Archive for May 29th, 2008
Thursday, May 29th, 2008The Awami League (AL) and BNP yesterday separately said they would boycott the ongoing dialogue unless their chiefs are released "unconditionally", sending a blow to the government efforts to persuade the two biggest parties into the talks.Shaken but still optimistic, the government has, meanwhile, stepped up its unofficial negotiations with the two parties as it admitted their doubts about the dialogue's success without the participation of the AL and BNP.The business community and the diplomatic community also stepped into the foray yesterday, saying both the government and political parties must reach a "compromise" to break the deadlock.The dialogue enters the ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008A full text judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) published yesterday observed that the High Court (HC) may consider bail petitions in cases filed under the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), on three grounds.According to the SC observations, the HC may entertain petitions for bail in cases filed under EPR if they are filed with mala fide intentions, on suspicion, or with a court which does not have jurisdiction over the matter.The SC earlier on April 23 this year delivered a judgment only saying, "The appeal is allowed," in light of a government petition challenging an HC verdict that ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008 The caretaker government has brought "politically motivated" charges against individuals and weakened fair-trial safeguards by setting up special courts, according to the latest global report of Amnesty International (AI).The "Amnesty International Report 2008: State of the World's Human Rights" released yesterday also says the police and army personnel have violated human rights in Bangladesh with impunity.These are parts of a larger global trend observed by the AI, which also include suppressing dissent and promoting torture and ill treatment to gather intelligence."Fair trial safeguards were weakened by the use of Special Courts which imposed tight restrictions on defendants' access ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008The ad hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) created by the caretaker government in December last year to scrutinise reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is now about to being cancelled as it 'violates the constitution'.With the consent of President Iajuddin Ahmed, the finance ministry formed the ad hoc PAC on December 18 to scrutinise audit reports on government accounts in absence of a parliament.But the ad hoc PAC is yet to begin functioning as objections were raised from different quarters including the speaker of the last parliament saying that the constitution does not allow anyone other than ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008A special court yesterday granted bail to ailing former army chief Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman, an accused in the MiG-29 purchase graft case, until June 2.Judge Golam Mortuza Majumder of the Special Court for Dhaka Division, set up at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex, passed the order following a bail prayer by the defence.The court also fixed June 2 for the next hearing on charge framing against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Gen (retd) Mustafiz and five others in the case.In addition, the court ordered the authorities to allow Hasina's five counsels to meet her in the sub-jail on ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008Efforts are underway to strengthen BNP by reorganising and bringing discipline in the party under the leadership of Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the chairperson-appointed secretary general of the party.Delwar, who replaced Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan as secretary general, has apparently gained overall control over the party that witnessed the arrest of its chief Khaleda Zia and bitter factional disputes in the last 18 months.In a bid to make the party more functional and united under the leadership of its detained chairperson, Delwar recently directed all district committees of the BNP to take disciplinary actions against the dissident leaders all over the ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008Thousands of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia are fearing deportation as the Saudi authorities are not issuing residential permits to those willing to join new jobs on expiry of their present contracts.Sources said residential permits have not been issued to expatriate Bangladeshi workers seeking new jobs for the last two to three months, which will result in a gradual decrease in their number in the Middle Eastern country. About 15 lakh Bangladeshi migrants are currently living in Saudi Arabia.Bangladeshi workers living in Saudi Arabia usually return home on expiry of their job contracts. But, if any of them gets ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008The Police Headquarters has proposed that officials of the ranks of inspector, sergeant and sub-inspector (SIs) should be upgraded which senior police officials consider would increase competence of the force.A draft proposal in this regard was submitted to the home ministry last week asking the government to upgrade all 2,300 inspectors to Class I (non-gazette) officials.The proposal has also asked to up the status of the Class III 11,418 SIs and 1,213 sergeants by one grade, sources in the police department say."We've proposed to increase basic salary scale of inspectors to Tk 6,800 from present Tk 5,100," Assistant Inspector General ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif agreed in a meeting on Tuesday to clip the powers of President Pervez Musharraf, but made no headway on the lingering issue of the reinstatement of the sacked judges.After their meeting the first since their inconclusive talks in London that resulted in resignations of PML-N ministers from the federal cabinet the two leaders avoided the media and even their spokespeople were cautious in revealing the details of the two-hour meeting at Punjab House.Sources privy to the meeting said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif kept insisting ...
(read more) Thursday, May 29th, 2008The Gatco graft case against detained former premier Khaleda Zia, her son Arafat Rahman Koko and 22 others including five former ministers was transferred yesterday to a special court on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises for trial.After scrutinisng the case docket and other relevant documents, Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque of the Senior Special Judge's Court ordered sending the case to the Special Judge's Court-3 for its quick disposal.The accused former ministers of the four-party coalition government are Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M Saifur Rahman, Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury.Earlier on May 22, the same court ...
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