10 Nov, 2014

Kartik 26, 1421 Muharram 16, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 216

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com

20 pages | Price: Tk12

B1 | BUSINESS

7 | LONG FORM

11 | OP-ED

13 | SPORT

RMG FACTORIES’ GOING PUBLIC ACCELERATE

GROWTH MAPS: LEARNING FROM HIGH-GROWTH ECONOMIES

MARRIAGE AND THE MINISTER’S AGE

IMRUL AIMS TO UTILISE CALL-UP

Punishment in school sends boy to hospital

Kamararuzzaman to file review petition n Tribune Report

Boy says he was forced to do 500 squats by the head teacher n Ashif Islam Shaon A schoolboy was admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday after one of his teachers beat him up badly and forced him to finish 500 squats holding his ears.

On his way back home from school, the boy fainted on the road and was later rescued by his mother and taken to the hospital with severe pain on his legs and back.

The punishment was given to him by the teacher for a one-day-old “crime” – that too was nothing more than playing juvenile pranks with one of his classmates.

Doctors said the 13-year-old boy also went through psychological trauma.

When asked why such severe punishment, the teacher said: ‘Have your son died? Come to me if he dies’ Md Panir Hossain is a seventh grader at the Jurain Hajera High School in the capital’s Kodomtoli.

Panir told the Dhaka Tribune from his hospital bed: “Our friend Shahin does not like to take bath. He was smelling bad and some of us were making of him during the tiffin period on Saturday. Shahin took the fun seriously and informed his uncle.

“The next day, Shahin’s uncle, along with some friends who are former students of the school, came and complained against Panir and his friends Nahid and Arif.

“Around 2:20pm, during our Islamic Studies class, our head teacher Alfaj Hussain called us to his office,” Panir said.

The head teacher beat them up badly with bare hands and then, thinking that it was not enough, asked them to do 500 squats holding their ears.

HC: Why 16th amendment not illegal n Tribune Report A High Court bench yesterday issued a rule asking the government to explain in two weeks why the 16th amendment to the constitution that had empowered parliament to remove Supreme Court judges for incapacity or misconduct, would not be declared illegal, void and against the constitution.

The HC bench, comprising Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, issued the rule after primary hearing on a writ petition filed by nine apex court lawyers challenging the legality of the 16th amendment.

Advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioners, told the Dhaka Tribune that secretaries of the president’s office, prime minister’s office, parliament and the cabinet secretary had been made respondents.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Squats holding ears is a traditional form of mild punishment that teachers in many parts of the world make students do. But 500 squats easily qualifies as way over what is normal.

“It was too hard for us. After doing around 80, I fell on the ground. Then sir [Alfaj] lashed on to me again and threatened that if I paused, he would make me start over,” Panir said.

After finishing the squats, Panir started feeling unwell and decided to go home at Alambagh in Jurain, a 10-minute walk from school. On the way, he collapsed.

“I could not walk. My legs were cramped. I started seeing stars. Suddenly, I fell on the road and lost sense” he said.

Panir used to go home every day to pick up his lunch during the 30-minute lunch break. Yesterday, she got anxious when the youngest of his four children did not come home.

“I thought he got busy playing with his friends. So, I decided to go to his school. But a little way ahead, I saw a crowd and soon saw Panir lying on the road, unconscious. With help of local people, I brought him home,” she said.

After Panir came around, he described what had happened. Panir’s father Abdul Barek, who is a vegetable vendor in a local market, and their eldest son Polash Hossain went to the school to more.

When Barek asked why his son had been given such severe punishment, the head teacher replied: “Have your son died? Come to me if he dies.”

Barek said: “We came back home and saw that Panir could not move his legs. He was screaming in pain.

With the help of a neighbour, we took him to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.”

After examining him, doctors applied muscle-relaxing medication on him. “Because of excessive pressure, his cuff muscles cramped. It will take time to heal. He has to take complete  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Security beefed up in the areas adjacent to the special court in capital’s Bakshi Bazar where BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia appeared for the deposition hearing in Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust corruption cases yesterday. The additional security force blocked a road leading to Bakshi Bazar from Dhaka University’s Jagannath Hall intersection causing much inconvenience to commuters MEHEDI HASAN

Firebrand orator arrested for inciting Faruqi murder Jamil Khan and n Mohammad Md Sanaul Islam Tipu The Detective Branch (DB) of Police yesterday said they had arrested the prime instigator behind the murder of religious television personality and ranking official of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi.

“DB officials arrested Mozaffor Bin Mohosin, 35, from the al-Amin mosque compound in the capital’s Mohammadpur area on Saturday night,” Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Mozaffor, a regular speaker at madrasas and mosques with a following among militant minded listeners, is quoted as saying: “Faruqi is working against Shariah and I want punishment for this person, for the sake of Allah, someone do something about this person.”

Footage of the speech was uploaded to several websites affiliated with militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, Monirul yesterday said at his office in the capital’s Minto Road area.

DB arrests eight forgers in capital, recovers Tk1 crore fake currency n Mohammad Jamil Khan At least 15 separate gangs, each comprising around 30 members, have been forging currency and spreading fake notes around the country, detective police have found.

“Making a bundle of Tk1 lakh fake notes costs around Tk3,000 which can be sold at Tk12,000 in the black market fetching Tk9,000 profit. When demand is high, these forgers can make fake up to Tk5 crore fake notes everyday in some of their factories,” Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of police told journalists in a briefing yesterday.

The briefing was organised to let media know about the arrest of eight members of a note forging gang and recovery of Tk1 crore fake currency that DB had made yesterday in the Moddho Paikpara area in Mirpur in the capital.

The detectives have also recovered papers and note-forging instrument such as frame, laptop computers and printers from their possession.

“The drive to bust note-forgers has been going on since Eid-ul-Azha. DB has so far arrested 29 forgers,” DB boss Monirul told journalists.

He said acting on a tip off that fake note business had been going on at house number 189/2/A of Falguni

Raod of Mirpur, detectives first arrested one Based Ali in the early hours yesterday.

Conducting a raid on the basis of information given by Based, later they arrested ring leader Rafiqul Islam and some other members of the gang in a seven-storey building in Ahmed Nagar in Mirpur, Monirul said.

Rafiqul told detectives that although he had been in the business for around six years, this was the first time that he had got arrested. Generally, he handed over the fake notes, made in his factory, to the wholesalers, who distributed the notes to local traders.

Monirul claimed that the forgers arrested yesterday had disclosed the names and locations of some of these wholesalers.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s detective chief Monirul also claimed that because of their strong vigilance, the forgers had not been able to make good profit during Eid. “Lastly, they were planning to spread the fake notes in the district towns and villages,” he said.

Monirul however could not say anything for certain about how these forgers would be punished. He said most of the cases, filed under the special power act over the last six years, have remained tied in red tapes because of the sloth in case disposal in various courts. l

Mozaffor was one of the prime spiritual leaders of the Ansarullah Bangla Team and has become hugely popular in the militant community after the arrest of previous Ansarullah chief Rahmani, joint commissioner Monirul said.

Monirul said Mozaffor used to give speeches as a panel speaker of Peace TV. A native of Rajshahi district, Mozaffor completed his post-graduation degree from Rajshahi University. He passed the Dakhil and Alim qualifications [equivalent to SSC and HSC], and then took a Fazil [equivalent to BA pass course] and Dawra Hadith, a two-year course specialising in the hadith.

“We suspected the involvement of an extremist group behind Faruqi’s murder and felt we had a breakthrough in the murder investigation after seeing the uploaded video of a speech by Mozaffor,” Monirul said.

The joint commissioner said: “During his interrogation, Mozaffor denied direct involvement in the murder but said a number of people came to visit

INSIDE 3 | News

BNP staged demonstration across the country peacefully except for Gazipur protesting the denial of holding rally at Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the National Revolution and Solidarity day.

4 | News

As part of their ongoing effort to clamp down on militants, detectives are trying to decipher encrypted messages that were used by militant outfits to communicate with each other on secret websites.

5 | News

The Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh has sought two more years from the government to remove the overhead cables in the capital’s streets.

8 | World

US air strikes destroyed an Islamic State convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but US officials said it was unclear whether the group’s top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been in any of the 10 targeted vehicles.

12 | Entertainment

Nadia won the title of ‘Lux Channel i Superstar 2014’ at the grand finale of the competition held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Saturday.

his mosque and madrasa to hear his speech.”

“Besides the al-Madina madrasa of Mohammadpur, Mozaffor visited madrasas and mosques in Rupganj and Narayanganj. He worked as an Ansarullah recruiter and encouraged madrasa students and members of his audience to support the group’s extremist agenda, according to the DB joint commissioner.

“We have collected a number of video and audio recordings of speeches given by Mozaffor which were uploaded to websites of the Ansarullah community and we are working to track down those who put them up, distributed them and watched them,” said the DB joint commissioner.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Tarique Moinul Islam Bhuiyan yesterday passed an order placing Mozaffar on two days’ remand after DB police inspector and investigation officer (IO) of the Faruqi murder case, Julhas Uddin Akand, produced him before the court.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Once again lawyers of death-row convict Kamaruzzaman said their client would not seek presidential mercy until the Supreme Court disposes of his review petition.

They will file the petition with the apex court within 30 days after they receive the certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment.

“Kamaruzzaman will decide on the presidential mercy after the SC disposes of his review petition,” said Mohammad Shishir Manir, one of the counsels of Kamaruzzaman, at a press conference in the Supreme Court Bar Association yesterday afternoon.

On November 3, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Kamaruzzaman, a key organiser of the infamous Al-Badr Bahini responsible for abducting, torturing and killing freedom fighters, intellectuals and pro-liberation people in 1971.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, the top law officer of the country, said Kamaruzzaman could be executed on  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Hizb-ut Tahrir coordinator surrenders n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong A former assistant judge of Feni, Sheikh Omar Sharif who identified himself as a coordinator of banned outfit Hizb-ut Tahrir, has been sent to jail after he surrendered.

The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jannatul Ferdaous passed the order yesterday afternoon.

Advocate Ashok Kumar Dash, prosecutor of the court, said the court sent the former judge to jail rejecting his bail prayer.

The court ordered to place the Hizbut leader’s passport before the court on the next hearing date.

The next hearing date was fixed for today (Monday), he said.

Police in a drive seized anti-state leaflets, posters and some other documents from the flat on the sixth floor of one Abul Kashem on Jakir Hossain Society’s Road Number 10 of Dakshin Khulshi in Chittagong city in May 2010.

Omar Sharif used to reside on the flat and served as assistant judge in  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, November 10, 2014

Ashraf: AL only party that fought in ‘71 n Our Correspondent, Joypurhat Awami League is the only party that fought for the country’s independence in 1971, said its General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam.

“Many people could not take part in the 1971 Liberation War although they were young at the time. But now many of them work for Awami League, which is a pro-liberation force, and they are

‘The list of Awami League’s achievements is much longer than reasons for getting frustrated at it, and that is why people still love the party’ lucky,” he said addressing the tri-annual convention of Joypurhat district Awami League at Joypurhat Stadium yesterday.

“Those who are with Awami League took the party to the masses because they feel very strongly about it. The list of Awami League’s achievements is much longer than reasons for getting frustrated at it, and that is why people still love the party,” said Ashraf.

In his address, Awami League presidium member Mohammed Nasim

said the convention would not have been held if the January 5 election was not arranged.

“We also would have seen martial law in the country in that case. Awami League invited BNP leaders to sit for talks in order to hold an inclusive election but they did not respond. In the name of resisting elections, they torched houses, killed police and attacked temples,” he said.

Nasim, also the health minister, said the tenth parliamentary election established democracy in the country.

“Our leader Sheikh Hasina risked her life to save the democracy. No election will be held in the country even a day before 2019,” he said.

The convention was also addressed by the party’s Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Dr Dipu Moni, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, International Affairs Secretary of the central committee Lt Col (retd) Md Faruk Khan and Rajshahi City Corporation former mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.

The first session of the convention was presided over by Joypurhat Sadar constituency lawmaker Shamsul Alam Dudu.

In the second session held at the district council auditorium, Dudu and district council administrator SM Solaiman Ali were re-elected as district Awami League president and general secretary respectively.

A slew of Awami League activists from the upazilas under the district attended the convention. l

Father of Panir, a student of class VII, comforts his son at home. The boy had been admitted to hospital after being severely punished by his teacher

Tofail: No possibility of dialogue, midterm elections n Our Correspondent, Gazipur Blaming BNP for murders and attempts to kill, Awami League stalwart and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said there is no possibility of a dialogue with BNP nor any midterm elections in the country.

“Dialogue with BNP cannot be possible as the party killed Ahsanullah Master and former AL finance minister Kibria, and attempted to murder PM Sheikh Hasina by hurling grenades on August 21.

Besides, there is no scope for midterm elections that will be held any

HC: Why 16th amendment not illegal  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

The HC bench fixed November 26 to pass further necessary orders regarding the writ petition.

The present 10th parliament passed the 16th amendment in September regaining its power to remove judges which was in the original constitution of 1972.

Manzill said he had submitted the grounds of challenging the 16th amendment. He said the 16th amendment came against the backdrop of cancellation of the Contempt of Court Act and amendment of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act by the HC. He said the HC had directed the arrest of RAB officials for their suspected role in the Narayanganj seven murders in April.

Manzill said against the backdrop of these recent orders, the administration can intentionally attempt to curb the independence of the judiciary and the 16th amendment might have come from that point of view.

Asaduzzaman Siddiquee, Ekhalsuddin Bhuyian, Sarwar Ahad Chowdhury, Mahbubul Islam, Nurul Islam Babul, Shahin Ara Laily and Ripon Baroi are among the nine petitioners. l

day before January 29 in 2019,” said the minister.

Tofail made the remarks as the chief guest while addressing a programme arranged on the occasion of 64th birthday of former AL MP Ahsanullah Master on the field of Safiuddin Sarkar Academi School and College in Tongi.

Senior AL lawmaker Tofail said Ahsanullah had been killed in the direction of Hawa Bhaban because of his popularity. At present the country is known as democratic state, but it could have branded as militant state to the world arena unless Sheikh Hasina appeared as prime minister. l

6-yr-old rescued from abductors, four arrested

10-year-old raped in the capital n Tribune Report A 10-year-old child was raped in the capital’s Khilgaon area on Saturday, and police arrested one person in connection with the incident.

The victim, a class-III student at a local school, went missing around noon on Saturday and was found locked in the house of her neighbour Mohammad Khokon, 30, in the early hours yesterday, sexually assaulted, her mother claimed.

“My daughter went to a neighbour’s house to sell chicken around 12pm on Saturday. That is when Khokon invited her into his house. There, he raped her and then locked her in his house,” the victim’s mother told the Dhaka Tribune.

In the middle of the night, Khokon’s landlord Khorshed Mia found the child locked in Khokon’s house and took her to her home. She was then rushed to the One Stop Crisis Centre at Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 2am yesterday.

“We have run forensic tests on the victim and found evidence of rape.

However, we will get the details after the report is finished,” said Dr Bilkis Begum, coordinator at the One Stop Crisis Centre, to the Dhaka Tribune.

Police arrested Khokon on the same night for his alleged involvement and brought him to the police station, said Mustafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Khilgaon police station. l

RAJIB DHAR

n Tribune Report

Currently on a visit to China, President Abdul Hamid holds a meeting with Myanmar President U Thein Sein at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing yesterday PID

Legal notice sent to 3 more ministers n Tribune Report A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday sent a legal notice to a minister and two state ministers, asking them to resign as they have violated the constitution by engaging in the management of various companies.

Lawyer ZI Khan Panna sent the notice to Housing and Public Works Minister

Mosharraf Hossain, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Zahid Maleque and State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Shahdin Malik, who sent the notices on behalf of ZI Khan, told the Dhaka Tribune: “According to news published in a national daily newspaper, they [the ministers] are involved in business and take part in the management of various companies, which is clearly a violation of

section 147 of the constitution. “Therefore, they are not eligible to hold the positions in their respective ministries.”

Section 147 (3) says ministers, state ministers or deputy ministers cannot “hold any office, post or position of profit or emolument or take any part whatsoever in the management or conduct of any company, association or body having profit or gain as its object.” l

Firebrand orator arrested for inciting Faruqi murder  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

On August 27, unidentified assailants slaughtered Faruqi, a religious TV personality, businessman and imam of the Supreme Court mosque, at his home in Dhaka’s Purbo Rajabazar area. He was a presidium member and international affairs secretary of Ahle Sunnat.

On September 4, a case was filed against six Islamic TV programme presenters on charges of killing Faruqi.

Emran Husain Tushar, Dhaka city unit

general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sena, the student wing of the Bangladesh Islami Front, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka.

The accused are NTV Islamic programme presenter Tarek Munawar, ATN Bangla presenter Arakanullah Haruni and Kamaluddin Jafree, RTV and Radio Today presenter Khalid Saifullah Bakshi, Diganta TV and Peace TV anchor Kazi Ibrahim, and Bangla Vision’s

Mokhtar Ahmed.

Of the accused Tarek Munawar is a cadre of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh while Kamaluddin Jafree is the former ameer of the Narsingdi district Jamaat-e-Islami.

Faruqi’s son Faisal filed a separate murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station against eight to nine unnamed persons soon after the murder took place on August 27. l

Kamararuzzaman to file review petition  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

the basis of an order of the apex court unless anything is changed in its full verdict.

Law Minister Anisul Haque has already asked the Dhaka central jail to prepare for the execution of Kamaruzzaman. However, the confusion over whether Kamaruzzaman has the right to seek a review was still unclear.

Anisul Haque also said Kamaruzzaman would get seven days time from the day he heard about the SC verdict to plead for presidential mercy. “Otherwise, he will be executed immediately.”

On his statement Kamaruzzaman’s lawyer Manir said the law minister’s comment on the time-frame was “illegal and confusing”.

“We urge the minister to refrain from making such comments,” he said.

“He (Kamaruzzaman) thinks that his review will be accepted by the Appellate Division and he will get justice,” Manir added.

Kamaruzzaman’s defence counsel has alleged that it would be illegal to execute the Jamaat leader before the full verdict and hoped that the government would wait for the full verdict before the execution.

Meanwhile, Mahbubey Alam yesterday said the tribunal would issue death warrant after the SC gives the verdict to the tribunal.

“Appellate division will decide whether it will send the full verdict or the short order. As I said before, I think a

short order will be enough for the tribunal to issue the death order,” he told the journalists while briefing at his office.

“After the tribunal sends the death warrant, the jail authorities will inform him about it,” he said.

About the ongoing debate on review petition Mahbubey Alam said the SC released its full verdict of another war criminal Kader Molla, who filed a review petition after the SC had awarded him death sentence. The review was scrapped and he was hanged.

“All confusion will be over once verdict over the review petition of Qauder Molla is published,” he said, adding that lawyers describe a matter as they understand it but it is the court that gives the decision. l

Members of Rapid Action Battalion 1 rescued a six-year-old boy named Md Yeasin yesterday from Tetulzora area in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital, four days after he was abducted from Babubazar area in Tongi, Gazipur.

The law enforcers also arrested four of his abductors – Khadakar Jamil Hossain, 26, and his wife Marufa Akhter, 23, from Tangail, Md Moktar Hossain, 17, from Barisal and Md Hridoy, 20, from Gazipur, said Lt Col Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commanding officer of RAB 1.

“We started investigating when Yeasin’s father Amanullah came to us and filed a complaint of his son missing,” the RAB official said during a press briefing at RAB 1 office in Uttara yesterday evening.

“During investigation, we learnt that Marufa is an acquaintance of Amanul-

lah, and using that familiarity she entered his house and abducted Yeasin,” he said.

After grabbing Yeasin, the abductors went to Bikrampur in Munshiganj, and from there they called Yeasin’s father to demand Tk5 lakh in ransom.

Then changed the location again and rented a house in Savar, where they stayed with Yeasin, the RAB official said.

Following their call to Amanullah, RAB laid a trap and led Jamil, Hridoy and Moktar to Tongi, where they went hoping to collect the ransom, and were arrested.

After interrogating the three arrested, the RAB team raided the house in Savar they were staying in, rescuing Yeasin and arresting Marufa, the RAB 1 commanding official said.

RAB 1 was preparing to take lawful action against the arrested when this report was filed. l

Hizb-ut Tahrir coordinator  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

Feni. Police also seized some copies of the book “Etai Amar Path” (This is My Path) written by the judge.

Police said Omar Sharif is one of the top organisers of the banned outfit Hizbut Tahrir in the port city of Chittagong.

According to Hizb-ut Tahrir sources and police, about 10,000 members of the organisation are working actively across the country where most of them are students of reputed school, colleges, medical, public and private

universities including Dhaka University, Chittagong University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

An Islamic Scholar Sheikh Muhammad Takiuddin al-Nabani of Jerusalem formed Hizb-ut Tahrir in 1953 which has branches across 87 countries including Bangladesh.

The Home Ministry of Bangladesh banned the organisation on September 24, 2009 as its objectives are contradictory with the constitution of the country. l

Punishment in school sends boy  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

bed rest,” said DMCH Resident Surgeon Dr Riaz Morshed.

“Actually, the boy has got mental shocked. He needs counseling,” the doctor said.

When contacted, the head teacher however claimed that Panir and his friends had teased a female student.

“I was on duty in an examination hall when Panir, Nahid and Arif teased a girl verbally. Later I saw the girl’s brother and two of his friends looking for them so that they could beat them up,” he said.

He claimed that he had punished the boys to calm down the girl’s brother, whose name he said was Bashar.

“I called the students and asked them if they had teased the girl. They did not admit. Moreover, the boys were attending school without uniform. So, I asked them to do some squats holding their ears. But believe me, I did not mentioned any number, neither did I

count how many they actually did,” he said.

“If I did not do that, Basher would have beaten them up,” head teacher Alfaj claimed while talking to this reporter over phone. He also requested the reporter to not ask anymore question.

Asked how could an outsider enter and classroom and beat a student of the school, Alfaj said: “Bashar and his friends are ex-students of the school.

The teachers could not stop them.”

When asked about his head teacher’s claims, Panir said he had been lying. “Bashar is Shahin’s uncle,” the boy said.

He also said: “I know the girl. She Bashar’s sister. We did not tease her.

That girl is also a seventh grader, but she belongs to the morning shift that starts at 7am and ends at 12 noon. Boys’ classes start at 12 noon,” he said.

“You can ask everyone in my class.

We have not even met the girl on that day,” Panir said breaking into tears. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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3

Monday, November 10, 2014

30 injured in BNP-police clash in Gazipur n Tribune Report BNP staged demonstration across the country peacefully except for Gazipur protesting the denial of holding rally at Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the National Revolution and Solidarity day.

Dhaka city unit BNP, however, through a press release claimed that they staged demonstrations almost every wards.

BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, however, at a press briefing at party’s Naya Paltan office condemned police attack on “peaceful demonstration” and claimed many were arrested but did not mention any figure.

The clash left around 30 people injured including Gazipur City Corporation Mayor MA Mannan and some police officials In Gazipur, BNP leaders were locked in clashes with police while law enforcers barred them from bringing out protest procession in the city leading to chase and counter-chase.

The clash left around 30 people injured including Gazipur City Corporation Mayor MA Mannan and some police officials.

Witnesses said around 12pm, city Mayor Mannan brought out a procession and police obstructed it leading to the eruption of violence injuring 30 including 17 police officials.

Police detained four persons from the spot.

Gazipur district BNP leader Shahiduzzaman said around 12.15pm police attacked their peaceful rally all on a sudden and shot fire on the procession leaving more than 50 injured.

Witnesses said the chase and counter-chase between police and BNP leaders and activists continued for half an hour.

Khandakar Rezaul Karim, Officer-in-Charge of Gazipur police station, said: “Protesters blockaded Rajbari Road and vehicle movement came to a halt. Moreover they threw brick at policemen and vandalised some vehicles.”

Karim also said at least 17 police officials were injured during the violence.

He also said police fired 20 rounds of rubber bullets and three rounds of tear gas shells to bring the situation under control and four were detained from the spot.

Abdus Salam Sarkar, on-duty doctor of Gazipur Sadar Hospital, said injured Ward Councillor Sirin Chakladar and five others received splinter injuries and they were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

Our Barisal correspondent said, police prevented Barisal city and district units of BNP from bringing out procession.

BNP activists from different corners of the city chanting slogans assembled in front of the party office on Ashwini Kumar Hall premises about 11am yesterday.

Mojibor Rahman Sarwar, city president and central Organising Secretary Ebaidul Huq Chan, district president and other leaders of the BNP addressed the rally.

After the rally when BNP leaders and activists tried to bring out procession police obstructed them.

Sub-Inspector Mohiuddin of Kotwali police station from the spot denied the allegation of police atrocities.

Police requested BNP leaders and activists not to block traffic movement on city roads but as they did not pay heed they had to force them to leave the place, he said. l

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia waves hand to her supporters after reaching a special court in capital’s Bakshi Bazar yesterday in connection with the Zia Charitable and Zia Orphanage corruption cases MEHEDI HASAN

Khaleda graft cases adjourned till Nov 24 n Ashif Islam Shaon A court in Dhaka, which is hearing Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases filed against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and others, said yesterday it would receive deposition of the witnesses on November 24.

Judge Basudev Roy of the Special Judge Court 3 adjourned the proceedings in response to two petitions filed by the defence counsel. The counsel in the petitions pleaded for more time, stating that two petitions for leave to appeal in the cases were awaiting hearing at the High Court.

Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Director Harun-ur-Rashid, the plaintiff in the cases, was present in the court set up on Alia Madrasa ground in

the capital city’s Bakshi Bazar. Earlier in the day, Khaleda arrived at the makeshift court at 11am.

In a ruling on October 26, the judge made it mandatory for Khaleda to be present in court yesterday after she had refused to attend hearing on three previous dates on grounds of security.

September 17 was the last time when she attended hearing.

The BNP chairperson set out from her Gulshan residence around 10:00am and left the court around 12 at noon.

After the hearing, Khaleda’s lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said: “We informed the court that Khaleda might fail to appear in court on November 24 as a BNP rally had been scheduled for November 26. The court replied that it would be dealt with at the time.”

ACC lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said the defence was making the trial lengthy by petitioning for extension of time repeatedly.

“Lower court can conduct the trial as the Supreme Court has not stayed the proceedings,” he said.

Carrying banners and placards, BNP activists gathered near the court premises before she arrived and called for cancellation of trial proceedings.

Security was tight in the area and commoners saw restriction on movement because of the BNP chief’s arrival. Police blocked several adjacent roads leading to Bakshi Bazar, causing troubles for locals as well as passers-by.

On May 12, Khaleda filed a writ petition challenging legality of appointment of the judge, who indicted her

and six others. On June 19, the High Court’s single bench of Justice Kazi Razaul Huq rejected the petition.

On July 7, the BNP chief filed two petitions with the Appellate Division challenging the rejection. She also sought stay order on trial proceedings.

Earlier on August 8, 2011, the ACC filed Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon police station accusing four people, including Khaleda, for abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.

The commission filed Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on July 3, 2008, against Khaleda, her elder son Tarique Rahman and four others for misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore.

The money came in grants from a foreign bank for orphans. l

Road crashes kill five, injure 15

Witness: Jabbar ordered the killing of 25 in Mathbaria

n Tribune Report

n Tribune Desk

Five people, including three police officers, were killed and 15 others injured in road accidents in Khagrachari, Manikganj, Chittagong, Gazipur and Gaibandha yesterday.

Our Khagrachari correspondent reports, police constable Bakar was killed on the spot and 15 others were injured as a police bus overturned and fell into a roadside ditch in Alutia area.

In Manikganj, a police constable was killed as a truck hit his motorcycle on Dhaka-Aricha highway, killing him on the spot around 8:00am, police said.

The deceased was Kafil Uddin, 42, a constable of special branch (SB) of police.

Our Chittagong correspondent reports, two people, including a police officer, were killed in road accidents in Mirsarai upazila of Chittagong and the city’s WASA area yesterday.

The deceased were Sub-inspector Mashudur Rahman, 40, of Mirsari Police Station, and Md Nayon, 26, a rickshaw puller, police said.

SI Mashud was killed on the spot as a truck hit him when he was on duty on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in Nizampur area of Mirsarai upazila around 3:30am, police said.

In another accident, a battery-run rickshaw puller, Nayon, was killed when a covered van hit his vehicle from behind in Chittagong city’s Wasa area around 7:30 pm on Saturday night.

Critically injured Nayon was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead around 11:30 pm on that night, police said.

Meanwhile, a schoolboy was killed when a truck ran him over in Phashitala area in Gabindaganj upazila yesterday, reports our Gaibandha correspondent.

The deceased was Parvez, 7. Agitated locals blocked the Rangpur-Dhaka highway for sometimes after the incident.

Our Gazipur correspondent reports, a man was killed in a road accident on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway yesterday.

The deceased is Giasuddin, a driver of a microbus.

The accident took place as a car rammed into the vehicle around 11:00am in Razendrapur area, police said. l

A prosecution witness against alleged war criminal Mohammad Abdul Jabbar yesterday described the killing of 25 people, and the arson or looting of at least 150 households, following Jabbar’s orders.

Md Bachchu Akon, 62, a businessman and a commander of the Mathbaria unit of the Muktijoddha Shangshad, gave his deposition as the 20th witness before the first International Crimes Tribunal.

Jabbar is facing five charges for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. Bachchu, who was a student then, said under Jabbar’s orders and conspiracy, the razakar committee that he had formed in Mathbaria in Pirojpur district, carried out murders, looting, arson and religious conversions, along with other crimes.

“On May 16, Jabbar ordered Iskander Mridha, a close relative who he had made a Razakar commander, to shoot and kill freedom fighter Abdur Razzaq Biswas and Motaled Sharif. Under his orders, Iskander attacked our village and shot them. Motaleb died on the spot and severely injured Abdur Razzak died three days later,” Bachchu told the court. “On the same day, following his orders, razakars attacked Kulpara and Nathpara, looting and setting fire to 100-150 households.”

The following day, 30-35 Pakistani soldiers, and 40-45 razakars attacked their village, and shot dead Sharda Kanto Pai under Jabbar’s commands, Bachchu said.

President Abdul Hamid’s wife Rashida Khanam poses with first lady of China Prof Peng Liyuan and Chinese artistes at the Capital Museum in Beijing yesterday PID

New secretaries named after fake freedom fighters quit n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla New bosses have been named to head the Ministry of Health and Family Planning and the Public Service Commission following the resignation of two secretaries in the wake of the fake freedom fighter certificate scandal.

The ensuing civil administration reshuffle saw five high officials transferred or given new postings. The Public Administration Ministry issued two orders yesterday in this regard.

Shipping Secretary Syed Monjurul Islam was appointed health secretary and Additional Secretary to the Public Administration Ministry Shahjahan Ali Mollah was appointed acting secretary of the Public Service Commission.

Additional secretary to the Roads and Highways Division Fariduddin Chowhdury was made acting Jute and Textiles secretary.

Bangladesh Civil Service Academy Rector (secretary) Shafiq Alam Mehdi replaced Monjurul as shipping secretary.

Additional secretary to the Ministry of Education, Sohrab Hossain, was made the new rector (acting secretary) of the civil service academy.

On Thursday, former health secretary M Neazuddin Miah and ex-PSC secretary AKM Amir Hossain, who had gotten their jobs extended with fake freedom fighter certificates, went into voluntary retirement.

They are among four senior bureaucrats whose freedom fighter certificates, now known to have been ob-

tained fraudulently, were cancelled on September 22.

Two other public officials who lost their freedom fighter certificates are former secretary of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry, KH Masud Siddiqui, and joint secretary of the ministry, Abul Kashem Talukdar, currently officers on special duty.

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) found the four officials and a former senior secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and existing chairman of the Privatisation Commission, Molla Waheduzzaman, guilty of fraudulently obtaining freedom fighter certificates.

On September 22, the ministry cancelled the freedom fighter certificates of the four government high officials in a gazetted notification. It also withheld the certificate of Privatisation Commission Chairman Molla Waheduzzaman.

The officials were served show cause notices on October 13 and asked to reply within 10 working days of receiving the notices.

October 25 was fixed as the last date of submission because the accused officials received their notices on October 15.

On October 27, three of the four senior officials of the civil administration had replied to the show cause notices issued by the Public Administration Ministry regarding the acquisition of freedom fighter certificates from the Liberation War Affairs Ministry using false information. l

11 Myanmar nationals held in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Police yesterday morning detained 11 Myanmar nationals, including two women, from a passenger bus in Shah Amanat Third Karnaphuli Bridge area while on their way to Chittagong city from Cox’s Bazar.

Bakalia police station Officer-in-Charge Md Mohsin told the Dhaka Tribune the 11 were detained around 8am during scheduled checks at the point leading to the port city from Cox’s Bazar.

The arrestees - Mosammat Fatema, 22, Tayeba Begum, 40, Enayet Khan, 25, Samsul Alam, 27, Md Idris, 28, Nur Alam, 25, Md Shaker, 25, Md Anjur Alam, 18, Md Dildar, 20, Md Hasan Sharif, 28, and Nur Bashar, 20 – were sued in a case lodged with Bakalia police station on charge of illegally entering Bangladesh, he said.

“Of the 11, eight arrived in Cox’s Bazar crossing the Naf River on Saturday with the assistance of Enayet, Samsul and Idris, who have been living in Chittagong for a few years illegally. They came here to work at a garment factory in Patenga while the two women came to receive medical treatment at a private clinic,” said Mohsin.

A Chittagong Metropolitan Police official said on condition of anonymity around 100-150 Myanmar nationals illegally enter Chittagong city on an average every day.

“They come here as they find it relatively easy to enter Bangladesh compared to other parts of the world.” l

“The Pakistani soliders and razakars also looted and set fire to 360 houses in the village following Jabbar’s commands,” he said.

Bachchu, who witnessed all these this from where he was hiding, fled to a freedom fighters’ camp in the Sunderbans. In October, he heard from sources that Jabbar, along with Iskander and other collaborators, were planning to attack influential Hindu families in Angul Kata and Mathbaria villages.

“I saw razakars, led by Iskander, going towards the Angul Kata village around 11 o’clock one night. I followed them from a distance and saw them attack the Mitra household and capture 19 people after looting their home,” Bachchu told the court.

“They then took them to Mathbaria, attacking other houses on their way and capturing individuals as they went – totaling in 37 Hindu victims, whom they beat up and kept in the field of what is today a municipality office.”

Among others, the Kirtaniya, Haldar, Bala, Majhi and Hawladar households also came under attack.

“After discussing for a long time with the razakars, Iskander released seven and took the other 30 towards the Mathbaria police station. They led them to the Shurjomoni Wapda road, where they made them stand on an embankment and shot them. Then they left,” Bachchu said.

After that, the razakars and Iskander left. When Bachchu, along with some local freedom fighters, went there, they saw 22 of them dead and eight others severely injured. l

Tarique faces legal notice for comment on Bangabandhu n Tribune Report A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday sent a legal notice to BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman for his derogatory and disparaging remarks on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Advocate Momtaz Uddin Ahmed in his legal notice said Tarique at a meeting in London termed Sheikh Mujib “Pakbandhu” (friend of Pakistan) and called him a killer of freedom-loving people of Bangladesh.

Tarique at the meeting organised

by London BNP unit said Sheikh Mujib

came as a Pakistani citizen and took oath as the president of Bangladesh and which is why a case should be filed against him as to how a Pakistani citizen could take the oath as the president of independent Bangladesh.

According to the notice, a case will be filed against Tarique if he does not withdraw his remarks and make an unconditional public apology for his remarks within seven days.

Momtaz described Tarique as talkative, foolish and immature, who lacks political culture. He knows very little about the history of Liberation War. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, November 10, 2014

DB deciphering militants’ encrypted messages Acting chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team and three spiritual leaders identified activities after visiting their websites n Mohammad Jamil Khan where a number of video and audio As part of their ongoing effort to clamp down on militants, detectives are trying to decipher encrypted messages that were used by militant outfits to communicate with each other on secret websites.

“We have come to know that militant leaders were using secret IP addresses and encrypted messages to issue commands to sleeper cells,” a senior official of the Detective Branch told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The official said 11 people who operated those sites have already been traced, adding that the information was extracted from Ansarullah Bangla Team media wing chief Morshed Alam alias Masum alias Tractor, who is now under a six-day police remand.

AKM Mahbubur Rahman, assistant commissioner of DB, said they were also trying to locate militant sleeper cells by analysing some of the websites used by the militant outfits.

DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that internet was now the birthplace of militants, as militants relied on the web to share messages and organise.

Analysing the websites, the police have already identified the acting chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team as well as identifying four other spiritual leaders of the outfit, he added.

The acting chief was named Tamim Al-Adnani, Monirul said, adding that efforts were on to trace his location.

“We have came to know about his

messages of Tamim had been uploaded for the supporters of Ansarullah Bangla Team,” said the DB boss.

Mozaffor Bin Mohosin, one of the four spiritual leaders identified by the DB, was arrested on Saturday from Mohammadpur, while the police were now looking for the other three leaders who toured to different madrasas across the country to inspire and recruit new militants, said Monirul.

Asked whether Jamaat or Indian separatist group Ulfa had any links to funding militancy in Bangladesh, the DB joint commissioner said there was only some scattered information about funding links of these groups. A definitive answer could be given only after further analysing information, he added.

Meanwhile, asked about the recent arrest by Indian police in connection with the Bardhaman blast, Monirul said militants often used different aliases to evade arrest. The police were still clueless about the arrest – which they found out through media – of JMB commander Sajid as they did not knew any JMB leader with such name, Monirul said.

“We would only able to say clearly after getting detailed information or picture from the Indian police regarding the matter,” the DB boss added.

So far this year, the DB has arrested around 40 members of different militant outfits by carrying out raids at various locations. l

A hijra applies henna to a child at the capital’s Chandrima Udyan as part of the Hijra Pride 2014 festivities observed in Dhaka yesterday

BNP: Change to happen through democratic movement n Mohammad Al-masum Molla The BNP yesterday said it would not kick-start a revolution for a meaningful election involving all the political parties.

People of the country are frustrated and perturbed by misdeeds and misrules of the Awami League-led government.

“We have to bring about a change through a democratic movement not

through any revolution,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the party, said at a discussion.

The discussion was organised at the National Press Club to mark the National Revolution and Solidarity Day that brought party founder Ziaur Rahman into the centre-stage of power.

Fakhrul said people had already been frustrated and they now want a change and for the change to happen all have to be united.

Muhith: BUPSS should die

Enayetullah Khan’s ninth death anniversary today n Tribune Report Bangladesh Union Parishad Secretary Samity (BUPSS) should no longer exist n Tribune Report as it failed to pay its members, Finance Today is the ninth death anniversary of Enayetullah Khan, founding editor of the daily New Age and editor-in-chief of the weekly Holiday.

The titan of Bangladeshi journalism passed away in Toronto, Canada, at the age of 66, suffering from cancer of the pancreas.

Beginning his career as a reporter for the Pakistan Observer in 1959, Enayetullah went on to found the weekly Holiday in 1965.

He founded the daily New Age in 2003 and was the editor of the Bangladesh Times between 1975 and 1977.

Khan was awarded with the Ekushey Padak for excellence in journalism for more than four decades.

He also served as a minister and an ambassador to China, North Korea, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Known for his democratic activism, Enayetullah Khan was at the forefront of the Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee instituted to investigate murders of intellectuals by al-Badr and al-Shams.

Enayetullah has served as the president of the National Press Club and the Dhaka Club.

Born on May 25, 1939 in Mymensingh, Enayetullah Khan was the third son of late Justice Abdul Jabbar Khan, a former speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly. l

36th death anniversary of Shahid Uddin Eskander today n Tribune Report Today is the 36th death anniversary of Shahid Uddin Eskander (Kochi), founder president of Noakhali Press Club and former president of Noakhali district Awami League. He was also the organiser of Liberation War member Constitutional Assembly.

His family members and Noakhali Press Club have arranged doa mahfil today in remembrance of the departed. l

Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said yesterday.

He said the BUPSS should pay union parishad secretaries their full salaries but it is only paying 25% at present.

“This is not support, this is contribution,” said Muhith while talking to reporters after holding a meeting with BUPSS leaders and members at his office.

The government currently pays 75%

Next Digital World expo in February n Tribune Report The fourth edition of Digital World, the country’s biggest ICT exposition, will take place in the capital on February 9 next year.

Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and Bangladesh Association Of Software And Information Service (BASIS) will jointly arrange the 4-day long programme. To this end, Ashraful Islam, executive director of BCC and Russell T Ahmed, acting president of BASIS signed an MoU at BCC office yesterday. l

of the remunerations of union parishad secretaries from its exchequer and the remaining 25% comes from income generated by union parishads.

The key source of earning for a union parishad is haats (markets) within its territory that are leased to traders.

“Union parishad secretaries demanded that 100% of their salaries be given from the government exchequer.

While I do not support the demand, I assured them of considering the proposal,” he said. Muhith also termed the demand illegitimate.

“We have already received a propos-

al from the Local Government Division for paying the union parishad secretaries in full from the government’s fund.

We are mulling it over,” he said.

BUPSS Chairman Sohelur Rahman said the members were facing financial hardships because of the shortage of salaries, claiming that they are not receiving 25% of the pay supposed to come from union parishads.

“Secretaries of 25 union parishads, including Chittagong Hill Tracts, have long been deprived of the 25% of their income as none of the union parishads earn from leasing haats,” he added. l

Combined initiative to prevent road crashes recommended n Tribune Report The parliamentary standing committee on home ministry has recommended taking a combined initiative in preventing road accidents in the country.

The initiative should be taken along with all departments and offices related to traffic movements on roads and highways, the committee said at its meeting yesterday, according to a press release.

It also discussed police’s imperatives in preventing road crashes and

increasing the number of the law enforcing agency’s members.

The committee recommended posting more police members in Rangpur division, citing the shortage of police compared to the number of people there.

It also put emphasis on creating public awareness in curbing narcotics.

Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Md Mozammel Haque Khan, among others, was present at the meeting with the standing committee’s chief Tipu Munshi in the chair. l

Faction of lighter vessel workers postpone strike

Schoolgirl drowns in pond near JU

n Tribune Report

A minor girl drowned in a pond in the Kalabagan area near Jahangirnagar University (JU) in Savar yesterday.

The girl, Jannatul Ferdous, 13, was the daughter of Liakat Hossain, a cleaner of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall in JU. Jannatul was a class-six student of the Jahangirnagar University School and College.

Around 11am, Jannatul fell into the pond while playing with her friends by the edge of the pond.

Locals rescued her in a critical condition and took to the JU Medical Centre where the duty doctors declared her dead around 12:15pm.

Dr Birendra Kumar Biswas of the JU Medical Centre said the victim was dead wben she was brought to the centre at noon. l

A faction of the lighter vessel workers, who initiated indefinite strike on Saturday, postponed their strike yesterday night.

However, loading and unloading activities at Chittagong port remained suspended partially as many workers had not join their work.

The lighter vessel workers enforced the indefinite strike around 11:00am on Saturday following a robbery in a lighter vessel named Karnaphuli-5 in Laksmipur.

Since then, they have not taken part in any activities of loading and unloading of goods at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong Port and other water routes across the country.

Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of a faction of the Lighterage Shramik Union, said they had postponed the strike until 18 November following assurance to implement their demands at meeting with the Deputy Inspector General of Police Shafiqul Islam.

RAJIB DHAR

However, Shah Alam, acting president of the Nawjan Shramik Federation, said: “The meeting will put no impact on the strike and it will be continued till fulfillment of our demand to ensure security on the river route,” “Because, actual representatives of the lighter vessel workers are not present at the meeting,” he added.

Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shahajahan Khan at a programme at the Chittagong port said the police and Coast Guard would continue patrolling the country’s river routes to ensure security of the vessels and the crewmen.

According sources at the Water Transport Cell, 100 lighter vessels have remained stranded at 16 private jetties with goods in Chittagong, and 500 other vessels in different routes across the country.

Sources at the Chittagong Port said 21 foreign vessels were waiting at the outer anchorage of the port with goods due to the strike of the workers. l

n JU Correspondent

The BNP leader alleged that the government was killing opposition leaders and activists like that of the 1972-75 government.

“The opposition parties are barred from holding rallies and procession.

In 1972-75 Awami League killed thirty thousand opposition leaders and activists.”

Condemning the police “attack” on BNP demonstrations, Fakhrul said: “Though Awami league talked about

democracy they do not believe in it. In Gazipur police attacked our peaceful rally and many were injured. It is the latest example of government’s fascism.”

Pointing his finger to the party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s graft case trials, the spokesperson of the party said: “The government’s autocratic mentality has reached such a level that they brought the court to a madrasa ground.” l

Police foil Communist Party’s siege to DSCC n Abu Hayat Mahmud Police foiled the Communist Party of Bangladesh’s (CPB) bid to lay a siege to Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) yesterday.

The law enforcers put a barricade at Kadam Foara Intersection when leaders and activists of the party’s Dhaka city unit tried lay a seize to the DSCC to press home a 10-point demand around 12:00pm.

Later, the CPB leaders led by its Dhaka City unit president Abdul Kader submitted a memorandum to the DSCC Administrator Md Ibraheem Hosein Khan seeking realisation of their demands, said Dr Sajedul Haque Rubel, general secretary of CPB Dhaka unit.

Earlier, speaking at a rally before the National Press Club, Abdul Kader said they would lay siege to the Nagar Bhaban (DSCC secretariat) to press home their demands, including ensuring the control of the city’s house rents, eliminating traffic jams, and ensuring a clean and green Dhaka.

“We will also submit a memorandum citing the demands to the administrator to ensure the citizen services,” he said. There should have a coordination in providing the utility services of

the DSCC, the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka Wasa), Dhaka Power Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and the Titas Gas, he added.

Dhaka is now the third unlivable city in the world because of poor condition of the city’s roads, drainage system, waste management, mosquito control and traffic system, said Dr Sajedul.

The successive governments make various development plans only for ensuring benefit to the rich, not for the middle class and poor, he said.

“Only 17%people of total two crore population in the capital have their own house,” he said adding: “The rest 83 percent people have been suffering due to additional charge by house owners.”

The subsequent governments have not taken any initiative to solve the problem, he said.

“We urge the city corporation authority to implement the house rent controlling law 1991 immediately in every ward in the city,” Dr Sajedul added.

The CPB leaders also threatened to hold the same programme before the the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

Tougher movements would be launched if the authorities concerned do not ensure citizen services for the city dwellers, they said. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Two years needed to remove overhead cables

ISPs says they will not be able to remove overhead wires by November 10 n Aminur Rahman Rasel The Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) has sought two more years from the government to remove the overhead cables in the capital’s streets.

“It is not possible to remove the cables, which have been in use for 16 years, and replace them with underground cables by November 10,” said Md Emdadul Hoque, secretary general of the ISPAB, at a press conference in a city hotel yesterday.

“We will remove the overhead cables within two years, after constructing local distribution points – in every alley or in front of every building, if necessary – to maintain the quality of service,” he said.

He also urged the government to create pressure on the companies responsible for the Nationwide Telecommunications Transmission Network (NTTN) to establish local distribution points.

In a bid to beautify the city, the government recently set a deadline, which ends today, for the capital’s ISPs and cable TV operators to remove their overhead cables in capital.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid warned the ISPs and cable TV operators on October 30, saying if they did not take immediate steps to remove the overhead cables, the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited would step in.

A ministry official told the Dhaka Tribune that the overhead internet and TV cables not only created trouble for pedestrians, but in many cases caused fatal accidents.

At the press conference, ISPAB President Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman Manzu said they had already completed work in 300km of the capital’s main streets, and were trying to finish the remaining work.

“Without distribution points, removing the overhead cables would be impractical,” he said.

ISPAB Vice-President Syed Sadat Almas Kabir requested the government to reconsider cutting the overhead lines. “Thousands of internet users will be affected if the lines are cut,” he said.

5

Monday, November 10, 2014

“We also urge the government to build a common underground duct, like the one between Jahangir Gate and Bijoy Sarani, all over the city so that installing underground cable can be done at a minimal cost,” he said.

The press conference was also attended by ISPAB’s Joint Secretary General Syed Md Tariqul Islam and Director Nackshab Omar Rabbani.

According to the ISPAB, there are 200 ISPs across the country.

In 2009, two private entities, Fibre@ Home and Summit Communications Limited, were awarded NTTN licences to build, operate and maintain such networks.

It was in December 2010 the government first instructed them to remove the overhead cables in Dhaka. l

Government to charge fees on corrections, issuances of ID card from next year n Abu Bakar Siddique The government plans to charge fees on the corrections and re-issuance of National Identification Cards (NIC) from next year.

The National Identity Registration Wing last month submitted a proposal, signed by its Director General Sultanuzzaman Md Salehuddin, in this regard to the Election Commission, sources at the commission said yesterday.

According to the proposal, a person will have to pay Tk200 for correcting his or her personal information on his card while the charge will be Tk300 for the second time. Accordingly, the fee would remain the same in case of the first and second re-issuance in case of

loss of an NIC. For the third time, it will be Tk400 and this fee will be same for as many times as a person applies for a correction, but in case of loss the charge will be Tk500.

The Election Commission discussed the proposal at a meeting on November 5 but have not yet reached a decision.

When Election Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz was asked about the plan, he told the Dhaka Tribune that he was not aware of this.

The Election Commission has so far issued identity cards to 9.2crore people across the country while 46 lakh people will receive the cards on completion of the ongoing voter identity card update. l

37 BCL men sent to jail in Biyanibazar explosive case n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Transport strike in Sylhet from tomorrow n Our Correspondent, Habiganj

A Sylhet court yesterday sent 37 Bangladesh Chaatra League (BCL) leaders and activists to jail yesterday rejecting their bail plea in a case filed under the explosives act.

Judicial Magistrate Jerin Sultana passed the order when the accused surrendered before the court and sought bail in the case.

The accused include Abul Kasem Pollob, former joint secretary of BCL Beanibazar upazila unit.

Advocate Rezaul Karim, the defence counsel, filed bail petitions for the accused, which was denied by the court.

On September 15, two factions of BCL led by its Joint convenor Jamal Ahmed locked into clashes, leaving 10 injured including officer-in-charge of the Biyanibazar police station.

Sub-Inspector Mizanur Rahman lodged a case against 52 BCL men under explosives act. l

A road transport committee in Habiganj district has called for indefinite strike in Sylhet division from Tuesday demanding realisation of their seven-point demand.

Habiganj district road transport owner-labour combined committee announced the programme in a press conference held at the district press club on Sunday afternoon.

The demands include – reducing the registration number of all sort of human haulers, minimising domination of the police, punishment of the police who fired bullets on Sylhet’s transports’ owners and labours, recruiting the suspended workers in the Lafarge Surma Factory, including bus-minibus owners in regional committee etc.

Member secretary, Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury in his written statement said: “On October 27, we gave an ultimatum to the divisional commissioner of Sylhet to fulfill our demands by November 5.”

As the administration did nothing, the committee announced the indefinite strike programme from 6am on Tuesday, he added.

He said the transport unions and organisations of every district under Sylhet division will continue the programme until their demands are met.

Habiganj road transport committee president Fazlur Rahman Chowdhury, road transport labour union general secretary Sajib Ali and Agradut Paribahan owner Fazlur Rahman Lebu were, among others, present in the conference. l

Three held with contraband n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Police in separate drives, nabbed three people along with 3kg of hemp and 125 bottles of beer from the port city yesterday and the day before.

Bakalia police station OC Mohammad Mohsin said police nabbed one Abdullah Al Noman, 23, employee of a resort at St. Martin’s island, with 125 bottles of beer from the Shah Amanat Third Karnaphuli Bridge area around 3:15pm.

Earlier, a DB team arrested two people, Md Sagar and Md Babul, with 3 kg of hemp from the city’s Kotwali area around 11:30pm on Saturday, says a media release.

The arrestees were later handed over to Kotwali police station and two cases were filed against them. l

WEATHER

LIGHT RAIN MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:15PM SUN RISES 6:11AM FORECAST FOR TODAY 31 33 34 33 31 34 33 33

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

24 24 19 19 21 22 20 24

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.4ºC Khulna

18.3ºC Dinajpur

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

4:53am 6:09am 11:42am 3:38pm 5:15pm 6:32 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

This damaged road directional sign post on the Khilgaon flyover is no more of a use to guide the vehicle drivers

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Fear of insecurity haunts BAU students n BAU Correspondent Fear of insecurity haunts the common students of the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) with the rise in outsider movement on the campus.

Students alleged that outsiders had long been committing crimes on the campus taking advantage of lax monitoring attitude by the university administration.

Police sources, National Security Intelligence, and general students said outsiders were staying in almost all the male dormitories of the university.

Outsiders are involved in various anti-social activities, including the trading of illegal drugs and arms and

trespassing on the campus, said sources who preferred to be unnamed.

Students said they often found strangers gathered at the Jobber intersection, KR market, on the bank of the Old Brahmaputra River, the university first gate and many other areas on the campus.

Student leaders belong to the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) are seen accompanying the outsiders, they said.

Unwilling to be named, some female students alleged that they frequently fell victim to teasing by outsiders and BCL activists while moving about the campus.

“Although we face harassment by the outsiders, we cannot protest as

political leaders support them, said a female student. BCL President of BAU unit Md Mursheduzzaman Khan Babu denied the allegation of backing outsiders. He said “BCL is not involved in backing any outsiders on the campus.”

When contacted, Convener of BAU Provost Council Prof Dr Abdul Momen Miah refuted the allegation.

He said: “We never allow any non-student to stay in the halls,” said Dr Momen Miah.”

He, however, confessed to this correspondent that they had heard of outsiders staying in the dormitories.

“If we get solid information about outsiders residing illegally in the dormitories, The university administra-

tion will take necessary action against the offenders.”

Meanwhile, some unidentified miscreants fired at least five round bullets in front of the Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Hall in the early hours of yesterday. They also tried to enter the hall by breaking the main gate, but to no avail as campus patrolling police reached the spot, said eyewitnesses.

BAU Proctor Prof Dr Md Harun-ur Rashid said, “We are trying to ensure security of the common students on the campus.”

He also suggested that students should not maintain links with outsiders for the sake of the overall security of the campus. l

Woman found dead in Chittagong n Tribune Report Police found the body of an unidentified woman from Dhoniala Para in the port city’s Double Mooring area yesterday.

Sub-inspector of Double Mooring police station Champak Barua said locals spotted the body of a woman, aged 40 years, at Altaf Baburchi Lane of the area in the morning and informed the police.

The police found the legs bound, and several burn injuries on the chest of the body, which was later sent to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. l

Two BCL activists suspended for attacking student at CU n CU Correspondent Chittagong University authorities suspended two activists of the university unit Bangladesh Chhatra League for different periods on charge of attacking a student on the campus yesterday.

CU Proctor Siraj Ud Dowla said they suspended Shariar Shuvo, a student of English department, and Jubayer, of Management department in the afternoon. Both were the activists of Varsity Express (VX) group, a shuttle train based BCL faction of CU, said campus sources.

Earlier at noon, some members of the group beat up Mithun Chowdhury, a final year student of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department, also an activist of CU unit BCL,

in presence of police over establishing supremacy.

The victim maintained the former joint secretary Sumon Mamun group which followers halted the shuttle train for three hours protesting the incident.

On the other hand, several members from Mamun group forced to stop another campus-bound at Fateyabad station by igniting tyres on railway tracks.

Around 6pm, they moved away from the spot after being informed of the suspension. Mentionable that both groups are belonged to City Awami League President ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.

The academic activities of CU resumed yesterday after a 42-day vacation in the occasion of Eid, Durga Puja and admission test. l

Speakers at a seminar on prospects of animation in Bangladeshi film industry, organised by the Dhaka University Film Society at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban, DU yesterday. Story on Entertainment Page NASHIRUL ISLAM

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Monday, November 10, 2014

Hindu family alleges land grabbing Agri farm files ‘false’ cases against five ‘to evict’ them n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh A Hindu family alleged that the management of an agriculture farm had filed a case against them in a bid to harass them and thus grab their land at Bhaluka upazila in Mymensingh.

Priyonath Chandra, 82, a resident of Dhamshur village, filed a general diary with the local police seeking protection from any kind of harassment by the farm authority.

The court however issued an order in favour of the farm owner and then they again appealed to the court against it He said he owned eight acres and 23 decimals of land as per records of rights and government khas land settlement policy and had been the owner for around 60 years. He recently sold two acres of land to Shahjalal Agro Limited.

On September 22, the Shahjalal Agro Limited management filed a case against Priyonath Chandra, his two sons Jagadish Chandra, 37, Raghunath Chandra, 21, and his daughter’s husband Kajol, 24, on charges of robbing them of Tk20 lakh and demanding Tk50 lakh as extortion.

On October 8, the accused appeared before court in the case. They were then arrested and sent to jail. After being behind bars for 10 days, they came

out on bail on October 17.

Octogenarian Priyonath Chandra told the Dhaka Tribune that the farm authority had filed this case against him and his family only to grab his land because they were not satisfied with what they had already bought from him.

He said Shahjalal Agro Limited owner Shahjalal Majumder had also once tried to assault him at his office, adding that they were now making threats in various ways to “evict my family.”

His son-in-law [daughter’s husband] Kajol said this agriculture farm had already grabbed forest land, worth Tk 2-3 crore. As locals protested such actions, the farm authority filed two false cases against them.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Habirbari Forest Beat Officer Saiful Islam echoed him and said they had filed a case against the agriculture farm owner on charges of erecting structures illegally on government land.

The court however issued an order in favour of the farm owner and then they again appealed to the court against it, he said.

Farm owner Shahjalal Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that he has become the owner of 12 acres and 73 decimals of land after having bought the land from seven to eight locals, adding that a court had also given an order in favour of him after the forest department objected to his land ownership.

Mentioning names of several influential local Awami League leaders, he said they all were aware of it. l

Farmers are seen weighing tomatoes in Rajabari area of Rajshahi yesterday. Growers have started harvest of high-yield variety of tomatoes last week. One maund tomato being sold from Tk1,100 to Tk1,300 in the district AZAHAR UDDIN

87 Jamaat-Shibir men indicted for vandalism

Female UP member hacked dead in Manikganj

n Our Correspondent, Feni

n Our Correspondent, Manikganj

Jamaat-Shibir men stroke terror in Feni by vandalising and torching vehicles on Thursday, the last day of the 48hour countrywide shutdown enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami.

A case had been filed against 87 activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir in this

regard. He said during the hartal on Thursday night the Jamaat-Shibir men set fire to a private car and vandalised four other vehicles on Shaheed Shahidullah Kaiser Road in the city.

Police have already arrested 12 in this connection including Jamaat-e-Islami Feni unit Finance Secretary Professor Rafiqul Islam, and Shibir activists – Iqbal Hossain and Sameer Mamun. l

Railway land lease makes Gaibandha main road’s expansion work difficult Correspondent, n Our Gaibandha

The railway authorities concerned have made great hurdle to the expansion works of main road of the district by giving a lease without taking any opinion from the regarding sides.

Sources said Lalmonirhat engineering department of the railway gave the lease of 84-sft land, on which the room of DB road number 1 gate-man is situated, to one Lutfur

Rahman for Tk4,536 annually.

Gaibandha Railways Station Master Md Abul Kasem said the lease appeal was approved without informing him while the place is being used for officials tasks as well as accommodation for three employees of the gate.

He appealed the authorities concerned to reconsider the lease.

Gaibandha Municipality Mayor Md Shamsul Alam said the DB road is lone passage to enter the town from seven upazilas of the district. The 24-foot road in width has remained

just 18-foot at number 1 rail gate owing to unavailability of space, resulting a severe traffic jam seen there.

The mayor went on that the situation would be severe if shops are erected on the lease land.

Gaibandha Brahmaputra Sarak and Rail Setu Bastobaion central committee president advocate Ashraf Ali said the government has been considering to run ferry service on Balasighat from December and that is why expansion works of the Polasibari-Gaibandha-Balasighat

road was going on full swing.

“In this situation, some corrupt railway officials have made the task difficult by approving the lease appeal of a piece of 84sft land near the rail gate,” the president continued.

When asked, Ahsan Jabir, divisional engineer of Lalmonirhat Railways, said the lease had been given through due process.

Local DC Md Ehsane Elahi said he was unaware of the lease. If it is true, a severe tailback would erupt in the district town. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Locals lay siege to SP office demanding arrest of college student Ifti killers Locals laid a seized to the office of Netrakona Superintendent of Police yesterday demanding arrest of the killers of college student Aziz Aman Ifti soon.

Ifti, a class XI student of Netrakona Government College, was killed by some of his classmates on the campus on August 9. Around 11:00am, a protest procession was brought out from the college campus.

Marching the main roads of Natrakona town, the procession ended before the police superintendent’s office.

– Our Correspondent, Netrakona

Attack on journos protested in Narshigndi Local journalists in Narshindi yesterday formed a human chain before Raipura Press Club protesting the attacks on journalists by ruling party men on November 5. Members of Raipura Press Club and Raipura unit of Jatiya Sangbadik Sangstha took part the programme around 11:00am. Three journalists and two Ansar members were injured when by a gang of miscreants led by leaders of the ruling party Awami League’s associate bodies swooped on a mobile court while it was conducting a drive against illegal gas connections in Bhatpara area in Narshingdi November 5. The local

Indian national sent to jail for intrusion

Correspondent, n Our Netrakona An Indian national was sent to jail yesterday in Netrakona district as he tried to enter Bangladesh illegally.

Bangladesh Border Guard sources said the BGB members arrested Asio Nadip,35, the Indian national in Kanthalbri area while he was trying to Bangladesh illegally. The law enforcers also recovered a knife in possessing of the man. l

hoodlums also vandalised camaras of journalists as they were taking footage of the drive. The injured journalists are Kawsar Ahmed, cameraman of Shomoy Television, and Lakshman Barman, cameraman of Channel 24 and Aiub Khan Sarkar, reporter of Channel 9.

– Our Correspondent, Narshigndi

Fire guts around valuables worth Tk3 lakh

A fire gutted valuables worth around Tk3 lakh at a house in Tongabari area under of Ashulia in Savar yesterday. The fire was originated from an electric short circuit in a room of the house of one Asgor Ali around 11:00am, said Ashulia DEPZ Fire Station Officer Abdul Hamin. Two units of fire fighters from Ashulia DEPZ Fire Station doused the flame after about forty minutes of effort.

– Our Correspondent, Savar

Arrest of youth’s killers demanded in Brahmanbaria Locals yesterday formed a human chain before Brahmanbaria demanding arrest of killers of Richal Pathan who was killed by miscreants on November 1.

Several hundred people took part in the human chain stretching from Kumarshil Intersection to Kawtali around 11:00am. Richal Pathan, son of Yeasin Pathan of Kandipara area in Brahmanbaria, was beaten to

death by some miscreants in Khalpar Hwakers Market area. Later, a case was filed against 17 people, including Brahmanbaria city unit General Secretary Rafiqul Islam.

– Our Correspondent, Brahmanbaria

Two houses robbed in Chuadanga

A gang of robbers took away valuables from two houses in Notipota village in Tamurhuda upazila in Chuadanga early yesterday. Police said a gang of 8-9 robbers attacked the house of farmers and Mangal Malitha and Ruhul Amin around 12:00am. In the face of fire arms, the gang robbed Tk 7,000 from Malitha’s house, while Tk 40,000, a gold chain and other valuables from Ruhul’s house. Sensing the presence of police, the robbers blasted four bombs.

– Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

Kurigram transport workers on indefinite strike Transport workers in Kurigram have observed an indefinite strike to press home their five point demands, including payment of their arrears. No goods laden truck, tank-lorry and covered van have plied on the road in the district since 6:00am yesterday due to the strike called by the Kurgram District Truck, TankLorry and Covered Van Workers’.

– Our Correspondent, Kurigram

Police recovered the body of a female union parishad (UP) member, who was chopped to death, at Jamalpur village in Singair upazila of the district yesterday morning.

Police and family sources said Monoara Begum, 45, wife of Nurul Islam and mother of two children, was

on way home from her niece’s in-laws’ house at Joymontop village around 9pm.

On Sunday morning, locals spotting her body lying beside a road at Jamalpur village in Bayra union informed police.

Sub-inspector Sahidul Islam of Singair police station said Monoara was chopped to death by some miscreants over a land-related dispute. l

4 teachers jailed for helping examinees in cheating n Our Correspondent, Kushtia A mobile court sentenced four teachers with two years of imprisonment for helping examinees in cheating during Junior School Certificate examination in Khoksha upazila of Kushtia yesterday.

The convicts are Sarwar Hossain, Bhudeb

Kumar Ghoshal and Afil Uddin, all teachers of Shomoshopur Secondary School and Bishwanath Das, teacher of Amlabari Secondary School.

Executive Magistrate Rebeka Khan has handed down the sentence around 12:30 pm yesterday. Members of law enforcement agencies were also present during the drive.l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

Monday, November 10, 2014

7

Growth maps: Learning from high-growth economies

Investment in infrastructure enables new industries to emerge and raises the return to private ventures that benefit from healthy, educated workers, passable roads and reliable electricity

B

n Sajid H Amit

efore WWII, sustained GDP growth of 7% a year was virtually unheard of.

However, since then, 13 economies have grown at an average rate of at least 7% for 25 years or longer: Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Botswana, Oman and Malta. At that pace, an economy doubles in size every 10 years.

Interestingly, after WWII, when Japan grew at such rates, commentators considered it an exception rendered possible by post-war recovery.

Next, when the “Asian Tigers” (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea) achieved such growth rates, commentators said it was only possible because they were small.

More recently, when China surpassed 7% growth rates, they said it was because China was so big. Each time, they called it a “miracle.” But miracles they are not, because unlike miracles, they have been explained and repeated.

There is of course no one-size-fitsall strategy to growth, but it is possible to tease out policy strategies from the above 13 that merit closer attention: n Outward turn: Using the global economy as the essential resource n Understanding human capital: Workforce development n Orientation toward the future: Higher savings and investment rates n Stable governments

Some also actively intervened to keep the currency competitive, regulating by the amount and type of capital flowing across their borders while accumulating substantial foreign reserves in the central bank. The tradeoff of keeping the currency competitive and more export-sector-friendly is that it can limit the amount of capital a country imports, and raise the cost of capital, which in turns reduces investments.

However, in the early stages of high growth, management of exchange rates can be helpful as long as it is done to slightly tip the balance in favour of exports (to overcome informational asymmetries and other potential frictions) and secondly, to prevent a sudden surge of capital inflows (which can disrupt the growth of export sectors).

Foreign education at large and foreign higher education in particular has proven to be an important channel for knowledge transfer as evidenced by almost all the 13 high-growth economies.

During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government pursued an active policy to attract their diaspora back to Japan. More recently, China has done the same to invite Chinese students and professionals trained in western universities to return to China and help develop market-oriented policies and institutions.

China has also actively encouraged Chinese students to continue to pursue studies overseas. The Singaporean government has scholarship schemes that send bright students to acquire learning from western universities

But of course, for investments in infrastructure and education to grow, there has to be a commensurate savings pool to finance the investments An “outward turn” was more feasible post-World War II as the international economy became more open, allowing growing economies to import ideas, technologies and knowledge.

Rarely did the fast-growing economies produce original technology and knowledge, but they absorbed it at a considerable pace, aided by prioritisation of research by policymakers. The fast learning countries became the fast growing economies.

Exports became the focal point for macroeconomic policy. While the role of exports was nowhere disputed – that of export promotion was. To prioritise exports, countries promoted specific sectors through tax breaks, subsidies, import tariff exemptions, cheap credit, dedicated infrastructure, or bundled them via dedicated export zones.

with the condition to return and contribute. In addition to knowledge transfer, the returning diaspora bring back with them a wealth of international networks that can be beneficial.

However, is an outward turn the only road to growth? Some economists have looked inward as well towards consumption, to bolster the home work and make it more competitive for imports.

There are advantages to inward looking strategies as well: they eschew the risks and dislocations that emerge from opening up a country to foreign competition too abruptly. However, growth strategies that rely exclusively or mostly on domestic demand eventually hit a plateau: economies then lose the space to specialise in whatever it is best at producing.

At this point, it is worth considering the importance of macroeconomic stability, of which Bangladesh has been a poster child. Bangladesh has mustered around 6% growth for 11 years, and the standard deviation thereof is the least among other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Macroeconomic stability is the foundation for higher growth and Bangladesh deserves the attention it’s getting for sustaining its growth rate. However, having macroeconomic stability will not spur on higher growth rates unless the government invests in infrastructure and human capital, and sets policies to encourage a mindset of “saving for the future.”

Low inflation is a fantastic achievement but it does not compensate for poor education or rickety infrastructure. That will never attract or drive investment required to quickly lift masses of people out of poverty and post the high growth rates seen elsewhere in Asia.

In the more populous high-growth countries, in the beginning, jobs were hard to come by, wages were low and many people were self-employed out of necessity. The solution to this almost began with gainful employment in export industries for people otherwise underemployed in the traditional or informal sectors, until the economy creates better jobs, worthy of better educated workers.

As the export sector deepens and enriches, workers find more options and sectors to move back and forth between. Of course, workers find it easier to pick up new skills and enter new trades if they are literate and educated. This creates the scope for government and private sector interventions to expand existing educational and training opportunities and thus increase labour mobility.

In any period of fast growth, labour like other forms of capital will move rapidly from sector to sector, and governments ought not to temper the market forces that pull people into urban areas or destroy some jobs, because new ones will be created.

Yes, there will be haphazard urbanisation, but it will pave the way for greater planning and foresight. No country has achieved sustained rapid growth without initiating and maintaining high rates of public investment in education, training, and workforce development. The good news for Bangladesh is that an abundant labour supply is a boon for catch-up growth.

Now, turning to infrastructure, unlike other forms of government investment, in infrastructure in particular does not crowd out private investment, but crowds it in – it enables new industries to emerge and raises the return to private ventures that benefit from healthy, educated workers, passable roads and reliable electricity.

NASHIRUL ISLAM

A high-growth economy is a moving target in the sense that bad policies are often good policies applied for too long Unfortunately, infrastructure spending is not given its due and it’s often not measured (as tends to happen with statistics: what gets valued gets measured, and what does not get measured gets ignored). In fast-growing Asia, public investment in infrastructure accounted for 7% of GDP with higher percentages in China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Telecommunications infrastructure and the pricing of services are of particular importance as well. Eventually, telecommunications promotes widespread access to financial services and hence savings; raises productivity by disseminating price information to farmers and other producers; drives literacy and vocational learning; enables transparency initiatives; and facilitates delivery of government services.

It is also the basis for globalisation of the information technology industry – a rapidly growing area of commerce for Bangladesh.

But of course, for investments in infrastructure and education to grow, there has to be a commensurate savings pool to finance the investments.

Bangladesh’s savings rate is actually lower than most countries in Asia.

And there is a case for strategic policy intervention here. Perhaps we as a people have not been future-oriented enough and it is high time we understood how to create better futures for successive generations.

All the 13 economies mentioned earlier were significantly future-oriented at the beginning stages of their growth: foregoing consumption for a higher standard of living in the future.

Rapid investment growth is just not possible without the availability of savings: a national saving rate of 25% is not unusual and much higher saving rates have been required to sustain high investment growth.

China’s savings rate, which was already very high, increased from an average of 36% in 1980–89 to 46% in 2000–2008. The low level of female labour force participation also contributes to low household and private saving rates. Households in which more women work tend to save beyond the additional income effect. Education levels are, not surprisingly, also closely related to savings rates.

Policy options can be grouped in two categories: demand-side policies to inform household saving decisions; and supply-side policies to improve regulatory, institutional, and other conditions in which saving decisions are made.

On the demand side, if implement-

ed effectively, a national financial literacy strategy is likely to promote financial literacy nationwide and have a significant impact on savings rate, as was evidenced in Turkey. On the supply side, policy options included developing financial intermediation in three ways: (i) better use of existing products (such as private pensions and corporate bonds), including, but not limited to, taxation of different instruments; (ii) more investment in new products and better regulatory framework; and (iii) special saving schemes.

In Bangladesh, further developing the corporate bond market is one policy option. Nonbank financial institutions (NBFI) are widely regarded as being critical for bond market development given their long–term investment strategies. If bond markets are under-

developed, both pension funds and insurance companies are forced to hold short-term securities, which do not correspond to the liability side of their balance sheet and therefore expose them to maturity mismatches. Therefore, developing the bond market has the impact of developing the pension funds industry and the insurance industry.

Private pension schemes have recently gotten some attention in Bangladesh but they have the potential to expand. Besides raising the awareness of households about planning for retirement, making the private pension scheme attractive could help the sector grow and generate long-term savings.

Malaysia and Thailand both have highly developed financial markets, deepening bond markets and high saving rates; their experiences may be relevant for Bangladesh. Some countries like Singapore have employed more direct measures to enforce thrift, eg, the establishment of the Central Provident Fund, a mandatory savings scheme, in 1955.

So what role is the government to play in all this? Successful growth histories have vindicated the importance of having an increasingly capable, committed and stable government.

Since high growth requires high savings, it requires strong political leadership to first dedicate itself to a growth strategy, then communicate to the public that the rewards for future generations after generations are well worth the effort, thrift and near-term economic upheaval as it were.

In all examples of countries with high growth, not only were there consistent and strong political leadership but also communication with the people to ensure that they understood the value of future-orientation.

It has to be remembered that policy-making in a developing economy is not easy. Economists know how a market economy will respond to prescriptions where there are mature institutional foundations that define property rights, enforce contracts, and convey prices that bridge informational gaps between buyers and sellers.

This is harder to do for a high-growing, developing country. A highgrowth economy is a moving target in that bad policies are often good policies applied for too long. But the good news is that market and regulatory institutions tend to co-evolve with the economy, as has happened elsewhere.

A stable and effective government is critical in the long run that maintains price stability and fiscal responsibility.

GDP growth is of course not an end in itself. But no poor country has lifted itself out of poverty without exhibiting high rates of GDP Growth. Moreover, social welfare goals such as health care, education and the other Millennium Development Goals are not achievable without growth. Growth therefore while not sufficient, is a necessary condition to lift masses out of poverty and drudgery and enable individual, familial and national well-being. l Sajid H Amit is Director Training & Consulting at the Growth Institute.

The good news is that an abundant labour supply is a boon for catch-up growth RAJIB DHAR

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Monday, November 10, 2014

US air strikes target Iran, US, EU hold nuclear talks in Oman n IS convoy in Iraq Reuters, Muscat

n Reuters, Baghdad/Washington US air strikes destroyed an Islamic State convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but US officials said on Saturday it was unclear whether the group’s top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been in any of the 10 targeted vehicles.

Colonel Patrick Ryder, a Central Command spokesman, said the US military had reason to believe that the convoy was carrying leaders of Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which controls large chunks of Iraq and Syria.

The convoy consisted of 10 Islamic State armed trucks.

“I can confirm that coalition aircraft did conduct a series of air strikes yesterday evening in Iraq against what was assessed to be a gathering of ISIL leaders near Mosul,” said Ryder, using another name for Islamic State.

“We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present.”

Islamic State had been changing its strategy since the air strikes began, switching to lower profile vehicles to avoid being targeted, according to residents of towns the group holds.

A Mosul morgue official said 50 bodies of Islamic State militants were brought to the facility after the air strike.

Mosul, northern Iraq’s biggest city, was overrun on June 10 in an offensive that saw vast parts of Iraq’s Sunni regions fall to the Islamic State and allied groups.

A month later a video posted on-

line purported to show the reclusive Baghdadi preaching at Mosul’s grand mosque.

Earlier on Saturday, Al-Hadath television channel said US-led air strikes targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders in a town near the Syrian border, possibly including Baghdadi.

Iraqi security officials were not immediately available for comment on the report from the station, part of Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television, but two witnesses told Reuters an air strike targeted a house where senior Islamic State officers were meeting, near the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.

Al-Hadath said dozens of people were killed and wounded in the strike in al-Qaim, and that Baghdadi’s fate was unclear.

Mahmoud Khalaf, a member of Anbar’s Provincial Council, also said there were air strikes in al-Qaim. He gave no details.

The US-led coalition carried out air strikes near al-Qaim overnight, destroying an Islamic State armoured vehicle and two checkpoints run by the group, Ryder said.

BOMBINGS The hardline Sunni Islamic State’s drive to form a caliphate has helped return sectarian violence in Iraq to the dark days of 2006-2007, the peak of its civil war.

It has also created a cross-border sanctuary for Arab militants, as well as foreign fighters whose passports could allow them to evade detection in Western airports. l

With only two weeks to a deadline for a breakthrough deal, senior envoys of Iran, the United States and European Union met in Oman on Sunday to try to advance efforts to defuse a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Western countries and close US ally Israel suspect Iran has covertly sought to develop the means to build nuclear weapons, and a decade-long confrontation over the issue has raised the risk of a wider war in the volatile Middle East.

The discussions, between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU envoy Catherine Ashton, aim to put verifiable limits on Iran’s ura-

nium enrichment work in return for a gradual lifting of sanctions.

Iran denies any secret nuclear weapons agenda, saying it wants peaceful nuclear energy only, but has refused to curb enrichment capacity and has been hit by damaging US, EU and UN Security Council sanctions as a result.

The thorniest unresolved issues are the size of Iran’s enrichment programme, the length of any long-term agreement and the pace at which international sanctions would be phased out, according to Western diplomats involved in the negotiations.

As Kerry arrived in Oman, a senior US official said the three-way talks would be “an important meeting,” with the focus on making progress in

order to meet the deadline.

US officials say major gaps still remain in negotiating positions. Kerry said last week that the United States and its partners were not contemplating an extension of the Nov. 24 deadline, although he held out the possibility that negotiations could go beyond that date if major issues were resolved and there were only technical details to wrap up.

Speaking to Iranian state television on his arrival in the Omani capital Muscat on Saturday night, Zarif reiterated that sanctions imposed on Iran had brought “no result” for the West.

Iran’s relations with the West have thawed since relative moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected president last year seeking to end Iran’s isolation. l

US and Russia’s common ground on Ukraine n Agencies Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has welcomed US involvement in resolving the Ukraine crisis, saying it would be a “step in the right direction,” in comments that appear to reflect a toning down in bilateral tension that has been at its worst since the end of the Cold War. Lavrov’s remarks came after a meeting in Beijing with John Kerry, his US counterpart, and precede high-level meetings scheduled to take place between President Vladimir Putin and world leaders at an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in China, and a Group of 20 summit in Australia, next week.

“Our positions on what is happening in Ukraine do not correspond with the United States, but if Washington is

interested in contributing to the reconciliation of the situation and creating dialogue between Kiev and the rebel leadership... I think that would be a step in the right direction,” the Russian foreign minister said in comments shown on state television.

Kerry said his country had agreed with Moscow on exchanging information about the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border.

Ukraine’s military accused Russia on Friday of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country’s east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces.

Moscow rejects claims by Ukraine and the West that it is arming the pro-Kremlin separatists, who are seeking secession from the former Soviet country.

Kerry’s comment to reporters in

Beijing on Saturday seemed to suggest new Western sanctions against Russia are not imminent.

“The choices Russia makes will decide what happens with respect to sanctions in the long run here,” Kerry said, adding he hoped a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine would remain viable.

Asked whether Moscow was sending tanks and troops to help the separatists, Lavrov gave no clear answer, noting that the US government on Friday said that it was aware of the reports, but could not independently confirm them.

No talks are scheduled at the APEC summit between Putin and US President Barack Obama though Washington and the Kremlin have not ruled out an informal conversation on the summit sidelines. l

Catalonia holds non-binding vote on independence n Agencies The people of Catalonia in north-eastern Spain are voting in a disputed and non-binding poll on independence.

The Spanish judiciary has ruled the vote unconstitutional but Catalan leader Artur Mas warned against any attempt to disrupt it.

Spain’s constitutional court suspended earlier plans for a referendum on secession. Spain Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the vote would have no effect and urged the region to return to “sanity.”

As of 13:00 local time (11:00am GMT), 1.1 million people had voted. l

Gorbachev: World is on brink of new Cold War n Reuters, Berlin Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned in a speech in Berlin on Saturday that East-West tensions over the Ukraine crisis were threatening to push the world into a new Cold War, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some say that it has already begun,” said Gorbachev, who is feted in Germany for his pivotal role in helping create the conditions for the Berlin Wall’s peaceful opening on Nov. 9, 1989, heralding the end of the Cold War. “And yet, while the situation is dramatic, we do not see the main international body, the UN Security Council, playing any role or taking any concrete action.” l

Palestinians remind world of their own wall n Agencies

(Left): People crowd the17th June avenue during an open air street party in front of Brandenburg gate organized by German governement to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall yesterday in Berlin. (Right): Communist Naydencho Naydenov holds a flag to set a sign against European policy during the commemorations to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial in the Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, yesterday AFP

Palestinian youth have dug a hole in Israel’s separation wall with the Palestinian territories, as a symbolic gesture to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Armed with hammers, a group of Palestinian activists on Saturday created a cavity in the wall that crosses through the West Bank village of Bir Nabala, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, braving tight Israeli security measures.

“It doesn’t matter how high the barriers will be, they will fall. Like the Berlin Wall fell - The Palestinian wall will fall,” the Palestinian activists who organised the event wrote in a statement according to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall a

quarter century ago is a key event in the breakdown of communism and the preface to Germany’s reunification in 1990.

During its 28-year existence, the Wall served as a symbol for communist oppression.

Palestinians refer to the current wall separating the West Bank from Israel as the “apartheid wall.”

Israel began work on the sprawling barrier in 2002 and has defended its construction as a crucial protective measure, pointing to a drop in attacks inside Israel as a proof of its success.

But the Palestinians say the wall is a land grab. Large tracts of Palestinian land have been confiscated by the Israeli government to build it. When complete, 85% of it will have been built inside the West Bank. l

The Albanian gambler who robbed the national vault French opposition in n Reuters, Tirana

In the end, it wasn’t the security cameras or the audit inspections in the vault of Albania’s central bank that brought down Ardian Bitraj.

It was the high blood pressure and lack of sleep, the burden of a multi-million-dollar secret.

Sitting down with his boss this July, Bitraj confessed his deception: over a four-year period he had stolen the equivalent of $6.5 million from the vault, covering his tracks by stuffing the empty cash boxes with books and balls of string.

The revelation brought down the central bank governor, led to the arrest of 18 employees and tarnished the reputation of an institution once lauded for its professionalism. And all for the sake of a gambling habit that led to massive losses, culminating in a series of fatal bets on the soccer World Cup. The full story of the Balkan bank heist is only just emerging, gleaned by Reuters in interviews with bankers, investigators and others involved, and from legal documents including a transcript of Bitraj’s confession.

It started in May 2010, when Bitraj, who had risen to become head of the cash processing department at the bank, first opened the metal and plastic clasps to the wooden boxes that hold its cash reserves in the cryptically named X Building on the outskirts of the capital Tirana.

Bitraj, 45, had a penchant for placing bets on soccer matches, so roughly once a month he would wait for his co-workers to leave the room and swipe up to 2 million leks, roughly $18,000, according to the confession.

Skewed cameras

Choosing carefully how he returned the boxes, Bitraj would make sure those he had tampered with were not in line for

delivery to Albania’s commercial banks, nor likely to be picked on in the regular random audit of the vault.

As the thefts mounted, he would stuff the boxes with packaging, balls of string and books to replace the weight of the cash.

All three keys needed to access the vault were kept in his personal safe. In statements to police, bank employees said they had not received any directive on how or where to store the keys.

an annex to the cash room.

Bitraj would stuff the money in a black plastic bag and place it in his office safe, investigators said. Then before leaving work, he would duck into the lavatory and strap the wads of bills to his body. His nephew would drive him home.

“The bank had no system to detect if anyone was carrying banknotes out, and some of the cameras were at an angle at which one could not see everything,” an investigator, who spoke on condition of

Snapshot from an exclusive video of Bitraj from A1 Report Bitraj says auditors checked only 2% of the cash boxes in the vault. Fired governor Ardian Fullani says it was 5%, maintaining that checks in the former communist country were comparable with other central banks in Europe.

Witness testimony has since revealed that the bank’s plumber and electrician both made up the numbers for the required seven-member audit team in 2012 and 2013.

Oddly enough, according to Bitraj’s confession, the security cameras in the cash processing section were not trained on the cash boxes, but on an office and

His wife, in written testimony, said he was suffering from high blood pressure.

Investigators told Reuters he was not eating properly, could not sleep and had stopped washing himself.

“I wonder why the guy didn’t skip the country,” said a veteran insider at the central bank.

His confession sent shockwaves through the bank: 18 employees have been arrested, mainly on suspicion of negligence. Fullani, who had won praise

INTERNET

INTERNET

The theft reached its peak during the World Cup in Brazil in June and July; at one point, Bitraj smuggled out 10 million leks, or roughly $90,000, in a single day.

Newspapers reported that he bet through Tirana bookmakers on dozens of matches throughout the tournament, losing 20 million leks ($180,000) on a single game when he backed Brazil to beat Chile in regular time but they only won through on penalties.

The strain on him was mounting.

from the likes of the International Monetary Fund for his handling of monetary policy during 10 years in charge, is under house arrest pending trial on charges of abuse of office.

Bitraj himself has been charged with bank theft and faces up to 20 years in jail. The trial is expected to begin within weeks and a verdict could come early next year.

His tale is a cautionary one for banks the world over.

“It seems they worked on the basis of trust. And there should be zero trust in a bank,” the central bank insider said. l

anonymity, told Reuters.

Penalty shootout

turmoil amid ‘plot’ over Sarkozy n AFP, Paris France’s former prime minister Francois Fillon Sunday complained of a “plot” against him, amid media reports he sought to interfere in legal procedures against Nicolas Sarkozy, a rival in the right-wing opposition.

Leading daily Le Monde claimed that Fillon had in June urged President Francois Hollande’s chief of staff to push along the several legal complaints against Sarkozy.

“Hit him quickly, hit him quickly ... you know if you don’t hit him quickly, you’ll see him come back, so do it,” Fillon is alleged to have told Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Hollande’s right-hand man at the Elysee Palace.

Both Fillon and Jouyet have denied this and the former prime minister under Sarkozy’s presidency, who hopes to run as the candidate of the right-wing UMP in the 2017 presidential election, hit out in the Journal de Dimanche weekly.

“I can only see in these incredible attacks an attempt at destabilisation and a plot,” he complained.

He has said he will sue for defamation against two Le Monde reporters, who made the claims in a book, as well as the daily itself.

Fillon, Sarkozy and former PM Alain Juppe are the three main UMP candidates likely to run against the embattled Hollande and the high-flying farright candidate Marine Le Pen at the next presidential election in 2017.

The three men used to work closely together. During Sarkozy’s presidency,

Fillon was prime minister and Juppe was foreign minister.

Sarkozy, who announced his comeback to frontline French politics amid much fanfare in September, is mired in a host of legal woes, notably over the financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.

‘Hit him quickly, hit him quickly ... you know if you don’t hit him quickly, you’ll see him come back, so do it’ The energetic 59-year-old has crisscrossed France in a bid to drum up support for his bid to win the UMP presidency – which he intends to use as a springboard for the 2017 election – but polls show he has failed to inspire voters.

The turmoil in the French opposition has also failed to benefit Hollande, who is the most unpopular president in French history, according to polls.

High unemployment, stagnant growth and unseemly political infighting is playing into the hands of Le Pen, who would likely win through to a second round of a presidential election if it were held now, surveys show.

And this latest “affair” may not leave Hollande unscathed, as his chief of staff is implicated in the story. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

India test-fires nuclear capable strategic ballistic missile The missile has a range of over 2,000km

The Agni-II ballistic missile would take only 15 minutes to be readied for firing

n Agencies India test-fired on Sunday a nuclear-capable strategic ballistic missile, Agni-II, the Times of Inida (TOI) reported.

According to the Indian publication, the missile has a range of over 2,000 kilometres and has been inducted into

the Indian army’s strategic forces arsenal for nuclear deterrence.

TOI says the medium-range missile is equipped with an advanced high-accuracy navigation system and guided by a state-of-the-art command and control system which is powered by a solid rocket propellant system.

The two-stage surface-to-surface

China to establish $40bn Silk Road infrastructure fund n Reuters, Beijing China will contribute $40 billion to set up a Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia, President Xi Jinping announced on Saturday, the latest Chinese project to spread the largesse of its own economic growth.

China has dangled financial and trade incentives before, mostly to Central Asia but also to countries in South Asia, backing efforts to resurrect the old Silk Road trading route that once carried treasures between China and the Mediterranean.

The fund will be for investing in infrastructure, resources and industrial and financial cooperation, among other projects, Xi said, according to Xinhua.

The goal of the fund is to “break the connectivity bottleneck” in Asia, state media quoted Xi as saying during a meeting in Beijing with leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

The Silk Road Fund will be “open” and welcome investors from Asia and beyond to “actively” take part in the project, Xi was cited as saying, ahead of a separate summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping, also being held in the Chinese capital.

It was not immediately clear precisely how the fund would work, when it would start operations or where it would be based, though in all likelihood it would be China.

But Xinhua said it would focus on China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and

the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative, which aim to build roads, railways, ports and airports across Central Asia and South Asia.

“Such a framework accommodates the needs of various countries and covers both land and sea-related projects,” Xi said, adding China is ready to welcome its neighbours “to get on board the train of China’s development.”

China will also provide neighboring countries with 20,000 places for training “connectivity professionals” over the next five years, Xi said.

China has sought to address fears in the region - and globally - that its bounding economic growth will inevitably bring about a more assertive, muscular diplomatic and military approach to issues such as territorial disputes.

One of the ways it has done this is to offer large loans to places like Southeast Asia and Africa, to show that China is a benign growing power only interested in helping others escape poverty in the way it has itself over the past three decades.

Last month, Xi unveiled the $50 billion China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a challenge to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, both multilateral lenders that count Washington and its allies as their biggest financial backers.

China has sought to allay concerns that its new bank aims to undermine the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, saying it wants to learn from their experience and that there are more than enough projects around for all the lenders to fund. l

REUTERS

missile’s range could be increased to 3,000 kilometres by reducing its payload, the report said, adding that the missile could be fired from both rail and road mobile launchers.

The Agni-II ballistic missile would take only 15 minutes to be readied for firing. India has first successfully testfired Agni-II prototype in 1999. l

Two Americans freed from secretive North Korea stepped off a plane into the welcoming arms of family on Saturday after the surprise involvement of the top-ranking US intelligence official who traveled to Pyongyang to bring them home.

Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, who had been doing hard labor for months in North Korea, were accompanied on their journey home by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a senior US official said. Their release comes less than three weeks after another American was freed by Pyongyang.

The two men arrived at Joint Base

Lewis-McChord near Tacoma in Washington state on a Boeing C-40 Clipper aircraft bearing the words “United States of America.”

A smiling Bae exited the aircraft and in an emotional reunion on the tarmac greeted his mother, sister, brother-inlaw and two young nieces. Miller followed minutes later and also hugged family members. Both men had closecropped hair.

Bae, 46, a Korean-American missionary from Lynnwood north of Seattle, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor for crimes against the state.

Miller, in his mid-20s, was reportedly convicted on an espionage charge and in custody since April, serving a six-

As Obama visits Asia, old alliances face new strains n Reuters, Washington/Jakarta In November 2011, with the Arab Spring uprisings in full tilt and Europe rocked by a debt crisis, President Barack Obama flew to Asia to promote a shift of America’s military, diplomatic and business assets to the region.

His then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, declared in the same year that the 21st century would be “America’s Pacific century.”

Fast-forward to today: as Obama flies to Asia on Sunday, Washington’s “pivot” to the region is becoming more visible. It includes deployment of American Marines in Darwin, Australia, stepped up US naval visits to the Philippines and many more joint drills with that nation’s armed forces, as well as the lifting of a ban on lethal weapons sales to Vietnam.

But just as Washington seeks to expand American interests in Asia as a counterpoint to China’s growing influence, some US partners have shown less willingness to challenge Beijing.

That may mean China will have a freer hand to assert its authority in the resource-rich South China Sea, where its territorial claims overlap those of Taiwan and four Southeast Asian countries.

The drubbing Obama’s Democrats took in this week’s mid-term elections, defeats that were blamed by many on his leadership, will hardly strengthen his position in discussions with China or with allies in the region. Obama will have less room for maneuver on foreign policy now he has a Republican-controlled Senate to deal with, and the political focus in Washington

is already starting to turn to the 2016 presidential election.

Although several countries, notably the Philippines and Vietnam, have sought closer US ties as a defense against what they see as China’s aggression in pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, other long-established alliances have become less robust.

Beijing’s increasing economic influence is a major reason. Southeast Asia’s trade with China is up four-fold over the past decade to $350 billion last year and is forecast to reach $1 trillion by 2020.

Indonesia, traditionally a leading voice and strong US ally in Southeast Asia, has signaled a foreign policy shift away from international activism following this year’s election of a populist President Joko Widodo, who said in his election campaign that his focus would be on domestic affairs.

Rizal Sukma, a foreign policy adviser to Widodo, told Reuters there would be a shift in priorities from high-profile diplomacy, though Indonesia would continue to play a role in the South China Sea and support freedom of navigation and trade.

On the South China Sea, Widodo is unlikely to act without a crisis, said Greg Fealy, an Indonesia expert at the Australian National University. “The US may well find it much more difficult to get any leverage,” he said.

In Thailand, a military coup in May has shaken up its relationship with the United States. Since the coup, Washington has scaled back diplomatic contacts and reduced joint military exercises. l

Musharraf’s Kashmir efforts were frustrated by Delhi

n Agencies, Srinagar

Advocating former president Pervez Musharraf’s four-point formula for Kashmir, former BJP legislator and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani said on Saturday the document should be the basis for a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue and that Mr Musharraf’s efforts were “frustrated” by India.

“Mr Musharraf came to India with a firm and honest intention. His proposal is a fantastic solution to the Kashmir problem. It is a wonderful document which should be the basis for a permanent solution of Kashmir. I have no difficulty in confessing that his efforts were frustrated by India and not Pakistan,” the 91-year-old leader told reporters here.

Mr Jethmalani, who is chairman of the Kashmir Committee, also claimed he had made some changes to Mr Musharraf’s proposals. “I have been working for Kashmir for a long time and Musharraf knew. He sent his proposal to me through a common friend.

I made some changes to the document as part of the proposals on behalf of the Kashmir Committee which Musharraf accepted. The whole purpose of the document is that there should be a secular democracy on both sides,” he said.

The former union minister, who was expelled from the BJP earlier this year, said a formal body comprising statesmen and recognised by both India and Pakistan should be set up to see to it that people were not exploited by the two governments. The head of the Kashmir Committee said he was in constant touch with the Kashmiri leaders and not all of them were “Pakistani agents.” l

21 new ministers join Narendra Modi’s cabinet

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee (C/L) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C/R) pose with new cabinet ministers after a swearing-in ceremony at The Presidential Palace in New Delhi on November 9 AFP

n Agencies In the first cabinet expansion exercise after assuming power, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 21 ministers into his council on Sunday in a move that strikes regional balance at the Centre and is expected to bring technocratic expertise into the government.

The much-awaited expansion is also expected to give a big push to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – with an eye on elections – and rewarded Maharashtra and Haryana for delivering decisive

Two Americans freed by North Korea return to US n Reuters, Tacoma

9

Monday, November 10, 2014

year hard labor sentence.

Bae thanked President Barack Obama and the North Korean government for his freedom and said he appreciated the thoughts and prayers of people who supported him.

“It’s been an amazing two years, I learned a lot, I grew a lot, lost a lot of weight - in a good way - but I’m standing strong because of you and thank you for being there in such time as this,” Bae said at a news conference.

When asked about his health, Bae said he was still recovering. His family had expressed concern about his wellbeing during his detention, saying he had diabetes, an enlarged heart, deteriorating vision and back and leg pains.

Miller did not speak to reporters. l

victories for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent assembly polls.

Portfolios of the ministers who took the oath of office at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, however, were not announced till the filing of the report.

The newly sworn in cabinet ministers are: former Goa chief minister Manohar Parikkar, who is tipped to get the defence ministry; BJP vice-president JP Nadda, a leader from Himachal Pradesh who has long experience in organisational politics; and Birendra Singh, who had joined the BJP from

the Congress ahead of the Haryana assembly elections.

The fourth in the list is Shiv Sena’s Suresh Prabhu. There were reports that the Sena was not keen on his candidature. But Prabhu is known to enjoy Modi’s confidence.

Even though Sena’s pick, Anil Desai, decided to skip the event - apparently over differences with the BJP in ministerial berth allocation in Maharashtra, that did not hurt Prabhu’s prospects.

Some reports said he joined the BJP hours before the ceremony.

Prabhu has the reputation of being an efficient minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He has also worked closely with Modi during the Lok Sabha election campaign, and is the PM’s Sherpa for the upcoming G20- summit in Australia.

There were reports in Maharashtra political circles that Modi wanted him at the Centre despite the logjam in ties between the two former allies – the Sena and the BJP – ahead of last month’s assembly. l

Hong Kong: China won’t change mind on democracy

Uddhav may pull out of Modi govt n HT, New Delhi

n Reuters, Hong Kong

The simmering tension between Shiv Sena and BJP came to a boil on Sunday as Sena MP Anil Desai failed to take oath as Union minister amid talk that Uddhav Thackeray will pull the party out of the government at the Centre and play opposition in Maharashtra.

Desai, who was rushed to the national capital to reach in time for the swearing-in, went back from the Delhi airport itself, apparently due to failure of BJP to address Sena’s demands for ministerial berths in Maharashtra.

Sena sources said that the party chief has convened a meeting in Mumbai this evening which could decide to play the role of opposition in Maharashtra and that he could direct Anant Geete, party’s lone representative in the Narendra Modi cabinet, to resign. l

Hong Kong’s first leader after its return to Chinese rule says Communist Party leaders in Beijing will not give in to students’ demands for democracy, a newspaper said on Sunday, an apparent response to their suggestion he could act as intermediary.

A leader of Hong Kong’s protests, which have blocked city streets for weeks, on Thursday called for a respected go-between, such as former leader Tung Chee-hwa, to help arrange a trip to Beijing.

“Mr Tung points out the central government understands the different views in Hong Kong,” his spokesman told the South China Morning Post.

“The decision of the National People’s

Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on August 31 will not change.”

China has ruled the former British colony since 1997 through a “one country, two systems” formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

But the NPC said in August it would screen candidates who want to run for the city’s election for a chief executive in 2017, which democracy activists said rendered the notion of universal suffrage meaningless.

The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, are frustrated with the city government’s inability to negotiate and are hoping to send a delegation to Beijing. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Monday, November 10, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Expel campus criminals

U

niversity authorities and law enforcers need to act swiftly on their promises of stern action to curb muggings and robberies in and around the Dhaka University campus.

A rising number of people, including students, staff, and ordinary members of the public have been robbed and attacked in mugging incidents around the university, which are carried out by small groups of students.

Law enforcers and others say most of the perpetrators belong to Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling party’s student wing.

In a number of cases, police officers report they have had to let arrested suspects go, despite catching them red-handed, as they were not always free to take action against university students who claim political backings.

This is an outrageous state of affairs, but comes as little surprise because different political parties tolerate and indulge criminal behaviour in their ranks. The widespread prevalence of lawlessness among student activists points to a belief that they can act with impunity.

As the party in whose name some BCL members claim special protection, the AL has a particular responsibility to take firm action against criminals in its ranks. As the government, its prime responsibility is to protect the public and maintain rule of law.

It must clearly support authorities and law enforcers in bringing all those responsible for crimes before the law.

The government and all political parties should act together to disown any of their activists who act lawlessly and support university authorities if they choose to expel students found guilty in criminal cases.

All political parties should disown activists who act lawlessly

Make connectivity count

W

e welcome the statement by Chinese President Xi Jinping that China and Bangladesh should work together to push ahead with the building of an economic corridor linking Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar.

Taken together with the other trade and bilateral issues being discussed by President Abdul Hamid on his trip to Beijing, it represents a further positive move ahead in our countries’ friendly relations.

Bangladesh is going to host the second Joint Study Group Meeting of the BCIM-EC, which hopes to further progress on establishing direct road, rail, and air connectivity between the four BCIM states.

The potential economic boost, that would be provided by a corridor linking Kunming and Chittagong in particular, would bring many mutual benefits for all the countries involved.

By improving connectivity, BCIM can bring tremendous benefits in enhancing economic integration and improving regional co-operation and development.

This would be of enormous practical benefit to Bangladesh and would make best use of our geographical location at the crossroads of South and South-east Asia.

It would also help invigorate BIG-B, Bimstec, Saarc, and SAFTA in their efforts to improve regional collaboration.

This week’s trip by the heads of the diplomatic missions of Bhutan, India, and Nepal in Dhaka, to travel together from Dhaka to their respective nations by land from Bangladesh, to look at ways of improving trade and cross-border infrastructure is a good example of the type of dialogue which needs to be promoted.

Connectivity is the most crucial and visible element that can and needs to be improved across our region.

Improving connectivity would be of enormous practical benefit to Bangladesh

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Kamal: Latif to be arrested on return October 28

Akm Bari I am not a supporter of Latif Siddiqui, but I am baffled hearing Latif should be arrested for his utterance against Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Question is, does Bangladesh have any provisions in the law which guarantees freedom of speech?

Living in USA, I routinely hear utterances against Islam and the Prophet by many people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Here it falls under “freedom of speech,” accorded by the Constitution of the United States. Furthermore, I understand that Bangladesh has a law to punish people who utter such words which hurt the sentiments of people. But does it apply to a Bangladeshi person who utters such words in the United States while visiting or living in that nation?

Dr Kamal Husain is a prominent jurist who should know the limits of such a law when it comes to freedom of speech. If the Bangladeshi government or the people muzzle any person who speaks against any ideology, religion, or any matter which causes discomfort to others, than why should anyone be able to speak against horrific terrorist organisations such as ISIS in the Middle East, and not be arrested and prosecuted?

Prof M Hoque Latif Siddiqui did not say anything prejudicial or against the state. His views on “a religion or a religious practice” are his personal views, and that also did not go too far to be underlined as a “direct” insult to Islam. Yes, the Hajj is a very costly undertaking for most Muslims living far away from Mecca; many of them do sell their lands to collect money for the voyage. It seems to me that PM Hasina’s AL-led government has been cowed down by Jamaati extremists.

Let me add one more comment: Recently, my niece’s husband went for Hajj. He died there – breathing difficulty was the cause, though he was fairly young. He should not have gone for Hajj in the first place. The environment there (at the time of Hajj) has never been good for most people, especially for the old, feeble, or those with breathing difficulties. I visited Mecca and Medina several times, and enjoyed the trips, but never during Hajj. A “ceremonial” visit to Mecca and Medina did not appeal to me much,

Environmental disaster

October 28

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 10 represents V so fill V every time the figure 10 appears.

You have two letters in the control grid to start you off. Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

As you get the letters, fill in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check off the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

to say the truth. Is “Hajj” (personal visit) relevant (compulsory) to Muslims of the world in this age and time? Those hungry children, dying on the streets of Dhaka, could have benefitted with the money spent on a Hajj!

KMAK Prof M Hoque: Here’s the thing. Latif Siddique does not have the right to represent us when he doesn’t share the values of the vast majority of Bangladeshis. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina and her late father, on numerous occasions, have said that no law which goes against Islam will be tolerated. As shown by a recent PEW survey, the vast majority of Bangladeshis do take religion seriously, as if we needed a survey to tell us that! It is in this context that Latif Siddique’s comments should be evaluated.

I certainly don’t want my tax money to support an individual who is against what I stand for.

Let me also address your comments about “Hajj”: “Is ‘Hajj’ (personal visit) relevant (compulsory) to Muslims of the world in this age and time?

Those hungry children, dying on the streets of Dhaka, could have benefitted with the money spent on a Hajj!

I don’t know if you are being tongue-incheek, but if you aren’t, then your comment is just another example of how irreligious, secular fundamentalists fail to understand the power of religion in people’s lives. Sure, the money one accumulates for Hajj could be donated to hungry children dying on Dhaka’s streets.

In fact, instead of buying a new car, a person could donate that money to the poor. Instead of taking out a mortgage, a person could invest his savings on the poor. Instead of going to the restaurant, a person could donate the money to the hungry. Instead of having a family and adding to the excessive population, a person could hold back from having kids and donate the money he would have otherwise spent on his own children to the poor. Instead of building a new power plant, the government could distribute the money to slum dwellers. It’s a nice slippery slope you have set up.

Let me also add that as far as “direct insult” to Islam is concerned, Latif Siddique said Muhammad (SAW) made up Hajj so that Arabs wouldn’t have to rob people for a living.

Ready for data October 28

Lisa Most of the people in Bangladesh do have access to more information than before. However, they need to be guided in the right way to learn how to use this to their benefit.

SUDOKU How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Serpent (3) 3 Autocrat (6) 8 Prophet (4) 9 Period of time (3) 10 Waver (6) 11 Commences (6) 14 Ostentatious display (5) 17 Capsize (5) 20 Steal livestock (6) 24 Trade by exchange (6) 26 Greek letter (3) 27 Incites (4) 28 Rest (6) 29 Firmament (3)

DOWN 1 Employer (4) 2 Continent (4) 3 Dexterous (4) 4 Efface (5) 5 Corolla leaf (5) 6 Metal-bearing rock (3) 7 Fortune telling card (5) 12 Spinning toy (3) 13 Cereal (3) 15 Long-leaved lettuce (3) 16 Afflict (3) 17 Dark dusky brown (5) 18 Fragment (5) 19 Woody plants (5) 21 Advise strongly (4) 22 Throw (4) 23 Whirlpool (4) 25 Consumed (3)

Move away, flag-stand cars are coming October 28 Mohdud Ul Huq “A garbage landfill in Buriganga River has grown so thick that it is being used as a parking space for scores of rickshaws in the capital’s Islambagh area.”

Where are our environmental ethics for Sonar Bangladesh?

Zero-Agenda It’s infuriating beyond belief whenever a flaggedup car thinks it’s okay to override the right of way of every other vehicle on the street. What’s worse is that it often feels like they deliberately take their sweet time to drive away!

2 Bangladeshis shot by BSF

CALVIN AND HOBBES

October 28

Srabon Hossain “BGB has sent a letter to the BSF members to hold a flag meeting in this connection, said the official.”

These two lives are gone. Then what do we do with a flag meeting? What does it matter?

Rafiqul Islam Yes, these are only two lives, but how many others have disappeared without a trace that were not publicised, and we know nothing of??

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

The final lesson October 26

PEANUTS

Farah Faiz Sija Good write up, informative as well. We also hope that the people will learn the value of integrity and stop being led by their emotions.

Virtuous economic growth requires virtuous policies October 27

Momoaswan And virtuous politicians, if there are any.

Ashwini pineapples poisoned for quick sales October 28

Anon Just in case you were thinking of buying them, think again!

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Monday, November 10, 2014

Business as usual? n Khawaza Main Uddin

T

Happily ever after?

BIGSTOCK

Marriage and the minister’s age

A

n Taslima Nasrin few days ago, I wrote on Twitter that my boyfriend was 20 years younger than me. The media went crazy over this piece of information. Previously, I had posted so many other things on Twitter – about receiving awards and an honorary doctorate, giving a keynote speech, and receiving a standing ovation. The media is not interested in such news at all. The media has always been extremely eager to learn more about my boyfriend or husband.

I was feeling a kind of joy after posting the news of my 20-years-youngerthan-me boyfriend on Twitter. Acting like men does not suit girls. So, I wanted to see what society said if I acted like a man, if I chose a companion who was younger than me. As usual, people got furious. On the other hand, beating me, the 67-year-old railway minister got married in a grand way to a girl who is almost 40 years younger than him.

Imagine the difference between 20 and 40 years! The younger guy is just my boyfriend. And the railway minister married the girl in a grand way by arranging a “gaye holud” ceremony, dressing up the bride with ornaments and a red Banarasi saree. He himself wore a turban.

Can a 67-year-old woman ever marry a 29-year-old guy in such a way?

Will anyone celebrate the marriage of an almost 70-year-old lady with a guy in his 20s the way men and

S

E

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women celebrated the wedding of the minister?

Many will say that if a guy is rich and powerful, then it is possible for him to marry a much younger girl.

My question is: Is it possible for a rich and powerful woman in Bangladesh to marry a much younger guy? It is not only impossible, but people would swear at her and call her a man-eating witch. They will isolate her. You never know, they might even slaughter her.

old man. But, people do object to it.

When a 67-year-old man gets married, he is applauded. When a 67-year-old woman does it, she is hated by society.

This is a minor example of the appalling discrimination between men and women.

Islam has gradually taken away the independence women had in pre-Islamic Arabia. 1,400 years ago, 40-yearold widowed Khadija, mother of many children, chose a 25-year-old man to

When a 67-year-old man gets married, he is applauded. When a 67-year-old woman does it, she is hated by society

Love doesn’t care about age. We know that an adult of any age can fall in love.

Then, why does the man have to be the older one in a romantic relationship? If love is the main basis of the relationship, then producing children might not be very important. Many people live together or get married on the condition that they won’t have children.

Recently, this agreement is becoming more and more popular. In that case, there is no scope for anyone to object to the love or marriage between a 67-year-old woman and a 29-year-

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marry – the Prophet. In the present Arabia, modern Khadijas don’t have the same opportunity or the courage to do so.

After her death, the Prophet got married almost a dozen times. He even married a girl who was 50 years younger than him. The disciples of the Prophet are following this incidence of him marrying someone younger at an older age. The Prophet also married a widower who was 15 years older than him. No “true” Muslim has an interest in following that.

I guess the railway minister will de-

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pend much on sildenafil citrate or Viagra. There is a limit to taking Viagra.

Viagra does not work on everybody.

It is prohibited for people with heart, kidney, and liver problems. Our railway minister will play with the body of a young lady. He will play, even though he might not be an expert, because he is a man. He has the right to play with whoever he wants. The entire world is a playground for men.

The girl will suffer. She will suffer from extreme depression. But she will be forced to stay captive in the man’s cage known as marriage. It is because she is a toy, a sex toy – a decoration piece.

She will probably be forced to act like she is happy, even though she is not. Most girls have to do this. They are not happy, but they pretend that they are. Or, they think that sadness, regret, and oppression are happiness, achievement, and independence. They have learned to think like that from childhood.

It is probably not possible anymore for most of them to learn something new, something that is completely opposite to what they have been taught.

What men have learned from their childhood is that they are the masters – the superiors. They know better and understand better. The society and the entire world exist for them. They will rule. They will consume. Most men refuse to learn anything that contradicts this. l Taslima Nasrin is a feminist writer and columnist currently in exile in India.

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he Internet has been established as an information regime which, some believe, makes it easy to violate people’s rights or allows corruption. For critics, however, it’s hard to imagine how the World Wide Web would guarantee transparency unless individual acts and their collective will are reflected in the functioning of institutions.

Every day, we receive phone calls from organised group members who try to exploit people financially and otherwise. Where are the law enforcement personnel to deal with those cheats?

Many serious allegations, to the extent of extortion and killing for ransom, are there against the protectors, and an increasing number of such cases are being exposed nowadays.

Last week, mastaans sought “monetary help” from an expatriate Bangladeshi at the Cox’s Bazar sea beach. Identifying themselves as powerful local boys, they even hurled abusive words at the older sister of the gentleman who came all the way from Canada.

During the recent Eid holidays, drivers were forced to pay Tk50 for each car near the Daulatdia ferry terminal and the “toll collectors” were not officials, but musclemen.

When commoners love to avoid law enforcers, it is the ruling party-backed Chhatra League or Jubo League men who play a dominant role, again, in tormenting the masses.

They are active in tender manipulation, the transfer and posting of doctors and engineers, campus violence, illegal businesses at the jail gates, smuggling, and illicit trade, among a variety of “voluntary services” to plunder national resources.

Lately, a curious housewife aboard a car saw a police constable clearing the road for the vehicle of what he termed a “League leader,” stopping all others on the street. We have no knowledge if the government introduced any protocols for the socalled student leaders, like the one offered to the prime minister, at the cost of traffic congestion.

It warrants investigation into how only the leaders of the governing party and their accomplices gain so much wealth – cash, flats, land, luxury cars, and business establishments – in such a short span of time, and that too so magically, without having any formal sources of income. The unwillingness of ministers and lawmakers to make wealth statements, in violation of their electoral pledge, indicates how honest they are.

As many look resigned to the system of corruption, opportunists argue that the people have accepted the flawed elections of January 5.

The obvious question then is: How much corruption is acceptable, and how long will it be sustainable for the nation?

Even after a series of scams in the banking sector, there is no end to embezzlement of public money. Culprits of the share market manipulation have gone unpunished.

Land-grabbing by members of

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parliament and leakage of public examination question papers are not considered crimes anymore. Who cares, as long as the people remain silent spectators?

How much corruption is acceptable, and how long will it be sustainable for the nation?

In fact, the agents of Digital Bangladesh have taught the citizens how to become tolerant of corruption and overlook misuse of power. It’s a great achievement for this government – anti-corruption campaign as a political issue has now become a foregone conclusion. A journalist friend tilted to the ruling camp said: “Who should we bring to book when all are our brothers and sisters?”

So generous! But that is not the case for ordinary citizens and political rivals. Youths are being subjected to detention simply for satirical remarks about national leaders. So, users of social media networking sites don’t dare to share news items that appear to be damaging for the corrupt clique, should the former want to live in the latter’s kingdom.

Moreover, corruption charges are being used as excuses to harass those who have dissenting views.

For example, the graft cases against the BNP leaders, no matter whether the charges are right or wrong, are inherently perceived as politicallymotivated, not aimed at upholding the rule of law.

Only the discarded members of the AL regime were summoned to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Still, no one believes the measure to be anything more than eyewash.

The names of AL stalwarts were removed from quite a number of corruption cases earlier, and the ACC declared some leaders innocent in cases like the Padma Bridge corruption scandal.

Tyrannical regimes usually shun the path of speaking loudly over issues of rights and good governance, rather than concentrating on development and security matters to justify their stay in power. But the current administration in Dhaka, despite its legitimacy crisis, is consistently showing its arrogance of power, apparently to dispel its stigma of corruption.

This attitude means corruption is a matter of right for the ruling party men. Therefore, their countrymen have to live with this system of misgovernance, or else they shall have to revolt against the tormentors to change the system. l Khawaza Main Uddin is Executive Editor at ICE Business Times.

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All those years ago n Towheed Feroze

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quarter of a century is a long time. In fact, it’s so long that for many, the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 is like a faded memory. In Bangladesh, that time holds special position because, in 1988, almost all of Dhaka city was submerged under flood water. Of course, the Berlin Wall resonated with us on the social side, but the priority was to survive with three-fourths of the city under water.

As 25 years of the tearing down of the barrier in Germany is commemorated, we feel compelled to resurrect images which may be a revelation for the current day young.

When I say Dhaka went under water, I mean the city literally was like a scene from the film Water-world. At that time, there were no side constructions at the entrance of Gulshan.

Roads in front of the Shooting Club were submerged under water, and several country boats were usually tied to long bamboo poles. These vessels transported people from the entry point to different areas inside Gulshan.

Vegetable vendors also went

around in hired boats. Large individual houses with gardens – symbols of affluence – were fully flooded, and a staggering variety of fish floated in from the Turag river. Those who wanted to enjoy the bright side of this sudden flood decided to bring out their fishing rods. Green Road, Farmgate, Indira Road plus almost all other places were under at least four to five feet of muddy water.

In Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall announced the demise of communism and the Iron Curtain, from which many democracy-seeking student leaders in Bangladesh took strength. Despite exhortations from the Romanian communist hardliner Ceausescu, Mikhail Gorbachev refused to send in troops to encounter the revolution of the public, united to tear down the wall of separation.

While the breaking down of the wall captured the imagination of the young, the flood, on the other hand, played a profound role in upending social dynamics. Many residents of Gulshan and Banani left their opulent homes to go and stay with relatives who lived in areas with modest middle-class tags.

For some odd reason, Elephant Road, Dhanmondi, and Azimpur remained dry since these areas are on higher lands.

Today, the celebration of the demolition of the tangible divide between capitalism and communism seems somewhat marred by the fear that Russia and the West are once again taking two starkly opposing sides over Ukraine.

I have also heard of reports that in recent times, there’s been a revival of Russian nationalism among the young with the rejection of Western consumer goods. Interestingly, back in 1988, when the wall was coming down, for many East German residents, the main motivation came from the lure of common capitalist products like Coke, jeans, Walkmans, burgers, and so on.

To talk of East Germany within the Bangladesh context, around that time, a rumour swirled around Dhaka city that with the support of the then East German envoy, a government official in Bangladesh was secretly sending out archaeological artifacts abroad.

Despite the flood water engulfing the capital, local leftists remained staunchly supportive of the wall.

Thinking back in retrospect, I feel that they could sense the end of the reign of the hammer and sickle.

In March that year, Jatiya Party, belonging to the then President HM Ershad, won the elections with a 68.44% majority. Curiously, only two years later, he resigned in the face of a mass public uprising. In December, Bangladesh was hit by the worst cyclone in 20 years. The whole country suffered.

As the winds of change swept across Europe, Bangladesh was seeing shifts in the attitudes of the general people. Irrespective of political ideology, the unanimous call was for the government to step down. Come to think of it, many words used at that time – Soviet Union, Cold War, Perestroika, Glasnost “Shoirachar” (autocrat), East-West ideological divide – are somewhat lost today. Or maybe, these words will re-emerge in a new form, and there will be a division once more.

With Russia now firmly taking assertive nationalistic stances in almost every issue, the rise of the Cold War period seems imminent. Can’t say if there will be a wall constructed, but a divide, even if it’s in the mind,

25 years since breaking the divide appears almost certain.

When the Berlin Wall was being constructed in 1961, an East German border guard named Conrad Schumann responded to what he believed to be the call of liberty from the West and jumped over the fence, a scene captured in camera to be used as propaganda for decades.

In the end, Schumann, living in freedom in West Germany,

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committed suicide. This makes one reflect deeply on the invisible divisions that are always in place.

In the commemoration of 25 years of the breaking down of the wall, we find resonance to our own social revolution which eventually brought down a regime in 1990. l Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

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Entertainment

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Monday, November 10, 2014

SHABNAM FARIA to be directed by SHAON

Mirror Mirror HBO, 5:20pm

An exiled princess tries to win her kingdom back from the evil queen.

After a beloved King vanishes, his ruthless wife seizes control of the kingdom.

Hemingway & Gellhorn

NADIA wins Lux Channel i Superstar title

HBO Defined, 6:05pm

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen star in this drama recounting the tumultuous relationship between Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn.

n Entertainment Desk Model and actor Shabnam Faria has recently finished shooting for a one-hour TV drama directed by Meher Afroz Shaon, titled “Onischit Meghder Jatra.” The drama is Shaon’s tribute to her late husband Humayun Ahmed on the occasion of his 66th birth anniversary.

In the drama, Faria plays the role of Anju, whose marital journey is the focus of the story. The TV play has been filmed in Munshiganj.

The play will be aired on Channel i on Humayun’s birthday, on November 13. l

Naseeruddin Shah might write a book for young actors

Patronage demanded for animation industry

n Entertainment Desk Naseeruddin Shah says he might write a handbook for training young actors.

The “Finding Fanny” star, who attended an event to celebrate the success of his book “And Then One Day - A Memoir,” said training given to amateur actors in India is wrong and harmful.

“I have wanted to write a handbook for training of actors... I am not good at writing fiction. So, I probably stick to non-fiction. My book will be on how to train yourself as an actor.

“Because most of the training given to actors in India I think is quite wrong and some of it is very harmful. I have seen a lot of acting schools in Delhi and Mumbai, and the way they conduct their classes. I don’t agree with that way of training actors,” he said.

Asked if he is also planning to write the second part of his autobiography, the 64-year-old actor said, “I don’t think I will write the second part because the most interesting part of my life I had already written. I don’t think the remaining days are so interesting to write about.” l

n Entertainment Desk Speakers at a seminar yesterday urged the government to patronise and provide aid for the animation industry in order to produce world-class animated movies and dramas.

Hailing the recent progress of animated movies, they called on animators and film industry stakeholder to concentrate more on animated movies and dramas.

The call came at a seminar styled “Prospects of Animation in Bangladeshi Film Industry” was organised by Dhaka University Film Society at the university’s Senate Building yesterday.

Addressing the seminar, Rezaul Karim, former di-

rector of BTV’s design section and the country’s first animator, said animated movies have a large audience around the world nowadays.

“Hollywood is gradually thriving on animation movies but we still lag behind in this category. Proper supervision and patronage from the government could play a pivotal role in the advancement of the animation industry,” he said.

Underscoring the importance of animated works in creating mass awareness, prominent cartoonist Ahasan Habib said animation movies can not only be the source of entertainment but can also spread knowledge and awareness.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the present state of animation movies in the country and stressed effective measures for its development.

Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu said animation can provide similar pictures of substantial facts which cannot be captured in films.

He directed the Department of Television and Film Industry at Dhaka University to include courses on animation technologies to help students gain good knowledge of animation movies, dramas and arts.

He also assured of allocating adequate budget from his ministry for the advancement of the animation industry.

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique also emphasised on animation products to obliterate social ignorance and obstacles.

Among others, professor of DU Graphic Design Department Anupom Huda, Dr Shafiul Alam Bhuyaan, chairperson of Television and Film Studies Department, Nadia Sadmani, director of Golden Harvest Agro Industries Limited, animators, filmmakers, the president and secretary general of the DUFS attended the seminar.

An award giving ceremony was also held at the end of the seminar where several children were given prizes.

The DUFS have been arranging festivals of animated films since 2005. At this year’s festival from November 3 to 7, at least 20 world famous animated movies were screened. l

Jacqueline Fernandes to learn Bharatanatyam

10,000 BC

Movies Now, 9:30pm

KHAN HASAN MD RAFI

n Entertainment Desk

Nadia won the title of “Lux Channel i Superstar 2014” at the grand finale of the competition held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on Saturday. She also won the coveted title of “Beautiful Smile” in the competition.

As the winner of the title, she received a prize money of Tk10 lakh and a car. The first runner-up, Nazifa Anjum, and second runner-up, Nilangona Nila, received Tk5 lakh and Tk3 lakh, respectively. The other two finalists were Shupriya Shabnam and Fahmida Tasneem.

The grand finale’s judge panel comprised Aly Zaker, Shakila Zafar, Aupee Karim, Nobel and Tahsan. The highlights of the event was James, the rock icon of the country, who graced the stage and performed his hit numbers before the result. Besides, a dazzling dance number was performed by Shokh, Mehjabin and Nusrat Faria. l

Mim to celebrate birthday at home n Entertainment Desk Model and actor Bidya Sinha Mim will be celebrating her birthday today at her home, as she believes this is the only day she can take a break from her schedule to stay home and relax.

“It has been quite a long time since I took time off for myself. I prefer to comfort myself by relaxing at home. Moreover, I appreciate all the blessings and love from my friends and fans,” Mim told the Dhaka Tribune.

Mim has been busy working in a film titled “Sweetheart,” pairing up with Bappy. She will also be seen in Tania Ahmed’s upcoming flick “Good Morning London.” Starting on November 20, Mim will be working in Anjan Dutt’s “Mon Baksh.” This year has been one of the most successful one’s for Mim, with Khalid Mahmud Mithu’s “Jonakir Alo” and Mostofa Kamal Raj’s “Tarkaata,” her back-toback hits. l

Harry Belafonte handed honorary Oscar

n Entertainment Desk Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez, who currently has four films in her kitty, is reportedly set to learn Bharatanatyam for a new film, which is believed to be directed by Remo D’Souza.

Apparently, the actor is set to sign the film in the next two weeks. “Jacqueline and Remo will meet soon, but the official announcement is planned for December. She has already been briefed about her character and the film, and has shown interest in being a part of the project. Tiger Shroff will be her costar,” adds the source.

Jacqueline is currently in Canada, shooting for an international film. “Once she’s back, she will begin classes with a dance teacher from the south. They will practise at her house. Remo wants her to perfect her skills before the shooting. Jacqueline, who already knows Kathak, wants to give this her best shot, since Tiger is a good dancer,” says a source close to her.

Jacqueline admits that she will be taking classes, but she won’t reveal which movie it’s for. “Yes, I’ll be training in Bharatanatyam for a movie that I can’t talk about at the moment. Learning Bharatanatyam is a whole new ball game. I look forward to it,” she says. l

D’Leh, a mammoth hunter, fall in love with the beautiful Evolet. A band of mysterious horse-riders raid their camp and kidnap Evolet.

n Entertainment Desk Octogenarian actor and singer Harry Belafonte, accepting a top Hollywood human rights award, asked fellow artists and the entertainment industry to use their powerful platform to show the better side of humanity.

Before a star-studded audience and next to a long-time friend, actor Sidney Poitier, the 87-year-old Belafonte received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his lifelong fight for civil rights and humanitarian causes.

Honorary Oscars were also bestowed upon three prolific

artists and creators who deeply influenced Hollywood: Irish actress Maureen O’Hara, who appeared on stage at 94, Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, 73, and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, 83.

The Academy’s Governors Awards gala has become the kick-off to the film awards season, bringing some of the most powerful people in Hollywood under the same roof, gathering stars from a dozen films with potential to win Oscars in February.

“To be rewarded by my peers for my work, human rights, civil rights, peace, let me put it this way: It powerfully mutes the enemy’s thunder,” said Belafonte.

He called artists “the relevant voice of civilisation” and hoped they would help the world “see the better side of who and what we are as a species”.

The Harlem-born Belafonte started out his speech remembering how Hollywood films like “Tarzan” and “Song of the South” fostered the racial divide in America and gave him an “early stimulus to the beginning of my rebellion.”

“Today’s cultural harvest yields a sweeter fruit,” he noted, pointing to films like the gay love story “Brokeback Mountain” and Oscar best picture “12 Years a Slave.”

“All of this is happening at the dawning of technological creations that will give artists boundless regions of possibilities to give us deeper insights into the human existence,” Belafonte added.

Belafonte worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr in the civil rights movement, fought against AIDS in Africa, volunteered as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for decades and now works on gang violence in American cities. l

Did you know?

Mahela Jayawardene has become the fifth player to score 12,000 ODI runs (after Tendulkar, Ponting, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara)

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into top half, Spurs beaten

Monday, November 10, 2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

15 Tense win gives

15 Ton-up

Australia home T20 series

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Shehzad flays New Zealand

Imrul aims to utilise call-up n Tribune Desk Imrul Kayes eyes to make the most out of his call-up in the Test squad as the home side are targeting a clean sweep in the three-match series against Zimbabwe. The Bangladeshi top-order batsman replaced Shamsur Rahman for the third Test in Chittagong who lost his place after scoring only 33 runs across four innings.

The 27-year-old was a playing member in Bangladesh’s tour of West Indies in September before he suffered from skin disease and returned home after playing the ODI series and the first match of the two-Test series.

“There is only one option – I have to play good cricket and if I don’t I can’t stay here. I have to utilise the opportunity as I think this is the best possible chance for me,” Imrul said after finishing their practice session at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.

He admitted the frustration of going in and out of the national side and also said it is difficult for a cricketer to make a comeback as fierce competition makes it very tough for them.

Another opening batsman Anamul Haque was included in the Tigers

Siddikur finishes Panasonic India Open in joint fifth n Tribune Desk Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman ended his Panasonic India Open campaign in joint fifth place following the conclusion of the final round at Delhi Golf Club yesterday.

Siddikur hit a par score of 72 in round four to post an overall score of 10-under-par 278, trailing eventual champion SSP Chowrasia of India by two shots.

Another Bangladeshi golfer, Zamal Hossain, finished in joint 25th, tied with two other golfers.

Siddikur struck four birdies against the same number of bogeys while Zamal smashed four birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey in the 9th hole ensured the latter did not finish on a much higher position.

Chowrasia claimed the $300,000 championship after blasting a remarkable six-under-par 66 in the final round. Chowrasia pocketed $54,000 after his title win. Siddikur, meanwhile, earned $10,280 while Zamal received $2820. l

squad in the second Test but was kept away from any action. Both Imrul and Anamul were part of the BCB XI that recently played in an invitational tournament in India and it will be interesting to see who the Tigers think tank opts for beside Tamim Iqbal.

“I last played Test cricket at St Vincent after that I got sick. I scored some runs and a century in India (playing for BCB XI in SK Acharya Memorial) but then again it was limited overs cricket which won’t do me any good here. I have been in and out of the squad and I have to adjust that,” said the left-handed batsman who also informed of being comfortable batting in any position.

He continued by saying that there is nothing more important for a batsman than scoring heavily to have a secure place in team. “One person can’t stay at one place for a long time. I think if someone plays well here he should be able to continue that. I think the only way one can establish their spot is if they continue playing well here.”

Win in both the Tests in Dhaka and Khulna ensured Bangladesh a Test series victory since 2009 and the first at home since 2005. Imrul believes the side is boosted with the performance and they will definitely go for the kill. l

Bangladesh openers Imrul Kayes (L) and Anamul Haque (2R) are engaged in a conversation while paceman Shahadat Hossain (2L) is going through the paces alongside fast bowling coach Heath Streak during training in Chittagong yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Jacko wants to improve boxers’ plight n Raihan Mahmood Two-time world lightweight kick-boxing champion Ali Jacko wholeheartedly wants to promote boxing and craves for full assistance from the government and the boxing federation in order to realise his aspiration.

Although he was born in East End, London, the 1996 and 2000 world champion has his roots at Chatak in Sylhet and speaks Bengali in his native Sylheti accent.

He has been trying to contribute to the game for a long time but is still exploring ways as to how he can stamp his mark on the sport. The twotime world champion met the Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Arif Khan Joy yesterday and expressed his desire.

“I want to contribute in the boxing arena. I have went through the top level of the game and my heart beats toward contributing in boxing. I just want support from the government and other concerned authorities,” said Jacko whose original name is Abdul Ali. Ali directly approached the general secretary of the boxing federation,

MA Quddus Khan. “My dear, you have the SA Games ahead of you and I assure you that the games-bound boxers will get advanced training ahead of the games. All you have to do is send them to England. I hope you will take the necessary steps,” said Ali who men-

tioned that he paved the way for Indian boxer Vijender Singh to advanced training.

Jacko, however, looked frustrated with the complexities of the system.

“Everything seems to be a critical one.

I want it simple and straightforward. I

am willing to help, I am not willing to face complexities,” said the boxer who also expressed his interest of meeting the president of the Bangladesh Olympic Association.

The world champion though stated his unhappiness with the training facilities of the Bangladesh boxers. “In fact, the boxing gymnasium is a bit different from the normal gym. I will send the Focus Mitts, the Speed Bag, the Double End Bag. It will help the boxers to develop their skills,” he said. Jacko also prescribed some changes to the federation and told them to build a drawer under the ring to keep the kits of the boxers there.

Jacko went on to say the current standard of the local boxers is disappointing. “This is not unrealistic. The boxers hardly get international exposure and the training facilities are not up to the international level. How can you expect the boxers to perform at the top level? Boxing requires systematic and scientific approaches,” he said before adding, “I love this country. I want to help boxing. I hope to see some Bangladesh boxers bringing laurels for the country in the future.” l

Ermin Siljak yearns to coach booters n Shishir Hoque Former Slovenian international footballer Ermin Siljak showed interest in taking up the place of head coach of the Bangladesh national football team, the position which is currently vacant after the departure of Lodewijk de Kruif in October.

The 41-year-old Slovenian coach, along with three officials of Slovenian Embassy of Bangladesh, visited Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday and talked to the federation president Kazi Salahuddin. He also provided his CV (curriculum vitae) to the BFF chief and expressed his interest to become the new head coach of Bangladesh.

“They know that Bangladesh is a growing football nation and they showed their interest to work with Bangladesh football and consequently they came here to see if there is any job possibility,” said Salahuddin yesterday.

“The CV seems all right to me. We have time to think about it. This time we will be more careful before appointing a new coach,” he added.

Ermin is a Uefa pro-license holder and has coached only one Slovenian premier league club named Olimpija in 2012.l

Women vow to reach Saff final

BHF mulls SAARC School Hockey n Raihan Mahmood n Shishir Hoque

Chelsea FC Supporters Club Bangladesh (CFCSCB) arranged a get-together and live screening of the English Premier League clash between Chelsea and Liverpool at a city restaurant on Saturday. The Banglablues dedicated Chelsea’s 2-1 win to Shahriar Azad Orvin, one of the founding members of Chelsea Supporters Club Bangladesh, who passed away on October 17, 2014, in a tragic accident COURTESY

Bangladesh Hockey Federation looks forward to host the SAARC School Hockey next year in Dhaka, revealed federation general secretary Khwaja Rahmatullah.

Rahmatullah shared the interest with his sub-continental counterparts during the Congress of International Hockey Federation in Morocco and said they all responded “positively though he was not able to talk to Narinder Batra, the president of Hockey India as his son died in a tragic incident during the Congress.”

“I talked with the CEO and the response was positive, we want to provide the school level players an international exposure and we want to host the tournament next year though we are yet to decide the date,” said Rahmatullah.

Reacting to the appointment of the foreign coach Rahmatullah said at the moment they are still waiting for Ajay Kumar Bansal for a short stint while “We have asked Leandre Negre, the president of FIH for providing a coach We have also written to Norman Hughes, the development manager of European Hockey Federation.”

Rahmatullah said they are willing to pay a purse of $2000 per month along with accommodation, transport and food for a foreign coach. l

Bangladesh women’s football team vowed to give their best in the third edition of the Saff Women’s Championship 2014, scheduled to begin tomorrow in Islamabad.

A 29-member Bangladesh women’s football contingent including 20 players will leave here for Pakistan today to take part in the nine-day event. A physiotherapist, however, is missing from the 29-strong member list.

Although the tournament will get underway tomorrow, fixtures and groupings have not been drawn up yet.

The organisers are hopeful of holding the draw ceremony today.

Bangladesh began their preparation for the regional women’s football competition under Japanese coach Norio Tsukitate on October 4. Following one month and five days of training, the Japanese coach was confident of exhibiting their full potential. This is the first time the national women’s football team will be guided by a foreign coach in a tournament.

“I tried my best in training. Our job is to try and do our best on the pitch. I don’t want to lose and I want to finish as champions,” said the Japanese coach in a press conference at the BFF House yesterday.

Skipper Suinu pru Marma said they are targeting reaching the final.

“Our first target is to reach the final.

This time we had the best preparation camp. Fitness and practise was also better than before. We prepared ourselves in order to get success in Pakistan,” said Marma before adding, “We had problems in finishing before. Now we have improved a lot. This team are better than the one in the previous Saff Championship in Sri Lanka and better in every department.”

Out of the 20 footballers, six youngsters have been drafted from the national Under-16 squad that participated in the AFC U-16 2015 Women’s Championship Qualifiers and put in some impressive displays despite narrowly failing to make it to the final round.

Norio will be accompanied by three more coaches in the tour – assistant coach Golam Robbani Choton, goalkeeping coach Mahbubur Rahman Litu and Sukur Mohammad Totam while Aysha Zaman is the team manager. l

(L-R) National women footballers Sabina Khatun and captain Suinu pru Marma, Bangladesh Football Federation women’s wing president Mahfuza Akter Kiron and Japanese head coach Norio Tsukitate briefed the media in a press conference in Arambagh yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Sport

Monday, November 10, 2014

Bale on target as Real remain top n AFP, Madrid Gareth Bale scored on his return to the Real Madrid starting line-up for the first time in a month as the European champions beat Rayo Vallecano 5-1 on

Saturday.

Barcelona remain just two points behind the league leaders thanks to two assists from Luis Suarez as they came from behind to snap a two-game losing streak in La Liga with a 2-1 win at Almeria.

Bale took just nine minutes to make his mark as he slid in to turn home Toni Kroos’s low cross before Sergio Ramos’s fortunate looping effort doubled Madrid’s lead.

An awful attempted backpass from James Rodriguez gave Rayo hope just before half-time as Alberto Bueno reduced the arrears, but Kroos restored the hosts’ two-goal advantage with his first goal for the club.

Karim Benzema added a dubious fourth despite being clearly in an offside position before Cristiano Ronaldo registered his 23rd goal of the season thanks to some generous goalkeeping from Cristian Alvarez.

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti reserved special praise for the impact Kroos is having in his first season in the Spanish capital.

“Kroos was the best player on the pitch. He scored for the first time and he has surprised me for how consistently he is performing at a very high level.”

A pelvic muscle injury had kept Bale on the sidelines for five games prior to his return as a second-half substitute against Liverpool in midweek, and there were positive signs for Welsh boss Chris Coleman as he looked back to his best ahead of his country’s Euro 2016 qualifiers against Belgium and Israel.

Bale was on hand to prod home the opener from close range after a neat one-two between Kroos and Ronaldo.

Ronaldo then uncharacteristically blazed over from inside the area and Alvarez did well to turn a curling effort from Rodriguez wide.

Moyes to take over Sociedad: reports n AFP, Madrid Former Manchester United manager David Moyes is set to make a return to football with La Liga strugglers Real Sociedad, various Spanish media sources reported on Sunday.

Moyes was sacked in April after less than a season in charge of United as they failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1995.

The Basques have been looking for a new boss since Jagoba Arrasate was sacked last weekend after just one win in their opening 10 league games.

Reports suggest that an official announcement will not be made until after Sociedad’s clash at home to La Liga champions Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

Sociedad have a history of appointing British managers as John Toshack enjoyed three spells as boss in San Sebastian, whilst current Wales manager Chris Coleman had an illfated six months in charge in the 200708 season. l

However, from the resulting corner Ramos made it 2-0 when the ball fortunately ricocheted off his thigh into the top corner.

Rayo were gifted a reward for their neat possession football two minutes before the break, though, as Rodriguez passed the ball straight to Leo Baptistao and the on-loan Atletico Madrid striker squared for Bueno to slot into an empty net.

Baptistao thought he had brought Rayo level 10 minutes into the second period, but the goal was ruled out for a marginal offside call and within seconds Madrid had put the game to bed.

Ronaldo cut the ball back for Kroos 25 yards from goal and the German

RESULTS Getafe

0-0

Elche

Real Madrid

5-1

Rayo Vallecano

Bale 9, Ramos 40, Kroos 55, Benzema 59, Ronaldo 83

Malaga

2-1

Juanmi 52, Amrabat 89

Celta Vigo

0-0

Unbeaten Boateng claims new German league record n AFP, Berlin

Bueno 44

Eibar Arruabarrena 42

Granada

World Cup winner bent home his first goal for the club with a low precise finish.

Four minutes later it was 4-1 as Benzema turned home Ronaldo’s miscued shot and this time the goal did stand despite the Frenchman being clearly in an offside position.

Bale was denied a sensational second of the night when Alvarez turned his thunderous volley onto the bar, but the ‘keeper undid his good work when he allowed Ronaldo’s weak effort through his body to round off a 13th consecutive victory in all competitions for Madrid.

Barca were bailed out by a superb second-half performance by Suarez after he and Neymar had been left on the bench by boss Luis Enrique as he made five changes from the side that defeated Ajax 2-0 in midweek. l

Real Madrid’s French forward Karim Benzema (L) celebrates his side’s fourth goal with Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo during their Spanish league match against Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on Saturday AFP

Newcastle into top half, Spurs beaten n AFP, London Newcastle United’s impressive revival continued as they climbed into seventh place in the English Premier League table with a 2-0 win away to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.

Goals from Ayoze Perez and Fabricio Coloccini at The Hawthorns saw northeast side Newcastle, who struggled at the start of the season, extend their unbeaten league run to five straight games -- a sequence that now includes four successive victories.

Perez put Newcastle ahead on the stroke of half-time when, from 12 yards out, he skilfully backheeled in Daryl Janmaat’s cross.

Janmaat was again the provider as Newcastle doubled their lead in the 62nd minute.

The full-back’s cross was not properly cleared and Newcastle captain Coloccini found space in the box to head home as manager Alan Pardew’s men tightened their grip on the game.

Elsewhere, Stoke City also moved up into the top half of the table with a 2-1 victory away to Tottenham Hotspur that

ended the north London club’s run of three straight wins in all competitions.

Former Barcelona star Bojan Krkic scored his first Premier League goal in fine style to give Stoke a sixth-minute lead at White Hart Lane when he cut inside from the left wing and ran at the retreating Spurs back four before unleashing a hard, low shot into the corner.

Stoke were 2-0 up in the 33rd minute when, after a poor clearance by Spurs’s Danny Rose, Mame Diouf burst into the area and squared the ball to Jonathan Walters, who finished with his left foot.

Tottenham pulled a goal back in the 77th minute when Nacer Chadli met Rose’s cross wih a powerful finish.

But hopes Mauricio Pochettino’s side might manage a draw were dented when they had to play the final five minutes down to 10 men after defender Kyle Naughton was sent off for a crude foul on Victor Moses.

Sunday’s other early kick-off match in the English top flight saw Sunderland and Everton share the points in a 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light.

Free-kick specialist Seb Larsson broke the deadlock in the 67th minute, although the Swede bent his shot

past Tim Howard through a huge gap in Everton’s defensive wall. But Everton were level in under 10 minutes when Seamus Coleman was brought down in box by Connor Wickham.

Leighton Baines missed his first penalty in the top flight at Old Trafford

RESULTS Sunderland

1-1

Everton

Larsson 67

Tottenham

Baines 76-P

1-2

Stoke

Chadli 77

West Brom

Bojan 6, Walters 33

0-2

Newcastle

Perez 45, Coloccini 62

On Saturday QPR Austin 21, Demichelis 76-og

2-2

Man City Aguero 32, 83

last month and was lucky not to be denied on this occasion when Sunderland goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon dived over his scuffed spot-kick down the middle.

Everton’s pleasure in gaining a draw would have been tempered by the sight of midfielder Gareth Barry being carried off on a stretcher with what ap-

peared to be an ankle injury.

Arsenal will go into the top four if they avoid defeat away to Swansea in Sunday’s late kick-off match.

Sergio Aguero spared Manchester City another embarrassing defeat as the Argentine striker's late equaliser salvaged a 2-2 draw against QPR on Saturday.

Aguero netted his second goal of a dramatic encounter with just three minutes left at rain-lashed Loftus Road, but this was another alarmingly sloppy display from the struggling Premier League champions.

Manuel Pellegrini's team were well below their best again just three days after suffering a shock home defeat against CSKA Moscow that left them in danger of elimination from the Champions League.

Charlie Austin had given QPR a deserved early lead and it needed an Aguero equaliser tinged with controversy to level the score before half-time.

A Martin Demichelis own goal in the closing stages put second bottom QPR back in front, but Aguero remains the one bright spot in a difficult campaign for City and he came to their rescue in the final moments. l

7-star Juve thrash Parma n Reuters, Milan Carlos Tevez scored a solo goal with a run which started inside his own half to cap a emphatic 7-0 win for Serie A leaders Juventus over hapless Parma on Sunday.

Tevez, Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Morata all scored twice and Stephan Lichtsteiner was also on target as Juve won their 24th successive home league match.

Juve, who enjoyed their biggest Serie A win since they beat Ascoli by the same score 29 years ago, were already 3-0 ahead when Tevez produced his masterpiece just after the break.

The Argentine, recently recalled by his country after a three-year absence, collected the ball, turned and surged away from Andrea Costa, then evaded two more challenges before side-footing past Antonio Mirante after a 70-metre sprint.

Juventus lead the standings with 28 points from 11 games while Roberto Donadoni’s Parma are bottom with six points after their heaviest-ever Serie A defeat.

Palermo were awarded two penal-

Jeers turn to tears for Sagnol’s Bordeaux n AFP, Paris

Everton defender Leighton Baines shoots to score from the spot during their English Premier League match against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, northeast England yesterday AFP

In a week he faced claims of racism, Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol was moved to tears in Ligue 1 on Saturday when African striker Cheick Diabate hugged him after sealing a 2-1 win at Lens.

The victory lifts Bordeaux to third position, level on 24 points with second-placed Paris Saint-Germain but trailing on goal difference, while PSG host Ligue 1 leaders Marseille on Sunday.

Sagnol had been forced to apologise this week after appearing to suggest African players may be lacking in “discipline” and “intelligence” in a newspaper interview.

The former French international was also mercilessly whistled by home fans as he walked onto the Lens pitch.

So when 26-year-old Malian striker Diabate scored Bordeaux’s second goal just before half-time and ran over to hug Sagnol, the gesture left the coach

Germany defender Jerome Boateng set a new Bundesliga record on Saturday in Bayern Munich’s 4-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt to go 50 German league matches unbeaten.

The 26-year-old centre-back eclipsed Bayern team-mate Franck Ribery, who had the previous record of 49, and his last league defeat came in Munich’s 2-1 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in October 2012.

Boateng’s Germany team-mate Thomas Mueller claimed a hat-trick in Bayern’s romp in Frankfurt which left the defending champions seven-points clear at the top of the Bundesliga table.

Boateng has missed only three matches this season in all competitions and was rested for last season’s Bundesliga defeats, when Bayern did the league and cup double, at Augsburg and at home to Borussia Dortmund. l

wiping tears from his eyes.

Wahbi Khazri opened Bordeaux’s account with a powerful shot on 24 minutes before Diabate rounded the ‘keeper to double the tally on 41 minutes.

A Yoann Touzghar penalty gave Lens hope and brought the score back to 2-1 with 15 minutes to play, setting up a nervy closing spell.l

RESULTS Lens

1-2

Touzghar 74-P

Caen

1-2

Duhamel 23

Evian

Bordeaux Khazri 24, Diabate 41

Nantes Vizcarrondo 40, Veretout 60

1-0

Nice

3-0

Metz

2-0

Montpellier

Wass 76

Toulouse Sirieix 3, Pesic 71, Ben Yedder 61

Bastia Tallo 21, 45+1

ties, the first converted by Paulo Dybala and the second missed by Franco Vazquez, in a 1-1 draw at home to Udinese, who took an early lead through Cyril Thereau.

Chievo beat Cesena 2-1 to give coach Rolando Maran his first win and lowly Empoli surprised Lazio 2-1. l

RESULTS Cagliari

1-1

Farias 16

Chievo

2-1

Pellissier 48, 90

Empoli

Cesena Djuric 88

2-1

Barba 52, Maccarone 55

Juventus

Genoa Rossettini 53-og

Lazio Djordjevic 66

7-0

Parma

Llorente 23, 36, Lichsteiner 29, Tevez 49, 58, Morata 76, 88

Palermo

1-1

Dybala 42-P

Udinese Thereau 5

On Saturday Sassuolo

0-0

Sampdoria

2-2

Okaka 45+1, Eder 51

Atalanta AC Milan El Shaarawy 9, Menez 65

Hodgson backs Rooney to break Shilton record n AFP, London England manager Roy Hodgson has tipped Wayne Rooney to surpass Peter Shilton as his country’s most capped footballer ahead of the striker’s 100th international appearance against Slovenia next weekend.

The Manchester United forward will become the ninth player to reach the milestone after Shilton, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Bobby Moore, Ashley Cole, Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard and Billy Wright. Rooney will then require a further 26 caps to overtake goalkeeping great Shilton, but with the former Everton player having only turned 29 last month, Hodgson feels it is only a matter of time before he does so.

“If we are generous and give him another five years, which is not beyond the bounds of possibility, he should beat Peter’s record,” Hodgson told journalists during a briefing at a London hotel this week.l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

QUICK BYTES

AUS v SA, 3RD T20I South Africa Q. De Kock c Dunk b Cummins R. Hendricks b Bollinger R. Rossouw c Abbott b Boyce D. Miller not out F. Behardien c Abbott b Faulkner J.P. Duminy c Maxwell b Faulkner D. Wiese c Dunk b Faulkner R. Peterson not out Extras (b1, lb1, w1)

Arambagh clinch Max Group U-10-12 Football title Arambagh Football Academy emerged as the champions of the Max Group Under-10-12 Football Festival 2014 after beating Bangladesh Sporting Club 1-0 in the final at the BFF artificial turf yesterday. Rahim of Arambagh netted the all-important goal and was adjudged the most valuable player of the match. Arambagh earlier defeated Tota Sporting Club 2-1 in the quarterfinal and then edged past Asaduzzaman Football Academy 1-0 in the last four while Bangladesh SC outplayed Farhad Srmity Football Academy 5-3 in the other semifinal. Deputy Minister for Sports and Youth Arif Khan Joy distributed the prizes among the winners as the chief guest.

–Tribune Desk

Total (6 wickets, 20 overs)

Morocco rejects Cup hosting over Ebola Morocco has refused to host January’s African Nations Cup soccer finals amid fears over the spread of the Ebola virus, throwing the 2015 tournament into jeopardy on Saturday. The country, which had already said it wanted the 16-team event postponed, rejected an ultimatum set by the Confederation of African Football to confirm the hosting of the continental championship due to take place Jan. 17-Feb. 8. A statement from Morocco’s sports ministry said: “The decision is dictated by health reasons because of the serious threat of Ebola and the risk of its spreading.” A decision on the tournament will now be made next week when CAF has an executive committee meeting in Cairo but Morocco will almost certainly be stripped as hosts.

–Reuters

Trabzonspor sack coach Halilhodzic Turkish side Trabzonspor have fired coach Vahid Halilhodzic after a string of disappointing results, the club announced. The 61-year-old Bosnian had taken charge in July after signing a two year contract -- worth 3.3 million euros ($4.5 million). This was his second spell at the club as he had coached Trabzonspor in 2005-2006. The Black Sea club said in a statement on its website on Saturday that Halilhodzic’s “contract was terminated by mutual agreement” without giving further details. “We thank Vahid Halilhodzic for his services, understanding and devotion and wish him well for the future,” it said.

–AFP

Two-touch Hart gets lucky let-off at QPR Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart received an unusual let-off when a little-known rule denied Queens Park Rangers a goal in the teams’ Premier League clash on Saturday. With the score 0-0 in the game at Loftus Road, City were awarded a free-kick inside their own penalty area after QPR striker Charlie Austin had seen a header ruled out for offside. Hart slipped on the greasy pitch as he took the free-kick, nudging the ball forward with his standing foot and then toeing it straight to Austin, who gobbled up the invitation by slamming a low shot into the net.

–AFP

DAY’S WATCH Ten Cricket 12:00PM Pakistan v New Zealand 1st Test, Day 2

Sony Six 4:30PM World Kabaddi League

48 49 4 34 1 2 0 4 3 145

Fall of wickets 1-75, 2-88, 3-117, 4-122, 5-133, 6-134 Bowling Bollinger 4-0-28-1, Maxwell 4-0-24-0, Faulkner 4-0-28-3, Abbott 1-0-14-0, Boyce 3-0-26-1, Cummins 4-0-23-1 Australia A. Finch c de Lange b Wiese 33 B. Dunk c and b Peterson 14 S. Watson c Miller b Peterson 5 N. Maddinson b Wiese 4 G. Maxwell c Hendricks b Peterson 23 C. White not out 41 J. Faulkner c Miller b De Lange 9 P. Cummins c and b Wiese 3 S. Abbott lbw b Abbott 5 C. Boyce not out 1 Extras (w8) 8 Total (8 wickets; 19.5 overs) 146

Bayern lack real rivals in Germany: Heynckes Jupp Heynckes, who steered Bayern Munich to the 2013 Champions League title, says Pep Guardiola’s unbeaten Bavarian giants have no real competition for this season’s Bundesliga title.

The 69-year-old Heynckes coached Bayern to their fifth European title in May 2013 when they enjoyed a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley and went on to become the first German team to win the treble of league, cup and Champions League titles.

Guardiola took over from Heynckes for the start of the 2013/14 season, winning the Bundesliga title with a record seven matches remaining. Before Sunday’s matches, Bayern opened a seven-point lead at the top of the table with a 4-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Heynckes says the Bavarians are peerless in Germany as nearest rivals Borussia Moenchengladbach and Wolfsburg lack the experience to launch a serious challenge.

–AFP

15

Monday, November 10, 2014

Australia celebrate their three-match Twenty20 international series win over South Africa at ANZ Stadium in Sydney yesterday. The Aussies won the third T20I to take the series 2-1 AFP

Fall of wickets 1-40, 2-53, 3-61, 4-62, 5-100, 6-125, 7-135, 8-144 Bowling Abbott 3.5-0-20-1, De Lange 4-0-34-1 (1w), Parnell 4-0-43-0 (1w), Wiese 4-021-3 (2w), Peterson 4-0-28-3 (1w) Australia won by 2 wickets and take series 2-1

Tense win gives Australia home T20 series n AFP, Sydney Australia won a thrilling final Twenty20 international against South Africa by two wickets with one ball to spare to take the series in Sydney on Sunday.

Cameron White steered the Australians home with an unbeaten 41 off 31 balls to pip the Proteas in a tense decider at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

The Australians had restricted the South Africans to 145 for six off their 20 overs after winning the toss, but needed 19.5 overs to get the winning run off White.

Australia took the series 2-1 after losing the opening game in Adelaide by

seven wickets then claiming the next in Melbourne by seven wickets and winning in Sydney.

White’s composed knock got the Australians over the line after South Africa’s five bowlers had threatened to pull off a gritty victory as wickets tumbled.

“Credit to our bowlers again, chasing 140-odd on that wicket you would be pretty comfortable most times so I’m just glad we got over the line at the end,” said man-of-the-match White.

“I thought we bowled well at the back end of their innings and it’s nice to be making runs so that’s my job and keep doing it hopefully.”

Giant all-rounder David Wiese cap-

tured three for 21 and spinner Robin Peterson took three for 28 to lead the South African attack.

The Australians began briskly, with skipper Aaron Finch clubbing two sixes in his 33 off 25 balls and Glenn Maxwell hitting a typical improvised 23 off 15 balls.

But the wickets kept falling and giving the South Africans a sniff of victory.

The Australians needed 41 runs off the last 36 balls as White masterfully shepherded the strike to keep the scoring rate ticking over.

Proteas skipper J.P. Duminy declined to bowl his off-spinners and relied on his contingent of five main bowlers, but paceman Wayne Parnell

proved particularly expensive and went wicketless for 43 runs from his four overs.

Kyle Abbott claimed the wicket of Sean Abbott leg before wicket with the third-last ball and incoming batsman Cameron Boyce almost ran out White when he scampered for a single off his first ball.

Peterson’s throw from backward square leg narrowly missed the stumps with White well out of his ground.

White then chopped away Abbott’s next delivery to go through for the winning run.

Australia’s bowlers earlier fought back to restrict South Africa to 145 for

six after winning the toss and sending the Proteas into bat.

South Africa were well placed at 75 without loss after 8.3 overs with openers Reeza Hendricks (49 off 48) and Quinton de Kock (48 off 27 balls) breezing along.

However, Australia clawed their way back. James Faulkner (3-28) was effective in the closing overs, smashing through the South African middle order.

Faulkner subsequently was named man of the series.

David Miller remained unbeaten on 34 off 26 balls and was the only Proteas batsman to make an impact in the closing overs. l

Kvitova leads Czechs to Ton-up Shehzad flays New Zealand n brink of Fed Cup title AFP, Abu Dhabi

n Reuters, Prague Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova put the Czech Republic on the brink of the Fed Cup title with victories on the opening day of the final against Germany on Saturday.

The hosts roared into a 2-0 lead, leaving them requiring just one more victory on Sunday to seal their country’s third victory in the Fed Cup, the premier team tournament in women’s tennis, in the last four seasons.

Playing in front of a capacity 13,000 crowd at the O2 Arena in Prague, the home favourites were given a flying start when inspired Wimbledon champion Kvitova, who led the Czechs to the title in 2011 and 2012, defeated Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-4.

Safarova then downed Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4, prevailing after a see-saw match against the Germany’s top-ranked player. It left Germany facing an uphill task to win the Cup for the first time since

Steffi Graf led them to the 1992 title.

Kvitova set the tone swiftly, gaining an early break against Petkovic and taking the first three games en route to winning the opening set.

Petkovic, though, showed fight, breaking Kvitova at the start of the second set before surrendering the advantage in the next game.

Causing Kvitova problems throughout the set, Petkovic levelled the score at 3-3 but the Czech hit a pair of deft drop shots to keep herself ahead.

A double fault from Petkovic set up match point for Kvitova, who quickly closed out the match.

Kvitova and Safarova both said they battled nerves as they went into their first finals matches on home soil since the Czechs won the trophy in 2012.

Safarova subdued Kerber on her third match point with a forehand passing shot to seal her third break of the set after the German had squandered leads of 2-0 and 4-2.l

Marquez claims record 13th win n AFP, Valencia

India clinch ODI series despite Mahela ton

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez claimed a record 13th win of the season at the Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Valentino Rossi and teammate Dani Pedrosa.

Marquez’s victory lifted him past the previous record mark held by Australian rider Mick Doohan of 12 victories in 17 races in 1997.

Victory for the 21-year-old in the 18th and final race of the season also ensured he and Pedrosa delivered backto-back constructors titles for Honda.

Rossi’s second place ensured he finished second overall in the championship standings with Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who retired from the race with five laps remaining, back in third.

It was a special Sunday all round for the Marquez family as Alex Marquez followed in his older brother’s footsteps earlier in the day by becoming Moto3 world champion to ensure a clean sweep of world titles for Spanish riders in 2014.l

n Cricinfo A batting Powerplay that cost Sri Lanka three wickets for 16 runs sucked the oxygen out of an already imperiled innings, and set the visitors on course for

BRIEF SCORE India 245 for 4 (Dhawan 91, Kohli 53; Dilshan 1-10) Sri Lanka 242 (Jayawardene 118, Dilshan 53, Yadav 4-53, Akshar 3-40) India won by six wickets, lead series 3-0 a third hiding on the trot. Sri Lanka’s six-wicket loss in Hyderabad surrendered the series to India, who have not only been untested in the three matches so far, but have also discovered potential gems among their second-string players.

Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad celebrates his ton against the Kiwis during the first day of the first Test in Abu Dhabi yesterday AFP

Akshar Patel is perhaps chief among them, removing three batsmen through the middle overs, while Umesh Yadav struck at either end of the innings to earn a career-best haul of 4 for 53.

Sri Lanka had recalled Nuwan Kulasekara for this match, but he could find little swing early on, and India’s batsmen quickly settled into a now familiar routine. They laid low for the first few overs, waited for the seam to grow soft, then began to play their strokes.

Ajinkya Rahane fell to Thisara Perera’s prolonged short-ball attack, but Dhawan and Rayudu picked up the pace quickly after that, ensuring 62 for 1 was as weak as India’s chase would look.

Dhawan looked set for a second ton in the series until he got a bad decision on 91, when a Kulasekara short ball took a deflection off his helmet, rather than his bat. Kohli though, breezed ahead at a run-a-ball raising his 31st ODI fifty and his 6000th run with the same stroke. l

Opener Ahmed Shehzad hit a brilliant hundred to steer Pakistan to 269-1 at close on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Shehzad was 126 not out for his third Test hundred - all made this year - but fellow opener Mohammad Hafeez missed his by four runs as New Zealand’s pace-cum spin attack toiled hard on an unresponsive pitch.

Azhar Ali was unbeaten on 46, having added 91 for the unbroken second wicket stand with Shehzad.

It was another batting domination

by Pakistan after Brendon McCullum called wrongly at the toss and his counterpart Misbah-ul Haq took no time in opting to bat, as he did in the 356-run mauling of Australia in the second Test at the same venue last week.

Shehzad ensured he did not miss the three-figure mark, taking a single off seamer Jimmy Neesham to reach his hundred off 221 balls with 12 boundaries.

In all Shehzad hit 14 boundaries during his 290-ball stay and even a sec-

ond new ball after 80 overs did not waver his concentration.

Hafeez and Shehzad put on Pakistan’s best stand of 178 against New Zealand in all Tests, beating the 172-run partnership between Ramiz Raja and Shoaib Mohammad in the Karachi Test in 1990.

Shehzad hit five boundaries off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi in the second session while Hafeez entered his nineties with three fours. l

SCORECARD, DAY 1 Pakistan Ist innings Hafeez c and b Anderson Ahmed Shehzad not out Azhar Ali not out Extras: (nb1) Total: (for one wkt; 90 overs)

96 126 46 1 269

Fall of wickets 1-178 (Hafeez) Bowling Boult 16-4-38-0, Southee 15-2-47-0 (1nb), Craig 17-1-59-0, Sodhi 23-5-68-0, Anderson 7-1-31-1, Neesham 7-0-20-0, McCullum 5-1-6-0

India’s Partika Saha is seen practising at Rajshahi Tennis Complex yesterday ahead of the ITF International Junior Tennis Championship 2014 that will begin today comprising players from 22 nations. The six-day event will conclude on November 16 AZAHAR UDDIN

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Monday, November 10, 2014

L E T T H E I R B E ( D I G I TA L ) L I G H T

As part of a new Dhaka Metropolitan Police project, traffic staff have been advised to follow the timers set above signal lights at different points in the city. Clockwise from left, the photo shows one such timer running in the capital’s Shahbagh intersection yesterday. The second photo shows that a few minutes later, the timer in the first photo has gone out of operation. In the third photo, a sergeant literally runs, arms flailing, to stop vehicles on another road in Shahbagh in the absence of a timer MEHEDI HASAN

Why is there something rather than nothing? n BBC People have wrestled with the mystery of why the universe exists for thousands of years. Pretty much every ancient culture came up with its own creation story - most of them leaving the matter in the hands of the gods – and philosophers have written reams on the subject. But science has had little to say about this ultimate question.

However, in recent years a few physicists and cosmologists have started to tackle it. They point out that we now have an understanding of the history of the universe, and of the physical laws that describe how it works. That information, they say, should give us a clue about how and why the cosmos exists.

Their admittedly controversial answer is that the entire universe, from the fireball of the Big Bang to the star-studded cosmos we now inhabit, popped into existence from nothing at all. It had to happen, they say, because “nothing” is inherently unstable.

This idea may sound bizarre, or just another fanciful creation story. But the physicists argue that it follows naturally from science’s two most powerful and successful theories: quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Here, then, is how everything could have come from nothing.

Particles from empty space

First we have to take a look at the realm of quantum mechanics. This is the branch of physics that deals with very small things: atoms and even tinier particles. It is an immensely successful theory, and it underpins most modern electronic gadgets.

Quantum mechanics tells us that there is no such thing as empty space.

Even the most perfect vacuum is actually filled by a roiling cloud of particles and antiparticles, which flare into existence and almost instantaneously fade back into nothingness.

These so-called virtual particles don’t last long enough to be observed directly, but we know they exist by their effects.

Space-time, from no space and no time

From tiny things like atoms, to really big

things like galaxies. Our best theory for describing such large-scale structures is general relativity, Albert Einstein’s crowning achievement, which sets out how space, time and gravity work.

Relativity is very different from quantum mechanics, and so far nobody has been able to combine the two seamlessly. However, some theorists have been able to bring the two theories to bear on particular problems by using carefully chosen approximations. For instance, this approach was used by Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge to describe black holes.

One thing they have found is that, when quantum theory is applied to space at the smallest possible scale, space itself becomes unstable. Rather than remaining perfectly smooth and continuous, space and time destabilize, churning and frothing into a foam of space-time bubbles.

In other words, little bubbles of space and time can form spontaneously. “If space and time are quantized, they can fluctuate,” says Lawrence Krauss at Arizona State University in Tempe. “So you can create virtual space-times just as you can create virtual particles.”

What’s more, if it’s possible for these bubbles to form, you can guarantee that they will. “In quantum physics, if something is not forbidden, it necessarily happens with some non-zero probability,” says Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.

A universe from a bubble

So it’s not just particles and antiparticles that can snap in and out of nothingness: bubbles of space-time can do the same. Still, it seems like a big leap from an infinitesimal space-time bubble to a massive universe that hosts 100 billion galaxies. Surely, even if a bubble formed, it would be doomed to disappear again in the blink of an eye?

Actually, it is possible for the bubble to survive. But for that we need another trick: cosmic inflation.

Most physicists now think that the universe began with the Big Bang. At first all the matter and energy in the universe was crammed together in one unimaginably small dot, and this exploded. This follows from the dis-

covery, in the early 20th century, that the universe is expanding. If all the galaxies are flying apart, they must once have been close together.

Inflation theory proposes that in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, the universe expanded much faster than it did later. This seemingly outlandish notion was put forward in the 1980s by Alan Guth at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and refined by Andrei Linde, now at Stanford University.

The idea is that, a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the quantum-sized bubble of space expanded stupendously fast. In an incredibly brief moment, it went from being smaller than the nucleus of an atom to the size of a grain of sand. When the expansion finally slowed, the force field that had powered

If one space-time bubble popped into existence and inflated to form our universe, what kept other bubbles from doing the same? it was transformed into the matter and energy that fill the universe today. Guth calls inflation “the ultimate free lunch.”

As weird as it seems, inflation fits the facts rather well. In particular, it neatly explains why the cosmic microwave background, the faint remnant of radiation left over from the Big Bang, is almost perfectly uniform across the sky. If the universe had not expanded so rapidly, we would expect the radiation to be patchier than it is.

The universe is flat and why that’s important

Inflation also gave cosmologists the measuring tool they needed to determine the underlying geometry of the universe. It turns out this is also crucial for understanding how the cosmos came from nothing.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity tells us that the space-time we live in could take three different forms. It could be as flat as a table top. It could

curve back on itself like the surface of a sphere, in which case if you travel far enough in the same direction you would end up back where you started.

Alternatively, space-time could curve outward like a saddle. So which is it?

There is a way to tell. You might remember from maths class that the three angles of a triangle add up to exactly 180 degrees. Actually your teachers left out a crucial point: this is only true on a flat surface. If you draw a triangle on the surface of a balloon, its three angles will add up to more than 180 degrees. Alternatively, if you draw a triangle on a surface that curves outward like a saddle, its angles will add up to less than 180 degrees.

So to find out if the universe is flat, we need to measure the angles of a really big triangle. That’s where inflation comes in. It determined the average size of the warmer and cooler patches in the cosmic microwave background. Those patches were measured in 2003, and that gave astronomers a selection of triangles. As a result, we know that on the largest observable scale our universe is flat.

It turns out that a flat universe is crucial. That’s because only a flat universe is likely to have come from nothing.

Everything that exists, from stars and galaxies to the light we see them by, must have sprung from somewhere. We already know that particles spring into existence at the quantum level, so we might expect the universe to contain a few odds and ends. But it takes a huge amount of energy to make all those stars and planets.

Where did the universe get all this energy? Bizarrely, it may not have had to get any. That’s because every object in the universe creates gravity, pulling other objects toward it. This balances the energy needed to create the matter in the first place.

It’s a bit like an old-fashioned measuring scale. You can put a heavy weight on one side, so long as it is balanced by an equal weight on the other. In the case of the universe, the matter goes on one side of the scale, and has to be balanced by gravity.

Physicists have calculated that in a flat universe the energy of matter is exactly balanced by the energy of the

gravity the mass creates. But this is only true in a flat universe. If the universe had been curved, the two sums would not cancel out.

Universe or multiverse?

At this point, making a universe looks almost easy. Quantum mechanics tells us that “nothing” is inherently unstable, so the initial leap from nothing to something may have been inevitable. Then the resulting tiny bubble of space-time could have burgeoned into a massive, busy universe, thanks to inflation. As Krauss puts it, “The laws of physics as we understand them make it eminently plausible that our universe arose from nothing - no space, no time, no particles, nothing that we now know of.”

So why did it only happen once? If one space-time bubble popped into existence and inflated to form our universe, what kept other bubbles from doing the same?

Linde offers a simple but mind-bending answer. He thinks universes have always been springing into existence, and that this process will continue forever.

When a new universe stops inflating, says Linde, it is still surrounded by space that is continuing to inflate. That inflating space can spawn more universes, with yet more inflating space around them. So once inflation starts it should make an endless cascade of universes, which Linde calls eternal inflation. Our universe may be just one grain of sand on an endless beach.

Those universes might be profoundly different to ours. The universe next door might have five dimensions of space rather than the three – length, breadth and height – that ours does.

Gravity might be ten times stronger or a thousand times weaker, or not exist at all. Matter might be built out of utterly different particles.

So there could be a mind-boggling smorgasbord of universes. Linde says eternal inflation is not just the ultimate free lunch: it is the only one at which all possible dishes are available.

As yet we don’t have hard evidence that other universes exist. But either way, these ideas give a whole new meaning to the phrase “Thanks for nothing.” l

Digital Centre Entrepreneur Conference tomorrow n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The government is all set to hold the Digital Centre Entrepreneur Conference 2014 with the entrepreneurs of the Union Digital Centres set up across the country to provide information and technological assistance to people, particularly the rural ones.

Marking fourth year into the foundation of these digital centres, the event will be held at the National Parade Ground tomorrow with participation of more than 11,000 entrepreneurs from union, upazila and city corporation levels.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the event along with her ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy in presence of ministers, state ministers, ambassadors and diplomats from different countries and representatives of the partner institutions of the digital centres.

Yesterday in a press conference organised by the government’s a2i (Access to Information) programme, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said: “We have come more than half the way towards building digital Bangladesh with the significant roles played by the Union Digital Centres.”

On November 11, 2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated a Union Information Centre through a video conference at a char named KukriMukri in Bhola with former President of New Zealand and United Nations Development Programme’s Administrator Helen Clark.

After launching 4,547 information centres across the country, the government established digital centres in 321 upazilas and digital centres in 407 wards under 11 city corporations, said the press conference.

All these digital centres have so far earned around Tk140 crore by providing 400 kinds of services to people.

Palak said after launching the digital centres, the dominance of the bureaucratic red tape had reduced significantly. Now service were available at the door steps of people. l

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.

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B3 IMF reforms threatened

by Republican electoral sweep

B4 China president says

risks to economy “not that scary”

Hi-tech park may get going

Bangladesh-India joint venture will develop two blocks initially Showkat Kallol and n Asif Muhammad Zahidul Islam The government is close to sign an agreement with a contractor to develop two blocks of the proposed hi-tech park in Gazipur under the Public-Private Partnership initiative.

The deal would be signed with an India-based international developer firm SIMCL-INFINITY subject to approval by the cabinet committee on economic affairs, officials said.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is scheduled to place the proposal at a meeting of the committee scheduled tomorrow.

Already delayed by 16 years due to bureaucratic tangles, the deal for the development of two blocks (2 and 5) would be signed for 40 years. The park will have a total of five blocks.

“At long last, we are going to select one firm for beginning the development works,” Project Director ANM Shafiqul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “Now, a proposal will be sent to the cabinet committee for approval.”

He said: “Initially the contract will be signed for 40 years, which might be extended further if both parties agree.”

According to the proposal, the two blocks will be developed under Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Own and Transfer (DBFOOT) basis under PPP initiative.

The areas of two blocks are 62 acres and 29 acres respectively in the total coverage of 132.8 hectares of land.

Sources said local company Summit Communications Limited owns 75% of the consortium and 25% goes to the Indian partner, Infinity.

The proposal also revealed SIMCL-INFINITY will invest $114.56 mil-

lion for developing the block 2 and $93.33 million for block 5 in next 10 years. The contract with SIMCL-INFINITY might be extended for another 20 years based on their performance.

The government will get 11% from the two blocks as rent for the build-up spaces, 22% from block 2 and 23% from block 5 as the earnings on the leased land, while utility and other charges will be 8% for the initial 40 years, according to the proposal.

A senior official of the project said there is a clause recently introduced in the proposed contract that the awarded company would be allowed to mortgage the land to commercial banks subject to signing agreement with the government.

There is a little option to impose penalty if the company fails to complete the project work within the stipulated time of 10 years, he added.

Sources in ICT Ministry also said development of block 3 and 4 are also going to be awarded to another local firm Fiber@home while block 1 will be awarded for Fiber@home and Summit Communications Limited jointly.

The development of the project had seen little progress in last 15 years, with officials concerned blaming the sluggish pace on frequent shifts in government decisions and interference from the World Bank, which was providing Tk200 crore for the project taken in 1999.

In 1999, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to establish the park on 232 acres of land at the Kaliakoir Surface Satellite Station. However, the then BNP-led government did not carry on with the project, while its Science and ICT Ministry initiated a new project at Kaliakoir in 2004, where they did nothing other than acquiring land. l

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

RMG factories’ going public accelerate TEXTILE COMPANIES LISTING Year

Number of companies

Fund raised in Tk crore

2010

1

100

2011

1

50

2012

3

214

2013

3

223

2014 (till October)

9

613

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Apparel factory owners are increasingly becoming dependent on the country’s stock market for raising low-cost funds to expand their business thanks to higher interest rates of the commercial bank loans.

According to Dhaka stock Exchange (DSE), a total of six RMG-related company raised funds of over Tk381 crore while three others got approval from the regulator to collect an amount of Tk232 crore in the first 10 months of this year.

Meanwhile, over 15 apparel factory owners submitted their Initial Public Offering (IPO) prospectus to Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for getting approval to collect fund through issuance of shares to the public.

As per the initial public offering prospectus of some companies, most of the prospectus aimed at fund raising for paying-off bank term loans, capital investment, expanding of the existing plants, working capital purpose, purchasing new machinery, constructing new factory buildings, purchasing of land and land development.

“Entrepreneurs want to be enlisted with the stock market as it reduces cost of financing for business expansion,” Envoy Textile (listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange) Managing Director Abdus Salam Murshedy told the Dhaka Tribune.

On the other hand, getting funds from outside the banking system would help reduce debt and increases brand values with a further scope for

Garment workers are seen busy performing their jobs at a factory indirect advertisements for the company, he added.

“As a company has to count high interest for bank loans and thus lion share of the profits are being paid as bank’s interest, we are preferring stock market for raising low-cost fund,” said MS Zaman, company secretary of Fareast Knitting and Dyeing Limited.

“It’s a positive sign that the RMG businessmen are showing interest to collect fund from the stock market,” said AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former adviser to the caretaker government.

Expressing concern over the appropriate use of the funds, Azizul

Islam has, however, warned the regulator of keeping strong monitoring system, so that the money could not be siphoned off.

“Banks offer loans with high interest rates while foreign lenders are offering us lower rate and now the capital market has become another source of financing without any interest,” BGMEA vice-president Reaz Bin Mahmood said.

Currently, 36 textile companies are enlisted with the Dhaka Stock Exchanges and the sector represent 3.5% of total market capitalisation in the market.

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

According to a recent report, the global apparel market will cross the US$2 trillion mark by 2025 from the current value of $1.1 trillion.

According to Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters BKMEA, the EU and USA are the two largest importers of Bangladeshi RMG products and 86% of the total exports are serving to these giant, which are only 6% of total demands.

According to EPB, in FY13-14, the RMG sector accounted for 81.13% of total export, earning over $24.49bn and contributing around 20% of the country’s GDP. l

Time to think big on Asia-Pacific trade IT, ITES firms to take part in

3-day housing fair kicks off in port city n Tribune Business Desk Thursday As Asia-Pacific leaders gather in Beijing in the coming days for the annual sumn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong mit under the region’s premier ecoA three-day housing fair will begin in the port city on Thursday.

Bangladesh Real Estate Directory (BD-RED) is organising the fair titled “12th BD-RED Abashon Mela” at the Engineers’ Institute auditorium.

Chittagong City Corporation Mayor M Monjur Alam is expected to inaugurate the event as chief guest, said BDRED at a press conference yesterday.

About 40 real estate and construction material companies are set to participate in the housing fair.

The fair will continue till Saturday and remain open for all from 10:00am to 10:00pm. Entrance will be free of charge.

BD-RED Chief Executive Md Yasin Khan read out a written statement at the press conference.

He said the event is being organised as part of efforts to boost housing business in the country as it has continued to suffer a recession-like situation. l

nomic cooperation framework, hopes are running high that they will inject fresh vigour into regional economic integration, reports BSS. Particularly, all eyes are on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), an all-encompassing free trade vision for which the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) forum is expected to hatch out a roadmap.

It is undeniable that to craft a free trade zone out of a region as vast and diverse as the Asia-Pacific is extremely cumbersome and time-consuming, yet the current trend of fragmentation and incoordination has turned the region’s trading system into a spaghetti bowl.

The recent decade has witnessed a mushrooming of small and medium-sized FTAs in the Asia-Pacific.

From the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it is evident that Asia-Pacific economies are

truly eager to open up to each other for the sake of mutual benefit and common development.

However, due to a lack of information-sharing and transparency, such a multitude of varying and overlapping free trade mechanisms might eventually generate a myriad of complex or

The recent decade has witnessed a mushrooming of small and medium-sized FTAs in the Asia-Pacific even contradictory rules governing regional trade, thus creating even larger barriers for traders and investors.

Thus it is high time that serious attention was paid to the FTAAP idea, which has been around for almost a decade. The overarching arrangement is intended to be open, inclusive and flexible, so as to accommodate all econ-

omies in the region and bridge trade deals both in being and in the making.

A high-quality FTAAP, studies show, could increase the size of global economy by a whopping $2.4tn by 2025.

As such a grand vision draws closer to reality, it is only natural for suspicions and noises to kick in.

Some Western media have rushed to hype up a “China-US rivalry” for leadership in the region’s mounting free trade drive.

Allegations of this sort are groundless and betray their advocates’ obsession with confrontation or sensation.

The FTAAP is by no means a “solo show” of China. Rather, it is the shared aspiration of all APEC members that will bring them a wealth of benefits.

In addition, the FTAAP is not aimed at forcing out other free trade arrangements in the region, but at integrating them and making regional movement of goods and services more efficient.

With the world economy defined by globalisation and Asia-Pacific economies subjected to mounting interdependence, the time is now ripe to treat the dynamic region as a whole. l

B2B events in Europe n Tribune Business Desk International Trade Centre (ITC) is going to organise three Business-to-Business (B2B) events in Europe this month and December under Netherlands Trust Fund-III Bangladesh project, reports BSS. The events, focusing on information technology (IT) and ITES (IT enabled service) industry, will be held in London tomorrow, in Copenhagen on November 19 and in Amsterdam on December 3.

A total of 38 Bangladeshi IT and ITES companies will take part in the events to meet with European buyers for exploring outsourcing business opportunities to Bangladesh, said a BASIS press release. Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) are cooperating to organise the event.

“Building on the work done under the previous NTF-II project, the NTFIII Bangladesh project will also organ-

ise B2B events in Europe and Bangladesh throughout the project until mid-2017,” said M Mahfuzul Quader, National Project Coordinator, NTF-III Bangladesh Project.

The B2B event would help to increase Bangladesh’s IT and ITES exports and offer business development opportunities to Bangladeshi companies, that would pave the way of more employments for young people, especially women.

“The Bangladeshi companies participating in the B2B events could be able to reap full benefits and make progress towards achieving One Bangladesh target,” said BASIS president Shameem Ahsan.

ITC also plans to organise similar B2B events mobilising trade delegations from the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands to Digital World 2015 in early next year.

NTF-III Bangladesh Project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the CBI (Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries). l

Irresistible Shahjibazar Power again under BSEC lens n Tribune Report

The securities regulator has started probing into unusual rise in share prices of Shahjibazar Power Company Limited once again after a pause of more than three months.

“Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has formed an enquiry committee to investigate into the unusual price hike of shares of Shahjibazar Power Company Limited in the stock exchanges,” said the regulator in a statement yesterday.

The two-member committee was asked to submit the probe report by next 15 working days.

Since its debut on July 15, share prices of the company never fell and rather rose more than 858% to close at Tk239.7 a share on its offer value of Tk25 a share as of yesterday.

Back in July 31 this year, BSEC had formed a two-member probe

panel after the company’s share price climbed 61% in just nine trading sessions from its debut.

Following formation of the probe panel, Dhaka Stock Exchange on August 11 suspended share trading of Shahjibazar for an indefinite period, owing to its unusual price hike.

After investigation, the BSEC probe team found that the company inflated its net profit to Tk28.6 crore from its original profit of Tk16.9 crore in its financial statement for nine months (July 2013-March 2014).

For the offence, the regulator fined the company’s five directors and managing director Tk55 lakh.

It also fined collectively United Power Generation and Distribution Company, its issue manager and an auditor Tk5 lakh on the same ground.

Following completion of probe,

Shahjibazar was allowed to resume share trading on October 20 and since then rally of its share prices knew no bound despite its trade suspension and a downward revision of the net profit.

According to dealers, share prices of Shahjibazar continued to rise despite many odds on the basis of rumour that the price of the scrip would increase further.

Lower free float ratio of the

company’s shares could be a major factor behind the continuous rise in prices, even after the regulatory probe, according to them.

Lower free float ratio refers to lesser quantity of tradable shares in the market.

Only 1.26 crore of the 12.68 crore Shahjibazar Power shares are free floating or tradable.

Located in Habiganj, Shahjibazar Power raised Tk31.7 crore through initial public offering, which was approved by the BSEC in January. The company floated 1.26 crore ordinary shares of Tk10 each at an offer price of Tk25, including Tk15 as premium.

The company produces electricity from natural gas and supplies to the Bangladesh Power Development Board.

The company started commercial production with its 86mw power plants in February 2009. l

B2

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

DSE GAINER

DSEX falls below 5,000-mark after seven weeks

DSE key features November 9, 2014

Traded Issues

307

n Tribune Report

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

92

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

213

in robust trading activities with the DSE turnover in value standing at Tk857 crore, which is 40% higher over the previous session and highest in three weeks.

All the large cap sectors closed in the red except for textile, and food and allied that ended flat.

Telecommunication posted the highest loss of 2.4%, followed by power that lost 1.9%, banks 1.6%, non-banking financial institutions 1.5% and pharmaceuticals 1.4%.

The debutant Western Marine Shipyard continued to gain for the fourth trading day, as it added nearly 11% to its last three days’ gain of 100%. The shipyard closed at over Tk92 a share on its offer value.

It was also the most traded stocks with shares worth Tk63 crore changing hands.

Losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 306 issues traded, 112 advanced, 156 declined and 38 remained unchanged.

IDLC Investments said preceding the week’s waning tone extended further as the market slumped amid buoyant turnover.

Investors remained most active in engineering, fuel and power and pharmaceuticals sectors, it said.

Besides shipyard sector, other top turnover leaders include Keya Cosmetics, Appollo Ispat Complex, Desco, Lafarge Surma Cement, RSRM Steel and Saif Powertech.

RSRM Steel was the biggest loser with a loss of more than 12% while National Polymer gained highest 32%. l

Stocks suffered big losses yesterday with the benchmark index DSEX falling below 5,000-mark after seven weeks.

The market opened red and continued to shed points on selling spree till the trade closed.

Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark index, DSEX, closed at 4,938, tumbling more than 86 points or 1.8% --the worst single-day fall of the index in last several months.

Investors remained most active in engineering, fuel and power and pharmaceuticals sectors Also, the index marked the lowest since September 22 this year.

With the fall, the DSEX extended losses for the fifth consecutive session and lost 395 points or 7.41% from 5,334, the year’s highest peak recorded on October 12.

The Shariah DSES index declined 22 points or 2% to 1,157. The DS30 index comprising blue chip issues was also down 51 points or 2.8% to 1,815.

Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, closed at 9,329, dropping 243 points.

Strong selling pressure resulted

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSER Company Ratanpur Steel -N FarEast Knitting -N Midas Financing-Z LafargeS Cement-Z Progressive Life-A GeminiSeaFood-Z B I F C -A Prime Islami Life -A Barakatullah E. D.-A Titas Gas TDCLA

Closing (% Change) -12.16 -10.06 -8.23 -8.12 -7.20 -6.84 -6.55 -6.18 -6.13 -5.92

CSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

Ratanpur Steel -N LafargeS Cement-Z FarEast Knitting -N Titas Gas TDCLA Barakatullah E. D.-A B I F C -A Prime Finance-A Eastern Bank - A BSRM Steels-A ACI Formulations-A

-11.62 -8.66 -8.28 -6.70 -6.17 -5.88 -5.22 -4.75 -4.64 -4.62

4938.65397

(-) 1.72%

1815.36132

(-) 2.77%

15257.25830

(-) 1.57%

12425.90410

(-) 2.07%

9329.09840

(-) 1.20%

Average (% Change) -11.15 -9.79 -8.71 -7.04 -7.63 -7.30 -5.04 -2.16 -6.68 -4.98 Average (% Change) -10.38 -7.56 -9.47 -5.68 -5.05 -2.66 -3.57 -4.68 -3.95 -5.41

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 69.98 29.38 14.57 116.66 95.43 138.33 16.02 90.70 34.94 83.46

ClosingAvg. 70.25 116.06 29.46 82.74 34.76 16.48 22.17 28.09 97.86 135.39

Closing

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 331.61 287.23 47.13 2127.13 443.17 1676.40 3.04 455.91 1129.17 206.66 421.94 45.12 108.27 309.38 134.49 38.33 108.18 303.08 207.29 193.97 0.07

DHIGH

70.10 29.50 14.50 114.30 95.40 138.90 15.70 86.60 35.20 82.70

Closing

73.10 29.70 14.70 124.10 96.10 149.90 16.90 92.00 35.20 86.90

DHIGH

70.00 113.90 29.90 82.10 35.00 16.00 21.80 28.10 96.70 134.10

72.60 123.00 31.00 84.00 35.00 17.00 23.30 28.60 99.50 138.50

8,577.56 192,425,948

Number of Contract

168,186

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,640.89

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.01

CSE key features November 9, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

676.32

Turnover (Volume)

17,086,434

Number of Contract

23,896

Traded Issues

225

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

79

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

143

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,533.70

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.71

Turnover in Million

DLOW 68.30 28.50 14.30 113.00 95.10 134.30 15.50 86.10 30.00 80.00

69.00 113.00 29.00 82.00 30.20 15.90 21.30 28.00 100.00 133.00

Latest EPS

218.478 24.775 0.204 221.647 0.334 0.083 9.679 1.433 163.259 171.991

Turnover in Million

DLOW

% change 3.87 3.35 0.55 24.80 5.17 19.54 0.04 5.32 13.16 4.92 0.53 1.26 3.61 1.57 0.45 1.26 3.53 2.42 2.26 0.00

Million Taka 21.13 15.85 5.50 202.77 41.89 83.15 59.75 67.90 44.26 37.38 28.38 8.40 32.39 32.60 1.75 2.72 18.32 37.72 18.12 0.00

CSE

% change 2.78 2.09 0.72 26.68 5.51 10.94 0.00 7.86 8.93 5.82 4.92 3.73 1.11 4.26 4.29 0.23 0.36 2.41 4.96 2.38 0.00

2.37 2.28 -6.16 2.43 2.30 -1.80 1.41 4.95 1.62 10.38

Latest EPS

13.768 24.895 3.406 2.818 4.220 0.066 1.504 0.202 5.773 2.396

Million Taka 352.73 303.08 52.64 2329.90 485.05 1759.54 3.04 515.66 1197.07 250.92 459.32 73.51 116.67 341.77 167.09 40.08 110.89 321.39 245.01 212.10 0.07

National Polymer -A WesternMarine -N Legacy Footwear -A Alltex Industries -Z The Peninsula CTG.-N Sinobangla Indu.-A Anwar Galvanizing-B Keya Cosmetics -A Aziz PipesZ Khulna Printing-N

Closing (% Change) 32.12 11.21 9.93 9.90 9.84 9.68 9.65 9.38 9.09 8.68

CSE GAINER

2.37 2.43 2.28 10.38 1.62 1.41 1.12 2.80 3.88 3.27

Latest PE 29.5 12.9 -ve 48.0 41.5 -ve 11.4 18.3 21.6 8.0

Company National Polymer -A WesternMarine -N Sinobangla Indu.-A Anwar Galvanizing-B Legacy Footwear -A The Peninsula CTG.-N Appollo Ispat CL -N Keya Cosmetics -A Khulna Printing-N Tung Hai Knitting -N

30.50 11.86 9.97 9.89 9.89 9.87 9.25 9.00 8.36 8.33

Average (% Change) 18.29 13.48 7.35 9.89 8.21 5.82 6.38 7.23 10.11 5.50

ClosingAvg. 66.65 88.30 29.40 19.21 33.47 33.50 39.88 31.16 16.22 36.16

ClosingAvg. 68.11 88.13 33.75 38.89 29.39 33.44 24.19 31.16 36.05 19.00

Closing 76.10 91.30 29.90 21.10 34.60 34.00 40.90 31.50 16.80 36.30

Closing 75.30 91.50 34.20 38.90 30.00 34.50 24.80 31.50 36.30 19.50

DHIGH 78.50 94.00 29.90 21.10 34.60 34.10 41.00 31.60 16.80 36.70

DHIGH 79.50 94.00 34.20 38.90 30.00 34.50 24.90 31.60 36.80 19.70

DLOW 53.50 82.10 26.00 17.30 31.40 32.60 37.20 26.00 15.40 33.90

DLOW 62.00 81.70 32.50 38.80 27.00 31.50 22.70 29.60 33.90 17.80

Turnover in Million 117.207 630.846 19.368 38.875 166.948 52.633 15.791 312.503 0.399 204.710

Turnover in Million 5.192 99.549 1.468 1.206 7.748 32.661 29.583 15.155 24.067 5.557

Latest EPS 3.09 1.84 0.28 2.56 2.70 1.21 0.50 1.93 -0.37 2.13

Latest EPS 3.09 1.84 1.21 0.50 0.28 2.70 1.84 1.93 2.13 1.19

Latest PE 21.6 48.0 105.0 7.5 12.4 27.7 79.8 16.1 -ve 17.0

Latest PE 22.0 47.9 27.9 77.8 105.0 12.4 13.1 16.1 16.9 16.0

News, analysis and recent disclosers SAMORITA: The Board of Directors has recommended 20% cash dividend and 10% stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014. Date of AGM: 07.01.2015, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: MH Samorita Hospital & Medical College, 117 Tejgaon, Love Road, Dhaka-1208. Record Date: 19.11.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 3.01, NAV per share of Tk. 60.44 and NOCFPS of Tk. 4.74 for the year ended on June 30, 2014.

NPOLYMAR: The Board of Directors has recommended 18% stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014. Date of AGM: 18.12.2014, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Fakruddin & Sons Community Center, Board Bazar, Gazipur. Record Date: 19.11.2014. The Company has also reported NAV of Tk. 439.93 Million, EPS of Tk. 3.09 and NOCFPS of Tk. 12.84 for the year ended on June 30, 2014.

MICEMENT:(Q1): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 30th September 2014 (July'14 to Sep'14), the Company has reported net profit after tax of Tk. 167.65 million with EPS of Tk. 1.13 as against Tk. 165.97 million and Tk. 1.12 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

MATINSPINN: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the

Company has decided to further expansion of production capacity by 7 ton (per day) synthetic yarn in addition to the existing capacity of 25 ton of Carded and Combed yarn and 10 ton (per day) mélange yarn project (under implementation with IPO proceeds ) at a projected cost of Tk. 101.40 crore out of which 66.78 crore will be availed as Loan from The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) Bangladesh and the rest amount of Tk. 34.62 crore will be financed from Company's own source.

UNITEDAIR: (Emphasis of Matter): "Atik Khaled & Co", Auditor of the company has given the following 'Emphasis of Matter' paragraph in the audit report of the company for the year ended on 30 June 2014: "The deferred tax liabilities of the company remaining balance stood Tk. 334,971,012 up to 30.06.2012 against the said liabilities a sum of Tk. 34,971,012 has been adjusted with the retained earnings during the year under audit. As per board of director's decision, the balance amount of deferred tax liabilities amounting of Tk. 300,000,000 will be adjusted in the upcoming consecutive years."

RENWICKJA: (Qualified Opinion): "A. Wahab & Co", Auditor of the company has given the following qualified opinion in the audit

report of the company for the year ended on 30 June 2014: " i) Bangladesh Accounting Standards (BAS) 36 requires impairment test of Property, Plant and Equipment and necessary disclosure in this regard. The company has no laid down policy and procedure with regard to impairment test and no such test was carried out. ii) As disclosed in note # 1.04 (h) to the financial statements the gratuity scheme operated by the company is unfunded and provision is made as per company policy. But no actuarial valuation has been done as per BAS 19."

MIDASFIN: The Company has informed that it has credited the Rights shares to the respective shareholders' BO Account on November 06, 2014.

ORIONINFU: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on November 13, 2014 at 5:00 PM to consider, among others, audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.

KOHINOOR: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on November 13, 2014 at 4:00 PM to consider, among others, audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.

29.6 47.8 12.9 8.0 21.5 11.7 19.8 10.0 25.2 41.4

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company

Total

Closing (% Change)

Average (% Change) 16.77 13.82 9.13 0.05 5.45 7.61 11.90 6.93 5.39 10.82

Latest PE

Preceding the week’s waning tone extended further as the market slumped amid buoyant turnover

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

Company

Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume)

Monday, November 10, 2014

% change 3.78 3.25 0.56 24.95 5.19 18.84 0.03 5.52 12.82 2.69 4.92 0.79 1.25 3.66 1.79 0.43 1.19 3.44 2.62 2.27 0.00

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

WesternMarine -N Keya Cosmetics -A Appollo Ispat CL -N Grameenphone-A DESCO Ltd. -A LafargeS Cement-Z Ratanpur Steel -N SAIF Powertec-N Khulna Printing-N Shahjibazar Power-N

BD Building Systems -A Titas Gas TDCLA MJL BD Ltd.-A The Peninsula CTG.-N Barakatullah E. D.-A CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company WesternMarine -N The Peninsula CTG.-N Appollo Ispat CL -N SAIF Powertec-N LafargeS Cement-Z Khulna Printing-N Keya Cosmetics -A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A GBB Power Ltd-A Ratanpur Steel -N

MJL BD Ltd.-A Shurwid Ind. -N Beach Hatchery -A Grameenphone-A SummitAlliancePort.-A

VolumeShares 7,144,400 10,028,571 11,396,550 756,400 3,257,941 1,900,000 3,122,000 2,154,000 5,661,500 835,400

Value in Million 630.85 312.50 272.99 261.64 244.68 221.65 218.48 208.05 204.71 200.23

% of TotalTurnover 7.35 3.64 3.18 3.05 2.85 2.58 2.55 2.43 2.39 2.33

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

3,212,720 2,060,875 1,344,620 4,987,400 4,672,495

1,129,600 976,800 1,223,210 266,600 214,500 667,500 486,340 394,576 535,836 196,000

100,285 207,000 386,794 31,400 138,027

183.44 171.99 170.15 166.95 163.26

99.55 32.66 29.58 25.87 24.89 24.07 15.16 14.81 14.12 13.77

12.90 11.27 10.97 10.86 10.30

2.14 2.01 1.98 1.95 1.90

14.94 4.90 4.44 3.88 3.74 3.61 2.27 2.22 2.12 2.07

1.94 1.69 1.65 1.63 1.55

ClosingP 91.30 31.50 24.60 344.90 74.20 114.30 70.10 96.60 36.30 239.70

57.70 82.70 126.80 34.60 35.20

ClosingP

91.50 34.50 24.80 96.30 113.90 36.30 31.50 37.30 26.50 70.00

126.60 53.20 29.00 343.30 73.10

Change % 11.21 9.38 8.37 -2.38 0.00 -8.12 -12.16 0.84 8.68 8.66

2.49 -5.92 -2.08 9.84 -6.13

Change %

11.86 9.87 9.25 1.58 -8.66 8.36 9.00 -3.12 3.92 -11.62

-2.91 -2.39 7.01 -2.91 -0.95

ClosingY 82.10 28.80 22.70 353.30 74.20 124.40 79.80 95.80 33.40 220.60

56.30 87.90 129.50 31.50 37.50

ClosingY

81.80 31.40 22.70 94.80 124.70 33.50 28.90 38.50 25.50 79.20

130.40 54.50 27.10 353.60 73.80

DHIGH 94.00 31.60 24.80 352.90 76.50 124.10 73.10 100.00 36.70 239.90

58.30 86.90 131.90 34.60 35.20

DHIGH

94.00 34.50 24.90 99.00 123.00 36.80 31.60 38.80 27.10 72.60

131.90 57.50 29.10 352.10 78.00

DLOW 82.10 26.00 22.70 342.30 67.00 113.00 68.30 92.70 33.90 230.00

52.00 80.00 117.00 31.40 30.00

DLOW

81.70 31.50 22.70 89.90 113.00 33.90 29.60 37.10 25.20 69.00

124.00 51.50 26.00 340.60 71.60

AvgPrice 88.30 31.16 23.95 345.90 75.10 116.66 69.98 96.59 36.16 239.68

57.10 83.46 126.54 33.47 34.94

AvgPrice

88.13 33.44 24.19 97.04 116.06 36.05 31.16 37.55 26.36 70.25

128.61 54.43 28.37 345.85 74.63

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

B3

Monday, November 10, 2014

IMF reforms threatened by Republican electoral sweep this month to pound the table over the issue, according to the Russian representative Svetlana Lukash.

“The most important thing for us is the reform of the IMF, a problem which has not yet been solved within the framework of the G20,” she said Friday.

Plan B

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde promised in October to perform a belly-dance for the US Congress if that would get it to endorse crucial, much-delayed reforms for the Fund REUTERS

n AFP, Washington International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde might need to get to work perfecting her belly-dance.

The normally reserved head of the global crisis lender promised in October to perform for the US Congress if that would get it to endorse crucial, much-delayed reforms for the Fund.

“I will do belly-dancing if that’s what it takes to get the US to ratify,” she said.

But now the Republican victory in Tuesday’s US elections has likely placed ratification further away - and she will have to work harder to convince the IMF’s largest shareholder.

“The change in the US political land-

Volvo Cars says begins XC60 production in China n Reuters, Stockholm Geely-owned Volvo Car Group said yesterday it had begun production of its best-selling XC60 crossover at its plant in Chengdu, taking a further step toward supplying locally-produced cars in China as well as opening the door to overseas exports.

Volvo said in a statement the start of XC60 production would add 500 new manufacturing jobs at its plant in Chengdu, in central China, where it already makes another model, the S60L. The XC60 is Volvo’s best-selling car.

“The start of XC60 production in Chengdu is the latest milestone in Volvo Cars’ transformation,” Volvo Cars Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement.

“It will be instrumental in boosting Volvo’s overall growth in what is now our largest market.” l

scape is not a good omen for progress on IMF reforms,” said Eswar Prasad, a former IMF official.

Since 2012, the Obama administration has sought to convince Republicans in Congress to formally endorse the reform - decided in 2010 with US support - that doubles its financial resources and increases slightly the voting power in the IMF of emerging economies like China, Russia and Brazil.

As the largest shareholder, the US endorsement is necessary to implement the reforms. All other major economies have ratified them already.

But the White House has repeatedly failed to get the ratification through Congress, against opposition from

Republicans. Some Republicans have said specifically they do not want to increase the influence of China and Russia in the Fund - even though the US would remain the dominant IMF power after the reforms.

That leaves the emerging economies increasingly impatient. China, the world’s second largest economy, only holds 4% of the voting rights, barely more than Italy, whose economy is one-fifth the size.

In reaction, in July Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa joined hands to create their own monetary fund for emergency needs.

They could take the opportunity at the coming G20 summit in Australia

The IMF, which declined to talk about the issue, is itself anxious. Already under attack over its legitimacy, it has to work with more limited resources as it awaits US action.

“The lack of approval will result in the weakening of the IMF as the main anchor of the international monetary system,” said Domenico Lombardi, former advisor to the IMF board.

If the reform is not adopted by the end of this year, the Fund is to present a “Plan B” to its board, the specifics of which remain vague. That then would require new negotiations among its 188 member-states.

Some experts say the Fund should press for US ratification by the end of this year, while the current Congress remains in office and before the new one sits in January.

“The advantage is that it’s not a new issue,” said Ted Truman, former Treasury official.

“The current Republican representatives are now better informed about the IMF legislation. I’m not saying that they’re perfectly informed, but they’re better informed.”

Douglas Rediker, a former US representative to the IMF board, said the opposition in Congress has mainly been part of “internal domestic political maneuvers that have little to nothing to do with the IMF reform itself”.

“It’s going to take a collaborative effort between the White House, the Senate, and the House to actually work together to understand how important this is.”

To make that happen, Lagarde could very well have to gear up her belly dance. l

Asia chief: Wal-Mart to focus on food safety in China n Reuters, Beijing Wal-Mart Stores Inc is focusing on food safety as the world’s largest retailer aims to boost profitability of its more than 400 stores in China, Wal-Mart Asia chief executive Scott Price told Reuters.

Food safety is a highly emotive issue in China where there have been numerous scandals from photos of food oil being scooped from drains to tales of phoney eggs and melamine-tainted milk powder.

“We play an important role in China delivering food safety and quality products to our customers,” Price said on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, which begins on Sunday. “It’s a differentiator.”

Wal-Mart came under fire in Chinese media earlier in the year after a supplier’s donkey meat product was found to contain fox meat.

BSRM Group has recently partnered with Volunteer Service Oversees Bangladesh (VSOB) to initiate a crab cultivation project in Bagerhat, Khulna. An agreement was signed on this regard at the presence of BSRM Group Chairperson Alihussain Akberali FCA and VSO Country Director Shahana Hayat among other high officials of both the companies

In 2011 Chinese authorities accused Wal-Mart of selling expired duck meat, and it was forced to shut down stores in Chongqing after they were accused of labelling non-organic pork as organic and selling it at a higher price.

Price was named on Tuesday the head of the retailer’s Asia Pacific business, in a move aimed at reviving WalMart’s slowing growth amid stiff competition in the region.

In Japan, the company said in October it would close 30 underperforming stores to scale back.

In India, Wal-Mart last year ended a six-year partnership with Bharti Enterprises Pvt and started to run wholesale stores instead of its common retail ones.

In China, Price said Wal-Mart has experienced “a few bumps along the road”. China was the only market of Wal-Mart’s five largest ones that saw falling same-store sales in the second quarter, down 1.6% from the year-ear-

lier period.

In Wal-Mart’s global markets, WalMart reported for the six months ended July 31, pre-tax income outside the U.S. down three percent to $11.83bn from a year-earlier, according to the company’s filings.

In October, Wal-Mart lowered its earnings forecast for this fiscal year, blaming a tough economy for the company’s low-income customers. The retailer said to expect annual sales to grow in the range of two to three percent, two percentage points down from its earlier guidance.

Price said the company would “continue to invest very aggressively” with a focus on food quality and safety to push up traffic to Wal-Mart’s Chinese stores.

Wal-Mart said in June it would increase its spending on food safety in China to 300m yuan ($49m) in 2013, 2014 and 2015, up from a previouslyannounced 100m yuan. l

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a conference of central bankers hosted by the Bank of France in Paris REUTERS

Kuroda sprang easing surprise to head off damaging inflation forecast n Reuters, Tokyo The Bank of Japan Governor not only surprised the markets with his latest splurge of monetary easing. He sprang it on his own board members just two days earlier, jolted into action to stop them making a low-ball forecast that might have sunk his flagship inflation target.

To achieve maximum effect for the shock decision, Haruhiko Kuroda and right-hand man Masayoshi Amamiya kept only a handful of elite central bank bureaucrats in the loop as they laid the ground for the expansion of their quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) programme.

They didn’t even give the usual forewarning to senior bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance, according to interviews with nearly a dozen insiders and government sources with knowledge of the bank’s deliberations.

No leaks reached the media, and the announcement at the Oct 31 policy meeting pushed the Nikkei stock average to seven-year highs and the yen to seven-year lows against the dollar.

The market reaction will have been welcome news to Kuroda, but the impact he wanted above all was to alter inflation expectations in a country that has struggled with crippling deflation for two decades.

Timing was critical - and not of his choosing. At the policy meeting the board would also issue a new consumer inflation forecast for the next fiscal year, based on the median estimate from the nine members. But two days before publication, the preliminary estimate was only around 1.5%, three of the sources said.

That was well below the 1.9% forecast made in July, and if published could have been fatal to his key goal of hitting 2% from April next year. Since price expectations play a key role in the consumer behaviours that ultimately determine prices, doubts about the target could be self-fulfilling.

There were other triggers for action, including October’s plunge in oil prices and the fact that an easing burst would have more market impact in the week the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to turn its own liquidity taps off.

But it was the inflation forecast that convinced Kuroda and his aides to go for another burst of stimulus, three sources said. Board members would then have to revisit their estimates in light of the new action. It worked. They

revised their forecasts to take account of the QQE injection, bringing the figure up to 1.7%, enough to keep Kuroda’s target within sight and perhaps drain the growing pool of doubters.

Annual core consumer inflation was down at only 1% in September, prompting many to charge Kuroda with unfounded optimism. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast only 1.1% for the year to come.

Genie on the loose

Though Kuroda won the vote, which will boost the BOJ’s government debt purchases by $260bn a year and triple its buying of risky assets, he also paid a price for the manner and haste of the decision: a board split almost down the middle.

Because policy board members are barred from discussing policy without a quorum in a formal meeting, Kuroda sent BOJ bureaucrats as his emissaries to corral a majority for his easing plan, sources said.

He knew he had the votes of his two deputies, and that there was no hope of winning over the board’s two market economists who have long expressed public doubts about QQE, especially Takahide Kiuchi, who wants the programme terminated in two years.

So fierce lobbying focused on the board’s two former businessmen, Koji Ishida and Yoshihisa Morimoto.

Despite frantic efforts, he failed to win them over. Worse, though they had rarely voiced open doubts about QQE before, their opposition would now become public.

The sources said the swing voter was the hard-to-predict former academic Ryuzo Miyao, who took a long time to convince. One suggested Kuroda had let a genie of dissent out of the bottle, which could make future easing decisions more difficult to achieve.

“Those who dissented this time may be inclined to dissent again if the BOJ were to ease further,” said the source.

Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute and one of just four of the 19 economists who had correctly forecast the Halloween surprise in a Reuters poll, expects the bank will want to ease again in mid-2015.

If so, Kuroda, whose determination to stay the course is unflagging, could well need Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stack the BOJ board with reliable reflationists when Miyao’s term ends in March and Morimoto’s in June. l

Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Limited has recently opened its 85th branch in Pabna.

The bank’s managing director and CEO, Dr Mohammed Haider Ali Miah inaugurated the branch as chief guest

Bank Asia has recently opened its regional head office in Chittagong. The bank’s chairperson, A Rouf Chowdhury inaugurated the office

Executive committee of Standard Bank Limited has recently helpd its 119th board meeting. The committee’s chairperson, Al- haj Mohammed Shamsul Alam presided over the meeting

Jamuna Bank Limited has recently held its 252nd board meeting. The bank’s chairperson, Shaheen Mahmud presided over the meeting

Social Islami Bank Limited has recently held its 325th meeting at the bank’s corporate office.

The bank’s chairperson Major (retd) Dr Md Rezaul Haque presided over the meeting

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

China president says risks to economy 'not that scary' n Reuters, Beijing The risks faced by China’s economy are not that scary and the government is confident it can head off the dangers, President Xi Jinping told global business leaders on Sunday to dispel worries about the world’s second-largest economy.

In a speech to chief executives at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, Xi said even if China’s economy were to grow 7%, that would still rank it at the forefront of the world’s economies.

China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, has had a rocky year.

Growth slid to a low not seen since the 2008/09 global financial crisis in the third quarter dragged by a housing slowdown, softening domestic demand and unsteady exports.

“Some people worry that China’s economic growth will fall further, can it climb over the ridge?” Xi said. “There are indeed risks, but it’s not so scary.

“Even at growth of around 7%, regardless of speed or volume, (we) are among the best in the world,” he said, noting that China’s economy remained “stable”.

The remarks from Xi came a day after data showed annual growth in Chinese exports and imports cooled in October, in another sign of fragility in the economy that could prompt policymakers to take further action to stoke growth.

To shore up activity, policymakers have loosened monetary and fiscal policies since April to ensure that the economy can grow by around 7.5% this year.

Regional governments have accelerated spending on some infrastructure projects and abolished limits on the number of homes that Chinese can buy. The central bank has also injected short-term loans into banks to increase credit supply, and cut mortgage rates

China's President Xi Jinping speaks at the Dialogue On Strengthening Connectivity Partnership at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing REUTERS for some home buyers.

Yet the results yielded have not been as good as some had hoped, fuelling speculation that China may have to cut interest rates or the reduce the amount of deposits that banks set aside as reserves - moves Beijing has denied are on the cards.

Xi, who would sign off on any interest rate cut in China alongside the country’s elite decision-making Politburo, did not comment on the policy outlook, but stressed that his government was focused on reforms and that China was open for business.

Underlining the country’s growing clout as an exporter of capital, he said

China’s overseas direct investment was expected to hit $1.2tn in the next decade.

After three decades of almost uninterrupted double-digit growth, China’s economy has lifted several hundred millions of Chinese from abject poverty, but also polluted the country’s air, land and waterways.

The destruction of China’s environment and a yawning income gap has led Chinese authorities to promise to enact sweeping social, financial and economic reforms in the country that would be the most ambitious in three decades.

“These reforms are gradually being put into effect project by project,” Xi said. “Once the bow is drawn, the ar-

row cannot be put back in the quiver; we will resolutely deepen reform.”

Xi also sought to address concerns that China’s growing economic and diplomatic prowess could constitute a threat beyond its borders, saying that China is willing to have friendly relations with its neighbours.

China has territorial disputes with many of its neighbours and has been much more aggressive in enforcing its claims in recent years.

“China’s development brings enormous opportunities and benefits to the Asia Pacific and the world, and the business opportunities are lasting and limitless,” he said. l

Monday, November 10, 2014

Azevedo: Customs impasse is WTO’s ‘most serious crisis’ n AFP

An impasse over a global pact to streamline customs procedures poses “the most serious crisis the WTO has faced” and has paralysed all negotiations in the trade body, its chief Roberto Azevedo said Saturday.

A draft of the so-called Trade Facilitation Agreement was hammered out last December during tough negotiations at a World Trade Organization conference in Bali - the WTO’s first global accord since its 1995 founding.

But the WTO’s 160 members failed in July to reach a final agreement on the deal, which Azevedo himself has said is crucial to ensuring the WTO’s relevance.

“The impasse has effectively paralysed the multilateral negotiations in the organization,” Azevedo told reporters in Beijing.

“Substantial discussions on all the measures in the Bali package programme have come to a halt.

“I have described this impasse to members as the most serious crisis the WTO has faced,” he said on the sidelines of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum’s annual gathering, hosted this year by China.

Members of the Geneva-based WTO set trade rules among themselves in an attempt to ensure a level playing field, and spur growth by opening markets and removing trade barriers including subsidies, excessive taxes and regulations.

The Bali negotiations were seen as make-or-break for its mission of achieving a worldwide trade agreement fair to both rich and poor nations, which Azevedo has said is under threat from proliferating bilateral and regional trade deals often skewed in favour of richer countries.

Bali was the WTO’s first ever global agreement and signalled the first concrete progress on the Doha Round of

trade liberalisation talks.

Those discussions, launched in 2001, aim to underpin development in poorer nations, but agreement has been elusive amid protectionist reflexes.

Negotiators instead extracted parts of the Doha package for the far less ambitious Bali customs accord, in the hope of creating momentum towards the wider agreement.

But the trade facilitation deal has been put on ice by post-Bali sparring between WTO members, notably over demands from India that the group approves the developing power’s stockpiling of food.

The impasse has effectively paralysed the multilateral negotiations in the organization It took nearly a decade to conclude the customs talks, which began in 2004, and Azevedo warned that the patience of many WTO members is “fast running out”.

India and its developing-world supporters say food stockpiling is essential to ensure poor farmers and consumers survive in the cut-throat world of business.

Western countries, led by the United States, have raised concerns that such stocks could leak onto global markets, skewing trade.

Azevedo said US Trade Representative Michael Froman had told him talks between Washington and New Delhi on the issue had resumed.

“It seems, however that we still don’t have a breakthrough in these bilateral talks,” said Azevedo.

He plans to stress the severity of the situation again next week when he attends a summit of the Group of 20 biggest economies, hosted by Australia. l

Euro zone considers several bailout exit options for Greece n Reuters, Brussels

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks during the India Economic Summit 2014 at the World Economic Forum in New Delhi

Indian FM vows to push land purchase reform n Reuters, New Delhi India will push ahead with reform to a land purchase law blamed by business for slowing industrial projects, even if there is resistance to loosening the rules, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said yesterday.

Jaitley said changes to the law were needed to fulfil Prime Minister Modi’s vision of building 100 new “smart” cities across India.

“Some changes will be necessary, we will first attempt to reach a consensus, if that’s not possible we will go ahead and take the decision,” Jaitley said, speaking at a seminar in New Delhi.

The law was passed last year with support of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party when it was in opposition, and seeks to set fair compensation for loss of livelihood for farmers who sell their land to industrial or infrastructure projects.

But its complex procedures have made it very hard for large-scale industrial projects to acquire the land they need. The BJP would need parliamentary approval to change the law, and might struggle in the upper house where it does not have a majority.

Jaitley also said he hoped to begin a delayed programme to sell stakes in government owned companies “in the next couple of days”. He said the government was aiming to bring down its equity in public sector banks to about 52%. l

REUTERS

Dollar dips after mixed US jobs report n AFP The dollar weakened against other major currencies Friday after a mixed US jobs report did little to change expectations of a change in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook.

The Labor Department reported the economy added 214,000 jobs last month, weaker than the 235,000 consensus analyst estimate. But the previous two months’ job gains were revised upward by a total of 31,000, and the department said the unemployment rate slipped a tenth of a percentage point to

5.8 percent, a six-year low.

Analysts said although the report marked the ninth straight month of job growth above 200,000, it was not strong enough to prod the Federal Reserve to shift from its plan to keep interest rates low well into 2015.

“The data did not stoke up fears of the Fed being in a rush to hike the fed funds rate,” Briefing.com said in a market note. Vassili Serebriakov, of French bank BNP Paribas in New York, said the report should keep the Fed on track to hike interest rates “as expected, around mid-2015.” l

HSBC Brazil slashes 1,000 jobs in single week n AFP Layoffs by HSBC bank in Brazil will likely top 1,000 this week, the workers’ union said Saturday, after employees staged angry protests against job cuts by the London-based firm.

HSBC slashed 4.5% of its workforce across the South American giant, according the Contraf-CUT bank workers’ union. Employees protested the layoffs Friday in the southern city of Curitaba,

where 130 workers were dismissed, according to the workers’ union.

Talks between Contraf-CUT and HSBC have reached a stalemate in Brazil’s capital, Sao Paulo. Representatives of the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

HSBC is Brazil’s fourth largest bank in Brazil, according to official figures.

The British firm reported a seven percent rise in its net profit in the third quarter. l

Euro zone finance ministers will consider several options on Thursday for what happens after Greece exits its bailout at the end of the year, seeking to balance the need to reassure investors with the demands of domestic Greek politics.

The Greek government has staked its survival on exiting the bailout a year early, a move that will please voters hammered by austerity measures imposed by the EU and the IMF, but which has already rattled markets, pushing up Greek bond yields.

Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis told Reuters on Wednesday he hoped for an interim period of up to a year after exiting the bailout during which Greece will still get a financial safety net but would no longer be “micromanaged” by lenders.

After two international bailouts totalling 240bn euros since 2010, when private investors refused to lend to Athens any more, Greece wants to switch back to market financing from the start of next year.

Markets reacted nervously to the plan, worried that Athens would have no longer have any financial back-up.

Greek benchmark 10-year bond yields rose to 8.9% in late October from 5.6% in early September.

Greece and euro zone finance ministers will therefore discuss on Thursday ways to provide Athens with fall-back financing to boost investor confidence, while addressing domestic political sensitivities.

“Greece needs us to continue to support it, not in the same way as now, not with the same mechanism,” France’s Finance Minister Michel Sapin told reporters as he arrived for the meeting with euro zone counterparts. “France is ready for Europe to continue its support.”

All the options to be discussed include a financial cushion, using 11bn euros already granted to recapitalise Greek banks, but which turned out not to be needed, euro zone officials said.

New credit line

In the first option, the recapitalisation money, now in European Financial Stability Facility bonds, would be returned to the EFSF and Greece would instead apply for and get an Enhanced Conditions Credit Line (ECCL) from the European Stability Mechanism - the successor of the EFSF. This would allow Greece to say it is

not longer under a programme, make it possible for euro zone ministers to increase the size of the credit line above the 11bn if necessary and set clear conditions for the availability of the money, even if it is not drawn upon.

But obtaining an ECCL would mean Greece has to sign a new “memorandum of understanding”, politically sensitive in Greece where the previous MOU detailed austerity reforms demanded by lenders, resented by Greeks as a loss of sovereignty by Athens.

This option is also relatively lengthy - it would take a minimum of five weeks to complete - and tougher on conditions because the ECCL could be

monitor reform progress under EU rules and the role of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund would have to be defined.

The IMF would have observer status at best, which several euro zone countries see as insufficient.

The ECB would have to decide if such an arrangement was enough to make Greece eligible for its emergency bond buying programme OMT.

Extend the bailout

The third option is to extend the current bailout by six to 15 months and it would take about 2-3 weeks to get approved.

All the options to be discussed include a financial cushion, using 11bn euros already granted to recapitalise Greek banks, but which turned out not to be needed cancelled if Greece fails to meet reform targets and Athens would then have to apply for new, fully-fledged bailout.

The second option would take less time - around three weeks.

Under this scenario, the availability of the 11bn euros for bank recapitalisation would be extended beyond 2014 and documents would be changed to allow the funds to be used for Greek debt servicing, rather than just bank capital.

The money would then become a financial buffer that Greece could draw on, but a buffer limited to the 11bn euros. The EFSF could buy back its bonds for cash if Athens meets agreed reform criteria, but there would be no need for a formal memorandum of understanding.

If Greece did not meet the targets, it would not get the money, but the cushion would remain in place, ready for when the goals are met.

The European Commission would

DILBERT

That would give Greece more time to meet the criteria for the release of the last, 1.8bn euro, tranche of the existing programme, which will be lost unless it is disbursed before the end of the year.

Euro zone finance ministers would then agree that the 11bn euros in unused bank recapitalisation funds could be reused for other purposes after they are returned to the EFSF at the end of the year under a one-year extension of the bailout.

Because the money would return to the EFSF, it would immediately lower Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio.

The role and involvement of the IMF would have to be decided, but there would be a way to avoid referring to a memorandum of understanding through the use of the term “letter of intent”.

But this option would still carry the political stigma of Greece still being under a bailout programme. l