ICT staff gives confessional statement

Yet another arrestee in Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s draft verdict leak case gave his confessional statement before a magistrate on Sunday, without providing any new insight into the matter.
Faruk Hossain, an office assistant of the International Crimes Tribunal’s registrar office, admitted to metropolitan magistrate Harun-ur-Rashid that he introduced defence lawyer Fakhrul lslam’s assistant Mehedi Hasan to Nayon Ali, the alleged supplier of the draft verdict.
Faruk was taken to the court around 11:00am and the magistrate started recording his one-hour confession around 5:30 pm, said court sources.
Faruk said he became acquainted with Mehedi when SQ Chowdhury’s case was in Tribunal-1, as Mehedi often used to come to him for taking certified copies of court orders.
When the case was shifted to Tribunal -2, Faruk introduced Mehedi to Nayon around mid-September, as Mehedi needed some order sheets.
He told Mehedi to give Nayon a pen drive which he can use to copy the order sheets.
However, it was not clear in his confession, what motivated him to help Mehedi gain access to order sheets in an unauthorised way.

Bangladeshis top in Saudi cover-up business

Bangladeshi nationals ranked first among foreign workers in terms of involvement in cover-up businesses run by illegal companies in Saudi Arabia, a study by King Abdul Aziz University revealed Sunday.
The study, carried out by the chair of Prince Mishal bin Majid for cover-up business research at the Saudi University, has found that cover-up businesses sponsor 80 percent of undocumented foreign workers in the country.
It mentioned that Bangladeshi workers ranked first standing at 22.7 percent, reported a Saudi based English daily Arab News. Egyptians came next in line at 19 percent, followed by Syrians (14.1 percent), Yemenis, Sudanese, Palestinian and Lebanese nationals, it mentioned.
The study was based on quarterly statistics issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s Consumer Affairs’ Committee of Saudi Arabia.
The sectors that witnessed the highest rates of cover-up activity according to the study are construction and contracting, followed by the consumer goods sector and general trade.
Farouk Al-Khatib, a professor of Economics at King Abdul Aziz University, said the rate of remittances by foreign workers have increased and the number of fake institutions have grown in number recently, indicating the existence of cover-up businesses in the Saudi market.
Asked about impact of the report on the Bangladeshi workers, Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of Research of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), said it is a matter of concern but there is no scope to blame Bangladeshis alone.
“As Saudi companies give fake ‘Iqama’ (work permit) to foreign nationals including Bangladeshis, they cannot avoid their liability. Now, the governments of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia should work jointly to identify the quarters and take stern actions against them,” she told The Daily Star.
Contacted to Emdadul Haque, labour counsellor at Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh, however, said they did not have any information regarding the Bangladeshis involvement in cover-up activities.
“Arab nationals run their businesses and employ our workers within a procedure in which the employers become sponsors of the foreign workers. So, there is no scope for our people to be involved in such activities,” he told The Daily Star by phone on Sunday.

EC hopeful of political consensus

The Election Commission (EC) is still hopeful about a consensus among political parties over the election-time government.
Expressing the hope, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Sunday said the EC is waiting to see the consensus.
His comment came two weeks before the beginning of the 90-day time frame for holding the 10th parliamentary election. As per the constitution, the elections are supposed to be held between October 27 this year and January 24 next year.
While talking to reporters at the EC Secretariat, the CEC also said they did not have much time to wait for that.
He said the commission has taken all-out preparation for the election and it would announce the schedule keeping adequate time in hand.
“We have completed all technical preparation. Voter lists and transparent ballot boxes were being sent to district levels. Now only one thing remains—polls-time government,” said Kazi Rakibuddin.
“The country people want peace; they want peaceful handover of power,” he said.
He said the code of conducts would have to be amended if no consensus was made. But, the commission is fully prepared, he added.
Voter List
The EC on Sunday claimed that the voters’ database prepared by itself across the country is right and clear-cut.
Issuing a statement from the government’s press department, the EC made the claim and clarified that any Bangladeshi national being 18 years old by January 1 of 2013 or before would be able to register their names in the voter list till any announcement of election schedule.
Following media reports over the voters’ database recently, the EC defended its position and said there was no scope to question the database, as it was prepared with maintaining a defined procedure including the presence of the voters, scrutinising their forms by automatic finger print identification system.

Wrongly fattened cattle still big cause for worry

Widespread use of harmful medicines and hormones to fatten cattle in Sirajganj and Pabna districts, the country’s largest cattle producing zone, poses risk for consumers as the animals are being sent to the market for sale as sacrificial animals ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.
Meanwhile, cattle farmers in Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts are frustrated due to low prices of the animals in the local markets.
A section of farmers and cattle traders in Sirajganj and Pabna districts have continued using unscientific methods to fatten sacrificial animals ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha, reports our Pabna correspondent.
Around one lakh cattle are being fattened in the two districts this year on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, according to Sirajganj and Pabna livestock offices.
Of them over 93 thousand are in Sirajganj district.
Keeping in view last year’s statistics, over 1.5 lakh cattle are expected to be sold from these two districts this time, said livestock officials.
“Many traders reportedly inject steroids like Dexamethasone, Decason, Betamethasone and Periactin to make their cattle fat for gaining extra profit. But use of these medicines to fatten animals is strictly banned,” said Dr Wahedul Islam, additional livestock officer of Sirajganj livestock office.
“Excessive use of these medicines causes damage to kidneys and intestines of cattle. As a result water gets absorbed into the flesh of the cows, making them look bulky but such animals face the risk of death any time. We watch cattle firms and cattle markets but many traders use the harmful medicines, dodging our monitoring teams,” he added.
Dr Shafikul Hassan, head of the medicine department of Pabna Medical College, said meat of cows fattened with unauthorised medicines may affect human organs including kidney if it is taken for long.
Visiting different cattle markets of the two districts, this correspondent saw traders buying fat cows, especially for selling in the capital.
Several farmers and cow traders admitted that they use hormones for fattening the cows.
Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon: Cattle farmers in Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts are frustrated due to low price of the sacrificial animals in the local markets.
During a visit at Boda Nagarkumari hat on Wednesday this correspondent saw hundreds of reared cows and goats at the market.
In comparison of bringing cattle, the number of sale was very poor as the market saw small numbers of buyers.
“I sold two medium sized (70-75 kg meat) cows for Tk 45,000 without any profit. I had bought them Tk 38,000 about eight months ago and spent a good amount for their rearing. Before the Eid-ul-Azha last year I sold two same sized cows for Tk 58,000,” said Sirazul Islam of Sakoya village under Boda uapzila in Panchagarh.
Sale of cattle this time is poor as farmers are short of cash due to not getting fair price of their agricultural products including paddy and jute, said Hasibul Islam, a cattle trader of Panchagarh.
The number of cattle traders from other districts, especially Dhaka, is much lower too, said another cattle trader Mokhlesur Rahman.
Other famous cattle markets including Khochabari Haat, Katihar Haat, and Lahiri Haat in Baliadangi upazila, Jaborhat in Pirganj upazila of Thakurgaon, and Fakirganj Haat in Atwary upazila, and Panchagarh Bazar of Panchagarh district see similar situation.

Unruly drivers obstruct traffic

It is an everyday phenomenon at the Banani end of Mohakhali flyover that hundreds of vehicles remain stranded during peak office hours, as unruly drivers intending to go straight to Mohakhali intersection from Kakoli take the right lane, blocking the flyover’s up ramp.
Moreover, the bus drivers pick and drop passengers at the ramp in the very presence of traffic police. This foils the flyover’s sole purpose of helping smooth flow of traffic.
“It is ridiculous that the flyover facility created with public money is rendered useless when it is needed most due to the whims of rowdy motorists,” said Iftekhar-uz-Zaman, a Banani resident and a daily user of the flyover.
The outrageous fact is that it all happens in the presence of traffic police, he said.
Gulshan resident Farhana Kabir said, “It is a sheer mockery of public plights caused by Dhaka’s horrendous traffic congestion that rowdy drivers foil the purpose of a traffic facility just at will and the law enforcers remain onlookers.”
Abu Saleh, a bus driver, who was blocking the ramp lane last week, said he did so to avoid the long traffic queue on the left and wanted to go ahead by taking the right.
Mubasshar Hussain, a past president of the Institute of Architects, Bangladesh, observed that this nuisance could be prevented by lengthening the lane divider further towards Kakoli from the flyover ramp so that vehicles of the left lane could not arbitrarily obstruct the right lane meant for the flyover.
But police’s role is a must to prevent the use of the flyover ramp as a “bus stoppage”, he said.
Ruhul Amin, deputy commissioner of north zone of traffic police, said it was a faulty traffic design to terminate the flyover in Banani, which should have been extended as far as Kakoli.
As to negligence of duty policemen, he said police did as much as they could. When asked about stopping of buses at the ramp, the official said he would instruct traffic police about it.
Sirajul Islam, chief town planner of Dhaka South City Corporation, said the problem could easily be removed if police just penalised some offenders on the spot.

Funding of political parties

Political parties need money to carry out their day to day political activities and they spend a lot of money in their campaigns and other purposes. But the sources of political parties’ funding are far from transparent in Bangladesh. The sources of political parties’ funding should be transparent and accessible to the citizens for the sake of democracy, good governance and the security of the nation. It is very likely that the lack of transparency in political funding might lead to corruption and practices inimical to the interests of citizens. In reality, the political parties in Bangladesh, irrespective of their size and ideology, hardly keep any account of their funding sources and expenditures.
There are plenty of debates in our political arena regarding the legislation on financing of political parties, particularly funding of election campaign expenses and so on. In the western democracies, the political parties and candidates raise a substantial part of their election expenses from different sources which include personal fortunes and donations but these are generally well accounted for. Contrary to this, political parties in Bangladesh hardly bother to maintain accounts of their funding sources and expenditures. In absence of any accountability mechanism, millions of taka get transferred to hands without any accounting in the name of political donations.
The process of fund raising by political parties in Bangladesh is generally kept undisclosed. It is quite clear that the fund raising activity in the country normally takes place in a non-transparent manner. The political parties in the country collect individual, local and overseas donations from the supporters, admirers and business and industrial financiers. It is now an open secret that the major political parties raise funds through selling nominations to the well-off candidates of the parties in exchange of a hefty sum. This seems to be the modus operandi of funding of all the major political parties in Bangladesh.
Political funding is more opaque when it comes to electoral finance. Sources of political party finance can hardly be traced as there remains no audited balance sheet. Moreover, the reporting on finance within the party or to the Election Commission is quite inadequate. Whatever reports are submitted to the election commission, are far from comprehensive and lack in-depth details. Disclosure of election expenses by parties or candidates in election is too meagre compared to real expenses and thus not reliable. The candidates barely follow the Representation of the People’s Order (RPO). There hardly remains any functional system of monitoring, including state oversight and civil society oversight.
Now-a-days, it seems that the process of candidate selection has turned out to be a money making mechanism in Bangladeshi politics which allows wealthy business people to take the centre stage in politics depriving veteran politicians. All the major political parties have the culture of buying and selling nominations. The trade off of candidates for money seems to be an outcome of the centralized control on decision-making process and lack of internal democratic practice within the political parties in Bangladesh. The culture of money making in politics is the result of mal-practices and non-transparency in internal party financial transactions. Political leaders are not held accountable for financial transactions or donations by members.
Till now, the question of political party funding has been seen as an extremely sensitive matter. The political parties never disclose their funding sources. Hardly any party discloses financial information even within the party. Political party funds are usually collected directly from businessmen and industrialists. Such funds are often donated voluntarily out of vested interest, and in many cases through extortion.
According to a new legislation, the political parties have been registered with the Election Commission and have to submit their audit reports annually. Such law regarding audits of party funding remains only in papers and are yet to become operational. Reporting on electoral financing is a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. Political parties in Bangladesh hardly abide by the rules and regulations of EC. After the 1996 elections, nearly 95% of the MPs did not submit the individual expenditure report, and after the 2001 elections none of the parties submitted reports of electoral expenses. Interestingly, after the 2008 elections most candidates and parties submitted their electoral accounting reports before the EC.
Transparency of political party funding must be ensured so that the money is not spent on anti-state activities. There are allegations that some of the political parties receive funds from abroad and are said to have their foreign backers. Most of the political parties in Bangladesh are divided over the question of identity, with either pro-Islamist or pro-secular agendas.
Our nascent democracy would be more consolidated if the Election Commission is strengthened to the extent that the political parties and candidates are bound to abide by the rules and regulations of EC. With the upcoming parliamentary election knocking at the door, it is expected that the EC would be sturdy enough to compel the political parties to conform to the RPO. The EC should consider stern action against the political parties and candidates if anomalies are found in their submitted reports of electoral expenses. Ironically, at a time when the incumbent government was trying its best to convince the opposition that it had made the EC strong and independent enough to hold a free and fair parliamentary election without the installation of the caretaker government, some impressions have been created to the contrary.

Violence to be dealt with iron hand: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Sunday the government will deal with an iron fist if anyone tries to create any sort of violence and chaos after October 24.
She came up with the comment amid tension as the ruling and the opposition parties are planning to hold rallies in the capital on October 25.
The premier was speaking at a meeting of Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC) at her official residence Gono Bhaban around 8:00pm.
Hasina, who also heads the ruling AL, said if the president does not dissolve the parliament, it will continue until the schedule for the national election is announced. “There is no constitution conflict in it.”
Saying parliament must sit every 60 days according to the constitution, she also criticised the main opposition BNP’s claim of dissolving the parliament after October 24.
She said BNP is trying to “mislead” people by asking for the dissolution of the parliament.

Chittagong Test drawn

The first Test match between Bangladesh and New Zealand has finished in a draw as Tigers helmed the second innings with strong hands against the Kiwis on the final day in Chittagong.

The Tigers chasing the Blackcaps for 256 runs managed to bag 173 for 3 wickets from 48.2 overs, with middle-order Shakib Al Hasan scoring a glorious half century at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on Sunday.

Bangladeshi all-rounder Sohag Gazi, who has become the first man in the cricket history to score a century and pick up a total of 8 wickets including a hat-trick, was awarded Man of the Match.

Tamim Iqbal patiently added 46 runs at the opening of the Tigers’ second innings along with Marshall Ayub scoring 31 runs on the first down.

Mominul Haque, who became the first innings hero by scoring 181 runs, remained unbeaten with 22 runs off 51 deliveries till the end, supporting Shakib to his responsive knock.

Sohag was the star of the morning as he ran through the New Zealand batting lineup to dismiss Corey Anderson, BJ Watling and Doug Bracewell off consecutive deliveries to claim the hat-trick, after making an unbeaten 101 in Tigers’ first innings.

The visitors put up 287 runs for the loss of 7 wickets before declaring their second innings.

The Blackcaps lost two wickets in the morning session, as Sohag Gazi dismissed both Peter Fulton and Kane Williamson for 59 and 74 respectively.

The visitors started the day on 117 for 1 after a brief shower late on the fourth day afternoon cut short the day’s play.

The Blackcaps were looking to erase the daunting memories of the ODI whitewash in 2010 with a series win here.

Earlier, the Tigers have lost eight times and drawn only once against the Kiwis.

Bangladeshi batsman Marshall Ayub debuted for the Tigers on this match while Ish Sodhi, the 20-year-old leg spinner and left-arm seamer Corey Anderson, debuted for New Zealand.

The second Test will start on October 21 at Dhaka from 9:30am.

State-run television BTV and private satellite channel Gazi TV will broadcast the match live.

SQUADS

BANGLADESH

Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Marshall Ayub, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Abdur Razzak, Robiul Islam and Rubel Hossain.

NEW ZEALAND

PG Fulton, HD Rutherford, BB McCullum, KS Williamson, LRPL Taylor, Corey J Anderson, BJ Watling, DAJ Bracewell, BP Martin, TA Boult and IS Sodhi.