Archive for February 26th, 2008
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said the election commissioners do not want to become national traitors by reneging on the commitment to the nation for holding the stalled ninth parliamentary election before the year end."We are fully committed to the electoral roadmap. This is a do or die situation...the election must be held within the timeframe stipulated in the roadmap," CEC Huda said assuring an Awami League (AL) delegation."We are in if there is an election, and if it is not there, then we are out," CEC Huda asserted in response to AL acting chief's ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Awami League (AL) yesterday proposed that the state provide funds for the candidates and political parties to contest the next general election.Placed before the Election Commission (EC) during the second-round talks on electoral reforms, its proposal says parties that obtained at least 10 percent of the vote in last election should be allocated Tk 15 lakh for each candidate they would field and Tk 50 crore for central electioneering."The state should finance the election expenditure for the organisations and their candidates," said AL Presidium Member Tofail Ahmed.According to the proposal, only AL and BNP qualify for the funds ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008The three Dhaka University (DU) teachers convicted in connection with the August, 2007 campus unrest and then released on presidential clemency filed separate appeals yesterday challenging their conviction.Prof Sadrul Amin, president of Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta), Prof Anwar Hossain, general secretary of Duta and Prof Harun-or-Rashid, dean of the DU Social Science Faculty, filed the appeals at the court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque.After a long hearing, the judge accepted the appeals and fixed April 2 for the next hearing.Moving the appeals, advocates Masud Ahmed Talukder, Shafiul Bashar Bhandari, Mosleuddin Jasim and Abdul Mannan Khan ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Contradictory information provided by detained leaders of Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) left investigators of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack clueless about the masterminds of the attack.The information gleaned from Huji leader Mufti Moinuddin alias Abu Zandal regarding the masterminds does not match with the confessional statement given by Huji boss Mufti Abdul Hannan, said investigators.Hannan in his confessional statement before a magistrate on November 1 last year said Zandal and another Huji militant Ahsanullah Kajol collected the grenades from Mohammadpur residence of Moulana Tajuddin, the brother of former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu.Hannan also said that Zandal ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Hearing on the government's leave to appeal petition against the High Court's landmark judgment that quashed a Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against former prime minister and Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina began yesterday in the Supreme Court (SC) amid stepped up security around the court.After partial hearing, the six-member full bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin adjourned it till this morning.Additional security measures centring the hearing also created an unwanted situation in the court area, and this issue was brought to the notice of the SC by Hasina's ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Over 150 supervisors and meter readers of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Ltd became millionaires by tampering with bills, depriving the government of crores of taka in revenue income.Sources say Titas meter readers, supervisors and some other staff were carrying out the job for a long time in the industrial and commercial zones.These racketeers used to tamper with the bills for bribes to help unscrupulous owners of mills and industries evade the actual cost of the national asset.Sources in the Taskforce set up at the Titas Gas building said those involved in metre tampering have several groups and have "under-table" ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008The defeat was inevitable for the Tigers as South Africa completed their task in 45 minutes on the fourth morning of the first Test of the two-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Bangladesh's hero of the match Shahadat Hossain, who finished with a match haul of nine wickets, picked up the day's lone wicket by trapping left-handed batsman Ashwell Prince that only reduced the losing margin to five wickets.It was mere formalities for the Proteas as they needed only 27 runs on the fourth day with six wickets in hand and it took them 10.5 overs to ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008A suicide blast killed the Pakistani military's top medical officer and seven others yesterday, as key US "war on terror" ally President Pervez Musharraf rejected fresh pressure to step down.The attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi was one of three separate incidents Monday that marked a resurgence in violence after a lull during elections last week which saw Musharraf's allies ousted from power.Army officials said that Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, the army's surgeon general, was the highest ranking Pakistani officer to be killed in an attack since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States."This ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Fresh efforts to use the name of Aitzaz Ahsan for creating misunderstandings between PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif have failed. Some elements in an intelligence agency were using their links in PPP and the media to establish that Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan is trying to become a candidate for prime minister and president through PML-N, but they could not trap anyone for achieving their goals.Few days ago a question was asked to Nawaz Sharif in a press conference that why was he supporting the name of Aitzaz Ahsan as the next prime ...
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