it.

I know what you are probably thinking. Are we really at risk of cross-ing such a threshold? The short answer is yes.

Studies of past climate in even rela-tively recent Earth history have found evidence of massive climatic changes in the span of as little as a decade or two. Greenland ice-core records show evidence of rapid warming between 8-16°C over the course of a few dec-ades, as part of what are known in geologic jargon as Dansgaard-Oeschger events.

So, we know they are possible, because they have happened before. There are several other examples, but their consideration is beyond the scope of this article. As for the ques-tion of how close we are to triggering one, matters get more complicated. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in its Fifth As-sessment Report that came out earlier this year – writes:

“With increasing warming, some physical systems or ecosystems may be at risk of abrupt and irreversible changes. Risks associated with such tipping points become moderate between 0–1°C additional warming … Risks increase disproportionately as temperature increases between 1–2°C additional warming and become high above 3°C …”

So, even by targeting the supposed-ly “safe” 2°C limit – we are far from ful-ly avoiding the risk of triggering such abrupt changes. And what scares me to death is that our understanding of these triggers is very limited. “The pre-cise levels of climate change su� cient to trigger tipping points (thresholds for abrupt and irreversible change) remain uncertain,” the IPCC acknowledges.

Yet, we are currently cruising bra-zenly towards 4°C or higher.

The second kind of tipping point to consider concerns the response of our global political and economic system to the harsh reality of climate change. We have kept our heads in the sand past a time when incremental changes could potentially rein in global warm-ing su� ciently without too much disruption.

Now we are at a point when nothing short of a massive clean energy revolu-tion, coupled with substantial reduc-tions in global per capita resource use, will prevent crippling levels of climate change.

This revolution threatens the power and wealth of the trillions-of-dollars-a-year fossil fuel industry and those dependent on it, and anyone who has engaged with the political system knows how di� cult it is for politicians to disappoint the deepest pockets.

Sooner or later, however, a time will come when a critical number of global leaders are forced to endorse this shift, and the world will � nally move towards ending its deadly fossil fuel addiction. Earlier this year, former US Vice President Al Gore said: “We’re getting closer to a political tipping point,” and this building urgency is also becoming clearer in the run up to the UN Climate Summit on September 23.

But the all-important question, of course, is: Can we curb emissions fast enough? Will the political tipping point come soon enough and be strong enough to prevent crossing an unman-ageable climate tipping point? Here’s where the third force comes into play – and that is the global grassroots climate justice movement.

Two days before Ban Ki-moon’s Climate Summit in New York, in which over 125 heads of governments have so far con� rmed attendance, an esti-mated million people will march the streets of Manhattan and everywhere else in the world from Brazil to Bangla-desh – for what is set to be the largest global climate mobilisation in history.

This People’s Climate March, as it has been named, could be a “move-ment tipping point,” says Ian Keith, Campaign Director at the 38-million member global civic organisation Avaaz – one of the organisers of the march.

Movement tipping points can be thought of as critical iconic points in a social movement that catalyse further rapid action to expand and strengthen the movement. For example, Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha in 1930 was a classic tipping point that triggered the wider civil disobedience movement against British colonial rule.

With more than 2,000 events being organised in over 150 countries – comprising not only environmen-tal groups, but labour unions, faith groups, and indigenous communities marching in solidarity– the diversity and global scale of the People’s Cli-mate March is unprecedented in recent times. Given our present urgency, it is imperative that this goes down in the history books as the iconic moment when the world’s people united to protect the promise of tomorrow.

The inspiring African-American slave turned reformer Frederick Doug-lass once said: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress … Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”

It is now up to us, the world’s people, to demand the political tipping point we so urgently need – so we never have to � nd out what the climate tipping point looks like. To change everything, we need everyone. Will you join me on the streets for the march? l

Risalat Khan is a social justice activist and entrepreneur specialising in sustainable paradigms. He is helping to organise the People’s Climate March in Dhaka.

11Op-Ed Friday, September 19, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Nadeem Qadir

“More than ever before in hu-man history, we share a common des-

tiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that is why we have the United Nations,” said former UN Secretary-General Ko� Annan.

Bangladesh celebrated 40 years of its membership with the United Nations last week ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s planned meeting with world leaders in New York, including her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

The global body’s role has been questioned over the years in dealing with major con� icts due to the veto powers of the super � ve, but no one has asked for it to abolished. But the platform has been a useful one, de-spite some drawbacks. It hosts many conferences and an annual General Assembly. Besides, committee meet-ings are an important place for � nding solutions to many issues which could become major concerns.

The most important role it plays is bringing together leaders from across the globe and facilitating a large num-ber of bilateral meetings which pave the way for bilateral or multilateral cooperation.

Bangladesh’s entry into the world body was not easy with China vetoing us twice. The Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rah-

man, and his team worked on it to bring about a change in Beijing’s atti-tude towards the newly-born country. Finally, in 1974, the Bangladesh � ag � nally � ew at the UN headquarters in New York.

Bangabandhu introduced the Bang-la language to the world by delivering his speech in Bangla at the UN general assembly. His daughter Sheikh Hasina too has followed that, and will again deliver her speech in Bangla this month.

Coinciding with the UNGA, a num-ber of summits and conferences will also come up including two major ones – the Climate Summit 2014 on September 23, and the Peacekeeping Summit on September 26. For Bangla-desh, both the summits are of utmost importance.

This South Asian country is one of the worst a� ected by climate change, with sea levels rising and drought in

some parts. Floods too are a major annual problem.

Bangladesh, being the number one contributor to the UN Peacekeeping Missions, needs to address issues relating to safety and privileges. Our soldiers have earned kudos in most of their missions. I remember my visits to a number of African countries where our brave soldiers were ensuring the end of violence and maintaining peace.

In Liberia, a song was dedicated to the Bengali soldiers who were ignored by the Pakistanis before independ-ence. It was a matter of pride to be from Bangladesh in Liberia because of our soldiers. Hats o� to them.

The prime minister, who is set to travel to New York on September 21, will also hold bilateral talks with Premier Modi as well as leaders from Qatar, Chile, etc. This is the annual meeting ground which brings fruit to bilateral ties.

The focus for Bangladesh will be the talks with Modi and the meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama during o� cial receptions.

There are a multiple issues that Sheikh Hasina is eager to settle with India, mainly the almost done Teesta water sharing treaty. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee either played foul or shifted the focus of trouble. The other issue is the Land Boundary Agreement which has been rati� ed by Bangladesh for some time now, but New Delhi has somehow

stalled it.With Narendra Modi’s positive

move to build con� dence with India’s neighbours, one can expect some posi-tive outcomes during the summit. The visit of his foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, indicated his intentions, and Bangladesh looks forward to a produc-tive summit.

Indeed, being a major world power and a super-power in the subconti-nent, India has many responsibilities towards its neighbours, especially the friendly ones.

The ruling Awami League either positively or negatively is said to be an “India-friendly” group, and Modi must honour Sheikh Hasina for her stand in international relations. The government’s distance from Pakistan should be appreciated by Modi as the BNP-Jamaat government allegedly made Bangladesh a “haven” for the Pakistani intelligence out� t ISI.

Both Bangladesh and India need peaceful borders as well as strong ties to counter external as well as regional negative in� uences in their respective domestic matters.

“The ideals of democracy, secu-larism, pluralism, and the rule of law also serve as a link between India and Bangladesh,” Modi wrote to Sheikh Hasina soon after coming to power. Now, he has to keep his word. As in the words of Ko� Annan: “We can do it (everything) together.” l

Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.

Facing it togetherT H E F L I P S I D E

A place to � nd solutions WIKIMEDIA

Both Bangladesh and India need peaceful borders as well as strong ties

Are we really at risk of crossing such a threshold? The short answer is yes

An estimated million people will march the streets everywhere in the world, from Brazil to Bangladesh

Everything hangs in the balance

n Mamun Rashid

We were doing a “large China corporate” portfolio review for a British bank in Hong

Kong in 1998. My co-reviewer col-league from Zimbabwe asked me an in-teresting question about Bangladeshi RMG letter of credit (L/C). His question was: “What is this back to back L/C? Isn’t it con� icting with the UCPDC (ICC guiding rules for cross border trade)?”

In reply, I explained to him the entire architecture of master L/C received from overseas buyers by our local RMG producers, opening of the back-to-back import L/Cs for import of fabric and accessories, and most importantly, settlement of the import liabilities upon receipt of the export proceeds.

I also told him how the back-to-back L/Cs, conceived predominantly by our colleagues at state-owned banks, have built up the basic platform for our fabulous rise in RMG exports. Yes, it was con� icting with the stipu-lations of international guidelines for driving cross-border trade, popularly known as UCPDC (uniform customs and practice for documentary credit), however, our bankers, with much handholding from our central bank, put up a process under “red clause L/Cs.”

Last year, Bangladesh saw a $24.5bn RMG export, looking to double this within the year 2019, if not earlier. When we celebrate our RMG suc-

cesses we also express our gratitude to the founding fathers of our RMG regime and a few leading bankers of our country who were the architects of this back-to-back L/C regime that facilitated the fantastic growth of Bangladesh’s apparel industry with many new entrepreneurs.

When JC Penney from USA started to push their vendors for “open account trade” or export under con-tract, Mr Kazemi – possibly the most intelligent central banker I have met in Bangladesh – told me: “It might expose our small and medium exporters to unusual risks. They are likely to be un-protected against receipts of exports proceeds.”

However, looking at the global market realities, we thought more and more importers would follow JC Pennys’ route in order to reduce their � nancial or import costs. Soon, open account trading became the market norm. Most of our exporters adjusted with the new market realities. Soon, we will be seeing contract-based exports taking over master L/C-based exports.

Over the years, the market has settled to newer export � nancing products too. While Usance L/Cs, or deferred L/Cs, set the market rolling, they were discounted at sight at the counter of the global banks’ foreign a� liates or branches, or at the counter of the local banks’ o� shore banking units (OBU). Smarter buyers like JC Penney or Gap started to help out their

suppliers with intermittent � nanc-ing. Global banks merrily discounted Bangladesh-bound exports and paid to the suppliers. Fewer banks opened their trade discounting or � nancing shops in Hong Kong to smoothen the supply chain � nance for imports from greater China.

Few are in the run to put up a mul-ti-bank solution in this opportunity space. Global banks operating in Bang-ladesh or outside also came up with their home country buyers or clients for a “vendor � nancing program” or U-Pass facility covering the Usance or deferred period.

Though the related cost is still high for the perceived Bangladesh cross-border risk, or country risk, our business community has continued to survive because of the good spread available for Bangladesh’s proven expertise and relatively cheap labour. A survey conducted by a British bank in Asia proved that the commercial o� cials at Bangladeshi RMG facto-ries were the fastest in putting the shipping documents after exports in the region.

On the import side as well, a lot of � scal and banking measures were tak-en up. Global banks kept on con� rm-ing the Bangladesh-bound L/C pay-ments. Bangladesh Bank, at frequent intervals, came up with prudential guidelines in support of facilitating large project imports. This was re-quired more in absence of an updated foreign exchange guideline. Usance,

or deferred L/Cs, � nanced at interna-tional market price, or Libor-based, also helped Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to avoid the onslaught of high local interest rates at least in the interim and up to one year. Bangladesh Banks’ EDF (export development fund) also helped many exporters to survive with delivery in time.

Many may not appreciate the mam-moth � scal or banking measures put up to keep our trade regime gaining momentum.

The journey goes on, and has to continue in a dynamic global trade re-gime with shifting trade realities. With e-commerce increasingly taking up pieces of the pie, the relevant regulato-ry regime also has to change. We hope and pray that our trading community, our bankers, and our regulators work together in taking our trade to newer heights.

Bangladesh is closely following its competitor Vietnam, where the coun-try’s external trade is equivalent to or more than its national GDP. In order to make this sustainable, we need to con-tinuously liberalise our trade regime.

To increase our exports, we need to further liberalise our import regime. Trade is the ultimate answer for Bang-ladesh, not aid. Increased trade can usher increasing investment, ensure increasing employment, and alleviate poverty faster than the past. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

T H I R D E Y E

Trade not aid

BIGSTOCK

n Entertainment Desk

The gorgeous Jac-queline Fernandez has bagged a lead role in a Holly-wood suspense thriller titled “De� nition Of Fear.”

The � lm is being directed by documen-tary � lmmaker James Simpson, who has earlier worked with great actors like Al Pacino and Penelope Cruz.

Jacqueline Fernandez, who was last seen in “Kick” with Salman, is currently busy with her “Roy” shoot where she is rumoured to be playing a double role opposite Ar-jun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor. The shooting of “Roy” is going on in Malaysia. Jacqueline will be heading to Canada after this for “De� nition of Fear” for a month-long shoot.

This leggy lass from Sri Lanka will for sure steal everyone with her looks and win over Hollywood as well! l

TISHA and NISHO in Puja special draman Entertainment Desk

A single episode drama titled “Sondhyako-mol” will be aired on RTV at 8:10pm on the day of Vijayadashomi during Durga Puja. Written by Premchandra, dramatised and directed by Sumon Anwar, the cast of the drama includes Mamunur Rashid, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Afran Nisho, Farhana Eva among others.

The story of the drama revolves around Sondhya and Komol, an extremely poor hindu couple. They survive from hand to mouth while Komol, currently unem-ployed, is searching for a job. Sondhya struggles to sustain the family. Gradually, she gets exhausted and incapable of taking care of the daily chores by borrowing mon-ey and other things from the neighbours any longer.

One day, Sondhya is insulted by a neigh-bour for the money which was borrowed by

her husband. And the situation forces her to sell her gold bangles.

The story develops new twist when

Komol tries to sell the bangles, and the goldsmith reveales that the bangles are forged. l

FilmDawn of the Planet of the Apes How to Train Your Dragon 2Most Welcome 2Guardians of the Galaxy Alpo Alpo Premer GolpoStar Cineplex, Level 8, Bashundhara City

Into The Storm, Hercules Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Most Welcome 2, LucyGodzilla 3D, Olpo Olpo Premer GolpBlockbuster Cimemas, Jamuna Future Park

ExhibitionAlo Adharir GolpoTime: 3pm – 8pmDrik Gallery, House 58, Road 15A (New)

TheatrePonchonari Akhyan, By Dhaka TheatreTime: 7pm – 9pmExperimental Theatre Hall

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Friday, September 19, 201412

Lux-Channel i SuperstarChannel i , 9:35pm

Beauty pageant Lux-Channel i Su-perstar’s today’s episode features an array of duet dance numbers by the top ten beauties with male partners.

ChhinnoNTV, 2:30pm

Tele� lm Chhinno reloves around a village girl played by Tisha who is traumatised by a terrible past. She is rescued in a remote place by two friends Khabir and Chunnu. Khabir falls in love with the girl and Chunni cannot stand the fact.

The Incredible HulkStar Movies, 3:30pm

Haunted by the possibility of turn-ing into The Incredible Hulk and hurting the love of his life, Betty Ross, scientist Bruce Banner iso-lates himself in Mexico with the hope of � nding a cure.

The Italian JobZee Studio, 12:50pm

Charlie is a mastermind thief and the gold bullion heist at a palace in Venice is a job executed to per-fection. Steve, Lyle, Rob, Left-Ear, and John are with Charlie to exe-cute the plan.

British-Bangladeshi dancer Akram Khan poses during a rehearsal of his solo ‘Desh’ (Homeland) at the Shilpakala Academy in Segunbagicha, Dhaka on Wednesday. Citing ‘unavoidable circumstances,’ the organisers shifted yesterday’s show to September 20, whereas the schedule of the September 19 show remains unchanged KHAN HASAN MUHAMMAD RAFI

JACQUELINE FERNANDEZ bags a Hollywood thriller

n Entertainment Desk

James Bond’s 24th big-screen adventure is about to get o� the ground. Variety reports that the next Bond movie will begin shooting on December 6, beginning with a table read at Pine-wood Studios in London.

The returning cast includes Daniel Craig, who has been playing 007 for eight years now; Ralph Fiennes, who has tak-en over the role of M from Judi Dench; Naomie Harris as � eld agent-turned-secretary Eve Moneypenny; Rory Kinnear as MI6 chief of sta� Bill Tanner; and Ben Wishaw as Q, the agen-cy’s weapon- and gadget-guru. Sam Mendes, who helmed the previous Bond � lm, 2012’s Skyfall, will make a welcome re-turn to the director’s chair. The � lm is now reportedly on track for its projected release date of November 6, 2015.

All other details of Bond 24 are being kept under wraps, but dedicated Bond news website MI6 has been rounding up stray bits of gossip, casting, and production reports. As for the inevi-table “Bond girls,” the producers have reportedly screen tested multiple Scandinavian actresses, including Norwegian star Syn-nove Macody Lund and Swedish dancer Isabel Edvardsson. MI6 reports that the production team has also scouted locations in Rome, the Austrian Alps, Morocco, and possibly India. l

NEWJAMES BONDMOVIE GETSA STARTDATE

Radio Foortiapp launchedn Entertainment Desk

Popular radio station Radio Foorti has launched the “Foorti App” which will enable listen-ers to tune in to Radio Foorti, live, from anywhere, at any-time with a single touch on a tab or a smart phone.

The app was launched through a press conference held yesterday. During the launch, a Radio Foorti o� cial, present at the conference, said: “The app opens the door to a world of possibilities for show-casing Bangladeshi brands and products to the global audi-ence.”

The new app will make Ra-dio Foorti available for audi-ences all across the world. The freeware is available on both iStore and Google Play. l

n Khan Hasan Muhammad Rafi

The students of the 24th batch of Abdullah Al Mamun Theatre School staged “Tempest” - a Bangladeshi version of Shakespeare’s classic - at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Wednesday evening. Directed by Dr Irin Parvin Lopa and translated by Syed Shamsul Haque, the play was thoroughly enjoyed by a houseful audience who en-joyed brilliant dialogues and vivacious costumes and set designing enriched with e� ective lighting.

The play has been adapted keeping in mind the context of our society and infused with the tradition-al elements of Bangladeshi performing arts – music, dance, drama, narration, and dialogues. The creative use of folk motifs and traditional musical instru-ments in the set design makes the play a unique one for the audience. l

KHAN HASAN MUHAMMAD RAFI

Rekha to imitate Amitabh Bachchanin Super Nanin Entertainment Desk

“Super Nani” being Rekha’s come-back � lm is all set to release this Di-wali. However, the actress has a lot in mind when it comes to this � lm. Not only will she portray the role of a grandmother like her stint in “Krrish” but she is coming up with a drastic trans-formation of this c o n v e n t i o n a l “nani” moving beyond the con-� nes of quint-essential Indian grandmothers.

And Amitabh Bachchan too is a part of the plot. Not quite liter-ally though! Ap-parently the plot of “Super Nani” will see Sharman Joshi, who plays Rekha’s grand-son, encourages her to break away from unneces-sary norms and his Super Nani soon turns into a commercialmodel.

Hence, when she gets an o� er in an ad commercial, she is asked to ape the mannerisms of legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan which the actress obliges to do. Talking

about it, director Indra Kumar even stated that this commercial which apparently is shot for a prestigious brand in the � lm is very hilarious.

Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha haven’t been seen sharing screen

space since the 80s post the Yash Chopra directorial “Silsila.” Though there were speculations about them acting together in the Anees Bazmee directorial “Welcome Back,” the deal did not get through. l

Tempest wows audience

13DHAKA TRIBUNEFriday, September 19, 2014

Sport 1414 Ronaldinho misses penalty on Mexican debut

Boateng late screamer stun City, Chelsea held

15 Chaina’s Grand Slam winner Li Na set to retire

Did you know?Between 04-05 & 13-14 English sides in the

Champions League lost just two opening group games in total,

as many as there have been this week

Top seed Ali Dewani and Christopher Eala (top) celebrate their victory in the doubles semi� nal of the Asian 14 Under Tennis at NTC yesterday MUMIT M

Uzbekistan get the better of Bangladeshn Shishir Hoque

Three early goals con-ceded in the open-ing half proved to be their undoing as the Bangladesh Under-23 football side were outplayed by tourna-ment favourites Uz-

bekistan 3-0 in both the teams’ second Group B match in the 17th Asian Games at the Ansan Wa-Stadium in Incheon, South Korea yesterday.

Vokhid Shodiev netted a brace - in the 13th and 20th minutes - while Sar-dor Rasidov added another for Uzbeki-stan to hand the Red and Green their � rst defeat in the event.

Following a morale-boosting victo-ry against Afghanistan in the opening game, Bangladesh were unable to sus-tain their momentum against a top-seed Uzbekistan side as they replicated the identical result against the same opponents four years ago in the last edi-tion of the Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Ranked third in Asia, Uzbekistan exhibited a solid performance on the pitch and showed why they are tipped as one of the competition’s favourites to win the football title. With a neat passing display, they rarely let the Ban-gladesh players get control of the ball.

Bangladesh, however, started to ini-

tiate plays themselves after shipping three goals in the � rst 33 minutes. Play-ing with � ve defenders – Tapu Barman, Yeamin Munna, Rayhan Hasan, Yeasin Ahmed and Keshto Kumar – hardly helped matters in the opening half.

Star of the last match, skipper Ma-munul Islam, was not at his best while Sohel Rana and Hemanta Vincent Biswas were also outclassed by the tactics, strength and skill of the Uzbekistan side.

It took the Uzbeks 13 minutes to break the deadlock through Vokhid. A free-kick by Iskanderov Jamshid hit the far post and Vokhid was there to tap the ball into the net.

Vokhid doubled the lead just seven minutes later. From close rangem, the Uzbekistan forward headed home a cross from the right-� ank. Sardor net-ted Uzbekistan’s third goal in the 33rd minute. Iskanderov was the architect of the goal again with a free-kick which found Sardor inside the penalty area. Sardor sent the ball past Bangladesh keeper Russel Mahmud Liton.

Bangladesh had their � rst shot on tar-get in the 41st minute although Vincent’s sudden strike from 25 yards did not trou-ble Uzbek keeper Suyunov Eldorbek.

Bangladesh put up a better defen-sive display in the second half. Mukti-joddha keeper Liton produced a couple of saves to rescue Bangladesh from further peril, including one at the hour mark when Liton made a superb save to deny Musayev’s lovely e� ort.

Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif used only one sub-stitute when winger Zahid Hossain re-placed Toklis Ahmed in the 83rd minute.

Uzbekistan now top Group B with four points. Hong Kong, who beat Af-ghanistan 2-1 in the other group match, are in second position with the same number of points. Bangladesh now have to beat Hong Kong in their last group match on September 22 to prog-ress to the second round. l

Focus now shifts from Mahmudullah to Nasirn Mazhar Uddin

The Bangladesh cricket team have been struggling in all formats of the game this year and some cricketers have rightly been under the microscope due to several below-par performances. However, the struggling cricketers con-tinue to play in the national side owing to reasons that are unknown to just about everyone.

Skipper Mush� qur Rahim’s favour-ite all-rounder, Mahmudullah, used to be perhaps one of the most unpopular cricketers of the side as his form was highly contrasting. Mahmudullah was best known for often making a ‘safe’ score, a tally which was enough to se-cure his place in the side but proved to be inconsequential to Bangladesh’s

cause more often than not. Prior to the commencement of the

just-concluded two-match Test series against the West Indies, the 28-year old all-rounder’s fortunes showed no signs of improvement. In his last four ODI outings, Mahmudullah scored 27, nought, 11 and nought while as a bowl-er he picked up three wickets.

Another highly talented cricketer of the side, meanwhile, was also going through a tough phase in his career. Known as the Mr Consistent for the Tigers not so long ago, Nasir Hossain racked up disappointing knocks of 26, six, 26 and � ve in his last four one-day internationals. The low run of scores started to raise questions over his com-mitment and ability to justify his place in the playing eleven.

However, since the conclusion of the Test series against the Windies, the focus seemed to have shifted from Mah-mudullah to Nasir. The former gave a good reply to his critics as he smashed a brilliant 66 o� 151 balls in the second innings of the � rst Test. More important-ly, his 130-run partnership with Mush� q guided Bangladesh to avoid the igno-miny of another innings defeat as the match entered into its � fth and � nal day.

Mahmudullah’s patient knock was highly praised in many quarters. He followed it up with another mature 53-run knock in the � rst innings of the second Test. The feature of that knock was that it helped to stave o� another batting collapse as the right-handed batsman managed to graft from one end scoring valuable runs for his side.

Even though Bangladesh lost the Test series in a shameful manner, going down to a 10-wicket defeat in the � rst Test followed by a 296-run thrashing in the second Test, Mahmudullah is one of the few positives to have emerged for the visitors.

The brother-in-law of Mush� q, Mahmudullah provided the perfect riposte to his critics and proved his worth in the Bangladesh team, at least for the next few matches.

Nasir, on the other hand, was not able to turn around his recent run of poor performances and kept display-ing his inability while facing the faster bowlers. Add to that horrible shot se-lections in impromptu situations, the 22-year old is currently encountering a barrage of anger and criticisms from

the fans and media.Nasir scored two, 19, one and two in

his last four Test innings and the way he was dismissed on each occasion raised doubts over his commitment towards the game. Consequently, the focus, which was previously on Mah-mudullah, has suddenly shifted to-wards Nasir, who at times was also known Mr Finisher.

The time has come for the selectors to think about a replacement for the under-performing Nasir. Cricketers like Naeem Islam and Sabbir Rahman, who have received lesser opportunities than Nasir, now deserve a run in the national side. At a time when Nasir is desperately struggling for runs, a temporary absence for the talented cricketer from the na-tional side will do him a world of good. l

Bravo � ned over Tamim spatn Mazhar Uddin

West Indies’ Darren Bravo was � ned 30 percent of his match fee after found guilty in a verbal clash with Bangla-desh’s Tamim Iqbal during the fourth day of their second Test match at Gros Islet. Bravo was found guilty of a Lev-el 1 breach of the International Cricket Council code of conduct.

During the match, Bravo was warned on several occasions not to approach and verbally o� end Tamim but the West Indian batsman repeatedly failed and did not pay

attention to the on � eld umpire’s instructions.

It was learnt that during the fourth day when Tamim was batting Bravo, who was at the slips, walked across to the left hander and said, “Why don’t you pay the cricketer’s money”, indicating the West Indian cricketers who took part in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) to clear their pending salaries.

Tamim also replied back and said, “Don’t come to our country and beg for money,” as the umpire later came to stop the conversation.

Bravo disputed the o� ence and a formal hearing was then conducted by ICC Match Referee. The on-� eld umpires Stephen Davis, Richard Illing-worth, third umpire Marais Erasmus and fourth umpire Peter Nero initially brought the charges against the West Indian batsman and later match referee Roshan Mahanama issued a � ne of 30 per cent of his match fee.

Tamim scored 62 o� 181 balls before he was dismissed by left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn as the dashing opener also had some words exchanged with the tall spinner. l

Beach Football begins tomorrown Raihan Mahmood

The Laboni Point of Cox’s Bazar sea beach will host the Walton 1st Beach Football Tournament involving eight local teams from tomorrow.

The eight teams have been divided into two groups with Malumghat Krira Sangstha, Young Men’s Club, Kotbazar Kheloar Samity and Bashkata Kheloar Samity in Group A and National Cox Krira Sangha, Abahani Krira Chakra, Football Club Maheshkhali and Shata-dal Club Ramu making up Group B.

The duration of each game in the � ve-a-side tournament will be half an hour. The eventual champions will receive Tk20,000 while the run-ners-up side will be awarded a purse of Tk15,000.

In a press conference held at the National Sports Council (NSC) yesterday, Cox’s Bazar District Sports Association general secretary Professor Jashimuddin hoped the tournament

will add glamour to the world’s largest sea beach.

NSC secretary Shibnath Roy said the tournament will promote the beauty of

Cox’s Bazar. Walton additional direc-tor FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn was also present on the occasion. The event will conclude on September 25. l

Dewani, Eala race to � nalsn Raihan Mahmood

Top seed Ali Dewani of Bahrain cruised into the � nal beating Mohammad Is-tiak of Bangladesh 6-1, 6-2 in the � rst semi� nal of the Bengal Group Asian 14 Under Tennis at the National Tennis Complex yesterday.

Dewani will face his doubles part-ner Michael Francis Eala of Phillipines in the � nal of the singles who strolled past Shadheen Hasan of Bangladesh in the second semi� nal 6-0, 6-0. The � nal will be held at 9am today.

After completing their singles for-malities Ali Dewani and Eala teamed up in the doubles semi� nal and beat Anurag Agarwal and Anik Ghosh of India 6-2, 6-2. The top seeded doubles pair will � ght for the title against Mo-hammad Reday Hasan and Shaiket Shahrier of Bangladesh. Reday and Shaikat defeated Ranjit Sarkar and Mo-hammad Shakib of Bangladesh 6-2, 6-1 in the second semi� nal. l

Uzbekistan 3- 0 Bangladesh Vokhid 14, 21, Sardor 34

68 Ball Possession 32 25 Shots 2 8 Shots on Goal 1 5 Fouls 14 3 Corner Kicks 0 7 Free Kicks 2 1 O� sides 3 0 Yellow Cards 1

MATCH STATS

BD face Japan in Asiad hockey opener n Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh hockey team will begin their Asian Games pool A campaign against Ja-pan at Incheon, Korea tomorrow at 10am Bangladesh time. Bangladesh’s next op-ponent are Malaysia on September 21 and after a day’s rest their third match is against Singapore on September 23 at the same venue at 12pm. The last pool match of Bangladesh against Korea will be held on September 27 at 4pm. l

Pakistani cricket player Shahid Afridi (R) takes a sel� e with teammates with the ICC World Cup 2015 trophy during a ceremony in Karachi on Wednesday AFP

(L-R) Prof Jashimuddin, FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn and Shibnath Roy in the press meet of the Walton Beach Football yesterday COURTESY

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport Friday, September 19, 2014

Bayern’s Jerome Boateng (L) celebrates with head coach Pep Guardiola after he scored the only goal during their UCL match against Man City at Allianz Arena on Wednesday AP

Boateng late screamer stuns City, Chelsea heldPique gives Barca edgy victory as Roma, Porto win bign AFP, Paris

Jerome Boateng’s late goal and a sec-ond-half equaliser from Klaas-Jan Hunt-elaar on Wednesday completed a good week for German

clubs against their counterparts from England in the opening round of Cham-pions League group games.

Boateng’s � rst ever goal in the com-petition was a memorable one as it sealed a 1-0 win for Bayern Munich against his former club Manchester City in Group E, the defender unleash-ing a � erce drive to at last beat Joe Hart as the teams met in the group stage for the third time in four seasons.

Meanwhile, Huntelaar’s strike al-lowed Schalke 04 to earn a deserved 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in Group G after Cesc Fabregas had been slightly fortunate to see his � rst

goal for his club stand.Bayern and Schalke’s strong show-

ings against English opposition fol-lowed on from Borussia Dortmund’s dominant performance on Tuesday in beating Arsenal 2-0.

Elsewhere Bayern coach Pep Guar-diola’s former club Barcelona eked out a 1-0 home win over resilient Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia with Gerard Pique getting the only goal in a match prob-ably better remembered for legendary mid� elder Xavi Hernandez equalling compatriot Raul’s Champions League all-time appearance record of 142.

The side likely to be their main rivals to top Group F, Paris Saint-Germain, dropped points with a 1-1 draw away at Ajax.

PSG wasted a host of chances when they were 1-0 up -- Edinson Cavani’s 28th goal in his 50th appearance for the French champions giving them the lead -- and paid the price when Danish international Lasse Schoene levelled

with a delightful free-kick.Two other games ended in draws

- Athletic Bilbao’s � rst game at this stage in 16 years saw them hold Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 in Group H.

Former Manchester United winger Nani got on the scoresheet for Sporting Lisbon but Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will have not seen anything to fear too much from his group rivals as Slovenian champions Maribor fought back to grab a 1-1 draw.

Both AS Roma and Porto bucked the trend of low scoring games by thrash-ing CSKA Moscow and Belarus out� t BATE Borisov 5-1 and 6-0 respective-ly, with the Portuguese side’s Algerian winger Yacine Brahimi producing the scoring performance of the evening with a hat-trick.

The 24-year-old’s second was the pick of them as he collected the ball on the halfway line and ran through to slot the ball home. l

Mourinho frustrated by Costa injury n AFP, London

Jose Mourinho revealed Diego Costa is currently unable to play three games in a week after the Chelsea striker suf-fered a hamstring injury while on inter-national duty with Spain.

Costa has made a blistering start to his Chelsea career after a £32 million ($53.1 million) move from Atletico Ma-drid and his impressive haul of seven goals in four games, including a hat-trick against Swansea City on Saturday, had lifted his new team to the top of the Premier League table.

But the Brazil-born star sustained a hamstring problem during Spain’s friend-ly against France earlier this month and was forced to miss their Euro 2016 quali-� er against Macedonia as a result.

Now Mourinho says Costa’s injury means he has to be treated with ex-treme caution to avoid aggravating it and potentially losing him for a long period.

The 25-year-old was left on the bench for all but the last 18 minutes of Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Schal-ke in the Champions League, with his appearance coming too late to break down the Germans’ obdurate rear-guard action.

“Costa has a problem and he can’t play at this moment three matches in a week,” Mourinho said.

“After playing on Saturday, three days is not enough to recover. It was not to protect him for the game at Manches-ter City on Sunday. It’s because today he was not in condition to start the game.

“He came to us in the summer and he was completely � ne. He had a prob-lem with the national team, now we have the problem and we have to re-solve it as best we can.

“I don’t know how long this will be the situation. We have to manage it.

“He went to the national team in perfect condition and came back in-jured. It happened to Diego and hap-pened to players in so many other na-tional teams. I don’t need to be critical, it is just the reality.” l

Queiroz to coach Iran through to 2018 World Cup n AFP, Tehran

Portugal’s Carlos Queiroz has signed a four-year contract extension to stay on as Iran coach until the 2018 World Cup.

The 61-year-old, who guided Iran at the recent World Cup � nals in Bra-zil, said in June he was on the verge of stepping down, claiming he had the support of neither the government nor the national federation.

However, after extended negotia-tions, the former assistant to Alex Fer-guson at Manchester United, has now agreed to lead the team for another four years.

Details of the contract, which Que-iroz signed on Tuesday in Teheran, were not revealed although they were were reportedly similiar to the orginal deal.

“It is signi� cent (salary increase), but not greatly higher than the prec-edent (contract),” local media quoted Irananian federation president Ali Kaf-fashian as saying.

The initial objectives for the former Real Madrid coach are to achieve top results at the Asian Cup, which takes place in Australia in January, as well as qualifying the team for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.l

Ronaldinho misses penalty on Mexican debutn Reuters, Mexico City

Ronaldinho missed a penalty on his debut for Mexican side Queretaro who lost 1-0 at home to UANL on Wednes-day, frustrating a packed crowd who had turned out to watch the 34-year-old Brazilian.

The former World Player of the Year, clearly short of match � tness, � red his e� ort over the bar in the 61st minute, having surprisingly been kept on for the second half despite looking tired.

A full house turned out to watch the game in the Mexican Cup, known locally as the Copa MX, which features teams from the top two divisions.

Ronaldinho, a World Cup winner in 2002, signed for the White Roosters ear-lier this month, making Queretaro an unlikely stop on a career that has already taken him to Gremio, Flamengo and At-letico Mineiro in his homeland, Paris St Germain, Barcelona and AC Milan.

He was voted FIFA’s World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005, but his career has been steadily going down-hill since then, his drop in form often blamed on his partying lifestyle.

Last week, he was victim of a racist insult by a Mexican politician who re-

ferred to Ronaldinho as an “ape” after getting stuck in a tra� c jam allegedly caused by the player’s o� cial presenta-tion at the Corregidora stadium.

Queretaro demanded an “exempla-ry punishment” after Carlos Trevino, a member of the PAN party, wrote the in-sults on his Facebook page, which were later removed.

“I try to be tolerant but I detest foot-ball...even more so because the people block the avenues and it takes two hours to get home...and all to see an ape,” he wrote. “A Brazilian but still an ape.”l

Tevez back in Argentine frame n AFP, Buenos Aires

Recently-appointed Argentina coach Gerardo Martino said Wednesday he is set to hand Juventus striker Carlos Tevez an international lifeline after the former Manchester United and City star was left out of their World Cup squad.

Martino said the 30-year-old, who began his career with Boca Juniors and then Corinthians before a one-season spell with West Ham, will be in com-petition for the number nine shirt with Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain and Man-chester City marksman Sergio Aguero.

“If I have to say where I imagine Tevez in my game plan, it is only at number nine,” said the 51-year-old Mar-tino, who left Barcelona at the end of last season after just one year in charge.

“There is no other position and he will be in competition with Higuain and Aguero, and then it is the coach’s choice,” Martino told La Nacion news-paper.

Tevez, who scored 13 goals in 64 matches for Argentina between 2004 and 2011 before being frozen out, will be 34 by the time the 2018 World Cup in Russia rolls around.

He won Premier League titles with United in 2008 and 2009 as well as the Champions League in 2008 before

adding a third English title with City in 2012.

His current club Juventus won the Serie A crown last season while in 2003 he lifted the Copa Libertadores with Boca Juniors.

The Buenos Aires native is also a three-time South American player of the year (2003, 2004, 2005).

Martino took over from Alejandro Sabella who stepped down after lead-ing the two-time global champions to the 2014 World Cup � nal where they were beaten 1-0 by Germany after ex-

tra-time.“I will not be taking four number

nines to the World Cup, so for me, the decision of Sabella (not to take Tevez) was not illogical,” Martino said.

Tevez scored twice, his � rst Europe-an goals in � ve years on Tuesday, as Ju-ventus began their Champions League campaign in style with a 2-0 Group A win over Swedish club Malmo.

Martino is set to unveill his squad next week for a tour of China where Argentina will face Brazil in a prestige friendly. l

Xavi content with bit-part role in Barca n AFP, Barcelona

Barcelona mid� elder Xavi Hernandez insisted he hasn’t been frustrated by his lack of opportunities under new boss Luis Enrique after starting for the � rst time this season in a much-changed side in a 1-0 victory over APOEL Nicosia on Wednesday.

Gerard Pique’s � rst-half header was enough to hand the Catalans an uncon-vincing winning start to their Champi-ons League campaign against the Cy-priot champions.

Xavi started alongside youngsters Sergi Samper and Sergi Roberto in mid-� eld as Enrique made nine changes in all from the side that started Saturday’s 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.

“I am happy. When my turn to play comes I will try to be useful,” said the 34-year-old, who moved level with Real Madrid legend Raul for the all-time record of Champions League ap-

pearances with 142.Despite the presence of Lionel Messi

and Neymar in attack, Barca struggled to create clear-cut chances against the mass ranks of the APOEL defence and Xavi ad-mitted the lack of � uidity in the � nal third.

“We struggled. We tried to move the ball quickly and we didn’t manage to do it,” he added.

“It is true we dominated. We tried through the middle and wide, but they defended very well. In the end it was a tir-ing game, but we have won and we have to treat it like it is. It is always good to start the group stage with three points,”

The narrow victory was enough to take Barca to the top of Group F as French champions Paris Saint-Germain were held 1-1 in Amsterdam by Ajax.

Next up for Barca in Europe is a trip to Paris on September 30 and Enrique admitted that a run of six games in 18 days had been part of his reasoning for making so many changes. l

Porto’s Yacine Brahimi tries to score past BATE Borisov’s goalkeeper Sergei Chernik at Dragao stadium in Porto on Wednesday. Brahimi scores a hattrick in the match REUTERS

RESULTSBayern Munich 1-0 Man CityBoateng 90

AS Roma 5-1 CSKA Moscow Iturbe 6, Gervinho 10, 31, Musa 82Maicon 20, Ignashevich 50-og

Barcelona 1-0 APOELPique 28

Ajax 1-1 PSG Schoene 74 Cavani 14

Chelsea 1-1 Schalke 04 Fabregas 11 Huntelaar 62

Maribor 1-1 Sporting Lisbon Zahovic 90+2 Nani 80

FC Porto 6-0 BATE Borisov Brahimi 5, 32, 57, J. Martinez 37, Adrian 61, Aboubakar 76

Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Shakhtar Donetsk

Catalunya’s separatist supporters wave ‘Esteladas’ (Catalan separatist � ags) supporting Scotland’s independence during FC Barcelona’s Champions League match against Apoel Nicosia at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on Wednesday. The referendum on Scottish independence took place yesterday, when Scotland vote whether or not to end the 307-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom REUTERS

Colombia into third in Fifa rankings n AFP, PARIS

World Cup winners Germany and beat-en � nalists Argentina were joined at the top of the Fifa rankings published Thursday by Colombia.

The South Americans leapfrog the Netherlands into third place thanks to the Dutch defeat by the Czech Rep in their Euro quali� er. Brazil move up to 6th be-hind Belgium, ahead of Uruguay, Spain, France and Switzerland in the top 10. l

1. Germany2. Argentina3. Colombia (+1)4. Netherlands (-1)5. Belgium6. Brazil (+1)7. Uruguay (-1)8. Spain (-1)9. France (+1)10. Switzerland (-1)

11. Portugal12. Chile13. Italy (+1)14. Greece (-1)15. Costa Rica16. Mexico (+1)17. United States (+1)18. England (+2)19. Croatia (-3)20. Algeria (+4)

TOP 20 FIFA STANDINGS ON SEP 18

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15Friday, September 19, 2014

Four-day game likely to be shiftedThe second and � nal four-day match between hosts Bangladesh A and Zimbabwe A is likely to be shifted for a day due to the nationwide political strike called on Sunday. The game scheduled to begin from Sunday at Fatullah’s Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium (KSOAS), might be shifted to Monday. However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is yet to take a � nal decision as it was learnt that the concerned authorities will observe the situation till the last moment and only shift the match if the strike is not withdrawn. “The CEO of the board (Nizamuddin Chowdhury) has conveyed the message to the president (Nazmul Hasan). I think the board will now wait and monitor the situation and make decision, if any, at the last moment if the shutdown is not withdrawn,” informed a BCB o� cial requesting anonymity.

–Minhaz Uddin Khan

Mandzukic to have surgery on broken nose Atletico Madrid striker Mario Mandzukic will undergo surgery on his nose which was broken during the La Liga cham-pions’ 3-2 Champions League defeat by Greek side Olympiakos on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Croatian was left with a bloody nose after clashing with Patjim Kasami after just three minutes, but com-pleted the 90 minutes and even scored his third goal in six games since joining from Bayern Munich in July. Mandzukic will almost certainly miss Saturday’s La Liga encounter with Celta Vigo and could be out for as long as two weeks making him a doubt for Atletico’s now crucial second Champions League game at home to Italian side Juventus on October 1.

–AFP

Grant takes role at Thai clubFormer Chelsea manager Avram Grant has been appointed technical director at Thai Premier League club BEC Tero Sasana, who also agreed a � ve-year partnership deal with Brazilian side Cru-zeiro. The 59-year-old Israeli takes over the role once held by former England manger Sven-Goran Eriksson, who lasted only a matter of weeks in 2012 before leaving for the United Arab Emirates and then China. “I come here to help make the team become better,” Grant told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday. “I come here to create chances for the team - that’s my job.”

–Reuters

Lambert signs 4-year Aston Villa contract Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has signed a new four-year contract that will keep him at Villa Park until June 2018, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday. Lambert, 45, took over at Villa in 2012 and has guided the Midlands club to second place in the English top � ight after four games of the new season. “I’m determined that we continue building the club to where we all want it to be,” Lam-bert said in comments published on Villa’s o� cial Twitter feed. “This is a massive football club, a fantastic football club. We can look to the future with real optimism and a determination to make this season successful, and the seasons that follow.”

–AFP

India’s shooting star in visa chaseAbhinav Bindra shot his way to Olympic success, but he was not able to cut Indian red tape so that he could be ready for the Asian Games. India’s only individual Olympic champion says he has not been able to get vital rest and practice time be-fore he goes into battle in the 10 metre air ri� e event. Games organisers were unable to send accreditation cards for Bindra and other members of the Indian shooting squad because the national federation had not sent their entries on time. That ruined Bindra’s plans to � y in to Incheon directly from the world championships in Granada, Spain to prepare for what will be his � nal Asian Games appearance. Instead, Bindra was forced to go back to India for a day to secure a Korean visa, ar-riving in Incheon on Wednesday evening, two days after his preferred date.

–AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Li Na set to retiren AFP, Wuhan

China’s two-time Grand Slam-winner Li Na is poised to retire, state media reported Thursday, in a move which would bring down the curtains on Asia’s most successful tennis career.

The sports channel of state-owned CNTV cited Li’s agency, IMG, as saying the tennis star would hold a brie� ng on Sunday to announce the news but also said she might make an o� cial an-nouncement on Friday via social media.

A separate report by CCTV-5, the sports channel of state broadcaster China Central Television, quoted un-named insiders as saying Li, 32, will announce her retirement because of injuries on Friday.

“According to insiders, Li Na will o� cially announce her retirement on September 19,” CCTV-5 said on its ver-i� ed microblog.

“She is reportedly retiring because she is unable to continue competing due to her physical condition,” it said.

The broadcaster did not give any de-tails about its sources. An employee at the Beijing o� ce of IMG told AFP that Li’s manager was in a meeting and un-able to con� rm.

The world number six won the Aus-tralian Open in January but her season has been troubled by injury and she has been sidelined since late July with a knee problem.

She was ranked a career-high sec-ond in the world after January’s Grand

Slam win, but has slid down to sixth after missing a string of tournaments including the US Open. In July, Li also split with her in� uential coach Carlos Rodriguez.

She initially planned to return at the inaugural WTA Wuhan Open, in her home city, which begins Sunday.

The Beijing News reported that Wu-han Open o� cials had received a con-� rmation letter from Li dropping out of the tournament.

Organisers however told AFP no letter was received and to their knowl-edge Li was still playing. A press con-ference has been arranged for Sunday in Wuhan, AFP understands.

Li originally played badminton after being encouraged in the sport by her father who played professionally. How-ever, she switched to tennis after being convinced by her childhood coach.

She took a break in her career early on to study journalism at university only to return to tennis.

Li became a sporting pioneer in Chi-na when she decided to break from the state sports system in 2008 with a group of upcoming players, in a move dubbed by local media “� y alone”.

The move meant that Li was able to choose her own coaches and keep most of her winnings rather than give them to the government.

The aggressive baseliner has since became one of the region’s biggest stars when she won the 2011 French Open, becoming the � rst Asian national to win a Grand Slam singles title. l

‘Gangnam Style’ welcome met by ‘Pyongyang Style’ silencen AFP, Incheon

North Korea were welcomed to the Asian Games on Thursday to the strains of “Gangnam Style”, their athletes and o� cials gave a polite smile but put up a wall of stony silence in return.

North Korean athletes looked on blankly as breakdancers performed to the international hit by South Korean star Psy.

Their Singaporean, Chinese, Thai and Yemeni counterparts smiled and took pictures as dancers spun to the tune that has inspired more than two billion YouTube views. Only one North Korean woman dared the slightest handclap.

In contrast, the North Korean dele-gation belted out the words to their na-tional anthem, “Aegukga”, or Patriotic Song, as the isolated state’s � ag was hoisted in the athletes village along with those of the other new arrivals.

It was a unique occasion as normally anyone waving the North’s � ag or sing-ing “Aegukga” in South Korea could face arrest under Seoul’s strict national security law.

North Korea’s presence has been one of the main talking points ahead of the Asian Games, which o� cially open in Incheon on Friday.

Their athletes and o� cials, mobbed by journalists at the � ag-raising cere-mony, appeared to be under instruc-tion to stay tight-lipped. A couple of burly minders were on hand to fend o� persistent reporters.

Dressed in pristine white blazers and vivid blue trousers, and all wearing obligatory pin badges featuring North Korea’s dead leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the athletes responded to questions with polite smiles and total silence.

Only one o� cial broke ranks, saying when asked how the delegation felt about the event: “Just look, you can see for yourself.”

The North Koreans seemed be-mused by the whole ceremony.

The athletes were accompanied on their walk to the � ag plaza at the vil-lage by clowns on stilts and unicyles, as well someone dressed up as one of the Games mascots -- Chumoro, a cuddly pink seal. l

Hamilton and Rosberg welcome sound of radio silence n AFP, Singapore

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have welcomed the sound of radio silence for the � nal six races of their dramatic duel for the drivers’ world champion-ship.

The Mercedes team-mates, who have fought an intense and sometimes acrimonious battle this year, will no longer have unrestricted radio contact with their engineering teams, follow-ing a ban on ‘performance-related’ radio communications by the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA).

“All the fans are cheering so it looks like the right way to go,” said German Rosberg, who leads Hamilton by 22 points ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.

“In my opinion it’s de� nitely a good thing, because it’s just more pure rac-ing. Until now we did so much based on what they (engineers) told us to do on

the radio. Now it’s up to us.”Hamilton agreed. “I quite like the

idea, but in some ways it makes it hard-er, like engine strategy - how are we to know what strategy to use?”

He added that the clampdown could a� ect the intense title battle between himself and Rosberg.

“It’s going to be really important that we’re on the same strategy. Always.l

Tennis star Murray appears to back Scottish independencen AFP, London

Scottish tennis ace Andy Murray on Thursday appeared to lend his support to independence on polling day and condemned negative tactics by the “No” camp in a tweet that quickly went viral.

“Huge day for Scotland today! ‘No’ campaign negativity last few days to-tally swayed my view on it. Excited to see the outcome. Let’s do this!” read the tweet on his account @andy_murray.

The last exclamation echoes the one used by pro-independence leader Alex Salmond in a � ery � nal campaign speech in Perth on Wednesday before polls for the historic vote opened on Thursday.

“Don’t let them tell us we can’t. Let’s do this now,” Salmond said.

Murray’s message was re-tweeted more than 11,000 times, including by Salmond himself, and became a top story on British media sites.

Glasgow-born Murray, 27, who is Britain’s number one tennis player and won Wimbledon last year, does not live in Scotland and therefore cannot vote himself. He divides his time between London and the United States.

Currently number 12 in the glob-al rankings, Murray was beaten in the quarter-� nals of the US Open earlier this month by world number one No-vak Djokovic.

Murray stirred controversy in 2006 when he responded “anyone but En-gland” when asked who he would sup-port in the World Cup, and has avoided making his views known on indepen-dence.

Last month he told reporters in the United States: “If Scotland became in-dependent, then I imagine I would be playing for Scotland.”

His brother, Jamie Murray, also a professional tennis player, was more ex-plicit about his support for a “Yes” vote.

“Love UK... Love the Royals... but it’s time for Scotland to stand on its own 2 feet and control their own desti-ny,” he tweeted.l

Miandad says Ajmal not essential to WC hopes n AFP, Karachi

Batting legend Javed Miandad said Thursday Pakistan could still win next year’s World Cup even if star spinner Saeed Ajmal remained suspended due to a chucking ban.

Ajmal, the world’s leading one-day bowler, was suspended last week after tests found his action vastly exceeded the permitted 15 degrees of straightening.

The ban has dented Pakistan’s hopes of adding to its solitary World Cup win when the tournament is held in Austra-lia and New Zealand next February to March.

“We have won the title and that’s history so we can win the title again if

our players play to their potential,” said Miandad, who is regarded as the best batsman Pakistan has produced and played a vital role in their last World Cup triumph 22 years ago in Australia.

He stressed that the team was not all about Ajmal, who is ranked the world’s best one day bowler by the Internation-al Cricket Council (ICC).

“We should not depend on one play-er,” he said of the o� spinner. “Don’t think of a player who is not there, and others should ful� l their responsibilities.”

After undertaking remedial work, Ajmal can apply to the ICC for anoth-er reassessment of his action and if cleared he can resume bowling at inter-national level.l

London favourite to host Euro 2020n AFP, Geneva

The long wait to � nd out who will host the 2020 European Championship - the � rst time the event will be held in 13 countries simultaneously - ends on Fri-day when UEFA meet in Geneva, Swit-zerland.

European football’s governing body will have to pick from 19 candidates, stretching from Israel and Spain to Azerbaijan and Wales.

But London’s Wembley already looks the odds-on favourite to host the semi-� nals and � nal, after German o� -cials hinted they might leave the 2020 event to England and focus on a bid to host Euro 2024 instead.

For the 60th anniversary of the Euro-pean Championship, � rst held in 1960, UEFA decided to organise the tourna-ment across the whole continent.

This will be “the biggest celebration of European football ever,” the organi-sation has already promised.

In the past, a single country - or at the most two, like Austria and Switzer-land in 2008, or Poland and Ukraine in 2012 - hosted the � nals.

The 2020 experiment, the brainchild of UEFA president Michel Platini, will be a one-o� event however, with the 2024 tournament returning to the sin-gle-host format.

Only Munich and London are candi-dates to host the � nal and semi-� nals six years from now.

But German football chiefs have al-ready hinted they might leave the path free for their rivals if, in return, England backs their bid to host the Euro 2024.

“We discussed with them about their not bidding for Euro 2024 and supporting our bid,” German Football Federation (DFB) general secretary Helmut Sandrock recently told Sport Bild magazine.

“We would in return not bid for the � nals package of 2020 and support En-gland in a bid for Euro 2028.” l

North Korean team members attend a welcome ceremony as a mascot (R) greets them at the athletes village of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon yesterday AFP

Turned pro 1999Prize money US$ 16,709,074Career record (W-L) 503–188 (72.79%)Career titles 9 WTA, 19 ITFHighest ranking No 2 (Feb 17, 2014)Current ranking No 6 (Sep 15, 2014)

14th in all-time rankingsGrand Slam Singles resultsAustralian Open Winner (2014)French Open Winner (2011)Wimbledon QF (2006, ‘10, ‘13)US Open SF (2013)

SINGLES CAREER

Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg of Germany (L) and Lewis Hamilton of Britain pose with fans at the pit area of the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix yesterday AFP

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

Delhi assurance to be sought over anti-Bangladesh activitiesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh will seek an assurance from India that its soil will not be used against its next-door neighbour, when the foreign minister meets the Indian leadership during his visit to New Delhi.

“Of course India will have to assure us that its soil will not be used against Bangladesh and Dhaka will ask for it,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press brie� ng at Hazrat Shahjalal In-ternational Airport yesterday before his departure for New Delhi to attend the foreign minister level meeting to be held tomorrow.

When asked for details, the minis-ter said: “Let me go to India and talk with them. When I return, I will let you know the outcome.”

The Joint Consultative Commission meeting is scheduled to take place against the backdrop of the Saradha scam which unearthed that an Indian politician had funded the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to create unrest in Bangladesh.

India’s Home Minister Rajnath Sin-gh had recently said the allegation that Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Ahmed Hassan Imran had used Saradha Group funds to destabilise Bangladesh was under investigation.

Saradha Group had extended con-siderable � nancial assistance to Ja-maat-e-Islami to help the party create unrest in Bangladesh after the Hasina government began trying its top lead-ers for war crimes. Imran was accused of playing the key role in sending mon-ey to Jamaat.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the last cabinet meeting asked the o� cials concerned to keep a close watch on the Saradha Group’s � nancial scam.

The prime minister and the lead-ership time and again unequivocally said Bangladeshi soil would not used against any country and the govern-ment addressed the security concern of India.

The Indian leadership also on many occasions publicly praised Dhaka’s ef-forts and expressed their gratitude to-wards Bangladesh for addressing their concern.

Joint Consultative CommissionFor the � rst time, Bangladesh is send-ing a high-powered delegation com-prising seven secretaries and other government o� cials for foreign minis-ter level talks.

“We hope that through this visit, the relationship between the government and the new leadership in India will be strengthened,” the foreign minister said.

He was accompanied by principal secretary, foreign secretary, commerce secretary, ERD secretary, power sec-retary, water resources secretary and shipping secretary.

“This meeting is signi� cant as it is going to take place within four months after forming a new government in In-dia,” Mahmood said.

Narendra Modi-led BJP formed gov-ernment in May.

Unresolved issues, including Teesta water sharing agreement and rati� ca-tion of land boundary agreement, se-curity cooperation and border killings, power and energy cooperation, trade and development cooperation, region-al and subregional cooperation, water resources cooperation and other issues will be discussed at the meeting.

“During the visit, Bangladesh will narrate the sense of urgency to resolve the Teesta agreement and LBA issues and bring down the border killings to zero,” the minister said. “We will raise issues related to fair water sharing of the common rivers and holding the next Joint River Commission meeting.”

Bangladesh and India were sched-uled to sign the Teesta water sharing agreement in 2011 when former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vis-ited Dhaka, but it was not signed due to strong opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The land boundary agreement was signed by both countries in 1974 and Dhaka rati� ed it the same year, but In-dia is yet to do so. The Indian govern-ment placed a bill to amend the consti-tution to pave way for the rati� cation of the LBA.

Dhaka will also hand over a list of trade barriers hampering Bangladesh’s exports to India.

The government will also hand over a list of products which face di� culties in getting Indian certi� cate to enter the country, the minister said.

Both countries emphasised on re-gional cooperation and in the JCC meeting they would discuss various aspects of cooperation under SAARC, BIMSTEC and BCIM-EC.

The foreign minister will pay cour-tesy call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and meet other Indian o� -cials during the visit. l

People react to Sayedee’s verdict on Facebookn Rafe Sadnan Adel

People from di� erent professions chose social networking sites to express their reactions to the � nal verdict in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee.

The Appellate Division yesterday sentenced Sayedee to imprisonment unto death for crimes against human-ity he had committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

Soon after the verdict was pro-

nounced, people’s opinions on it ap-peared on Facebook and other social media.

Shawan Mahmud, daughter of Altaf Mahmud, wrote on Facebook: “Was it then wrong to call for the trial of war criminals? Was it then wrong to call on people not to vote for the war crimi-nals? Was it then wrong to expose the real face of the war criminals to the people? To date, I could give the young-er generation nothing except the sense of helplessness in Bangladesh where

confusion reigns. This is an unpardon-able o� ence and I am ashamed.”

University student Sarwar Hossain Bubul wrote: “I chanted slogans at Shahbagh ‘ You are Razakar, You are Razakar’ [targeting the well-known war criminals]. Now I feel like I should go there and shout ‘I am Razakar, I am Razakar.’”

Noted � lm director Nurul Alam Atique wrote: “The necessity of hav-ing another War of Independence will emerge when the country will descend

into a mess as a result of fraud and cheat committed by those in favour of the Liberation War. The de� nition of free-dom � ghters will change at the time.”

Gonojagoron Moncho activist Rony, who recently moved to the US, wrote: “I want to have myself hanged.”

Noted documentary � lmmaker Kawsar Chowdhury wrote: “I know politics is very complex and does not follow a very straight line but the turn politics took today has made our ances-tors turn in their graves.” l

Call termination rate slashed without date of e� ectn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Following much controversy, the coun-try’s international call termination rate and the government’s revenue share have been slashed for a test period of six months; but confusion has arisen over which date the new rates should take e� ect.

The uncertainty resulted as the tel-ecom regulators issued a letter yester-day to authorities concerned in this regard without mentioning the date for implementation while the telecom minister reportedly asked his o� ce for a retrospective e� ect of the slashed rates from July 1 this year – allegedly for political purposes.

In its letter, the Bangladesh Tele-communications Regulatory Commis-sion (BTRC) lowered the international call termination charge to ¢1.5 from ¢3 for the IGW operators. The directive also slashed the government’s revenue

share from 51.75% to 40%.The BTRC directive, however, in-

creased the revenue sharing of the IGW operators to 20% from 13.25%, as well as the revenue sharing of the intercon-nection exchange operators to 17.50% from previous 15% and access network service operators to 22.5% to previous 20%.

The BTRC directive said the new rates and revenue sharing would be in operation temporarily for six months, but did not specify from which date the six month time-frame would be calcu-lated.

On August 28, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the termination rate cut, saying: “It will be e� ective from its date of issue.”

But Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique verbally requested the ministry’s Secretary Md Faizur Raha-man Chowdhury to make sure that the

decision would take e� ect from July 1.However, the secretary did not

comply with the request and sent the prime minister’s directive to the BTRC on Wednesday. The telecom regulator uploaded the reassessment of the rate and revenue sharing on its website yes-terday.

Secretary Faizur left the country yesterday to attend an international seminar.

Soon after the BTRC uploaded its letter, Latif Siddique reportedly sent a separate letter to the acting secretary Mohammed Mahfuzur Rahaman, who is an additional secretary of the minis-try, asking him to make sure to give a retrospective e� ect of the prime minis-ter’s directive.

A source in the ministry said the minister – in his letter – claimed that as a political leader, he had the responsi-bility to secure the interest of his par-ty leaders and party well-wishers who

were engaged with the international call termination business.

After receiving the minister’s let-ter, ministry o� cials sat in a meet-ing to discuss the issue; however, the outcome of the meeting could not be known immediately.

“How can we change the directive of the prime minister? It [the decision] is also related to hundreds of crores of taka,” a senior o� cial said requesting anonymity.

Earlier, the BTRC had twice pre-pared proposals on slashing the rates; but both times, the Finance Ministry sent back the proposals for review, ar-guing that if they were approved, the government would lose a huge sum of revenue.

The BTRC then sent the proposal to the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO) through Telecommunication Ministry, where it received the consent of the prime minister. l

Govt allows export of 50,000 tonnes rice to Sri Lanka n Asif Showkat Kallol

For the � rst time, the government has given the Food Ministry special per-mission to export 50,000 tonnes of coarse rice to Sri Lanka.

The government would allow the export on a test basis, while a ban on export of non-fragrant rice will remain in force until June 2015.

After a meeting of the cabinet com-mittee on economic a� airs, Finance Min-ister AMA Muhith disclosed the decision.

“We have taken it as a test case at the request of the Sri Lankan govern-ment because Sri Lanka is our friendly country,” he said.

“We have enough stock of rice which now stands at 11 lakh tonnes. There is no crisis of rice in the country,” he added.

The price of coarse rice had not been � xed yet, Muhith said, adding that a Sri

Lankan team would come to Bangla-desh and discuss the price of rice.

Muhith pointed out that the Sri Lan-kan government was not sitting idle as it was now trying to import rice from di� erent countries at cheap rate.

While giving an explanation for rice export as Bangladesh imported six lakh tonnes of rice in last six months, the minister said the government would export rice if the stock of rice was high-er than local demand. “Food in� ation is stable now.”

He added: “We have taken liberal steps according to the global free mar-ket economic policy.”

Joint Secretary of Cabinet Division Musta� zur Rahman said in case of coarse rice export, the government re-laxed the ban on export of non-fragrant rice which remains in force until June 2015. l

The Qulkhani of Suraiya (Daisy) Morshed, wife of former Foreign Secretary Barris-ter Ali Kaiser Hasan Morshed will be held at 4:30pm today, at her residence, House 9, Road 66 of Gulshan in the capital.

Her children Waleed, Lamiya and Fazeela request family, friends and well-wishers to attend the dua mah� l and pray for the departed soul.

Suraiya Morshed, daughter of Late Sayeedur Rahman of Jalpaiguri and Late Salma Rahman, passed away on Sunday, September 14. l

SURAIYA MORSHED’S QULKHWANI

Rana Plaza cases: Charge sheet likely in early Novembern Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Criminal Investigation Department is likely to submit within November 9 two separate charge sheets in the cases � led over the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar as per a court order.

According to the progress reports, the investigators have found a total of 59 people, including the building own-er, responsible for the country’s worst industrial disaster.

In the case � led under the Penal Code, the CID has made 42 people including 13 government o� cials ac-cused. In the other case lodged for breaching building codes, there are 17 names as accused including seven pub-lic servants.

Additional public prosecutor of Dha-ka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Anwarul Kabir Babul told the Dhaka tribune: “The CID placed two progress reports before the court today [yesterday]. The court has asked the CID to submit the charge sheets in the cases within November 6.”

Following a plea of the CID, the court also directed the ministries con-cerned to give clearance order about the government o� cials accused in the cases, he added.

In Savar, Rana Plaza that housed � ve garment factories, a shopping complex and a branch of a private bank collapsed on April 24 last year killing at least 1,135

people and injuring over 2,500.Cracks had been detected on the

building the previous day which had prompted all but the RMG factories to suspend work. Building owner Sohel Rana and factory owners and o� cials allegedly forced workers to join work on that fateful day, saying the cracks had not been dangerous.

In the case � led under the Penal Code, the investigators have collected statements of 952 witnesses and vic-tims of the incident. According to the progress report on the other case, the CID collected statements of 165 people.

The progress reports say the investi-gators have nearly � nalised the charge sheets after analysing di� erent reports, samples and information.

They also sent letters to the relevant ministries, seeking approval to name the 20 government o� cials in the charge sheets. Of them, the CID has got approval letters for 12 o� cials while the others are still pending.

Assistant Superintendent Bijoy Kr-ishna Kar, who is leading the inves-tigation, said they would submit the charge sheets after getting approval of the government.

Sources linked to investigation say the building owner, factory owners, and some o� cials and engineers of Savar municipality and the Department of In-spection of Factories and Establishment

(DIFE) have been found to be responsi-ble for the collapse and the loss of lives.

The then executive engineer, assis-tant engineer, sub-assistant engineer and town planner of Savar municipal-ity have been found responsible for giving clearance to the construction of Rana Plaza and allowing garment facto-ries without conducting any feasibility study.

The DIFE o� cials have been ac-cused for issuing the licence for using the commercial building for industrial purposes without even inspecting it and examining necessary construction features.

The o� cials are accused of negli-gence and violating the Bangladesh National Building Code, for which the highest punishment is seven years’ imprisonment. So far, 22 people have been arrested in connection with the three cases � led over the Rana Plaza tragedy. Of them, 14 including Rana’s father Abdul Khalek are now on bail.

Rajuk o� cial Helal Uddin � led a case for structural faults found in Rana Plaza and constructing the building with substandard materials and violat-ing building codes. Another case was � led by Sub-Inspector Wali Ashraf of Savar police station for the loss of lives.

The last case was � led by Sheuli Ak-ter, wife of Jahangir Alam whose body was recovered from the debris. l

JaPa’s Tajul gets watchdog chairmanshipn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Opposition member of parliament Ta-jul Islam Chowdhury, caught in the JaPa leadership’s bitter in-� ghting and removed from the party presidium, has been made the chairman of a par-liamentary standing committee by the ruling Awami League.

Opposition chief whip Tajul’s dis-missal from the presidium by JaPa chairman HM Ershad for siding with opposition leader Rawshan Ershad, led to a public near-scu� e with a JaPa col-league in the lobby of parliament.

Tajul then reportedly complained to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, about his removal from the party’s highest policy making council.

The assembly yesterday named Ta-jul Islam Chowdhury chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce Ministry in place of AL MP Professor Ali Ashraf who reportedly had unfriendly relations with the commerce minister Tofail Ahmed. The outgoing chairman, Professor Ali Ashraf, was re-duced to a member of the 10-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry.

During the 9th parliament, for the � rst time in Bangladesh history, oppo-sition MPs and members representing other parties were made chairmen of parliamentary watchdog bodies. l

Finding no job during the Jamaat-enforced hartal yesterday, a push cart driver lies asleep on his vehicle. The photo was taken from capital’s Kaptan Bazar area SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

B3 ECB outlines new plan that will give more voting power to bigger states

B4 Japan’s frail business mood, exports show economy straining under tax hike

‘Other state banks should also slash high-up pays’ n Asif Showkat Kallol

Like as BASIC Bank, other state-owned banks, especially Sonali Bank should also decide to slash sal-aries of their top o� cials to ease � -nancial trouble in the scam-hit sec-tor, said a high government o� cial.

“BASIC decided to take away some part of high management’s

salaries. We hope other state-run banks, especially Sonali Bank will also do the same,” M Aslam Alam, Secretary to Bank and Financial In-stitutions Division, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said the monthly salary of Sonali Bank MD Pradip Kumar Dutta is Tk4 lakh while previous MD Md Humayun Kabir would

receive Tk8 lakh. In support of his suggestion,

the secretary cited the salary cuts of CEOs of � nancial institutions in the United States during 2008 global recession.

BASIC Bank management de-cided to forfeit some portions of their salaries as the bank faced � -nancial crisis.

Recently, Bangladesh Bank re-minded Sonali Bank of paying oth-er banks’ bills it accepted in favour of Hall-Mark Group.

Hall-Mark took Tk2,686 crore from the Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla branch in Dhaka during 2010-12 period through anomalies.

Of the amount, more than Tk1,200 crore was non-funded

loans against the bills it consented to pay in future.

The bank delayed the payments as it waited for the ACC probe out-come. The anti-graft body later declined to investigate the bank’s non-funded loans.

Sonali Bank was involved with an astounding Tk3,500 crore loan forgeries with Hall-Mark Group. l

Bangladesh 20th in Asian economies, 129th globallyLow-quality human capital, iadequate infrastructure, lack of formal FIs are bottlenecks n Kayes Sohel

Bangladesh ranked 20th out of 22 Asian economies in making innova-tions, showing poor-quality in human capital, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of formal � nancial institutions, says a new study.

It also highlighted that Bangladesh has a small pool of skilled labour with highly skilled Bangladeshis often leaving to take up work overseas due partly to the result of the low quality education provided by the country’s state-run schools.

The report on Asian Development Bank’s Creative Productivity Index (CPI) released recently presented the re-sults and analysis of how 22 Asian econ-omies along with the United States and Finland fared in the Index developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Besides, Bangladesh ranked 129th out of 143 countries in Global Innova-tion Index 204 carried out by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World In-tellectual Property Organization.

Japan ranked at the top of the index among Asia-Paci� c economies, fol-lowed by South Korea and Taiwan.

In the ADB’s CPI, India ranked 15th and Pakistan 23rd among the Asian economies.

CPI measures the innovation ef-� ciency—how pro� cient economies are at the turning innovation “inputs”

such as skills or infrastructure into in-novation “outputs” such as patents or scienti� c publications.

“As countries seek to innovate to avoid middle-income traps, all govern-ments—especially those with limited resources—need to be sure that their investments boost both e� ciency and productivity, bene� ting their econo-mies and people, and move to a knowl-edge-based economy,” Bindu N Lohani,

Vice-President for Knowledge Manage-ment and Sustainable Development at ADB, said in a statement.

For outputs, Bangladesh is ranked 21st, owing particularly to a low perfor-mance on macro outputs, according to the report. It said although Bangladesh is close to the back of the pack in terms of � rm dynamics, this is still the coun-try’s highest-scoring macro indicator.

It has a negative ratio for net mi-

grant in� ow or out� ow, showing that more people are leaving the country than are moving there.

However, labour turnover is rela-tively � uid in Bangladesh, character-ised by relatively lax regulation and the absence of large trade unions.

In the area of competition, the free-dom to compete in Bangladesh is on a par with that of Japan, Taipei and Chi-na, according to it.

It said several companies in Bangla-desh complain about the lack of skilled technical and professional personnel in the local workforce, and many tend to look elsewhere to recruit high-qual-ity employees.

The country also su� ers from inade-quate infrastructure particularly a lack of energy supplies and a poor road network.

Under its long-term Digital Bangla-desh initiative, the government aims to boost growth in information and com-munications technology (ICT) services and improve Internet connectivity, but more needs to be done to increase the pool of skilled technical labour if this outcome is to be achieved.

The report suggested that Bangla-desh is in need of better � nancial insti-tutions, at a ranking of 22nd out of 24 economies, to improve its productivity.

The banking sector remains opaque and is characterised by poor asset quality. l

China and Sri Lanka launch FTA talksn Beijing

China and Sri Lanka have begun nego-tiating a deal that would see favorable policies for trade between the coun-tries, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) told Xinhua late Wednesday.

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng and Sri Lankan Economic De-velopment Minister Basil Rajapaksa have signed a memorandum on the launch of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negoti-ations in Colombo, marking the o� cial launch of the talks, said the MOC, without saying when the document was signed.

In the memorandum, the two sides have con� rmed that the FTA would

cover trade of goods and services, in-vestment and economic and techno-logical cooperation.

The negotiations were launched more than a year after a feasibility study was started in Beijing.

China-Sri Lanka trade volume has kept growing in recent years, and China has become Sri Lanka’s second-largest trade partner and source of import. In 2013, trade between the two countries amounted to 3.62 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.3 percent year on year.

The news came a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his visit to Sri Lanka, called on the two countries to accelerate their FTA negotiations. l

Unused GP SIMs on resalen Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Grameenphone, the leading mobile phone operator in the country, has start-ed recycling and reselling the numbers that remained either inactive or unre-charged for the last � ve years since 2009.

The operator already started the pro-gramme on a pilot basis from August and resold 5,000 inactive Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM), said a source.

It added that the mobile operator has already sold more than nine crore SIMs after it launched journey in Bang-ladesh in 1997 and has no more space to sell new connection without in-creasing a digit.

Currently, the Grameenphone’s ac-tive connections are very close to � ve crore (4.95 crore), according to a Bang-ladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) report after July.

The operator has some � ve crore in-active SIMs in the market, which remain unused for a long time, said a senior ex-ecutive of the company. There are also some technical challenges of not selling some numbers for corporate deals.

“We have no other way but to follow the strategies and thus we informed the telecom regulator of our status,” Mahmud Hossain, GP chief corporate a� airs o� cer told the Dhaka Tribune Wednesday.

The GP gives the revenue regulator, NBR, proper taxes on reselling the SIMs. It found around 16 lakh SIMs had not been used since 2009 and they would go on resale from the � rst week of Oc-tober, Mahmud said. “Recently, we are facing a serious scarcity of numbers.”

Earlier in February, GP sent an inti-mation letter to the telecom regulator, but the BTRC did not inform the market leader operator of anything about it.

It mentioned the National Numbering

Plan 2005, saying an operator had the capacity of incorporating 10 crore phone numbers into its 11 digit mobile number plan, but the GP had already around 8.13 crore numbers up to January last.

As per the current status, the intro-duction of 3G had fostered the rise of Grameenphone customers, and around 1.39 crore SIMs were sold only in 2013, the letter said, adding that the compa-ny would reach the peak of its capacity within a few months.

The letter also expressed concerns that if the Grameenphone did not start recycling process soon, it would have to stop SIM sale. Currently, the total number of disconnected GP SIMs cov-ers almost 20% of the number plan ca-pacity of the company, the letter said.

It added that the company wants to implement the recycling or reusing strategies as they are very common practice in global telecommunication industry as well. Sources at the opera-tor company claimed that if they could delete these disconnected numbers from their database, it would reduce their maintenance costs.

Regarding the change of ownership of numbers, the letter says: “As per the clause of our 3G licence, it has been made clear that allocation of a number does not confer ownership of the num-ber on the customer, and Grameen-phone as operator can withdraw or change the number by giving a three months’ notice period.”

Mahmud Hossain also said: “After recycling 5,000 SIMS we found no ob-jection from any customers. If anybody complains to us we will see to that.”

Another mobile phone operator Robi also requested the BTRC and the NBR to allow them to reuse the discon-nected SIMs. l

Canadian government urged to support Bangladesh trust fund n Reuters, Toronto

A group of more than 50 Canadian or-ganisations, including labour unions, are urging the Canadian government to ask domestic companies to give to a trust fund for the survivors of a dis-astrous garment factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 people nearly a year and a half ago.

As of Sept 1, a fund set up for more than 2,500 injured workers and fami-lies of the dead has raised less than half its $40m(£24.5m) target, according to The Maquila Solidarity Network, a labour and women’s rights group that helped organise the e� ort.

Organisers are making the renewed push as the � rst instalment of the compensation will be distributed this month and early next month.

The group also wants the govern-ment to match contributions to the

fund by Canadian companies and or-ganisations, it said in an open letter to Canada’s ministers of international trade and international development.

Loblaw Co Ltd, whose apparel brand ‘Joe Fresh’ had clothing made in the plaza, is the only Canadian company that has contributed to the trust fund, organisers said, noting that a number of US and European companies with no ties to the Rana Plaza building have given to the fund.

In the past, some of the brands sup-plied by the factory complex said they would not contribute as their produc-tion was outsourced to the factory with-out their knowledge, or ended some time ago, while others preferred to pur-sue their own compensation plans.

Ultra-low wages and trade deals have made Bangladesh’s garments sec-tor a $22bn industry that accounts for four-� fths of the country’s exports. l

Tax fair draws huge crowd ignoring strike n Tribune Report

Braving the Jamaat-called hartal, a large number of visitors paid visit to the income tax fairs across the country yesterday and received di� erent ser-vices as the roads were free from traf-� c, NBR o� cials said.

They said the National Board of Revenue has received overwhelming response from taxpayers in the fair that began on September 15.

As the city streets in capital were free from tra� c yesterday, a large num-ber of taxpayers were seen visiting the fair on the O� cers Club premises.

In the Dhaka venue, crowd was mostly seen at the electronic taxpayers identi� cation number (e-TIN) booths as both the incumbent and the new taxpayers were looking for services from the fair booths.

The e-TIN, which was introduced last year has gained much popularity as it is hassle-free, whereas earlier, it took a long time to manage a TIN certi� cate.

Now, the taxpayers can register for e-TIN and get the certi� cates within � ve minutes.

Last year in the fair, the board wit-nessed some technical glitches while providing services related to e-TIN, but this year there is no such problem as the board took necessary preparation earlier.

NBR member Bashir Uddin Ahmed said the tax fairs are getting favoura-ble response from both new and old taxpayers as services are provided in a hassle-free manner.

The tax o� cials said people are mostly visiting the e-TIN booths as the budget for FY14-15 has made the e-TIN mandatory for all the taxpayers.

According to the income tax ordi-nance 1984, the taxpayers will have to get a 12 digit e-TIN number for taking any kind of services, which include submission of income tax returns, opening letter of credit (L/C) for im-port; renewal of trade licence and car registration or renewal of registration; registration for purchase of land, build-ing or an apartment situated within any city corporation or municipality

or district headquarters, deed value of which exceeds Tk0.1 million; issuing of credit card; having telephone, gas and electricity connection etc.

“I have registered for e-TIN within the shortest time. I took the e-TIN as having a TIN certi� cate might help me in getting di� erent services,” said Za-hirul Islam Khan, who came to the fair

for the � rst time. Along with the regular booths in the

fair, there are also correction booths to help the taxpayers. This year, a new type of booth titled “Taxpayers having passports” were introduced to help mi-grant taxpayers or the taxpayers who do not have NID cards.

In the � rst three days, the NBR is-sued e-TIN to around 13,000 people, according to the NBR data.

On the third day, the fair served a total of 98,630 people across the coun-try. Fresh e-TINs were issued to 3,460 people while 3,142 existing taxpayers re-registered for e-TINs.

The NBR bagged around Tk161.53crore from 15,314 returns at the fair venues nationwide.

The government exchequer is or-ganising the fair at all seven divisional

headquarters and 57 districts. A four-day-long tax fair was inau-

gurated yesterday in Shunamganj, Ra-jbari, Narshingdi, Manikganj, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Natore, Pabna, Jaypurhat, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Panchagargh, Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga and Bagerhat.

A two-day-long fair also began in Khagrachari yesterday.

All the fairs have e-TIN registration booths, re-registration booths, e-pay-ment booths, income tax return � ling booths, help and inquiry desks to help the taxpayers receive services.

The fair remains open for the visi-tors from 10am to 5pm everyday.

The services at the fair, however, will remain suspended for one hour today beginning from 12.45pm because of the Jummah prayer. l

Visitors at the National Income Tax Fair in Dhaka are busy registering and submitting income tax return yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

People are mostly visiting the e-TIN booths as the budget for FY14-15 has made the e-TIN mandatory for all the taxpayers

B2 Stock Friday, September 19, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersFrom TradeServers:MATINSPINN: The Board of Directors has recommended 25% cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014. Date of AGM: 30.10.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Factory Premises of Matin Spinning Mills Ltd. at Sardaganj, Kashimpur, Gazipur. Record date: 02.10.2014. The Company has also reported EPS (weighted average method) of Tk. 4.24, EPS (Fully diluted basis) of Tk. 3.26, NAV per share with revaluation reserve of Tk. 39.42, NAV per share without revaluation reserve of Tk. 29.21 and NOCFPS of Tk. 11.06 for the year ended on June 30, 2014.KARNAPHULI: Alpha Credit Rating Lim-ited (AlphaRating) has rated the Company as "A+" in the long term and "AR-3" in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited � nancial information of the Company up to December 31, 2013; half yearly unaudited management report of 30th June, 2014 and relevant qualitative information up to August 21, 2014.SAFKOSPINN: BSEC is not in a position to consider the application of Sa� o Spinning Mills Limited for issuance of rights shares

as the Company has failed to comply with the Condition No. 3(e) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Rights Issue) Rules, 2006.IPO Subscription: Hamid Fabrics Limited subscription date 28 September to 02 October 2014, NRB upto 11 October 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Re-cord date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. Dividend/AGMCENTRALPHL: 5% cash and 15% stock, AGM & EGM: 23.10.2014, Record date for AGM & EGM: 29.09.2014.DBH: 25% cash, AGM: 25.11.2014, Record date: 25.09.2014.DESHBANDHU: 10% stock, EGM & AGM: 19.10.2014, Record date for AGM & EGM: 21.09.2014. SINGERBD: 160% interim cash, Record

date for entitlement of interim dividend: 17.09.2014.MHSML: 25% stock, AGM: 30.10.2014, Record date: 25.09.2014.FARCHEM: 20% stock, AGM: 09.10.2014, Record date: 11.09.2014.SAIHAMCOT: 10% cash, AGM: 23.10.2014, Record date: 17.09.2014.BSCCL: 10% cash, AGM: 12.10.2014, Record date: 04.09.2014. PRAGATILIF: No dividend, AGM: 30.09.2014, Record date: 14.09.2014. GPHISPAT: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 10.11.2014, Record date: 22.09.2014. APEXFOODS: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 21.08.2014.APEXTANRY: 45% cash, AGM: 23.09.2014, Record date: 27.08.2014. DELTASPINN: 10% cash, AGM: 30.08.2014, Record date: 14.08.2014.NAVANACNG: 15% cash, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 10.08.2014. SUNLIFEINS: 5% stock, AGM: 15.09.2014, Record Date: 07.08.2014.SQURPHARMA: 30% cash and 15% stock, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 26.08.2014.

DSEX HITS ALL TIME HIGH

Turnover crosses Tk1,000cr markn Tribune Report

Stocks staged strong rally yesterday with the benchmark index DSEX hits all time high, buoyed by lower bank interest rate.

Investors pumped funds on some large scrips, pushing the turnover to cross Tk1,000 crore after more than a year. The Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark index DSEX surged nearly 68 points or 1.5% to 4,866, which is an all time high since it was launched on January, 2013.

With this DSEX’s rise that is highest single-day rally in several months, it extended gains for the third straight session in row.

The Shariah Index DSES was up 10 points or 1% to 1,147. The com-prising blue chips DS30 soared 20 points or 1% to 1,899.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, ended at 9,080 with a rise of 146 points.

Turnover at DSE jumped to Tk1,288 crore, which is over 33% higher over the previous session and highest since July 9, 2013.

This bulk amount of activity re-mained concentrated in few sectors – pharmaceuticals, food and allied, engineering and, fuel and pow-er that made up over 56.8% of the DSE’s total turnover.

“Lower bank interest rate might be one of the reasons behind the rally,” said IDLC Investments Man-aging Director Md Moniruzzaman.

He said investors put funds on some selected large scrips, leading

to make healthy turnover. Over the last few months, banks

continued to cut interest rate due to sagging demand.

Market operators said individ-ual investors were moving in large numbers and institutional inves-tors ploughing back funds so as not to miss the opportunity in case the market carried on its bull run.

“The rally was purely specula-tive, not based on fundamentals,” said an analyst. All the sectors per-formed well except cement and IT.

Telecommunications showed ro-bust performance with a rise of over 3%, followed by bank that gained 2.4% and engineering 2.3%.

The ceramic rallied quite strong-ly mainly due to RAK Ceramic that hit upper limit circuit breaker ahead of its corporate declarations.

Multinational companies faced certain degree of volatility as inves-tors were active on both fence of trading.

Lanka Bangla Securities said market made another bullish move closing the index at historic high on the day of nationwide strike called by Jamat-E-Islami.

It said market pared losses on � nancial and manufacturing stocks those have been consolidating for long period. IDLC Investments with the expectation of reversing last several years’ faded tone, market continued moving ahead.

Hence, leaving behind coun-try-wide strike, the bourse ended green, with investors’ stronger par-ticipation, it said. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Midas Financing-Z -10.00 -10.00 13.50 13.50 13.50 13.50 0.007 -6.91 -vePrime Islami Life -A -9.89 -9.93 85.57 85.60 86.00 85.50 0.060 4.95 17.3Shahjibazar Power-N -9.15 -6.22 673.68 675.00 690.00 663.00 1.752 3.04 221.6Apex Foods -A -8.67 -8.68 100.11 100.10 101.00 100.00 0.100 2.99 33.5Delta Brac HFCL-A -7.21 -5.65 61.33 59.20 64.80 59.20 0.215 5.15 11.9Singer BD -A -6.59 -1.67 237.50 226.70 244.00 223.10 42.770 6.28 37.8Shurwid Ind. -N -6.37 -4.95 39.58 38.20 41.80 37.90 9.301 0.75 52.8SonarBangla Insu. -A -5.99 -5.99 15.70 15.70 15.70 15.70 0.016 1.74 9.0Sandhani Life -A -5.11 -6.49 59.36 59.40 62.60 57.10 0.015 2.12 28.0Saiham Cotton-A -4.69 -4.77 20.15 20.30 20.70 19.90 1.592 1.60 12.6

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Midas Financing-Z -9.09 -9.85 13.00 13.00 13.00 13.00 0.039 -6.91 -veSinger BD -A -6.69 -4.35 230.92 226.10 250.00 222.00 199.742 6.28 36.8Jute SpinnersA -6.09 -7.54 51.78 52.40 57.80 50.30 0.277 -43.81 -veSaiham Cotton-A -6.07 -5.85 20.11 20.10 20.60 19.50 31.859 1.60 12.6Shurwid Ind. -N -5.42 -6.12 39.42 38.40 41.90 38.10 55.287 0.75 52.6Popular Life Insu. -A -5.28 -4.57 156.70 154.20 166.00 151.00 4.323 17.00 9.2CVO PetroChem RL-A -4.99 -6.73 681.26 674.20 715.00 662.00 36.176 -3.16 -veAgni Systems -A -4.23 -4.11 34.57 34.00 36.70 32.00 84.633 1.27 27.2Delta SpinnersA -4.12 -7.66 15.91 16.30 16.90 15.40 82.683 1.41 11.3Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z -4.00 -2.31 7.20 7.20 7.20 7.20 0.004 -30.63 -ve

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 990,042 42.96 5.62 43.10 -0.92 43.50 44.20 42.80 43.39Singer BD -A 180,088 42.77 5.59 226.70 -6.59 242.70 244.00 223.10 237.50BSRM Steels-A 303,554 33.99 4.44 113.60 6.37 106.80 114.70 109.00 111.96MJL BD Ltd.-A 217,477 31.27 4.09 143.10 3.32 138.50 148.40 141.00 143.76LafargeS Cement-Z 199,500 28.08 3.67 139.30 -1.49 141.40 144.50 138.00 140.74Orion Pharma-N 495,140 26.96 3.52 56.20 9.55 51.30 56.40 46.50 54.44Grameenphone-A 71,200 25.86 3.38 364.50 3.05 353.70 365.20 359.00 363.20Beximco Pharma -A 387,319 25.75 3.37 68.10 5.42 64.60 69.00 65.00 66.47Active Fine Chem.-A 254,272 19.17 2.51 76.70 8.33 70.80 77.50 72.10 75.38RAK Ceramics-A 318,196 15.48 2.02 49.60 9.98 45.10 49.60 41.00 48.64Delta Life Insu. -A 88,037 15.29 2.00 168.00 -3.72 174.50 178.90 160.00 173.65People`s Leasing-A 774,305 13.44 1.76 17.60 10.00 16.00 17.60 15.50 17.36ACI Formulations-A 71,850 12.77 1.67 172.20 0.47 171.40 186.00 167.10 177.75BD Submarine Cable-A 89,800 12.66 1.66 140.80 0.00 140.80 142.80 140.10 141.02UNITED AIR-A 1,075,619 12.66 1.66 11.90 -0.83 12.00 12.00 11.60 11.77

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BATBCL -A 521,350 1497.18 11.62 2804.70 1.73 2757.00 2875.00 2757.00 2871.74MJL BD Ltd.-A 3,878,244 564.68 4.38 144.20 3.52 139.30 150.00 126.00 145.60BSRM Steels-A 4,910,054 550.75 4.27 113.20 6.19 106.60 114.90 100.00 112.17Beximco Pharma -A 7,003,347 465.99 3.62 67.60 4.97 64.40 69.90 58.00 66.54Active Fine Chem.-A 5,540,449 414.94 3.22 76.50 8.66 70.40 77.30 65.00 74.89BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 8,750,768 380.99 2.96 43.20 -0.46 43.40 45.00 39.10 43.54Grameenphone-A 938,301 341.80 2.65 365.10 3.25 353.60 367.30 350.00 364.28Orion Pharma-N 6,213,120 340.29 2.64 56.30 9.32 51.50 56.60 47.00 54.77Golden Son -A 5,458,293 278.48 2.16 51.40 3.42 49.70 51.80 44.80 51.02Olympic Ind. -A 1,041,970 238.09 1.85 230.80 2.67 224.80 232.40 215.00 228.50LafargeS Cement-Z 1,636,510 230.46 1.79 138.80 -1.35 140.70 143.40 138.50 140.82Brac Bank -A 6,799,516 217.61 1.69 32.00 3.90 30.80 32.40 27.90 32.00Navana CNG-A 3,002,834 208.55 1.62 71.50 9.66 65.20 71.70 62.00 69.45Singer BD -A 864,972 199.74 1.55 226.10 -6.69 242.30 250.00 222.00 230.92Delta Life Insu. -A 1,141,688 198.25 1.54 169.20 -2.65 173.80 180.00 158.00 173.65

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 1067.73 8.29 66.63 8.35 1134.36 8.29NBFI 728.95 5.66 41.11 5.15 770.06 5.63Investment 149.03 1.16 7.77 0.97 156.80 1.15Engineering 1802.19 13.99 137.35 17.22 1939.54 14.17Food & Allied 1929.20 14.97 22.55 2.83 1951.75 14.26Fuel & Power 1439.03 11.17 71.41 8.95 1510.44 11.04Jute 1.69 0.01 0.00 1.69 0.01Textile 1066.34 8.28 78.52 9.84 1144.86 8.37Pharma & Chemical 2156.13 16.73 136.25 17.08 2292.38 16.75Paper & Packaging 48.43 16.30 2.04 64.73 0.47Service 173.58 1.35 6.61 0.83 180.19 1.32Leather 70.05 0.54 9.64 1.21 79.69 0.58Ceramic 121.42 0.94 16.40 2.06 137.82 1.01Cement 423.61 3.29 39.23 4.92 462.85 3.38Information Technology 194.49 1.51 18.20 2.28 212.69 1.55General Insurance 77.91 0.60 2.18 0.27 80.09 0.59Life Insurance 278.18 2.16 17.23 2.16 295.41 2.16Telecom 415.45 3.22 38.52 4.83 453.97 3.32Travel & Leisure 215.62 1.67 21.00 2.63 236.62 1.73Miscellaneous 525.48 4.08 50.81 6.37 576.29 4.21Debenture 1.03 0.01 0.01 0.00 1.04 0.01

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4866.19103 (+) 1.41% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1899.31499 (+) 1.07% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 15030.34210 (+) 1.42% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12134.59190 (+) 1.11% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9080.56500 (+) 1.64% ▲

DSE key features September 18, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

12,885.54

Turnover (Volume)

255,584,970

Number of Contract 196,174

Traded Issues 300

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

178

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

120

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,588.72

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.38

CSE key features September 18, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 768.17

Turnover (Volume) 19,413,453

Number of Contract 24,879

Traded Issues 232

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

140

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

90

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,487.13

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.15

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

Market made another bullish move closing the index at historic high on the day of nationwide strike called by Jamat-E-Islami

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

People`s Leasing-A 10.00 7.76 17.36 17.60 17.60 15.50 13.444 0.82 21.2RAK Ceramics-A 9.98 7.33 48.64 49.60 49.60 41.00 15.477 1.76 27.6Orion Infusions -A 9.80 4.08 53.09 56.00 56.10 51.10 7.411 4.81 11.0Orion Pharma-N 9.55 5.87 54.44 56.20 56.40 46.50 26.957 6.06 9.0Navana CNG-A 9.27 7.13 69.56 70.70 71.10 65.90 9.723 4.56 15.3Active Fine Chem.-A 8.33 9.36 75.38 76.70 77.50 72.10 19.167 3.30 22.8AIMS First -A 7.94 5.58 26.67 27.20 27.30 25.00 1.470 4.71 5.7Matin Spinning-N 6.65 5.45 45.84 46.50 47.00 44.20 5.739 3.26 14.1LankaBangla Fin. -A 6.38 5.11 50.99 51.70 51.90 47.00 10.511 1.38 36.9BSRM Steels-A 6.37 4.93 111.96 113.60 114.70 109.00 33.985 4.80 23.3

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

RAK Ceramics-A 10.00 7.73 48.79 49.50 49.50 40.50 102.285 1.76 27.7People`s Leasing-A 9.94 7.17 17.33 17.70 17.70 14.50 72.297 0.82 21.1Orion Infusions -A 9.86 4.06 53.77 55.70 55.70 50.90 122.727 4.81 11.2AIMS First -A 9.68 5.65 26.54 27.20 27.20 23.50 35.556 4.71 5.6Navana CNG-A 9.66 6.19 69.45 71.50 71.70 62.00 208.552 4.56 15.2Orion Pharma-N 9.32 6.35 54.77 56.30 56.60 47.00 340.287 6.06 9.0Active Fine Chem.-A 8.66 9.09 74.89 76.50 77.30 65.00 414.935 3.30 22.7Matin Spinning-N 7.69 5.76 45.54 46.20 47.20 43.50 108.255 3.26 14.0City Bank - A 7.45 4.55 17.00 17.30 17.50 14.60 99.652 1.78 9.6Grameen M F One-A 6.27 5.74 30.58 30.50 31.50 28.00 14.247 3.40 9.0

ANALYST

-4%

-3%

-2%

-1%

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

11 18

25

01

08

15

22

29

06

13

20

27

03

10

17

24

01

08

15

22

29

05

12

19

26

02

09

16

Food_Index DSE BroadIndex

CHANGE OF DSE BROAD INDEX VS SECTORAL INDEX

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

Lions Club International in recognition of achievements in ful� lling the club’s mission has recently awarded Farzana Chowdhury MD and CEO of Green Delta Insurance Company Limited. Sheikh Kabir Hossain MJF, former international director of Lions Club International handed her the award in Dhaka

Union Bank Ltd’s traning institute has recently held a training programme on shariah based banking in its head o� ce. The bank’s MD, Md Abdul Hamid Mia was present as chief guest on the occasion

Green Delta Securities Limited has recently received the prestigious Capital Finance International’s award for Best Stockbrokerage in Bangladesh. The company’s CEO, Wa� S M Khan, received the award from CFI

Bengal, a plastic manufacturer has opened its outlet named Bengal Exclusive Shop at Joynuddin Plaza, Elenga in Tangail. ADM Azmul Farquie, GM (sales and marketing) of Bengal has inaugurated the outlet

ECB outlines new plan that will give more voting power to bigger states n Reuters, Frankfurt

The European Central Bank detailed plans yesterday for changing the way the euro zone governors vote from next year, curbing smaller economies’ potential in� uence in favor of big coun-tries, like Germany.

The move, triggered by the swelling of the euro zone to 19 countries with Lithu-ania’s accession next year, will divide national central bank governors into groups of smaller and larger economies to ensure e� cient decision making.

The � ve largest economies with the biggest � nancial sectors will share four votes. These are Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The ECB said on Thursday that Spain would sit out � rst when the rotation starts in January.

The rotational system means � nan-cial markets are likely to focus on meet-ings when some of the most in� uential governors, such as Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann, cannot vote.

Weidmann, the arch-hawk on the ECB Governing Council, will not vote at the May and October meetings next year. In 2016, he will not vote in March and August.

The remaining 14 smaller economies will share 11 votes, but will get to vote less frequently as more countries join the governing council. Here, Estonia, Ireland and Greece will be the � rst to relinquish their voting rights, the ECB said.

The system was set by the ECB and European Union leaders as far back as 2003, but only from next year could the numbers could get high enough to trig-

ger the change. The six members of the ECB’s ex-

ecutive board, which implements monetary policy and runs the everyday business, are exempt from the month-ly vote rotation and have permanent votes.

These seats have traditionally been occupied by the euro zone heavy-weights: Germany, France, Italy and until 2012 Spain. At the moment Portu-gal, Luxembourg and Belgium are also seated at the top table, but their pres-ence is not set in stone.

The Governing Council comprises the executive board and the national central bank governors.

At meetings when they cannot vote, all governors will continue to partici-pate in the Governing Council’s discus-sions, the ECB said. l

The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) is pictured prior to the bank's monthly news conference in Frankfurt REUTERS

Dollar up in Asia after Fed meeting n AFP, Tokyo

The dollar rose against most currencies in Asia yesterday after the US Federal Reserve hinted interest rates could rise more than initially thought next year, while the pound dipped as Scotland goes to the polls in its independence referendum.

In Tokyo afternoon trade, the dollar hit a fresh six-year high of 108.72 yen, compared with 108.29 yen in New York Wednesday.

The euro slipped to $1.2860 from $1.2865, while it climbed to 139.85 yen from 139.32 yen.

Investors also shifted into the green-back from a basket of Asia-Paci� c cur-rencies including the South Korean won, Singapore dollar and Indonesian rupiah on hopes for higher returns in the United States.

After a closely watched meeting, the US central bank said Wednesday it would stick to its policy on interest rates, keeping them at a record low of 0-0.25 percent despite growing calls for a rise as the world’s number one econo-my strengthens.

Markets had been on the watch for a change in the central bank’s language, which could have signalled a rate hike before the mid-2015 timeline currently in place.

Bank chief Janet Yellen continued with her line that there remains too much slack in the jobs market even as the US unemployment rate has fallen to 6.1 percent.

However, the Fed did suggest that when rates eventually increase, they could end next year higher than ini-

tially estimated. More Fed policymakers than ever

agree that a rate increase will happen next year. Their median forecast for the fed funds at the end of the year was 1.375 percent, 0.25 percentage point more than the June median.

Markets are also keeping a close eye on the pound, which slipped to $1.6263 from $1.6280, ahead of yesterday’s Scottish independence referendum, with the “No” vote appearing to have the edge in polls.

Economists worry a vote to break away from the United Kingdom could cause turbulence for both the English and Scottish economies, while some

have warned the pound could fall about 10% against the dollar.

The greenback rose to 1,041.28 South Korean won from 1,034.45 won on Wednesday, to Sg$1.2688 from Sg$1.2622, and to 32.30 Thai baht from 32.23 baht.

It also strengthened to Tw$30.23 from Tw$30.13, to 44.54 Philippine pe-sos from 44.17 pesos, and to 12,025.00 Indonesian rupiah from 11,943.80 ru-piah. The Australian dollar dropped to 89.80 US cents from 90.74 cents

However, it dollar weakened to 60.91 Indian rupees from 60.99 rupees, while the Chinese yuan fetched 17.64 yen against 17.42 yen. l

Oil prices down n AFP, Singapore

Crude prices fell in Asia yesterday fol-lowing an unexpected surge in US stockpiles and reports that the OPEC oil cartel is unlikely to slash production when it meets in November.

US benchmark West Texas Interme-diate for October delivery dipped 63 cents to $93.79 while Brent crude for

November eased 62 cents to $98.35 in afternoon trade.

Prices were under pressure “after the US Department of Energy reported an unexpected increase of US crude inventories by 3.7 million barrels instead of the market forecast for a 1.2 million decline,” said Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) in a market commentary. l

Cabinet body sends back Paira Seaport proposal n Tribune Report

The cabinet committee on economic a� airs has rejected the Shipping Minis-try proposal to complete the remaining construction of Paira seaport under the government funding instead of Public-Private Partnership.

Following the meeting, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said it is not pos-sible for the government to � nance the

entire construction of Paira seaport project.

Some portion of the seaport will be constructed under the PPP initiative, he added.

“We have decided to construct the Paira seaport with the help of PPP ini-tiative and government funding.”

The Shipping Ministry failed to � nd

any private investor to complete the re-maining construction of the seaport, an estimated cost of which is nearly Tk350 crore, according to o� cial sources.

It also described the PPP initiative a complex and time-consuming process.

The ministry said the private � rms were only willing to invest in construc-tion of terminals and commercial op-eration of the port, which the investors think could be economically viable for them.

Besides, the cabinet committee on economic a� airs has already given con-sent to construction of a deep seaport at Sonadia in Cox’s Bazar at a cost of Tk50,000 crore under the government funding arrangement.

The Paira seaport is expected to reduce the pressure on the country’s two seaports, Chittagong and Mongla, besides helping ensure economic and social development of the country’s southern and central areas, said Ship-ping Minister Shajahan Khan.

The Chittagong Port authority pro-vided interest-free loan worth Tk49.6 crore in November 2013 to the Paira Port authority for land acquisition, development and construction of pon-toon and other infrastructure.

On November 19, 2013, Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the operation of Paira seaport partially, which is located at Ramnabad of Kala-para upazila in Patuakhali district. l

Sony heads for deeper loss as it shrinks struggling smartphone business n Reuters, Tokyo

Sony Corp cut its earnings outlook for the sixth time on Chief Executive Ka-zuo Hirai’s watch on Tuesday as it an-nounced a massive impairment change on its smartphone unit, which it has failed to grow despite a rapidly expand-ing market.

Hirai said mobile would remain one of the three core divisions of its electronics business, even though its shrinking footprint and ballooning losses now threaten the prospects of that � agship business scoring a pro� t this year.

Sony, which once chased the third spot in the smartphone market behind giants Apple Inc and Samsung Elec-tronics Inc has been forced to scale back its ambitions in the rapidly grow-ing mobile market as with other con-sumer electronics.

On Tuesday Sony said it taking a 180bn yen ($1.7bn) impairment charge, writing down goodwill from its buyout of Ericsson when it made its mobile unit a wholly owned subsidiary.

The Japanese � rm widened its net loss forecast to 230bn yen ($2.15bn) for the year ending March 31 from a previous forecast of a 50bn yen loss, and said it would forego paying a dividend for the � rst time since it listed in 1958.

“Whether they cut their forecast four, � ve or six times it doesn’t really matter. What’s more important for the market is whether this (restructur-

ing) will put an end to their problems as they’ve said it will,” said Yasuo Sa-kuma, portfolio manager at Bayview Asset Management in Tokyo.

Analysts said the news was in line with expectations after Sony � agged a potential writedown on the mobile unit in July and pegged it as a piece of a cru-cial restructuring plan Hirai has prom-ised to complete this year.

“I will be at the centre of making sure that restructuring will be com-pleted this year and that we will turn a pro� t in the next � nancial year. A re-covery is my responsibility,” said Hirai. “This is the � rst time we’ve not paid a dividend and we feel that responsibil-ity as management very heavily.”

But the announcement emboldened some critics of Sony’s turnaround strat-egy and of Hirai, who took his post in 2012 promising to pull the � rm’s trou-bled electronics division into the black by focusing on its mobile, gaming and imaging units.

“To be honest when you’re a listed company there’s a limit to what re-structuring and stripping o� business units can do. A private equity � rm wouldn’t buy a company with these kinds of losses,” said an investment banker who covers the technology sec-tor and has advised Sony in the past.

While the forecast revision could have been an embarrassment for new Chief Financial O� cer Kenichiro Yo-shida, who assumed his post in April promising the company would be more realistic about its outlook, analysts said

it showed his plans were on track. “This has shown that a sensible chief

� nancial o� cer is able to control the expansionist aspirations of business heads, which, if unchecked, would lead to larger losses for Sony,” said Atul Goyal, analyst at Je� eries in Singapore.

On Tuesday Sony also said it expects an operating loss of 40bn yen instead of a 140bn yen pro� t � agged in July, but held its target of a 400bn yen operating pro� t in the next business year.

Not so smart Sony had fallen behind in the rapidly expanding smartphone market, lagging rivals such as Apple, Samsung and Chi-nese upstarts such as Xiaomi, due to its lack of relationships with carriers in the crucial US and Chinese markets.

The company cut its pro� t outlook for its mobile business to zero in July and trimmed its sales forecast for smartphones to 43m from 50m, which would mark a 10% increase on the year.

“For now, rather than chasing mar-ket share or unit sales we will identify the market risks and emphasise prof-itability,” Hirai said, adding that Sony would focus on regions with stronger prospects.

Hirai also said Sony will cut around 1,000 of the 7,100 sta� in its mobile unit during the current business year. The cost of reducing headcount will be outlined when Sony announces its re-sults for the July to September quarter at the end of October. l

Banks, NBFIs asked to introduce e-tendering by December 2015 n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank asked all the sched-uled banks and non-banking � nancial institutions to introduce e-tendering system by December 2015.

The central bank took the decision to reduce the use of paper and bring trans-parency, accountability and e� ciency in the works of banks and � nancial institu-tions, said a circular the central bank is-sued yesterday. The e-tendering should

be web-based and connected with the websites of the respective banks and NBFIs, Bangladesh Bank said. In this regard the banks and NBFIs could seek technical support from the central bank which, in May 2010, launched e-tender-ing process for its own procurements.

Unlike the traditional paper-based system, the e-tendering enables both local and international bidders to take part in the bidding process without any external in� uence. l

Paira seaport is expected to reduce pressure on the country’s two seaports, besides helping ensure economic and social development of the country’s southern and central areas

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, September 19, 2014

DILBERT

Japan’s frail business mood, exports show economy straining under tax hike n Reuters, Tokyo

Con� dence at Japanese manufactur-ers fell the most in nearly two years in September as a tax increase hit the economy harder than expected, while exports slid in August in a further sign that conditions have deteriorated in the crucial third quarter.

This frailty in the monthly Reuters Tankan business con� dence, and the shaky outlook, could raise in com-ing months the pressure on the BOJ to ease policy further and complicate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision on whether to raise the national sales tax again.

The � rst phase of the tax hike in April triggered a 7.1% slump in the economy in the second quarter - the worst contraction since the global � -nancial crisis.

The third quarter data will be crucial for Abe’s second-stage tax-rise decision, due by year-end, but some analysts say the Reuters survey suggests that the ex-pected recovery is not taking hold.

“Both external and domestic de-mand are weak, and things in the sum-mer are clearly undershooting fore-casts by the government and the BOJ, eroding business con� dence,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

In fact, the worsening sentiment in Reuters Tankan, with only a feeble im-provement forecast for December, bodes ill for the Bank of Japan’s quarterly tank-an survey, due Oct 1, which had been forecast to rebound in the third quarter.

Hurdle for second tax hike ‘bit high’ “Even though Prime Minister Abe says he stands ‘neutral’ on the tax decision, I don’t think we are in a situation where the tax can be raised soon. The hurdle is getting a bit high,” Norinchukin Re-search Institutes’ Minami said.

With the recovery sputtering and in-� ation appearing stalled well below the BOJ’s target of 2 percent, market specu-lation is growing that Abe may order a burst of government spending and the BOJ may oblige with further monetary stimulus to bolster the economy enough to allow the tax hike to go ahead.

The Reuters Tankan, which is

strongly correlated with the central bank’s closely watched poll, surveyed 486 big Japanese companies, of which 285 replied, between Aug 29-Sept 12.

“The e� ects of the decline in de-mand have proved larger than ex-pected” after the April tax hike, said an executive at a machinery maker. A transport equipment producer blamed the higher tax for cooling demand and worsening business conditions.

The managers, who responded anonymously to the Reuters survey, also complained about weak external demand, notably in Asia and Europe, and uncertainty over geopolitical risks that weigh on the outlook.

The sentiment index for manufac-turers fell to 10 in September from 20 in August and down from 19 in June. It

is forecast to rise to 16 in December. It was the � rst decline in four months

and the biggest since October 2012. At that time, business sentiment was plunging amid Chinese boycotts of Japa-nese products and violent protests after Japan nationalized islets in the East Chi-na Sea that are also claimed by Beijing.

Service-sector sentiment edged up but was forecast to decline again.

This time, the loss of con� dence comes after a slew of downbeat data, including soft factory output and fall-ing household spending, and has cast doubt over the recovery of the world’s third-biggest economy.

Weak exports Ministry of Finance data showed yes-terday Japan’s exports declined in Au-

gust as US-bound shipments contract-ed by the most in three years, another sign the economy is struggling to rev up after the deep slump in April-June.

Exports, a weak link in Japan’s economy, fell 1.3% in August from a year ago - less than the median estimatefor a 2.6% annual decline. That followed a 3.9% annual gain in the previous month after having fallen in Juneand May.

The last BOJ tankan found the mood among big manufacturers had wors-ened in the three months to June but was expected to improve in July-Sep-tember.

The survey indices subtract the percentage of companies saying con-ditions are improving from that of companies saying conditions are wors-

ening. A positive number means opti-mists outnumber pessimists.

Abe raised the sales tax to 8% from 5% in April in a bid to curb Japan’s run-away government debt, knocking the economy hard in the process.

Around December he is to decide whether to proceed with a plan to raise the tax to 10 percent next year. Abe said on Sunday he remained “neutral” on whether to raise the tax, adding that decision would hinge on the strength of economic indicators, including for the July-September quarter.

The yen has fallen to a six-year low against the dollar in recent days, but it has not yet given much of a boost to exporters, while importers, such as ma-terials � rms, are struggling to pass on rising import costs. l

A security guard salutes at the entrance of the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo REUTERS

Fed renews zero rate pledge, but hints at steeper rate hike path

n Reuters, Washington

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday re-newed its pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time,” but also indicated it could raise borrow-ing costs faster than expected when it starts moving.

Many economists and traders had expected the US central bank to alter the rate guidance it has provided since March, given generally improving data on the economy’s performance.

But the Fed repeated its assurance that rates would stay ultra-low for a “considerable time” after a bond-buying stimulus program ends. In a statement after a two-day meeting of its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, it announced a further $10bn reduction in its monthly pur-chases, leaving the program on course to be shuttered next month.

The statement was virtually un-changed from July, though new quar-terly projections released with it

showed the central bank’s view on where interest rates should be in future years is diverging from where � nancial markets have bet they will be.

“While the much analyzed phrase ‘considerable time’ remained in the FOMC statement, the newly an-nounced scheme for interest rate nor-malization shows that higher rates are in the cards,” said John Kildu� , a part-ner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher and Philadelphia Fed chief Charles Plosser dissented, arguing the guidance on rates could tie the cen-tral bank’s hands if it felt it had to move more quickly to tighten monetary policy.

The Fed has held benchmark overnight rates near zero since December 2008 and has more than quadrupled its balance sheet to $4.4tn through a series of large-scale bond purchase programs.

In a further sign the central bank is in no rush to start raising rates, the FOMC repeated its assessment that a “signi� cant” amount of slack remains

in the US labor market. Stocks were little changed after the

statement, but the dollar hit its high-est level against the Japanese yen since September 2008. Yields on U.S. Trea-sury bonds rose to session highs as traders moved to price in the possibil-ity of higher future rates.

The most signi� cant change was the new rate projections, which suggested o� cials were positioning themselves for a potentially faster pace of rate hikes than they had envisioned when the last set of forecasts were released in June.

For the end of next year, the median projection was 1.375%, compared to 1.125% in June, while the end-2016 pro-jection moved up to 2.875% from 2.5%. For 2017, the median stood at 3.75% - the level o� cials see as neither stimu-lative nor restrictive.

By contrast, December 2015 federal funds futures imply an interbank lend-ing rate of 0.745% at the end of next year. Contracts for December 2016 point to a rate of 1.85%. Eric Lascelles, chief economist for RBC Global Asset Management in Toronto, called the 2017 projections a “shocker.”

“I would have thought it would take a few more years to get all the way up to what they perceive to be a neutral rate,” he said. Fed Chair Janet Yellen played down the shift in a news conference af-ter the statement was released.

“I would say there is relatively lit-tle upward movement in the (federal funds rate) path,” she told reporters. “I would view it as broadly in line with what one would expect with a very small downward reduction in the path for unemployment and a very slight upward change in the projection for in� ation.”

Exit strategy The Fed also released a new blueprint for how it plans to exit the extraordi-nary monetary stimulus it put in place to combat the 2007-09 � nancial crisis and recession.

It said it expects to end or phase out the reinvestment of proceeds from its bond holdings some time after it begins raising rates, depending on the state of the economy. l

France is ‘sick’, says economy minister n AFP, Paris

Crisis-hit France is “sick”, the country’s new economy minister said yesterday, urging immediate reforms to tackle sky-high unemployment and an economy that has failed to grow in six months.

“France is sick. It’s not well. We have to describe the situation as it is,” Emmanuel Macron told French radio.

“There has been a fever for several years in this country which is called mass unemployment ... there is no choice but to reform the economy,” stressed Macron, a 36-year-old former Rothschild banker, who was a surprise choice for economy minister.

France, the eurozone’s second-larg-est economy, is su� ering from a record high unemployment rate - over 10% - and has registered no economic growth in the past two quarters. Paris is also bat-tling to reduce its ballooning public de� -cit, which is expected to be 4.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, drop-ping only marginally to 4.3% in 2015.

It has gone back on a promise to the European Union to get the de� cit below the maximum of three percent of GDP by next year, pushing it back to 2017 and setting France on a collision course with Brussels and austerity-minded Germany.

Added to its economic woes, the country is weighed down by a political crisis that has seen President Francois Hollande plumb record lows in opinion polls and a shock cabinet reshu� e in August to purge dissenters.

The government’s unpopularity “is due to a lack of results”, said Macron.

“We didn’t go far enough in our � rst two years, we didn’t reform and we are paying, if I may say, for a lost decade,” added the minister.

‘I’ve had enough’In a rare victory for the government, Prime Minister Manuel Valls scraped through a parliamentary con� dence vote on Tuesday by 269 votes to 244.

However, around 30 MPs from the ruling Socialist Party abstained in the vote, a rebellious left-wing rump that could cause problems for the govern-ment in future parliamentary votes.

In a 46-minute speech in the lower house of parliament, Valls also called for an end to talking down France.

“I’ve had enough of this permanent criticism of France and its ability to exert in� uence in the world,” he told deputies. l

IMF calls on G20 for ‘decisive action’ on growth n AFP, Washington

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday called on the Group of 20 major economies to take clear steps to spur growth at this weekend’s meeting of � nance chiefs in Australia.

“Decisive action is needed by all members for stronger and more bal-anced growth,” the IMF said in a note to the G20 ahead of the meeting Saturday and Sunday in Cairns.

In February in Sydney, the G20 � -nance ministers � xed a goal of raising global economic growth by 2% over � ve years, but left the strategies to reach it

vague. “The global recovery should re-

gain strength but downside risks have risen,” the IMF said, urging the G20 to work together to produce bene� cial spillover e� ects that will help them as well as the global economy.

According to the 188-nation IMF, the advanced economies who have the means - speci� cally the United States and Germany - and certain emerging-market economies like Brazil and India should increase public spending on in-frastructure.

Structural reforms are needed across all the G20 economies to boost

potential output, it said, pointing to the productivity boost that would come from easing limits on trade and investment in Indonesia, Russia and Turkey.

The IMF called for labor reform that lifts gender and age barriers in ad-vanced economies, such as the US and Japan, and allows greater participation, such as in South Africa, where an “im-portant fraction” of the population re-mains unemployed.

“Actions to increase labor demand and remove impediments to employ-ment are also needed in stressed euro area economies,” it said. l

A model displays the world's lightest vacuum cleaner 'MC-JP500G', produced by Japanese electronics giant Panasonic, which has 300 watt power and weighing only 2kg in Tokyo on September 17. Panasonic unveiled the new home electric appliances targetting middle aged customers AFP

The sun rises to the east of the US Federal Reserve building in Washington REUTERS