Archive for March 18th, 2008
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008President Iajuddin Ahmed yesterday promulgated an ordinance to set up a Supreme Judicial Commission that will recommend to the president names for appointment of additional judges to the High Court (HC).The eagerly anticipated rule came as part of government measures to do away with room for politicisation in the appointment of judges to the HC and Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court (SC).However, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Barrister Amir Ul Islam slammed it for not setting any criteria, qualities and qualifications for one to be a judge.Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, he said, “The most important ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008The chief adviser's office directed the housing and public works ministry to initiate steps to cancel allotments of Nam flats to former lawmakers occupying those now, and to ask them to pay increased rents after getting fresh allotments, said housing ministry officials.The move came on the heels of March 17 publication of a report in The Daily Star headlined 'Row over control of Nam apartments; Ministry, JS Secretariat at odds over increased rents'.Sources said the ministry might soon send a letter to the speaker of the now dissolved eighth parliament with a deadline in this regard.The housing and public works ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008A special court, hearing a graft case against detained former premier Sheikh Hasina and seven others, yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over the activities of the jail authorities as she had been hospitalised without taking permission from the court.Judge Firoz Alam of the special court 1, set up at MP Hostels on National Parliament premises in the capital, also expressed his astonishment, as the jail authorities had not even sent any official letter to the court informing it about Hasina's shift to the hospital and about her present health condition.Mentioning that the court does not know whether Hasina currently is in ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008The government is actively considering turning the state-run Bangladesh Railway (BR) into a public limited company (PLC) on suggestions of the Asian Development Bank.The parliament, however, would take the final decision in this regard on completion of a 44-month study, which began in last October, by a consultant group.The loss-making railway cannot survive unless it is turned into a business organisation, Communications Secretary Mohammad Mahabubur Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday, adding that the government is seriously working on the proposal to turn the lossmaker into a PLC.He criticised the railway staffers for years of poor service records but said ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam at a pre-budget consultation with leading economists yesterday said he is satisfied with the country's economic performance and there is no reason for alarm.The economists attending the consultation, however, identified continuous price increase of food items as the major challenge of the moment saying, "… economic indicators will not feed the people".Former finance ministers, advisers, finance secretaries, economists and academics were present at the meeting.Government will have to take effective measures including safety net programmes to mitigate hardship of the mass, caused by the soaring prices of food items, said meeting sources quoting the ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Annisul Huq-led panel was leading in the biennial election to the country's apex trade body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), held yesterday.According to the latest results, out of 12 posts of FBCCI directors, 11 were clinched by candidates from Annisul's chamber-group panel while rival MA Rouf Chowdhury-led panel got only one post.Winners from Annisul-led chamber group are Golam Dastagir Gazi (218 votes) of Gazipur chamber, Abul Kashem Ahmed (195 votes) of Tangail chamber, Rajjab Sharif (194 votes) of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, Kohinur Islam (170 votes) of Munshiganj chamber, Kamaluddin Ahmed (166 votes) of Cox's ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed has said the main motto of his government is to hold a free, fair and acceptable parliamentary election by the set deadline as no one wants to return to the nightmarish days before January 11, 2007.“More than half of the voter list has been prepared, election rules and regulations are at the final stage and we're going to have a free, fair and credible election,” he told a meeting with the representatives of the Bangladeshi community at Baden Powell Assembly Hall here Sunday evening.The head of the caretaker government, now in London on a three-day ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Visiting UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis yesterday said negative perceptions about political stability would hurt the country's development process and its economic growth.“If political stability and expectations are negative, it would hamper the country's development and investment climate. And therefore, its economic growth," said Dervis at a press briefing on the eve of his departure at the VIP terminal of Zia International Airport.However, Dervis was hopeful that the government would hold elections to allay any fears of prolonged political uncertainty. "I have full confidence and expect that the election will be held by the end of this year.""From what I have ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Dreaded criminal Sanjidul Islam Emon killed the member of a smuggling ring in 2000 'at the directive' of former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar for pocketing a consignment of the minister's smuggled goods.Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials told The Daily Star yesterday Emon during his eight-day remand admitted that he had led a gang to Nikunja on a microbus and gunned down Abdur Rahim.He told the CID interrogators Babar asked him to "shoot Rahim down" as he had misappropriated a consignment of cellphone sets and wristwatches the minister "smuggled" into the country through Zia International Airport (ZIA)."Rahim ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 18th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) has directed the field-level election offices to begin publishing the draft voter lists for the areas where voter registration is completed.It has also instructed the officials concerned not to worry much about minor mistakes, and instead concentrate on deleting fake or duplicate names from the draft while including those who had missed to be on the list, said sources at the commission.On completion of enumeration in 93 upazilas, the army personnel have already started handing over prints of draft voter rolls to the district election officers.If everything goes according to the EC's plan, final voter lists ...
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