Opposition bent on staging rally; ruling party men determined to resistn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The two major political forces of the country have � nished all preparations for one last face-o� centring the oppo-sition’s “March for Democracy,” trigger-ing panic among common citizens that violence may surpass anything that they have witnessed in recent times.

Despite being denied permission by the authorities, BNP and its allies are bent on staging the much-hyped “March for Democracy” towards the capital and hold a rally in front of its Nayapaltan headquarters, just six days before the 10th parliamentary polls.

On the other hand, not only has the government been trying desper-ately to make sure that the march and rally never take place, but also rulingAwami League leaders have been say-

ing in public that they would take up weapons, if needed, to resist the oppo-sition men.

BNP Vice-Chairman Major (retd) Ha� zuddin Ahmed told reporters yes-terday that “the programme will start around 10-11am and Madam Khaleda Zia will come to the rally in due time” in an apparent de� ance of the fact that they had been denied permission.

Sources said Khaleda Zia had asked the senior leaders to gather in front of the Nayapaltan o� ce by 10am today. She also reportedly said she would leave her Gulshan residence around 2:30pm. If she was barred, the leaders and activ-ists were told to march towards her resi-dence from wherever they were.

The “March for Democracy” comes on the very same day that the BNP-led

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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MORE ON AL MANIFESTOP3,16

AL TO MAN CITY ENTRIESP3

Dhaka march to chaos begins here

Children brought to capitalto reinforce Dhaka marchn Manik Miazee

It was the cold winter morning yester-day when a group of three-four intelli-gible and easy-going teenage boys were spotted in the vicinity of the city’s Kh-ilgaon.

Rudimentary and unsophisticat-ed in their bearing, the country boys

seemed to have been inspired by a de-lusion of grandeur.

The youngsters have seized a half-baked idea of joining “march to Dhaka” programme which they hardly know of, but are obliged to follow instruc-tions of their seniors.

What could be extracted from a little PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

‘Jan 5 polls to deepen political crisis’n Abu Bakar Siddique

Eminent citizens yesterday urged the government to stop the January 05 election as it would deepen the coun-try’s political crisis and contribute to the rise of religious militancy inBangladesh.

“The two top leaders of the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP have to understand that evil power is waiting to cash in on their con� ict which ultimately may lead the coun-try to religious fundamentalism,” said Syed Manzur Elahi, former advisor to the caretaker government.

The civil society members also called upon the main opposition BNP to stop hartals and blockades and ob-served that such anti-government pro-grammes were ruining the country’s economy as well claiming many lives.

The observation came at a dialogue on “Bangladesh in crisis and citizens’ thought” jointly organised by the Cen-tre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Ain o Sal-

ish Kendra, Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan) and Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in the capital’s Lake-shore hotel.

The government had to stop the lopsided polls which was going to be held without voters, said Syed ManzurElahi.

In his address, Prof Anisuzzam-an said people had been facing crisisprior to every national election, which was not healthy for the country’s de-velopment.

He maintained that the major po-litical parties had to consider people’s interest � st instead of their own narrow interest.

Echoing Anisuzzaman, eminent citi-zen Prof Rehman Sobhan said this elec-tion would not bring any good result, rather deepen the existing crisis.

Most discussants demanded that the election be stopped for what they said the election was being held in an undemocratic way.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Transport restriction hits commutersn Ashif Islam Shaon

The virtual blockade imposed by the government led people from all walks of life to hit a bad patch since Friday evening as the opposition was ap-proaching its pre-scheduled “march to Dhaka” programme.

The road and rail communications between Dhaka and other districts came to a grinding halt making com-

muters, plus commoners su� er their worst.

The pro-Awami League transport associations halted tra� c movement in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country in an e� ort to thwart the opposition’s programme.

In many places, law enforcers “ad-vised” bus and launch owners to keep their vehicles o� the road for “security reasons”.

At Gabtoli, Syedabad and Mohakhali bus stations, buses had been kept idle since Friday night.

Train passengers thronged the Kam-lapur Railway Station and left with a sense of frustrations. Only a few water vessels were allowed to anchor at Sa-darghat Launch terminal and to leave the station.

The BNP chairperson on Tuesday PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Hasina unveilsAL manifesto pledging ‘tolerant democracy’ n Kamran Reza Chowdhury,

Muhammad Zahidul Islamand Emran Hossain Shaikh

On the eve of the opposition’s planned “march for democracy” to stop the Jan-uary 5 parliamentary polls, the ruling Awami League yesterday announced its election manifesto pledging a “tol-erant democratic” system and politics without violence and bloodshed.

In a 48-page manifesto, titled “Bangladesh Marching Ahead” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Awami League had set a vision to make Bang-ladesh a “developed” country by 2050.

The AL president said her party would take measures to make the younger generation � t for taking up the party leadership.

Hasina said her party would en-deavour to build national consensus among all political parties, classes and professions on the basis of upholding the democratic process and ensuring unhindered development.

The PM also said the government would foil all “conspiracies of the evil forces” by holding the 10th parliamen-tary polls in line with the constitution despite a boycott by the major opposi-tion parties.

In similarity with the party’s 2008 manifesto, the AL chief expressed a tough stance against Islamic militancy

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Commuters fall o� an open-top truck as they struggle to get on board it ahead of the opposition’s Dhaka march. The photo was taken from the Signboard area on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesterday FOCUS BANGLA

Khaleda’s movement restricted!n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Amid rumours ripe that opposition leader Khaleda Zia might be put under house-arrest any time, the BNP yester-day claimed that her movement had been restricted.

The alleged move came soon af-ter Major (retd) Ha� zuddin Ahmed, vice-chairman of BNP, had announced that Khaleda Zia would attend the Nayapaltan rally.

The party also claimed that not only was her movement restricted within the pe-rimeters of her Gulshan residence and o� ce, the authorities had also lifted her security protocol. Only the members of her household sta� were being allowed in and out of her residence.

The party, however, asserted that she would join today’s Dhaka March programme whatever the obstacles

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Hasina unveils AL manifesto PAGE 1 COLUMN 6while declaring that her party would not enact any law against the Quran or Sunnah.

Hasina also said the party would ban communal politics and bar the political involvement of foreign-aided NGOs and civil society groups.

Furthermore, the next government would execute the verdicts of the war crime tribunals and try those who let loose a reign of terror and destruction to block the trials of the war criminals, she said.

From the podium at the conference hall of the Bangabandhu Internation-al Conference Centre, Hasina took an hour to read 26 pages of the manifes-to leaving out the portions containing the “successes” of her government be-tween 2009 and 2013.

“No evil force can detract us from the peaceful path of development and progress that we have initiated,” the AL chief said seeking vote for a second consecutive term to make Bangladesh free from hunger, illiteracy, malnutri-tion and power shortages.

“Awami League’s re-election would make politics free from enmity, vio-lence, and confrontations, and Ban-gladesh will come out of the morass of corruption and criminalisation. A tol-erant democratic system will then be a reality,” she said.

She said her party over the next � ve years would present the people with a new vision of development upto 2041.

The AL president repeated her stance against religious fanaticism, militancy and extremism.

“The religious rights of the people would be guaranteed. No law against the Quran and Sunnah would be enact-ed,” said Hasina with a stress.

“The Election Commission has been shaped as an independent constitu-tional body and made stronger and-more e� cient than before. The com-mission will be made more powerful in future,” she said.

Hasina said her next government would make the Anti-Corruption Com-mission stronger and a more e� ective body.

“Tough measures will be taken against bribery, undisclosed income, black money, loan defaulting, snatch-ing of tender documents and muscle power,” said Hasina, amid clapping from activists of Chhatra League.

The AL government in Novem-ber passed a law curtailing the au-thority of the autonomous Anti-Corruption Commission to � le cases against public servants charged with corruption.

Hasina reiterated her 2008 pledge to make parliament e� ective with two short paragraphs on the constitution and parliament, with no reference to opposition parties. l

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

PM promises secondPadma, Jamuna bridges n Asif Showkat Kallol

With no sign of the � rst Padma Bridge, the Awami League has pledged to com-plete the second Padma and Jamuna Bridges in the next � ve years, if elected into o� ce.

The Prime Minister and Awa-miLeague President, Sheikh Hasina yesterday said:“Our government will construct the second Pamda and Jamu-na bridges within � ve years if the Awa-miLeague comes to power again.”

She was speaking at the unveiling of the party’s manifesto for the upcoming 10th parliamentary election, at the Bangaband-hu International Convention Centre.

According to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), however, the bud-get for the Padma Bridge project in the current � scal year has been cut by half, as the government was unable to complete the tender process for main construction work because of political instability and other technical reasons.

O� cials said the tender submission date for 6.15km-long bridge’s construc-tion has been re-� xed on January 9 as the previous last date for submission – December 19 had coincided with the op-position-enforced blockade programme.

The submission date for the Padma Bridge’s river training work has also been shifted to February 20 from January 6.

Meanwhile, with just over a week to the general elections, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina has distanced her party from those accused of cor-ruption in the Padma bridge project.

Hasina on Thursday told a rally in Faridpur:“Those accused of being in-volved in the Padma bridge graft case are not my relatives.”

Former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain, whose name had � gured in the scam, had resigned. He has not been nominated to contest up-coming elections. The World Bank had suspended its $1.2 billion loan for the bridge alleging corruption conspiracy. l

Children brought to capital to reinforce Dhaka march PAGE 1 COLUMN 5chat with them was that the kids were brainstormed by the Chhatra Shibir stalwarts with ideas of “saving the country” from the grasp of the ruling Awami League.

Unconcerned and undaunted by the enormity of the risk to join the pro-gramme, the school-going adolescents were persuaded to head for the capital.

Of them was a 13-year-old, Polash, a seventh grader. The little boy said a group of 10 boys like him came to Dha-ka on Thursday to join the BNP-led op-position called “march for Democracy” programme.

The teenage boy said he along with his squad left his village Chauddogram and came to Comilla by bus and rode on a train to reach Dhaka.

“Our seniors (Chhhata Shibir leaders)

told us we needed to go to attend the Dhaka programme for the betterment of Islam and the country,” said Polash.

While talking to this correspondent yesterday morning, the boy revealed that now he had been staying at a res-idence in Khilgaon.

The house belongs to one of their student wing leader’s uncle.

Asked how he was involved with Chhatra Shibir, Polash said he joined the student organisation by � ling up a designated form.

“Three days ago, our school unit president informed us that we have to join the programme in Dhaka to save Is-lam and the country from the iron hand of the ruling Awami League.”

He said: “Awami League was killing people and unlawfully hanging their innocent leaders in jail for war crimes,

and for this reason, we are here to pro-test,” he said.

The soft mind absorbed the idea of what their school unit leaders instilled into them.

Being least concerned about what the fate would hold out to them, they were � ying on rosy wings with the thought that they would be able to see Khaleda Zia, an opportunity they termed great.

“I have never seen Khaleda Zia be-fore. It would be great if I can see her,” he said.

Asked whether his family knew about his joining the party programme, Polash remained silent. On being coaxed into talking about the matter, he denied making any comment.

In reply to a question if he was of-fered any money for attending the pro-gramme, Polash also kept mum.

He, however, said this much that his leaders instructed them not to talk about the matter.

A Shibir source said the party brought at least 20,000 school-going students from across the country to join the opposition’s “Dhaka march” for what they said an e� ort to “bring back democracy” and to curb the ruling party “repression” on the opposition.

The source added that the stu-dents would be lined up in front of the “march” with national � ags wrapped around their foreheads.

Jamaat-e-Islami also brought school- and madrassa-going students to the capital and elsewhere in the country to join their agitation pro-grammes, often using the children as human-shield in � ght with the law en-forcers. l

10% GDP target by 2021 24000MW electricity by 2021Electricity in every household in 5 yearsWomen Policy to be implementedTwo Padma bridges, one over Jamuna Public, private universities in every districtE-governance to be expended to all levelsNo law contradicting Qur’an and SunnahReligion-based politics to be prohibited

AL MANIFESTO 2014

Dhaka march to chaos begins here PAGE 1 COLUMN 2alliance su� ered a massive defeat in the ninth parliamentary polls in 2008.

Although she had expressed her de-termination to join the rally at any cost, the government last night deployed a huge number of law enforcers around her Gulshan residence.

Law enforcers have put up barri-cades with sand-laden trucks at either ends of the road that her residence is located at.

Police, however, have refused to make any comment regarding bee� ng up security in the area.

Party sources said in case the op-position leader was eventually not allowed to attend the rally today, she would announce the next course of ac-tion in another video message.

Sources also said the district-level leaders would gather at a pre-� xed place today and start marching towards Nay-apaltan. If obstructed, they would seat there and form resistance if needed.

State Minister for Law Quamrul Is-lam, meanwhile, called upon the ruling Awami League leaders and activists yesterday to come down hard on the opposition during the march. “We need to fend them o� like we did in 1971. We will resist them with sticks and contin-ue to do so until the January 5 elections in January 5.”

Communication Minister Obaidul

Quader said: “We will not attack � rst. We will stay organised and keep watch thor-oughfares. But when they attack, we will resist them by counter attacking.”

Common residents of the capital now fear that stage is set for a situa-tion so chaotic that may surpass any-thing they have witnessed in the recent past, with due respect to all the losses of lives and properties in political pro-grammes.

People from various professional and social spheres have called up the Dhaka Tribune o� ce throughout the day yesterday asking what might pos-sibly happen today.

They said very little public trans-port, especially commercial buses, was available on the city streets throughout the day yesterday.

A businessman from the capital’s Fakirerpul area said he was asked by police to shut his shop down around 6pm.

Local residents from the capital’s Farmgate said around the same time, law enforces removed all the vendors from the footpaths and shut down all shops triggering a panic in the area.

On December 24, opposition leader Khaleda Zia in a press conference an-nounced the “March for Democracy.” She called upon people from all walks of life, including opposition men, to join the march.

The government moved soon after with the law enforcement agencies to restrict Dhaka-bound movement of all kinds of vehicles that ply on roads, rail-ways or waterways. The “government blockade” reached its peak yesterday as reports suggest that virtually no ve-hicle from outside had been allowed to come in to the capital, isolating it from the rest of the country.

Moreover, law enforcers with the label “joint forces” have been raiding one place after another and the houses of opposition leaders and activists in the capital and also around the country and making indiscriminate arrests – all to prevent them from converging to Dhaka.

Starting on Friday until last night, around 500 people have been arrested in separate drives in the capital and other districts.

However, the opposition leaders have been claiming that nobody could stop “thousands” of their men from en-tering the capital and making their rally a “grand success” for which they have not got the permission at all.

Chittagong city unit BNP Vice-Pres-ident Abu Su� an, who claimed to be on his way to Dhaka around 7:15pm yesterday, said around 10,000 oppo-sition men, including BNP Vice-Chair-man Abdullah Al Noman, from the port city had reached the capital tactfully

after Khaleda Zia announced the pro-gramme on December 24.

Chittagong city unit Jamaat-e-Islami Publicity secretary Mohammad Ullah said a few groups of their party men were already on their way to Dhaka when this report was being � led last evening.

Terming the “rush” towards the capital illegal, police high ups said they would not allow those, who have been carrying out sabotage and creating an-archy around the country, to do the same in Dhaka.

As of 6pm yesterday, no leader or activist of BNP could be seen anywhere in and around the Nayapaltan o� ce, al-though leaders said making the march successful should not be a problem be-cause apart from only about detained 30, the members of BNP’s 486-strong central committee were free.

Insiders say the march is an ac-id-test for the senior leaders of BNP. The prevailing mood within the par-ty is that if the leaders, who the party chief had slammed in the past for not taking to streets during protests, come out this time, the programme will be successful.

Meanwhile, a senior Jamaat leader claimed that more than one lakh 30 thousand leaders and activists were ready to join the programme and that they had made two lakh � ags. l

Transport restriction hits commuters PAGE 1 COLUMN 3urged people from all walks of life to converge on Nayapaltan for Dhaka march to press home their demand for an election under a nonparty govern-ment.

Centring the opposition’s pro-gramme, police high-ups said they would not allow the troublemakers to come to Dhaka and create anarchy un-der the cover of a political programme.

The commuters observed that they did not experience this kind of “strike” even during the opposition-called back-to-back nationwide blockades and Jamaat-called hartals.

Talking with the Dhaka Tribune some called the transport restriction “government-sponsored blockade”, the same of which was created by the government to foil BNP’s rally on March 12.

In the capital, commuters were seen wait at di� erent bus stations since morning.

Long queues were seen at Shah-bagh, Banglamotor, Farmgate, Mogh-bazar, Mirpur, Asadgate, Jatrabari and Mohakhali bus stations. 

CNG-run three-wheelers, small trucks and rickshaws capitalised on the tra� c restriction.

From Mirpur to Motijheel, bus fare

is only Tk20, but yesterday commuters had to spare Tk200 for the commute.

“We have paid Tk200 each to reach Gabtoli from Manikganj,” said one mini-truck rider Mozammel Haque who had two children and wife with him.

He was struggling to get a vehicle to reach Sadarghat launch terminal from where he would embark on a journey by sea to Bhola to attend his father’s � rst death anniversary tomorrow.

Sources said only 13 vessels reached the anchorage from di� erent districts.

A BIWTA tra� c inspector Syed Mah-fuzur Rahman said six launches left the terminal in the morning with a handful of passengers.

Asked why water vessels were not plying, he said launches ceased to ply for security reason.

Our Barisal correspondent reports at least 7 triple-deck launches were kept idle near Beltala shipyard, about two kilometres from the launch terminal.

Barisal Launch Owners’ Association sources said no-launch would sail for Dhaka because of the restriction im-posed by the administration.

Aftab Hossain, president of the city Sramik League and Barisal Bus Owners’ Association, claimed that the plying of buses and launches were stopped, not by the pressure of administration, but

by the decision of the association.Many passengers thronged Kam-

lapur Railway Station for train, the mode of transport they could at least rely during blockades and hartals, but to no avail this time.

A private company employee Syed Sahidul Alam said he bought a ticket of Gadhuli Express to go to Chittagong which was supposed to leave Dhaka at 3:20pm, but the authorities announced that it was uncertain when the train would come.

“I had already spent Tk600 on the fare of a CNG-auto rickshaw to go to Syedabad bus station from Gandaria, but failed to get any transport.”

Sahidul Alam said he had gone to Shyamoli and experienced the same situation.

Several passengers at the railway station said the station master and the manager had to leave their o� ce around 9am following protest by the aggrieved passengers waiting for trains for hours.

“Somehow, we managed the situa-tion. Passengers will be given their re-funds,” a sta� of the station manager’s o� ce said, seeking anonymity.

Our correspondent reports all Dha-ka-bound trains from northern districts were being barred at Tangail station

from entering the capital following the authorities’ order.

Padma Express from Rajshahi and Nilsagar Express from Nilphamari were sent back to their respective starting points after they reached Gharinda Railway Station in Tangail at 7:10am and 7:40am.

On the other hand most inter-dis-trict bus companies kept the shutters of their counters down.

At Gabtoli, SP Golden Line’s counter Manager Arifuzzaman said the buses that left Jessore and Satkhira Friday evening were yet to reach the capital.

“Ferries are not plying. So, we don’t know when the buses will come,” he said.

local Awami League and Workers’ League activists were seen take po-sitions near Gabtoli to resist for what they said anarchy by the opposition in the name of Dhaka march.

A highly placed source at Police headquarters said the long-distance vehicles would not ply till Sunday eve-ning.

Moreover, transport associations in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Khulna called a two-day transport strike from yesterday morning, pro-testing the recent vandalism and arson attacks on vehicles. l

Khaleda’s movement restricted! PAGE 1 COLUMN 1might be.

SM Saleh Ahmed, private secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Khale-da Zia, told Dhaka Tribune that she was scheduled to go to her o� ce last eve-ning. “But the in-charge of the special branch protection team said at about 8:30pm that the authorities have with-drawn them from duty.”

Ahmed said he had contacted the home secretary to know about the withdrawal of the special branch pro-tection. “The secretary said he will look into the matter.”

However, the secretary did not come up with any solution [till � ling of this report at 12:30am], he added.

Witnesses said at least � ve sand-lad-en trucks had been positioned at either ends of the street in which Khaleda Zia’s residence located.

Ashraful Alam Liton, driver of one of the trucks, told the Dhaka Tribune that he, along with another truck, was coming to the Shahjalal airport fromAshulia. On the way he was stopped by a police sergeant. Liton said he had no idea how long he would have to stay there.

Around 10pm, a group of pro-BNP journalists entered Khaleda Zia’s res-idence and stayed there for nearly an hour. After coming out, they told the waiting journalists that she was still determined to attend today’s rally.

Ruhul Amin Gazi, president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union

of Journalists, said Khaleda Zia had strongly protested the lifting of securi-ty protocol and the bee� ng up of secu-rity around her residence.

When contacted police refused to make any comment regarding strength-ening security in and around the oppo-sition leader’s residence.

However, seeking anonymity, a po-lice o� cial said at least four platoons of law enforcers, including a signi� cant number of female members, had been stationed in the area.

Earlier in the evening before securi-ty was beefed up in the area, Khanda-ker Lutful Kabir, DC of Gulshan police, said: “No restriction has so far been imposed on the movement of Khaleda Zia; but if she wants to go out she needs to talk to us � rst.”

The BNP on December 27, released a video message of Khaleda, which had hints that the party feared she might be kept con� ned and not allowed to come out to join the rally.

The clip, recorded at her Gulshan o� ce a day before, was made public hours after the party was denied per-mission to hold today’s rally in front of its Nayapaltan headquarters.

The former premier announced the Dhaka March programme – “March for Democracy” - from a press conference on December 24, which resulted in deployment of additional law enforce-ment o� cials around her house and o� ce barring party activists from en-tering them. l

‘Jan 5 polls to deepen political crisis’ PAGE 1 COLUMN 3However, Bangladesh Liberation War Museum Trustee Dr Sarwar Ali said currently, there was no way to stop the election as it had already been sched-uled.

He added that each and every elec-tion held after the 90’s faced some sort of crises though currently the level of crisis was at its peak.

To avoid the election, Iftekharuz-zaman, executive director of TIB, sug-gested that people could avoid the elec-tion holding symbolic hunger strike on January 05, the day of polls to make the government understand that they had been doing a meaningless election.

The recent political crisis broke out last month when the Election Commis-sion declared the 10th parliamentary election schedule while the main op-position had been demanding for an election under the caretaker govern-ment system.

BNP boycotted the polls and en-forced programmes like blockades to realise its demand.

Anisul Haque, former president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) said the business sector of the country had mostly su� ered due to the continuous blockades.

“The recent downgrading trajectory of economic situation shows that the country’s annual development pro-gramme would not be implemented if the violence continued,” he added.

Tapan Chowdhury, former advisor to the caretaker government expressed concern over the existing political cri-sis.

The business tycoon said: “Twotop leaders never think about the country’s future and economy. If they thought so, they would work out a compromise.”

In his address, BNP Vice-Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said they were ready to hold dialogue over the crisis for the sake of the country’s de-velopment provided the government showed its positive attitude.

Rashed Khan Menon, minister for Post and Telecommunications of the polls-time government, said the crisis had been created not only for the polls and democracy, but also for saving the war criminals though the issue had not been discussed at the forum remark-ably.

The government started dialogue with the BNP several times – twice with the UN delegation �Oscar Fernan-dez-Taranco, though BNP did not make it continue, he added. l

Govt urges Hefazat not to join Dhaka Marchn Tribune Report

The government yesterday requested Hefazat-e Islam Ameer Shah Ahmad Sha� to make sure that none of his ac-tivists would take part in the opposi-tion’s Dhaka March programme.

Major General Mia Md Jainul Abe-din, military secretary to Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina, made the request as he met Sha� at his o� ce, a central leader of the organisation told the Dha-ka Tribune preferring not to be named.

As the Hefazat is not a political party it has given no instruction to its activ-ists to join any political programme, another senior leader of the Islamist organisation quoted Sha� as saying to PM’s military secretary.

Many people of the Hefazat belong to di� erent political parties and if they join the programme the organisation has nothing to do, Sha� added.

Around 11am Jainul Abedin went to Darul Ulum Moinul Islam Madrasa at

Hathazari in Chittagong to meet Sha� , Moulana Munir Ahmed, press secretary to Sha� , con� rmed the Dhaka Tribune.

During the two-hour-long meeting Chittagong district administrator MA Salam was present, he said.

Hefazat-e Islam Secretary Gener-al Junaid Babunagri, Joint Secretary Moulana Mainuddin Ruhi, and cen-tral Publicity Secretary and Sha� ’s son Anas Madani were also present at the meeting.

Earlier, Shah Ahmed Sha� , chief of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, in an open letter issued yesterday urged the government to stop “farce” in the name of election as “none” was accrediting it as an election.

“As the parliament is still active, amend the constitution through con-vening parliament session to ensure an election with the participation of all parties,” he said adding that otherwise Hefazat would also take to the street in association with the general people. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

AL to man city’s entry points, streetsn Emran Hossain Shaikh

Leaders and activists of ruling Awami League will stand guard at the city’s entry points to stave o� attempts by opposition marchers to enter the city and hold a prescheduled rally today.

The party has already instructed its activists to remain “prepared with sticks,” stay vigilant from sunup to sun-down and hand over potential intrud-ers to the law enforcement agencies.

All associate bodies of the party in-cluding Jubo League and Chhatra League will take position near entry points, bus stops, launch terminals, train stations

and major thoroughfares of Dhaka. The order to prevent opposition ac-

tivists from converging was expressly articulated during a meeting of the city unit of Awami League at the Bangab-andhu Avenue yesterday.

Communication Minister Obaidul Quader, also presidium member of Awami League, termed BNP’s March for Democracy “farcical” and “undem-ocratic” and blamed its leaders for sus-taining terrorism and militancy.

“BNP said it wanted to save democra-cy, but we want to save people and their wealth, and this is why we will stay alert on the streets,” he said, adding there

was “no way” the opposition would succeed in organising its movement.

Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, general secretary of the city unit, in a speech full of bellicose rhetoric, urged the party men to be on guard in their respective wards.

“Strike anyone who presumes to enter the city so that they do not dare come to Dhaka ever again,” he said.

“Do not allow even a � y to enter, if it wants to. This movement of ours will go on as long as Khaleda Zia and her ally Jamaat-Shibir are in the country.

“If any leader or activist [associated with Awami League] fears being at-

tacked, I would simply expel them and their committee would be dissolved. No activist or leader of ours can get at-tacked, can they?”

State Minister of Law Quamrul Islam spoke in the same vein, asking party leaders and activists to resist the “mis-creants”.

“They want to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan. We all must be very careful so that they do not succeed.

“We have to be prepared with sticks tomorrow [today] as we did during the war of liberation in 1971. But this is not where we stop, we must be present in the � eld till January 5.” l

Joint forces ‘harass’ innocentsn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The joint forces, comprises of police, Rab and the BGB, are allegedly harass-ing and arresting huge number of inno-cent people alongside opposition lead-ers and activists in di� erent parts of the country during their special drives against criminals as part of security measures taken ahead of the January 5 general elections.

During a visit to the Dhaka lower court yesterday, this correspondent found large number victims who were produced before the court by police af-ter arresting them on Friday night.

Family members of those victims were also waiting at the court premises for their bails.

The joint forces arrested Firoz Khan Liton, 45, and Aziz Khan Bablu, 42, two brothers from Savar, and produced them before the Dhaka District Magis-trate Court yesterday.

Khairul, cousin of the two broth-ers, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The joint forces raided their house at Friday mid-night to arrest the victims’ younger brother Asaduzzaman Mohon, 28. Mo-hon is the president of Ashulia thana unit BNP.”

Liton and Bablu were innocent, Khairul claimed, and alleged that the law enforcers threatened their family members and carried out vandalism during the raid.

After investigating into the incident, this correspondent found that Khairul’s claims are true. Locals told the corre-spondent that the two brothers had no political connection.

A woman, seeking anonymity, said

police arrested her son, who is a bus conductor, and one of his colleague without any reason while they were re-turning home Friday night.

She did not disclose her son’s name fearing that if his name was published in the newspaper, police would not re-lease him from.

Meanwhile, law enforcers Rubayet Khaim, owner of Aziz Motors at Purana Paltan, and all his sons and employees

during Friday’s clash between law en-forcers and banned Islamic out� t Hizb-ut Tahrir.

The victim’s family members and witnesses said police shot at Rubay-et’s house that left one of his sons in-jured, adding that the law enforcers also stormed the showroom on the � rst � oor and his house at the second � oor.

However, Paltan police released them all at 10pm that night, Rabbi

Ahmed Tushar, nephew of Rubayet, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Locals said the victims had no in-volvement with any political parties, adding that they go for Tabligh.

The oppositions, meanwhile, al-leged that the government was harass-ing, repressing and arresting opposi-tion leaders and activists in the name drives by joint forces only to foil the 18-party’s ongoing movement. l

Police seize 1,500 � ags in Munshiganjn Our Correspondent, Munshiganj

Police yesterday seized around 1,500 national � ags from a tailor shop in Munshiganj because they were being made for BNP’s “March for Democra-cy” programme.

Sources said BNP sadar upazila Presi-dent Md Mohiuddin had given the order to make 2,000 national � ags to Sharif Tailors in the Teler Bil area of the town.

A team from Muktarpur Navy-Police Outpost conducted a drive on Friday

night and seized the � ags. Sources said Mohiuddin gave

Tk20,000 in advance to the shop own-er, Sharif, but only 1,500 � ags had been completed. Sub-Inspector Belal Uddin con� rmed the matter and said they would give the � ags back to Sharif after December 29.

Munshiganj district BNP has been taking preparations to gather around 20,000-30,000 leaders in Dhaka for the “march-for-democracy” programme scheduled to be held today. l

500 arrested from vehicles in districts n Kailash Sarkar

The joint forces of police, RAB and BGB have arrested around 500 people from around the country including the cap-ital between Friday night and yester-day morning, ahead of the opposition’s Dhaka march programme.

The drives were allegedly focused on picking up BNP-Jamaat men, es-pecially those who were coming to Dhaka on passenger buses for joining the “March to Democracy” and the Nayapaltan rally.

Apart from 203 people picked up from the capital’s Tejgaon, 126 pas-sengers have been arrested in Tangail from a number of Dhaka-bound trains and buses, 30 from a bus in Rajshahi that was headed for the capital, and 24 from the capital’s Sadarghat after they arrived in launches.

Another 95 people were arrested in Bogra, 80 in Chittagong, 20 in Savar, 14 in Joypurhat, 33 in Comilla, 16 in Brah-manbaria, six in Laxmipur, 12 in Suna-mganj, 30 in Rajshahi, 12 in Jhenidah, seven in Khulna and six in Natore.

Inspector General of Police Has-san Mahmood Khandker, said the law enforcers had been discharging their duties neutrally and none had been ar-rested unlawfully.

“Police has no stance either against or in favour of any political programme”, the IGP said. “The law enforcers are doing everything to ensure security for public and their properties.”

Biplab Kumer Sarkar, deputy com-missioner of Tejgaon police, told Dha-ka Tribune that the detained people had been taken to the police stations concerned and their identities were being veri� ed. “If any of them is found innocent, they will be released imme-diately.”

Earlier, more than 170 people were arrested early Thursday and Friday in the capital’s Mirpur, Jatrabari and Demra areas by the joint forces.

In Tangail, 126 passengers were picked up from different Dhaka-bound trains, buses and other vehicles yesterday. Nazrul Islam, OC of Sadar police station, said they had arrested them on suspicion that they might take part in subversive acts in the capital centring the march programme.

In Sadarghat in the capital, 16 were detained from various launches com-ing in from Bhola, and eight from Eagle 2, coming from Chandpur.

In Rajshahi, at least 30 passengers of a Dhaka-bound bus of Bornali Pari-bahan were detained at Boalia around 2:30pm yesterday.

In Bogra, 95 people were arrested for their alleged involvement in arson, vandalism, violence, anarchy and at-tacks on police.

In Savar near Dhaka, 15 people, in-cluding two municipality ward coun-cilors, were arrested on charges of giv-ing rise to violence during the ongoing political agitation. l

Police pick up a woman activist of opposition alliance from Matsya Bhaban area with lea� ets calling people to join the ‘March for Democracy’ in the capital today MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

A group of pro-Awami League activists bring out a stick procession in the capital, protesting opposition called ‘March for Democracy’ in front of the National Press Club yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Jubo League leader injured n Our Correspondent, Feni

A Juba League leader was injured in an attack allegedly by Shibir activists at Sorailkandi, Feni on Friday night.

The victim Mahumudul Haque Bobi, 34, was the president of ward 3 Jubo League. The miscreants uprooted Bo-bi’s left eye and cut the tendons of his legs around 3am on the night. He was admitted to Chittagong Medical Col-

lege Hospital soon after the attack.Bobi’s father Obaidul Haque claimed

that the activists of local Jamaat-Shibir called Bobi out of home over the cell phone. He was taken to a nearby place and was assaulted. The miscreants � ed away as the locals came forward hear-ing his scream.

Md Mostafa, ameer of local Jamaat, said: “We are not involved with such a crime.” l

JS to be made e� ective, says AL manifesto n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The Awami League manifesto for the January 5 polls has reiterated its 2008 promise of making e� ective the legis-lature that remained ine� ective mainly for prolonged absence of main opposi-tion BNP and Jamaat and the use of ob-jectionable comments by several ruling party MPs.

The latest manifesto which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled yes-terday says: “The constitution will be protected, and democracy and demo-cratic institutions will be made strong-er. Measures will be in place for making parliament e� ective.”

The 2013 pledge has no reference to the opposition parties which has very

crucial role in making the government accountable.

In 2008, the party pledged amend-ing the constitution to create two posts of the deputy speakers with one go-ing to the opposition. But the promise never came true as the ruling Awami League said the opposition had not co-operated with the treasury bench for electing the deputy speakers.

Critics say the Awami League was not interested in bringing the boycott-ing opposition back to parliament.

The treasury bench on the second day of the current ninth parliament re-duced the number of seats in the front row in the opposition desk to three from 10. The Awami League argued that the BNP, which had 30 seats in the

300-seat Chamber, should get frontline seats according to their party strength as followed by the BNP government in 2001-06.

On the other hand, the BNP said the frontline seats on the left hand side of the speaker were for the opposi-tion. They also threatened to boycott the House unless their seats were in-creased.

Former speaker Abdul Hamid then increased one seat for them, but it was not enough.

Many Awami League leaders think that the latest manifesto should not bother about the opposition as most of the political parties boycotted the polls in which 154 candidates were elected unopposed. l

AL drops provision to submit wealth statement n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The ruling Awami League in its mani-festo unveiled yesterday for the Jan-uary 5 elections has dropped its pre-vious promise of submitting wealth statements of the lawmakers and the ministers.

It promised to formulate rules for making the collective and personal activities of the MPs accountable to the people inside and outside parliament.

In the 2008 polls manifesto, Sheikh Hasina said her cabinet colleagues and the MPs would submit wealth state-ments as part of the government’s ini-tiative to ensure transparency. But the promise was not materialised during the last � ve years.

Besides this, the Awami League gov-ernment did not pass a private-mem-ber bill, which Saber Hossain Chow-dhury initiated for the regulation of the MPs behaviour inside and outside parliament.

The Awami League lawmaker proposed forming an all-party parliamentary committee to oversee and censure the misuse of authority of the legislators and debar them from getting involved with the con� ict-of-interests.

As a private member, Saber on Jan-uary 14, 2010 tabled the “The Code of Conduct of the MPs Bill 2010” con-taining the provision of the ethic com-mittee. The parliamentary watchdog concerned unanimously requested the House to pass the bill charting out sev-en guidelines for the MPs in discharg-ing their duties.

In the bill, the lawmaker said he had placed the bill with the spirit of self-regulation of the MPs who make laws for the regulation of others.

“The all-party ethics committee will discuss any reported behaviours of the MPs [either published in media or on receiving complaint from people] per-ceived to be misconducts, and recom-

mend to the House whether these are against the rule of law or unethical,” he said.

The former minister said the ethics committee’s report would in� uence the public opinion before elections that came after every � ve years.

“MPs facing censure from the ethics committee and the House will de� nite-ly face public criticism when they seek re-election,” said Saber who sent a no-tice to the speaker for the passage of the law.

Explaining the con� ict of interests, he had told the Dhaka Tribune: “If I am a shipping businessman, I must de-clare in the House that I have interest in the matter. But I am forced to raise the matter for the greater sake of the people. Thus, transparency of the law-makers comes.”

Con� ict of interests The current parliament has many

MPs who have members of the parlia-mentary standing committees on min-istries in which they have interests, in violation of the Rules of Procedure.

For instance, a shipping trader, Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury, also a neph-ew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on shipping min-istry.

Awami League’s businessman MP Abul Kashem, whose brother is a lead-ing businessman in Chittagong, is the chairman of the parliamentary stand-ing committee on commerce ministry. Another businessman Sk A� l Uddin is the member of the committee.

AHM Mustafa Kamal, having in-terest in the capital market and other � nancial institutes, is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on � nance ministry.

Tajul Islam, a director of Jamuna Bank, is also a member of the same standing committee. He has been heading a parliamentary sub-commit-tee on the performance of the state-owned banks. l

Not indigenous, its small ethnic groups, says AL manifesto n Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The Awami League changed the term to refer the indigenous people in its 2014’s election manifesto yesterday.

The charter used the terms “small ethnic group” and “tribal” instead of “indigenous.”

Article 18 (i) of the 2008’s manifes-to reads: “Terrorism, discriminatory treatment and human rights violations against religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous people must come to an end permanently…”

But article 22.1 of the latest manifes-to, states: “The result of constitutional recognition of the small ethnic groups would ensure elimination of human rights violation of religious and ethnic people and tribal…”

Article 19 of Awami League’s the party charter, however, still refers to such minority people as “indigenous people.”

The government through the � f-teenth amendment to the constitution in 2011 inserted “small ethnic groups” referring the indigenous population amid huge criticism at home and abroad.

Post and Telecommunication Minis-ter Rashed Khan Menon said the Awa-mi League’s proposition became clear during the � fteenth amendment. He also opined that if the government re-mained sincere in ensuring indigenous people’s rights, such titling should not be considered as an issue. l

More human bones from Rana Plaza ruinsn Tribune Report

Seven and a half months after the closure of the of-� cial rescue operation at Rana Plaza collapse site, hu-man bones are still coming out, thanks to the curiosity of a few local residents who dared crossing the barbed enclosure.

Yesterday, more than 100 pieces of human bones were recovered and handed over to the po-lice by the local people, following four such con-signments earlier this month.

“Bones are coming out almost with every scrap on the surface of debris. Skulls are coming out, jaws and little � nger pieces. To me, it is noth-ing else but a ‘baddhabhumi’ [killing ground] or ‘ganakabar’ [mass grave],” Jiarul Islam, a worker of Phantom Apparels who survived the collapse, told the UNB at the site.

The Inter Services Public Relations Directorate in a statement on September 1 claimed that 261 people, who were inside Rana Plaza during the

collapse, remained untraced till then. The Army identi� ed those 261 out of 329 people

who were reportedly missing after the collapse. The army declared the end of the search on May 13 after re-covering 1,115 bodies. 234 dead bodies retrieved from the site were buried at the Jurain Graveyard. l

10 held with shipping valuables in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested 10 people as they were attempting to � ee after stealing valuables from a for-eign ship at the Outer Anchorage of Chittagong Port early yesterday.

They also seized a motorboat, that was used in the crime, from the outer anchorage area, coastguard o� cials said.

A press release of Bangladesh Coast Guard said a team nabbed the 10 al-leged thieves from the bay around 12am after receiving information from MV Alam Mesra, from which the valu-ables were stolen.

The arrestees were handed over to Karnaphuli police station and a case was lodged in this regard. l

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

City High LowDhaka 22.0 13.3Chittagong 24.0 14.0Rajshahi 17.3 09.9Rangpur 15.5 12.0Khulna 24.0 12.4Barisal 22.6 12.0Sylhet 22.7 10.6Cox’s Bazar 25.5 14.5

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:19am

Sunrise 6:40amZohr 12:00am

Asr 3:45pmMagrib 5:21pm

Esha 6:42pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Dry weather likelyn UNB

Weather is likely to remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country until 6pm today.

Chances of light rain or drizzle at one or two places over Rangpur and Sylhet divisions and the regions of My-mensingh, Met o� ce said.

Moderate to thick fog may occur over the river basins and light to mod-erate fog elsewhere over the country during night till morning.

A mild cold wave is sweeping over the regions of Pabna, Rajshahi and Sri-mangal. Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:21pm today and rises at 6:40am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 25.5 degree Celsius was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf and lowest 8.5 de-grees at Ishwardi yesterday.

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

Cold wave makes life hardn Tribune Report

The recent cold waves accompanied with chilled winds and dense fogs has made life di� cult, especially for the low income people of the country, as the hostile weather adds to their su� erings.

The persistent dense fog for the last few days has also disrupted road and water communications as transports were delayed for at least 4-6 hours in reaching their destinations yesterday.

The northern wind along with on-going moderate cold wave has already made the lives of the poor miserable, said Dr Habibur Rahman, a health and citizen rights activist.

“Day labours, hawkers and make-shift vendors have to open their shop late in the morning and close early at night as both the sellers and buyers are a� ected by the ongoing cold wave,” said Ali Ahmed, a shop owner at Puran Bazar kitchen market of the city.

Marjina Begum, a day labourer at a con-struction sites, said construction works in most of the places in city have been suspended. “Elderly people, children and new-born babies are mostly vulnerable to sickness with the biting cold sweeping the region. Many of them are su� ering from pneumonia,” said Dr ATM Mizanur Rah-man, Barisal district civil surgeon.

Barisal Port O� cer Md Shahidullah said water transports including  triple-decker launches Sundarban-7, Kirtank-hola-2, Parabat-9 and Dwipraj reached Barisal from Dhaka after 6 hours of the

scheduled time yesterday because of dense fog on river routes.

Alamgir Hossain, secretary of Bari-sal bus owners association, said night coaches from Dhaka and eastern part of Padma reached Barisal in the afternoon.

The ferry service on Mawa-Keurakandi was suspended and hun-dreds of vehicles got stuck on both the sides of the river.

Sirajul Islam, manager of Bangla-desh Inland Water Transport Corpora-tion, Mawa, said water transports and ferry service remained suspended to avoid accidents.

Meanwhile, dense fog and cold spell partially paralysed life in Chittagong with massive disruption of air, water and road communications causing untold su� er-ings to thousands of people, reports BSS.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) sources said plying of all kinds of ships in port channel remained suspended since last night. The port authority was compelled to stop movements of as many as eight vessels to and from Chit-tagong owning to poor visibility.

Chittagong Shah Amanat Interna-tional Airport (CSAIA) sources said dense fog disrupted � ight operations at the airport today. Wing Commandar Nure Alam, manager of CSAIA said op-erations of domestic and international � ights remained suspended till noon.

One regular international � ight sched-uled to land at Shahjalal International Airport at 3am on Friday night could not land and had to make force landing at

Shah Amanat International Airport. Normal life has been a� ected badly

due to cold weather accompanied by cold wind and dense fog for the last couple of days in Rajshahi as well. The su� erings of daily wage earners like day labourers, rickshaw pullers and farm labourers have also mounted.

Met o� ce sources said the tempera-tures marked further fall due to de-crease in humidity and the blowing of Himalayan winds from the north and north-western directions.

Mounting cold spell with mild chilly wind and heavy fog has triggered cold-related diseases. The number of patients su� ering from pneumonia, asthma and respiratory complications increased in the hospitals, especially in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital with rise in the bite of cold, hospital sources said.

Professor Iqbal Bari of Pediatrics De-partment of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital said three Paediatrics wards of the hospital have become overcrowded with patients attacked with cold related diseases. Many patients had to stay on the � oor of the wards. A huge number of children, attacked with viral fever, ARTI (Acute Respiratory Tract Infection), bronchitis, pneumonia and diarrhoea, are being admitted to the hospital.

Many elderly patients, attacked with asthma, bronchitis, respiratory infec-tion, and cold allergies, are also being rushed to the hospital.

Met O� cials said foggy weather will continue for next two to three days. l

JSC, JDC result to be published today n Tribune Report

The result of Junior School Certi� cate and Junior Dakhil Certi� cate examina-tions will be published today, educa-tion ministry o� cials said.

The Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is expected to announce the re-sults at 1 PM in the secretariat. The re-sult will be available at education insti-tutions at 2 PM.

Students can also collect their result through mobile operators’ short mess-ing system and the website of the edu-cation boards.

The examinations, scheduled to begin on November 4, were delayed due to hartal enforced by the opposi-tion parties. The examinations started on November 7. The examination was scheduled to end on November 20 but was delayed for hartals. l

Remittance and manpower export slide: RMMRUMigration of unskilled labour and little expansion of traditional markets blamedn Rabiul Islam

After many years, the country has ex-perienced a decrease in remittance, while overseas employment also fell compared to last year, a report by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Re-search Unit (RMMRU) has revealed.

At a press conference at Jatiya Press Club yesterday, the RMMRU expressed concerns over the decline, and termed 2013 a “bad year” for labour migration and remittance, because of the nega-tive growth in both sectors.

According to the report, the country

received $13.47bn until December 24 in 2013, while it was previously $14.17bn. Since 1976, the remittance growth had been sustained.

Overseas employment also fell dras-tically this year, with only four lakh workers migrating to di� erent coun-tries in 2013, compared to over six lakh workers going abroad in 2012.

The RMMRU, an a� liated organization of Dhaka University, blamed unskilled la-bour migration and lack of expansion of traditional markets as the main causes of negative growth in remittance and the fall in overseas employment.

While presenting the report, RMM-RU Advisor Tasneem Siddiqui pointed out that although more remittance was now coming through formal channels, the growth was still negative, which was a matter of great concern.

Despite lauding the government initiative to send workers to Malaysia under the government-to-government system, Tasneem said the government had utterly failed to send an adequate quantity of workers, as only 1,000 workers have gone so far.

She mentioned Malaysia had re-quired about � ve lakh workers, but the

government could not lobby profes-sionally to collect demand letters from the Malaysian employers. “As a result, Myanmar and Nepal seized the oppor-tunity,” Tasneem said.

Expressing concern over the reduc-tion of skilled migration, Tasneem said 34.45% skilled workers went abroad for jobs in 2012 but only 19.94% skilled workers had gone abroad in 2013.

Among others, RMMRU Chair advo-cate Shadheen Malik, and Manusher Jonno Foundation Executive Director Shaheen Anam were present at the press conference. l

AL team visits violence a� ected areas in Satkhiran Our Correspondent, Satkhira

A team of Awami League central lead-ers headed by its Joint Secretary Jah-angir Kabir Nanok visited the violence-a� ected areas in Satkhira yesterday.

The team visited the houses of de-ceased Awami Leagu leader Serajul Is-lam of Kuchpukur village under sadar upazila, former Chhatra League leader Mamun Hossain of Kadamtala area and Shibpur union Awami League Presi-dent Rabiul Islam.

They all were killed by Jamaat-Shi-bir cadres. The team also handed over a cheque of Tk2 lakh to the members of each family. Jamaat-Shibir activists have unleashed a reign of terror over the last 10 months in Satkhira since the verdict of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi.

Jahangir Kabir Nanok said Jamaat-Shibir under the leadership of Khaleda Zia is trying to foil the upcoming election of January 5 by resorting to violence.

Afterwards, the team attended an election campaign at Saheed Abdur Razzak Park. Nanok introduced Awami Leagu candidate Mir Mostak Ahmed Robi of Satkhira-2 (sadar) to the people of his constituency. He said if the up-coming election is not held Jamat-Shi-bir will turn the country into Pakistan”, he added.

He begged vote for the Awami League candidate. He also asked the party lead-ers and activists to bring general people to poll centres in order to save the party activists otherwise Jamaat-Shibir activ-ists would kill Awami League men.

Lawmakers Mirza Azam, BM Mo-zammel Haque, former minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque, central committee member MM Kamal, district Awami League President Sheikh Mujibur Rah-man and General Secretary Md Nazrul Islam also attended the gathering. l

No long route bus left the capital yesterday because of the ruling Awami League’s plan to resist opposition alliance called “March for Democracy.” The photo was taken from Sayedabad Bus Terminal NASHIRUL ISLAM

Digital taskforce met only once in 5 years of AL tenuren Muhammad Zahidul Islam

A taskforce established for formulat-ing strategies, policies and decisions for “digital Bangladesh”, as per the rul-ing party’s 2008 election promise, met only once during the tenure of the out-going Awami League-led alliance gov-ernment.

The digital taskforce, headed by the prime minister, incorporates 23 mem-bers from relevant government min-istries and non-government organisa-tions, as well as ICT experts.

While declaring her party’s manifesto for the upcoming 10th parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Ha-sina did not mention a single word about the taskforce.

Some taskforce members quipped that the PM perhaps “totally forgot about it”.

The AL president had earlier criti-cised the previous BNP-Jamaat govern-ment for rendering inoperative an ICT taskforce formed during her party’s 1996-2000 tenure.

“The taskforce on ICT that was es-tablished during the Awami League rule, but rendered ine� ective by the BNP-Jamaat alliance, will be reactivat-ed,” the AL chief claimed in her party’s 2008 manifesto.

After resuming power in January 2009, the new AL government changed

the name of the ICT taskforce to“digital taskforce”, and made it the focal point of digital development in the country.

But the renamed taskforce met only once, in August 2010, in the past � ve years.

In that meeting, the taskforce had decided to meet at least once every three months, but no steps were taken to sit again over the next three years.

“We missed a huge opportunity to active the digital taskforce,” taskforce member Mahbub Zaman told the Dha-ka Tribune.

“Only in a single meeting we decid-ed to establish the new ICT ministry. We also took some other decisions, but as we could not meet again, most never saw the light of day,” said Zaman, who was the president of BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services) in 2010.

The decisions made by the task-force included reducing bandwidth prices, introducing digital signatures and setting up multimedia classrooms in 20,500 schools with laptops and pro-jectors.

The meeting also decided to build a software park at the Janata Tower in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area.

“I had lot more expectations from the digital taskforce, but have been frustrated so far,” said Ananya Raihan, taskforce member and executive direc-tor of DNet.

There was also a discussion about digital land management in the 2010 meeting, but as the taskforce did not meet again, the Asian Development Bank withdrew funding, sources said.

“And now in this (2013) manifesto, Awami League promises to introduce digital land system within the next � ve years,” a source said. l

Anis Ahmed’s ‘The World In My Hands’ launchedn Tribune Report

The World In My Hands, a novel writ-ten by K Anis Ahmed, publisher of the Bengal Lights literary journal, was launched yesterday.

The novel, published by Random House India, is Ahmed’s second book.

The World In My Hands is a politi-cal satire chronicling the fate of two friends who � nd their bonds bitterly tested when they are caught on oppo-site sides of a crisis that upends their country’s social order.

Released in South Asia (and world-wide as e-book) by publishing giant

Random House’s Asian subsidiary, the book has already garnered high praise. Fellow Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam, author of The Good Muslim, describes it as darkly funny, heralding Ahmed as a strong new voice in English writing from Bangladesh. Noted Indian politician and author Shashi Tharoor describes the novel as a poignant and insightful page-turner.

Discussing the issues brought up in his book, which has a � ctional setting, Ahmed said, “Our culture of rhetoric and debate needs more maturation. We go too quickly and easily to ad homi-nem attacks. l

The decisions made by the taskforce included reducing bandwidth prices, introducing digital signatures and setting up multimedia classrooms in 20,500 schools with laptops and projectors

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

DMCH still the only hope for burn patients 1.5 lakh su� ering burn injuries annually, plans to set up new instituten Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The rapidly increasing number of burn patients in the country has turned into a serious health problem, with an es-timated 1.5 lakh people su� ering burn injuries every year.

Burn and plastic surgery special-ists told the Dhaka Tribune that the number of burn (electric, � ame, scald, chemical and others) patients have been gradually increasing; but added that there were limited opportunities of quality healthcare treatment facili-ties in both public and private sectors for thousands of burn patients.

It has been learnt that the 100-bed burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is the only hope of standard burn care treat-ment at low cost. Most patients cannot a� ord expensive treatments being of-fered at the private burn hospitals, re-sulting in many deaths from the lack of timely proper treatment.

In recent times, the DMCH burn unit has seen a spike in the number of arson attack victims, with 131 patients being admitted and 31 of them succumbing to their injuries over the last three months (October 27 to December 25).

Dr Samanta Lal Sen, a renowned burn and plastic surgeon of the coun-try, said the healthcare and treatment of burn patients were totally di� er-ent from any other disease treatment and were also very costly. Moreover, a burn patient had to take long-term healthcare treatment under the su-pervision of burn and plastic surgery expert doctors.

Dr Sen also said there were currently only 40 specialist surgeons, compared to at least 400 surgeons needed to meet the demand. It was next to impossible to ensure high quality treatment of the burn patients with these limited num-ber of expert surgeons, he added.

Sources said the health ministry is going to set up a separate National

Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (NIBPS) at the DMCH very soon, with primary and administrative approval already given in November to establish the NIBPS.

Prof Dr Md Abul Kalam, head of the burn and plastic surgery unit of the DMCH, has been appointed as project director of the NIBPS. A detailed proj-ect proposal for a 20-storied building of the institute has been prepared by the

project director and others.Dr Kalam said a proposal has been

sent to the health ministry for admit-ting 20 students (10 from public and 10 from private institutes) under the insti-tute from the upcoming session. If the proposal gets � nal approval from Bang-abandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Univer-sity, then the NIBPS would contribute to increasing the number of burn and plastic surgery specialists.

DMCH burn unit in last 10 yearsThe burn unit started at the main building of the DMCH as an eight-bed unit. At the end of the 2003, it was upgraded to a separate 50-bed unit at the building opposite of emergency of DMCH. In 2009, the unit was again upgraded to a 100-bed burn and plastic surgery unit.

Seeking anonymity, several burn specialists informed that although there were currently burn units at Chit-tagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur Medical College Hospitals; most of them were not running proper-ly. The DMCH burn unit still had to take the maximum load of burn patients, they added.

Sources at the DMCH burn unit ad-ministrative section said there were more than 300-350 patients admitted at the 100-bed unit. Around 70-80 burn patients come to the outdoor each day, with 10-15 of them getting admitted to the indoor section. l

Year Outdoor patients Indoor Patients Deaths2004 1285 514 1832005 6573 626 2892006 9576 773 3622007 16150 1482 4742008 18750 1679 4432009 19067 2235 4152010 20002 3506 5062011 24154 4653 5402012 33655 5543 563

Year Outdoor patients Indoor Patients Deaths2004 1285 514 1832005 6573 626 2892006 9576 773 3622007 16150 1482 4742008 18750 1679 4432009 19067 2235 4152010 20002 3506 5062011 24154 4653 5402012 33655 5543 563

The DMCH Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit during 2004-2012

A H MAMUN/DT INFOGRAPHIC

Jamaat activist arrested for Jubo League leader killing in Satkhiran Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Joint forces members arrested a Jamaat activist in accusation of killing a local Jubo League leader from village Khet-rapara under Kolaroa upazila in the dis-trict on Saturday afternoon.

The arrested Mukul Hossain is one of the suspected fugitives of the local Jubo League leader Mehedi Hassan Jaz killing case.

Shahadara Khan, o� cer in charge of the Kolaroa police station said Mukul was arrested on a regular drive of joint forces to Khetrapara area.

He said when the joint forces mem-bers went to Khetrapara on a drive to arrest some accused of regular cases, Jamaat and Shibir activists threw brick-bats on them.

The law enforcers retaliated by opening � re. Mukul was later detained and then handed over to the police.

Jubo League leader Jaz Miah was killed at Saraskati area under the same upazila on December 12 in a Jamaat-shi-bir activists’ attack.

Police recovered his dead body from nearby his residence in the area on De-cember 13. l

Road accidents claim seven livesn Tribune Report

A total of seven people were killed in Chittagong, Jessore and Rajshahi in � ve separate accidents over the last two days, injuring 13 others.

In Chittagong, a motorcyclist was killed when a CNG-run auto-rickshaw hit the motorcycle from behind in the port city’s Tiger-pass area yesterday.

The dead Md Saidur Rahman, 25, was a businessman who hailed from Sadeknagar of Rangunia upazila.

Nayek Abdul Bashar of Chittagong Medical College Hospital police out-post said the accident occurred around 5:20pm. Saidur was taken to the CMCH where doctors pronounced him dead.

In Jessore, three people were killed in two road accidents in the district on Friday, reports UNB.

Police said two people were killed and 10 others were injured after a truck had hit a human haulier on the Jes-sore-Magura Highway in Sadar upazi-la during the evening. The dead were Sadia Khatun, 9, of Rajapur village in Sadar upazila, and Jahurunnesa, 55, of Indra village in Bagharpara upazila.

Witnesses said the accident took place around 6pm when the Magu-ra-bound truck from Jessore knocked down the human haulier.

In another accident, Abdur Rashid, 35, a human haulier driver, was killed when a mini truck hit his vehicle at Bi-man intersection around 6am.

In Rajshahi, a man was left spot dead after a van carrying medicines hit him at Sultanganj on the Rajsha-hi-Chapainawabganj Highway Friday night, reports BSS.

The dead Abdur Razzaque, 60, was from Harma village under Sadar upa-zila of Chapainawabganj. Police said the accident occurred around 8:30pm when Razzaque was crossing the road.

Abu Mukaddem Ali, o� cer-in-charge of Godagari police station, said an UD case was recorded in this regard.

In another accident, two people were killed and three others injured at Bhugroil intersection in Poba upazila yesterday morning, reports UNB.

The deceased were Sayem Ali, 14, and Sumi Khatun, 20. Both of them were from Naohatta area.

Ha� zur Rahman, o� cer-in-charge of Shah Makhdum police station, said the accident took place when a bus hit a CNG-driven auto-rickshaw from behind at around 6:30am, leaving � ve people injured. l

Too little, too late n Our Correspondent, Satkhira

The joint forces’ move to arrest cul-prits fomenting and sustaining acts of violence against Awami League leaders and members of Hindu community in Satkhira proved too inadequate to allay fears in the minds of the victims, many of whom were yet to return home.

Many of the a� ected, who were on the run since the start of violence ear-ly this year, said they still felt insecure and suspected fresh eruption of vio-lence ahead of the national elections.

The Dhaka Tribune recently inter-viewed a number of people to know how they view the post-con� ict sit-uations in the district. Their overrid-ing concern appeared to be with the lack of development in arresting the Jamaat-Shibir leaders with suspected links to the attacks.

They alleged that most of the lead-ers and activists of the Islamist party and its student wing were still at large, with the number of arrests made quite insigni� cant. Those arrested, they said, were mere supporters of Jamaat, not the activists directly involved with the murders and arson attacks.

It has been learnt that a number of Hindu villagers had taken shelter in India and wouldn’t return until after the elections slated for January 5. They sold their properties before going, and

those who didn’t are preparing for de-parture in case the situation becomes volatile again.

Satkhira is one of the districts where Jamaat-Shibir activists launched tar-geted attacks on the leaders and activ-ists of Awami League and Hindu people after February 28 when Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death on charges of war crimes.

After the opposition alliance started communication blockades demanding withdrawal of election schedules, the violence reached its peak, further fu-elled by the execution of Jamaat leader and war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla.

Since the start of the sustained vi-olence, several hundred people were maimed so far and at least 78 houses burnt down.

The joint forces started their raids in the district on December 16. In the last 12 days, however, they failed to arrest any known � gures of the parties in-volved.

There are allegations against a sig-nificant number of Awami League leaders of maintaining contacts with Jamaat-Shibir leaders and securing their lives. There are also allegations that some Awami League leaders sold trees that Jamaat-Shibir activists cut down to create blockade on the roads. l

Kite � ying competition n Our Correspondent, Lakhsmipur

A � ve-day long kite � ying competition began in Lakhsmipur yesterday.

Under the slogan “Anonde Mato, Matiye Rakho Ar Anonde Hasho,” the competition is organised by local Jubo Shomaj. Hundreds of competitors at the Keramorali Government Primary School playground under Sadar upazila partici-pated in the competition on the � rst day.

Awami League lawmaker Mir Shah Alam distributed kites among the com-petitors. Mizanul Karim Liton, conve-ner of Ghuri Utsab Bastobayon Com-mittee and Union Parishad Member Saiful Kibria were among those present at the kite distribution programme.

Later, a rally was held at the school premises. l

Six girls return after three years in Indian jail n UNB, Benapole

Six Bangladeshi girls returned home through Benapole check post of Jessore district on Friday night, after languish-ing for three years in an Indian jail.

The returnees were Dolna Khatun, 17, Shapinur Khatun, 21, Rabeya Kha-tun, 22, Shahnara Khatun, 19, Parvin Akter, 20, and Dulna Begum.

Nayed Subedar M Abdullah, com-mander of Benapole check post BGB camp, said Indian BSF handed over the Bangladeshi girls at night. They were jailed for three years after they were ar-rested for intruding into India, he added.

Quoting the returnees, the com-mander said human tra� ckers took the girls to India in January, 2010, promising them lucrative job. Mumbai police had arrested them on charge of intrusion and later sent to jail on court orders.

The decision of their release came fol-lowing a joint intervention of the home ministries of India and Bangladesh. l

BNF ‘reinstates’ Nazmul Huda as chairman n Mohammad Atiqur Rahman

Some district level leaders of the new-ly-formed Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) have reinstated its “ex-pelled” founder and former BNP leader Nazmul Huda as the party’s chairman, while expelling its chief coordinator and an electoral candidate, SM Abul Kalam Azad.

“Nazmul Huda was not expelled ac-cording to the constitution of the par-ty. He was, and still is, with us,” Sahid Chowdhury, convenor of Natore BNF, told a press brie� ng yesterday at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium.

When contacted, Nazmul Huda de-nied to make any comment on his po-sition in BNF.

“I have seen the news on television, but I do not know anything about this,” Huda told the Dhaka Tribune.

“I did not like the activities of SM Abul Kalam Azad,” Huda said, adding: “BNF was formed to strengthen Khale-da Zia’s hand, I mean BNP’s. I had dis-tanced (myself) with BNP as there were some di� erences of opinions. Con-sidering the (party’s) upcoming pro-

grammes, and also the current political situation, I will be with BNP and BNP is my last destination.”

Sahid Chowdhury, however, claimed that Huda had consented to remain in BNF.

Meanwhile, Abul Kalam Azad, who will be contesting next Sunday’s parlia-mentary polls from Dhaka-17 under the banner of BNF, could not be contacted yesterday for comment.

BNF now has committees in 106 up-azilas of 29 districts, Abdullah Zia, con-venor of Kushtia BNF, said at the press brie� ng.

“There was no word or designation called ‘chief coordinator’ in the party’s constitution,” Zia said, adding that no election was held to elect a chief coor-dinator.

He also said Nazmul Huda was not expelled following the party’s consti-tution.

Furthermore, Ashrafuzzaman of Magura BNF and Ashraf Sarkar of Tan-gail BNF told the Dhaka Tribune that they were trying to convince Nazmul Huda to return to the BNF.

“Huda will join us if we expel SM

Abul Kalam Azad. We did not say anything to Azad when Huda was ex-pelled. Later, we found that Azad was violating party rules and doing corrup-tion,”Ashraf Sarkar claimed.

He also said Jahanara Begum, BNF co-chairman, and Moazzem Hossain Khan Mojlish, the party’s “expelled” treasurer, were still with them.

The press brie� ng was also attended by Azizul Haq of Chandpur BNF, SM Li-ton of Dhaka BNF and MA Salam Shan-to of Gazipur BNF.

Amid criticism from the main op-position, Bangladesh Nationalist Front was given time thrice by the Election Commission to ful� ll conditions to be registered as a new political party. It was � nally registered on November 18 this year.

But just � ve days after its registra-tion, BNF treasurer Moazzem Hossain Khan Mojlish was expelled from the party.

BNP had requested the EC not to register BNF. Its founder, Nazmul Huda, dissolved the party on Septem-ber 23 and submitted an application asking the EC not to register it. l

Passengers rush and struggle to get on a passenger bus in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area as very few public vehicles operated yesterday because of the restrictions set to resist the Dhaka march SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

People try to unload an overturned truck yesterday in the road underneath the Mayor Hanif Flyover. The truck overturned as the road was in devastated condition FOCUS BANGLA

6 FeatureDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

By the people, for the peoplen Ahsan Sajid

Muktotohobil.com, Bangladesh’s � rst dedicated crowd-funding portal, was created by Gaushey Shahrier as a means to � nance his upcoming graphic novel and � lm, Hasna.

This marks a milestone in Bangladesh for young entre-preneurs and independent projects. This potentially holds unprecedented rewards and could be that start of a new era of funding and investing here. Bangladesh is a country teeming with young talent, but lim-ited support to direct this talent towards something produc-tive.

Shahrier is the CEO of ParrotInMotion Studio and director of Hasna. He believes that using animation enables his story to reach to a mass audience globally, and inform people of an entrenched societal evil through entertainment. With fast dispersion of nearly in� nite amounts of information, our world today is one of instant grati� cation, and we communi-cate with images more today than ever before.

Hasna aims to raise awareness about child marriage and gender discrimination.

At muktotohobil.com, people can submit their creative ideas and get the opportunity to raise funds from the general

public. Anyone who � nds the work interesting can go to the website, click on “Support” and pledge a certain amount of money for the creative ideas.

Crowdfunding can provide a real windfall to artists like Shahrier, whose project’s strong gender relevance and social commentary quali� es it as a social cause as well as an ani-mated � lm.

Art that speaks for a cause, which stands against a system, belongs in the public sphere. In this regard, it makes sense that this animated � lm’s funding depends on the public.

For a late-adopting country like Bangladesh, crowdfund-ing has the potential to be one of the most e� ective and sig-ni� cant tools to raise funds, giving young innovators and change makers the support they need to develop the coun-try. Exciting times lie ahead!

Three tips from an early-adopterCredibility: Get connected with reputable, established per-

sonalities. Hasna has a� liated itself with Haider Rizvi, a Polish � lm director and former assistant to Roman Polanski, who has been involved with the project as an advisor. A demonstration of credibility is reassuring for potential pledgers.

Accessibility: Connect to the “crowd” via support from the media or active social media interactions on Facebook. Honouring contributors with badges and tokens of grati-tude after the success of the campaign.

Interaction: Interact with the potential contributors regu-larly and explain that the procedure is not complex.

“A big issue is the payment process,” Shahrier said. “Most people here are not used to online transactions. They feel reluctant to pay via a simple bKash transaction, even though

they fully support the project and want to pay. With proper utilisation of social media and regular follow ups, this obsta-cle can be overcome.” l

Crowded historyn Feature Desk

The concept of crowdfunding has existed through the ages. It found a mainstream foothold in 2009 with the launch of Kickstarter.

Crowdfunding has been used to � nance causes, tours, � lms, games and apps. The most successful crowdfunded project is Star Citizen, an online space trading and combat video game,which raised $30,044,586 (as of No-vember 2013).

One of the most notable examples of crowdfunding in history comes from 1884 when the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds for the Statue’s pedestal. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer used his newspaper New York World to urge the American public to donate money toward the pedestal, and in just six months, the project raised $100,000. More than 125,000 people contributed $1 or less.

In 2012 according to research � rm Mas-solution, 308 crowdfunding platforms across the world raised $2.7bn and successfully � nanced more than 1 million campaigns. The � rm forecasts an 81% increase in global crowdfunding volumes in 2013, with the market reaching $5.1bn.

Crowdfunding caught up with the age of connectivity with the pioneering crowd-� nancing platform ArtistShare in 2000-2001.

This was followed by services like EquityNet (2005), Pledgie (2006), Sellaband (2006), Indiegogo (2008), GiveForward (2008), Kickstarter (2009). Because its mainstream suc-cess, a plethora of other such services have launched since. l

An 81% increase in global crowdfunding volumes is forecasted for 2013, with the market reaching $5.1bn

Jahir Raihan, a Bangladeshi immigrant who writes for a small-time local newspaper in Jackson Heights, learns about video footage that could incriminate a 1971 war criminal

Art that speaks for a cause belongs in the public sphere, so it makes sense that its funding also depends on the public

DT: How did you come up with the story for “Remnants of Men?”I was inspired by the Shahbag youth revolution in Bangladesh. I had goose-bumps watching Shahbag pulsate. It was exciting to see privileged youths on streets demanding justice for decades old war crimes. This sends a strong mes-sage to the perpetrators.

DT: Did your plot draw from true events? For example, the story of TarequeMasudtracking down pho-tojournalist Lear Levin for the 1971 footage for MuktirGaan. Yep. A bit of inspiration came from that story too. Also, from the story of photographer Kevin Carter, who photo-graphed the starving toddler in Sudan, won the Pulitzer Prize and later commit-ted suicide. But [I was] mostly inspired by the relentless Shahbag kids.

DT: Is the character named Anthony Matthews a reference to Anthony Mascarenhas, the Pakistani journal-ist who published the landmark report “Genocide” in 1971?I thought no one would notice this! They are actually polar opposites. Also, the protagonist of “Remnants of Men” is named Jahir Raihan – a homage to the uncompromising legend.

DT: Will the movie be in English or Bangla?Both.

DT: How do you feel about Quader Molla’s hanging?I feel good that the victims will at last � nd some sort of closure. But I will also not rejoice, because I know this is just the beginning. For me, closure would be saying goodbye to fundamentalism, which is closely related to the identi� ed war criminals, but has spread out way

beyond their generation.

DT: A lot of violence – in the form of hartals, blockades, and protests – has accompanied the war crimes tribunals. It is increasingly frustrating watching fellow Bangladeshis die out of no reason. I also � nd it di� cult to understand why picketers risk their lives on streets, in doing the things that they do. The problem is very much socio-economic.

DT: Which Bangladeshi political party do you align yourself with, if any?I am a big fan of Bangabandhu and his ideologies. But I don’t want to align myself with any of the current political parties. They still have to ful� l a lot of their promises to earn my trust.

DT: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is a fantastic � lm school. How did earn your place there? In 2008, I was selected by the Berlin In-ternational Film Festival as an upcoming director based on one of my early short � lms, a docudrama titled “City Life.” This led to participation in the Berlinale Tal-ent Campus. The Berlinale experience changed everything.

I � nished business school [at IBA] and got a corporate job like everyone else. But I kept pursuing my � lmmaking aspirations.

While working full-time, I made an animated short that participated in various European festivals. All of these made into my portfolio – which is an important part of the NYU Tisch application.

I am the � rst Bangladeshi in the graduate � lm program [for the Masters of Fine Arts degree]. This also means a greater responsibility. l

Q&A WITH REZWAN SHAHRIAR SUMITLights, camera, Shahbagn Rumana Habib

It is a story about a journalist, a war criminal, and a damning video.

“Remnants of Men,” a short � lm project by New York University-based Bangladeshi � lmmaker Rezwan Shah-riar Sumit, tells a compelling tale in-spired by the Shahbag youth move-ment.

Yet despite immense support for the cause, Sumit has had a di� cult time scrounging together funds for his pro-ject. His team used Indiegogo, the pop-lar online crowdfunding portal used to � nance independent � lms in the US. But he was only able to raise 20% of the $12,000 (nearly Tk1 lakh) that he needs.

Sumit said: “Sadly, a lot of people ap-preciated the initiative, but when it came to contributing, there was hardly anyone, compared to the large diaspora [of Bang-ladeshis in the US]. I recently produced a � lm on Syria made by an Argentine direc-

tor. We were overwhelmed by how much Syrians and Argentines cared.”

Crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo have yet to gain traction in Bangladesh, where e-commerce is still in its infancy and few people have credit cards.

Now Sumit is turning to a more Bangladesh-friendly version of crowd-sourcing, and asking for contributions to the � lm’s account at Standard Char-tered Bank.

The subject of the � lm could not be more timely.

The main character Jahir Raihan, a Bangladeshi immigrant who writes for a small-time local newspaper in Jack-son Heights, learns about video footage that could incriminate a 1971 war crimi-nal. The owner of the footage, Antho-ny, is a hard nut to crack. Jahir embarks on a mission to retrieve this evidence and comes face to face with the sins of past generations.

Earlier this month in the real world,

the International Crimes Tribunal hanged Quader Molla, the � rst convicted war criminal to be executed. The case against him was rooted in one crucial eye witness account. He was originally handed only a life sentence in February, which triggered a massive protest at Shahbag in Dhaka, demanding that the man known as the Butcher of Mirpur be given “the highest punishment of the land.”

Sumit regrets that he was in New York during the height of the move-ment. “It made me proud, but at the same time I felt a bit left out.” he said.

About Shahbag, Sumit stated on his Indiegogo page: “It was just a success-ful start. The energy should have been channelled into a more transformative movement that questions our political system. Nonetheless, the movement will go on. Whatever happened in Shahbag, its stories deserve to be retold and recaptured in cinematic format. Here’s my � rst attempt.” l

A set in New York City transformed into 1971 Bangladesh for the � lm

Crowdfunding: All together nowCrowdfunding means raising funds for a project by collecting from many donors. Digital portals, with the help of social media, have allowed the average person to directly fund what they care about. Two Bangladeshis try their hands at what is still a new concept in our country

7Long Form Sunday, December 29, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Shafi qur Rahman

Those who are familiar with US Congressional politics know the term “pork-barrel politics” very well. In the US Congress, often when

passage of a bill required support from a few or more congressmen or senators from the other side of the political divide, the leaders of the party in control, attach with the bill special spending earmarks that will bene� t the constituency of those few congressmen or senators.

These earmarks, which are outside federal purview, usually fund pro-jects in the home districts like roads, bridges, airports, museums, etc. The earmarks help the politicians to go back to their partisan constituents and say to them that although he has voted with the opposing political party, he will bring in substantial federal cash that would create jobs and bene� t the community greatly.

These earmarks, named pork-barrel (after the barrels of salted pork meat), has been a long-standing congression-al way to exchange political favours, helping embattled politicians win re-elections, and most importantly win over opposing politicians for legis-lations that may be unpopular to their own party supporters.

Those who have watched the Spiel-berg movie “Lincoln” (2012) have seen that how a bill like the 13th Amend-ment, which emancipated slaves in the USA in 1865, required furious horse-trading, pork-barrel politics in the house of Congress to get the two third majority required.

Whether pork barrels were used to pass righteous bills like the emancipa-tion, or run-of-the-mill legislations of usual politics, there can be no denying that this practice is pure and simple political bribery.

Votes of the legislators are being bought with gold from the purse of the republic; albeit not for personal use, but for constituents. As it is, the history of politicians crusading against the immorality of such naked bribery is as old as the history of pork-barrel politics itself.

In recent decades, the most vocal opposition came from anti-govern-ment Republican politicians who saw in pork-barrel politics an easy target to illustrate the venality and wasteful-ness of government spending.

The crusade culminated in a blan-ket ban on pork-barrel politics passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in late 2010 and early 2011, with broad bi-partisan support.

So what has been the outcome of this sweeping of the Aegean Stable? Congressional legislative activity has come to a near halt. 2012 and 2013 have been among the least productive years in US Congressional history.

Between 1999 and 2011, an average of 70 substantive bills passed every year. Now the average has dropped below 50 and only 44 substantive laws have passed the � oor of Congress in 2013.

All of us are aware of the impasse in the Congress and government shut-down that happened this year. Few of us are aware of the role played by the absence of pork barrel politics in exacerbating this gridlock.

There were several times when the Republican Congressional leadership were ready to compromise, but they could not convince the hard ideologi-cal party men in Congress to go along with the decision.

If pork-barrel were in place, con-ceivably many of these recalcitrant congressmen who are from poor, rural constituencies that can greatly use federal earmarks for economic stim-ulus, could have budged and reached across the aisle for passing budget and other bills.

They have no incentive now to compromise on ideological points and brave the inevitable confrontation with hyper partisan primary voters back in home. This is the general pic-ture all over the country as the whole land has been divided in two sharply divided political camps with no meet-ing in the middle.

Belatedly the politicians are learn-ing that pork barrels, rather than the corruption polluting the Congress, was the grease that kept the gears of legislative politics running.

The arguments against corruption are universal and easy to understand. Corruption is unethical, unfair, hin-ders meritocracy, promotes ine� cien-cy, and many more. As intuitive the arguments against corruption are, peo-ple do not make the e� ort to analyse the role of corruption deeply, and see that in many situations and contexts, some form of corruption can actually be better for the polity in its presence than its absence.

Particularly when corruption is reframed as favours done in exchange of doing a job, it can make systems of governance and economy more e� cient than before.

Economists have studied corrup-tion, empirically and theoretically, for a long time but only recently they are analysing e� ects of corruption in all its nuances and already some of the researches have yielded surprising results.

Game theoretic modelling has shown some interesting insights into the role of corruption: A society or communi-ty functions because of cooperation among its members. The models tell

us that the bulk of society cooperates consistently because the law enforcers induce them to stay in line.

However, in most societies, the law enforcers themselves enjoy a de-facto privilege of avoiding the full force of law when they breach it personally. This privilege allows them to engage in corruption.

Researchers have found that in spite of this corruption, overall soci-etal cooperation is maintained as long as the extent of power and corruption is limited because the enforcers still do their duty of enforcing, although in exchange of some illegal income.

Thus, a limited amount of corrup-tion actually acts as incentive for law enforcers to do their duty. Without this incentive, they can become totally ap-athetic and let law enforcement deteri-orate completely. But this equilibrium breaks down when law enforcers have too much power and corruption runs rampant. In a monopoly of corruption the law enforcers have no incentives to carry on their duties and overall soci-etal cooperation becomes threatened.

Empirical cross-country studies have also shown that in many third world countries corruption is actually helping economic growth by helping to circumvent ine� cient rules and bureaucratic delays. When govern-ment is overbearing and ine� cient, regulations are sclerotic, corruption can be a bene� cial way to get around growth-retarding governance. When government size is small and/or eco-nomic freedom is already high, corrup-tion becomes harmful to growth.

Famous political scientist Samuel Huntingdon, in 1968, said: “The only thing worse than a society with a rigid, over-centralised, dishonest bureaucracy is one with a rigid, over-centralised,

honest bureaucracy.” In countries where civic institutions are weak and social capital is small, policy e� orts for ending corruption by solving principle agent problems may not improve growth.

In these countries corruption with-in ine� cient institutions is a second best result because optimal condition is hard to attain in foreseeable future. Long-term e� orts should have the objective of improving institutional quality and economic freedom.

Readers may question the relevance of this article now, when the whole country is falling apart in a kingly Game of Thrones. All sane people in the country agree that the root cause of the political crisis in this country is monopolisation of power by subver-sion of democracy. Monopolisation of corruption is inextricably linked with this exclusive control of the power of state.

Researchers have proposed that monopoly is a vital component of rampant corruption. Corruption � ourished, “where o� cials have a mo-nopoly power over a good or service, unlimited discretion in deciding who gets that good or service or how much they get, and there is no accountabil-ity whereby others can see what that person is deciding.”

In the article “There Will be Blood” published in alalodulal.org, I argued that unprecedented cash � ow from RMG export and foreign remittanc-es is fast transforming Bangladesh into a resource-based “Petro-state.” We know how the easy money from resources have entrenched repressive, autocratic regimes in these countries

and hindered growth of accountable politics. In these countries, since the authoritarian leaders and their organ of government do not fear retribution from society, they can engage in forms of corruption that are very costly to society.

A similar thing is happening in Bangladesh. Governments are not feeling economic pressure to be more inclusive and accountable. With the visible hand of government in every part of the growing economic pie, the ruling set has now access to previously undreamt amount of riches.

And the governments are utilis-ing this fabulous horde of money to develop and embed a huge rent-seek-ing class throughout the country that owes its allegiance not to the state or

the people but the patrons at the top of the ruling pyramid. This, in e� ect, is a monopolisation of corruption where corrupt law enforcers do not feel obli-gation to render the service fully, even in return of the ill-gotten money.

Moreover, as they primarily owe their riches from their top-patrons, and not the rent-giving public, they act as loyal vassals of the overlord. A government can literally buy o� the entire organ of state now. Monopoly of power is engendering monopoly of corruption and developing a positive feedback loop to reinforce itself.

Bangladesh is not going to be a co-hesive, orderly country with high so-cial capital like the Nordic countries that routinely top the list of the least corrupt. We will have corruption in our country come what may the way the future politics evolves.

Rather than revel in utopian dreams of eradicating corruption we should think soberly how to manage corruption and channel it towards directions that promote growth and efficiency. If in the distant future we attain a sufficient level of income and social cohesion, we will be able to undertake programmes to get rid of corruption for good. Meanwhile we should seriously look into the ways to mitigate effects of corrup-tion.

Just as for most of the ills afflict-ing the country, the answer probably lies in politics. Democratisation of politics is the best way that corrup-tion does not get out of hand and becomes a stranglehold on the econ-omy and society.

A lot of research supports the view that while corruption has a greatly negative effect in authoritar-ian regimes, democracies can have relatively high level of corruption without crippling the economy.

When corruption does not become the exclusive purview of the ruling party, when opposition also can partake in the feeding trough through decentralisation of power, an even, accountable and growth supporting corruption regime can thrive.

A little corruption can be good,large corruption is bad but mono-polistic corruption is absolutely the worst.

The article was � rst published in AlaloDulal.org.

A limited amount of corruption actually acts as incentive for law enforcers to do their duty. Without this incentive, they can become totally apathetic and let law enforcement deteriorate completely

Rather than revel in utopian dreams of eradicating corruption we should think soberly how to manage corruption and channel it towards directions that promote growth and e� ciency

In a monopoly of corruption the law enforcers have no incentives to carry on their duties and overall societal cooperation becomes threatened

Corruption is goodA little corruption can be good, large corruption is bad but monopolistic corruption is absolutely the worst

SHUVO

Sunday, December 29, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

Iraq troops arrest Sunni MP, killing � ve peoplen Reuters, Ramadi

Iraqi security forces arrested a Sunni Muslim member of parliament in the western city of Ramadi and clashed with his bodyguards on Saturday, killing at least � ve people, police sources said.

The dead included three body-guards, a sister and a brother of the lawmaker, Ahmed al-Alwani, a mem-ber of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc who has been critical of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the sources said.

“Army troops with police special forces were trying to arrest Alwani from his house, but fierce fighting erupted. Five bodies, including one woman, were taken to Falluja hospi-

tal,” one police source said.Police said a two-hour � re� ght

broke out when bodyguards and mem-bers of Alwani’s tribe resisted police and army forces who went to arrest Alwani on charges of “terrorism” from his house in the centre of Ramadi.

Alwani has been an in� uential � g-ure in a Sunni protest movement cen-tred in the western province of Anbar, where thousands of Sunnis have taken to the streets since last December to protest what they see as marginalisa-tion of their sect by Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government.

Lieutenant-General Ali Ghaidan, commander of Iraqi ground forces, told state television that security forces had also tried to arrest Alwani’s brother Ali,

whom he accused of involvement in an attack that killed Iraqi soldiers in Anbar.

Ali was killed in the � ghting, as well as one Iraqi soldier, Ghaidan said, add-ing that: “We treated Ahmed al-Alwani well. We told him that we had a war-rant for his arrest, and arrested him.” He said two of Alwani’s bodyguards were wounded.

No members of Alwani’s family could immediately be reached to give their version of events.

Violence in Iraq is at its worst levels since 2006-7, when tens of thousands of people were killed in � ghting be-tween Sunnis and Shi’ites. Bombings, shootings and suicide attacks, many staged by al-Qaeda militants, are a near-daily occurrence. l

Islamist students torch Cairo campus buildingn AFP, Cairo

Student supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday stormed a faculty building at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University where exams were being taken and set it on � re, security o� -cials said.

The students entered the commerce faculty building during an exam and set it alight before police and security forces members burst in and � red tear gas to disperse the protesters, the o� -cials said.

A police o� cial said 60 of the stu-dents were arrested after the � re on the � rst two � oors of the building was

brought under control.The students were trying to stop the

exams, which started on Saturday, as part of their protest against the mili-tary’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.

They have regularly clashed with police on the university campus.

The violence comes a day after three people were killed in clashes and 265 arrested across Egypt in a crackdown on Brotherhood demonstrations.

The military-installed govern-ment has banned protests by Broth-erhood members demanding the reinstatement of Morsi, after listing the Islamist movement as a terrorist

organisation this week.The interior ministry on Friday said

“legal measures are underway in ac-cordance with the cabinet’s listing of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.”

The Brotherhood’s designation as a terrorist group carries harsh penalties, with the group’s leaders facing possible death sentences and protesters looking at up to � ve years in prison.

The movement has held near-dai-ly protests since the military ousted Morsi on July 3, despite a crackdown that has killed more than 1,000 people, mainly Islamists, and seen thousands more arrested.l

Riots erupt in Turkey over corruption scandaln Agencies

Turkish riot police have blasted oppo-sition protesters with water cannons, tear gas and plastic bullets in Istanbul in scenes reminiscent of the summer’s mass anti-government demonstra-tions.

Some of the protesters on Friday evening threw rocks and � recrackers at police, shouting, “Catch the thief!” in reference to a widening corruption scandal gripping Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Similar protests were held in the city of Izmir, and in Ankara where police also � red water cannons to disperse the crowds.

Police blocked hundreds of protest-ers from gathering in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square and pushed them away to the nearby streets. At least 70 peo-ple have been detained in the Taksim protesters.

At least 31 people, including three lawyers, have been detained in Istan-bul, according to the Istanbul Bar As-sociation.

Thousands of Erdogan backers, meanwhile, gathered at other spots showing their support for the embat-

tled Erdogan.Twenty-four people, including the

sons of two former government min-isters and the head of the state-owned � nancial institution, Halkbank, have been arrested on bribery charges.

Media reports say the probe is over alleged illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.

Three Turkish legislators, including a former minister, from the ruling Jus-

tice and Development Party (AKP) have resigned over the scandal and accused the Turkish government of putting pressure on the judiciary.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan’s ruling party is being directed by “arrogance,” former Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said in a news confer-ence on Friday announcing his resigna-tion, adding that he was parting ways with the AKP. l

Overthrown Malian president in treason investigationn AFP, Bamako

Mali’s government has launched an in-vestigation into ousted president Ama-dou Toumani Toure for “high treason,” it said in a statement.

Toure, unseated by a military coup in March last year, is accused of having “fa-cilitated the penetration and installation of foreign forces in the country, notably by not o� ering them any resistance,” said the statement released late Friday.

The statement accused Toure, who was in power for 10 years, of having “deliberately destroyed or damaged a tool for national defence” and having participated in “an attempt to demor-alise the army.”

Toure was overthrown by a group of mid-level army o� cers who believed he had failed to provide support for their � ght against armed Tuareg sepa-ratists, toppling what had been herald-ed as one of west Africa’s most stable democracies.

The coup precipitated a crisis in which al-Qaeda-linked groups seized control of the country’s north, ruling with a brutal vision of Islamic law un-til a French-led military intervention forced them out.

In the months after the coup and a failed counter-coup in April 2012, junta

leader Amadou Sanogo’s then-head-quarters in the central town of Kati were the scene of abuses and killings carried out against soldiers seen as loy-al to Toure.

Sanogo was arrested on November 27 and charged along with 15 other people, mostly fellow soldiers from his

inner circle, for alleged crimes during the coup and its aftermath.

The government says Sanogo has been charged with complicity in kid-nappings, but a source close to the judge in the case told AFP the charges also include murder, complicity to murder and kidnappings. l

Libya brie� y holds four US military personneln AFP, Washington

Four US military personnel have been freed after a brief detention by the Lib-yan government, the US State Depart-ment said Saturday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who hours earlier announced that the Americans had been detained, did not say why they were held.

“All four US military personnel be-ing held in Libyan government custo-dy have been released,” Psaki said in a brief statement just after midnight Friday.

“We are still trying to ascertain the facts of the incident.”

According to Psaki, the four “were operating in an area near Sabratha as part of security preparedness e� orts when they were taken into custody.”

Sabratha, known for its Roman ru-ins, is located some 65km(40 miles) west of the capital Tripoli.

“We value our relationship with the new Libya,” Psaki said. “We have a strategic partnership based on shared interests and our strong sup-port for Libya’s historic democratic transition.”

A US o� cial, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the four were released just two hours after the

US State Department announced their detention.

The military sta� were attached to the security team at the US embassy in Tripoli and may have been scouting es-cape routes for possible future use by diplomats, The New York Times report-ed, citing unnamed US o� cials.

The personnel were detained at a checkpoint and moved to the interior ministry, according to the Times.

Americans in Libya have been tar-geted more than once since 2011, when the regime of strongman Moamer Kad-ha� was overthrown by local rebel groups backed by US and NATO air-power.

In September 2012 four people, including the US ambassador to Lib-ya, were killed in an attack on the US consulate in the eastern city of Beng-hazi by Islamist gunmen with alleged al-Qaeda ties.

In mid-November, the State Depart-ment revealed that since January it has been quietly o� ering a $10 million (7.3 million euro) reward to help track down the militants behind the attack.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens, a popular diplomat and fluent Ara-bic speaker, was the first US ambas-sador killed while on duty in three decades. l

Russia says Syrian toxin removal deadline will be missedn Reuters, Moscow

Deadly toxins that were to have been removed from Syria by December 31 under an international e� ort to rid the country of its chemical arsenal have not yet been delivered to port to be put on ships, a Russian diplomat was quot-ed as saying on Friday.

The deadline will be missed because toxins that can be used to make sarin, VX gas and other agents were being packed up and still faced a potentially hazardous trip to the port of Latakia, RIA news agency quoted Mikhail Uly-anov as saying.

“The removal has not yet begun,” he said after an international meeting on the chemical arms removal e� ort.

Syria has agreed to abandon its chemical weapons by next June under a deal proposed byRussia and hashed out with the United States, after an August 21 sarin gas attack that Western nations blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Damascus agreed to transport the “most critical” chemicals, including around 20 tons of mustard nerve agent, out of the northern port of Latakia by December 31 to be safely destroyed abroad away from the war zone.

But the head of that global chem-icals weapon watchdog, the Organi-sation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said earlier this month that the deadline could be missed.

Russia, which has given Assad crucial support during the nearly three-year-old civil con� ict in Syria, airlifted 75 ar-mored vehicles and trucks to the nation last week to carry chemicals to Latakia.

“They will have to be taken on dan-gerous roads, there are several danger-ous stretches,” RIA quoted Ulyanov, head of the Foreign Ministry’s disarma-ment department, as saying. l

Syria opposition blames regime for Beirut bombingn AFP, Beirut

A key member of the Syrian opposition has accused the Damascus regime and its allies Iran and Hezbollah of being behind a bomb attack that killed a Leb-anese politician in Beirut.

The powerful car bomb in the heart of the Lebanese capital on Friday killed six people, including Mohammad Cha-tah, a leading critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“The murderers... are the same ones that kill and continue to kill Syrians in Qusayr, Qalamoun, Ghouta, Aleppo, Homs and Idlib,” said the Syrian Na-tional Council (SNC), the largest mem-ber of the umbrella National Coalition opposition grouping.

“They are undoubtedly the alliance between the Iranian and Syrian re-gimes and their agents in Lebanon led by the sectarian and fanatical militia Hezbollah,” the SNC said in a statement issued overnight.

Hezbollah, a powerful Shia move-ment, has sent troops to back the Assad regime in its war with rebels who have been � ghting to oust his regime since a deadly crackdown on democracy pro-tests in 2011.

“This bloody alliance... proves ev-ery day that it is the main source of ter-rorism and extremism which threatens the security and stability of the region,” said the SNC.

Chatah, 62, was killed in Friday’s blast as he headed to a meeting of Leb-anon’s Western-backed March 14 coali-tion that has supported the Sunni Mus-lim-led rebels in Syria. l

US judge says NSA phone surveillance is lawfuln Reuters, New York

A federal judge ruled that a Nation-al Security Agency program that col-lects records of millions of Americans’ phone calls is lawful, calling it a “count-er-punch” to terrorism that does not vi-olate Americans’ privacy rights.

Friday’s decision by US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan diverged from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program’s constitutionality, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will need to re-solve the issue.

In a 54-page decision, Pauley dis-missed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit contending that the NSA collection of “bulk telephony metada-ta” violated the bar against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.

The judge also referred often to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and said broad counter-terrorism programs such as the NSA’s could help avoid a “horri� c” repeat of those events.

“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley wrote. “Technology allowed al-Qaeda to op-erate decentralized and plot interna-tional terrorist attacks remotely. The bulk telephony metadata collection program represents the government’s counter-punch.”

The program’s existence was first disclosed by former NSA contrac-tor Edward Snowden, who is now in Russia under temporary asylum. His leaks have sparked a debate over how much leeway to give the govern-ment in protecting Americans from terrorism.

Pauley ruled 11 days after US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C. said the “almost Orwellian” NSA program amounted to an “indiscrim-inate and arbitrary invasion” that was likely unconstitutional.l

Police blame opposition in Ukraine attackn Agencies

Ukrainian police have accused � ve sus-pects in the savage beating of a local journalist of having links to the oppo-sition, just as reporter Tetyana Chorno-vol suggested she was attacked for doc-umenting the opulence of Ukraine’s political elite.

The con� icting accusations on Fri-day came days after Chornovol, 34, was chased down by a car and beaten, an incident that threatened to breathe new life into dwindling anti-govern-ment protests.

“In the course of the investigation it was established that the detained had

been in close contact with members of the party UDAR,” Mykola Chynchyn, the head of the main investigations department, said in a statement posted by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.

UDAR, or Punch, is led by heavy-weight boxing champion Vitaly Klitsc-hko, the most prominent of several opposition leaders who have seized on the public outcry over the govern-ment’s rejection of closer ties with the European Union.

Chornovol, meanwhile, told pro-op-position television station Channel 5 that “a price” had been placed on her life, suggesting the attack was “re-venge” for her anti-government work. l

A man stands outside a faculty building at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University after student supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood stormed it AFP

The former president of Mali: Amadou Toumani Toure AFP

Protesters throw stones from behind a barricade AFP

‘Technology allowed al-Qaeda to operate decentralized and plot international terrorist attacks remotely’

9Sunday, December 29, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE International

One protester killed in new Thailand political violencen AP, Bangkok

Gunmen killed an anti-government ac-tivist and wounded two others in the Thai capital on Saturday while protest-ers elsewhere blocked candidates from registering in upcoming elections, deepening a political crisis that threat-ens to derail democracy in this South-east Asian nation.

The registration was suspended in four of the country’s 77 constituencies. All are in the south, a sign of the lim-ited national appeal the protest move-ment seeking to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra enjoys outside of Bangkok.

The events followed comments Friday by the powerful army chief in which he declined to rule out the pos-sibility of a coup in the country, which is a major US ally, Southeast Asia’s sec-ond largest economy and a popular tourist destination.

The long-running dispute between Thailand’s bitterly divided political fac-tions � ared anew in November after Yingluck’s elected government tried to introduce an amnesty for her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawa-tra, to enable him to return to Thailand and escape a jail term for corruption.

Yingluck called early elections as a way of di� using the crisis, but the pro-

testers are demanding she resign and hand over power to an unelected coun-cil to carry out reforms. They are trying to disrupt the polls, which most people believe will give her a strong mandate thanks to strong support in the north and northeast of the country.

The overnight attack took place close to a protest camp in the city cen-ter, according to a government-run Erawan medical center. It said a 31-year man was killed by gun� re and two oth-ers wounded in the attack on Saturday at around 3:30 a.m. Local media said unidenti� ed gunmen opened � re on guards close to a protest camp before escaping into the night. l

3 Asian workers missing after Saudi oil rig sinksn AP, Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s o� cial news agency says three Asian workers are missing while several others su� ered minor injuries after an o� shore mobile rig be-longing to the country’s oil giant sank during maintenance work.

A statement from the Saudi Ara-bian Oil Co., known as Aramco, says 24 workers were rescued following Friday’s accident in the waters o� the coast of al-Safaniya region — the site of the world’s largest o� shore oil � eld. Two of the missing are from India while the third worker is a Bangladeshi.

The statement was carried by the SPA news agency.

Aramco says rescue teams are still searching for the missing workers. The company says the incident will be in-vestigated and that it’s not expected to a� ect overall production.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil producer. l

China calls for calm in South Sudann AFP

China has called for calm in South Sudan, urging both factions to start cease� re talks as soon as possible, the foreign ministry has said.

Hua Chunying, foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Friday that the deteriorating situation in the country was cause for concern.

“We are negotiating with both sides in the con� ict in various ways. China’s special representative on African Af-fairs, Zhong Jianhua, talked with South Sudanese Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin on the phone, call-ing for calm and restraint from both sides to start cease� re talks as soon as possible.

“China has maintained close com-munication and coordination with the Intergovernmental Authority on De-velopment (IGAD), the African Union (AU) as well as African countries in an e� ort to allow the international com-munity to play a positive role in re-lieving the tensions in South Sudan,” Hua said.

The Red Cross Society of China has o� ered emergency humanitarian aid to the people of South Sudan, said Hua, adding that China will continue to pro-vide assistance for South Sudan.

Zhong Jianhua rea� rmed Chi-na’s hope the con� ict will be solved peacefully.

“The Chinese government has made it clear that it � rmly opposes the use of military force to resolve con� ict, espe-cially when it causes heavy casualties ... we also believe that with the joint ef-forts of African countries, the relevant parties will solve the issue by rational and peaceful means,” said Zhong.

Meanwhile, leaders at an East Afri-can countries summit on Friday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, urged various groups in South Sudan to the end the violence that has gripped the country. l

China loosens grip on one-child policyn Agencies

China’s top legislative committee has formally approved a loosening of the country’s hugely controversial one-child policy and abolished “re-educa-tion through labour” camps, state me-dia has reported.

The decisions were taken by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rub-ber-stamp parliament, on Saturday at the conclusion of a six-day meeting, according to Xinhua news agency.

The widening of existing exceptions to the one-child policy will allow cou-ples where either parent has no sib-lings to have two children, reforming the strict family planning policy im-posed more than three decades ago to prevent overpopulation in the world’s most populous nation.

The abolition of re-education through labour, known as “laojiao,” will see ex-isting inmates freed, Xinhua said.

“Their remaining terms will not be enforced any more,” it quoted the NPC resolution as saying.

China argues its one-child limit kept population growth in check and sup-ported the country’s rapid develop-ment that has seen it soar from mass poverty to become the world’s sec-ond-largest economy.

But enforcement of the policy has at times been excessive. The public was outraged last year when photos circulat-ed online of a woman forced to abort her baby seven months into her pregnancy.

Now China faces looming demo-graphic challenges, including a rapidly increasing elderly population, a shrink-ing labour force and male-female im-balances.

China’s sex ratio has risen to 115 boys for every 100 girls, while the working population began to drop last year, Xinhua said earlier.

The birth rate has fallen to about 1.5 since the 1990s, well below the replace-ment rate, it added.

While the easing of the one-child policy - estimated to apply to around 10 million couples - has been welcomed, critics say that the state has retained the principle of deciding itself how many children people should have.

Provincial congresses and their standing committees will decide on implementing the new policy “based on evaluation of local demographic sit-uation and in line with the law on pop-ulation and family planning as well as this resolution,” Xinhua said, citing the resolution document.

The one-child policy reforms are expected to come into force in the � rst quarter of 2014, according to a senior o� cial from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Xinhua reported last week.

The approval to end the labour camps, introduced more than half a century ago, closes the curtain on a dark aspect of the country’s modern history long criticised by human rights groups and which Chinese authorities admit is no longer viable.

China began re-education through labour in 1957 as a speedy way to handle petty offenders. But the sys-tem - which allows a police panel to issue sentences of up to four years without trial - soon became rife with abuse. l

Delhi’s Kejriwal sworn in as chief ministern Agencies

Anti-corruption champion Arvind Kejri-wal was sworn in as chief minister of In-dia’s national capital region in what sup-porters hope would mark a turning point in the nation’s fraud-ridden politics.

Huge cheers rang out as Kejriwal on Saturday, who arrived for the ceremo-ny on the city’s subway, took the oath for o� ce in front of tens of thousands

of supporters assembled in a Delhi park wearing white caps emblazoned with Kejriwal’s slogan, “I am a common man.”

“I will do my duties as a minister honestly, without any fear or bias,” Kejriwal said as he took the oath on a � ower bedecked dais.

Cries of “Long Live the Aam Admi - Common Man - Party” and “Mother In-dia” rang out from the sea of support-ers while some waived placards saying “Today Delhi, Tomorrow the Country.”

Police estimates of the crowd ranged as high as 100,000.

Kejriwal’s upstart Aam Admi Party made a stunning electoral debut, win-ning 28 assembly seats in recent state

polls and delivering a stinging defeat to the Congress party which rules at the national level.

“It is the common man’s victory,” Kejriwal declared ahead of taking the subway to his swearing-in - unprece-dented for any Indian dignitary going to an oath-taking ceremony.

“If we all come together then we can can change the country,” he said.

The former tax inspector’s decision to use public transport echoes his pre-poll promise to end the VIP culture of Delhi’s political elite and set a down-to-earth tone for his new administration.

No dignitaries had been formally in-vited to Ramlila Maidan where Kejriwal was due to take the oath.

The grounds are considered ground zero of India’s corruption movement where some of the biggest rallies against a string of government graft scandals were held two years ago.

Some observers believe Kejriwal’s victory in Delhi could be mark the start of a national election campaign. Un-like his predecessors, Kejriwal, whose backers range from taxi drivers and teachers to business proprietors and servants, has said he and his ministers will not occupy the sprawling bunga-lows surrounded by lush lawns built by India’s former British colonial rulers.

Kejriwal plans to keep living in his fourth-storey � at in a Delhi suburb. l

Gunmen kill vaccinator in NW Pakistann AFP, Peshawar

Gunmen shot dead a health o� cer supervising an anti-polio vaccination campaign after storming a hospital where children were being immunised in Pakistan’s troubled northwest Satur-day, o� cials said.

Two other hospital sta� were in-jured in the attack at a government-run hospital in the town of Mattani, on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Nobody immediately claimed re-sponsibility for the killing, but Taliban militants have been targeting health workers and security personnel during vaccination campaigns.

“Two men riding a motorbike stormed the o� ce of an immunisation o� cer located inside the premises of Civil Hospital Mattani and shot him dead,” senior police o� cial Ijaz Khan told AFP.

“Two other local sta� of the hospital including a woman were injured in the attack,” he added.

Khan said the gunmen � ed on the motorbike soon after the shooting.

Provincial health minister of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Shau-kat Ali, con� rmed the attack.

“Routine immunisation of children was going on in the hospital at the time of the attack,” he said.

The Taliban imposed a ban on po-lio vaccinations last year as they view inoculation campaigns as a cover for espionage. l

Hundreds of corpses await burial in the Philippinesn AFP, Tacloban

More than a thousand dead victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan lay unburied Saturday, seven weeks after the region was battered by the Philippines’ dead-liest storm, residents living alongside the stench said.

About 1,400 corpses, in sealed black body bags swarming with � ies, lay on a muddy open � eld in San Isidro, a farming village on the outskirts of the destroyed central city of Tacloban, an AFP reporter saw.

“The stench has taken away our appetite. Even in our sleep, we have to wear face masks,” said local house-wife Maritess Pedrosa, who lives in a house about 20 metres (66 feet) from the roadside city government property.

Haiyan killed 6,111 people and left 1,779 others missing on November 8, according to the National Disas-ter Risk Reduction and Management Council.

This made the storm, which also left 4.4 million people homeless, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Phil-ippine history.

Tacloban and nearby towns were devastated by tsunami-like giant waves unleashed by Haiyan which accounted for a majority of the dead.

The council’s spokesman, Reynaldo Balido, said he was unsure if the o� cial

death toll already included the cadav-ers in San Isidro.

Eutiquio Balunan, the local vil-lage chief, said government workers assigned to collect the typhoon dead began trucking them to San Isidro on November 10, where they have been exposed to the tropical heat and heavy seasonal rain showers.

There, state forensics experts try to identify the corpses, he told AFP.

The processed corpses are then turned over to relatives, while those that are unclaimed are tagged and tak-en to a mass grave at the city cemetery about three kilometres (1.86 miles) away.

“Our tally comprises those already tagged and processed by the local gov-ernments,” Balido, the disaster council spokesman, told AFP.

Balunan, the village chief, said the processing of the cadavers had been suspended over the Christmas week-end as the forensics experts went on holiday.

“We are requesting the city gov-ernment to please bury the cadavers because our children and elderly resi-dents are getting sick,” he said.

“This place has become a � y factory.”The cadavers are guarded by eight

policemen. One o� cer who asked not to be named said they are under orders to prevent the cadavers from being eat-en by stray dogs. l

Indian train inferno kills at least 26 peoplen AFP, New Delhi

Fire raced through an Indian train car-riage packed with sleeping passengers on Saturday, killing at least 26 people, and forc-ing terri� ed passengers to smash windows in a frantic bid to escape.

Some passengers were able to break the toilet windows of the train, but other vic-tims were overcome by the thick, swirling smoke and bodies were found heaped at the windows and doors, reports said.

“We were su� ocating because we couldn’t get the windows open, the win-dows are really strong,” one young man who survived but who lost his cousin to the � ames told India’s NDTV news.

Rescue o� cials said many bodies were charred beyond recognition and would have to undergo DNA tests to determine their identity.

“Rescue teams have so far recovered 26 bodies from the three-tier coach of the train while � ve of the eight injured have been admitted to hospital for emergency treat-

ment,” South Western Railway spokesman S. Biswas told AFP.

Forensic teams were on their way to the train site to collect body samples for analy-sis, The Press Trust of India reported. Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh expressed “shock and grief at the loss of life in the train acci-dent in Andhra Pradesh” in a statement on his o� cial Twitter account,

The carriage was gutted by the inferno and was a mass of twisted metal and melted plas-tic seats. Adjacent coaches also bore scorch marks, testifying to the ferocity of the � re.

There were con� icting reports about the number aboard with police saying 65 while national Railways Minister Mallikar-jun Kharge said there were 67 people in the carriage, sleeping six to a compartment. Kharge told AFP the blaze was believed to have been caused by an electricity fault.

India’s underfunded, accident-prone rail network, one of the world’s largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the huge country despite � erce competition from private airlines. l

Police say Indian gang raped twice in hoursn Agencies

Ten people in India have been arrested after a 21-year-old woman was gang-raped twice in one night by two appar-ently unrelated groups of men, accord-ing to police o� cials.

Six of them have been charged with gang-raping the woman on the eve-ning of December 24, a police o� cer told Associated Press news agency on Friday, adding that a juvenile male was additionally detained for not inform-ing the police about the crime.

O� cer Monika Bharadwaj said the arrests were made on Thursday after the woman complained that she was abducted and raped while visiting a friend in Karaikal, a port city in Pondi-cherry state.

After nearly three hours of captivity in the � rst case, she was released and called for help only to be gang-raped by an apparently separate group of sev-en men, the o� cial said.

Police have been questioning the accused to � nd out whether they knew each other or belonged to two separate groups, Bhardwaj said.

Police have registered preliminary cases of abduction, gang rape and crim-inal intimidation against the accused. The suspects are yet to appear at court.

The woman has been admitted to hospital where police was also to re-cord her statement, local media re-ports said. l

A Thai anti-government protester washes his face at a protest site outside the Government House in Bangkok AFP

The birth rate has fallen to about 1.5 since the 1990s, well below the replacement rate

Indian policemen inspect the charred carriage of the Nanded-Bangalore Express in Puttaparthi under Ananthpur District AFP

‘I will do my duties as a minister honestly, without any fear or bias’

Pakistan and usDecember 23

Shanta RahmanPakistan should beg for pardon immediately.

truthbetoldWhy is it possible that Western nations are able to move past treason, war, and so much more (Ger-many/US relations come to mind) yet South Asians don’t understand the simple truth? Well over 60% of Pakistanis weren’t even born or were too young to remember or have anything to do with East Pakistan. That generation is gone, the powers that be long re-moved. It’s time to bury it and learn to work togeth-er. You – India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – are all one race. If you don’t � gure that out you’ll always remain like the three stooges.Canada, UK, and the US are now best of friends and they all fought treason, wars, and so much more against each other at one time in their history.

Saifur Rehman KhanThis is what I think the Pakistanis need to realise:Bangladesh is an independent state and the Bangladeshis are proud of being citizens of an independent nation; Pakistan does not have borders

with Bangladesh, so it is not a neighbouring country; We can only have good, friendly relations with each other as we should have with other countries in the region; A common religion – Islam – can enable the two nations to have the same relationship that two Muslim countries without a common border do, like Egypt and Pakistan or Egypt and Bangladesh; The common past is a bitter, painful memory. Let’s try to leave it behind. Bangladesh should not give up its demand for an apology from Pakistan, but pushing for an apology will not achieve anything. Both countries are too weak and insignificant to force each other to do anything; and hanging those who collaborated with Pakistan more than 40 years after independence will reopen past wounds and will create new divisions within Bangladesh. The time has come to move ahead, and to stop looking back.

Mahbub Alam Imran Khan was my favourite cricketer but after his recent move against Bangladesh, I hate him. It’s real-ly surprising that a man of international repute who is so highly educated can be so blind. This is really sad.

No permission for march a mistakeDenying permission to the opposition to hold their March

for Democracy, was a mistake. The government must give its opposition the democratic space to protest and should

have encouraged today’s demonstration as a non-violent means of expressing dissent.

The government’s stated apprehension that the march would be used as a cover for violent acts is perhaps not without merit, and the violent tactics used by the opposition over the past few months certainly support the government’s concerns, but nev-ertheless the government would have been better served to have permitted the protest and dealt with any ensuing violence as and when it occurred.

They would thus have retained the moral high ground and be seen to have been trying to give the opposition space. In the event that the march turned violent or unru-ly, no one could have faulted the government for a tough response.

However, to pre-emptively scotch the march seems to us not only to be undemocratic but also very likely to engender precisely the kind of violence the govern-ment claims to be trying to avoid.

The statements by some senior government and ruling party o� cials in this respect are not at all encouraging. To call on AL party-men to resist the opposition, and not law enforcement, further sets the stage for just the kind of chaos and bloodshed that no one wishes to see.

To make matters worse, in furtherance of its decision to stymie the march, the government has instituted a kind of reverse block-ade to keep opposition activists from getting to Dhaka, and once again it is the common man and woman who su� ers the most from this tactic. 

In short, the government’s handling of today’s march thus far strikes us as unwise and unnecessary, and we only hope that our worst fears are not realised.

Make a commitment to go green

Since we are a country with very high energy demands, green technology could be the way forward for Bangladesh. In order to meet our demands, our energy production must become

smarter, and so, instead of relying on expensive, and sometimes obsolete imported solutions, we should look to producing home-grown green technology. This could be the most e� cient use of our scarce natural resources.

A seminar organised by the information and communication technology ministry this week stressed the need for policy and guidelines to usher in green tech-nology for Bangladesh. The ICT’s initiative is a good thing, as we ur-gently need a solution to curb our massive electricity consumption.

The government must come forward to make green buildings for residential and industrial purposes.

Not only could green technol-ogy be the solution to our energy shortage, it would be greatly bene-� cial to the environment.

Clean, green, and renewable energy is also a step towards the battle against the problem of cli-mate change. The issues of climate change, green technology, and disaster management are inter-linked and cannot be seen separately.

As the rest of the world cuts down on fossil fuel-based power plants and switches to more e� cient and environmentally friend-ly energy sources, Bangladesh should also make a commitment to green technology as it is the right way forward.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Polls creditability to remain unclear till mid-JanuaryDecember 24

They’re kidding me. It’s already clear now, and we all know what the people want.

Ahnaf Saber

Wrist of a 5-year-old boy blown o� December 22

Tragic! Will anyone reattach it?Sayad Kalakutta

Sacks of tomatoes left on roadside � eldsDecember 23

We su� er from rising prices, and those farmers are hurting from being unable to sell their sacks of tomatoes. So, it’s clear that everyone is su� ering.

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid

Helping the mentally illDecember 22

Feel sorry for the people su� ering with PPD (psy-chosocial disorders).

Arosh Ali

Aam Aadmi Party set to take power in DelhiDecember 24We need something similar in Bangladesh. Sick and tired of both AL and BNP.

Populist

Madman breaches secretariat securityDecember 22

Mahbub AlamThis incident proves again how fragile our security system is. Why is our national exchequer spending money on those who say they guarantee efficient security, but who can’t even secure our Secretariat? Those responsible for the breach of security should be dealt with.

SM I don’t agree with calling him a madman. A man who breaches security, talks to the minister, and says he is the owner of the country must not be a madman. He is a citizen, and of course he is right. The masses should rule the country, and the government is there to serve them.

We should look to producing homegrown green technology. This could be the most e� cient use of our scarce natural resources

The government must give democratic space to protest and should have encouraged today’s demonstration as a non-violent means of expressing dissent

Sadullapur upazilla AL and BNP did it!December 27Please join me in congratulating the unity among AL and BNP leaders of Sadullahpur upazilla for long-awaited peace in Bangladesh.

We want to see this type of unity spread throughout Bangladesh, as this precious land belongs to all Bangladeshi alike. The peace, prosperity, and sovereignty of our beloved Bangladesh is important, political parties are not.

No sensible Bangladeshi wants to see his/her Bangladesh destroyed by miscreants. Please unite at all levels to defeat all power-hungry evils.

Muktijoddha Dr Emarat Hossain Pannah USA

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Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Church item (5)5 Female horse (4) 8 Public speaker (6)9 Judges (5)10 Highland dagger (4)11 Secret agents (5)12 Male swan (3)15 Fasting period (4)18 Moves at easy pace (5)21 And not (3)22 Machine for weaving (4)24 Ship’s company (4)25 Emitting bright light (5)28 Part of the eye (6)29 Needy (4)30 Of a duke (5)

DOWN1 Slave to a habit (6)2 Digit (3)3 Weapons (4)4 Coarse � le (4)5 Mannequin (5)6 Got up (6)7 Large deer (3)13 Alternatively (2)14 Spanish dance (6)16 Denial (2)17 Plastering tool (6)19 Lofty structure (5)20 Accordingly (2)23 Servant (4)24 Headwear (3)26 Wildebeest (3)27 Resinous substance (3)

11Op-Ed Sunday, December 29, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

What are you willing to compromise?n Sajeeb Wazed

Recent weeks have seen people speaking about compromise, about how the two parties and two leaders are being in-

transigent. The fact that the Awami League has repeatedly o� ered the BNP multiple compromises is conveniently disregarded.

The prime minister has personally invited the leader of the opposition to unconditional talks, and o� ered nu-merous solutions such as the all-party interim government. We have o� ered them any ministry in this interim government, including the Home Ministry.

Even our o� er to hold the 11th parliamentary elections early is a compromise to ensure that on January 25, we do not have an unconstitutional government. Yet, at every step that Awami League has made a construc-tive gesture, BNP has refused to talk and responded with ever-increasing violence.

It is easy to hypothesise on the bene� ts of compromise, and how this political impasse is the result of stubborn parties and stubborn leaders. But let us not forget that we are in this situation because of the demands of the people.

Many of the same people who today are demanding that we compromise with the BNP at all cost were for the past � ve years demanding that we try war criminals and ban Jamaat. Did anyone consider the consequences of those actions? Jamaat was not going to disappear quietly. The BNP-Jamaat

alliance would not sit idly by while war criminals went to the gallows.

We need to look at what is at stake, because compromise for compromise’s sake is as ill-conceived as it is damag-ing. There are certain things on which we will not compromise. We will not compromise our promise to the people to bring the war criminals to justice. We will not shy away from � ghting for a secular and democratic Bangladesh. Had Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down as BNP demanded, Quader Molla would not have been hanged. Let there be no doubt, no one else would have had the courage and strength to stand up to the interna-tional pressure.

We certainly do not want violence, but let us take a historical perspective. In our liberation movement, we did not set out demanding independence, and we did not declare war. All we wanted was the right to form a democratic government after our victory in the national elections. There were pro-tracted negotiations between Bangab-andhu Sheikh Mujib, Yahya Khan and Zul� qar Ali Bhutto both publicly and in secret.

Yet, no agreement could be reached, because Yahya Khan was unwilling to compromise. Instead, he

chose to try and crush our demands for autonomy with force. The Pakistani Army attacked � rst, before Bangab-andhu declared independence on the night of March 26. Should Bangaband-hu have compromised and given up on our rights in order to avoid war?

BNP has, indeed, been consistent in their actions and demands. They have consistently shown their complete lack of democratic intent and disre-gard for the peoples’ democratic right to vote. BNP has repeatedly tried to rig elections every time it has been in power.

Magura and Dhaka-10 by-elections come to mind. They rigged the 1996 national elections even though they

were running unopposed. In 2006, they rewrote the voters’ list with 14m more voters than the population of voting age.

Even having a caretaker govern-ment was no protection, as they ma-nipulated the caretaker government itself in attempting to rig the elections, leading to a military takeover.

Make no mistake, the elections on January 5 are half-baked only because of one party: the BNP. It is through their unpatriotic alliance with Jamaat and their continuing arson and bomb attacks on innocent civilians that they

have denied the people the elections they deserve. Yes, these elections are not ideal but that is a topic in itself. The people will still get a free and fair election. We should not fool our-selves into thinking that this wave of unjusti� able violence that BNP-Jamaat has unleashed is about elections. It is about saving the war criminals.

Even if we were to somehow get BNP to participate in elections, as long as the war crimes trials are ongo-ing, BNP-Jamaat will continue their violence. The only compromise which will stop the violence is the release of the war criminals. BNP and Jamaat have declared war on the ordinary citizens of Bangladesh.

Under the pretence of � ghting for elections they are terrorising the people to save war criminals. If the demand is to bring the BNP to the elec-tions and stop the violence at all costs, are you willing to pay the price?

We are not willing to pay this price because it compromises our liberation and the very spirit that makes us a nation. Such a compromise would be a betrayal of the three million who gave their lives to give us this democracy and freedom.

No, we have attempted to compro-mise as much as possible and, just as in 1971, our compromises have been met with violence. We did not ask for this � ght, but this � ght was thrust upon us. Now it is time to stand our ground and � ght back. It’s time for the people to reclaim the spirit of 1971 and � ght these anti-liberation forces. l

Sajeeb Wazed is Technology Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Protect witnesses and victimsn Shah Ali Farhad

In recent times, there has been an alarming escalation in violence against people involved in the

administration of justice. Witnesses, prosecutors, and judges of the Inter-national Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh (ICT-BD) have been the prime target of these violent reprisals.

There have been crude bomb attacks on the residences of ICT-BD Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir and a senior Judge of the Appellate Division of the Honourable Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Justice SK Sinha. The houses of several prosecutors too, were not spared from the blasts.

But the worst of the retaliation has been felt by the prosecution witnesses. A number of such witnesses, who tes-ti� ed against high pro� le war crimes suspects belong to Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP, have come under attacks in various parts of the country in the last one year.

Prosecution witness against convicted war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Mustafa Hawlader, was killed on December 10. Newspapers reported that other witnesses against Sayedee are also living under constant fear of violence in Pirojpur district. It is worth mentioning that the house of the com-plainant in one of the charges against Sayedee was attacked and vandalised in October this year.

On December 15, petrol bombs were hurled at the house and shop belong-ing to Ranjit Kumar Nath, prosecution witness against convicted war criminal Ali Ahsan Mujaheed. In May this year, a key witness against another convicted war criminal, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, was found dead in highly suspicious circumstances in Chittagong.

In March, key prosecution witness against Ghulam Azam and renowned musical personality, Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul’s brother, Ahmed Miraz, was killed by unknown assailants.

It will be a shame for the entire nation if we fail to give adequate pro-tection to the brave men and women who have accepted the challenge of testifying against powerful interna-tional criminals, those with su� cient clout to successfully evade the grips of justice for 42 years. It is even sadder to see that international organisations have to remind us of such a duty (HRW issued a statement on December 24: “Bangladesh: Investigate killing of Witnesses”). The question that naturally arises is thus: Why aren’t we protecting them?

The law as it stands

Unfortunately, Bangladesh still does not have a separate and distinct law for the protection of victims and witnesses of international or grave crimes. However, as for the victims and witnesses of cases at the ICT-BD only, there are certain legal provisions which can ensure the reasonable safety and security of witnesses and victims, if deployed e� ectively by the judges.

Chapter VIA of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Rules of Procedure 2010 is the key legal provision which deals speci� cally with “Witness and Victim Protection.” Rule 58.A(1) of the said Chapter reads: “The Tribunal on its own initiative, or on the application of either party, may pass necessary order directing the concerned au-thorities of the government to ensure protection, privacy and well-being of the witnesses and or victims. This pro-cess will be con� dential and the other side will not be noti� ed”. Further, Rule 58.A(2) provides for three speci� c methods of protection:

First, arranging accommodation (safe house) for victims and witnesses; second, ensuring security and surveil-lance during the stay of the witnesses and victims; and third, taking neces-sary measures to arrange police escort for witnesses and victims to and from the court.

Thus, there are several legal methods available to the ICT-BD using which they can take practical steps to protect the witnesses and victims who have been coming under attack in recent days.

If one looks at the international criminal law order, one can � nd that the only notable di� erence between the protection mechanisms contained in the rules for the ICT-BD and those of the international and hybrid tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the tribunals in Yugoslavia (ICTY), Rwanda (ICTR), Sierra Leone (SCSL), Lebanon (STL) etc is the lack of a provision in our rules about establishing a specialised Victim and Witness Unit.

Such a unit supervises the overall protective services. Additionally, as stated at the outset, since there is an absence of a speci� c law to protect witnesses and victims in Bangla-desh, the calls from many quarters to immediately enact the draft Witness Protection Bill 2011 has increased in re-cent times. Dhaka Tribune reports that this bill, although drafted and sent by the Law Ministry to the Home Ministry over two years ago, is still lying in a “deep freezer” ever since.

There is no doubt that we need to have a separate witness protection law at the earliest. And there is also no doubt that the witness protection mechanisms of the ICT-BD in particu-lar could have been better in light of international models. However, as is evident from the above discussion, it is not an absence of legal powers per se which has resulted in so many incidents or attacks. The real reason, it seems, is the absence of implemen-tation and evaluation of the existing provisions.

In my opinion, the most immediate solution (at least for the time being) is for the judges at the ICT-BD to play a more robust role in this regard. The judges need to be more proactive and make suitable protection orders for every vulnerable, or at risk witness. Rule 58A(1) clearly states that the pro-tective measures can be taken either upon application or by the Tribunal of its “own initiative.” Thus, the law itself provides support for such activism.

Moreover, since these are trials are prosecuting international crimes as opposed to ordinary domestic crimes, the nature of the proceedings themselves allow these judges the freedom to depart from the traditional and adversarial nature of criminal proceedings, which required them to be silent referees as opposed to active case managers.

The judges need to be more inquis-itorial and follow up on orders made for protection, constantly monitor-ing whether orders made are being implemented duly or not. If we look at the wording of Rule 58A(2), we can see that it reads: “The government shall… if so prayed for.”

In interpreting statutes, the word “shall” is read as “must.” Thus, if the Tribunal asks for a protective meas-ure, the government must accede to any such request. There is, in any event, the law of contempt to penalise non-compliance with judicial orders. Hence, there is no reason to doubt the e� cacy and binding nature of the measures to be taken by the judges in this regard.

However, before any discerni-ble improvements become visible regarding preventing further attacks on witnesses and/or victims, increased coordination has to be achieved in this regard between law enforcers, judges, prosecutors, counsels and concerned o� cials from the relevant ministries of home and law, justice and parliamen-tary a� airs.

In my opinion, the registrar of the ICT is perfectly placed to discharge this coordinating role, principally because of his neutrality as an o� cial of the state. Unless coordination is achieved, even updating the existing mechanisms will not help. l

Shah Ali Farhad is a barrister and Member, International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF).

A nation seeking self-respectn AK Rahim

Needless to say, Bengal is an ancient entity with a history spanning millennia. However,

its new avatar as the People’s Repub-lic of Bangladesh is only in its mere youth. And just like many teenage nations trying to � t into this modern post-industrial society, Bangladesh too is having its fair share of identity issues.

Of the many recent tantrums harrowing this youth of a nation, last week’s demand by the Ganajaga-ran protestors to cut o� diplomatic relations with Pakistan over a provin-cial resolution grabbed my attention instantly.

Equally voiced calls from various Bangladeshi ministers meant that this outrage was not just limited to the contingent at Shahbagh; it seemed Bangladeshis across divisions were furious at what seemed to be another

a� ront to their identity, another stab at their respect.

This backlash got me thinking on a very simple question – how much respect does a common Bangladeshi have of his own nation, and further-more, of himself?

Regardless of whether one thinks Bangladesh was solely intended for Bengali Muslims, or Bengalis regardless of religious background, or a multicul-tural population living in a “Bengalised” society, the common denominator seems to be the concept of Bengaliness. And it is this very factor that seems to carry the most controversy when it comes to self-identity and self-respect.

It’s not uncommon to hear a Bang-ladeshi nonchalantly blame “Bangali’r jaat” (the Bengali ethnicity) for the many wrongdoings of this country. This term, “Bangali’r jaat”, is over-whelmingly used only in a negative connotation spanning a variety of scenarios. For example:

Joking amongst friends about someone being late? “Bangali’r jaat.”

Blaming someone for scamming you in a store? “Bangali’r jaat.”

Tra� c jams, air pollution, bastard-ised Hindi cinema? Yup, you guessed it – “Bangali’r jaat.”

Even a religion that preached ethnic and social equality didn’t seem to ameliorate this case of collective low self-esteem; being Bengali somehow makes us inferior Muslims in our own eyes, as if centuries of syncretic Islam on our philosophy-sodden soil meant nothing, thus we increasingly turn to foreign-imported brands of Islam to satisfy our sense of the self.

We have absorbed so much neg-ativity within this ethnic identity that we forget that in the greater South Asian historical context, the Bengali adjective had and still has its many strengths. It wasn’t long ago that Bengali was synonymous to intellectualism and the arts. Those yearly cyclones can’t wear away our epitaph of resilience and persever-ance. Centuries of cohabiting with people of various races and religions correctly describe us as tolerant and hospitable.

This recent decry for diplomatic disruption with Pakistan, as well as these past weeks of political turbu-lence, are various facets of Bangla-desh’s youthful vulnerability. The nation was afterall born of multiple traumatic severances.

However, the people of Bangladesh have to recognise that its days of insecurity and self-degradation need to soon come to an end if it were to achieve any respect from others. Bangladesh has to work towards a mature civic society based on a strong consensual sense of identity.

We have to remind ourselves that the Bangladeshi identity cannot be dictated by Begums sitting in their high thrones. It is not just contained within the man-made political boundaries zigzagging through � elds and families indiscriminately.

Whether or not the identity gives primacy in Bengaliness or in Islam or secular pluralism, Bangladesh has to accept that its sense of the self extends far beyond into the neighbouring na-tions, the region, and its position in the globalised world. l

AK Rahim is a freelance contributor.

Make no mistake, the elections on January 5 are half-baked only because of one party: the BNP

Tra� c jams, air pollution, bastardised Hindi cinema? Yup, you guessed it – ‘Bangali’r jaat’

There is no doubt that we need to have a separate witness protection law at the earliest

It will be a shame if we fail to give adequate protection to those testifying against powerful international criminals

Would you rather have the war criminals walk free? DHAKA TRIBUNE

NASHIRUL ISLAM

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 201312

ExhibitionShilpacharya and his Outer World of ArtTime: 12pm-8pmBengal Shilpalaya, House 42Road 16 (New) / 27 (old)

City of RhythmSecond phase of Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed Time: 12-8pm Shilpangan, House 7Road 13 (New) Dhanmondi

FilmPaci� c Rim in 3DEscape PlanThe ConjuringThe Hunger Games: Catching FireStar CineplexLevel 8Bashundhara City 13/3 Ka, Panthopath

Bhalobasha AjkalUdhaoBalaka Cineworld

TODAY IN DHAKA

10 OF THE TOP FILMS OF 2013

MOVIE7:30pm Star Movies White Chicks9:30pm HBO Argo

DRAMA8:00pm SonyAadalat9:30pm Zee CinemaHum Saath Saath Hain

COMEDY11:00am Comedy CentralMASH9:30pm Star WorldTwo and A Half men

ON TV

Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin’s 100th birthday today

n Entertainment Desk

Today is the 100th birthday of inter-nationally renowned painter Zainul Abedin, also known Shilpacharya, the guru of art.

Zainul Abedin, who was born in December 29 in 1914 and died on May 28 in 1976, got his breakthrough in 1944 with his paintings on the 1943 famine. Like many of his contempo-raries, his paintings on the famine are his signature works.

In 1948, he helped found the Gov-

ernment Institute of Arts and Crafts (now the Institute of Fine Arts) in Dhaka, the � rst modern art institution in what was then East Bengal.

Not only promoting modern art, he worked tirelessly to encourage folk art in Bangladesh and founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon, near Dhaka, in 1975.

An artist of exceptional talent and international repute, the Shilpacha-rya is considered the founding father of Bangladeshi art.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy has organised a year-long programme to mark his birth centenary.

The year-long celebration, inaugu-rated on December 27,started with an art competition, in which hundreds of children from all over the country participated at the national art gallery plaza of the academy.

Other activities lined up for the celebrations programme include art competitions and exhibitions across the country, publication of a memori-al book on the Shilpacharya, seminars on his life and works, launching of memorial postcards, organising tra-ditional fairs, and installation of Shil-pacharya’ssculpture on the academy premises.

Shilpacharya’s widow Zahanara Abe-din inaugurated the celebration while Hasanul Haque Inu, minister for cul-tural a� airs, Ranjit Kumar Biswas, sec-retary of the cultural a� airs ministry af-fairs, Liaquat Ali Lucky, director general of BSA,were present at the programme.

Bengal Foundation has also chalked a year-long programme to celebrate the occasion which began

in October this with the launching of a book titled Great Masters of Bangla-desh: Zainul Abedin, a comprehensive publication exploring the creative evolution of the artist.

Yesterday, an art exhibition titled Shilpacharya and his Outer World of Art presenting artworks of the master artist and his family members was in-augurated. l

Young artists pay tribute to the master artist at a programme organised by BSA

Nisshartho BhalobashaThe most commercially successful cinema of the year was Nisshartho Bhalobasha. Not only did it grossed highest, it was also had the biggest budget ever to hit the box o� ce. Star-ring Ananta Jalil and Barsha, the � lm fully satis� ed the fans in terms of entertainment, thus securing the top position in the list.

Purno Doirgho Prem Kahini“King of Dhallywood” Shakib Khan and Joya Ahsan, two of the most demanded actors in Bangla-deshi showbiz, paired up for the � rst time in Sha� uddin Sha� ’s Pur-no Doirgho Prem Kahini. The � lm got a strong critical acclaim and also commercial success at the box o� ce – a rare combination.

DehorokkhiSensational action-romantic-thriller Dehorokkhi was a huge commercial suc-cess. The movie, starring Anisur Rahman Milon, Kazi Maruf and Bobby, created a big buzz with its trailer even before it was released.

Full N FinalIn Malek Afsary’s Full and Final, Shakib Khan paired up with new Dhally-wood heartthrob Bobby. Full N Final was one of the big-budget � lms of Dhal-lywood this year. The exciting couple had an amazing on-screen chemistry which brought them a permanent position in the hearts of movie lovers.

My Name Is KhanMy Name Is Khan is a romantic action � lm directed by Bodiul Alam Khokon. The � lm stars Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas, Pobir Mitro and Misha Shadagor in the lead roles. it was a commercial success at the box o� ce.

Bhalobasha AjkalRomantic comedy Bhalobasha Ajkal, directed by PA Kajol and produced by Jaaz Multimedia, featured Shakib Khan and Mahiya Mahi in lead roles. The � lm did a fair business at the box o� ce and also gathered positive response from the audience.

Bhalobasha JindabadDebashish Biswas’s romantic comedy Bhalobasa Jindabad starred Are� n Shuvo and supermodel Airin Sultana as lead actors. The � lm got mixed re-views but did good business. Because the budget was low, the producer was able to get back the investment.

AntordhanSyed Ohiduzzaman Diamond’s Antardhan  was not a commercial success, but was successful in a eyes of the critics. The � lm was about the lifestyle of people living on the banks of the once-mighty Padma River. Antardhan was screened at several � lm festivals around the world.

PoramonPoramon has been one of the critic’s choice this year as well as a commercial success. The movie was chosen as the Most Loved Film of Year by Movie Bazaar. It stars Mahiya Mahi and Saimon.

Onyorokom BhalobashaOnyorokom Bhalobasa, directed by Shahin Shomon, was able to do a fair business at the Box O� ce. Apart from commercial success, the Bappy Chowdhury, Mahiya Mahi and Sara Zerin starrer made a mark in the hearts of the audience.

Omar Sunny makes a comebackn Shadma Malik

Once a busy actor of Dhallywood, Omar Sunny has been absent from the silver screen for a long time. A popular hero of the � lm industry, who gifted the � lm lovers a bunch of hit � lms, later turned a villain. But Omar is all set to make his comeback as a hero once again.

The Dhaka Tribune caught up with Sunny to know about his recent ventures. He said: “I am now shoot-ing for a � lm called Shotero Rupe Shotero Baar, direct-ed by Sohanur Rahman Sohan. The � lm is about a millionaire who discovers ways to live an honest and ordinary life. Also, I am looking forward to working with my wife Moushumi in my upcoming � lm.”

He added: “At this moment, I am concentrating on my � tness. I am working out regularly and main-taining a healthy diet alongside my schedule.” l

Lal Jomin scores 60n Entertainment Desk

Lal Jamin, a theatrical expression of the struggle of a woman during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 and its aftermath, saw its 60th staging on December 27 at the Studio theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

Written by Mannan Heera and directed by Sudip Chakroborty, the play is a monodrama that represents the suppression of the female freedom � ghters and is a production of theatre troupe Shunyan. The brilliant performance by acclaimed theatre actor Momena Chow-dhury, who enacts a total of 15 roles in the play, made the production a loved one for the theatre a� cionados. Be-sides staging in Bangladesh, Shunyan has so far staged the play three times in London and several times in dif-ferent cities in India.

The play is set against the backdrop of a village and focuses on an adolescent girl and her carefree days. As the war breaks out, her father joins the Mukti Bahini, (pro-Liberation forces). Following her father’s path and also being in� uenced by a young freedom � ghter, the young girl joins the pro-Liberation forces. But the girl, along with other freedom � ghters, is captured by the Pa-kistani occupation forces. They encage her till the war is over. l

Ovi Moin Uddin awarded as best cultural reportern Entertainment Desk

Bangladesh Cultural Reporters Association honoured Ovi Moinuddin as the best cultural reporter of the year.

Railway Minister Mujibul Haque Mujib handed over the award on December 27 at a programme at Mirpur Indoor Stadium on December 27. President of BCRA, Abul Hossain Majumder and convener of the programme Rimon Mahfuz were present at the award giving ceremony.

Ovi Moin Uddin commenced his career as a jour-nalist in Ajker Kagoj and later worked in several leading newspapers. l

The logo of a new private TV channel named Channel 52 was launched through a cultural programme on December 27 at the studio of Bengal Television Limited at Tejgaon

Bollywood actor Farooq Sheikh no moren Entertainment Desk

Veteran actor Farooq Sheikh, who is best remem-bered for his performances in � lms like Garm Hava, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Chashme Buddoor and Kissi Se Na Kehna, died after su� ering a heart attack in Dubai.

Born on 25 March 1948, he died at the age of 65.The actor was in Dubai apparently for a concert

when he su� ered the heart attack on late Friday night.

He is best known for his contribution to parallel cinema in the 1970s and 80s.

The actor, who started his career in Bollywood in 1973, was last seen as Ranbir Kapoor’s father in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and in Club 60 with Sarika.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan remembered Sheikh as a “true gentleman.”

“God !! Farooq Sheikh passes away!!? A true gentle-man, a wonderful colleague! A quiet honesty about him. Very very sad!,” Bachchan tweeted.

Shekhar Kapur regretted that he should have talk-ed � lms instead of politics in his last meeting with the actor.

“RIP Farooq Shaikh. The last time we met, we talked politics. I wish we have talked � lm and acting. It’s what we love most. I would have learned,” Kapur tweeted.

“RIP Farooq Sheikh. Immensely talented, ex-tremely courteous. A thorough gentleman,” ac-tress-turned-politician Smriti Irani posted on Twitter.

Actor Boman Irani wrote: “Farooq Sheikh passes away! Shocked, numbed and saddened. Was sup-posed to be shooting with him today. A gentleman actor is no more!”

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt wrote: “Alvida Fa-rooq bhai the warmth of your smile lingers in ourmemory!”

“Year 2013 took away many talented people, and this time the veteran actor Farooq Sheikh. RIP Mr Sheikh,” Bengali movie star Prosenjit wrote. l

MSC v AbahaniAbahani: 171/6 in 20 oversSoumya 52, Mizanur 41, Dewan 3/41

MSC: 172/2 in 19 oversNurul 79*, Junaid 41, Soumya 1/19

MSC won by eight wickets

UCB BCB XI v Prime Bank CCPrime Bank: 173/8 in 20 overs(Sabbir 57, Mehrab 39, Al Amin 3/45)

UCB BCB: 175/5 in 19.4 oversImrul 82*, Mithun 44, Shakib 2/28, Rubel 2/45

UCB BCB XI won by � ve wickets

BRIEF SCORES

Malaysia U-19, 50/10 in 25.2 overAbu Haider 8/5, Jubair Hossain 7/2, Musta-� zur Rahman 17/2

Bangladesh U-19 51/1 in 10.2 overShadman Islam 25 not out

Bangladesh won by nine wickets

BRIEF SCORE

13DHAKA TRIBUNESunday, December 29, 2013

SportDid you know?Haddin’s 390 runs is the most by a keeper

in an Ashes series. His Ashes total of

1,234 runs is the 3rd most by an Aussie

keeper

14 Aussies eye win as England crumble

15 Kallis grinds it out in � nal Test

DAYS TO GO

0 7 7

Mohammedan batsman Nurul Hasan Sohan plays towards mid-wicket during their Amber Victory Day Twenty20 match against Abahani at SBNS yesterday MUMIT M

Sheikh Jamal players Nasiruddin (R) celebrates a goal with his teammates during their Bangladesh Premier League match against Chittagong Abahani at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

Fahad � nishes � fthn Shishir Hoque

Mohammad Fahad Rahman � nished � fth in the Under-10 section of the World Youth Chess Championship at Al-Aim, UAE yesterday.

Fahad defeated Ganerdene Sugar of Mongolia in the 11th and last round of the tournament to move into the top � ve with 7.5 points.

Earlier, Fahad beat Dobrikov Marco of Germany in the 10th round on Friday. Fahad now has an Elo rating of 2028.l

Jamal ride on Emeka double n Shishir Hoque

Title aspirant Sheikh Jamal D h a n m o n d i Club rode on a

brace from Nigerian forward Emeka Darlington to bag all three points from their opening Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) � xture against Chittagong Abahani. The Dhanmondi based giants won the game 3-1 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Nasir Uddin Chowdhury contin-ued his magical goal scoring run in the season as the defender once again appeared in the score sheet by giving Jamal the lead in the � rst-half. The absence of crucial players like Sony Norde and Mamunul Islam, who are sidelined with injury, were not felt as Emeka, on his BPL debut, added two in the second-half to seal a comfortable victory despite Ahsanul Hoque Milon netting a consolation for the visitors in the 83rd minute.

Emeka, who was not even a part of the preliminary squad before the sea-son, impressed Jamal in a pre-season

friendly against Abahani where the Nigerian nailed a hat-trick. The winger immediately sealed a place in the Ja-mal XI and had a successful Federation Cup campaign, but however was not able to score any goal.

Jamal won the match easily, but the absence of the attacking Haitian Sony and Mamunul re� ected on the � eld as the � are of surging forward was missing.

Chittagong Abahani conceded the � rst goal from the only threat Jamal was able to create in the opening half. Haitian forward Wedson’s header on a Linkon cross was pushed away by Aba-hani’s goalkeeper Piaruzzaman only to � nd Nasir who just had to nod the re-bounder in.

A half-chance to level the score came the visitor’s way in the 42nd min-ute, but Ahsanul Haque Milon’s header on a corner from Mahfujur Rahman � ew just over the crosspiece.

One minute into the second-half, the game had to be stopped due to insu� cient light but that hardly ham-pered the momentum of the stronger side in the game as Emeka scored in the 50th minute to double the lead with a

sliding tap. The Nigerian killed the game in the

69th minute with his second and Ja-mal’s third. Ali Abdullahi looped a vol-ley from outside the box which went over the keeper, but returned from the woodwork which Emeka received with his chest, rounded o� a defender and � red it in.

Milon pulled one back for the port city club from a penalty in the 81st minute after Nasir brought down Chit-tagong Abahani’s forward Sohel Mia inside the danger zone.

However, Chittagong Abahani could have added one more in the injury time, but unmarked mid� elder Masuk Mia Jony’s strike from the middle of the box went over the crossbar.

Jamal’s Nigerian coach Joseph Afusi said that he had rested Sony Norde af-ter the Haitian picked up an injury dur-ing the Federation Cup while Mamunul is expected to be away for a few more days with fever.

Today’s match between Abahani Limited and Brothers Union was post-poned due to unavoidable circum-stances and the match will be held to-morrow. l

Hafeez nudges Shakib from top ODI spot n Tribune Desk

Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez once again replaced Shakib al Hasan at the top of the ICC all-rounder rankings in ODIs. Mohammad Hafeez smashed three centuries and was topped the run scorers list in the re-cently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka this month.

The right hander made 448 runs and also took four wickets as Pakistan claimed the series 3-2. Previously, Hafeez took over from Shakib in Janu-ary this year but lost the top spot after having a poor series against South Af-rica in March. l

Youths o� to a winning start in Asia Cupn Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh U-19 started their Asia Cup campaign with a big win with left arm fast bowler Abu Haider’s � ve wicket haul crushing Malaysia U-19 side by nine wickets at the Sheikh Zayed stadium Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Winning the toss, Malaysia opted to bat � rst and found it di� cult to face the Bangladesh bowlers as the batting side kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Haider claimed � ve wickets for just eight runs from his eight overs and he was supported by Musta� zur Rahman and Jubair Hossain taking two wickets apiece as Malaysia folded to 50 all out in 25.2 overs.

Ahmed Ismail’s 15 was the highest score for the batting side with 11 extras being the next biggest contributor.

In reply, Bangladesh U-19 reached the total for the loss of opener Zakir Hasan who scored 14. The other opener, Shadman Islam remained unbeaten on 25 with Joyraj Sheikh scoring 10 not out to take Bangladesh to their target in just 10.2 overs.

Bangladesh U-19 will face the strong Afghanistan U-19 side who beat Sri Lanka U-19 team by three wickets on their � rst match of the tournament

yesterday.In the other matches of the day,

defending champions India U-19 side beat UAE U-19 by a huge 189 runs after India posted 320/4, with Akhil Herwadkar scoring a century, before bowling UAE U-19 out for 131 in 40.1 overs.

Pakistan U-19 registered a comfortable 132 run win over Nepal U-19 side. Two Pakistani batsmen - Sami Aslam and Hasan Raza – made

hundreds in Pakistan’s total of 311. UAE could only make 179/7 in response.

Meanwhile, the � rst upset of the tournament took place yesterday when Afghanistan U-19 side defeated a strong Sri Lanka U-19 side by three wickets after the Lankan youths post-ed 191/9. Afghanistan chased down the target for the loss of seven wickets in the 48th over. l

BCCI vows to keep Modi outn AFP, New Delhi

India’s cricket chiefs on Saturday vowed to enforce a life-long ban on Lalit Modi after the disgraced Indian Premier League founder contested elections for a state association in absentia.

Modi, who lives in self-exile in London with his passport revoked by the Indian government on corruption charges, had contested for the post of president of the Rajasthan Cricket As-sociation (RCA) on December 19.

Results for the Supreme Court-mon-itored elections will be declared by the apex court on January 6, but the Modi faction has already claimed support of 25 of the 33 district units in the state.

The elections had angered the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which in September had banned Modi for life from holding any cricket post after � nding him guilty of “serious” acts of indiscipline and misconduct.

An emergency meeting of the BCCI’s powerful working committee in Chennai on Saturday termed the RCA as a “delinquent” member and voted to keep Modi out of cricket administration. l

MSC knock Abahani out, UCB BCB XI stay in huntn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Mohammedan SC rode on a blistering innings from young wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan to knock their arch-rivals Abahani Limited out

of the Amber Victory Day Twenty20 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. UCB BCB XI also joined the Black and White out� ts in race to the � nal as they picked up a nail biting win over Prime Bank CC later in the evening.

Mohammedan, UCB BCB XI and Prime Bank are all on six points and will play their last round matches to-day at the same venue to determine their place in the competition.

Mohammedan’s plan of chasing in the important game eventually paid dividend though Abahani were neck-to-neck throughout. Put into bat � rst, the Sky-Blues went o� to a � ying start with Mizanur Rahman doing bulk of the dam-age. The Rajshahi player struck seven fours and a six to make 41 o� just 25 balls as Abahani raced to 61 in just six overs.

However, Elias Sunny put the brakes

on the charge as he removed the Miza-nur before o� -spinner Sharifullah had Shamsur Rahman (18) caught in the seventh over. However, Soumya Sarker kept the momentum going with a 34-ball 52 and with the help of their skip-per Mahmudullah (29) Abahani posted a challenging 171 on the scorecard.

Junaed Siddique (41) and Jahurul Islam (22) put on 42 for Mohammedan, before number three batsman Nurul came in and turned the game around.

Nurul faced just 47 balls to remain unbeaten on 79, with 10 boundar-ies and two sixes, as Mohammedan bagged the must win � xture by eight wickets. Meanwhile the defeat, fourth in the tournament, ended all hopes of Abahani of progressing further.

 Prime Bank CC v UCB BCB XIImrul Kayes’ unbeaten 82 aided UCB BCB XI to a nail biting win against Prime Bank by � ve wickets. Early dis-missals of skipper Tamim Iqbal on duck and Rony Talukder (9) had the side reeling on their 174-run chase, before Imrul took charge and went to built two important partnerships. He added 87 runs with Mithun Ali for the

third wicket followed by 52 runs with Marshal Ayub in the � fth wicket.

 With the run-rate creeping up UCB BCB’s chances of a win were also getting slimmer before the last three overs. UCB BCB needed 32 o� 24 balls with

Marshal and Imrul in the middle. Prime Bank pacer Tapash Baisya conceded 11 o� the 18th over followed by 14 from Shakib al Hasan in the next over which also saw the set Imrul dropped twice by Mehrab Hossain. UCB BCB needed just seven o� the last over bowled by Rubel Hossain and though the quickie

dismissed Marshal early in the over, the batting side reach the winning target with couple balls to spare. 

Marshal scored an important 25 o� 14 hitting one four and two sixes, but it was Imrul’s constructive 82 o� 54 with eight boundaries and four over bound-aries that constructed the win. 

  Earlier, Prime Bank were put into bat in the foggy morning and were re-duced to 36-3. However, Sabbir Rah-man and Saikat Ali put up some resis-tance and steadied the innings with a 54-run fourth wicket partnership. Saikat made 41 o� 21 before being run out halfway through the innings. Sabbir went onto put up another partner-ship and this time with Mehrab Hossain.

The duo posted 63 runs to take Prime Bank to 173-8. Sabbir bagged his third half-century in the tournament and scored 57. He slammed six bound-aries in his 45-ball innings. Mehrab made 39 with four fours and a six.

 UCB BCB pacer Al Amin picked three wickets while he was almost near to his second hat-trick of the tournament. He dismissed Sohag Gazi (1) and Mehrab on the � rst two deliveries before Rubel Hossain (1*) denied the feat. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 201314

ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS 255(K. Pietersen 71; M. Johnson 5-63)AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS(164 for 9 overnight)Brad Haddin c Bairstow b Anderson 65Nathan Lyon not out 18Extras (lb4) 4Total (all out; 82.2 overs) 204

BowlingAnderson 20.2-4-67-4, Broad 20-6-45-3, Stokes 15-4-46-1, Bresnan 18-6-24-2, Panesar 9-2-18-0ENGLAND 2ND INNINGSAlastair Cook lbw b Johnson 51Michael Carberry lbw b Siddle 12Joe Root run out (Johnson) 15Kevin Pietersen c Harris b Lyon 49Ian Bell c Johnson b Lyon 0Ben Stokes c Smith b Lyon 19Jonny Bairstow c Haddin b Johnson 21Tim Bresnan b Lyon 0Stuart Broad c Clarke b Lyon 0James Anderson not out 1Monty Panesar lbw b Johnson 0Extras (b5, lb6) 11Total (all out; 61 overs) 179

BowlingHarris 10-1-34-0, Johnson 15-5-25-3, Lyon 17-3-50-5, Siddle 15-6-46-1, Wat-son 4-2-13-0AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGSChris Rogers not out 18David Warner not out 12Extras 0Total (0 wkt; 8 overs) 30

BowlingAnderson 3-1-5-0, Broad 3-0-16-0, Panesar 1-0-4-0, Stokes 1-0-5-0

SCORECARD, DAY 3

Pakistan 232Misbah 51, Malinga 4-57Sri Lanka 235 for 8 Chandimal 64*, Junaid 3-31

Sri Lanka won by two wickets

BRIEF SCORE

Australia's Nathan Lyon (2R) celebrates his 100th Test wicket with team mates during the third day of their fourth Ashes Test against England at the Melbourne cricket ground yesterday REUTERS

Aussies eye win as England crumblen Reuters, Melbourne

Australia moved within 201 runs of vic-tory in the fourth Ashes test with all 10 wickets in hand after routing England’s second innings for 179 to wrest back the momentum on a roller-coaster fourth day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.

Australia o� spinner Nathan Lyon celebrated his 100th test wicket in a 5-50 haul as the tourists lost their last � ve wickets for six runs, squandering a hard-fought advantage their bowlers had secured in the morning.

Chris Rogers was on 18 with fellow opener David Warner on 12 as Austra-lia, chasing 231 for victory, reached 30 for no loss at the close of a blustery day’s play in front of a crowd of more than 63,000.

Though victory and a 4-0 lead in the � ve-test series would seem Australia’s for the taking, no team has ever chased

down more than South Africa’s 183 in 2008 since the � rst use of drop-in wickets at the MCG in 1996.

Both sides have struggled to score over 200 on a two-paced wicket amid Melbourne’s notoriously � ckle weather, which brought baking heat before a cool change ushered in chilly gusts and blew rubbish across the � eld late in the day.

England, however, were in large part the architects of their downfall in the second innings having pushed the lead to 116 without loss shortly after lunch.

England captain Alastair Cook had moved serenely to his third half-centu-ry and became the youngest cricketer at 29 to reach 8,000 test runs, but his wicket for 51 was duly followed by the loss of three more for one run in the session.

Rejuvenated seamer Mitchell John-son � rmed his bid for man-of-the-series by trapping Cook in front with

a searing inswinger and � nished with 3-25 after having wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow caught behind for 21 and Monty Panesar lbw for a duck to wrap up the innings.

The 32-year-old left-armer also dis-missed Joe Root for 15 with brilliant � elding, throwing down the stumps from mid-o� with the England number three well short of his bid for a reckless single.

Two balls later Johnson, disbeliev-ingly, took the simplest of catches at mid-o� as Ian Bell lofted a horrid drive o� the bowling of Lyon to be out for a golden duck.

That completed a collapse of 3-1, kicked o� when paceman Peter Siddle trapped Michael Carberry in front after a dour knock that yielded only 12 runs from 81 balls.

England still held a lead of 182 af-ter tea with six wickets in hand, but promptly imploded as Lyon combined

with Johnson to mow through the tail.Lyon struck to remove Ben Stokes

for 19 to end a 44-run partnership with Kevin Pietersen, the spinner coax-ing the all-rounder into a clumsy slog straight to Steven Smith at mid-on.

The 26-year-old struck again the second ball after drinks to bowl Tim Bresnan for a duck, and three balls later had his 100th when Stuart Broad was out for another duck by o� ering up a catch to Australia captain Michael Clarke at slip.

Lyon capped a banner day by dis-missing Pietersen for 49 for his � fth wicket when the South Africa-born bats-man slogged to Ryan Harris at long-o� .

While Lyon enjoyed most of the plaudits, Haddin continued to be the thorn in England’s side, with his � rst innings 65 making him the � rst batsman at seventh or lower in the order to post four � rst innings half-centuries in a series. l

SL pull o� thrilling consolation winn AFP, Abu Dhabi

Dinesh Chandimal kept his nerve to pull o� a sensational two-wicket win for Sri Lanka in the � fth and � nal one-dayer in Abu Dhabi on Friday, but Paki-stan took the � ve-match series 3-2.

Chandimal � nished with 64 not out o� 70 balls and added a match-turning 40 runs for the ninth wicket with Ajan-tha Mandis (19 not out) to see Sri Lanka through with two balls to spare.

Mendis hit the winning boundary and smashed one of the two sixes in Umar Gul’s penultimate over which cost Pakistan 15 runs and the match.

Chandimal hit his only boundary to reach � fty before hitting a six o� Gul to clinch an unlikely win after Sri Lanka had wobbled at 195-8, derailed by Jun-aid Khan (3-31) and Saeed Ajmal (2-43).

Sri Lanka, who chased down a 285-run target in their second one-day win in Dubai, were cruising along at 113-1

after Kusal Perera (47) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (45) gave them a brisk start of 75.

Perera was aggressive right from the word go, hitting four sixes and three boundaries in his 40-ball knock, but was trapped leg-before by Hafeez after he attempted a reverse sweep.

When on 31, Dilshan completed 8,000 one-day runs, becoming the sixth Sri Lankan to achieve the milestone.

But Sri Lanka then lost three quick wickets in the space of just 24 runs, two of those to Junaid.

Junaid had Dilshan caught behind and bowled Kumar Sangakkara (22)

round his legs to complete 50 wickets in the calendar year.

Gul accounted for Ashan Priyanjan (one) while skipper Angelo Mathews’s laborious 31-ball eight was ended by paceman Anwar Ali before Chandi-mal’s rearguard action.

Earlier, Misbah top-scored with 51 while in-form batsman Hafeez, who scored three centuries in the series, made 41 as Pakistan were bowled out for 232 in the 50th over.

Pakistan found the going tough af-ter openers Ahmed Shehzad (17) and Sharjeel Khan (18) by 13th over.

Lasith Malinga made it 70-3 by dis-missing Sohaib Maqsood (seven) be-fore Misbah and Hafeez shared a 58-run stand for the fourth wicket before the innings once again was derailed.

Hafeez was bowled by Angelo Mathews after his 56-ball knock with two boundaries. He � nished the series with 448 runs with three hundreds. l

Brazil tribunal con� rms Fluminense saved from dropn AFP, Rio De Janeiro

Brazil’s Superior Tribunal of Sporting Justice (STJD) Friday con� rmed relegation for Portuguesa for � elding a suspended player, thereby saving outgoing champions Fluminense from the drop.

In a tumultuous ending to the nation-al league season, Fluminense looked to have become the � rst defending cham-pions to be relegated the following sea-son after � nishing fourth bottom.

But the STJD upheld on appeal an initial decision to dock Portuguesa four points for � elding suspended mid� eld-er Heverton in the Sao Paulo-based side’s � nal match.

Another judgment Friday saw four-times champions Vasco da Gama fail to have their � nal-day defeat at Atletico

Paraenense overturned -- a successful appeal would have kept them up at the expense of Rio neighbours Flamengo.

The match, which Vasco lost 5-1, was interrupted for more than an hour for crowd violence and the club insist-ed it should have been replayed.

The televised violence shocked the nation and led to a key Vasco spon-sor, a Japanese carmaker, revoking its backing of the club while the Brazilian authorities called, not for the � rst time, for a tough crackdown on hooliganism.

Had Vasco won their case Flamengo would have been demoted after fail-ing to recover four points docked for playing former Arsenal defender Andre Santos against Cruzeiro after earning a one-match ban in a cup match. The four relegated teams were Nautico, Pon-te Preta, Vasco and Portuguesa.l

Chelsea braced for Suarez reunionn AFP, London

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez will come up against Chelsea on Sunday for the � rst

time since being banned for biting the London club’s Serbian defender Bran-islav Ivanovic last season.

The incident, in a 2-2 draw at An� eld in April, saw Suarez widely castigated, and came at a time when Liverpool were drifting towards a fourth con-secutive placing outside the Premier League’s top � ve.

Now, however, they are in the thick of the title race and despite losing 2-1 at Manchester City on Thursday, they visit Stamford Bridge only a point be-hind Jose Mourinho’s side.

Suarez, meanwhile, is in the best form of his Liverpool career, having scored 19 times in the 13 games he has played since completing a 10-match ban for sinking his teeth into Ivanovic’s forearm.

In stark contrast, Chelsea’s three strikers – Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba – have scored only � ve goals between them.

Eden Hazard came to the rescue against Swansea City on Thursday, scoring the game’s only goal, but

Mourinho has admitted that he would prefer not to have to expose his team to the threat posed by Suarez.

“Maybe Suarez got a little injury,” Mourinho joked.

“I’m not asking for a big injury. A little injury to stop him playing for four days.”

Neither Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard nor young full-back Jon

Flanagan are ready to return from hamstring injuries, while on-loan Chelsea forward Victor Moses is unable to play under the terms of his loan contract.

Arsenal remain the team to catch and German defender Per Mertesacker believes Thursday’s 3-1 win at West Ham, which saw the Gunners hit back from a goal down to end a run of four matches without a win, is ample evi-dence that they are capable of lasting the pace in the title race.

Arsenal travel to improving New-castle on Sunday.

Tim Sherwood will continue his crash-course introduction to manage-ment as he attempts to ensure Totten-ham avoid another home disappoint-ment when Stoke visit White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Tottenham’s continuing inconsis-tency has left them � ve points adrift of the Premier League’s top four going into the next round of matches a. l

Mark Hughes charged after touchline dismissaln AFP, London

Stoke manager Mark Hughes was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association on Friday following his touchline dismissal at Newcastle.

Hughes was sent to the stands by referee Martin Atkinson during Stoke’s 5-1 thrashing at St James’ Park in a Premier League � xture on Boxing Day.

Hughes’ charge relates to his conduct on the touchline and not his post-match criticism of Atkinson.

The Welshman was ordered from the dug-out by the referee after he reacted furiously to the dismissal of mid� elder Glenn Whelan, and he was still making his way to his new vantage point when defender Marc Wilson followed three minutes later.l

Tan slams sacked Cardi� boss Mackayn AFP, Cardiff

Cardi� owner Vincent Tan admitted he sacked manager Malky Mackay on Friday because the Scot was airing the Premier League club’s “dirty linen” in public.

Mackay’s acrimonious departure was the inevitable result of his turbulent re-lationship with Malaysian tycoon Tan, who had last week granted the Blue-birds boss a reprieve despite sending him an e-mail demanding he resign or be sacked. That ultimatum was brie� y lifted when chairman Mehmet Dalman stated Mackay would be in charge for the “forseeable future”, but Thursday’s 3-0 defeat against Southampton proved to be Mackay’s last game in charge.

Tan laid the blame for that with Mackay, who he believes attempted

to garner sympathy from the Cardi� supporters with some of his comments about the club’s owners.

“There has been a good deal of publicity generated by, and about, Mr Malky Mackay for the last few months,” Tan said in a statement. Indeed, far too much dirty linen has been exposed to the public gaze but, I stress, not by me.

“Indeed, I have deliberately not re-sponded to this, hoping that the club can be judged on its football rather than personalised arguments about who said what to whom.

“I have, however, regretfully con-cluded that it is no longer fair to the club, its players, its fans and the public more generally for this uncomfortable state of a� airs to continue. Cardi� City Football Club means far too much to us all for it to be distracted by this.” l

Keeper Hart is ‘best in England’, says Pellegrinin Reuters

Two months after dropping him fol-lowing a string of mistakes, Manches-ter City manager Manuel Pellegrini on Friday hailed goalkeeper Joe Hart as “the best in England”.

England � rst choice Hart, 26, played his � rst Premier League game in nearly two months in the 4-2 win at Fulham on Dec. 21 and produced several outstand-ing saves on Thursday when City beat Liverpool 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.

“He has worked very hard in the last month and a half,” Pellegrini told the City website. “He is the best goalkeeper in England.”

At that time, he appeared to be suf-fering a loss of con� dence although Pellegrini did still pick him for Champi-ons League and League Cup matches.

Pellegrini added: “I am very pleased with Joe... Not only (for) now, but I think in all the games he played in the last month. He did very well.

“I thought it was good for Joe to have a rest. He was not in his best mo-ment.”

Hart’s restoration helped City re-cover from a one-goal de� cit against Liverpool.

“It was a very important win because Liverpool was the best team in the Pre-mier League and they were at the top of the table before the match. It’s impor-tant that we showed the personality to come from behind to win the game.” l

FIXTURES Chelsea v Liverpool Everton v Southampton Newcastle v Arsenal Tottenham v Stoke

Cristiano Ronaldo (R), who plays for Real Madrid and Portugal national team and former Fifa referee Pierluigi Collina (L) of Italy sit next to a handicapped man, invited by conference organisers as a guest, as they attend the eighth Dubai International Sports Conference, in Dubai yesterday REUTERS

15SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

6-0

INDIA, FIRST INNINGS, 334

SOUTH AFRICA, FIRST INNINGS(overnight 82-0)G. Smith c Dhawan b Jadeja 47A. Petersen c Vijay b Jadeja 62H. Amla b Mohammed Shami 3J. Kallis not out 78A. de Villiers c Kohli b Jadeja 74J. Duminy lbw b Jadeja 28D. Steyn not out 0Extras (lb6, w1) 7Total (5 wkts, 104.5 overs) 299

Fall of wickets1-103 (Smith), 2-113 (Amla), 3-113 (Petersen), 4-240 (De Villiers), 5-298 (Duminy)BowlingZaheer Khan 16-2-46-0 (1w), Mo-hammed Shami 19-2-62-1, I. Sharma 23-7-76-0, Jadeja 37-9-87-4, R. Sharma 9.5-1-22-0

SCORECARD, DAY 3

Rashid reelected as DCL presidentBangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) vice-president Harunur Rashid has been re-elected as the president of Dhanmon-di Club Limited. Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, Akramul Haque, Hanif Bhuiyan, Asadul Islam Ripon, Mozammel Haque Alamgir, Rakibul Karim, Sha� q Khan, Arif Masud, Azizul Haque and Tapan Kumar Sarkar were elected as the directors.

–Tribune Desk

Darren Bravo quits Windies tour of New ZealandThe West Indies su� ered a blow on the eve of the second one-day international against New Zealand with the loss of key batsman Darren Bravo. Bravo has returned home to Trinidad “for personal reasons”, a team spokesman said. The left-hander, whose career-best 218 was pivotal in saving the � rst Test for the West Indies, scored 14 when the West Indies won the � rst ODI in Auckland on Boxing Day by two wickets. It was their � rst taste of success in New Zealand after losing the three-Test series 2-0. The second of � ve ODIs is in Napier on Sunday.

–AFP

Nadal loses to Ferrer on return to courtsRafael Nadal got his season underway with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the semi-� nals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi on Friday. It was the world number one’s � rst match since losing in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in the � nal of the World Tour Finals in London on November 11. Playing ahead of the o� cial ATP season-opener in nearby Doha next week, Ferrer looked the sharper from the start, breaking in the ninth game to take the � rst set. It was more of the same in the second set as Nadal struggled to � nd his range against an opponent who already had a match under his belt, having defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter-� nals on Thursday.

–AFP

Cameroon seeks to convince dual nationals to playThe Cameroon football federation is to send a delegation to Europe in a bid to convince players of Cameroonian origin to make themselves available for selec-tion at next year’s World Cup in Brazil. FECAFOOT said they were focusing on four players in particular who had been capped by France at junior level. The quartet comprises three 20-year-olds - Axel Ngando at Ligue 2 club AJ Auxerre, Samuel Umtiti at Olympique Lyon and Jean-Christophe Behebeck at Valenci-ennes - and the 21-year-old Paul-Georg-es Ntep de Madiba, also at Auxerre. “We want to convince them to play for Cameroon, notably in the World Cup but also in the future,” the federation said in a statement on Friday.

–Reuters

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DAY’S WATCH

Hull City's Tom Huddlestone (L) celebrates scoring with his teammates against Fulham during their EPL match at The KC Stadium in Hull yesterday REUTERS

Kallis grinds it out in � nal Testn AFP, Durban

Jacques Kallis, playing in his � nal Test match, ground out an unbeaten 78 after South Africa lost three wickets in quick succession on the third day of the second and � nal Test against India at Kingsmead on Saturday.

South Africa were 299 for � ve, 35 runs behind India’s � rst innings total of 334, when rain brought an early close.

Kallis received a standing ovation from the crowd and a guard of hon-our from the Indian players when he walked out to bat after Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla had been dismissed for 47 and three respectively.

Before he faced a ball, Alviro Peters-en was caught at slip for 62 o� a ball from Ravindra Jadeja which bounced more than Petersen expected. Left-arm spinner Jadeja put a clamp on the scor-ing rate and picked up four for 87 in 37 overs.

Fairly early in his innings, Kallis hit

two successive lofted drives for four o� Jadeja but the spin bowler, who replaced Ravichandran Ashwin from the team that played in the drawn � rst Test, was never mastered.

Kallis and AB de Villiers (74) shared a fourth wicket partnership of 127 after South Africa lost three wickets for ten runs to be wobbling at 113 for three.

Most of the enterprise came from De Villiers, who continued in a rich vein of form which has taken him to the top of both the Test and one-day international batting rankings. He hit nine boundaries in a 117-ball innings.

But after De Villiers was caught at slip o� Jadeja, the scoring rate almost ground to a halt with Kallis taking no chances after announcing that he would retire from Test cricket after this match. It was important from a team point of view, too, that South Africa secured a � rst innings lead on a pitch on which Jadeja gained turn and occasional unex-pected bounce. l

Eyes on Federer as season gets underwayn AFP, Brisbane

Six of the top 10 women’s players will compete in the Brisbane International beginning Sunday but arguably all eyes will be on the men’s draw as Swiss su-perstar Roger Federer makes his debut in the tournament.

Seventeen-time Grand Slam winner Federer could possibly be playing in Australia for the last time if he decides to call an end to his glittering career at the end of 2014.

The 32-year-old former world num-ber one slipped to number six in the rankings at the end of 2013 following a mid-season back injury and a series of disappointing results, particularly in the Grand Slams.

After losing to Andy Murray in the semi-� nals of the Australian Open, Fe-derer was beaten by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-� nals at Roland Garros.

Federer then su� ered a shock second round loss to world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky at Wimbledon before bow-ing out in the fourth round of the US Open to Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

He won just one title in 2013, and failed to make a major � nal for the � rst time since 2002.

However, Federer warned against writing him o� , saying the recent appointment of Stefan Edberg to his coaching sta� was an indication he still had the desire to compete at the top level.

“I always had a good perspective for things and it’s why, as crazy as it sounds, I enjoyed the year considering the setbacks I had – I wanted to � nd a way out of it.”

Federer’s main challenges in Bris-bane will come from Japanese star Kei Nishikori, the world number 17, and Frenchman Gilles Simon, ranked two places lower at 19. l

Poland handed Hopman Cup tien AFP, Perth

World number � ve Agnieszka Radwan-ska got her new season o� to a � ne start with a straight sets win over Flavia Pen-netta as Poland beat Italy at the mixed teams Hopman Cup on Saturday.

After Radwanska edged past the 31st-ranked Pennetta, the Poles clinched the tie in unlikely circum-stances, when the 288th-ranked Grze-gorz Pan� l was handed victory over Andreas Seppi in the men’s singles af-ter the Italian retired due to illness.

Pan� l, who was a late call-up for the tournament following the withdrawal of Jerzy Janowicz due to injury, won the � rst set and scores were level in the second when Seppi retired.

That gave Poland, nominally the tour-nament’s top seeds but outsiders for the tie after Janowicz’s withdrawal, an un-beatable 2-0 lead in the Group A encoun-ter. They were also handed the mixed doubles in a walkover for a 3-0 win in the � rst tie of the tournament. Radwanska only arrived in Perth the night before her match against Pennetta, but looked in good touch in cruising to a 6-2, 6-2 win against the Italian, who has been ranked as high as 10th in the world. l

Serena Williams (R) of the US and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus play beach tennis while opening Hua Hin Beach Tennis Championship 2013, in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Thailand yesterday AFP

South Africa's Jacques Kallis acknowledges the crowd as he leaves the � eld during Day 3 of the second cricket Test match against India at Kingsmead in Durban yesterday AFP

O� -colour City go top, United win n AFP, London

Manchester City took over at the top of the Premier League table on Saturday but only after weathering

heavy pressure from Crystal Palace in a narrow 1-0 home victory.

Having described the English festive � xture schedule as “not normal”, City manager Manuel Pellegrini made six changes to his side and Palace almost took full advantage at the Etihad Sta-dium.

City goalkeeper Joe Hart was left with an ugly cut beneath his left eye after saving at the feet of Cameron Je-rome in the � rst half and it was to mark the start of a frantic afternoon for the England man.

He saved brilliantly from Jason Pun-cheon and Mile Jedinak, while Mar-ouane Chamakh headed wide from eight yards out as Palace looked to continue their impressive recent form under new manager Tony Pulis.

With half an hour remaining, Pel-legrini sent on Samir Nasri and Alvaro Negredo, and in the 66th minute the

hosts made the breakthrough when Edin Dzeko slammed home from Jesus Navas’s cut-back.

Hart’s work was not � nished, how-ever, and he had to produce another � ne stop to deny Joel Ward before City

could celebrate their ninth consecutive home success this season.

Victory took City two points above previous leaders Arsenal, who visit Newcastle United on Sunday.

Manchester United closed to within two points of the Champions League places after recording a sixth consecu-tive victory in all competitions with a 1-0 win at Norwich City.

The defending champions were without Wayne Rooney due to a groin injury and needed the half-time intro-duction of Danny Welbeck to secure victory at Carrow Road.

David Moyes’s side had laboured until then but in the 57th minute a fa-vourable ricochet o� Javier Hernandez set Welbeck free and he rounded Eng-land team-mate John Ruddy before sliding in the winning goal.

The win took United level on points with � fth-place Everton, although they have now played a game more than all of the teams above them apart from City.

On Sunday, Everton host Southamp-ton while third-place Chelsea tackle fourth-place Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.

Elsewhere, relegation rivals West Ham United and West Bromwich Albi-on played out a richly entertaining 3-3 draw at Upton Park.

West Ham led twice, � rst through

Joe Cole and then Kevin Nolan, but on each occasion they were pegged back by the visitors, who remain without a permanent head coach following the sacking of Steve Clarke.

Nicolas Anelka broke his West Brom duck with a quick-� re brace to cancel out Cole’s fourth-minute opener and put the away team ahead, with Saido Berahino netting a 69th-minute equal-iser after goals from Modibo Maiga and Nolan had restored West Ham’s lead.

The goal from Berahino, who later hit the post from a free-kick, prevented West Ham from climbing out of the rel-egation zone and left West Brom two points above the bottom three in 15th.

Fulham also remain in the relega-tion zone after a 6-0 humiliation at Hull, who prevailed through goals from Ahmed Elmohamady, George Boyd, Tom Huddlestone and Matty Fryatt, and a Robert Koren brace.

Aston Villa were held to a 1-1 draw by Swansea City, for whom Roland Lamah cancelled out Gabriel Agbon-lahor’s seventh-minute opener with a back-post header nine minutes before half-time. l

RESULTSAston Villa 1-1 SwanseaAgbonlahor 7 Lamah 36

Hull 6-0 FulhamElmohamady 49, Koren 60, 84, Boyd 63, Huddlestone 67, Fryatt 74

Man City 1-0 Crystal PalaceDzeko 66

Norwich 0-1 Man United Welbeck 57

West Ham 3-3 West BromJ.Cole 4, Anelka 40, 45, Maiga 65, Berahino 69Nolan 67

Federer adds 'childhood hero' to coaching teamn Reuters

Former world number one Roger Fe-derer has made his “childhood hero” Stefan Edberg part of his coaching team and will use him on an occasional basis next year, the Swiss said on Friday.

“I am happy to announce that be-ginning in Melbourne, Stefan Edberg will join Severin Luethi on my coaching team,” Federer, a 17 times grand slam champion, announced on his Facebook page referring to next month’s Austra-lian Open.

Swede Edberg, also a former world number one, won six grand slams, in-cluding two Australian Open titles, in the mid-1980s.

“Severin, who has been part of my team for the last seven years, will do most of the weeks and Stefan has agreed to work with us for at least 10 weeks starting at the Australian Open in Melbourne,” the 32-year-old Federer added.

“Stefan was my childhood hero, and I am really looking forward to spending time (with) and learning from him.” l

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Fugitive Khokon Razakar now in Sweden n Udisa Islam

Faridpur’s Nagarkanda municipality Chairman Zahid Hossain Khokon alias Khokon Razakar has been traced in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. His trial for alleged crimes against humanity is currently underway in absentia.

The war crimes tribunal’s prosecu-tion team yesterday con� rmed that “fugitive” Khokon had been staying in Stockholm with his daughter Shamsun Nahar Begum and son-in-law Moham-med Bodiuzzaman Shaikh.

Present address of the BNP leader is Bredängsvägen 222; apartment: 1001; 127 32 Skärholmen; Stockholm.

One personal source from Stockholm sent the information to the prosecution team. In an email, the source sent a re-cent picture of Khokon sitting on a bench. The source said in the picture, Khokon was sitting at a place near Bredang rail-way station in southern Stockholm. “He hangs around in the shops, sits on the benches as well as plays lotteries. Besides these, he visits the mosque,” according to a prosecution team member.

On August 14, the war crimes tribu-nal 1 has ordered to commence trial of Khokon Razakar in absentia. He was in-dicted on October 9 on 11 speci� c charges of crimes against humanity he had com-mitted during the 1971 Liberation War. So far, 20 prosecution witnesses gave their depositions against the accused at the tribunal. The � rst witness testi� ed on November 20.

Prosecutor Tureen Afroz said: “When we went to Sweden, we heard many things about him. He is living there like an ordinary man. But it is merely a strategy [to avoid arrest].”

She added that Khokon’s son Linkon had got the Swedish residence permit recently. He had recently been elect-ed the general secretary of SwedenJubo Dal.

Mokhlesur Rahman, conducting prosecutor in the case against Khokon, said the accused had gone into hiding when the investigators started probe against him in Faridpur. l

An independent ACC still just words n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

As Awami League claimed it has estab-lished an independent Anti-Corruption Commission in its election manifesto, many di� er observing the government has rather curtailed ACC’s freedom by including a controversial provision in the act that made it into a ‘toothless ti-ger’ or merely a ‘cat’.

According to the manifesto for the 2014 election, the government has en-sured accountability and transparency in inquiring the graft cases. However, in reality, the parliament on November 10 approved the controversial bill curbing the power of the already beleaguered graft busting agency with a provision that made it mandatory for the ACC to have prior approval of the government before � ling cases against judges, mag-istrates and public servants.

The new provision that AL govern-ment enacted has raised controversy regarding the ACC’s independence as it con� icts with the constitution and the ACC law, since article 27 of the consti-tution says all citizens are equal in the

eyes of law, while section 24 of the ACC act says all three commissioners of the agency will be independent and can approve charge sheets in cases.

While talking to Dhaka Tribune, ACC chairman M Bodiuzzaman said: “ACC cannot work as an independent body if the provision exists.”

“We have told the government earli-er that the new provision would hinder the smooth functioning of ACC in com-bating corruption. If the provision re-mains there, it will only be damaging,” the chairman said.

He also said the ACC cannot work in-dependently. He added: “several cases are proceeding in the court regarding this act. If the court cancels the con-troversial provision, only then we can work independently.”

In the manifesto, AL said it will strengthen legal, political, social and organisational initiatives to combat cor-ruption. The e� ectiveness of the ACC will be boosted by extending its power. Strict measures will be taken against bribery, black money, illegal tender busi-nesses, and muscle power. Accountabili-

ty will be ensured for all citizens in terms of their asset and incomes.

In line with the AL election pledges of 2008, submission of wealth state-ments of the political high-ups were not properly carried out, reported in the media. Iftekharuzzaman, Transpar-ency International (Bangladesh)-TIB’s executive director, said the election manifesto for January 5 election had no signi� cance and it is just a formality.

“Rather it can be called just a wish list without any public ownership or scrutiny in true sense. The manifes-to for this election is a not a factor for those will be elected through this elec-tion,” he said.

With regards to the corruption pre-vention part of the manifesto, the TIB executive director said: “What is said in the manifesto about strengthening the ACC will not gain enough public trust as an unconstitutional, discrimi-natory and motivated amendment was imposed in the ACC act in the very last session of the outgoing parliament. It has converted ACC into a toothless and clawless fat cat.” l

AL manifesto: Electricity for every household within � ve yearsn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The Awami League in its election mani-festo for the upcoming 10th parliamen-tary polls,scheduled for January 5 next year, has made a commitment that if elected; it would ensure power sup-ply to every household in the country within� ve years.

However, looking at the govern-ment’srecord of implementing power projects during its tenure, and after talking to an expert, the targetseemsu-nachievable.

Currently, the country’s electricity coverage reaches about 10 crore peo-ple, or 62% of the total population.

“Supply of electricity will be en-sured to every household over the next � ve years through mid and long-term programmes formulated and executed by the Awami League.”

Back in 2009, when the AL-led

grand alliance government assumed the o� ce, power generation capaci-ty of the country was only 4,942MW, which increased by almost 106% to reach 10,264MW this December.

In its latest manifesto, the AL claimed that it would develop the country’s pow-

er generation capacity to 16,000MW within 2016, and to 24,000MW with-in 2021. To achieve this, deals will be signed with neighbouring countries of India, Nepal and Bhutan in addition to the increase in the power generation ca-pacities inside Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while reading out the manifesto yesterday, said if elected, the AL government would see through the work at the Roop-pur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) and the coal-based power project at Rampal.

In comparison to the greater power generation capacity, however, distribu-tion lines were extended by only 11% (from 260,369km to 299,852km) during the same period, according to the Pow-er Division.

Meanwhile, overloaded transform-ers has made the situation worse. Five distribution companies under the Power Division have a total of 690,257 transformers, of which, 135,287 trans-formers were currently overloaded, ac-cording to the Power division.

Prof Ijaz Hossain of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Tech-nology (Buet) told the Dhaka Tribune: “Though the generation capacity of the country has increased signi� cantly, there was little e� ort to bring more com-munities under the supply chain.

“If the obstacles, including, slow expansion of distribution lines, over-loaded transformers, and shortages of

substationscould not be overcome, the commitment made by the AL would be di� cult if not impossible to keep.”

He observed that technically, 90% of the population could not be brought under the conventional grid, given the varying terrain of the country. “Only a 65% of the total land mass can be brought under the grid because of wa-ter bodies and hilly areas,” Prof Ijaz said.

In its manifesto for the next elec-tions, the AL has reinstated its previ-ous call to put an emphasis on the use of coal to generate electricity.

However, the government took near-ly � ve years to formulate a coal policy while a report on extracting coal was only � nalised by an expert committee one year ago. In the meantime, the AL claimed it would install at least three million solar panels to help its move to-wards renewable energy sources.

Though the government formed the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda), which has an ambitious plan of producing 800MW of electricity by 2015, there has been little progress at the organisation.

AL renewed its old commitment to bring the Northern and Western dis-tricts of the country under gas supply, although there has been no visible pro-gressunder the current government.

“The work to supply gas to the rest of the districts in the Northern and Westernregionsof the country will con-tinue,” the AL manifesto reads.

The government had suspended giv-ing new gas connections to residential consumers for three years citing supply shortages wich was was lifted this May.

Prof Ijaz said: “It will not be possible to supply gas to the districts stipulat-ed in the manifesto due to a shortage of gas.” l

AL MANIFESTO

No new promises for ‘digital Bangladesh’ Incorrect information given on internet users, active SIM cards and ICT usagen Muhammad Zahidul Islam

With only little gains made from the massive “digital Bangladesh” electoral campaign of 2008, the ruling Awami League has not placed any new promis-es in this regard in its manifesto.

Industry analysts claimed that the ruling party was unable to ful� ll most of its pledges about informa-tion and communication technology, although it managed to claim some of the private sector’s achievements as its own.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, placed some incorrect information in her elec-tion manifesto speech.

Hasina claimed the country had nearly 3.86 crore people as internet us-ers, while 10 crore people used mobile phones.

But the BTRC claimed that there were only 3.66 crore active internet connections, according to available statistics.

The same statistics declared there to be more than 11.17 crore active SIM cards in the market; but this does not mean 10 crore people were using the mobile phones.

Market sources also claimed that at best, � ve to sixcrore people were using the internet.

In the manifesto speech of 2008, Ha-sina also declared that the party will set up a high-tech park, software technol-ogy park, ICT incubator and comput-er villages at suitable locations in the country.

However, the government only managed to initiate some of the proj-ects and could not even � nish the high-tech park project, which started 13 years back.

This time around, Hasina has said the fastest data services of 3G have

been launched, and 4G will be launched within a short time.

“All the initiatives will be continued to build a digital Bangladesh, and we will work for a knowledge-based society.”

She also sought to assure the out-sourcing and software industry of her continuing support.

In the manifesto, she also claimed that Bangladesh was one of the top leaders of ICT usage among the South Asian countries.

But a report by the International Telecommunication Union in 2012 de-clared Bangladesh’s ranking as 135, it was 139 in the previous year, out of 157 countries on the globe. Sri Lanka (107), India (121), Pakistan (129), and Myan-mar (134) were ahead of Bangladesh, according to the report.

Meanwhile, a senior leader of the Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS) said this government had allocated hundreds of croresfor ICT development in budget or block allocation; but added that not a single coin had been spent from the funds over the years.

“The amendment of telecom act and transfer of the regulatory pow-er from the BTRC [Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commis-sion] to the ministry did huge damage to the industry,” Abu Saeed Khan, a se-nior policy fellow of the Colombo-based regulatory think tank LIRNEasia and a former secretary of the Associ-ation of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob) told the Dhaka Tribune.

He said the awarding of dozens of gateway licences has damaged the whole sector.

“There was a cabinet decision to merge the telecom and ICT ministry; but they did not do it, which was also a missedopportunity,” he added. l

A female passenger falls asleep at Kamalapur Railway Station after a � ve-hour-long wait for train. The rail authorities suspend train service ahead of the opposition’s Dhaka March programme yesterday Syed Zakir Hossain

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Business

www.dhakatribune.com/business SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2013

BB: Supply disruption may risk in� ation n Jebun Nesa Alo

Bangladesh Bank has apprehended a number of risks, including supply dis-ruption, in keeping the in� ation within the budgetary target of 7%.

It said the wage hike in both the pri-vate and public sectors stemming from the increase in garment worker wages, and the decision to set up a public sec-tor wage commission will create aggre-gate demand pressure.

The central bank expressed the con-cern in its July-September quarterly report released recently.

“Another risk stems from possible supply-side disruptions due to pro-longed nationwide strikes. The recent

rise in Indian in� ation could also trans-mit to Bangladesh as shown by histori-cal long term trends,” it said.

According Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country’s point to point in� ation rose to 7.15% in Novem-ber from 7.03% a month earlier, remain-ing slightly above the budgetary target.

Impending wage increases in the public and private sectors, the like-lihood of supply disruptions due to prolonged nationwide strikes in the lead-up to parliamentary elections, bad weather and the rising in� ation in India, pose as risks, said a senior exec-utive of the central bank.

Overall food in� ation rose to 8.5% in November from 8.38% in October,

according to BBS data. The in� ation in-creased mainly due to supply disrup-tion caused by the blockades.

In November, the govern-ment-formed wage board � nalised Tk5,300 as minimum wage with a basic pay of Tk3,000 for entry-level garment workers. The new minimum wage, which is 76.66% higher than the existing Tk3,000, will be in e� ect from December 1, which means the workers will receive the new wages in January next year.

Currently, around 44 lakh worker are in the garment sector and there will be an additional spending worth more than Tk2,200 crore, which already put pressure on in� ation.

The government has given a 20% dearness allowance to all the public and autonomous bodies and teachers under the monthly pay order in Octo-ber with retrospective e� ect from July this year.

As a result, there will be an ad-ditional spending worth more than Tk4,000 crore from the public exche-quer in the current � scal year. It will create additional demand, which may have an impact on commodity prices, analysts said.

In� ation slowed 0.26 percentage points to 7.13% in September, com-pared to August, according to BBS. In-� ation started dropping continuously from June. l

Diplomats: Political unrest holds back $10bn Gulf investmentn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Political uncertainty and violence are holding back over US$10bn of invest-ments from Gulf countries.

Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait are willing to invest billions of dollars to take advantage of the lucrative market in Bangladesh, but they are afraid of taking the decisions due to the insta-bility, diplomats said.

“If Bangladesh can provide sustain-able stability, the Gulf countries are ready to invest in several projects like power, tourism and port sectors,” said a senior diplomat.

They have a lot of idle money which they want to invest here.

If a business environment that may provide them with good returns could be ensured, Bangladesh would not face any di� culty to tap foreign invest-ment, he added. Power, infrastructure, tourism, gas and oil are the sectors where they showed interest to invest.

QatarQatar being the highest per capita income country had expressed will-ingness to invest in the second inter-

national airport in Dhaka and 2,000 megawatt power plants, but there is no headway, said another diplomat. Alto-gether, their proposed investment size ranges between $4bn and $5bn.

He said the country agreed in prin-cipal to deposit $1.8bn with Bangla-desh Bank.

KuwaitKuwait is interested to build a re� nery in Bangladesh with an estimated in-vestment of $1bn.

“We had several rounds of talks with them, but the progress is much slow due to uncertainty,” said the diplomat.

Saudi ArabiaPrince Walid bin Talal visited Ban-gladesh in 2012 and expressed desire to invest in tourism and power sec-tors. “We made several presentations during his visit and he showed interest in the two sectors,” he said.

Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh is in touch with his company and if the situ-ation becomes normal, he might invest $1.5bn to $2bn, he added.

UAEThe United Arab Emirates has o� ered

to invest in four multi-billion dollar projects in the shipping sector. They showed interest in Chittagong seaport, Mongla seaport, setting up a dry dock and deep sea port, the diplomat said.

A delegation of an UAE company, DP World, was scheduled to visit Ban-gladesh in October to negotiate the projects, but postponed the trip due to uncertain political situation, he added.

OmanOman wanted to sign a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh on gas and oil exploration, but there is no progress as yet.

“Oman has expertise in oil and gas exploration and they are interested in o� shore exploration,” the diplomat said. The country also interested in ag-riculture and aquaculture cooperation with Bangladesh, he added.

BahrainBahrain had proposed to invest $200m to set up a power plant in Bangladesh.

“Several groups including Bangla-desh diaspora in Bahrain wanted to set up a bank to invest in infrastructure, but there is no progress,” the diplomat said. l

Trucks laden with goods get stranded at Mawa ferry ghat as the ferry service was suspended yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Government blockade’ deepens economic woesn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government’s cutting down vehic-ular movement to Dhaka ahead of the opposition’s “March for Democracy” has aggravated further the sorry state of the economy that has already been reeling from the e� ects of repeated hartals and blockades.

The people of the country had a small four-day window of relief thanks to the pause; but the government move to impose an “uno� cial blockade” on the highway brought the things back to square.

“The economy has already been go-ing through a big dilemma for last three months because of prolonged political programmes. Now the government en-forced its own blockade, barring trans-portation to Dhaka and disrupting sup-ply chain,” said a senior o� cial of the Finance Division of the � nance ministry.

“The strikes and blockades have crip-pled the economy, a� ecting millions of poor farmers and the urban middle class. The country is the world’s eighth most populous country and one of the poorest in Asia,” the o� cial added.

An o� cial of the Budget Division said: “The law enforcing agencies have literal-ly imposed a blockade on the highways, halting buses, trucks, trains and marine vessels from entering the capital.”

Media reports suggest that bus own-ers have started reducing the number of Dhaka-bound vehicles for last cou-ple of days. As of yesterday, virtually no bus, train or launch either left the city or arrived at the terminals.

Police said the trips had been can-celled for security reasons.

Commerce ministry sources said the government move had badly disrupt-ed the shipments of export-oriented goods, which had already been hit hard by the ongoing opposition programmes.

Transportation of fertiliser and die-sel, essential for the ongoing Boro pad-dy cultivation, has also been disrupted, said sources in the agriculture ministry.

Last week, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told Canadian High Commis-sioner Heather Cruden that things would have been much worse if Bangladesh was a sophisticated economy like the UK. He cited the full-blown strike and its aftere� ects in London in the 1970s.

According to trade bodies such as the FBCCI, Dhaka chamber and the interna-tional chamber, the economy has suf-fered a total loss of over Tk1 lakh crore from January to December because of the incessant political turmoil. They also estimated that the daily damage is between Tk1,540cr and Tk1,600cr.

According to the FBCCI, the coun-tries apex trade body, transportation, readymade garments and the SME sec-tors were hit the hardest of all by the political unrest.

Abdus Salam Murshedi, president of Bangladesh Exporters’ Association, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We will stop the shipment of export goods for Sat-urday and Sunday because of the po-litical event that the opp osition has announced and the action the govern-ment has taken.”

He said some foreign buyers recent-ly told a meeting in Hong Kong that they would drop some of their orders for security reasons.

B 3 COLUMN 6

RMG building manual � nalised n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

National Tripartite Committee (NTC) � -nalised a guideline for assessing struc-tural integrity and � re and electrical safety of the country’s readymade gar-ment buildings.

It was � nalised at a meeting on No-vember 19, which was presided over by Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar.

The meeting was attended by rep-resentatives from International Labour Organisation (ILO), Bangladesh Uni-versity of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Fire Service Department, Ban-gladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association (BKMEA).

The guideline is applicable only to the existing RMG factories, and those to come will follow Bangladesh Nation-al Building Code.

As per the guideline, minimum 25% of factory building rooftop will have to be

kept open now. But gradually the whole rooftop will have to be made open.

The travel distance between persons in stairs will be maximum 60 metres while the minimum width of a stair will be 0.9 metre.

Sprinkler system is not mandatory and alternatives are adoptable.

The factories will carry out � re drill in every three months and the � re ex-tinguishers must be placed at a dis-tance of maximum 75 feet.

The staircases must be closed by swing doors and the doors will be � re rated.

No sliding and collapsible doors or gates are allowed and the exit stairs will smoke-proof.

The height from � oor to ceiling in a building will be 2.9-3.2 metres. No vertical or horizontal extension of an existing factory will be done before inspection by the BUET team is com-pleted.

“The guideline has been formulated to save the RMG sector and to ensure safety for the apparel workers,” said Mikail Shipar, adding that the buyers have supported it.

“This will be applicable only to the existing factories.”

The assessment has already been un-der way following the new guideline.

“We have already assessed 120 buildings. Findings will be placed to the labour ministry soon,” said Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, coordinator of the in-spection teams and a professor of Civil Engineering at BUET.

Accord and Alliance will inspect 1600 and 600 factories respectively while BUET team will inspect nearly 1,000 factories, he added. l

'We have already assessed 120 buildings. Findings will be placed to the labour ministry soon'

B3 Bay Leasing shares up 24% in a week

B4 Career:Understanding where power comes from

B2 Stock Sunday, December 29, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stock market falls for second weekEconomic, political worries, year-end pro� t booking trigger sellingn Kayes Sohel

Political uncertainty, economic worries and year-end pro� t booking continued to have its toll on the stock market for the second consecutive week as investors went for sporadic selling.

During the week that ended Thursday, the benchmark DSEX index dropped nearly 44 points or 1% to close at 4,200, which is its four-week low. The blue chip index DS30 ended at 1,448, shedding 19 points or 1%.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost almost 87 points or 1% to 8,250.

The market witnessed four trad-ing sessions as it remained closed on Wednesday on account of Xmas Day –the biggest religious festival for Christian community.

Trading activities continued to decline as the DSE turnover plunged to Tk450 crore in the past week.

“Investors seem to be terribly worried over the latest political events as their perception of a stable government is fad-ing out after each session,” said a leading analyst at a brokerage � rm.

He said the market is yearning for good news from political leaders, but failed to hear even one so far. “If the current ten-sions continue, the market could hit new lows in the coming sessions,” he said.

Lanka Bangla Securities in its market analysis said: “Market sentiment remains more on a bearish side. Political clashes are going nowhere near any solution. Investors are not sure whether clashes will stop even after election. These sorts of situations will severely hamper corporate pro� tability, if continued for several quarters.”

It said institutional investors normally

tend to book pro� t towards the year-end. Probably this pro� t booking tendency is pushing market down. Many are expecting that � rst quarter of 2014 will be bearish for textile companies as buy orders are falling due to delivery uncer-tainty, it said.

The brokerage � rm said, according to newspaper sources, around $500m worth of RMG orders have already been shifted to India. “This is going to hamper banking sector pro� tability also as RMG owners are the major clients of local banks.”

Correspondingly, political clashes will severely hamper cyclical stocks. Utility and consumer goods companies generally do better in economic hard times, it said.

Activities concentrated heavily on a few stocks, especially textile sector. Interest in this sector was somewhat understandable as strong expectation for government support to the sector hit in investors’ mindset.

However, textile sector remained turnover leader capturing 27% of total activities with a fall of 4.6%. It was the second biggest losing sector after IT that declined 5.8%.

IDLC Investment said the � nal week of 2013 ended in dismay as looming political fear and its expected impact on national economy marred investment outlook, triggering correction in the market.

Appollo Ispat made debut in the past week. Its high volume of trading helped the engineering sector capture 17% of the week’s total turnover and rally 7.4%.

After Appollo Ispat, CVO Petrochem-ical Re� nery, BD Autocars, Paramount Textile, Rahima Food, Padma Oil and Delta Spinners were the most traded stocks. l

ANALYST

News from trade serverAudited/unaudited Financial Reports:APOLOISPAT: (Q1): The Company has reported its net pro� t after tax Tk. 98.86 million and basic EPS Tk. 0.66 for the 3 (three) months ended on 30 September 2013 (July 2013- September 2013) as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 96.67 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.64 for the same pe-riod of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 150,000,000 shares both for 2013 and 2012. However, consid-ering Post-IPO 250,000,000 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 30 September 2013 would be Tk. 0.40. However, consid-ering Post-IPO 250,000,000 number of shares, the company's NAV would be Tk. 24.20 as on 30 September 2013.SONALIANSH: (Q1): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 30th September 2013 (July'13 to Sep'13), the Company has reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 0.68 million with EPS of Tk. 0.25 as against Tk. 2.65 million and Tk. 0.98 respectively for the same period of the previous year.Credit RatingSAIHAMCOT: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has an-nounced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "A3" based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to April 30, 2013; Bank liability position as on October 01, 2013 and other relevant quan-titative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.SUNLIFEINS: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "BBB3" in the long term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2012 and other relevant quan-titative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.Fixed Assets/Right/Investment:GOLDENSON: The Company has informed that "GSL Export Ltd., a subsidiary company of Golden Son Ltd. has signed a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) with Mr. Stephen Christenson, a famous German Industrialist and businessman to set up a large scale 100% export oriented toys man-ufacturing factory in GSL Export Ltd. Under the said MoU, Mr. Stephen has agreed to invest in 50% shares of GSL Export Ltd.,

Golden Son will invest 40% and Mr. Belal Ahmed will invest in 10% shares. Presently, Mr. Stephen has business and factories of similar product lines in Germany, Latvia and China of which the business and factory of Latvia named Latvian Corporation has been in operation for last 103 years. Due to re-cent increase in labour and production cost in those countries, Mr. Stephen has decided to shift his business from those countries to Bangladesh and signed the said MoU with GSL Export Ltd. GSL Export Ltd. has hired a � oor space of 50,000 sft. from Golden Son Ltd. to set up its own factory to manu-facture various types of toys for export purpose. The production in the factory will start from April 2014 and the products will be exported to whole over the world. As the parent Company, the Board of Directors of Golden Son Ltd. has also approved the said proposal/scheme."RUPALILIFE: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Com-pany has decided to procure a � oor space measuring 6,240 sft. including common space at 4th � oor of S.B Trade Centre, 94 Sheikh Mujib Road, Agrabad, Chittagong @ Tk. 12,500.00 per sft. amounting a total of Tk. 7.80 crore only excluding registra-tion cost, subject to approval of Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority.RAKCERAMIC: The Company has informed that Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Co. Ltd. (A concern of Petrobangla) has approved the increase of gas load in the existing factory of RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited from 1,18,839 cft/hour to 1,64,563 cft/hour i.e. from 16,79,879.17 cubic meter/month to 23,26,222.50 cubic meter/month for enhancement of the production capacity of the Company.OLYMPIC: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors has approved execution of a Tripartite Agreement with R.B. Group of Companies Ltd. and its agent Mr. Mohammod Sirajul Islam for manufac-ture of Walton Brand UM-3 (R-6), Size-AA and UM-4 (R-03), Size-AAA, 1.5V, Mercury and Cadmium free Drycell Battery in its factory as per their requirement and to supply those to them or to their appointed agent against approved rates. The detailed terms and conditions for manufacture and supply shall contain in the agree-ment which will remain valid initially up to December 31, 2014 with provision for renewal under mutually agreed terms.

RUPALILIFE: The Company has further informed that the subscription period for rights issue will be from 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014.PREMIERBAN: BSEC has given consent under the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Issue of Capital) Rules, 2001 and Securities and Exchange Commission (Private Placement of Debt Securities) Rules, 2012, for raising of capital of The Premier Bank Limited amounting to Tk. 200,00,00,000.00 only by issuing Non-Convertible Variable Coupon Rate Bond through private placement. The consent has been accorded subject to the condition that the company shall comply with the relevant laws and Regulatory Requirements, and shall also adhere to the conditions imposed by BSEC under Section-2CC of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969.PREMIERBAN: The Company has further informed that the purpose of Non-Con-vertible Variable Coupon Rate Bond is to in-crease Capital of the Company. Key features of the Bond: Face Value: Tk. 1.00 crore only; Issue Price: At par Tk. 1.00 crore per Bond.MiscellaneousNPOLYMAR: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on December 18, 2013.EHL: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on July 31, 2013 to the respective sharehold-ers' BO Accounts on December 23, 2013.BATASHOE: The Company has informed that it has sent the interim dividend warrants for the year 2013 on 22 December 2013. The Company has also informed that the folio holders will get dividend warrants to their mailing address by "Padma Courier Service" and the BO holders will get divi-dend through BEFTN to their bank account which is mentioned in their BO account.DACCADYE: The Company has further informed that due to unavoidable circum-stances, the 35th AGM of the Company will now be held on December 27, 2013 instead of December 24, 2013. Other infor-mation of the AGM will remain unchanged.MONNOCERA: The Company has further informed that due to unavoidable circum-stances, the 32nd AGM of the Company will now be held on December 27, 2013 instead of December 26, 2013. Other infor-mation of the AGM will remain unchanged.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Yearly high

Yearly low

Turnover in million

Paramount Textile Ltd.-N -14.66 -11.84 53.71 52.40 63.60 51.60 72.0 44.2 78.062Padma Oil Co. -A -14.26 -13.87 258.83 256.70 305.00 255.00 489.0 153.0 16.815Rahima Food -Z -13.98 -12.93 64.74 64.00 86.80 62.90 92.9 13.0 12.003Familytex (BD) Ltd.-N -13.86 -13.72 58.79 58.40 70.00 58.00 72.8 27.5 6.640Delta SpinnersA -13.67 -9.98 38.16 37.90 46.00 37.10 46.0 26.0 27.135Fine Foods A -13.51 -9.77 22.73 22.40 27.00 22.10 33.0 13.5 6.296Central Pharm-A -13.21 -12.41 44.26 44.00 51.80 42.30 54.0 26.6 22.736Eastern Cables-Z -12.94 -12.94 80.72 80.70 87.00 73.40 99.9 46.2 0.326Legacy Footwear -A -12.04 -9.03 41.12 40.90 48.30 40.40 53.9 12.7 23.008Anwar Galvanizing-B -12.03 -9.00 30.93 30.70 34.20 30.20 37.5 12.7 2.051

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Yearly high

Yearly low

Turnover in million

Samata LeatheR -Z -25.62 -26.34 18.23 18.00 22.20 17.60 27.5 10.7 3.922CVO PetroChem RL-Z -24.79 -23.92 622.93 615.80 773.00 615.40 943.7 87.0 100.561BD. Autocars -Z -15.90 -15.12 29.20 29.10 35.50 29.10 60.0 17.5 5.369Paramount Textile Ltd.-N -14.96 -11.80 53.42 52.30 63.70 51.90 72.0 44.0 359.991Rahima Food -Z -14.88 -12.12 65.71 63.50 90.00 63.40 92.9 13.0 54.028Padma Oil Co. -A -14.34 -13.76 260.91 258.60 306.00 256.00 492.0 155.0 189.490Delta SpinnersA -13.67 -10.08 38.02 37.90 45.70 35.20 46.0 25.0 194.425Legacy Footwear -A -13.62 -10.79 40.75 40.60 48.80 39.00 51.1 12.4 28.690Hakkani P& Paper -B -13.30 -11.21 34.47 33.90 39.70 33.50 43.5 15.6 3.437Central Pharm-A -13.04 -11.63 44.68 44.00 51.70 41.30 54.0 26.8 183.731

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Square Pharma -A 2,679,586 516.00 14.89 189.80 -0.89 191.50 193.00 189.50 190.00Appollo Ispat CL -N 9,325,200 349.48 10.09 38.40 0.00 0.00 41.80 35.10 39.13R. N. Spinning-A 4,293,192 167.09 4.82 37.30 1.91 36.60 41.50 35.00 37.27Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 200,100 142.07 4.10 691.00 0.07 690.50 691.00 691.00 710.00UCBL - A 4,523,971 113.98 3.29 24.60 -0.40 24.70 25.80 22.30 24.66Beximco Pharma -A 2,065,398 97.28 2.81 46.10 -1.07 46.60 48.00 46.10 46.15Berger Paints-A 100,150 86.13 2.49 860.00 4.50 823.00 869.00 807.10 860.00Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 1,357,000 78.06 2.25 52.40 -14.66 61.40 63.60 51.60 53.71Generation Next-A 1,958,300 75.97 2.19 36.30 -7.16 39.10 41.00 34.00 36.64Tallu Spinning -A 1,834,880 75.03 2.17 38.00 -0.78 38.30 43.00 37.50 38.13

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Appollo Ispat CL -N 27,255,000 1027.43 5.38 38.00 0.00 0.00 41.50 32.00 39.18R. N. Spinning-A 26,138,136 1014.91 5.32 37.30 1.63 36.70 41.00 34.00 37.17Generation Next-A 22,458,040 866.44 4.54 36.40 -6.43 38.90 41.00 33.30 36.68Golden Son -A 12,656,189 777.84 4.08 62.20 2.13 60.90 65.00 55.00 62.21Tallu Spinning -A 12,056,686 489.91 2.57 38.00 -0.26 38.10 43.80 36.50 38.09 Argon Denims Limited-A 4,655,640 455.93 2.39 96.00 -3.71 99.70 102.00 88.00 97.25LankaBangla Fin. -A 5,738,370 376.52 1.97 63.90 -1.08 64.60 68.00 58.00 63.85Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 6,302,000 359.99 1.89 52.30 -14.96 61.50 63.70 51.90 53.42Delta Life Insu. -A 1,350,400 355.85 1.86 254.30 -5.92 270.30 273.80 253.80 256.47Envoy Textiles Ltd-N 5,953,210 344.07 1.80 54.20 -5.90 57.60 62.50 50.60 54.89

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Yearly high

Yearly low

Turnover in million

Bay Leasing.-A 23.87 21.99 37.72 38.40 39.50 30.60 43.5 23.0 29.998Bank Asia -A 19.68 20.13 22.38 22.50 23.00 18.70 23.0 14.4 4.855National Housing Fin.-B 10.96 10.96 33.60 33.40 34.90 30.90 54.5 20.1 12.339Delta Brac HFCL-A 10.90 22.46 58.78 59.00 60.00 50.00 74.0 48.0 0.325GSP Finance-A 10.18 9.54 31.01 31.40 32.30 28.00 37.0 22.0 5.795Pioneer Insur -A 9.69 9.73 70.23 70.20 70.40 69.90 87.4 64.0 0.211Union Capital -A 9.52 7.27 31.42 32.20 32.20 29.00 38.0 18.0 3.161GreenDeltaInsu -A 7.83 15.96 102.98 96.40 110.00 90.00 138.0 49.2 2.819Islamic Finance-A 6.47 6.69 18.02 18.10 18.80 17.00 25.7 13.0 14.5806th ICB M F-A 5.88 5.88 54.00 54.00 54.00 53.00 77.0 42.0 0.059

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Yearly high

Yearly low

Turnover in million

Bay Leasing.-A 24.92 22.62 37.84 38.60 39.70 29.00 43.7 22.5 301.249Bank Asia -A 22.22 21.18 22.94 23.10 24.00 17.20 24.0 14.5 148.750Union Capital -A 10.96 7.11 31.33 32.40 32.50 27.00 39.9 18.5 8.583Midas Financing-Z 9.45 5.06 34.45 35.90 36.00 30.00 52.5 24.9 1.459National Housing Fin.-B 9.21 9.99 33.46 33.20 34.50 28.50 57.7 18.6 86.706Prime Islami Life -A 8.21 7.35 103.67 104.10 108.00 94.00 121.8 81.0 42.456GSP Finance-A 7.99 9.15 31.13 31.10 32.90 26.00 39.0 20.0 101.520United Leasing - A 7.80 7.29 31.48 31.80 33.00 27.50 41.2 22.2 95.522Islamic Finance-A 7.74 7.19 18.04 18.10 18.70 16.00 25.8 12.6 68.764GreenDeltaInsu -A 7.61 17.44 103.43 96.10 111.00 88.00 140.0 48.0 107.213

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 1423.07 7.46 400.28 11.55 1823.34 8.09NBFI 1712.07 8.97 194.23 5.60 1906.30 8.45Investment 596.88 3.13 52.34 1.51 649.22 2.88Engineering 3301.71 17.30 577.75 16.67 3879.46 17.20Food & Allied 846.02 4.43 139.71 4.03 985.73 4.37Fuel & Power 1329.32 6.97 126.79 3.66 1456.10 6.46Jute 7.89 0.04 0.00 0.00 7.89 0.04Textile 5169.52 27.09 593.87 17.14 5763.39 25.56Pharma & Chemical 1221.71 6.40 807.05 23.29 2028.75 9.00Paper & Packaging 3.44 0.02 0.41 0.01 3.84 0.02Service 111.20 0.58 14.55 0.42 125.75 0.56Leather 237.89 1.25 168.79 4.87 406.69 1.80Ceramic 120.73 0.63 14.19 0.41 134.92 0.60Cement 420.90 2.21 35.17 1.01 456.07 2.02Information Technology 291.92 1.53 68.35 1.97 360.27 1.60General Insurance 449.28 2.35 14.28 0.41 463.56 2.06Life Insurance 774.62 4.06 98.82 2.85 873.44 3.87Telecom 336.48 1.76 26.59 0.77 363.07 1.61Travel & Leisure 324.52 1.70 55.66 1.61 380.17 1.69Miscellaneous 404.23 2.12 76.63 2.21 480.86 2.13Debenture 1.33 0.01 0.03 0.00 1.36 0.01

MON

TUE

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index 4200.96 (-) 1.03% ▼

DSE - 30 Index 1447.94 (-) 1.30% ▼

CSE All Share Index 13031.90 (-) 1.26% ▼

CSE - 30 Index 10655.74 (-) 0.76% ▼

CSE Selected Index 8254.0 (-) 1.04% ▼

DSE key features - December 22-26, 2013Turnover (Million Taka)

19,084.73

Turnover (Volume)

489,361,192

Number of Contract 538,542

Traded Issues 296

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

67

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

226

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,030.56

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

24.61

CSE key features - December 22-26, 2013Turnover (Million Taka)

3,465.27

Turnover (Volume)

83,613,990

Number of Contract 110,114

Traded Issues 245

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

61

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

176

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

1,951.37

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

23.65

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

Investors seem to be terribly worried over the latest political events as their perception of a stable government is fading out after each session

UK think-tank: India to be world’s 3rd largest economy by 2028n BSS

India will beat Japan to grab the posi-tion of the world’s third largest econo-my in 2028, according to an in� uential British think-tank, that also forecast China to overtake the US for the top position.

London-based economic consultan-cy Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) in its annual ‘World Economic League Table ’ released here Thursday, indicated that by 2028, the league table will be re-ordered.

“India overtakes Japan in 2028 to become the world’s third largest econ-omy. Abenomics means that Japan is likely to follow a weak currency pol-icy for the foreseeable future which means that its GDP in dollar terms gets overtaken by India earlier than wehad previously expected,” the CEBR said in reference to India’s march up the economic ladder as a result of Jap-anese Prime.

Minister Shinzo Abe’s aggressive policies. In 2013, Canada has overtak-en India as a result of the collapse of the rupee to retake its position as the second largest economy in the Com-monwealth and the 10th largest econ-omy in the world.

However, India’s fortunes will start reviving by 2018 when it will be atthe ninth position, followed by fourth in 2023, before grabbing the third spot in 2028.

“By 2028, the league table is being

reordered. China has moved to No 1; India to No 3; Mexico is in the top 10 at No 9;

Korea and Turkey are 11th and 12th and have overtaken France. As sym-bols of the new world order, Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq and the Philippines break into the top 30,” CEBR said in its re-port, which gives an end of year analy-sis on GDP in the 30 largest economies in the world.

It also forecast the countries that will be in the ‘Top Thirty’ for the next � ve, 10 and 15 years.

This year’s research is updated to take account of the likely surplus of en-ergy and falling oil and gas prices in the 2020s, weaker commodity prices than

had previously been expected and the sell-o� of some emerging market cur-rencies in mid-2013.

“Our latest forecasts now show Chi-na overtaking the US in 2028 to become the world’s largest economy.

This is later than some analysts have suggested and re� ects the con-tinuing performance of the US as the West’s strongest economy and the slowing down of the Chinese econo-my,” it added.

By 2028, the UK economy is fore-cast to be only 3 per cent smaller thanthe German economy and is likely to overtake Germany to become the largest Western European economy around 2030. l

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

Basic Bank opens new branchBasic Bank Limited (BBL) inaugurat-ed its 68th branch at Mohipur recent-ly. BBl Board of Directors Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu inaugurated the branch as chief guest, coordinated by the AMD Md Ruhul Alam presided over by Kazi Faqurul Islam.

Among others AMD Fazlus Sobhan, Kanak Kumar Purkayastha, Md Salim, Mohipur Union Parishad Chairman Abdul Malek, Kolapara Pres Club Pres-ident Bipul Haldar along with BBL se-nior executives were present at the occasion. l

BRAC Enterprises Programme Head Nazra Mahjabeen Sabet handed awards to the top three winners of BRAC Chicken ‘Buy & Fly’ campaign. Superstore category managers and BRAC o� cials were also present

Bangladesh Honda Private Limited (BHL), Honda’s motorcycle business joint venture in Bangladesh, began sales of Honda motorcycle products in Bangladesh recently as per Meet the Press held at the city

Jamuna Bank Limited (JBL) inaugurated its 91st branch at Bhoberchor, Munshigonj recently. Hasni properties and Developer Limited MD Mohammad Mohsin Uzzaman was present as the chief guest. Bhoberchor Union Parishad Chairman Md Gias Uddin Ahmed, OC Mamun-ur- Rashid was present while presided over by the JBL Bhaoberchor Branch Head Md Imrul Hasan

MTB launches new branchMutual Trust Bank Limited (MTB) opened its 88th branch at Choudda-gram, Comilla and the 89th branch at Abdur Bhaluka, Mymensingh recently. Respectively. Sreepur Union Chairman Jalal Mojumder, Munshirhat Union Chairman Mahfuj Alam, Comilla Pol-libidyut Samity Director Haji Mobarok Hossain Babul were present at the Ka-dair Bazar branch opening while MTB

Head of Dhaka Division Branches Syed Ra� qul Hossain inaugurated the Jamir-dia Masterbari Branch at a simple cer-emony held at the branch premises. Local elite, leaders of the local busi-ness associations, people from di� er-ent strata, managers of nearest MTB branches, senior o� cials and prospec-tive customers also attended both the programmes. l

Mercantile Bank Limited inauguratesnew branchMercantile Bank Limited (MBL) Chair-man M Amanullah inaugurates 91st Branch “Abdullahpur Branch” as chief guest of the opening ceremony at Ab-dullahpur Bus Stand, South Keraniganj recently. Consort Group Chairman Mo-hammad Jahirul Islam was present as special guest.

MBL Directors Al-Haj Akram Hus-sain (Humayun), Mohd Selim, Al-Haj Mosharref Hossain,, Sponsor M A Khan Belal, Managing Director and CEO M Ehsanul Haque, Deputy Managing Di-rector Md Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Head of Corporate A� airs (PRD) K M Abdur Razzaque and head of Abdullah-pur Branch Md Showkat Hossain were present on the occasion. l

SCB donates blanketsStandard Chartered Bank (SCB), Ban-gladesh recently handed over blankets to Bangladesh Bank (BB) for distribu-tion among the poor and cold-a� ected people in di� erent parts of the country.

SCB, Bangladesh Head of Corporate A� airs Bitopi Das Chowdhury, handed over blankets to the relevant o� cial of BB. Chowdhury thanked BB Gover-nor Dr Atiur Rahman for providing the bank with such opportunity. l

Bay Leasing shares up 24% in a weekHigher commission, interest income salvage merchant bankers from sinking Q3 pro� tsn Tahmidur Rahman

Bay Leasing and Investment Limited last week emerged as the highest gain-er with its price increasing by more than 24% to close at Tk38.6 each on Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The market price of the stock is the highest in last six months. In the week ended on Thursday, the stock was traded for an amount of Tk30 crore.

Third quarter unaudited (ended on September 30, 2013) net pro� t of the non-banking � nancial institution stood at Tk1.7 crore against Tk71lakh in the same period a year earlier.

Brokers believe the rise in price of the stock is the re� ection of its better performance last quarter.

The third quarterly pro� t growth of 139% was due to higher “commission, exchange and brokerage income” and an increase in net interest income of the company.

The commission, exchange and brokerage income component of the � nancial statement produced an ad-ditional income of Tk1.1 crore unlike any other quarters during the past two years.

The latest unaudited quarterly re-port did not mention the particulars.

However, thelone item under the “commission, exchange and brokerage income” segment was commissions from L/Cs.

Net interest income has improved because of a lower interest paid on de-posit and borrowing against same peri-od last year.

Its nine months (January-Septem-ber) pro� t has slightly declined to Tk13.3 crore from Tk13.7 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

The nine months pro� t improved due to the contributions of the third quarterly performance despite having lower investment income and lower pro� t from merchant banking during the � rst quarter of the year.

Latest news disclosed by the com-pany was the sale of 5 lakh shares at prevailing market price through stock

exchanges by one of the sponsors of the company last month.

According to the latest unaudit-ed reports, the company stocks have earnings per share of Tk1.17 each and a price to earnings ratio of 24.74 as on Thursday.

The company gave a cash dividend of 15% on the face value of Tk10 for the last year.

Moreover,its net asset value per share of Tk25.55 in 2012, which is 66% of the current market price. l

Samata Leather week’s worstloser at DSEn Tribune Business Desk

Samata Leather Complex Limited was the worst loser last week amid its annu-al general meeting (AGM), as the stock price dropped more than 25% to Tk18 each on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The AGM was held on December 24 where the board of directors did not recommend any dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2013. Previously, the “junk” stock rose 85% in the � rst two weeks of December without any funda-mental reason, brokers said.

They said the irrational price hike and the recently held AGM resulted in the last week’s drastic fall in its prices.

In its � rst quarter unaudited report (ended in September 2013) , the com-pany made losses of Tk2.1 lakh against a loss of Tk3.2 lakh during the same period last year. However, the man-agement reported a net asset value of Tk12.93 per share as on June 30, 2013 despite occurring losses in most quar-ters last year.

Earlier in response to a DSE query, the company replied there was no un-disclosed price sensitive information. The DSE, however, formed an enquiry committee to investigate into the un-usual price movement of the stocks. l

Appollo Ispat dominates DSElast week n Tribune Business Desk

Appollo Ispat shares worth over Tk102.7 crore changed hands last week, accounting for more than 5.38% of the total DSE turnover.

The newly listed company made its debut in the secondary market on Tues-day with a price per share of Tk22.The stock closed at Tk38 on the last trading session with a price to earnings ratio of 23.73 and earnings of Tk0.4 per share.

Its price movement ranged between Tk32 and Tk41.5 during the trading ses-sions since its debut.

According to its quarterly � nancial (unaudited) report ended in Septem-ber this year, the company reported net pro� t of over Tk9.8 crore, which is marginal pro� t from Tk9.7 crore in the same period a year ago.

The corrugated iron sheet manu-facturer accounts for 20% of the total market share of the iron sheet industry, said the company’s IPO prospectus.

The company used around Tk153 crore from the IPO proceeds to repay bank loans, Tk60 crore for project de-velopment and the remaining to bear the IPO expenses from the money it raised. Currently, the sponsors hold 30.47%, public 36% and institutional in-vestors the remaining company stake. l

Gateway Hotels launchedin Kolkatan Tribune Report

The Gateway Hotels & Resorts, part of the Taj Group, announced the launch of The Gateway Hotel EM Bypass Kol-kata.

This will be the � rst Gateway brand-ed hotel in Kolkata and the second Taj hotel after 24 years of the launch of Taj Bengal in 1989, says a press release.

The hotel caters to the upscale seg-ment and has expanded its footprint in Eastern India with this launch.

With the opening of this hotel, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts now has 24 hotels in its portfolio.

Raymond Bickson, managing di-rector and chief executive o� cer of Taj Group of Hotels, said: “We are extremely proud and delighted to an-nounce the opening of The Gateway Hotel E M Bypass in the beautiful city of Kolkata.”

“We are con� dent that The Gate-way Hotel will not only maintain but strengthen our leadership position in the state in terms of providing a dis-tinct service o� ering and experience to the new age business and leisure traveller.”

The Gateway Hotel Eastern Metro-politan (EM) Bypass Kolkata has 197 spacious rooms; each o� ering serene views of the city of Kolkata.

Designed to re� ect modernity with a contemporary touch, the hotel pro-vides guests round the clock hospital-ity throughout the week, the company said.

Guests can work out at the active

studio or the swimming pool, splash or relax at the Spa.

The hotel has a spacious 6500 square feet ballroom - concord - to host up to 800 guests.

Food connoisseurs can choose from a variety of local Kolkata specialties to satiate their palate at Buzz, indulge in delectable range of freshly made breads, chocolates and pastries at the Deli, or relax over a vast repertoire of drinks at Swirl the lounge.

Buzz o� ers a perfect cosmopolitan mix of international cuisine and authentic regional home-style delicacies includ-ing local Kolkata specialties like Purbo Banglar Khabar.

Swirl, located at the lobby level, of-fers a relaxed and designed ambience with an eclectic lounge space and low seating couches.

“The launch of The Gateway Hotel in Kolkata will mark our 107th property in the country and 124th globally,” said Bickson. l

'We are con� dent that The Gateway Hotel will not only maintain but strengthen our leadership position in the state in terms of providing a distinct service o� ering and experience to the new age business and leisure traveller'

Brokers believe the rise in price of the stock is the re� ection of its better performance last quarter

International Islamic University Chittagong awardedInternational Islamic University Chit-tagong (IIUC) received Rapport Ban-gladesh Ltd (RBL) award for Excellence in Human Resource Development in a city hotel recently. Dr Akbar Ali Khan handed over the award to IIUC Treasur-er Prof Md Harun-Ar-Rashid in a func-tion at the city. In attendance former Cabinet secretary Dr Sa-adat Husain, RBL Managing Director M Mosharraf Hossain were present. l

‘Government blockade’ deepens economic woes B 1 COLUMN 2Investment has also dropped drastical-ly with bank loan defaults piling up to Tk55,000cr. Moreover, 21 commercial banks and 31 non-banking � nancial institutions have also incurred losses during the January-December period.

According to the National Board of Revenue, for the July-November pe-riod, collection stood at Tk40,956cr which was Tk5,970cr less than target.

There are major concerns about agriculture and food security as well, with a staggering 11.95 lakh tonnes of fertiliser stuck at the Chittagong port in the middle of the Boro paddy cultiva-tion season.

A rice dealer from the northern dis-trict of Naogaon said: “We fear chaos on Saturday and Sunday centring the ‘March for Democracy.’ So, rice-laden trucks may not ply through the high-ways.”

He said the supply of fertiliser had been badly disrupted over the last three months. Now the government’s move to halt Dhaka-bound tra� c had only added to the misery.

Rustom Ali, general secretary of the Covered Van and Truck Owners’ As-sociation, said: “The operation of the Dowlatdia ferry terminal was stopped on Saturday. We do not know the rea-son, but a long queue of goods-laden trucks has been formed on either sides of the terminal. We do not know how long they will have to wait.”

He also feared that things will remain the same today [Sunday] as well. l

Labourers work at the construction site of an educational institute in Gujarat REUTERS

What’s your personality type, and how is it a� ecting your career?n Career Desk

There are a number of distinct career choices for every distinct personality type there is. Everybody is equipped with their unique set of skills, strengths and personality; while the former two on this list may be learnt, honed and practiced di� erent personality types are compatible with di� erent careers. Career choices that are inspired by one’s personality type are sure to lead to ful� llment.

All personality types can optimise their outlook and learn to focus on their unique strengths and challenges which are more aligned to their natural preferences. Following are a few gener-al personality types, followed by sug-gestions for possible career paths. The personality types discussed are based on www.personalitypage.com, a web-site about psychological type inspired primarily by the works of Carl Jung.

The Duty FulfillersYou are stable and down to earth; you value tradition, and are loyal. Because of your work ethic, you are a natural leader, but you prefer working alone. People think of you as somebody to count on. You appreciate order and structure, and hate abstract theories and plans that don’t make practical sense. You’re likely to stick to the same company for years. You strength is per-severance. Possible career paths: business ad-ministrator or manager, accountant or � nancial o� cer, police, lawyer, doctor, military leader, computer programmer

The NurturerYou are interested with how other peo-ple are feeling and you enjoy creating structure and order. You would be ideal in a career where you can use your ex-ceptional people-observation skills to

determine what others want or need, and use your organisational abilities to create a plan and see it through. Possible career paths: interior deco-rator, designer, nurse, administrator or manager, childcare worker, social worker, front desk executive

The Analyser You are introverted and your thinking preferences give you the ability to con-centrate and work through problems which makes you good at a number of tasks. However, you need to work at your own pace and dislike external enforcement of structure. You would do best working for yourself, and your natural strength lies in applying your reasoning skills against known facts, and questioning the status quo. Possible career paths: police, forensic pathologist, computer programmer, engineer, pilot, athlete, entrepreneur

The DoerYour observational skills make you good at correctly analysing and assess-ing other people’s motives and per-

spectives, and using this to your advan-tage while interacting with them. You have the ability to react quickly in crisis situations. You prefer an action-orient-ed career dealing with people rather than being con� ned in a regimented environment.

Possible career paths: sales representa-tive, marketing personnel, police, para-medic, computer technical support, entrepreneur

The ArtistYou need to have a career which is more than just a job. Middle of the road is not where you like being, and since you enjoy savouring the current mo-ment, fast-paced jobs are not for you. You need freedom to function in your natural realm of acute sensory aware-ness. You are aware of people’s feelings and reactions and are driven by an in-ner value to help people. Possible career paths: artist, musician, designer, writer, childcare worker, so-cial worker, teacher, psychologist, vet-erinarian, pediatrician

The Scientist You are brilliant at grasping complex theories and applying them to prob-lems and coming up with long-term strategies. Unlike any other personality type you are excellent at strategising and seeing through objectively to your long-term plans. Possible career paths: scientist, engi-neer, professor or teacher, doctor, cor-porate strategist, organisation builder, business administrator or manager, military leader, lawyer, computer pro-grammer

The VisionaryYou have the ability to be good at any-thing that captures your interest. Since you have a lot of options open to you, you will be happiest picking a profes-sion which allows personal freedom and the use of your creativity to gener-ate new ideas and solve problems. You cannot be happy in regimented or con-� ned spaces. Possible career paths: lawyer, psy-chologist, entrepreneur, photographer, consultant, engineer, scientist, actor, sales representative, marking person-nel, computer programmer

The GiverYou derive pleasure from helping oth-ers. You value structure, organisation and harmony and are e� ective at creat-ing all three. You have exceptional peo-ple skills and dislike impersonal logic and theories. You are loyal and honest, and require approval. Possible career paths: facilitator, con-sultant, psychologist, social worker, counselor, teacher, human resources manager, events coordinator, politician or diplomat

The ProtectorLike the Artist, you need more than just a job out of your career. You need

to feel as if everything you do in your life meets the high standard and ideal that you have set for yourself. You will do best in a profession that allows you to live your daily life in accordance to your principles and that supports your desire to do something ‘meaningful’ with your life.

Because of your intuitive sense and principles, you feel as if you ‘know’ things and do best in leadership posi-tions. However, if an individual shares your direction, you wouldn’t mind fol-lowing him or her.Possible career paths: teacher, doctor, alternative health care practitioner, psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor

or social worker, musician, writer, art-ist, photographer, childcare and early childhood development worker

It doesn’t matter whether you’re just about to board your career, or you’re middle-aged and simply re� ecting, to � nd out your place in the world and whether you’re moving along the right path or not, it’s important to understand yourself and your personality traits. Your personality impacts your likeliness to succeed or fail directly. Once armed with an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, and your personality type, picking a rewarding career becomes clear and simple. l

Expert presentationsn Career Desk

Audience rapport (noun) - relationship of presenter with audience, especially when goodBody language (noun) - non-verbal communication through facial expressions, body

movements etc.Finally . . . - Typical word used to signal the last of several points or subjectsFlip chart (noun) - a pad of large paper sheets on a stand for presenting informa-tionFor example . . . - Typical phrase used to signal an illustration or sample of a particular pointHandout (noun) - anything (report, sample etc.) handed or given to people at a presentationIn conclusion . . . - Typical phrase used to signal the summing up or � nal part of a presentationOHT (abbreviation) - overhead trans-

parency; sheet of � lm with image for an overhead projectorOverhead projector (noun) - device that projects an OHT onto a screen Pointer (noun) - device (rod or electric torch etc.) for indicating things on a map, screen etc.Screen (noun) - large, � at, re� ective white surface on which � lms, slides etc. are projectedSignal (verb) - to help the audience under-stand where one is in a presentationSlide (noun) - small (usually 35mm) pho-tographic transparencyTo start with . . . - Typical phrase used to signal the beginning of a particular subject or topicTurning now to . . . - Typical phrase used to signal a change from one subject or topic to anotherVisual aids (noun) - things that one can look at in a presentation, like � lms, maps, charts etc.Whiteboard (noun) - large, � at, white surface or board on which to write or draw with markers

BIZVOCAB

CareerB4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, December 29, 2013

Six time management mistakes you cannot a� ord to maken Career Desk

Many of us, despite acknowledging that we could be managing our time more e� ectively, continue making a number of mistakes which are ine� -cient, slow us down or get in the way of juggling tasks. This happens because we fail to identify and pinpoint the mistakes that we’re making, or arriving at its root cause.

When we manage our time well, our productivity levels go up and our stress levels drop. Following are a number of common mistakes which we have all been guilty of at some point or the other.

Not keeping a to-do listOne of the most annoying feelings is the sense of foreboding that we feel when the idea that we have forgotten something important keeps nagging at the back of our heads. If you have ever felt this way at work, chances are you do not maintain a to-do list. The trick to using a to-do list e� ectively is by list-ing everything according to priority.

Not setting goalsSetting goals is essential to managing your time well; having a goal gives us a destination to work towards. When we know where we would like to be at the end of the day, week, quarter, we can manage our priorities accordingly and allocate our time and resources more e� ciently. Additionally, having long term goals helps us decide what’s worth spending time on, and what is simply a distraction.

Getting distractedWe lose a few hours daily to distrac-tions such as emails, Facebook, instant messaging, phone calls, helping out colleagues that prevent us from achiev-ing the ideal work � ow – the work we do when we are 100% engaged in a task. So much as having a chat window open on another tab can distract our

mind. To gain control of the day and do our best work, we need to minimise distractions and manage interruptions.

Biting off too muchSome of us often enthusiastically take on too much on our plate. This may come from a desire to impress or an in-ability to say no to people, but taking on too much can lead to poor perfor-mance, stress, and low morale. Anoth-er reason you might have this problem is if you’re a micromanager and you insist on controlling every aspect of a project. More often than not, taking on too much work results in rushed, slop-py work.

Addiction to busynessThis sounds like one of those “good problems” to have but an addiction to busyness hardly ever means that the person is e� ective and is usually a sure road to stress. People who are addicted to busyness thrive on being busy, crav-ing the rush from narrowly-met dead-lines, endless emails, piled up � les etc. If you’re addicted to the adrenaline rush of a frantic work day, you should focus more on exciting and engaging work that matters instead of piling up to sate your � x.

Illogical schedulingWe have di� erent rhythms: we work better at di� erent times of the day, feeling more productive and energet-ic at certain times than at others. Ide-ally, to make the best use of our time, we should schedule high-value work during our peak time and low-energy work (such as getting on top of person-al correspondence) for o� -peak hours.

One of the most e� ective means we have to improve our productivity at work is to recognise and � x some of our more common time management mis-takes. Once the mistakes are overcome, we will not only have more time but also have higher job satisfaction and less stress. l

Understanding where power comes fromRecognise power and its role at the workplace using Frenchand Raven’s � ve bases of powern Ahsan Sajid

Leadership and power are directly linked, because people tend to follow those who are perceived as most pow-erful. Leaders have power for di� erent reasons – the ability to let you o� work early, assign you to your dream project or assign you work you hate, expertise in a given � eld, admiration from team mates etc. Can you recognise di� erent forms of leadership in others around you at work, school or university, or at home? How about in yourself?

One of the most notable studies on understanding power was conducted by social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven in 1959. They iden-ti� ed � ve bases of power, and the study is popularly still referred to as French and Raven’s Five Bases of Power, de-spite Raven having added an additional 6th base in 1965.

By studying the di� erent forms of power, one can deal with people in a position of authority more e� ectively. Following are the six forms of power. Use these categories as a checklist to determine what forms of power you and others have; it is a common mis-take to assume you are powerless, or have less power than the other person.

Coercive powerThis is the power to compel and oblige others to do things against their will. It is often physical, but not limited to it. This is the power exercised by dictators, des-pots, rude bosses and bullies. Coercion often results in physical and psychologi-cal harm, but the wielder’s principal goal is compliance. “Or else” scenarios are of-ten used to illustrate what will happen if compliance is not gained.

Coercion is also the ultimate pow-er of all governments. While the word certainly has a negative connotation, it is also used to keep the peace. For example, a coercive parent might stop their child from associating with harm-ful elements in school because they don’t know any better. The other � ve forms of power are also used in coer-cive ways, such as when a reward or expertise is withheld or referent power is used to threaten social exclusion.

Reward powerOne of our primary motives to work, to put it simply, is to make the money we need to conduct our lives the way we want to. There are other forms of reward – in fact anything we � nd de-

sirable can be a reward, be it a vacation home or someone’s approval. Reward power is the ability to give others what they want, and in exchange ask them to do things for you.

Rewards can also be used negatively to punish (a method reminiscent of negative reinforcement) by withholding them. It is essentially “Do this and you will get that” or “Do this or you won’t get that.”

Legitimate powerLegitimate power stems from a per-son’s role – it is ‘legitimate’ under the law of the land. Kings, ministers, police o� cers and directors all have legiti-mate power.

The legitimacy is often meted down from a higher power.

A common delusion that people in such roles fall into is to forget thatpeople are obeying the role, not the person.

Legitimate power is that based on social rules and can have several dif-ferent forms instead of just being based on position or role.

n Legitimate position power: The social norm of obeying people in a

superior position.n Legitimate power of reciprocity:

The norm that we should repay those who help us.

n Legitimate power of equity: The norm of fair play and due compen-sation.

n Legitimate power of responsibility: The norm of social responsibility in helping others.

Referent powerThis is the power that comes from an-other person liking you and wanting to be like you. It is the power of charisma and fame and is wielded by all celebri-ties as well as social leaders. In want-ing to be like these people, we imitate them hoping some of it will rub o� on us. Those with referent power often use it for coercion. One of the biggest fears for most people is social exclu-sion, and all it takes is a word from a social leader for us to be shunned by others in the group. School children are very familiar with this dynamic.

Expert powerThis is the power of expertise and

knowledge, and others being in need of that knowledge. This is a very com-mon form of power and is the basis for a very large proportion of human col-laboration, including most companies where the principle of specialisation allows large and complex ventures to be undertaken.

Expert power may be used by skilled labourers demanding better pay or

working conditions. It may be used by a research and development engineer to demand for a better view or steep pay rise.

Informational powerThis is the sixth base of power that Bertram Raven added in 1965: infor-mational power. This is providing in-formation to a person that a� ects the way they think or do things. Informa-tion alone is often not enough for this and is thus supported by an argument as to why the information should be believed. If the information is accept-ed then “socially independent change” occurs as the person continues to be-lieve this information to be true and acts accordingly. l