If those votes were not cancelled...n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Compared to the last upazila elections, the � rst phase of the elections this year saw a signi� cant hike in the number of cancelled votes, which many said was “alarming” because these votes could have changed the results in some of the upazilas.

In the � rst phase this year, a total of 97 upazilas went into polls. In the last polls held in 2009, the number of cancelled votes in these 97 upazilas was 3.65%. This year, the number was 4.56%, marking a nearly 1% increase.

Election o� cials and observers said there were many reasons for cancelling votes: misplaced stamping on ballot pa-pers; confusion between symbols; qual-ity of ink used in the seal; lack of knowl-edge of � rst-time voters; and so on.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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Falgun 11, 1420Rabius Saani 22, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 1 No 331 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

BusinessB1 Bandwidth importers are selling internet service at less than half price, apparently o� ering challenges to the state-monopoly Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) that already lost 26% of its market share in only four months period.

News5 Chandrima Udyan, also known as Zia Udyan, has become a den of antisocial and criminal activities keeping at bay the city dwellers from visiting one of the very few eyesoothing green spots in the capital.

Op-Ed11 The minister of industries recently said that no state-owned mills or facto-ries would be privatised by the present government. This is indeed disturbing and shocking news as far as governance is concerned.

Entertainment12 Marking the Martyr’s Day and the International Mother Language Day, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy initiated a colourful cultural programme on Febru-ary 21 at their open air premises.

INSIDE

9 | MODI CRITICISES CHINA6 | A BANGLADESHI’S GIFT TO BERKELEY 14 | CORNET SHOCKS SERENA7 | CORPORATE LAWYERS IN BANGLADESH

DHAKA UNIVERSITY ADMISSION

80% fail to get passing mark n Ahmed Zayeef

On an average, more than 80% stu-dents who sought admission in the Dhaka University over the past three years, had failed to get the required passing marks in the admission tests.

Although students face intense competition every year to secure ad-mission in Dhaka University, the fail-ure rate is alarmingly high, especially because it includes students who had scored the top grades in secondary and higher secondary levels.

The DU admission test results for the 2013-14 academic session show that out of 217,247 candidates in � ve units, 175,346 (81%) students failed to obtain the minimum passing marks. The failure rate was 83% in the 2012-13 academic session, and 81% in the 2011-12 academic session.

The DU holds admission tests in � ve units: “A” unit only for the students of science discipline, “B” unit only for humanities students and “C” only for students of commerce disciplines. Stu-dents from every discipline can appear in admission tests for “D” (for some selected departments) and “Cha” (� ne arts faculty) units.

The 120-mark admission tests have 40% passing marks for the di� erent units, while B, C and D units have min-imum passing scores for di� erent sec-tions of the question, such as Bangla, English and general knowledge.

The failure rate for the 2013-14 ses-sion shows that 95% candidates failed in Cha unit, 91% in C unit, 86% in B unit and around 91% in D unit. The number of failed students was comparatively

less in A unit, where the � gure was 58%.Academics have said the failure of

such a large number of students in the admission tests of the country’s top ed-ucational institution re� ected the “poor quality” of education handed down to students in school and college levels.

The university’s social science facul-ty Dean Professor Farid Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that the ad-mission test was a process of � ltering which allowed the university authority to get the best students.

“But it is alarming that students who achieve good grades, even the highest in SSC and HSC, fail to attain the pass-ing mark in the admission test,” said Farid, who is also a coordinator of the admission test held under the social science faculty.

Statistics from the last three years’ DU admission tests show that majori-ty of the students who had earlier ob-tained the highest score of GPA (grade point average) 5 in their SSC and HSC exams, failed in the admission tests.

For the 2013-14 academic session, 67,058 students who achieved GPA 5 in both SSC and HSC exams sat for ad-mission tests in DU, but 56.12% of them failed to attain the passing marks.

For the 2012-13 academic session, the failure rate among GPA 5 achievers was 55%, while it was 53% for the 2011-12 academic session.

The university’s Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury said: “The number of GPA 5 achievers in SSC and HSC levels is increasing dramatically every year. But the performance of these students proved that quality of educa-tion is not improving, rather the quanti-ty of GPA 5 achievers is increasing only.”

Monju Ara Begum, principal of Viqa-runnisa Noon School and College that has a longstanding reputation for good results in SSC and HSC exams, told the Dhaka Tribune that the quality was ob-viously not increasing with the quantity.

“It has become very easy to get a good GPA in SSC and HSC. Most of the students are doing very selective study in these levels. Without having clear and vast knowledge, when they are seating for a competitive exam like university admission test, they cannot pass,” she added. l

Hackers loot $250,000 from Sonali Bank n Tribune Report

Around $250,000 has been looted from Sonali Bank in the middle of last year through hacking the state-run bank’s password, a senior government o� cial said yesterday.

The bank’s online server was hacked to transfer the amount of money to other accounts, Banking and Finan-cial Institutions Division Secretary Dr Aslam Alam told the annual conference of the bank at a hotel in Dhaka.

The online security of the bank is now under threat.

Aslam revealed the information at a meeting in presence of Finance Minister AMA Muhith and other senior o� cials, stressing the need for strengthening of the bank’s risk management system to avoid recurrence of such incident.

Dr AHM Habibur Rahman, chairman of the bank’s board of directors, presid-ed over the meeting.

Aslam mentioned the incident of Kishoreganj Sonali Bank heist on Jan-uary 24.

The incidents could have been averted if there were appropriate secu-rity measures, he said.

The chairman also suggested bring-ing changes to business strategy of Sonali Bank and said the bank should give attention to providing loans to small and medium entrepreneurs, rather than attaching priority to giving large loans.

The bank should pay utmost atten-tion to coordinated core banking, he said.

In his address, the � nance minister said the Hallmark scam took place in 2012 because of weakness in internal control system.

He emphasised the need for internal

supervision and control in the state-owned banks to ensure good gover-nance.

“The banks must give due atten-tion to their internal supervision and control to stop recurrence of such inci-dents,” he said.

Muhith said a risk-free environment must be ensured to provide clients with uninterrupted services.

The banks must be careful so that their online services could not be ham-pered in the wake of any technical glitches, he added.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Two Bangladeshis killed in Libya gun� ghtn Rabiul Islam

Two Bangladeshi workers were killed on Friday in Libya when their taxi got caught in a gun� ght near the port city of Bengazi.

The victims were identi� ed as Abdul Kalam of Barguna and Sha� qur Rah-man of Pirojpur, Ahsan Kibria Siddiqui, � rst secretary at the Bangladesh em-bassy in Tripoli, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.

“Our local representatives have seen the dead bodies,” Ahsan said.

The men worked as cleaners at a company named Sharikat Kazi in Bengazi, about 650 kilometres east of Tripoli.

Ahsan said the duo were going to Bengazi city in a taxi cab during the weekly holiday on Friday. The taxi was

caught in a gun� ght between two local groups, and the men, along with the cab driver, were shot dead at the scene.

“I am trying to take permission to visit the deceased and hope to go by Monday,” the embassy o� cial said, adding, “We are trying to send the dead bodies home.”

In reply to a question, Ahsan said: “We have to try to realise compensation from the company.”

He also said the law and order situa-tion in Libya has deteriorated, and such incidents take place at times. Around 40,000 Bangladeshis are now working in Libya. l

Street lights are on in broad daylight at Dhaka University at a time when the country is struggling to meet the demand for electricity, thanks to the DCC MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Juba Leagueman killed, 55 injured in post-poll violence n Tribune Report

At least one Juba League man was killed and 55 others were injured in the post-poll violence in di� erent places across the country, our district corre-spondents said yesterday.

The deceased was Jahabat AliMolla, 30.

At least 10 persons were injured in an attack by the BNP-Jamaat activists at Joygirmohol village in Koira upazila under Khulna district yesterday.

Witnesses said local BNP-Jamaat men equipped with lethal weapons swooped on Jahabat at a shrimp enclo-sure in Mollar Kona area around 10am.

The Jubo League activist ran for life and took shelter in a house.

As the attackers tried to take him away from the house, the family mem-bers and locals barred them from doing so, and ultimately both groups were locked into a clash which left 10 people injured.

Police arrested � ve persons on sus-picion, con� rmed O� cer-in-Charge of Koira police station Md Fazlur Rahman.

Meanwhile in Sherpur, two groups of Awami League were locked in a clash over the local body polls to elect chair-man candidate for Nalitabari upazila of Sherpur yesterday.

At least eight people were wounded in the incident.

The wounded are upazila AL PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

DUADMISSIONSEEKERS

Session Failed

2013-14 81%2012-13 83%2011-12 81%

A H M/DT INFOGRAPHIC

Total vote cast in 97 upazilas

10,113,967Total legal vote

9,652,584

Total cancelled vote461,383

Total 35 upazila with more than 5000 vote cancelled

Total vote cast in 97 upazilas10,270,853

Total legal vote9,895,320

Total cancelled vote375,533

Upazilas Winner’s Vote Runners up vote Cancelled votes Di� erence of votesKhagrachari Sadar 13,424 13,262 1,637 162 Golapganj 24,369 23,602 5,565 767 Palash 32,435 31,226 4,705 1,209 Ashashuni 50,778 49,613 3,928 1,165 Kendua 61,533 59,663 5,753 1,870 Nachole 24,924 23,716 3,671 1,208 Durgapur 25,716 23,991 4,748 1,725 Meherpur Sadar 67,990 65,285 6,871 2,705 Jamalpur Sadar 84,719 75,324 15,931 9,395 Karimganj 35,207 30,560 7,360 4,647 Kaliganj 38,503 32,528 8,466 5,975

CANCELLED VOTES IN CLOSELY CONTESTED UPAZILAS

SLH/

DT IN

FOGR

APHI

C

SOURCE: ELECTION COMMISSION AND DT RESEARCH

FEBRUARY 19, 2014 ELECTION

Election 2009

Election 2014

The victims worked as cleaners at a company

STREETLIGHTS DARE TO OVERSHADOW THE SUNLIGHT!

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

If those votes were not cancelled... PAGE 1 COLUMN 3According to former election commis-sioner M Sakhawat Hossain, if not can-celled, such a huge number of votes “might” have had an impact on the results.

In the last elections, the number le-gal votes cast in these 97 upazilas was 98,95,320 while that of cancelled votes was 3,75,533.

This year, the number of legal votes was 96,52,584, while that of annulled votes was 4,61,383 – marking a rise of nearly 86,000.

“There is something de� nitely wrong. Our voters are neither that illit-erate nor are all of them voting for the � rst time,” Sakhawat said.

Explaining why there were so many cancelled votes in the 2009 election, Sakhawat, who was then a commis-sioner, said the quality of the ink used was not very good; it took too much time to dry up.

Analysing the results of the recently concluded upazila polls, the Dhaka Tri-bune has found that in at least 12 close-ly contested upazilas, the number of annulled votes was much higher than the di� erence in votes got by the win-ners and the runners up.

In at least eight other seats, the number of cancelled votes was more or

less equal to the di� erence in votes got by the top two contenders.

In 35 upazilas that went into polls last week, at least 5,000 votes were cancelled in each of them.

In Golapganj upazila in Sylhet, the number of cancelled votes was 5,565 while the di� erence between the win-ner and the next one was just 767.

In Khagrachhari sadar, the upazila that saw the hardest � ght this year, the di� erence in vote was just 162 while the number cancelled votes was 1,637.

Rokhsana Khondker, steering com-mittee member of the Election Work-ing Group, said: “De� nitely, the huge number of cancelled votes could have had an impact on the results, especially in those upazilas where the di� erence was less than the cancelled votes.”

A number of o� cials, who were di-rectly involved in conducting the elec-tions, told the Dhaka Tribune that there were many reasons why votes could get cancelled.

Nasima Khanam, assistant returning o� cer of Palash upazila in Narsingdhi, said votes could get cancelled if the seal fell on multiple symbols. “Voters’ carelessness also contribute such huge number of cancelled votes.”

Mohammad Rokab Ali Dewan, up-azila election o� cer of Nachole in

Chapainawabganj, said: “If those votes were not cancelled, the scenario could have been di� erent. Then again, it does not mean that all the cancelled votes went to one particular candidate.”

Kamrul Hasan Bhuyan, presiding of-� cer of the Kawra Government Primary School polling centre in Kendua of Ne-trakona, said 75 votes were cancelled in his centre.

“At my centre, voters got confused between the steamer and the aeroplane symbols because these two looked sim-ilar to many. Some of the votes were cancelled because the ballot papers were not properly folded and some got torn. Instances of the common prob-lem of wrong or multiple stamping was also there,” Kamrul said.

According to Rokhsana Khondker, some of the � rst-time voters might not know how to vote. “It might also be the case that some people went to cast fake votes and made mistakes in a hurry.”

Former election commissioner Sakha-wat Hossain said there should be proper investigation into why such a huge num-ber of votes got cancelled. “There should be investigation into technical issues such as whether the voters were proper-ly educated; the quality of the ink used in the stamp and the seal; spacing between symbols in ballot papers; and so on.” l

Juba League man killed, 55 injured PAGE 1 COLUMN 6president Abdul Halim Ukil and gener-al secretary Moksedur Rahman Lebu. Two policemen also sustained injuries as they tried to bring the situation un-der control, reports our correspondent.

At Sonagaji of Feni, Jubo Dal and Awami League men fought each other.

Some 15 persons including pass-ers-by sustained injuries in the inci-dent at Sonagazi Bazar around 11am.

In Chittagong, police in an over-night drive nabbed six activists of Jamaat-Shibir from Satkania upazila yesterday for their alleged involvement with subversive activities in the area at di� erent times.

Md Khaled Hossain, o� -cer-in-charge (OC) of Satkania police station, said they detained the six from Sadaha union under the upazila as they were accused in several cases lodged with the police station for attacking law enforcers, arson, vandalism and conducting sabotage.

At least 10 persons including � ve po-licemen were injured during vandalism of shops by the BNP men at Char Rouha Bazar under Satpua union of Sarishabari upazila of the district Friday evening.

Locals said Altaf Hossain, a UP member and BNP activist, was locked in an altercation with former member

of the same union Maznu Miah, an Awami League activist, after he (Maz-nu) had protested the harassment of some AL activists by the BNP men af-ter the ruling party-backed chairman candidate was defeated in the upazila election held on February 19.

In Natore, Awami League men ha-rassed Altab Ali’s daughter.

Altab hails from village Matsayapara of Bildahar area of Singra upazila. His house was also vandalised.

The 17-year-old girl claimed that their house was attacked as her father was a BNP activist while local AL men said they protested against anti-social activi-ties run by the family. Meanwhile in Pab-na two separate cases were � led against 34 BNP-Jamaat men including the newly elected upazila chairman over Friday’s violence in Atghoria upazila.

Earlier at least 10 people were in-jured while � ve houses and two mo-torbikes vandalised in a post-poll clash between Awami League and BNP-Ja-maat in Jumaikhiri village of Atghoria upazila under the district.

Md Ra� kul Islam, resident of the vil-lage, � led a case accusing eight BNP-Ja-maat men for attacking his house and setting � re to it.

O� cer-in-Charge Md Monirul Islam of the Atghoria police station said the

accused were on the run. In Char Fassion upazila under Bhola

district, local Jubo League and Chha-tra League activists on Saturday night swooped on the electioneering by the BNP-backed candidate and his sup-porters.

The attack left at least 20 persons in-cluding four newsmen injured.

O� cer-in-Charge Abul Bashar of Char Fasson police station con� rmed the incident.

Hackers loot PAGE 1 COLUMN 5“Bangladesh’s banking sector is now standing on a strong base and it has witnessed a massive expansion … what we need now is to ensure quality ser-vices for people,” he added.

Deposit collection was not the only duty of banks, Muhith said, adding that the prime responsibility of the banks was to use the idle money properly.

In this regard, he suggested bankers use their own innovative business ideas.

According to the Sonali Bank o� cials, the recovery of bank’s default loans sig-ni� cantly improved in 2013 as it realised default loans worth Tk5,176 crore.

Sonali Bank has also declared 2014 as the year of business development and recovery of default loans. l

LGSP-II FUND MISAPPROPRIATION

Government to take action against 68 Union Parishads n Mohosinul Karim

The local government division is set to take punitive measures against some 68 union parishads for misusing funds al-located for the local governance support project (LGSP-II) of the LGRD ministry.

Punitive actions will be taken against the union parishads after con-sidering the anomalies in the use of the allocation which surfaced after the annual audit of the ministry. The funds were distributed in 2013.

“Audit teams of the ministry found anomalies on the use of the funds allo-cated under the project,” National Proj-ect Director of LGSP-II project KM Mo-zammel Haque told the Dhaka Tribune

Saying the ministry has already decided to take action against the chairpersons and members concerned for misuse and embezzlement of the funds, he also added that letters from the project will be sent to the respec-tive union parishads and their govern-ment allocation would be suspended until the anomalies are checked.

Haque also said the persons in-volved with the anomalies and embez-zlement of funds would have to face legal actions and the authority will � le cases against them after giving them a scope to place their explanations.

“The explanations would be heard,” he added.

Noting that there is no scope for misusing the allocation for the project, he also said concerned o� cials will be held accountable by the government for using the fund.

Haque also informed that around 123 union parishad chairmen and oth-er concerned o� cials faced various types of punishment, like suspension and imprisonment, last year for such o� ences.

When contacted, Mahbubur Rah-man Tulu, president of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum, a forum for union parishad chairmen, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are aware of such misuse of the project fund. But, some chairmen used their funds mainly for other projects in line with the public demand.”

“The funds that were given under the project should be used according to its terms and references. Those who will not use it properly are expected to face problems,” he added.

The Local Governance Support Proj-ect, with a total fund of Tk39.12 billion, was jointly � nanced by the Bangladesh Government and the World Bank. The World Bank has contributed Tk20.93 billion for the project.

Starting in 2000 as a pilot project at Sirajganj, the project was later expand-ed across the country in 2012 consid-ering its success. The project will con-clude in 2016. Under the project, union parishads across the country receive an allocation, from Tk1 million to Tk20 million, from the project fund as per the population of its areas.

According to the project note, the allocations are to be used for small scheme works as per the need of the ward. Ward members of the Union Par-ishad will make small schemes after di-rectly consulting with local voters. The schemes would be scrutinised through a meeting of Block Grant Coordination Committee to ensure that the scheme does not replicate other schemes ad-opted by any other project.

The project allows its funds to be used for schemes to repair or construct new bridges, roads, installation of tube wells or sanitary latrines. The alloca-tion is not applicable for constructing or repairing mosques, temples or other places for worshiping.

On Thursday, the project director asked 4,571 union parishad chair-persons to be alert of unscrupulous middleman, who are now o� ering higher allocations from the project in exchange of bribes. l

3 cut under train in capitaln Tribune Report

A woman was ran over by two trains one after another in capital’s Khilkhet yesterday.

Quoting witnesses, Sub-Inspector of Kamalapur General Railway Police Nazrul Islam said the woman fell vic-tim while crossing the railway tracks around 8am.

“She � rst lost one leg under a Syl-het bound train, Parabat Express, and remained trapped on the railway track for around 15 minutes when another train, Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu Ex-press, ran over her killing her on the spot,” he said.

“Although a number of people wit-nessed the accident none went forward to rescue her despite her screaming in pain,” he added.

Upon information, members from the GRP went to the spot and sent the body to the Dhaka Medical College Hos-pital morgue. The deceased was wearing a salwar-kameez and a burka, however, her identity could not be known immediately.

Police assume that she might be around 40-year-old, said the SI.

In another incident, a student of

University of South Asia, Aminul Islam, came under a train in Abdullahpur in the afternoon.

Son of Abdul Kader Sheikh of Sirajganj, Aminul Islam was a resident of capital’s Fayedabad in Dakkhinkhan and a fourth-year student of Computer Science.

Nazrul Islam said 26-year-old Aminul fell under the wheels of a train around 1:30pm while crossing the rail-way at Kotbari in Abdullahpur.

A businessman Md Moinuddin, 45, of Dhalpur was killed being hit by a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in capital’s Ja-trabari in the morning.

Police and witnesses said a speed-ing auto-rickshaw hit the businessman from behind while he was crossing the road around 11am.

Dayen Uddin, younger brother of Moinuddin said his elder brother was a window grills trader based in Dhalpur and was on his way for a personal work.

Body of an unidenti� ed youth was recovered from Kamlapur Railway Terminal.

GRP said the youth fell under the wheels of an unknown train sometime during night and his body was recov-ered around 8am. l

Inadequate human sludge management to undermine success: Expertsn UNB

Experts at a dissemination workshop yesterday presumed that inadequate human sludge management system in Bangladesh would undermine the success of open defecation reduction, which was possible due to signi� cant investment for improving sanitation during past two decades.

They said maximum human sludge is being plunged into water without safe emptying, transportation, dump-ing, treatment and disposal mecha-nism in the country that might pose threat to national health security,said a press release.

WaterAid Bangladesh, Practical Ac-tion Bangladesh and ITN-BUET jointly organised the workshop and dialogue titled “Faecal Sludge Management” at the ITN-BUET Seminar Room.

Researchers, professionals, city cor-poration and WASA o� cials and activ-ists took part at the dialogue on three action research projects the topic.

Bangladesh had reduced the open

defecation signi� cantly to 4.4 percent in 2010 from 43 percent in 2003 that is a remarkable achievement, notably much better than other South Asian countries.

The research project was jointly conducted by WaterAid Bangladesh with Practical Action Bangladesh and Faridpur Municipality at Faridpur to

� nd sludge management solutions for rural and small town areas of Bangla-desh.

Interestingly, the research � ndings show that Faecal Sludge Management is doable, e� ective and a� ordable for high to low-income people without

a� ecting the existing toilet technology. The experts opined that human

waste materials can easily be co-com-posted to form a safe and stable soil conditioner for use in agriculture, which has also potentiality to generate revenue from sale of compost and pro-vision of a sludge removal service.

Dr Md Khairul Islam, Country Rep-resentative of WaterAid Bangladesh, said one of the Millennium Develop-ment Goals of Bangladesh was to pro-vide sanitation for 100 percent popula-tion by 2015.

“Although signi� cant improvement has been occurred, it will be a chal-lenge for the government to keep the achievement in track without ensuring safe management of human sludge,” he added.

Islam expected the outcome of the research makes an innovative contri-bution to knowledge around sludge management and tackles the situation of urban or peri-urban areas with high development density and little physi-cal space for technologies. l

BNP: Government cannot resist ‘justi� ed’ movementn UNB

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the government would not be able to resist the opposition leaders and activists from carrying on their “justi� ed” movement by resorting to repressive acts.

In a statement, he said: “The gov-ernment neither will be able to scare the opposition leaders and activists nor resist them from carrying on their movement for realising people’s justi-� ed demand by resorting to repression and oppression.”

The BNP spokesperson issued the statement, protesting the arrest of Dha-ka City unit ward 79 General Secretary Mujibur Rahman Anu and Sutrapur up-azila unit Sramik Dal president Delwar Hossain Mollah.

Sutrapur police arrested the duo on Thursday from Sadar Ghat area in the capital.

Fakhrul alleged that the current re-gime after assuming o� ce through the January 5 “farcical elections” had in-creased the degree of its repression and oppression.

“The opposition leaders and activ-ists are being killed, abducted, made disappeared, arrested, tortured and implicated in cases by this illegal re-gime. The arrest of Mujibur Rahman Anu and Delwar Hossain Mollah is part of the government’s continued repres-sive acts,” he added.

He demanded the government im-mediately release the two city opposi-tion leaders. l

Shaheed Minar Defamed in Barisal, Madrasa teacher sent to jailn Our Correspondent, Barisal &

Barguna

A madrasa teacher was sent to jail yes-terday for alleged defaming of Shaheed Minar in Gournadi of Barisal.

Police and local sources said Hafez Asadul Huq alias Parvez, 30, a teacher of Kamalapur Hafezia Nurani Madrasa under Gaurnadi upazila of Barisal, told some local people that placing � oral

wreaths on the altar of Shaheed Minar is unapproved (Bidayat) in Islam.

On the same night some unknown miscreants clung mud on the Shaheed Minar of local primary school and Hafez Parvez was suspected to be in-volved with the incident.

Police arrested Hafez Parvez on Fri-day night and produced him before a court of law yesterday under section 54.

The court ordered to send him to

jail rejecting his bail prayer yesterday evening.

Meanwhile an acting upazila chairman, was barred from paying tribute at Shaheed Minar in Patharghata of Barguna.

Local sources said Mariam Begum Jebu, vice chairman of Patharghata Up-azila Parishad (UZP) went to give � ower wreath on behalf of the upazila parish-ad at the early hour of Friday.

At that time upazila AL secretary Alamgir Hossain barred her from giving � oral wreath on the Shaheed Minar.

He claimed Mariam Bugum Jebu was a Jamaat activist, so he barred her from going to the altar of the Shaeed Minar from the pro-liberation viewpoint.

Jebu said she was not a Jamaat ac-tivist rather an advisor of upazila BNP and former president of upazila Mahila Dal and she was solely harassed due to

political rivalry with ruling party and for following Islamic dress and reli-gious codes .

Later Dipak, a peon of the upazila parishad, put the � oral wreath on the Shaheed Minar on behalf of the UZP, Mariam added.

Shakhawat Hossain, Patharghata upazila nirbahi o� cer, said he heard about the incident, but none has � led allegation in this connection. l

One of the Millennium Development Goals of Bangladesh was to provide sanitation for 100 percent population by 2015

As farmers hardly � nd any respite from their daily hard work the tolling masses of Daitala village at Sadar upazila of Jessore take out a unique cow-cart procession to rejoice over their harvesting yesterday BANGLAR CHOKH

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

Citizen group slams US militancy policyn Abu Bakar Siddique

A group of citizens slammed the United States of America’s “dual” policy yes-terday, holding it responsible for the rise of militancy in Bangladesh.

The USA had been “patronising” Is-lamist militant groups across the globe to achieve their interests, they alleged.

Terming the policy “dual” and “notorious”, Shahriar Kabir, acting president of Ekatturer Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee, said: “The US has to change its policy against terrorism which conviniently patronises militan-cy in di� erent countries.”

He made the remark while speak-ing at a discussion titled “Militancy Threats: Bangladesh’s Concern” at the capital’s Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel.

He claimed that the USA patronised Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh, which is the mother of all militant groups in the country and operates through cap-italising on the religious senitiments of the masses.

Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque said people should be made aware of the hazards of militancy as they have a tendency to believe anything that is presented to them when justi� ed by the religion. The militants take advan-tage of these beliefs to bolster their side.

Besides the government, the edu-cational institutes and families also should take the responsibility to raise their children’s awareness about the negative e� ects of militancy, said Ish-

faq Ilahi Choudhury, registrar of East West University.

Mentioning the murder case of blog-ger Rajib, he said some derailed stu-dents of a private university who were involved in the murder did not even hold the guilt as they were so blinded by these militant groups.

“The USA had tried heart and soul to keep Jamaat-e-Islami in the 10th National Parliamentary Election held on January 5, which indicates the level

of their patronisation towards Jamaat,” said Shahriar Kabir .

Sultana Kamal, chairperson of Transparency International Bangla-desh, said the presence of militancy in this sub-continent was the result of in-ternational politics.

However, in the case of Bangladesh, the patronisation and lenient attitude of the two major political parties had made it easier for militancy to grow in the country.

Sarwar Ali, a trustee of the Bang-ladesh Liberation War museum, said: “In the case of their [USA] own people they do not tolerate terrorism, whereas for other countries they patronise mil-itants. Such a policy is highly self-con-tradictory and harmful for humanity.”

In 1999, Bangladesh experienced militancy for the � rst time, said Major General (Retd) Abdur Rashid.

However, Jamaat showed its true colours as a militant out� t after the

International Crimes Tribunal, on Feb-ruary 28 of last year, awarded a life sentence to its Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayeedi for crimes against humanity during the liberation war of Bangladesh, he said.

Former Deputy Governor of Bangla-desh Bank Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled said militancy was absent in the coun-try when BNP and Jamaat were not in an alliance together.

Professor Mizanur Rahman, chairperson of Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission, urged the government to take immediate action to eradicate militancy from the country to protect the human rights of the people.

He said government had already lost the trust of people which is re� ected in the ongoing Upazila Parishad polls where Jamaat backed candidates have won a signi� cant number of seats.

The � nancial institutions of Jamaat should be nationalised and handled by the government to make them weak, he added.

Golam Sarwar, editor of the daily Samakal said Jamaat did not have the right to do politics in Bangladesh as they did not believe in the country’s in-dependence and constitution.

He suggested a special tribunal be formed to prosecute acts of militancy.

More than 50 academics, security analysts, civil and military bureau-crats, and journalists from home and abroad joined the four-hour discus-sion, organised by the Bangladesh Cen-tre for Peace and Development. l

‘59.19% turnoutin 97 upazilas‘n Tribune Report

The � rst phase of polls to 97 upazilas was relatively peacefully except for some sporadic incidents of violence, and the elections witnessed a 59.19% voter turnout, claimed Election Work-ing Group (EWG) o� cials.

The observation was made at a press conference organised by the EWG at Sagor-Runi auditorium at Dhaka Re-porters Unity in the capital’s Segun Bagicha yesterday.

EWG Director Md Abdul Alim said: “In 97.9% centres, empty ballot boxes were shown before polling agents and EWG observers, and the ballot boxes were sealed properly in 98.9% centres.”

He also said casting of votes was de-layed in only 5.5% of centres, adding that violence was reported at 9.7% centres.

The report also noted that law en-forcers played an active role in con-trolling the situation at 92% of centres.

In 25 upazilas, the EWG observers counted a total of 63 incidents of fake vote-casting and 38 incidents occurred where unidenti� ed persons tried to snatch items from ballots boxes.

Vote casting was temporarily halted at 16 centres, and supporters were seen campaigning for candidates within 400 yards of around 4.5% of centres in vio-lation of election laws, the report added.

Eleven incidents of violence were ob-served outside centres and 17 incidents were reported in which candidates provid-ed transportation facilities to the voters.

Presiding o� cers con� rmed the pres-ence of polling agents at 89.8% of cen-tres, while the presence of unauthorised people inside booths during vote count-ing was observed, the report said. l

Mixed opinions among AL Dhaka city leaders after decision to split city unitn Emran Hossain Shaikh

A large number of leaders of the Dhaka city unit of the ruling Awami League have expressed discontent over the party’s decision to split the city unit into two, although the mid-level lead-ers – who are interested in securing key posts in the bifurcated units – have argued for the setting up of fresh com-mittees as soon as possible.

Since the last council of the Awa-mi League’s city unit on December 27, 2012, no committee for city unit had been formed, while the party’s central leadership remained undecided on whether to divide the city unit.

However, the Awami League Central Working Committee meeting on Febru-ary 12 approved the splitting of the city unit.

The city unit leaders who are against the split said the division might cause the party to lose its control in the capital.

Sources inside the city unit said around one-third of the committee members, as well as some leaders of the thana and ward units, were against

the bifurcation.Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya,

general secretary of the city unit, also wanted a united unit for Dhaka city, said a number of mid-level leader, seeking anonymity.

A joint secretary of the city unit, who is also a contender for the new committee, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Maya Bhai considers that he will be the president of Dhaka City Awami League whether it is divided or not, and he wants to be the president of the whole city.”

Meanwhile, refusing to comment on the issue, Maya, who is also the disaster management minister, said: “O� cially the decision has not come out, so now I am not interested in expressing my opinion. When the party will disclose it, I will comment about the issue.”

He said the council had given “pow-er of attorney” to party President Sheikh Hasina to make any decision in favour of the city unit.

On the other hand, several city unit leaders said they wanted the unit to be split for the strengthening of the com-

mittee and easing of its mobilisation, as it was tough to maintain the megacity with singular leadership.

Many people would get the chance to criticise the government if they failed to divide the party unit like the bifurcation of the Dhaka City Corpora-tion, they added.

Blaming the city unit leaders who are against the split for delaying the formation of the new committee, the pro-split leaders said consent among some key leaders would have resulted in the formation of a fresh committee immediately after the last council in December 2012.

Awalad Hossain, joint secretary of the city unit, said the leaders wanted a new committee as early as possible, irrespec-tive of whether it was split or not, to tack-le future movements by BNP-Jamaat.

“We respect our [party] President Sheikh Hasina’s decision. We will welcome any kind of decision by her, whether it is for one or four portions,” said Awlad.

Echoing Awalad, the city unit’s Or-ganizing Secretary Shahe Alam Murad

also said the leaders would welcome any decision made by the party chief.

Sources said many aspirants are trying to boost their chances of secur-ing a place in the new citu committee by communicating with party central leaders including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Syed Ashraful Islam and Obaidul Quader

Sources also said the city unit’s act-ing President MA Aziz and General Sec-retary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya were hoping to become president of the new committee. Furthermore, according to the sources, incumbent vice-presidents Kamal Ahmed Majum-dar and AKM Rahmat Ullah, joint sec-retaries Advocate Quamrul Islam and Awlad Hossain, Organising secretaries Shahe Alam Murad and Syed Khokon, and Executive Committee member Asl-amul Haque Aslam were trying to ob-tain vital posts on the next committee.

The new committee may be formed after the end of the ongoing council of ward, union and thana units of the city, the sources added. l

Ershad faces sti� challenge to hold JaPa unityn Manik Miazee

The Ershad-led Jatiya Party is facing a sti� challenge of uniting the apparent-ly faction-ridden JaPa, party insiders have said.

The Jatiya Party seems to have been divided into two factions, one led by the former president, and the other by the leader of the opposition in the par-liament, Rawshan Ershad.

Some 30 of 34 lawmakers of the par-ty were reportedly carrying out Raw-shan’s order and the remaining MPs, plus the leaders at grass roots level were acting on Ershad’s instruction.

Ershad is trying his hardest to ne-gotiate an end to the looming con� ict with the party leaderships.

The party sources said the district unit leaders were lobbying the Raw-shan-led lawmakers and ministers for their own bene� ts.

A group of leaders were also coming to the secretariat to get the government contract.

“The party is divided into two fac-tions. To retain the party unity, a timely decision is needed right now,” said JaPa Noakhali district unit secretary Mobar-ak Hossain Azad.

Party Chairman HM Ershad was planning to re-organise the party to re-gain his power after a meeting with the leaders at grass roots level, he said

According to the JaPa sources, Er-shad has lost control over the party high-ups. His wife Rawshan, the oppo-sition leader of parliament, reined in the party politics before and after the 10th parliamentary election.

Centring the election, Ershad fre-quently changed his mind about whether to participate in poll while the party high-ups communicated with Rawshan and followed her instruction.

A total of 65 leaders from the party contested the 10th parliamentary poll led by Rawshan.

Responding to a question as to why Rawshan was chosen as the opposition leader instead of Ershad, JaPa presidi-um member Anisul Islam Mahmud told the Dhaka Tribune, “She played an im-portant role during election. Therefore, we selected her as the leader of our par-ty parliamentary committee and also as the opposition leader.”

Following his release from the Com-bined Military Hospital after a month-long stay, the party lawmakers and leaders did not meet Ershad.

The party leaders and activists also turned down Ershad’s call for a meet-ing with him.

After his oath as the opposition lead-er, Rawshan met with the JaPa lawmak-ers four times, but Ershad was not there.

Responding to a question in this re-gard, the party Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader said: “Our party has some internal problems, but we are still united. We are trying to re-organ-ise the party.”

Replying to another question, he said he did not have any idea as to why Ershad did not attend the meetings.

On February 12 at a party programme with the leaders at grass roots level, Er-shad invited all JaPa lawmakers, but only four of them attended it.

At the programme, Ershad said: “I am calling upon all of you, who earlier wanted to break bonds with the party, to come back to right path. I will em-brace you with open arms.”

“Do not break bonds with the party for simple reasons. Otherwise the Jatiya Party will move ahead without you.”

Asked about whether JaPa is divided into two factions, Ershad told the Dha-ka Tribune the party had some internal problems, but it could not be said JaPa was split into two.

The leader said only the 30 lawmak-ers did not constitute the Jatiya Party.

“It is a party of crores of people and I am all in all of JaPa.”

While the district unit leaders want-ed that the 30 be expelled from the party, Ershad said he wanted to forgive them for now considering the impor-tance of upazila election.

Acknowledging the crisis in the par-ty he said it was not a major crisis.

The party would take to the street and seek votes in future, and thereby win, added the former president.

Ruhul Amin Howlader said for the last three months, the central lead-ers were busy with the parliamentary poll-related issues.

“Since Rawshan is busy with parlia-mentary a� airs, JaPa Chief HM Ershad and I will re-organise the party.” l

Women MP polls schedule to be announced today n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission is likely to announce the polls schedule for re-served women seats today.

“The commission will � x the polls date at Sunday’s [today] commission meeting and are likely to announce the polls schedule,” Senior Assistant Secre-tary of the commission Farhad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.

Farhad also said the commission would publish the voter list of 297 Mem-bers of Parliament today as per the law.

A deputy secretary of the EC, seek-ing anonymity, said the commission secretariat had prepared a draft sched-ule of the polls and the EC might hold

the polls on March 29.“As per the draft, the last date of � ling

nomination papers is March 4 and the nomination papers would be scrutinised on March 6, while the last day for with-drawing nomination papers is March 12,” the o� cial said. EC o� cials said the reserved seats are being distributed among the parties or alliances in propor-tion to the total seats won in the polls.

Independent lawmakers of the 10th general elections formed an alliance to participate in the polls for reserved seats.

The deputy secretary said as per the 10th parliamentary poll results, Awami League would get 39 seats, Ja-tiya Party six, Workers Party one, Jati-ya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) one, and the

independent alliance would get three women reserved seats.

Of the 297 seats in the 10th par-liamentary polls, Awami League got 231 seats, Jatiya Party (Ershad) got 34, Workers Party got six, Jatiya Sama-jtantrik Dal (Inu) got � ve, Tariqat Fed-eration got two, Jatiya Party (Manju) got two, Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) got a single seat, and independ-ent candidates bagged 16 seats.

Meanwhile, Tangail 8 constituency fell vacant after Awami League lawmak-er Shawkat Momen Shahjahan died, and the by-poll for Tangail 8 will be held on March 23, EC o� cials said. The commis-sion did not publish the gazette for Jes-sore 1 and 2 constituencies. l

Shun violence, PM suggests Khaleda n Emran Hossain Shaikh

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day called on BNP leader Khaleda Zia to shun agitation as her party had joined the upazila poll under the government and got better result than the Awami League, claiming Khaleda’s movement as “destructive” activities.

“The � rst phase of upazila election has held free and fair and the BNP got more chairman posts than Awami League. We have proved that Awami League could hold free and fair polls.

“So, you [Khaleda] should no longer press for agitation,” the premier said while addressing a party meeting on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

“It does not matter who has won, the matter is that fair election was held. You [Khaleda] have said our government is illegal and you will not accept our gov-ernment and will not join polls under the government but you have joined the upazila election,” Hasina said.

She also said once Khaleda termed upazila system “illegal,” but she ac-cepted the system and joined the poll.

Hasina also blamed Khaleda for be-smirching the country’s image globally through writing “fake” article in inter-national media.

Sheikh Hasina also blamed former president Ziaur Rahman as the killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Awami League leaders Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Yousuf Hossain Humayun and Dhaka Univer-sity Vice-Chancellor AAMS Are� n Sid-dique were present at the meeting. l

‘Our party has some internal problems, but we are still united. We are trying to re-organise the party’

Former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque speaks at a roundtable discussion on the threat of militancy in Bangladesh, at Radisson Hotel in the capital yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Sweety Khatun, 17, shows her injury marks after being assaulted by local activists of Awami League for being a polling agent of a BNP-backed candidate, in Shingra of Natore yesterday. The attackers also tore down her house in the village DHAKA TRIBUNE

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

City High Low

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:10am

Sunrise 6:25amZohr 12:12am

Asr 4:21pmMagrib 5:58pm

Esha 7:14pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Dry weather likelyn UNB

Rain or thundershower is likely to oc-cur at one or two places over Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions and weather may remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country until 6pm today.

Night and day temperatures might remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met O� ce said.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:58pm today and rises at 6:25am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 30.6 degree Celsius was recorded at Sita-kunda and lowest 10.2 degrees at Sri-mangal yesterday.

Highest and lowest temperatures re-corded in some major cities yesterday were:

Dhaka 28.5 14.6 Chittagong 28.4 15.9Rajshahi 29.4 12.8 Rangpur 27.2 12.3 Khulna 28.8 15.0Barisal 28.8 13.6Sylhet 29.5 13.1 Cox’s Bazar 30.3 17.0

Communal violence a disease: Anisuzzamann Mohammad Atiqur Rahman

Terming communal violence a disease, Professor Emeritus of Dhaka Univer-sity Anisuzzaman urged all to come forward and resist it.

He made the comments while talk-ing to the Dhaka Tribune during a re-ception ceremony held at the Libera-tion War Museum auditorium at Segun Bagicha in the capital yesterday,

Bangladesh Rukhe Darao, a plat-form of progressive and eminent citizens, organised the reception cer-emony to recognise Prof Anisuzzaman

for his achievement of being award-ed India’s Padma Bhushan award, the third highest civilian honour in India. He received the award for his lifelong contribution to Bangla litera-ture.

Prof Anisuzzaman said: “It [com-munal violence] is like a disease. We all have to come forward to cure the disease.”

He also condemned Shaheed Minar vandalism at di� erent locations in the country.

Three Shaheed Minars monuments were reportedly vandalised across the

country on Thursday and Friday.Journalist Abed Khan said: “It is a

matter of sorrow for us that we do not value a person while he/she is alive, but we mourn for him/her after their death.”

Professor of the English Depart-ment at Dhaka University Syed Manzo-orul Islam, author Selina Hossain, Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, rights activ-ist Sultana Kamal, Dr Shahdin Malik, Liberation War Museum Trustee Sar-war Ali, and Ziauddin Tariq Ali attend-ed the reception ceremony, among others. l

German Ambassador calls on politicians to curb climate change risks to reduce health costs n Tazlina Zamila Khan

Overall medical costs for the popula-tion of Bangladesh are likely to shoot upwards if climate change issues are not addressed immediately, said Ger-man Ambassador to Bangladesh Al-brecht Conze.

He made the remark at the launch-ing ceremony of a book titled “Climate Change and Bangladesh,” launched at the Centre for Development Commu-nication (CDC) at the capital’s CIRDAP auditorium yesterday.

“People will be a� ected by di� erent diseases that are born from environ-ment pollution. The local politicians can play a key role in this regard. They

can make a list of all the environmen-tal diseases in order to � nd out the root causes and solve them,” he said.

“For example, Diarrhoea is caused by consumption of unhygienic water. So, if local politicians take steps to en-sure proper maintenance of the sew-erage system, then the number of pa-tients would also reduce,” he said.

The ambassador stressed the impor-tance of ensuring proper health educa-tion to children and youth to reduce the risks posed by climate change.

“If your children are well aware of hygiene, waste disposal and behave responsibly from an early age, then the problem can be sorted,” he said.

Executive Director of the Institute for

Environment and Development (IED) Noman Ahmed Khan said: “The govern-ment should include the issues of cli-mate change in the national curriculum to raise awareness among students.”

Speakers cited a statistic from the World Health Organisation that every year around 32,000 children and 14,000 women die because of the smoke gen-erated from stoves in the kitchen.

Bangladesh is at huge risk from climate change because of its huge population, its proximity to sea level and geographical location, speakers observed.

Executive Director of the Centre for Development Communication Mu-hammad Jahangir edited the book. l

Mystery shrouds CU student death   n CU Correspondent

A third-year student of the Arabic de-partment at Chittagong University (CU) died mysteriously yesterday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Saiful Islam Jahid, 23, of Mahipal in Feni district.

Quoting his roommates, Md Moin Uddin, o� cer-in-charge of CU police outpost, said the student fell sick while he was sleeping. His roommates took him him to CMCH (CMCH) where the on-duty doctors declared him dead. l

World Thinking Day celebrated n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Barisal regional unit of the Bangla-desh Girl Guides Association (BGGA) yes-terday celebrated World Thinking Day.

The programme, held at the Barisal Regional Guide House, included recita-tions from religious books, discussion, a handicrafts fair, collecting of donations, and taking of oaths for continuing the movement until their goal is achieved.

The theme of the day for this year is “education opens doors for all girls and boys.”

Begum Faizun Nahar, BGGA re-gional commissioner, presided over the function while Wahida Ferdaus, president of Barisal Ladies’ Club, and Manowar Hossain, district education o� cer, were present on the ocassion. Sumaiya Tabassum, regional trainer of BGGA, conducted the programme.

The speakers urged all to ensure women’s equal participation in deci-sion-making to ensure an equal share of policy-making positions in all � elds and to eventually end all forms of gen-der discrimination. l

School feeding programme extended by three years n Mushfi que Wadud

The school feeding programme that provides some 2.7 million schoolchil-dren with nutritious biscuits on every school day will operate for three more years than the previously planned.

The programme, operated in pover-ty-prone areas, was scheduled to end in December 2014, but the government extended it until December 2017.

Project director Bablu Kumar Saha told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that they had received a letter about the ex-tension of the project recently from the Primary and Mass Education Ministry.

He said the letter mentioned that the project had helped to increase student enrolment rates and decrease dropout rates.

The government has been running

the project since July 2010 in 72 upazi-las across the country.

Under the project, forti� ed nutri-tious biscuits are being distributed among 2.7 million schoolchildren.

The World Food Programme is pro-viding management support to the programme.

Bablu said the enrolment rate rose by 16% in the areas where the school programme was active, iron de� ciency was reduced by 12%, and dropout rates by 6%.

There are six programmes running across the country.

Educationists have often ques-tioned the lack of coordination be-tween the six projects.

Bablu said they were working to-wards bringing all the projects under a single umbrella. l

Bangladesh-India conduct survey to settle border disputen Tribune Report

O� cials of Bangladesh and India have jointly conducted a survey to settle various disputes along the interna-tional border shared by the two neigh-bours, journalists were told yesterday.

O� cials from both sides told report-ers that the long-pending border dis-putes would be settled soon, as author-ities have jointly identi� ed the missing pillars and were taking steps to repair them.

Abdul Mannan led the Bangladesh survey team while Survey of India Di-rector NR Biswal headed the Indian side.

The demarcation of the unsettled boundaries would help the guards of the two countries in manning the bor-der properly and expedite the various construction activities, including fenc-ing and lighting besides river-based ir-

rigation projects, they added.The survey, � nalised during the

three-day 82nd border conference held in Agartala in August 2013, was con-ducted from Monday to Thursday, re-ports BSS.

The exercise is a follow-up of the agreement signed by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Mahmohan Singh in Dhaka on September 6, 2011, con-cerning the land boundary demarca-tion between the two nations and re-lated matters.

There is a 4,095km-long border be-tween India and Bangladesh with West Bengal sharing a maximum of 2,216km, Tripura 856km, Meghalaya 443km, Mizoram 318km and Assam 262km.

A large portion of the border remains unfenced and porous as it is mountain-ous and riverine. l

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena addresses a workshop of the US Society and Culture at the Senate building of Dhaka University yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

German Ambassador to Bangladesh Albrecht Conze poses for a photograph at the launching ceremony of a research-based book 'Climate Change and Bangladesh' in the capital yesterday. The launching ceremony was organised by Centre for Development Communication MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Young people seek green power n Saudia Afrin

An event titled Let’s Talk , was held yes-terday at Spectra Convention Centre in the capital on waste management, solar panel and renewable energies.

Centre for Research and Information (CRI) organized the event to bring poli-tics closer to the young people.

The programme was designed in a unique manner to allow the young par-ticipants to ask questions and give opin-ions free on behalf of their respective generation.

Nasrul Hamid Bipu ,state minister of power, energy and mineral resources and Zunaid Ahmed Palak ,state minister of ministry of posts, telecommunica-tions and information technology were present on the ocassion.

In reply to the question of threat re-garding the Rampal electricity plant Bipu said; “These would be the world’s high technology based power plant.”

Regarding the ful� lment of electric-ity, he said; “We want to forget the word load shedding and desire to maintain the consistency.”

Zunaid said; “Only technology can lend transparency to everything and re-duce corruption.”

The young participants suggested the ministers for reducing dependency on quick rental systems, maintenance of facilities, reduction in CNG usage of vehicles, minimising power system losses, further storage for future gen-erations, proper power management, enhancing government websites and internet availability for mass people. l

Bangladeshis in London clash over war crimes n Tribune Online Report

Two rival Bangladeshi groups report-edly locked in a clash over the war crimes issues while placing � owers at the Shaheed Minar in Altab Ali Park of East London early Friday.

Metal barricades were used as make-shift weapons during the pitched battle

in the park, with women and children caught in the middle, reported eastlon-donadvertiser.co.uk.

Later, police broke up the � ghting and cleared everyone out of the park, but it is believed that no arrests were made.

According to the report, hundreds had gathered in the park at midnight to place � owers at the Shaheed Minar. But

� owers gave way to � sts as the night turned violent after a war of words be-tween rival groups over war crimes tri-als in Bangladesh.

Ajanta Deb Roy, an activist and ra-dio presenter for Radio Betar Bangla, said the � ghting started when one group took issue with the slogans being chanted by the other group.

She said: “They were calling for the death penalty for war criminals, and the others didn’t like it, so they started throwing threatening words.

“First it was verbal, and then they started attacking, and when they did the others fought back.”

Roy said the clashes lasted three or four minutes before police intervened. l

Bangladeshis in London clash over war crimes n Tribune Online Report

Two rival Bangladeshi groups report-edly locked in a clash over the war crimes issues while placing � owers at the Shaheed Minar in Altab Ali Park of East London early Friday.

Metal barricades were used as make-shift weapons during the pitched battle in the park, with women and children caught in the middle, reported eastlon-donadvertiser.co.uk.

Later, police broke up the � ghting and cleared everyone out of the park, but it is believed that no arrests were made.

According to the report, hundreds had gathered in the park at midnight to place � owers at the Shaheed Minar. But � owers gave way to � sts as the night turned violent after a war of words be-tween rival groups over war crimes tri-als in Bangladesh.

Ajanta Deb Roy, an activist and ra-dio presenter for Radio Betar Bangla, said the � ghting started when one group took issue with the slogans being chanted by the other group.

She said: “They were calling for the death penalty for war criminals, and the others didn’t like it, so they started throwing threatening words.

“First it was verbal, and then they started attacking, and when they did the others fought back.”

Roy said the clashes lasted three or four minutes before police intervened.

Tensions have been bubbling in the East End over the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh, which is trying men accused of war crimes during the country’s 1971 liberation war. l

5

565 bottles of liquor seized in SylhetMembers of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in a drive seized 565 bottles of liquor from Majhertuk area of Companyganj upazila early Friday. BGB sources said being tipped o� , a team of the border force conducted the drive in the area early in the morning and recovered 421 bottles of Indian liquor, 96 bottles of Tango brand liquor, 48 bottles of McDowell brand liquor and 59 bottles of Super String brand beer in an abandoned condition. The smugglers, however, managed to � ee the scene sensing the presence of the BGB team. The market value of the seized goods was estimated Tk 8.62 lakh. The seized liquor and beer were handed over to the local Narcotics Control Department. – UNB

Young girl strangulatedto death in JoypurhatA young girl has been strangulated to death by miscreants at Rajkanda in Akkelpur upazila. Police recovered the body of Rima, daughter of Dilbar Ali, from a bamboo cluster at the village on Friday morning. Police and locals said Rima went out of the house on Thursday morning to learn the holy Quran at a local madrasa and had not returned since then. Locals found the body of Rima with the neck tied with a scurf at the bamboo cluster near her house and informed police. Later, law enforces recovered the body and sent it to hospital morgue for an autopsy. Victim’s mother Achhia Akter said Rima was supposed to be marred with one Abu Bakar, son of Ra� qul Islam of Taluch Khapara village in Dupchachia upazila of Bogra district, on February 28. O� cer-in-charge of Akkelpur Police Station Rezaus Sadique Reza said the girl might have been strangled in a pre-plannedmanner. – UNB

5 houses guttedin ShariatpurAt least � ve shops were gutted by a � re at Abura village in Sadar upazila on Friday. Locals said the � re erupted from a stove of the house of one Mannan Hawladar at the village around 2:00pm and soon engulfed four other adjacent houses. Later, local people rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after half an hour of frantic e� orts. A� ected house owners said the � reburnt down huge valuables and cash Tk60,000. – UNB

Old man crushed to death by train in SirajganjAn unidenti� ed old man was crushed to death by a train at Haluakandi in Ka-markhand upazila on Friday. Government Railway Police sources said the accident took place in the area when ‘Sirajganj Ex-press’ train from Ishwardi knocked down the old man while he was crossing the rail track in the morning. Police recovered the body and sent it to hospital morgue. A case was � led in this connection. – UNB

Five pistols, magazines recovered from C’nawabganj borderMembers of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) recovered two pistols, three magazines and 10 rounds of bullet from Kiranganj border in Shibganj upazila early Saturday. Major Sheikh Mizanur Rahman, deputy commander of BGB-9 battalion, said a gang of smugglers along with arms entered the country’s territory through Kiranganj border at about 2:30 am. Sens-ing the presence of the border guards, the smugglers managed to � ee leaving behind the arms and ammunition. Later the BGB team recovere d two pistols, three magazines and 10 rounds of bullet from the spot. – UNB

Sonali Bank burglary mastermind heldn Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

Rapid Action Battalion personnel yes-terday arrested the alleged mastermind behind the burglary of over Tk16 crore from the main branch of Sonali Bank in Kishoreganj.

The arrestee was identi� ed as Sir-ajuddin Bhuiyan.

According to sources, the elite force arrested Siraj at Bhairab Railway Sta-tion at 6am.

He is the uncle in-law of Habibur Rashid, alias Sohel Rana, who plotted the daring haul and managed all the

equipment for the heist. Rajib Kumar Dev, investigation o� -

cer of the case, said: “Siraj is the mas-termind of the burglary and he in� u-enced Sohel for the heist.”

Detained Sohel Rana said Siraj had plotted the haul and taught him how to dig the tunnel between an adjacent residential building and the vault of the bank.

O� cials discovered the theft on January 26 and found over Tk16 crore missing from the vault.

Two days later, Sohel and his a� li-ate Motahar were arrested from Dhaka

with most of the stolen money.Later, the remaining Tk2.5 lakh was

found when Sohel’s wife Maliha Akhtar was also detained in the capital.

The two robbers named several em-ployees of the bank who are said to have aided in the heist.

On February 3, the High Court or-dered the investigation of the burglary case to be transferred to RAB in re-sponse to a petition fearing police fail-ure in the case.

Nearly three weeks after the order, the elite force managed to arrest Siraj, the plotter of the heist. l

CUTA POLL TODAY

White Panel alleges that Yellow Panel coerces teachersn Our Correspondent,

Chittagong University

The BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami backed teachers’ forum at Chittagong Univer-sity (CU), known as the “White Panel,” yesterday alleged that the pro-Awami League teachers were trying to exert undue pressure on young teachers re-garding the CU Teachers Association (CUTA) polls, in violation of the elec-tion rules.

The White panel held a press confer-ence at the CU Journalist Association (CUJA) o� ce at CU Central Students Union building under the banner of Sadhinota, Gonotronto, Dormio Mul-lobodh, and Bangladeshi Jatiyatabadi Adorshe Ujjibito Sikkhak Somaj. At the conference, senior teachers said Yellow Panel nominees allegedly forced newly appointed teachers to take a snapshot of their ballot paper to ensure they cast votes in favor of the Yellow Panel.

At the press conference, teachers also put forward a � ve-point charter which included proposals for changing the policy for the promotion of teach-ers, a bar on holding administrative

posts after the election, increasing ex-amination allowances for teachers, and allocating houses as per the laws and regulations.

The CUTA election is scheduled to be held today at the auditorium of the social science faculty from 9am to 1:30pm.

Prof Golam Mohiuddin, convener of the White Panel, read out the written

speech while Prof Md Kamal Hossain presided over the press brie� ng.

Citing the allegations, the conve-ner said they had already submitted a written complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner seeking a ban on using cell phones in the polling booths.

Fearing a possible disaster at the polls, the Yellow Panel leaders were trying to manipulate the polls through such kind of activities, he added.

However, Prof Imran Hossen, con-vener of the Yellow Panel, brushed aside the allegations, saying that all these allegations were false, baseless, and fabricated.

A total of 821 voters are expected to cast their votes, while some teach-ers had already exercised their voting power through advance voting held on February 18 and 20.

Prof Mohiuddin is conductingthe polls as the chief election commis-sioner. l

n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Chandrima Udyan, also known as Zia Udyan, has become a den of antisocial and criminal activities keeping at bay the city dwellers from visiting one of the very few eyesoothing green spots in the capital.

Even during daytime people are in-volved in petty criminal activities. Drug addicts, pushers, sex workers and their pimps prowl around the park making it impossible for city dwellers to visit it.

A number of visitors told this corre-spondent that they would not visit the park in future as they thought it was no more a decent place.

Azharul Islam, a resident of Moham-madpur, who was with his wife and two children, said: “I had heard a little about the atmosphere of the udyan, but never imagined this sort of social degradation.”

“If I had known about this condi-tion, I would not have come here with my family or even alone.” he added.

Chandrima Uddan is located to the north of the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban and the east of the Ganabhaban, Prime Minister’s residence.

The park is notable for being the burial place of the former president and founder of the BNP Ziaur Rahman.

Illegal establishments, drug addicts, hookers, muggers and petty criminals have robbed the park of most of its beauty.

Shefali Begum, who has been living with her family in the park, claimed

herself to be a sta� of the Public Works Department (PWD), the authority that oversees the Chandrima Udyan.

“I am a sta� of the PWD and work in the complex of the grave of Zia-ur-Rah-man. I live here (park) in small sheds because there is nowhere else to re-side,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Cricent Lake and the entire park including Zia’s grave and the pond have become stinky due to lack of proper maintenance. The park is littered with unwanted substances.

“After the sun sets, the Chandri-ma Udyan goes under the control of drug addicts and peddlers, � oating sex workers, their associates and clients,” said a sta� of the PWD.

There are allegations that security guards, including Ansar members, ex-tort money from prostitutes and drug dealers.

Md Saiful Islam, a senior Ansar member denied the allegation, and said: “We are active round the clock to prevent unsocial activites.”

“As many as 20 Ansar members were appointed to secure the movement of visitors in the park,” he added.

When contacted, Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan, chief engineer of the PWD, told the Dhaka Tribune that the illegal structures set up in the park was be-yond his knowledge.

“If illegal establishments have been built in the park, it would have been evicted immediately. I will direct the of-� cials concerned to evict the illegal es-tablishments if there is any,” he said. l

Chandrima Udyan turns into a den of wrongdoers

Chandrima Udyan in the capital has given way to anti-social activities. The picture of the park shows shanties set up illegally as a shelter for various crimes MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

NEWS IN BRIEFHAAB demands third carrier for Hajj pilgrimsn Tribune Report

The Hajj Agencies Association of Ban-gladesh (HAAB) yesterday urged the government to ful� ll their charter of demands including reopening a third carrier, apart from Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines, for the smooth � ying of Hajj pilgrims.

“If the third carrier is introduced, the pilgrims will enjoy a safe and smooth journey,” HAAB President Mo-hammad Ibrahim Bahar said while rais-ing their charter of demands at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.

He said the pilgrims experienced uncertainties and su� erings in 2012 because of mismanagement by Bangla-desh Biman and Saudi Airlines, despite having to pay extra money for air tickets.

“Meanwhile, Bangladeshi pilgrims witnessed a high-quality hajj manage-ment system in three years – 2009 to 2011 – as the third carrier option was open,” the HAAB president added.

The other demands of HAAB include getting back Tk10 crore of di� erent hajj agencies deposited earlier to the reli-gious a� airs ministry, announcement of � ight schedule before Ramadan of 1434 Hijri year, setting up 35-day hajj package, ensuring same plane fare for direct Hajj � ight from Sylhet and Chittagong, and replacement of pilgrims in case of failure because of sudden death or accident or any other unavoidable circumstances.

HAAB sources said the Hajj of 2014 (1435 Hijri) would be held on October 4 this year, based on moon sighting.

A total of 1.01 lakh Hajj pilgrims – 10,000 people under government management and 91,000 others under private ones – are expected to perform Hajj this year, says BSS. l

Bangladesh-India conduct survey to settle border disputen Tribune Report

O� cials of Bangladesh and India have jointly conducted a survey to settle various disputes along the interna-tional border shared by the two neigh-bours, journalists were told yesterday.

O� cials from both sides told report-ers that the long-pending border dis-putes would be settled soon, as author-ities have jointly identi� ed the missing pillars and were taking steps to repair them.

Abdul Mannan led the Bangladesh survey team while Survey of India Di-rector NR Biswal headed the Indian side.

The demarcation of the unsettled boundaries would help the guards of the two countries in manning the bor-der properly and expedite the various construction activities, including fenc-ing and lighting besides river-based ir-

rigation projects, they added.The survey, � nalised during the

three-day 82nd border conference held in Agartala in August 2013, was con-ducted from Monday to Thursday, re-ports BSS.

The exercise is a follow-up of the agreement signed by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Mahmohan Singh in Dhaka on September 6, 2011, con-cerning the land boundary demarca-tion between the two nations and relat-ed matters.

There is a 4,095km-long bor-der between India and Bangladeshwith West Bengal sharing a maximum of 2,216km, Tripura 856km, Meghalaya 443km, Mizoram 318km and Assam 262km.

A large portion of the border remains unfenced and porous as it is mountain-ous and riverine. l

Green Tax or ETP essential to avert pollutionn Tribune Report

Speakers at a demonstration pro-gramme yesterday demanded green tax or E� uent Treatment Plant (ETP) in order to reduce industrial toxic pol-lution said a press release.

Some organisations yesterday demonstrated in front of the National Press Club in the capital yesterday.

They said the government could in-vest in improvement of environment with the green tax.

Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), Youth Coalition for Climate Justice (YCCJ), Nirapad Development Foundation, Green Mind Society, SER-AC-Bangladesh, SEL Charitable Foun-dation, RSDS, Orunodoyer Torun Dol and Campaign for Development Foun-dation attended the demonstration.

Bapa General Secretary Dr Abdul Ma-tin asserted that the crisis of environ-ment happened because of pollution.

Nirapad Development Foundation Chairman Ibnul Syed Rana said 30% of additional tax named as green tax should be imposed on pollutants. l

‘Fearing a possible disaster at the polls, the Yellow Panel leaders were trying to manipulate the polls’

Environmentalists from the Youth Coalition for Climate Justice form a human chain, demanding the introduction of a ‘green tax’ to � ght environmental pollution, in front of the National Press Club in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

Subir Chowdhury, the donor funding the Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Stud-ies, is a Chittagongian who ranks as one

of the top management gurus in the world. Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group,

he is the author of 13 books including “The Ice Cream Maker” and “The Power of LEO.”

Having a strong sense of philanthropy and patriotism, he has already established the Subir Chowdhury fellowship for quality and Economics at the London School of Economics where priority is given to Ban-gladeshi applicants.

We caught up with Mr Chowdhury for a brief intervew.

Why did you decide to establish the Center for Bangladesh Studies?A lot of countries have their own centers here in the US, such as the Indian Center, but none exists for Bangladesh. The sad reality is Bangladesh is almost always portrayed in a negative light by the media. However, a lot of Bangladeshis are making many positive contributions in America, and in the same way Americans are doing a lot to help Bangladesh.

So the question is: How can we reduce the gap between them, and I established this center with the hope of doing that.

How do you plan to do so?I read that a Bangladeshi girl climbed the Ev-

erest, which is an amazing feat. She can be a fantastic leadership speaker in American universities. Very few Americans know that a Bangladeshi designed the Sears Tower, which became a structural engineering miracle.

A lot of people here don’t know that February 21 is International Mother Language Day because people in Bangla-desh sacri� ced their lives for the Bangla language.

Similarly, many people in Bangladesh don’t know that an American researcher in UC Berkeley is making a contribution to eliminating the problem of arsenic pollution in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this center is to feature

stories like these, and to promote cross-cul-tural positivity. The center also plans to feature talks on the political situation in Bangladesh in a non-partisan manner. There will be annual conferences where eminent

personalities and researchers from Bangla-desh will be invited to come and talk.

You established three fellowships through your recent donation. What criteria would be used for selecting the recipients?I made sure one graduate fellowship is provided for research on improving the quality of life in Bangladesh ... given on the basis of the merit of the proposal and how helpful the research would be for Bangla-desh. I talked to scholars such as Amartya Sen who strongly supported my idea. The other fellowship will be given for work on women’s issues because I feel that research and work on women’s empowerment is es-sential to the development of Bangladesh. For the undergraduate scholarship, I made sure Berkeley committed to a dollar-to-dol-lar match.

How did you get involved with Berkeley?In 1993, when I had just completed my mas-ters, a Bangali faculty member named Raka Roy who wanted to establish teaching Bangla in Berkeley contacted me. At that time I didn’t even have ten thousand dollars in my bank account, but I promised myself that if I ever have money I would help her cause.

Last year a friend posted on Facebook about the Bangla programme at Berkeley

struggling to raise money, and it immedi-ately reminded me of my resolve. So I � ew in right away and met with a lot of faculty members. I was completely blown away with their commitment.

What can be done to ensure stable sources of funding for more of such programs?Governments can play a crucial role. The Indian government for instance established the Amartya Sen fellowship to honour the Nobel laureate, but in contrast, think what the government of Bangladesh did with Mu-hammad Yunus. In Bangladesh there are a lot of multi-millionaires and I hope they get interested to make donations and create fellowships under their names at di� erent universities.

What is your message to the people of Bangladesh?I am very proud of Bangladesh in spite of its many � aws, and wherever I go, I remind people how my country made me stronger.

So my message to the people of Bangladesh, especially the youth, would be that rather than going for violence, they should focus on the positives and take the negatives as challenges to overcome. I have a lot of faith in your generation, and I hope the youth don’t lose faith and continue contributing to build a better nation. l

6DHAKA TRIBUNE Feature Sunday, February 23, 2013

Tracing the pluralist history of Banglan Rumana Habib

Samier Mansur asserts that the Language Movement was about more than economic and political grievances – that it was, in fact, a culmination of

its 2,500 years of history of pluralism.Born and raised in Washington, DC,

Samier, 29, retains very strong ties with his Bangladeshi heritage. He is the founder of the Bangladesh Plural-ism Project, and initiative dedicated to a more open, inclusive, and globally engaged Bangladesh. He has also made a short � lm called “Reawaken the Leg-acy: Celebrating Bangladesh’s Unique Identity.”

The Dhaka Tribune sat down with him for a quick interview.

What is pluralism, and how does it relate to Bangladesh? Pluralism embraces the diversity of ideas and identities. It allows people

to express themselves freely, and to contribute towards the social and eco-nomic progress of a nation. It is a foun-dational pillar of democracy.

Historically, the region of Bengal has been an exemplar of the pluralist ethic.

Bengal’s remarkable ability to har-monise its early diversity of ethnici-ties, religions and ideas contributed directly to its emergence as an early hub of international commerce, intel-lectual sophistication, and economic prosperity as early as two thousand years ago.

Without the ability to harmonise di-versity within Bangladesh and around the greater region, the future growth and stability of the nation will su� er. 

What does Bangla signify in this pluralist society?More than just a language. Bangla emerged as the very symbol behind the uni� cation of a people and nation. While the state of Bangladesh is new and emergent on the political stage, Bengal as a nation can trace its cultural roots back thousands of years.

The Bangla language is a living, breathing genetic code – a dynam-ic representation of its rich history, shaped by its colourful Hindu, Bud-dhist, Persian, Islamic, and European in� uences of near and ancient past. 

Why does the Language Movement matter? It is remarkable, even unprecedented that a national movement would rally around the banner of language.

In the case of Bangladesh, this was not wholly surprising. The very nature of Bengal’s long history has been one of cultural openness and acceptance of religious and ethnic plurality.

When the Pakistan government challenged this script by imposing one language – Urdu, and one script – Ara-bic in the name of national unity and religion, it was strongly rejected by

the masses as an attempt to negate the very foundations of Bengal’s syncretic identity.

The Language Movement was thus formed as a way to rea� rm Bengal’s national identity and cultural expres-sion, and protect this rich heritage from political and cultural annihilation.

Rabindranath Tagore once re-marked that the poisonous ideologies of religious extremism would � nd no welcome foothold in the tolerant grounds of Bengal. Half a century later, his prediction would be upheld in the legacy of the Language Movement.

What lessons are there in that story, not just for Bangladesh but for the world?Today, Bangla is the seventh most spoken language in the world. It con-nects more than 190 million people, and can serve as a bridge to link Ban-gladesh with the broader region. With in� uences from its Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and European past, the Ban-gla language and culture is one that is truly global and international in scope.

This holds tremendously positive implications for Bangladesh if it can harness its cultural goodwill and coor-dinate a geopolitical strategy to forge deeper and more meaningful econom-ic relations with the broader region.

Presently, the waters from the In-dian Ocean to the Paci� c serve as the world’s busiest hub of international trade. With all the bene� ts of language, religious and ethnic plurality, geogra-phy, and access to natural resources at its disposal, is there any excuse for Bangladesh not to thrive as a con-tributing member of the 21st century world community?

A thousand years ago Bengal was the cultural and economic heart of South and Southeast Asia. It’s time Bangladesh puts itself on track to enjoy the same levels of prosperity, prestige, and global inclusion it once enjoyed. l

n Sohara Mehroze Shachi

Thanks to a generous $1m donation by the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Founda-tion, the University of Cal-ifornia Berkeley recently

established the Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies.

It is the � rst of its kind in the Unit-ed States, aiming to combine research, scholarships, the promotion of art and culture, and the building of ties be-tween institutions in Bangladesh and the US.

Since funding sources are scarce, these new fellowships aim to ensure that there is a next generation of schol-ars who will study and do research on Bangladesh.

“It was a really good match between his vision and what we have done at Berkeley so far,” said Ms Saxena, the executive director of the Center for South Asia Studies and Director of the Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies.

Back in 2004, the Center for South Asia Studies launched the Bangla Stud-

ies endowment fundraising drive. As a result of strong community support, Bangla language, along with content courses on the culture, history and the society of modern Bengal were being o� ered from 2005.

But the programme struggled to stay a� oat.

Now with the new Chowdhury Cen-ter, the university is able to expand its scope of study. In addition to promot-ing and integrating interdisciplinary scholarship, the center will sponsor lectures and conferences, and provide three scholarships.

“Our mutual goal is to encourage study, research and programming around Bangladesh and bring the scholars working on Bangladesh under one umbrella,” Ms Saxena said.

Tonima Khan, a Bangladeshi-Amer-ican alumnus of Berkeley who took almost all of the South Asian courses available when she was a student, said of the news: “That is so exciting! We did not have anything focused speci� cally on Bangladesh when I was at Cal. Those courses focused predominantly on In-dia and the subcontinent as a whole.

“To have an entire center dedicat-ed just to the study of Bangladesh is incredible, because our language and

culture has so much depth and rich-ness that a simple 1-2 lectures on Bang-la lit doesn’t do it justice.”

Students studying Bangla at Berke-ley have varied backgrounds. There are heritage students from Bangladesh and West Bengal who probably heard Bangla being spoken at home grow-

ing up, and who may or may not know how to speak or write it themselves. On the other end of the spectrum there are students who have no South Asian heritage and are being exposed to the Bangla language and culture for the � rst time.

“They have varying motivations, some want to conduct research, while others just want to be able to speak with their grandparents.” l

Some children play with toys, some children make them. These child labourers make balloons (top, bottom right) and miniature aluminum pots and pans (bottom left) at Dhaka factories MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Subir Chowdhury with Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley CENTER FOR SOUTH ASIA STUDIES

A Bangladeshi’s million dollar gift to BerkeleyThe newly established Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies

New fellowships aim to ensure a next generation of scholars who will study and do research on Bangladesh

‘The purpose of this center is to feature stories like these, and to promote cross-cultural positivity’

NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES

Slick and smart: Corporate lawyers in Bangladeshn Nakibul Hoq and Naiian Yazdani

American courtroom dramas portray cor-porate lawyers as im-maculately dressed folks with a superior intellect and a scyth-ing tongue. Is that what it is really like?

Is it what happens in Bangladesh?Well, unlike many developed

countries, suing for the smallest of things is not the standard norm in Bangladesh. However, in the past few years a career in law has had a major makeover in this part of the world. Many new private law � rms dealing with all sorts of services have sprung up, making it easier for those seeking legal services.

In Bangladesh, commercial lawyers practise privately under seven major scales: civil, family issues, criminal, corporate issues, writ petitions, arbi-tration proceeding and immigration. These are further categorised into sev-eral subclasses, and into even further subdivisions.

Corporate lawyers serve all sorts of clients in various scenarios. They may be involved in upper class company litigations and land brawls between di� erent parties, or they can also serve as advisors to boards of directors of the listed � rms to oversee and advise on legal compliance both nationally and internationally.

According to Sameera Mahmud, a barrister at Sadat Sarwar and Associ-ates: “The scope of a career in corpo-rate law in Bangladesh has increased drastically in the past few years. The current scenario is such that you get more jobs in the corporate � eld. It is also much easier to get into because most of the companies are always look-ing for new lawyers.”

The industry is growing and op-portunities are emerging. There are

two pathways if you want to become a lawyer in Bangladesh. You can become either a barrister or an advocate. A barrister is one who � ghts cases in the higher courts for either the defence or prosecution. An advocate on the other hand is a lawyer who pleads cases in any court.

If you want to become a barrister, you need to hold a law degree from one of the recognised law schools in the country or abroad. Then you need to pass the bar exam in order to become a licensed practitioner or rather, a bar-rister.

The bar exam has to be passed from abroad at present because it is not of-fered in Bangladesh. Since Bangladesh follows the British system most of the corporate lawyers and barristers appear for the bar exams in the UK. Sameera for instance passed her bar exam from Northumbria School of Law in Newcastle, UK.

Another option is to become an ad-vocate, which is more straightforward. You have to pass exams administered by the high courts in the country. Once completed, you will need to undertake an apprenticeship to become a success-ful advocate.

As with most industries, it is a long way to the top and some serious hard

work is required. Initially you have to practise as an associate at one of the pri-vate � rms. From there you can rise up steadily with your e� ort and acumen.

There is potential for growth and a lawyer can become the senior partner of that particular law � rm or even move on to form one of his own. Either way, this will only be the beginning of a ca-reer of enormous ful� lment and satis-faction.

There are certain skills that are a part of a lawyer’s armoury. A law student has to work a lot on self-development and be able to manipulate by talking. As Harvey Specter and Alan Shore from the TV shows Suits and Boston Legal respectively have emphasised, it is all

about having a “great chat” – a euphe-mism for the lawyer’s ability to talk.

Not just talk, but talk fast and think seamlessly to make people say what you want to hear. All lawyers are debat-ers, and you must be able to convince your audience with in-depth analysis and articulated thoughts.

Aside from interpersonal and com-munication skills, attention to detail is critical. They have to go through notes, documents and depositions tirelessly in order to � nd out incongruities and sore spots quickly and e� ciently. The minutest detail may be of the utmost importance. Being able to see through words and meanings and written docu-ments will be the foundation on which

a lawyer’s career is built.In today’s world, a high amount of

importance is placed on a person’s eth-ics and moral principles. While there is a joke that lawyers have none of the aforementioned principles, in actuality that is far from the truth.

For example, attorney-client con� -dentiality is one of the most cited; no matter who your client is or whatever he or she has done, as the individual’s or the company’s lawyer, your job is to act in the best interest of your client. Your absolute loyalty to the party you represent until the court hearing is un-questionable, so you must have a trust-worthy, faithful personality.

Working in the private sector re-

quires corporate lawyers to have su� cient knowledge in � nance and accounting, especially when dealing with banks and � nancial institutions. A single mistake can cost their clients millions, so once again the importance of detail will come to the fore.

Corporate lawyers play various roles from agonising over the terms of a busi-ness or asset purchase, consulting with marketing teams prior to campaigns or commencing litigation for breaches of contract and claiming damages.

Without doubt, lawyers have to be extremely proactive and energetic about what they do. Quite often, they have to sit with tonnes of research work to study and pour through past cases and laws in order to � ght a case for their clients. This requires enthu-siasm and energy, and a committed devotion to a career that requires only curious minds.

Contrary to what we see in the media, lawyers are not necessarily braggarts or snobs. Rather, they are personalities with extremely high in-telligence. They are sticklers of detail, substantial speakers with highly pro-active attitudes and an enthusiasm un-matched by other professionals.

These virtues are not spurred in a day. It requires commitment, discipline and a lot of diligence from the individ-ual’s part. However, once you get into the habit, you will never look back, be-cause the world that will beckon you is exciting, enthralling, and as American media can con� rm, full of some nice � tting suits! l Nakibul Hoq is a Research Analyst at GradConnect, an international career information and advisory � rm. You can email him at nakib@grad-connect.com. Naiian Yazdani is the Director of Strategy at GradConnect. You can email him at naiian@grad-connect.com and � nd more career information at www.grad-insights.com and www.grad-connect.com

How well do you understand your employment contract?n Career Desk

Assessment - Evaluation of one’s abilitiesBackground – Ed-ucation, quali� ca-tions, experienceBonus - Additional

payment to an employee as an incentive or rewardCurriculum vitae - Summary of one’s education and experience to date; resumeDismiss - Discharge from employment (to � re, to sack, to let go)Fringe bene� ts - Advantages o� ered in addition to salary (life insurance, retirement scheme, company car, etc.); also called “perks”, abbreviation for “perquisites”Make redundant - Dismiss for econom-ic reasonsMaternity leave - Period of absence for a female employee when having a babyNotice - Advanced warning of intention to leave one’s job, to give or hand in one’s resignationPersonnel - People who work for a � rm or company (employees)Personnel o� cer - Manager responsi-ble for recruitment, training and welfare of personnel (employees)Prospects - Opportunities for success or promotion in a careerRecruit - Look for and hire personnelResign - Leave a job voluntarilyRetire - Leave employment because of ageSick leave - Absence because of illness - to be on sick leaveSta� - People who work for a � rm or department; employeesStrength - Strong characteristic or particular abilityStrike - To go on strike: to stop working in protest against somethingTake on - Employ or hireTrainee - Person being trained for a jobTraining course - A course of study to prepare for a jobUnemployment bene� ts - Payments made by the state to an unemployed personVacancy - A position to be � lledWeakness - A lack of ability or a short-coming in character

BIZVOCAB

Career 7DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

YOUR CUPOF TEA

n Fahmida Faiza

One of the core lessons that the Model UN experience teaches is to be heard in a sea of delegates each with their own con-tribution to the conversation. To survive one soon learns how to tackle the issue, and be heard without being obnoxious.

For those who have had an experi-ence at the General Assembly commit-tees, the situation is very familiar – you barely get the � oor in a pool of 150 del-egates and one of the most persisting fears is of getting overshadowed by fel-low delegates.

Personally, I faced this problem countless times, and made several at-tempts to secure a place at the council while serving as a delegate. There were moments when in the midst of highly experienced international delegates, I hardly got the � oor a single time de-spite raising my placard over 40 times! That is no reason to give up.

The competition is not so breakneck at Bangladeshi General Assemblies, but at international platforms delegates of-ten get frustrated at repeated failure to secure a place at the committee and thus losing the gavel. Instead of tak-ing it as a sign to quit, try the follow-ing tactics and suggestions that I have gathered from my MUN experience to grabbing the limelight in a crowd.

ResearchNever underestimate the importance of conducting a very thorough research. When speaking in a crowd of equally talented and equally educated people, there is no way to survive against a fel-low who has nailed his research work better than you have.

This sort of interpersonal develop-ment is not a one-step process but rath-er a lifestyle – be aware not only of the given agenda but cultivate your general knowledge and current a� airs, know as much about as many di� erent issues as possible.

Communicate congeniallyOnce your research is up to par, com-munication is key. This does not only mean speaking well, but also speaking e� ciently. In a crowd, you de� nitely have some allies and some adversaries. Figure out who is who, and speak in a way that you speak for all your allies too, to grab the most attention. The only way to getting as many people as possible to be on your side is to make them feel that your words are in fact their words, and that you stand in the same position facing the same di� cul-ties.

Communication is important not just during the discussion at hand but outside of it as well. Good communi-cation expands your network and gets more supporters on your side for the next time you speak up. When speak-ing among a crowd it is important to tailor your speech in a way to make your words agreeable, and to wean out negativity altogether.

Do not be obnoxiousDo not go out of your way and try to do something outrageous to get at-tention. This may include butting in while someone else is talking, making outlandish claims against your policy simply to steal focus, heckling, or phys-ically or verbally seeming ill-mannered and of a poor personality.

Add to the conversationTry to add to the conversation instead of simply adding to the noise. Rather than regurgitating what has already been said, add something new and the crowd will listen. If the crowd realises that you are not adding anything of value, they will know not to pay attention the next time you have something to say. Think outside the box and choose your words carefully, make them valuable, courte-ous and important. Be precise and e� -cient and do not waste everybody’s time.

Be clearMost importantly, make what you say clear and transparent. If people have to struggle to understand what your point is, you will soon lose their attention. Do not try to play it safe and create a grey area where you do not take a clear stand or make a de� nite argument. Being vague derails the entire discussion and makes succeeding discussions di� cult.

Do not try to be everyone’s friendThis is an extension of the previous point – do not make the mistake of trying to take everyone’s side and agreeing with everyone. It is of utmost importance to be friendly and congenial, but if you agree with everyone all that does is cre-ate confusion. Take a clear stand so peo-ple know what you are talking about and do not be afraid to disagree with others.

When speaking in a crowd, your words are your most powerful ally, and the most important tool to making you indispensable to the discussion at hand. B e yourself, be bold and be speci� c. l

The writer is Bangladesh’s � rst p rofessional MUN trainer at Lighthouse Imperium

How to avoid having your schedule dictate your dayn Ahsan Sajid

Many common time management mistakes are easily avoidable, and yet we continue to make them because we fail to identify and pin-point the mistakes that we are making. One of

the most e� ective means we have to improve our productivity at work is to recognise and � x some of these more common mistakes.

Once the mistakes have been over-come, we will not only have more time but also have higher job satisfaction and less stress, and not have our sched-ule dictate our day. When we manage our time well, our productivity levels go up and our stress levels drop. Fol-lowing are a list of suggestions of com-mon mistakes, which we have all been guilty of at some point or the other.

Do not just store it in your headWe have all experienced the sense of foreboding that we feel when the idea that we have forgotten something im-portant keeps nagging us at the back of our heads; it is frustrating and gets in the way of critical thinking. It is sur-prising that more often than not, this feeling arises from not maintaining a to-do list and just storing all our plans in our head. Signi� cant amounts of time may be saved with a simple to-do list, listed according to priority.

Plan point A to point BSettin g goals is essential to managing

your time well; having a goal gives us a destination to work towards and a path to follow.

When we know where we would like to be at the end of the day, week, or year, we can manage our priorities accordingly and allocate our time and resources more e� ciently. Addition-ally, having long-term goals helps us realise what is worth spending time on and what is a distraction.

Avoid distractionsWe lose a few hours daily to distrac-tions such as emails, Facebook, instant messaging, phone calls, helping out colleagues etc. This clearly prevents us from achieving the ideal work� ow – the work we do when we are 100% engaged in a task.

So much as having a chat window open on another tab can distract our mind. To gain control of the day and do our best work, we need to minimise distractions and manage interruptions.

Know the load you can carrySome of us often enthusiastically take on too much on our plate; this hap-pens more often right after joining a new job. This may come from a desire to impress or an inability to say no to people. Either way, taking on too much can lead to poor performance, stress, and low morale.

Another reason you might have this problem is if you are a micromanager and you insist on controlling every as-pect of a project. Taking on too much work more often than not results in rushed, shoddy work. l

Grabbing the limelight:What my Model UN experience taught me about crowds

Lawyers have to be extremely proactive and energetic. They have to sit with tonnes of research work to study and pour through past casesand laws

Sunday, February 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

Egypt court acquits police as Morsi goes back on trialn AFP, Cairo

An Egyptian court acquitted six po-lice on Saturday of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising against Hos-ni Mubarak, as his now deposed Isla-mist successor Mohamed Morsi went back on trial.

The acquittal of the six o� cers on charges of killing 83 protesters outside police stations in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, came as a Cairo court resumed the trial of Morsi on charges of plotting violence during the revolt.

Morsi was toppled by the military in July last year following mass protests demanding his resignation. Since then he and his Muslim Brotherhood have been retroactively accused of commit-ting much of the violence during the anti-Mubarak uprising.

Morsi, and 130 other defendants including Palestinian and Lebanese militants, are now being tried for or-ganising jailbreaks and attacking police stations during the revolt.

Saturday’s hearing was the second of the trial, after an opening hearing in January. It is one of three faced by Morsi.

Nearly 850 people died during the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak, most of them on January 28, 2011, when protesters battled the then-de-spised police. l

Militant-held area ‘back in Iraq government hands’n AFP, Tikrit

Iraqi security forces have retaken a northern area from militants after more than a week of heavy � ghting during which parts of it repeatedly changed hands, an o� cial said Saturday.

Militants initially seized parts of Su-laiman Bek on February 13, setting o� a cycle of clashes in the area which in-cludes a town and several villages.

Dozens of people – militants, securi-ty personnel and civilians – were killed in the � ghting.

Sulaiman Bek “has now been com-pletely liberated, and there are no longer any gunmen, just police and soldiers,” lo-cal o� cial Talib al-Bayati told AFP.

The army was reinforcing the area with watchtowers and sand barriers, Bayati said, adding that security forc-es were also preventing residents who had � ed the � ghting from returning to their homes.

Army Sta� Lieutenant General Ab-dulamir al-Zaidi had said that security forces held Sulaiman Bek as of Thurs-day, but Bayati said it was the next day before they were fully in control.

It was not immediately clear if the militants were forced out during clash-es or chose to withdraw.

The situation in Sulaiman Bek is a small-scale version of the crisis being playing out in the mostly Sunni prov-ince of Anbar west of Baghdad.

Anti-government � ghters have held the city of Fallujah and part of Ramadi in Anbar for weeks. l

Pope names new cardinals, predecessor makes an apperancen AFP, Vatican City

Pope Francis appointed his � rst batch of cardinals on Saturday, as his prede-cessor Benedict made a surprise rare appearance at the ceremony naming the new “princes of the Church.”

The new cardinals were presented with scarlet-red birettas and gold rings at a grandiose ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica that Vatican observers say should help correct a perceived bias to-wards European cardinals.

Nine of the 19 cardinals appointed on Saturday came from South America, Africa and Asia.

Former pope Benedict XVI, who last year became the � rst ponti� to retire since the Middle Ages, joined the car-dinals in the front row of the basilica.

The 86-year-old seemed cheerful as he sat cloaked in his white papal gar-ments in the midst of the red-robed cardinals. He and Francis hugged at the start of the ceremony and shook hands warmly at the end.

Sixteen of the 19 cardinals are un-der the age of 80 and can therefore take part in the secretive conclave that elects new popes from among their ranks.

In an indication of the importance of the developing world for the Argen-tine pope – a � erce critic of economic inequality – half are non-Europeans, including � ve cardinals from South America, two Africans and two Asians.

Francis, in a cream mantle embroi-dered with gold, called on the new cardinals to be “peacemakers, building peace by our hopes and our prayers.”

“I will tell you what the Church needs: she needs you, your cooperation and even more your communion. The Church needs your courage,” he said.

The 77-year-old called on the new cardinals to show “compassion, espe-cially at this time of pain and su� ering for so many countries throughout the world.”

Francis is keen to nourish faith in developing countries, to combat the decline of practicing believers in Eu-rope, the Church’s traditional power base.

The first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years bestowed the hon-our of the red cap on the archbishops of Buenos Aires in Argentina, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Santiago in Chile, Managua in Nicaragua and Les Cayes in Haiti. l

China summons United States o� cial in Dalai Lama row

n Agencies

China’s foreign ministry has sum-moned a senior US embassy o� cial in China after US President Barack Obama held low-key talks with the Dalai Lama at the White House de-spite warnings from Beijing the meet-ing would damage ties.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned Daniel Kritenbrink, charge d’a� aires of the US embassy, on Friday night. “China expressed strong indignation and � rm opposition” to the “erroneous acts” of the US in inter-fering in China’s internal issues, Zhang

said in the statement, the Reuters news agency reported.

The talks between the Dalai Lama and Obama went ahead on Friday, de-spite China warning against the visit and urging the US to cancel it. Beijing considers Tibet an integral part of its territory and regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist. The Tibetan spiritual leader has lived in exile in India since 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

“Tibetan issues fall purely into the domestic a� airs of China,” Zhang said in the statement. “The US has no right to interfere.”

The meeting with the Dalai Lama “will seriously sabotage China-US rela-tions and surely impair the interests of the US itself,” he said, adding that “the US must take concrete actions to win the trust of the Chinese government and its people,” he said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokes-man Qin Gang voiced the same accu-sations, the Agence-France Press news agency reported, saying in a statement issued after the meeting that “the US seriously interfered in China’s inter-nal a� airs by allowing the Dalai’s visit to the United States and arranging the meetings with US leaders.”

“We urge the US to take China’s con-cerns seriously, stop tolerance and sup-port of anti-China separatist forces, cease interfering in China’s internal a� airs and immediately take measures to eliminate its baneful in� uence to avoid further im-pairment to China-US relations.”

China calls the Dalai Lama a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who seeks to use violent methods to establish an inde-pendent Tibet. The Dalai Lama says he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet and denies advocating violence.

In a statement issued by the White House, Obama said he did not sup-port Tibetan independence from Chi-na and the Dalai Lama said he was not seeking it. l

Yanukovich abandons Kiev compound, opposition demands vote by Mayn Reuters, Kiev

Protesters seized the Kiev o� ce of Presi-dent Viktor Yanukovich on Saturday and the opposition demanded a new elec-tion be held by May, as the pro-Russian leader’s grip on power rapidly eroded following bloodshed in the capital.

Anti-government demonstrators entered Yanukovich’s compound in the capital and were controlling the entrance, a Reuters reporter said at the scene. Security guards were present in-side the building but were not trying to expel the protesters.

The president’s residence outside the capital appeared to have been abandoned. Local media said protest-ers entered the sprawling grounds but it was unclear whether they were in-side the building. Interfax said some security guards were present.

A security source said the president was still in Ukraine but was unable to con� rm whether he was in Kiev.

Yanukovich, who enraged much of the population by turning away from the European Union to build closer ties with Russia three months ago, made sweep-ing concessions in a deal brokered by Eu-ropean diplomats on Friday after days of violence that killed 77 people, with cen-tral Kiev resembling a war zone.

But the deal, which called for early

elections by the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy demonstrators, who want him out immediately after bloodshed that saw his police snipers

shooting from rooftops.Parliament has quickly acted to im-

plement the deal, voting to restore a constitution that curbs the president’s

powers and to change the legal code possibly allowing his arch-adversary, jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymos-henko, to go free. l

United Nations concern at rise in executions in Irann Agencies

At least 80 people have been executed in Iran so far this year, marking a rise in its use of capital punishment, the UN’s human rights o� ce has said.

The majority of executions in Iran are by hanging and are handed down for drug-related o� ences, which fail to meet the threshold in international law for “most serious crimes,” a category which covers acts such as murder, the AFP news agency reported.

“We are deeply concerned about the reported spike in executions in Iran since the beginning of this year,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswom-an for the UN high commissioner for human rights.

“In just over seven weeks, at least 80 people have been executed. Some reli-able sources indicate the � gure could be as high as 95,” she told reporters.

The case of two activists from Iran’s Arab minority was of particular con-cern, Shamdasani said.

Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Shabani Amouri were reportedly executed in secret in January following proceed-ings that did not meet international fair trial and due process standards, she said.

After reportedly being denied ac-cess to lawyers and family members, and tortured into confessing, they were sentenced to death on what Shamdasani said were the “ill-de� ned” charges of “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth,” as well as acts

against national security.“An escalation in executions, in-

cluding of political prisoners and indi-viduals belonging to ethnic minority groups, was notable in the second half of 2013,” Shamdasani noted.

She said that at least 500 people are known to have been executed in 2013, including 57 in public, but that the number may be as high as 625.

The toll in 2012 was 314, according to Amnesty International.

The increased deployment of cap-ital punishment dashed hopes after the “encouraging signs” last year when President Hassan Rouhani’s release of a string of political prisoners.

Rouhani, a moderate, defeated a pool of conservatives in last June’s presidential election.

“We regret that the new government has not changed its approach to the death penalty and continues to impose capital punishment for a wide range of o� ences,” said Shamdasani.

“We urge the government to imme-diately halt executions and to institute a moratorium.” l

Kerry rebukes Venezuela for ‘unacceptable’ use of force

n AFP, Washington

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Fri-day condemned Venezuela’s “unaccept-able” use of force against anti-govern-ment protesters, and declined to respond to a call from Caracas for bilateral talks.

“The government’s use of force and judicial intimidation against citizens and political � gures, who are exercis-ing a legitimate right to protest, is un-acceptable and will only increase the likelihood of violence,” Kerry said in a statement.

Despite calls from Venezuela’s dem-ocratic opposition and the internation-al community, the government of Nico-

las Maduro “has confronted peaceful protesters with force and in some cases with armed vigilantes claiming to sup-port the government,” the top US dip-lomat added.

“It has imprisoned students and a key opposition � gure. It has limited the free-doms of expression and assembly neces-sary for legitimate political debate.”

He pointed to Maduro’s moves to tighten media restrictions, after CNN said several of its journalists working in Venezuela, on both Spanish-language and English-language programs, had seen their press credentials revoked or refused.

In a move � lled with anti-US senti-

ment, Maduro has threatened to block the American broadcaster, accusing the network of inciting “civil war.”

“This is not how democracies be-have,” Kerry said.

The US secretary of state urged the Venezuelan government to release jailed dissidents “and initiate a process of genuine dialogue with the demo-cratic opposition.

“The solution to Venezuela’s prob-lems can only be found through dia-logue with all Venezuelans, engaging in a free exchange of opinions in a cli-mate of mutual respect,” said Kerry, who also called on the opposition to refrain from violence.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s jailed pro-test leader urged supporters to keep demonstrating peacefully against Pres-ident Nicolas Maduro despite violence that has killed at least six people and rocked the OPEC member nation.

“I’m � ne, I ask you not to give up, I won’t,” Leopoldo Lopez told his follow-ers in a handwritten note passed to his wife at Caracas’ Ramo Verde prison and then posted on the Internet.

The 42-year-old Lopez, a Har-vard-educated economist and one of the few surviving relatives of Venezu-elan independence hero Simon Boli-var, spearheaded protests against the socialist government that began at the start of February.

He surrendered to the military this week after an arrest warrant was issued, accusing him of instigating the violence. l

Obama, Putin speak after Ukraine dealn AFP, Washington

President Barack Obama held “con-structive” talks Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pressed for swift implementation of a deal to end Ukraine’s deadly crackdown on protesters.

The phone call came at a prickly time in US-Russia relations with both sides at odds over Ukraine, Syria and other issues, but also after Obama took pains to reject the idea that a new Cold War-style confrontation was brewing.

A senior US o� cial described the call as “constructive,” but also warned that the agreement reached in Kiev be-tween the government and top opposi-tion leaders was “very, very fragile.”

Putin and Obama agreed that the Ukraine agreement needed to be swift-ly implemented and that all sides need-ed to refrain from violence, as they also pressed for the need to stabilize the economy.

The call touched on other issues as well, including Syria, where Russia backs President Bashar al-Assad, and the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Washington had o� ered staunch support for protesters in Kiev, demand-ing political concessions from the Mos-cow-backed government of President Viktor Yanukovych and had warned of

“consequences” if violence, which has killed 100 people, did not stop.

The White House gave an initial wel-come to the deal and praised European Union diplomats who helped to broker it.

White House spokesman Jay Car-ney said the deal was “consistent with what we have advocated in calling for a de-escalation of the violence, constitu-tional change, a coalition government and early elections.”

“We call for immediate implemen-tation of the initial steps – an end to the violence, amnesty and security normalization, and passage of the con-stitutional package in (parliament) – to provide space for the negotiations to begin on formation of a technocratic coalition government,” Carney said.

Vice President Joe Biden had called Yanukovych on Thursday, warning that the United States was ready to impose sanctions if he did not halt attacks by his security forces on demonstrators which have killed nearly 100 people.

Yanukovych’s dramatic decision to hold early elections and form a new unity government was met with cau-tion by tens of thousands gathered on central Kiev’s main square.

The deal was signed in the presence of EU envoys, Yanukovych and three top opposition leaders who included boxer turned lawmaker Vitali Klitschko. l

A poster of Venezuelan late President Hugo Chavez remains near a burning barricade during an anti-government demo, in Caracas AFP

Protesters stand beneath a giant poster of jailed former Ukrainian Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko as they attend a rally on Independence square in Kiev on February 21 AFP

‘In just over seven weeks, at least 80 people have been executed’

9Sunday, February 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalBJP: Rahul not genuine in his anti-graft e� ortsn Tribune Desk

Attacking Rahul Gandhi for his push to anti-corruption bills recently, Bhara-tiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday said he was a “late entrant” in the anti-graft bandwagon and his e� ort was “not genuine” as he never spoke earlier on the issue even when several scams took place during the UPA rule.A day after the extended winter session of Parliament ended, BJP leaders Sush-ma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley told a joint press conference that the pendency of some anti-corruption bills was due to Congress’s failure and not because of the the 0pposition.

Swaraj, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, said normal functioning of Parliament was scuttled by Congress members but the ruling party had no control on them.

On Rahul Gandhi’s push to the an-ti-corruption bills recently and his at-tack on the opposition, Jaitley, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said, “He is a late entrant in the anti-corruption bandwagon. He never spoke on corrup-tion in the last 10 years. But now he says corruption is our (Congress’s) issue.”

Swaraj added that Rahul was “not even genuine” in his e� orts.

She said there were several scams during the UPA government but the Congress vice-president never spoke

on it. “Sau chuhe kha ke billi haj ko chali (after eating 100 rats, a cat goes to pilgrimage),” she said while taking a dig at Rahul. Jaitley questioned why Rahul remained silent when scams re-lated to 2G spectrum, coal block alloca-tion, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Housing Society and VVIP chopper deal took place.

Swaraj and Jaitley termed as “hypo-thetical” a question whether the party will extend support if the government chooses the ordinance route on enact-ing the anti-corruption laws. “There is no question of supporting or opposing the ordinances ... now there will be no session (of Parliament). If we come to power (at the Centre), we will make changes in the measures,” Swaraj said.

Jaitley said the just-concluded win-ter session of Parliament needs to be prorogued before ordinance can be promulgated. l

US general: China and Japan need dialogue to avoid ‘miscalculations’n AFP, Beijing

US Army Chief of Sta� Ray Odierno on Saturday said Beijing and Tokyo must enhance communication to avoid “miscalculations” amid a simmering territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea.

Odierno, a four star general, spoke during a visit to China where he has held talks with military o� cials aimed at establishing a formal high-level di-alogue between the US and Chinese armies in the coming months.

“We reinforced the importance of dialogue and discussion between the Japanese and the Chinese regarding this issue,” Odierno told reporters. “We have to be careful and ensure that there are no miscalculations along the way.”

Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a bitter territorial row over Japan-con-trolled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea which China also claims and calls the Diaoyu.

Tensions between the two nations dramatically intensi� ed after Japan nationalised some of the islands in September 2012, with ships and air-craft from both countries regularly patrolling waters around the contested territory.

The dispute has also on occasion come perilously close to boiling over into armed clashes.

Last February, Japan accused a Chi-nese frigate of directing a weapon-tar-geting radar at a Japanese warship in the East China Sea.

“We do have a treaty with Japan, a defence treaty, but the most important piece is that we in fact emphasise the importance of this continued dialogue to solve this problem,” Odierno said.

Dialogue between China and Japan, however, has come to a virtual standstill as the island dispute has intensi� ed.

China’s President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have never held a formal bilateral sum-mit, only short encounters at global and regional meetings.

The prospects for dialogue dimmed further in December when Abe visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine which hon-ours Japan’s war dead including con-victed war criminals who were execut-ed at the end of World War II.

Beijing views the shrine as a symbol of Japanese war-time militarism and

Tokyo’s lack of repentance for atroci-ties committed in the last century.

On Wednesday, Japan’s Jiji Press quoted Captain James Fanell, intelli-gence chief for the US Paci� c Fleet, as telling a forum that China has tasked its military to become capable of con-ducting “a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea.”

Odierno, however, dismissed such reports when asked to comment.

“I’ve seen no indications of that at all,” he said. Odierno was scheduled for more talks on Saturday, travelling to China’s Shenyang Military Region, which borders North Korea.

“For me, we had frank, honest, im-portant discussions about security, stability in the Asia-Paci� c region” as well as beyond, he said of discussions in Beijing.

But Odierno emphasised that the talks centred on establishing “ar-my-to-army dialogue” and were spurred by meetings held between Xi and President Barack Obama last year.

The United States and China agreed to set up a direct telephone link between the two countries’ defence ministries in 2008 – but it has yet to be tested in an emergency. In December, a US-guid-ed missile warship, the Cowpens, had to make a sharp turn to avoid colliding with a Chinese naval ship that cut in front of it, according to the Pentagon. l

N Korea rejects UN rights report as ‘fabrication’n AFP, Seoul

North Korea on Friday “categorical-ly” rejected a UN report on its human rights record, accusing it of being a “sheer fabrication” invented by the United States and its allies.

A UN report released Monday said North Korea’s leaders should be brought before an international court for a litany of crimes against humanity.

The report by the Commission of In-quiry on North Korea found “systemic, widespread and gross human rights vi-olations have been and are being com-mitted” by North Korea, its institutions and o� cials.

“The so-called Commission of Inquiry was deceitfully put together last year by the United States and its cronies ... and we’ve never acknowledged even its existence,” a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said.

“The so-called report by the puppet commission is a ragtag of cooked-up materials fed by hostile forces, crimi-nals who escaped punishment in the country and other tramps. We categor-ically reject it,” he was quoted as saying by KCNA.

The spokesman condemned as “far-fetched” the assertion that North Ko-rea’s leaders should be brought before an international court for a litany of crimes against humanity that include

exterminating, starving and enslaving its population.

“This is an extremely dangerous, politically-motivated provocation aimed to undermine our regime,” the spokesman said.

He also accused the United States of being “the worst human rights abuser who killed innocent people through ag-gression and intervention, and system-atically committed illegal wire-tapping and surveillance not only over its own citizens but those of other countries.”

The hard-hitting, 400-page report detailed “extermination, murder, en-slavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence” in the nuclear-armed totali-tarian state.

It included shocking testimony from North Koreans who escaped, highlight-ing “the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

The commission was created in March 2013 by the UN Human Rights Council. Its chair Michael Kirby said on Monday that ignorance was no longer an excuse for a failure to act.

Denied access to North Korea, the commission held hearings in South Korea and Japan with 320 North Korean exiles.

A frustrated Kirby wrote to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un – the third ruler of the communist dynasty found-ed by his grandfather in 1948 – onJanuary 20, asking him to put his side.

Kirby told Kim that any North Kore-an o� cial who “commits, orders, so-licits or aids and abets crimes against humanity” is responsible and must be held accountable.

Pressed by reporters, he did not accuse Kim directly, but said that “ev-erything comes together through the supreme leader,” and that the total number of perpetrators could be in the hundreds. l

Pakistan: Bomb kills three, airstrikes kill 9n AFP, Peshawar

A roadside bomb targeting a local leader of a nationalist party in north-west Pakistan killed three people and wounded two others Saturday, police said.

The incident took place in Buner district in the troubled northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, close to Swat Valley where Taliban insurgents shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in the head.

Police said the remote-controlled bomb hit the vehicle of Adalat Khan, a local leader of nationalist Qaumi Watan Party, killing him along with two associates.

“Adalat Khan and his two associates have been killed. Two others in the car were critically injured,” Asif Iqbal, a se-nior police o� cial told AFP.

No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but a local intelligence o� cial told AFP that Khan had supported an Anti-Taliban village militia in 2009. The head of that mili-tia was later killed in a suicide attack in November 2012.

Separately, at least nine militants were killed on Saturday when Pakistani gunship helicopters pounded Taliban hideouts in Thall village in Hangu dis-trict, near the tribal areas where mili-tants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qae-da have strongholds, a security o� cial told AFP.

“Gunship helicopters engaged the hideouts after con� rmed reports of the terrorists’ presence,” the security o� -cial said.

These were the second air attacks against Taliban militants this month in retaliation at strikes by insurgents, which have derailed peace talks.

At least 30 militants were killed on Thursday after Pakistan jets carried out airstrikes on Taliban hideouts in the northwest. l

Thai protesters turn in SIM cards seen linked to Yingluck’s familyn Reuters, Bangkok

Some Thai anti-government protesters followed the advice of their leader on Saturday, shunning products of � rms linked to the family of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and handing back cell phone SIM cards.

The protesters have blocked main Bangkok intersections with tents, tires and sandbags, seeking to unseat Yin-gluck and halt the in� uence of her bil-lionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, an ousted former premier regarded by many as the real power behind the gov-ernment.

This week, they targeted businesses linked, or once linked, to the Shinawa-tra family, sending stock prices tum-bling and on Saturday some answered protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban’s call to return their SIM cards belonging to mobile phone company Advanced Info Service Pcl (AIS).

The company promptly sent a text message to clients saying it no longer had any connection with the Shinawa-tra family.

“AIS is not involved in politics and is not a pipeline for any side,” it said. “Dr Thaksin and family have already sold all shares in the company since 23

January, 2006, and from then are no longer connected with the company.”

Aunjit Wongsampan, 65, lined up in central Bangkok to hand in her SIM card.

“I think the signal is poor and I am changing it because the company is too wealthy,” she told Reuters.

When shown the company’s text message, she said: “I don’t believe them any more. I have made my choice.”

Yingluck’s supporters denounced the targeting of business when the protests have already taken a toll on the economy, on tourism in particular, with arrivals in Bangkok sharply down.

“What we don’t like right now is their involvement in threatening com-panies on the stock exchange that is not involved with government,” Tida Tawornseth, chairwoman of the United Front for Democracy against Dictator-ship (UDD), told Reuters. “It’s a move away from government into business.”

The UDD, a protest movement large-ly made up of “red shirt” Thaksin sup-porters based in the populous north and northeast, is holding a meeting of its leaders from across the country on Sunday in Nakhon Ratchasima, north-east of the capital. l

Pakistani prisoner found hanging in Indian Kashmir jailn AFP, Srinagar

A Pakistani prisoner who was arrested by authorities in India for trespass-ing more than two years ago has been found hanging inside a jail in Indian Kashmir, an o� cial said Saturday.

Showkat Ali, 42, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, had been lodged in a jail in Amphala, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the region’s main city of Srinagar, since December 2011.

He was arrested on charges of ille-gally crossing the de facto border be-tween the two rival countries.

“An inmate informed the jail author-ities last (Friday) night that Showkat was hanging from the grill of a toilet in the barracks,” jail superintendent Har-ish Kotwal told AFP.

“He was hanging by a scarf and after he was brought down, the jail doctor declared him dead,” Kotwal said. The incident will be investigated by a mag-istrate and formalities for handing over his body to Pakistani authorities have begun, another police o� cer said. l

Taiwan ex-o� cers jailed for recruiting spies for Chinan AFP, Taipei

A Taiwanese court on Friday sentenced two former o� cers to ten months in prison for helping to recruit spies for China.

Ex-navy lieutenant Chien Ching-Kuo was convicted of violating the national security law along with Lu Chun-chun.

Lu recruited Chien to join the Chi-nese Communist Party with a paid overseas trip and cash gifts in 2009, said the Kaohsiung district court in southern Taiwan.

According to the court, the pair had arranged for several o� cers to go on overseas tours paid by Chinese of-� cials in a bid to recruit them to spy for Beijing.

This included a former command-er in charge of political warfare at the navy’s meteorology and oceanography o� ce, who agreed to collaborate.

Chien was discharged by the navy in 2009, while Lu retired from the mili-tary’s missile command centre in 2005.

Lu’s sentence was suspended for three years on the ground that he has no prior criminal record, the court said.

In a separate trial, Chien was sen-tenced to three years in prison last year for leaking con� dential military information to China, including some of Taiwan’s warship deployments and missions. l

Reunited Korean families bid � nal farewelln AFP

The joy of being reunited for the � rst time in decades turned to grief for North and South Korean families as a rare cross-border visit ended, with participants unlikely to see their relatives again.

In perhaps the most traumatic mo-ment of the emotionally-charged event on Saturday, 80 elderly South Koreans and their 174 Northern relatives were

separated, many at � rst refusing to let go of their loved ones’ hands.

The families, the � rst of two batches who are being allowed to meet with each other 60 years after they were torn apart by the chaos of the 1950-1953 Korean War, were given an hour to say goodbye in a hotel dining room at a North Kore-an mountain resort, the Agence-France press news agency reported.

At the start of Saturday’s meeting, many were already in tears, while others forced smiles to hide pent-up emotions.

Some took pictures, exchanged old photos and jotted down addresses of their relatives, even though direct ex-changes of letters or telephone calls are prohibited across the border.

As the time for parting ways drew near, the atmosphere became more heated, punctuated by bursts of crying.

After boarding their coaches, the de-parting South Koreans waved through closed windows at the loved ones they were leaving behind in the North, dis-playing written messages and forming their hands into the shapes of hearts.

The families had spent a total of 11 hours on six occasions together since Thursday, including mass meetings over meals and a private reunion with-out media TV cameras.

Two other South Koreans had to cut their reunions short due to health is-sues, returning home on Friday via am-bulances, a media pool report said. l

Modi criticisers China’s ‘expansionist mindset’ n AFP, New Delhi

India’s opposition leader Narendra Modi, favourite to win this year’s polls, yesterday warned neighbour China to shed its “expansionist mindset” as he toured a disputed region in the remote northeast.

Modi, the prime ministerial candi-date of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said China should instead focus on forging peaceful bilat-eral ties with India.

Modi was speaking during an election rally in the state of ArunachalPradesh nestled in the eastern stretch of the Himalayas that China claims as its own.

“The world has changed. An expan-sionist mindset will not be accepted. China will also have to do away with such a mindset,” Modi said in com-ments posted on his o� cial website.

“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will always remain so. No power can snatch it away from us.”

China and India share a de facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has never been formally demarcated.

The unresolved border dispute has soured bilateral relations which are often prickly and marked by mutual distrust – the legacy of a brief, bloody border war in 1962 over Arunachal Pradesh.

The border dispute � ared again last April, with India accusing Chi-nese troops of intruding deep into In-dian-held territory, sparking a three-week stand-o� that was only resolved

when troops from both sides pulled back.

The countries have since signed ac-cords and held meetings to maintain peace on the border.

Modi’s latest attack on China is like-ly to ru� e feathers in the neighbouring country, which has also been criticised for its aggressive claim to almost all of the South China Sea. l

Narendra Modi WIIKI

Park Yang-Kon (R) of the South bids farewell to his brother Park Yang-Soo (L) of N Korea as he prepares to depart Mount Kumgang on the third and � nal day of the � rst group of family reunions between the two Koreas yesterday AFP

‘There were several scams during theUPA governmentbut the Congressvice-president never spoke on it’

Last February, Japan accused a Chinese frigate of directing a weapon-targeting radar at a Japanese warship

MODI ON BANGLADESHP16

Must Islam and feminism contradict?February 15

SamThat something was an improvement over the practices of a barbaric desert culture 1400 years ago has no relevance for today. Any “system” that desires to control what people wear, who they talk to, and what professions they engage in is incompatible with humanity, let alone feminism. This is a rather lazy piece of writing.

Muhammad Eusha Sam: You must shun your arrogance. As long as you are arrogant, you will not be able to see the truth because it is not for arrogant eyes. I have nothing else to say to you.

SamMuhammad Eusha: In other words, you cannot respond with intelligence, and hence the name calling.

nahiyan_dhaka1 Sam: This is where people go all wrong. It’s not the system desiring to control what people wear, it is Allah choosing what is best for His creations. The One who created you has all the right and power to do whatever He pleases to do. But He chose to give you a free will instead. The rulings are laid down in the divine scripture; it’s your call whether you want to follow them or not.As human beings we all are, in some way or the other, in a position of power. And what happens to people who are in power? They cannot tolerate their subjects to rebel or go against their boundaries.And Allah is the best of examples. He created us and He owns whatever is in the heavens and the earth yet He always lets things slide in this world out of His in� nite mercy. Don’t you think the One who created also has the power to take retribution? He obviously does. And when God decides to not punish His slaves, it tells you a lot.

He does not want to burden you, He just wants the best for you. He created you and He knows what is best for you.

KMAK Sam: So, collectivist ethics, as opposed to the kind of individualism that we see in Western countries, is incompatible with humanity?

Muhammad EushaThe verse (chapter 16 versus 97) everyone quotes to justify “equal rights” for women is deliberately misinterpreted to convince poorly knowledgeable people. You did the same thing. I am not sure whether this is an honest mistake or just a designed e� ort to misconstrue Islam and its principles. Anyhow, the verse that you mentioned talks about the “equality of rewards” and NOT the “equality of roles.” Feminism, on the other hand, stresses on the equality of roles. Feminists believe men and women should enjoy equality in terms of responsibilities in the society. In other words, women must be allowed to forsake the responsibilities at home they are traditionally entrusted with. This is not something Islam approves and there is no reason to approve of it. Men and women have been assigned distinct duties according to their strengths and capabilities by the glorious doctrine of Allah because they are very di� erent physically and mentally.Feminism is a secular movement. It has no commonality with Islam and there is no reason why we would condone feminism. Like many other writers of today’s Bangladesh, you are trying to prove that Islam is consistent with Western values and ethics. You may vilify Islam and hate it but the worst attack on it is to claim that it is consistent with Occidental beliefs!

nahiyan_dhaka1 Muhammad Eusha: Totally.

‘Jihadology’ hosted in USFebruary 16

If this is an As Sahab media production, then how come there is no TV station name mentioned under its logo?

Elizabeth D Costa

Of yesterdays and tomorrowsFebruary 16

So true. Feel hopeless sometimes. Why do we, on a mass scale, fail to understand that this � ght over the past is just an attempt by the political parties to hide their lack of vision, their lack of an ideological stand and their present failures?

Mohammad Tanvir Khalid

Improved engagement with US welcomeIt is encouraging to see increased engagement with the United

States. We hope the ongoing four-day visit by the US deputy assistant

secretary for South Asia will help to further move forward and build bilateral relations.

The US diplomatic engagement is including discussions with a diverse range of political, civil society and private sector leaders. This is welcome to ensure a good hearing for issues of common inter-est relating to improving the climate for economic advancement, democracy, good governance and stability. It is helpful for the US to make clear its stance on the critical importance of both ensuring that citizens may freely express their political views and keeping violence out of the demo-cratic process.

Trade and security is-sues are high on the agen-da because April will see a further security dialogue and the � rst Ticfa meeting in Dhaka on April 7-8.

Clearly it is vital for our two countries to support the progress being made in improving workplace safety and workers in the RMG sector as this will help to strengthen trade and investment relations.

It is welcome to note also that the US has assured the foreign secre-tary that the US will continue dialogue with Myanmar to resolve the refugee and displacement issues which impact on Bangladesh.

Looking forward, we welcome the present positive turn in atti-tudes towards mutual engagement. Washington’s support for the Bangladesh China India Myanmar economic corridor, could be very helpful in improving long term economic opportunities.

Enforce copyrightto help artists

The music industry in Bangladesh is saturated by pirated CDs and downloads.

Although people enthusiastically celebrate the national language and culture every Amar Ekushey, less attention is paid to improving the economic prospects for artists and authors.

Law enforcing agencies have to become more active in protecting copyright. Even though there are some legal websites for download which share proceeds with musical artists, these are overwhelmed by readily available illegal products.

Musicians are hence left with essentially only being able to earn a living from live performances, however popular their records.

Rampant copyright infringement is cheating creators of their right to pro� t from their work.

The existing Copyright Act must be e� ective-ly implemented. More active participation by law enforcement is crucial for reducing piracy, as is the need to raise awareness among the public.

The government must do more to guarantee that creative minds can receive their dues. Action should be taken against major sites that encourage illegal downloads.

We understand that enforcing such laws is made more di� cult by technology and content theft will always exists to some degree, but throwing up our hands is not the answer.

The law must give artists more ability to protect their content. Oth-erwise, we risk heading towards a situation where the music industry may die out since there is no way for artists to make a living.

We have plenty of talented artists in Bangladesh and they deserve more protection of their creativity.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Sri Lankan stilt-� shermen works on his pole in town of GalleFebruary 17

It’s called stick � shing, and they are Vedda people. Genetically closer to us.

Noor Majed Khan

Do more to guarantee that creative minds receive their dues

Positive turn in attitude towards mutual engagement will help both countries

Death of democracyFebruary 15

I believe I speak for many others when I say that we believe from now on, January 5 can be observed as D-Day (death of democracy), because on that day, the people of Bangladesh lost their basic rights. They became just like � oating debris, and do not count anymore. Everything is controlled by the people who have power, who, if they wish, can turn nights into days, and vice versa. They have formed the new government in a most unusual and objectionable way. We feel su� ocated, as if the whole nation has become a prison. The sons of this soil made supreme sacri� ces to give us a free land, yet we are shackled in fear and dismay, not knowing what the future holds for us. The January 5 election is not acceptable in any sense, so an inclusive election under a CTG must be arranged immediately. The people of Bangladesh deserve no less.

Nur Jahan

Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Roman garment (4)4 Frolics actively (5)9 Female sheep (3)11 Disorderly � ight (4)12 Frozen shower (5)13 Not any (4)14 Poker stake (4)15 Build (5)19 Foreign (5)21 Saucy (4)25 Leave out (4)26 Banishment (5)28 Money drawer (4)29 Weep convulsively (3)30 Bullock (5)31 Seeks charity (4)

DOWN1 Examine (4)2 Night bird (3)3 Farm birds (5)5 Much ornamented (6)6 Satellite (4)7 Gamble (4)8 Precipitous (5)10 Metal (5)16 Disconcert (6)17 Quotes (5)18 Blemishes (5)20 Clamour (5)22 Send out (4)23 Annoy (4)24 Fly traps (4)27 Ship’s record (3)

How to solve Sudoku: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 num-ber repeating.

SUDOKU

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11Op-Ed Sunday, February 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Shafi qur Rahman

It is now clear that the big winner in the � rst round of upzilla elections is Jamaat-e-Islami. The party

contested in 23 seats and won in 12 in conjunction with or independently of its political ally BNP. This is a huge shot in the arm to Jamaat, which has been going through its most critical period since its revival in independent Bangladesh.

The party has been beleaguered from all fronts in the last few months. The bulk of its apex leadership is either behind bars, waiting in death row, or lying six feet under. The Awami League government and its foreign friend have been quite suc-cessful in branding Jamaat as a violent and extremist party. Even Western governments, on whose support BNP depended so much, have been hinting that they would like BNP to dissociate itself from Jamaat.

Moreover, Jamaat is barred from taking part in elections in the fore-seeable future, and the court case of a complete political ban is hanging over its shoulder like a sword on a thread. I would argue that Jamaat must take

this show of support and window of breathing space to preempt all sanc-tions by re-launching and re-branding itself as a new organisation.

There is no doubt that Jamaat has considerable direct and indirect sup-port throughout the country. Pollafter poll conducted in the last few months have shown that although the people of Bangladesh disapproved of Jamaat’s rampant violence, a major-ity of them consistently supported its right to take part in politics and elections.

However, Jamaat must not mistake the extent of public toleration as validation of its legitimacy. Even in a democracy, right and wrong are not determined by majority vote – a convicted criminal does not get to be absolved of crimes even if he is elected in o� ce by a thumping majority.

There is an indelible mark of Cain on Jamaat. It fought with the losing side in the War of Liberation and actively collaborated with foreign in-vaders in committing atrocities against fellow countrymen. Bangladesh has eminent right backed by widespread precedence to refuse continuance of such an organisation, even if that

organisation is tolerated by a large number of citizens.

Jamaat must be aware of the peril awaiting them. The arc of history of the last couple of decades has shown that conservative-religious politics in a democratic framework has great pros-pects in developing nations. In this post-ideological age, religious values are often a source of conviction that other political ideals fail to muster.

Throughout the Muslim world, wher-ever democratic politics are taking hold, Islamic parties that adopted practices of participatory democracy are gaining in� uence. In Bangladesh too, there is a huge space for religious politics. If the two main parties in

Bangladesh continue in their trajectory of dynastic reign and control by crony-ism, the space for religious value-driv-en politics will only get wider.

Jamaat must see that the main-stream religious political space in Bangladesh is its to take, if it could only shed its criminal past. There is no other visible claimant, either from be-low or laterally. The wax and wane of Hefazat in 2013 has once again showed

that subaltern politics in Bangladesh remains hopelessly inadequate to mount a serious challenge to a� ect leadership of a country that has 150 million people and an interconnected economy of $150bn.

Only a religious party that has a

deep bench of career politicians, aca-demics, experts, and thinkers, can get a permanent place in the top rungs of the power structure. Prospects can turn very perilous for Jamaat. The seemingly ripple-less crackdown on the Muslim Brother-hood in Egypt has shown that interna-tional community has little sympathy for religious organisations that veer to radicalism to some extent, even if they command generous public support.

In Bangladeshi politics, Jamaat’s fate is now largely dependent upon the jostling and maneuvering of the two contenders for power, AL and BNP. The business and professional class will demand a faster resolution to the maneuvers of balance of the two heavyweights, and it will increasingly see a decision on Jamaat as a quick way to downgrade the complexity and uncertainty of the political game.

We have read that Jamaat leader-ship has, from time to time, discussed overhauling and rebranding the organ-isation under a new name. Allegedly, the main stumbling block was that the old guard regarded such a move as a complete betrayal to hundreds of Ja-maat activists (“martyrs” in its jargon)

who have died for the organisation in political violence over the last three decades.

Jamaat members should know that the “blood of martyrs” is the most often used but also the most useless excuse. Every political side has mar-tyrs dying every day of the year. It is only by giving lip service to martyrs’ memories, but going forward, that the world functions at all. If every organ-isation in the world stuck unrelenting with their martyrs causes, then the world would be a continuous free-form war. Pragmatism is mostly a dirty word for religious political parties, because they often equate pragmatism with a compromise of core beliefs. But it is pragmatism that has enabled thou-sand-year-old religions to survive and prosper in an ever-changing world.

If Jamaat can recast itself into a new organisation and get rid of the fascistic components in its ideology, it will � nd that there is great prospect for them in Bangladesh political arena. If it fails to do so, few will mourn its disappear-ance, whichever way the end comes. l

Sha� qur Rahman is a freelance contributor.

n Syed Ishtiaque Reza

The minister of industries recently said that no state-owned mills or factories would be privatised by the present government. This is

indeed disturbing and shocking news as far as governance is concerned. Bangladesh has su� ered not only from confrontational politics, but also from mammoth losses incurred by state-owned enterprises (SoEs).

Is there any logic in having the Privatisation Commission if the gov-ernment doesn’t want privatisation of any enterprise? It is fully contradictory with the government’s privatisation policy, which was formulated in 2001, and the privatisation regulations, 2007.

Privatisation is a process that goes with the government’s promised policy to ensure private sector-led eco-nomic growth. To better implement the privatisation program for bene-� ting the stakeholders, the privatisa-tion board was constituted on March 20, 1993, through an administrative ordinance.

The board kept on discharging its obligations until July 2000, as per the prescribed guidelines and policies. Later, the Privatisation Act was for-mulated on July 11, 2000 to provide a massive thrust to the privatisation program. The privatisation board was replaced by the Privatisation Commis-sion on July 30, 2000.

Sheikh Hasina, during her � rst ten-ure, surprised all by bringing a private sector man, to head the privatisation board with the rank and status of a state minister. Before that, the board used to be headed by the joint secretary or additional secretary ranked o� cials. The board elevated as it turned into a commission, the rank and status changed, but the commission remained a non-functioning one.

The Board of Investment, Privatisa-tion Commission, and many other gov-

ernment websites say the role of the government is the role of a facilitator and not the controller. The withdrawal of the role of the government from the ownership, management, and control of commercial and industrial enterprises will leave more space for the government to focus on other important areas, such as the general management of the economy, the social and public sectors, basic health and education, law and order, defence, environment, and other areas of public non-entrepreneurial activities.

If the government really means it, can the industries minister say this? Or is there a policy shift? Do we need the Privatisation Commission if that is the policy of the government?

The economic reform agenda of successive governments since the early 90s include ensuring a congenial atmosphere for private investment and sustainable development, persuading new investments, both local and foreign direct investments, improving competitiveness and enhancing productivity through macroeconomic management and governance, encouraging the diversi� cation of economic activities, and eradicating administrative bottlenecks and red tape.

The economic landscape of Bangla-desh was signi� cantly altered immedi-ately after liberation with the national-isation of domestic banks, insurance, service sector enterprises, and indus-tries. By the end of 1980s, it became

quite clear that the national socio-eco-nomic objectives sought to be achieved by nationalisation miserably failed.

Rather, the dominance of the public sector in banking and non-bank � nan-cial institutions resulted in large-scale corruption and a culture of ine� cien-cy everywhere.

Since early 80s, investment in Bangladesh has emphasised the need to move away from regulation, nation-alisation, and control. The government has also recognised the importance of private sector-led growth in our economy. The privatisation process of state-owned enterprises started with their transfer to their former Bangla-deshi owners, and the sale of shares to investors and buyers.

The economic reform program was initiated by Saifur Rahman in the early 90s, who was the � nance minister at that time. It gave the economy a real boost. When the Awami Leage came to power in 1996, it was further accelerated.

Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria also opted for the same policy and al-lowed more banks and non-bank � nan-cial institutions in the private sector. The establishment of the Privatisation Commission matched that direction.

But the privatisation of loss-making state-owned enterprises over nearly the past 12 years is advancing at a snail’s pace due to non-cooperation by the ministries and divisions concerned.

The immediate past industries min-ister was religiously against privatisa-

tion. The commission (before January 5 elections) headed by Mirza Abdul Jalil failed to privatise a single unit in the � ve years.

The commission had a list of 21 ailing SoEs to be privatised. But com-plexities arose due to the lukewarm attitude of the ministry concerned in handing over the SOEs to the private sector. The complexities also frustrat-ed the buyers of these units.

Public enterprises have proved to be unsuccessful � rms, as their � nancial performances demonstrate. They incur chronic losses and continue to rely on state-funded equity injections and cred-it from the state-owned banking system.

Persistent losses of SoEs clearly suggest that they have severe man-agement problems. This is a symptom of a malaise that a� ects the overall national e� ciency. Good govern-ance is simply impossible with huge loss-making public enterprises, as these are not only incurring losses, but also obstructing growth in other areas.

There are many reasons behind the failure of privatisation in Bangladesh. But that does not mean that the coun-try can a� ord to stall the process. The privatisation of SoEs must be expedited to end the � scal burden of subsidies.

To be more careful, the government can further de� ne the goal of privatisa-tion. The process must be transparent, as there are allegations of dubious deals in the previous cases. One of the major concerns is worker retrench-ment, and the government must ad-dress the issue by providing reasonable termination payments. Investments in labour retraining and redeployment schemes are highly important.

There may be other options to expedite and make the privatisation process more acceptable. But the gov-ernment can in no way take a decision to halt the process. l

Syed Ishtiaque Reza is Director of News, Ekattor Television.

n Yasmin Sabina Khan

When I was a young girl, around eight or nine, my father made up a math game

for us to play in the car. He would think of a number (say, 6) and I would � gure out how he had reached that number using a certain number of 4s, for example. That is, how to get to 6, using four 4s. (The answer is [4+4]/4 + 4 = 6.) These puzzles, as I remember them, were di� cult enough to be challenging but suited to my abilities so that they could be solved fairly quickly. Most important, this car game was fun.

My father had a talent for making learning fun, and he seems to have been able to infuse work at SOM with interest and enjoyment in a similar fashion. When I was writing my book about him, “Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R Khan,” the stories I heard from his former colleagues consistently recalled this aspect of working with my father.

When he explained the tubular system in the early 1960s, an architect involved in the design of Chestnut-DeWitt Apartments in Chicago, the concrete building that initiated the framed tube, told me: “It seemed really exciting ... he was full of creative ideas.” Engineers felt the same way. My father’s enthusiasm for each new system, they recalled, was irresistible.

Near the end of his life he had a chance to look back on his life and career for an oral history project. A recording was made over two days as he talked about his childhood, his university experience, and his years at SOM. He credited my grandfather, in particular, with encouraging him as a boy.

He must have recognized that my father, though not an eager student as a young child, was quite bright; in any case, he assumed responsibility for guiding his education. My father fondly remembered the time they spent together over the years. It seems that the schoolwork they spent the most time with was math; my grandfather would make up additional problems for my father to solve, or suggest nuances to a particular problem.

Approaching homework exercises in this way, rather than just solving given problems, imbued them with greater interest. “I always had a feeling,” my father recalled, that “I was somehow enjoying it beyond the curriculum requirement.” Learning was a pleasurable experience; it also prepared him for critical thinking later on.

One of the personal strengths that in� uenced his career, I believe, was the con� dence and self-assurance he acquired during the � rst 30 years of his life. By this I have in mind both his personal grounding and his educational training. As a youth he developed a perspective on life that would serve him well, and in his 20s he strengthened this personal footing by traveling and meeting people of di� erent cultures and di� erent backgrounds, listening to music, reading widely, from existentialism to writings about beauty, and learning about art (during a visit together to New York one summer, I was amazed by his familiarity with the paintings we saw at the Guggenheim).

He built on his academic training in a similar manner. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he returned to the Engineering College in Dhaka to teach structures and applied mechanics. He found that he could communicate with the students in a way that sparked their interest — he, in turn, was rewarded by the “bright sparks in students’ eyes” when they grasped a new concept. Clearly he understood his subject, and yet he decided to pursue graduate studies.

Two scholarships brought him to the United States for three years’ study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Making the most of his time there, he took enough classes to earn two master’s degrees, along with a PhD. Then, when he joined SOM in Chicago, he dedicated himself to an “intensive scrutiny,” in the words of another engineer, into structural behavior.

My father felt strongly about people working together as a team, toward a common goal. This attitude, it seems to me, partly explains his comfortable way of working with others. Design is a process fostered by “natural communication,” he said. “If you start controlling design by hierarchy, it will never be done right; never natural.” I heard from his associates that he applied this approach to design meetings, preferring collegial dialogue to hierarchically structured exchange.

The year after my father died, the American Institute of Architects selected him for a 1983 Institute Honor. “Rarely has any engineer played as key a role in the shaping of architects’ ideas and the shaping of buildings themselves,” the nomination stated. “Fazlur Khan’s work and research had made him one of the most in� uential structural engineers of the century,” the AIA Jury on Institute Honors wrote. “Besides his innovations . . . he demonstrated a human awareness and commitment to structural and architectural design collaboration that has particular importance for architects today.”

My father was, undoubtedly, exceptionally gifted as an engineer and dedicated to the advancement of his � eld. But by complementing his technical insight with human awareness and collaboration, he not only made his work more enjoyable for himself and more meaningful for his profession, but also transformed the nature of his accomplishments. l

Yasmin Sabina Khan, the daughter of FR Khan, is the author of “Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R Khan.” This article was previously published on http://khan.princeton.edu/khan.html.

From promises to failure

FR Khan,my engineer

One of the personal strengths that in� uenced his career was the con� dence he acquired

Jamaat should preempt sanctions

Business is being held back by red tape and many other hindrances BIGSTOCK

Persistent losses of SoEs clearly suggest that they have severe management problems. This a� ects the overall national e� ciency

Jamaat’s fate is now largely dependent upon the jostling and maneuvering of the two contendersfor power, AL and BNP

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014 12

ONTV

MOVIE 7:00pmHBOShooter9:30pm Star MoviesPrometheus

COMEDY12:30pm Star WorldTwo Broke Girls10:30pm Comedy CentralAnger Management

MISC10:00am TLCNigella Feasts9:30pm FTVModels

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Marking the Martyr’s Day and the International Mother Language Day, Bangladesh Shilpakala Acade-my initiated a colourful cultural programme on Feb-ruary 21 at their open air premises. However, the event began with a discussoin session. Dr Hasan Mahmud, former minister and promotion secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, Professor Ra� qul Islam and poet Nirmalendu Goon, as well as many other cultural personalities attended the pro-gramme. Liaquat Ali Lucky, director general of BSA, presided over the session.

Chief Guest Dr Hasan Mahmud said in his speech that Bangla should be introduced in every sphere of our lives. Being a traditionalist, he further stated that the aggressive invasion of di� erent cultures and languages should be blocked immediately. He also hopes that the people of Bangladesh would make way for the future generation to carry the � ag of the Bangalee culture.

The cultural session of the programme started with a group rendition of Amar Bhaier Rokte Ranga-no, a song which is considered as the most in� uential song representing the Bangla Language Movement in 1952. What held the audience captivated was the fact that while local cultural organisation Bohnishikha participated from Bangladesh, several international representatives from Japan, China, the Philippines, Russia and Sicily also took part in the melodious and emotional song.

The cultural program marched ahead with a recitation of Poet Kamal Chaudhury. Then, popular local singers Shakila Zafar and Ferdous Ara mesmerised the audience with their heady voices and contextual songs about their language and country.

The international representatives created an ambience with an international � avour. Artists from Japan performed an instrumental and a duet song. A performer from China played a traditional Chinese instrument named Guzheng. The artists from Russia performed a traditional Russian dance and a song, artists from Sicily presented a group song, whilst artists from the Philippines staged a dance and a duet song.

Performers from Bangladeshi indigenous groups, including Chakma and Marma, took part in the pro-gramme. Koel Chakma and Dolypru Marma sang two popular Bangla songs in Chakma and Marma lan-guages. Dance troupe Nrittanandan, Dhriti Norttona-lay and Spondon presented some of their best dance pieces to songs relating to the country and its lan-guage. A truly praise worthy performer Kiran Chan-dra Roy took to the stage next and awed the audience with his rendition of folk and Baul songs. l

Shilpakala Academy celebrates International Mother Language Day

South Asian Music Festival on its wayn Afrose Jahan Chaity

To celebrate the inauguration of the South Asian Mu-sic Institute, a festival titled South Asian Music Festival 2014 is organised by the institute and will be held on February 28 at the main auditorium of the National Museum. The institute is formed to set a platform for singers and musicians to nurture the cultural heritage.

The festival committee and details were declared at a press conference held on Saturday at 11am at the Dhaka Press Club. Sharif Ashrafuzzaman, general secretary of the festival committee, Dr Abul Azad, secretary, Fakir Siraj and Mazharul Islam Sweet were present at the press conference.

The organisers hope to make this festival o� cial by arranging it every year. Prominent folk singer Fakir Alamgir will be specially honoured at the festival for his fellowship and contribution to Bangladeshi music.

Singers from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka will participate in the event along with seasoned Ban-gladeshi singers including Fakir Alamgir, Subir Nandi, Bulbul Moholanbish, Lili Islam and many more.

The festival will start with a rendition of the nation-al anthem, followed by the people’s song and a special inaugural song by the singers from the People’s Song Federation. A welcome dance will be given by Swapnil Shilpagosthi, and group performances will be present-ed by Hrishiz, Udichi, Kranti, Bohishikha, Shobhumi, Anandam, Shotten Sen Silpagosthi and Uttarayan. The festival will be conducted by Saidus Saklaen and the convener of the festival is Sharif Ashrafuzzaman.

Regarding the festival, Dr Abul Azad said: “It’s an initiative to enrich South Asian musical heritage. We aim to build a cultural bond and peace between the South Asian countries through music. We want to bring people, cultures and values together across the South Asian countries. We will try to organise this fes-tival every year in di� erent South Asian countries.”

The event is open for all, but anyone interested in attending needs to collect an invitation card from the festival committee. l

n Entertainment Desk

In response to growing protest from Bangladeshis about Yash Raj Films’ latest � lm Gunday, the production company have apologised in a state-ment on their blog on Wednesday. However, the protesters are demand-ing changes to the � rst 11 minutes of the movie and an o� cial apology from the production company through a press conference.

Gunday, released in India on Febru-ary 14, depicts the bloody creation of Bangladesh as a 13-day battle between India and Pakistan beginning on De-cember 3, 1971. The � rst 11 minutes of narration in the � lm say that the birth of Bangladesh was a result of the In-do-Pak war, which is not the case.

Through di� erent blogs, Facebook groups and Twitter, Bangladeshis have called for a ban on the � lm. One of the most active Facebook groups, Khoma Chaibar Dabite Yash Raj Films-er Kache Protibadlipi Preron, with

about 15,000 members, is consistently condemning the � lm in a constructive manner. Asaduzzaman Noor, cultural minister of Bangladesh, was quoted by local media as saying that his ministry would send an o� cial statement in protest to its counterpart in India.

Yash Raj Films apologised on its blog on Wednesday for “any disre-spect or hurt” the � lm has caused Ban-gladeshis. The statement says: “This was and is meant to be a � ctional work and does not in any way project or disrespects any particular segment of society or persons or a nation.”

But, Bangladeshis all across the globe are not satis� ed with the infor-mal and incomplete apology as the � lm seriously misrepresents the his-torical facts that are considered as the pride of the nation.

Ali Abbas Zafar’s Gunday is based on the friendship of two boys Bikram and Bala who become refugees during the Bangladesh War of Liberation. l

Bangladeshis demand changes in Gunday

Akash Koto Dure expands its distributionn Entertainment Desk

Samia Zaman’s second � lm, Akash Koto Dure, has expanded its distribution arena, making it available to audiences in My-mensingh and Khulna from Feb-ruary 28. Produced by Impress Tele� lm, the movie was released in the capital on February 14 at the Star Cineplex and Block Blus-ter in Jamuna Future Park, and later, on February 21, it began showing at Modhumita Cinema Hall. Regarding the upcoming promotion of the � lm, campaign director and executive producer Kazi Shahriar Parvez Rajon talks with the Dhaka Tribune:

When will Akash Koto Dure go nationwide? We will take it one step at a time, since there are a limited number of prints of the � lm. This is also the reason behind releasing it in the capital initially. However, we

have planned to broadcast the � lm at the Purobi Cinema Hall in Mymensingh and Mayuri Cine-ma in Khulna. We are increasing the number of prints and we will expand our distribution nation-wide as soon as possible.

How much did it cost to produce

the film and what is the box office collection?A government approved � lm, Akash Koto Dure, cost around Tk1.60 crore. After the release, theatre halls were full for days on end. On a separate note, Im-press Tele� lm does not produce movies on a commercial basis. It makes movies for movie lovers and the audience is purchasing tickets for the � lm. We are re-ceiving good responses from the box o� ce.

Tell us about the screening in Switzerland.The � lm has been selected for screening at the Festival Interna-tional du Film Oriental de Gene-ve (FIFOG) at Les Cinemas du Grütli in Switzerland at 4:30pm on April 6. The cast and crew of the � lm will be present at the festival. We are hoping to partic-ipate in many others festivals in near future. l

Reboot of Fantastic Four gets castn Entertainment Desk

Josh Trank  has elected his  Fantastic Four, and Fox are in the process of � nalising the actors’ deals. As reported by  all  of the Hollywood trade papers, the lineup will be: Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Jamie Bell  as Ben Grimm and Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm.

It’s said that Teller, Mara and Jordan have been amongst Trank’s picks all the while and would have been locked-in last year had production not been pushed back for some rewrites. Bell is reportedly a newer consider-ation, having only come into the fold during the last couple of weeks of screen tests. Shoot-ing on the � lm is set to get underway this spring ahead of a release on June 19 next year.

It was pretty much known that Jordan was “The Human Torch” for months and months, as were Trank’s intention to cast a white actress as his sister. The obvious narrative move is to make one or both of them adopted.

Fox have even more riding on Fantastic Four this time than last time around and I think they know it. l

Jamie Bell Kate Mara Michael B Jordan Miles Teller

Book and Heritage show ends today n Shadma Malik

A solo exhibition titled Book and Heritage by Proshanta Kar-makar Buddha is on at Shilpan-gan Gallery in Dhanmondi and will end today. The exhibition is a treat for heritage lovers ex-ploring the display at the gal-lery.

Around 23 acrylic based artworks are showcased at the exhibit, which belongs to two di� erent series of works of the artist. One is on the architec-tural heritage of the country and the other is based on the varied size books which are placed in the book shelves ev-erywhere.

This is the 16th exhibition of the artist, where he explores the concerns, untangles basic values and takes a critical look upon the heritage of Bangla-desh. He visited ancient build-ings of Dhaka city and painted them on his canvas. Through the artworks, it is con-veyed that the rich heritage is losing its legacy and the concern for the dwindling heritage buildings has also been represented. He feels a strong connection with the structural heritage, hence, his works narrate stories of the past, continuing to the present and go on to show what the future holds for these cultural monuments.

His series of works on bookshelves is displayed with the aim of encouraging viewrs to take on the habit of reading. Proshanta’s paintings on book shelves recount the expansion of knowledge and permit the reader to understand the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the cultural heritage of the country.

Muhammad Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Group of Companies, Franck Rasmussen, � rst sec-retary, Embassy of Sweden and Tehmina Enayet, director of Gallery Cosmos and Ambassador Waliur Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Heritage Founda-tion, National Security and Counter Terrorism were present at the inaugural ceremony on February 14. l

Di� erent performances at the programme at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Friday QUAMRUL ABEDIN

Kazi Shahriar Parvez Rajon

13DHAKA TRIBUNESunday, February 23, 2014

Sport 14 Cornet shocks Serena to reach Dubai � nal

15 Sheikh Jamal drop points on return

0 2 1

Did you know?

Roberto Martinez has now lost all � ve

trips to Stamford Bridge as a Premier

League manager

DAYS TO GO

Bangladesh batsmen Naeem Islam and Nasir Hossain run between the wicket during their 3rd ODI against Sri Lanka at the SBNS yesterday MUMIT M

Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Perera celebrates after scoring his maiden international century during their 3rd ODI against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium yesterday MUMIT M

BangladeshAnamul c Chandimal b Prasad 2Shamsur c A. Perera b Prasad 25Mominul Haque run out 60Mush� qur c Senanayake b Prasad 30Naeem Islam c Prasad b Senanayake 32Nasir Hossain c Priyanjan b Lakmal 38Mahmudullah c Thirimanne b Lakmal 5Sohag Gazi b T. Perera 23Sha� ul Islam not out 15Arafat Sunny not out 1Extras: (lb2, w7) 9

Total (for 8 wickets, 50 overs) 240

Fall of wickets1-17, 2-62, 3-108, 4-130, 5-184, 6-200, 7-201, 8-232

BowlingLakmal 10-3-24-2, T. Perera 9-0-39-1, Prasad 10-0-49-3, Senanayake 9-0-46-1, Priyanjan 6-0-42-0, A. Perera 3-0-17-0, Mathews 3-0-21-0

Sri LankaPerera b Rubel 106Thirimanne c Shamsur b Mahmudullah 18K Vithanage b Mahmudullah 9D Chandimal c Anamul b Rubel 64A Mathews not out 20A Priyanjan not out 22Extras: (lb4, w3) 7

Total (for 4 wickets, 47.3 overs) 246

Fall of wickets1-44, 2-60, 3-198, 4-205

BowlingSha� ul 4-0-27-0, Gazi 9-1-47-0, Rubel 10-0-69-2, Mahmudullah 10-0-38-2, Nasir 4-1-12-0, Sunny 10-0-42-0, Naeem 0.3-0-7-0

Sri Lanka won by six wickets; sweep series 3-0

SCORECARD

Bangladesh announce Asia Cup squad sans Tamim

The Bangladesh Cricket Board yester-day declared a 15-member squad for the Asia Cup starting from February 25. 

Opening batsmen Tamim Iqbal has been left out due to a neck injury and will be replaced by top order batsman Imrul Kayes.   Mahmudullah lost his place in the squad after a run of poor performances and was replaced by all-rounder Ziaur Rahman. 

“The number seven position is prov-ing very important and therefore Ziaur Rahman gets the nod. He is in form and has been performing consistently at do-mestic level,” said chief of the national selection panel Faruk Ahmed yesterday. 

Veteran spinner Abdur Razzak has also returned to the side after recover-ing from a hamstring injury, he replaces seamer Sha� ul Islam. Allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, who is undergoing a three match suspension due to an inappro-priate gesture in the dressing room has also been named in the squad, however, he will join the team only after Bangla-desh’s second game in the tournament. 

Among the changes in the squad, it was Tamim’s which had got the most attention. The hard-hitting batsman su� ering from a neck injury and went under an MRI test on Friday which re-vealed that he has a ‘Grade One Strain’ on the left of his neck and ‘disc bulge’ – a common cause for lower back pain. 

Tamim sustained the neck injury

ahead of the second Twenty20 against Sri Lanka earlier this month in Chittagong. He appeared in the second T20 game but the increasing trouble due to the injury kept him out of the three match ODI se-ries which Bangladesh lost 3-0. 

According to the medical report and theory, the strain on the � ber takes at least 7 to 14 days to recover while the ‘disc bulge’ is the chief concern of the injury.  

Under such situations the call de-pended on the national team physio-therapist Vibhav Singh and then the

team management and the national se-lection panel. To avoid the risk of Tamim facing further damage to the injury and putting his appearance in the ICC World Twenty20 2014 in doubt, the concerned decided to rest him for the Asia Cup. 

“We will not be getting Tamim in the Asia Cup. He has not recovered from an injury and it may take another week or so for him to return. Under the circum-stances our priority is to have him fully � t for the ICC World Twenty20 and he will continue his rehab,” said Faruk. l

‘This is a wake-up call’

After Bangladesh’s humiliating white-wash by Sri Lanka, skipper Mush� qur Rahim stated that if Bangladesh con-tinued playing in this manner the home side may even have to struggle against Afghanistan and said that the series loss was a wake-up call for them at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium yesterday.

 “Of course it is a wake-up call. The state we are in, you can say that it can-not get any worse. In the last Asia Cup we were the runners-up, but with the state of a� airs this time around we are heading into the  tournament with nothing to lose, I feel. The way we are going now, if that continues it will be very di� cult. We may even have to struggle against Afghanistan. If you make so many mistakes it is very di� -cult to come back in international crick-et,” said a decidedly forthright Mush� q.

 The 25 year old went on to say that the way Bangladesh played throughout the Sri Lanka series was an an alarming sign for the side and clearly stated that they need to improve all the three de-partments of the game.

  “Unfortunately we could not do that throughout this series. Most im-portantly if we lost playing good cricket it would not have been so bad, but we played bad cricket. Winning is impor-tant, but the way we lost is an alarm-ing sign. We have to work on all three departments - especially � elding and catching, batting-wise the set batsmen

have to take more responsibility so that they can play big innings,” he said. 

“Today the wicket was very good, the time that I spent out there I thought it was a 270, 280-plus wicket. There was not much turn and the ball was coming onto the bat. When I was batting with Mominul we felt good and if we could build a good partnership we could have gotten a 260 plus score. But this a big problem that our batsmen are getting out badly after being set,” he added 

The home side was without Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib al Hasan and the skipper said they were sorely missed. “Players like them are always missed. There is nothing to do about Tamim’s injury. Hopefully we will try and wait till the last moment to see if he is ready for the Asia Cup. About Shakib, obviously that was an unwanted incident. He also realised it and we all feel very bad about it. We will obviously learn from this. Not only from him, but this is not expected from any of our players. As a captain I beg forgiveness for it and hopefully it will never happen again,” said Mush� q.

On the other hand Lankan skipper ad-mitted after winning the series 3-0 that they did not expect an easy win yester-day and informed that their bowlers did the job to restrict Bangladesh on 240. 

The 26 year old said that winning the series will certainly boost their con� -dence before going on to the Asia cup but added that it will be a much more di� cult task for them in the Asia Cup. l

Mush� qur Rahim (Captain), Anamul Hoque Bijoy, Imrul Kayes, Shamsur Rahman, Naeem Islam, Muminul Hoque, Nasir Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Ziaur Rahman, Abdur Razzak, Shohag Gazi, Masrafe Bin Mortaza, Rubel Hos-sain, Al Amin Hossain, Shakib Al Hasan

SQUAD

Sri Lanka ease to six wicket victory

Sri Lanka opener Kusal Parera’s well-paced maiden ODI century guided the

visitors to a six wicket victory against Bangladesh yesterday, thus also con� rm-ing a 3-0 sweep for the Lions. The island-ers who had earlier con� rmed the series victory by winning the � rst two games, pushed for a clean sweep and eventually overcame a below par of 240 by Bangla-desh at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

While the Lankans cherished their third series win of the tour, following wins in the Test and Twenty20 series, Bangladesh was left to swallow its � rst ODI series whitewash since 2011.

Today was the � rst time Sri Lanka was without Kumar Sangakkara, Ma-hela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan since the 1999 World Cup. But their absence was hardly felt as the side went on to chase 241 easily after they sent Bangladesh in to bat � rst.

They had seamer Dhammika Prasad return to the ODI side after around one year and to surprise all he led a Lasith Malinga less attack picking up three wickets that aided them to restrict Ban-gladesh to 240.

Most of the Bangladesh batsmen chipped in after a shaky start after los-ing opening batsman Anamul Haque on two. But it was top order batsman Mominul Haque who had made the most telling contribution with a run-a-ball 60 which included eight fours as he picked up his maiden ODI � fty.

His smooth sailing came to a halt after Kithuruwan Vithanage’s direct hit from square leg had him a few feet short as he was scampering home for a second run. The dismissal also broke the 46 run partnership between Mo-minul and Mush� qur Rahim for the third wicket. Soon after Mominul’s dis-missal Mush� qur also returned to the dressing room scoring 30 runs hitting three boundaries after failing to keep Prasad’s rising delivery down as he cut it straight to point.

Middle order batsman Naeem Islam replaced suspended cricketer Shakib Al Hasan in the game. The right handed batsman is in form however was denied a place in the eleven due to team com-bination. The opportunity for Naeem was big as he needed to make his mark ahead of the Asia Cup. He tried to take advantage of the batting Powerplay, but holed out to mid-o� of the last ball of the � ve-over spell, which despite

all the slogging yielded only 23 runs. Naeem scored 32 o� 55 which included which included a solitary boundary.

Suranga Lakmal picked up a couple of wickets in the 45th over – of Mahmudul-lah who was caught at long-on and Na-sir Hossain whose innings ended on 32 after he was caught in mid-wicket after lobbing a low full-toss. Near the end, Sohag Gazi hammered three sixes dur-ing his 13-ball 23 in order to give his side some thrust and was eventually caught at long-on by Thisara Perera.

Later Sri Lanka riding on Parera’s maiden ton cruised to the target in 47 overs. Parera moved slowly to his � fty o� 80 balls. But soon he picked up the pace as he found Gazi and seamer Sha� ul Islam, to attack when-ever the required run-rate needed a lift and raced to his maiden century. He reached his hundred o� 118 deliveries and then added another six runs to the tally before the wickets behind him were dismantled by Rubel Hossain.

Parera partnered Dinesh Chandimal for the fourth wicket to post 138 runs which had decided the fate of the game for the Lankans. Chandimal scored 64 o� 70 before he was caught behind to become the second wicket for Rubel in the game. l

Kruif terms the situation as ‘tough’

Dutch national football coach Lodewijk de Kruif yesterday termed the situation “tough” ahead of the Fifa International friendly against India on March 5.

The Dutch coach sat with the presi-dent of Bangladesh Football Federation at the BFF House yesterday and a num-ber of issues were discussed by the parties. “BFF has promised to clear my and Rene Koster’s due salaries at the end of the next month, we have also asked the president about the imple-mentation of our development plans, but at the moment we are focused to the match against India,” said de Kruif.

“We wanted to settle the salary is-sue. There were political problems and the last date of solving the problem was February 1 and now there is anoth-er extension, there are no hard feelings but I think we should talk about it,” added de Kruif.

However, Lodewijk de Kruif was

also worried over the preparations and said, “Both Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell will not release their players till February 28 and we will have only two full days of practice at home and away. It’s a tough situation, however, we have to deal with the circumstances.”

BFF vice-president Tabith Awal was also present at the meeting and he said, “We have talked about the due salaries and we hope that it would be cleared by next month as we are trying for new sponsors and some of the responses are positive.” l

From teammates with love

The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Friday suspended Shakib al Hasan for three ODIs and � ned him Tk300000 for making an indecent gesture on live television. The result was e� ective from yesterday as the left-handed all-rounder missed the third ODI against Sri Lanka while he will also miss the � rst two matches in the Asia Cup.

However, according to a close source it was learnt that the members of the national team will pledge to the BCB president Nazmul Hasan to relieve Shakib’s punishment to one match.

It was also learnt that Tigers captain Mush� qur Rahim will send a letter, signed by all the national team members, addressing the BCB president to cut down Shakib’s three match suspension to one match as Bangladesh have an important match against India in the Asia Cup which

Shakib will not able to play due to his three-match suspension.

Earlier on Thursday, Shakib gestured towards his groin after drawing the attention of TV cameras during the second ODI against Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The BCB cricket operations committee later in the evening found Shakib guilty of making the inappropriate gesture and handed him the highest punishment to any cricketer for such gesture.

The runners up of the Asia Cup Bangladesh loosed to Pakistan in the � nal on 2012 where Shakib was the man of the series for his all round performance and with the current form of the host Mush� q badly needs the experience of Shakib in the all important Asia Cup.

However when Dhaka Tribune tried to talk with the acting CEO of BCB Nizamuddin Chowdhury about the issue he did not answered the phone. l

We wanted to settle the salary issue. There were political problems and the last date of solving the problem was February 1 and now there is another extension

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Uefa charges PellegriniUefa has charged Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini following his

criticism of Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson after Tuesday’s 2-0 last-16 � rst leg defeat by Barcelona in the Champions League. The Chilean has been charged with violating the general principles of conduct, European soccer’s ruling body said in a statement on Friday. The case will be handled next Friday. Pellegrini, who apologised for his remarks earlier on Friday, accused Eriksson of a lack of impartiality and said UEFA should not have chosen a Swedish referee for a game of such importance. –Reuters

Nadal to face Andujar in Rio semis Spain’s world number one Rafael Nadal is through to the semi-� nals of the

$1.3 million ATP Rio Open after crushing Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-0 in the last eight on Friday. “I think I played my best match of the week today,” said top seed Nadal after a crushing win in 75 minutes kept his run going in what is his � rst event since losing last month’s Australian Open � nal. As he looks to reach his third � nal in three tournaments this year, he will now face compatriot Pablo Andujar after the eighth seed won 6-1, 6-1 against another Spaniard, Tommy Robredo. –AFP

Button con� rms engagementBritish Formula One driver Jenson Button and his long-term model girlfriend

Jessica Michibata have become engaged. The Japanese-born Michibata could be seen sporting a diamond engagement ring as she kept tabs on her � ance during Thursday’s pre-season testing at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit. McLaren posted a message on their twitter page saying: “Huge congrats to @JensonButton and @jessybondgirl on their engagement! #attaboy”. And Button’s new teammate, Kevin Magnussen tweeted: “Wow! Well done to @JensonButton & @jessybondgirl on your engagement!” –AFP

FIXTURES Liverpool v Swansea City Newcastle v Aston Villa Norwich City v Tottenham

Arsenal unveil Bergkamp statue

Premier League giants Arsenal unveiled a statue of club legend Dennis Berg-kamp outside their Emirates Stadium home in north London on Saturday.

The 44-year-old Dutchman was in attendance to witness the unveiling of the statue, which was commissioned to commemorate his 11-year Arsenal career.

“I am just so honoured and today makes me very proud. It is great to come back and see everyone at Arsenal again,” said Bergkamp, who scored 120 goals for Arsenal in 423 appearances.

“Everyone knows I love Arsenal and I had such a great time at the club. The fans, the sta� and my team-mates were fantastic. The team was also amazing and we had a lot of success over the years.

“For me and my family it was such an important and enjoyable period in our lives. This is such a special moment to come back and be honoured in this way.”

The statue depicts Bergkamp leap-ing to control a high ball on the top of his right foot and is based on a photo-graph taken of him in action against Newcastle United during a Premier League game in February 2003. l

Bundesliga harder than Champions League: Guardiola

Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola believes winning the German Bundes-liga will prove a harder task than lifting the Champions League -- something he has achieved twice with Barcelona, he said on Friday.

“The most prestigious title is the Champions League but the most im-portant and most di� cult is the Ger-man championship,” Guardiola told reporters.

Bayern, unbeaten in domestic league action, are a stunning 16 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and have a foot in the quarter-� nals of the Champions League after beating Arse-nal 2-0 away on Wednesday.

“The Champions League is like a good meal in a good restaurant. The Bundesliga, it’s like eating pizza or hamburger every day,” he said. l

Draw marks start of road to Euro 2016

With the continent’s lead-ing nations currently fo-cused on the build-up to this year’s World Cup in Brazil, they could be for-given for paying little at-tention to Sunday’s Euro

2016 qualifying draw.The draw, which will be held in the

southern French city of Nice, marks the start of a new period in the history of the European Championship.

Before the 2020 tournament is held in 13 di� erent host cities across Eu-rope, the � nals in France will be the � rst to comprise of 24 nations.

It is a far cry from the eight-nation event when France last held the tour-nament back in 1984 and doubters are

unconvinced about the move to step up from the 16-team format that made Euro 2012 such a success.

The move will take much of the drama away from the qualifying cam-paign, with 23 of the 53 nations in-volved - almost half - advancing to the � nals along with the hosts.

With the top two teams in each of the nine qualifying groups progress-ing along with the best third-placed team - the remaining third-placed sides will play o� for four more berths - the chances of seeing any major nations miss out on a bloated Euro 2016 seem virtually non-existent.

That is undoubtedly what UEFA want, as the failure of a continental giant, like England in 2008, to qualify can only have a negative impact on the amount of revenue they can generate.

But it means Roy Hodgson’s side, two-time reigning champions Spain, Germany, Italy and others will scarcely be tested en route to the � nals and may lead to indi� erence among fans.

This is, though, an opportunity for some of the lesser lights on the conti-nent to return to a major tournament, or even qualify for the � rst time.

Scotland, whose last tournament appearance came at the 1998 World Cup in France, have been rejuvenated in recent times under Gordon Strachan and are hopeful of continuing their im-provement.

“I’m excited about it. I don’t like to plan anything. I plan training sessions, that’s about the only thing I plan,” said Strachan when asked about his hopes for the draw, which could see Scotland, who are in the fourth pot of seeds, be

paired with their old rivals England.“I’m really not fussed. I enjoy meet-

ing up with the players and playing anybody who is put in front of us.

Sunday will also be a special day for Gibraltar, with the tiny British Over-seas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula being involved in a qualifying campaign for the � rst time since their admission to UEFA.

The territory of just six square kilo-metres in size and 30,000 people will be in the sixth and last pot of seeds along with the likes of San Marino and Liechtenstein, although their minis-cule prospects of qualifying for the � -nals are perhaps helped ever so slightly by UEFA’s decision to keep them and Spain - which has long asserted its claim to the territory - separate for po-litical reasons. l

Rooney signs blockbuster deal with United

Wayne Rooney pledged his long-term future to Manchester United on Friday after signing a blockbuster contract extension with the Premier League champions.

Rooney had just 18 months left on his previous deal and was a transfer target for Chelsea last year, sparking speculation he could leave at the end of this season, but the England striker has agreed to prolong his stay at Old Tra� ord until June 2019.

The new contract will reportedly pay the 28-year-old £300,000 a week, with Rooney also set to stay at United as a club ambassador when he

eventually retires.“Wayne Rooney has committed

his future to Manchester United by signing a four-year contract extension, keeping him at the club until June 2019. Wayne will also become a club ambassador when he retires from the game,” a statement on United’s website announced.

Rooney, who had con� rmed the news on his Twitter feed just before United’s o� cial announcement, admitted he was delighted to have � nally signed the deal.

The former Everton star also said he is relishing the opportunity to inspire the next generation of United players in his role as one of the team’s senior � gures. l

Rodgers wants Liverpool to show killer instinct

Liverpool manager Bren-dan Rodgers has urged his players to continue to be ruthless at An� eld ahead

of the visit of former club Swansea City on Sunday.

The Reds, who occupy fourth spot, have been imperious at home this season, winning 11 of their 13 Premier

League games and scoring 38 goals in the process.

Supporters at An� eld have been treated to thumping 5-1 and 4-0 victo-ries over Arsenal and Everton in their last two home games, and Rodgers does not want there to be any let up as they try to keep pace with leaders Chelsea.

Liverpool are expected to recall mid-� elder Jordan Henderson to their start-ing line-up after he was rested in the FA Cup � fth round defeat at Arsenal.

Right-back Glen Johnson (knee) is back in the squad, but mid� elder Lu-cas, left-back Jose Enrique (both knee) and centre-back Mamadou Sakho (hamstring) are all still injured.

Rodgers also admitted his players are constantly striving for improve-ment - both individually and collec-tively - which has been borne out in results and performances this season.

Swansea’s former Liverpool mid-� elder Jonjo Shelvey should feature after returning from a hamstring injury as a substitute against Napoli. Howev-er, Spanish striker Michu is still nursing a long-standing ankle injury. l

Juve title bid feeling � xture pinch

Juventus coach Antonio Conte leads his side into Sunday’s derby against To-rino fearing the champions’ bid for a third consecutive

scudetto could be hampered by their Europa League ambitions.

Juve hold a nine-point lead over Roma in Italy’s Serie A, which could be cut to six if Rudi Garica’s men win their game in hand over Parma, with Napoli a distant third a further four points o� the pace.

At just past the halfway point stage, it looks to be a two-horse race for the title but Conte has refused to rule out slip-ups along the way.

After a disastrous Champions League campaign ended at the group stage, Juve, as well as league rivals Na-

poli and Fiorentina, are in contention for Europa League glory.

But Juve’s next test on the domes-tic front comes against a Torino side

that has lost only twice in their last 12 games, their last win a surprise 3-1 rout of Verona on Monday.

Along with Verona, Torino have been one of the surprise packages this season and club sporting director Gianluca Petrachi pointed to forward Ciro Immobile as one of the driving forces behind the club’s bid for a place in Europe.

While Roma will be expected to help Garcia prolong the 50th birthday he celebrated on Friday by winning away to Bologna on Saturday, anything less than a win for Juve be a huge boost to the Giallorossi. City rivals AC Milan, meanwhile, have a tricky away en-counter at Sampdoria. l

Monaco cut PSG lead after last-gasp win

Monaco’s Layvin Kurzawa pounced deep into added time to snatch a 3-2 win over Stade de Reims on Friday and cut Paris St Germain’s lead at the top of Ligue 1 to two points.

The left back, unmarked after a late red card for the visitors’ Algerian Aissa Mandi for a dangerous tackle, scored from close range after a rebound o� the post in 95th minute.

It was a tough result for seventh-placed Reims, who had twice come from behind with well taken equalis-ers from Prince Oniangue that rattled Claudio Ranieri’s side.

PSG visit 10th-placed Toulouse on Sunday (1300GMT) looking to restore a � ve-point lead over Monaco, who are 11 points clear of the chasing pack.

Reims battled to keep Monaco out in the closing minutes but, with Man-di sent o� in the 83rd, they lost their shape.

Monaco’s new Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov, just back from inju-ry, was introduced for the closing min-utes, but it was defender Kurzawa who struck the winning blow. l

Zanetti denies Chelsea move rumours

Inter Milan captain Javier Zanetti has denied he plans to join Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, despite newspaper reports he could move into coaching at the London club.

“I have a great rapport with Mourinho. We hear from each other frequently, but we’ve never discussed these things,” the 40-year-old Argentine told the Inter Channel. I believe the Inter fans know how I feel about this shirt. I’ve always stressed that this club is my life and my home. And it’s my desire to stay here. I

don’t need to add anything else.”Zanetti’s contract with Inter runs

out at the end of the season and media reports in England suggested that for-mer Inter manager Mourinho wanted Zanetti in a player-coach role.

Zanetti has been at Inter for nearly two decades, helping them win � ve Se-rie A titles. He played under Mourinho during the Portuguese’s two-year spell at the club, when they won the Cham-pions League and two league titles.

Inter are � fth in Serie A under coach Walter Mazzarri and host struggling Cagliari on Sunday. l

A picture shows a statue of former Arsenal and Netherlands footballer Dennis Bergkamp after it was unveiled outside The Emirates Stadium in north London yesterday. AFP

Cornet shocks Serena to reach Dubai � nal

Alize Cornet, recovering brilliantly from a mighty collapse in career for-tunes, scored her best-ever win by beating world number one Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4 and preventing an all-Williams sisters � nal at the Dubai Open.

The 24-year-old Frenchwoman, who is about to return to the top 20 af-ter a dismal � ve-year interval in which she fell from the top 100, made a mere handful of errors as she manoeuvred and harassed the legend to a stunning defeat.

Cornet often rallied valiantly when the powerful American landed her big-gest blows, but even more often she found changes of direction and angles to disrupt Serena’s rhythm.

That this happened more often than usual to the favourite was unsurprising

considering that this was her � rst tour-nament since injuring her back in last month’s Australian Open.

Serena later pronounced herself “a wee bit embarrassed” by the result, which denied her the chance of a � nal with older sister Venus Williams, an earlier winner against Caroline Wozni-acki.

She also had a � t of incongruous laughing as she claimed that she had “not made that many errors in a match in, I think, at least three years, maybe four years”, and had not felt good all week.

In truth, Serena did enough to have beaten most other opponents. But this one was unusually smart and coura-geous as well as skilful and level-head-ed, and took her rare opportunity with tremendous panache.

“It’s my best ever win - but I haven’t realised it yet,” Cornet said. l

France's Alize Cornet reacts after defeating Serena Williams during their semi � nal game in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai on Friday AFP

FIXTURES Bologna v Roma Livorno v Hellas Verona Chievo Verona v Catania Inter v Cagliari Sampdoria v AC Milan Udinese v Atalanta Juventus v Torino

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014 15

Ansar lift women’s table tennis titleBangladesh Ansar emerged as the cham-pions in the women’s section in the 34th National Table Tennis Championship beating Comilla 3-1 in the � nal held at the Rajshahi Women’s Complex yesterday. Ansar’s Rumi and Saleha defeated Sharmin and Rahima in their respective game. Meanwhile in the men’s section, Rajshahi moved into the � nal after beat-ing Biman in their semi-� nal encounter at the same venue yesterday.

–Tribune Desk

MU coaches in town to select rising starsFour coaches from Manchester United arrived in Dhaka yesterday to select the 12 Airtel Rising Stars of the initiative’s second season. The � nal selection will be made today at BKSP. The four coaches are Kevin O’Connell, Adam Hilton, Dave Chapman, and Lami Sonola. They will join the top 120 players selected throughout the country in BKSP today where they will conduct a training pro-gramme and the � nal selection. Kevin O’ Connell, Dave Chapman and Lami Sonola are Uefa licensed coach while Adam Hilton is an English FA licensed coach and has been working as a MU Founda-tion coach for � ve years. He has been involved in talent identi� cation pro-cesses for the club. Dave Chapman, also an FA licensed coach, has been a part of the MU Foundation as a coach for seven years. Lami Sonola has been working for Manchester United for the last � ve years and was appointed head coach for the MU Under-18 girls football team.

–Tribune Desk

Button con� rms engagement British Formula One driver Jenson Button and his long-term model girl-friend Jessica Michibata have become engaged. The Japanese-born Michibata could be seen sporting a diamond engagement ring as she kept tabs on her � ance during Thursday’s pre-season testing at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit. McLaren posted a message on their twitter page saying: “Huge congrats to @JensonButton and @jessybondgirl on their engagement! #attaboy”.

–AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Sheikh Jamal drop points on BPL return

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Ltd’s return to the local arena after their IFA Shield heroics fell short of a winning  touch in a 2-2 draw against Team BJMC in the Bangladesh Pre-mier League at the Bang-

abandhu National Stadium yesterday.Josef Afusi, the Nigerian coach of

Jamal pointed out the tiredness, dif-ferent pitch and the trauma of losing the shootout of the � nal as the pos-sible causes behind the draw. Jamal’s attacking lynchpin, Haitian Sony Norde looked a little tired and the team did not get the full throttled service from their reliable attacker as they consequential-ly lost the edge. However they bounced back from an early shock and took the lead, but failed to carry defend it. Jamal who played � ve matches before � ying to Kolkata will face Abahani and Sheikh Russell in their next two encounters.

BJMC, on the other hand, put a con-sistent show and their defence stood solid against the constant e� orts of Ja-mal’s three pronged attack comprising Sony Norde, his compatriot Wedson and Nigerian Emeka Darlington.

Team BJMC took the lead  in the second  minute through their Nigerian mid� elder Samsom Iliayasu’s opportu-

nistic strike. Seeing Jamal goalie Himel moving towards the far post, Samson placed the ball towards the near as it luckily slipped through the hands of a surprised Himel.

However Jamal equalised in the 10th  minute with Haitian forward Wedson heading on a Mamunul Islam free-kick which BJMC defender Saiful Islam, in an attempt of clearing it, headed on the back of his own net.

Jamal took the lead in the 36th min-ute through their Nigerian forward Emeka Darlington. Emeka, on the six-yard box, placed a back-heel of Wedson from the near post. 

The � rst-half drama did not end there as BJMC restored the parity in the 43rd  minute. Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura went past two Jamal de-fenders and cut a square pass to Nige-rian mid� elder Uche Felix who tapped home quite easily.

Sony Norde was also in the center of action in the same minute, but his chipped e� ort missed the side post while in the 63rd minute his free-kick was punched to safety by BJMC goalie Arifuz-zaman. Jamal escaped from conceding the third in the 67th minute when Ismael Bangoura placed the ball past Himel but he was only left frustrated to see the ball miss the side-post. Jamal have 14 points from six matches while BJMC have 12 points from nine matches. l

Sheikh Jamal’s Haitian forward Wedson Anselme (L) controls the ball while Emeka Darlington (R) looks on during their Bangladesh Premier League match against Team BJMC at the BNS yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Training camp for U-15 girl footballers

The Women’s Wing of Bangladesh Football Federation will host a training camp for 210 players selected for the Plan Bangladesh U-15 Girls Football Championship that will start from Sunday.

The � ve day camp will be held in seven zones-Rajshahi, Sylhet, Kushtia, Nilphamari, Faridpur, Rangamati and Barishal, with 30 players selected for each zone.

The selected girls will also be trained on di� erent issues such as gender discrimination, domestic violence and leadership etc. by Plan Bangladesh

experts.On 8  March the girls will observe

World Women’s Day together after completing the 5-day long training.

After the camp each zone will form two teams that will play in a knockout based tournament. The � nal round of the meet will be held in Dhaka with � nal match billed to be played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium Dhaka on 28  March said BFF Women wings deputy chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron at a press conference at the BFF House yesterday.

BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Sohag and other women wings o� cials were also present at the occasion. l

Chelsea's John Terry (R) reacts after scoring a goal during their English Premier League match against Everton at Stamford Bridge in London yesterday REUTERS

Arsenal, Man City stay on Chelsea’s tail

Arsenal and Manchester City replied in kind after John Terry scored an in-jury-time winner against

Everton to preserve Chelsea’s position as Premier League leaders on Saturday.

Chelsea’s victory momentarily gave them a four-point lead at the summit, but Arsenal closed the gap to a point by overwhelming Sunderland 4-1 and City are three points back with a game in hand after edging Stoke City 1-0.

Arsenal had been dealt a dispirit-ing 2-0 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday and they reacted in style by outclassing third-bottom Sunderland at the Emir-ates Stadium.

Left on the bench against Bayern, Olivier Giroud was restored to the starting line-up to face Sunderland and the Frenchman responded with a brace of goals in the � rst 31 minutes.

The former Montpellier man also played a role in the glorious move that led to Tomas Rosicky chipping in Arse-nal’s third goal before half-time, with Laurent Koscielny heading home a fourth in the 57th minute.

City also tasted Champions League disappointment in mid-week, losing 2-0 at home to Barcelona, and their re-turn to winning ways was not quite as straightforward as Arsenal’s.

Pellegrini’s side toiled in front of goal against Stoke at the Etihad Stadi-um and there was a sense of relief when Yaya Toure broke the deadlock from

Kolarov’s cut-back in the 70th minute.Earlier, Terry’s last-gasp winner al-

lowed Chelsea to hold onto top spot as they snatched a 1-0 victory against Everton at Stamford Bridge. l

Bale beauty guides Madrid to win over Elche

A stunning long-range strike from Ga-reth Bale helped Real Madrid moved three points clear of title rivals Barce-lona and Atletico Madrid as they beat Elche 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

After an unconvincing start, Asier Il-larramendi’s de� ected e� ort had given the hosts a half-time lead.

Bale then made the game safe 19 minutes from time when he collected possession midway inside the Elche half and blasted the ball in o� the un-derside of the bar.

And Isco rounded o� a 15th win in 16 games in all competitions for Real when he slammed home the third from Karim Benzema’s pass nine minutes later.

Madrid were once again without

the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo as he completed a three-game ban after hav-ing a � nal appeal rejected on Saturday morning.

With star performer in recent weeks, Luka Modric, also banned and Sergio Ramos rested as he was only one yellow card away from missing next weekend’s Madrid derby away at Atletico, it took the hosts some time to � nd their stride.

Angel di Maria was the main threat early on as his in-swinging corner clipped the top of the bar before the Argentine � red over after drifting past three Elche challenges on the edge of the box.

Elche were lucky to not be reduced to 10 men just after the hour mark when Alberto Botia chopped down Jese as he burst clear on goal and could easily have been interpreted as deny-ing a clear goalscoring opportunity. l

South Africa, � rst innings, 423

Australia, � rst innings(overnight 112-4)D Warner c Smith b Philander 70N Lyon b Morkel 15S Smith c De Villiers b Morkel 49B Haddin b Steyn 9M Johnson b Duminy 27R Harris c Du Plessis b Morkel 26P Siddle not out 11Extras (lb4, nb1, w2) 7Total (57 overs) 246

BowlingSteyn 13-3-55-1, Philander 13-0-68-3, Morkel 17-0-63-3, Parnell 8.3-2-31-2, Elgar 0.3-0-1-0, Duminy 5-0-24-1South Africa, second inningsG Smith b Johnson 14D Elgar c Haddin b Siddle 16H Amla not out 93F du Plessis c Haddin b Siddle 24A de Villiers c Haddin b Johnson 29Q de Kock not out 9Extras (b2, lb5) 7Total (4 wkts, 47 overs) 192

BowlingJohnson 12-0-48-2, Harris 10-1-53-0, Lyon 12-2-31-0, Siddle 13-2-53-2

South Africa lead by 369 runs with 6 wickets remaining in the second innings

SCORECARD, DAY 3Amla strokes South Africa into strong position

South Africa moved into a strong posi-tion on the third day of the second Test against Australia at St George’s Park on Saturday but lost one of their four spe-cialist bowlers.

Australia were bowled out for 246 in their � rst innings, giving South Africa a lead of 177, which they stretched to 369 by the close of play, reaching 192 for four. Hashim Amla returned to form with a sparkling innings of 93 not out.

But South Africa will be without left-arm fast-medium bowler Wayne Parnell when they attempt to bowl out Australia a second time.

Parnell, who on Friday took two wickets with his � rst three deliveries of the match, pulled up with a groin injury after bowling three balls in his ninth over.

Team manager Mohammed Moosa-jee said Parnell had a strain, not a tear, but would nevertheless be unable to bowl in the second innings.

It left South Africa with three spe-cialist bowlers after bringing in a bats-man for an all-rounder after losing the

� rst Test in Centurion by 281 runs.Australia found themselves in unfa-

miliar territory in a dominant southern hemisphere summer, during which they have won six successive Tests, all by wide margins.

South Africa, though, looked more like the team that has surged to the top of the international Test rankings as they followed up a solid � rst innings with aggressive bowling to put Austra-lia under pressure.

The tall Morne Morkel was particu-larly hostile, peppering the batsmen with numerous short deliveries as he took three wickets for 63 runs. Vernon Philander claimed three for 68.

South Africa were on top from the � fth over of the day when Philander had top-scorer David Warner caught at slip for 70. Nightwatchman Nathan Lyon, after standing up to a bum-per barrage from Morkel, chopped a ball from the tall fast bowler into his stumps in the next over.

Steve Smith and Brad Haddin both survived chances as they added 40 for the seventh wicket before Haddin was bowled by Dale Steyn. l

The decisions that matter

The Bangladesh cricket team ended a terrible ODI series yesterday having lost all three matches against Sri Lanka. Prior to the ODI series, Bangladesh had fought well but they were unlucky to lose both T20s in the last ball. However, when a team goes through a bad patch they wish for some luck, but it seemed even luck turned its back on them.

The umpiring decisions in a couple of situation during the � rst T20 and the � rst ODI raised many � ngers on them, especially because the umpires belonged to Bangladesh and their stan-dard of o� ciating in an international match was questioned.

Bangladesh needed three o� the last ball in the � rst T20 and Anamul Haque, who had already taken 14 in the � rst � ve balls of the over, received a high full-toss from Thisara Perera. Unable to connect it properly the ball was skied back and comfortably caught by the bowler himself. The decision was tak-en upstairs for a review but third um-pire Gazi Sohel made a hash out of it to declare it as a legitimate ball.

In the � rst ODI, Bangladesh was cruising to their target of 181, but once again a poor decision from the third

umpire, Anisur Rahman, triggered a collapse that resulted in another close defeat. Shamsur Rahman was on song, connecting the ball as he romped to his � fty. However, Shamsur while ground-ing the bat for a double run, it got stuck before the crease and even though it was not clear whether his foot was in air when Sangakkara dislodged the bells, Anisur Rahman gave the decision in favour of the visitors.

Perhaps Anisur was unaware of the term “bene� t of doubt” and that it al-ways goes to the batsman.

Meanwhile the chairman of the BCB umpires committee Nazmul Karim Tinku admitted the sloppy umpiring performance and said, “Yes there was some decision especially the decision of Gazi Sohel in the � rst T20 match where he could have taken some more time and can use some more angles before giving the decision. We have discussed about it later and informed him what he should have done on that situation.”

“We have an umpire exchange pro-gramme where we exchange umpires with West Indies and recently we are going to exchange with Zimbabwe and I am hopeful we will produce some more umpires who will be included into the ICC’s elite panel of umpires,” he said. l

RESULTSArsenal 4 1 SunderlandGiroud 5, 31, Giaccherini 81Rosicky 42, Koscielny 57

Cardi� 0 4 Hull Huddlestone 18, Jelavic 38, 57, Livermore 67

Chelsea 1 0 EvertonTerry 90+3

Man City 1 0 StokeToure 70

West Brom 1 1 FulhamVydra 86 Dejagah 28

West Ham 3 1 SouthamptonJarvis 20, Cole 23, Yoshida 8Nolan 71

Braille books bring joy to visually impaired kids

n Ahmed Zayeef

It was a day of joy for visually impaired children as four new books in Braille were launched at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair yesterday.

Sporsho Braille Prokashona, a publi-cation for visually impaired, unveiled the books at the Nazrul Mancha in presence of 14 visually impaired students of Baptist Mis-sion Integrated School and Jan-e-Alam Gov-ernment High School. A cultural programme was held that commenced with a chorus. Visually impaired students from Dhaka University and Eden College also joined the programme to inspire the juniors.

Starting journey in 2011, Sporsho Braille Prokashona has so far published 24 books in Braille. The four books published

yesterday are Hanif Sanket’s “Binito Nibedon,” Najia Jabeen’s “Ek Shagor Rokter Binimoye,” Lutfor Rahman Riton’s “Akashe Onek Chhora” and Foridur Reza Sagor’s “Cox Bazarer Kakatua”.

Monsur Ahmed Choudhuri, chairman of National Forum of the Disabled and rep-resentative at the United Nations, who is a visually impaired person himself, attended the programme alongside Shahidul Alam Sachchu, Mo� dul Hoque and actor Afzal Hossain.

Amrin Nahar Rini, a class 10 student of Baptist Mission Integrated School told the Dhaka Tribune: “There are a very few num-ber of braille books for us out there. Apart from our text books, we do not get to read stories, novels, and poems as much as we want. These books would be very helpful for us. I am very happy today.”

“I hope more books in Braille will be brought in the fair in future to help the vi-sually impaired people get a taste of Bangla literature,” she added.

Nazia Jabeen, publisher of Sporsho Braille Prokashona, said: “We are getting remarkable response for our e� ort, but we could not bring a large number of braille

books as we are a small organisation.”“However, our target is to raise aware-

ness among other publishers so that they bring in more braille books,” she said.

Bangla Academy authority celebrated its last “Shishu Prohor” yesterday from 11am to 3pm, � ve hours exclusively ded-icated for children. Hundreds of children along with their parents thronged the fair. Though it was a public holiday a good num-ber of visitors also came to the fair.

A total of 160 new books were pub-lished yesterday on the 22nd day of the fair including Syed Abul Maksud’s “Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani” from Agami Prokashoni, Syed Shamsul Haque’s “Kolomer Shonge Shongshar” from Ananya Prokash, Reja Ghotok’s “Ponchobhuteshu” from Chayabithi, and Selina Hossain’s “Judhdho” from Salma Book Depo.

A total of 20 new books were unveiled at the Nazrul Mancha including Addi-tional Secretary of Information Ministry, Harun-or–Rashid’s “Putuler Ghor” from Shuchipotro Prokashoni in presence of theatre activist Mamunur Rashid.

A discussion on Krishno Mohon Bon-dopadhdhay was held at the central stage. l

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

160new

books published

Amar Ekushey book fair 2014

Resolution moved in US congress on Int’l Mother Language Dayn Tribune Report

A resolution has been introduced in the US Congress to recognize February 21 as the International Mother Language Day in the country.

Representative Grace Meng of New York’s sixth Congressional district tabled the bill recently to encourage the House of Representatives to support the goals and ideals of the day with appropriate ceremonies, programmes and activities.

“This resolution is an outstanding way to bring attention to Internation-al Mother Language Day and to make Americans aware of its importance to the people of Bangladesh,” said Meng, a democrat member of Congress.

“Thanks to Bangladesh, countries around the world celebrate this great occasion, and I look forward to more people in the US and across the globe learning about the importance of pre-serving our linguistic heritage.

“I encourage House leaders to hold a vote on my resolution soon,” she added.

For most people residing in the United States, English is the de facto language.

According to the American Com-munity Survey, there are 39 language groups in the US. International Mother Language Day is observed on February 21 in recognition of the sacri� ce made by Bangalees who had died for the cause of their mother language in 1952. l

Police recover 5 bombs from inside Jessore jailn Our Correspondent, Jessore

Jessore Kotwali police yesterday re-covered � ve live bombs from the jail security guard barracks inside Jessore Central Jail.

Rabiul Islam, Assistant Sub-Inspec-tor at Jessore Kotwali police station, told journalists he recovered the bombs from near a toilet in the Shugandha security guard barracks at around 11am yesterday.

Fazlul Haque, deputy inspector gen-eral of prisons for Khulna and Barisal divisions, said security was beefed up after the recovery of the bombs. l

US deputy assistant secretary in Dhakan UNB

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia Atul Keshap had reached Dhaka yes-terday on a four-day o� cial visit to dis-cuss bilateral issues and regional matters.

During his visit, Keshap will meet with the “national leadership,” civil society leaders and private sector rep-resentatives to discuss a wide range issues, including bilateral relations, labour, development, governance and trade, said a US Embassy press release.

Keshap is a United States Foreign Service o� cer from Virginia.

As the deputy assistant secretary, Ke-shap works closely with Assistant Secre-tary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal to coordinate the US govern-ment policy towards this diverse and stra-tegic region of almost 1.5 billion people and over $2 trillion in economic output.

Prior to his current assignment, Kes-hap was the United States Senior O� cial for Asia Paci� c Economic Cooperation.

From 2010 to 2012, Keshap worked with Assistant Secretary of State Rob-ert O Blake as Director of the O� ce of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan A� airs. l

Power Cell recommends collecting solar panel installation costs from consumersn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The Power Cell has recommended the ministry to collect the money that the consumers were supposed to spend on installing solar panels as a pre-condition of getting new electricity connection.

According to the recommendation, the money has to be deposited to the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda), which would later use the funds to carry out renewable energy-based projects for

the deprived people at o� -grid areas. On January 21, the Real Estate and

Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) urged the State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid to scrap the solar panel installing requirement for new connec-tions to households.

Later, the ministry asked the Power Cell, which was formed under the pow-er ministry to implement power sector reforms, for its recommendations over the proposal.

“The power ministry should hold meeting with its stakeholders includ-ing the REHAB to make the � nal deci-sion over the issue.” Power Cell Direc-tor General Mohammad Hossain told the Dhaka tribune.

Commenting on the new recommen-dation by the Power Cell, REHAB General Secretary M Wahiduzzaman said: “This is not reasonable. The solar system has to be fully withdrawn. This recommen-dation does not reduce expenses.”

In its recommendation, the power

cell said the requirement to install solar panels did not work out and had creat-ed chances of corruption.

The recommendation however added that to minimise dependency on fossil fuel for power generation and to increase use of renewable energy, the ministry should not fully scrap the previous deci-sion made on November 7, 2010; instead they should collect money from the con-sumers that was supposed to be spent on installing solar panels as a pre-condition of getting new connection.

According to the Power Division, installation of solar panels is not re-quired for new domestic connections consuming up to 2kW of electricity, but connections exceeding that range re-quires installing solar panels producing 3% electricity of the demand.

According to present market price, the solar panel cost would be � xed at Tk150 per watt and that money would be de-posited to the Sreda fund, which would be managed by a technical committee.

Earlier, State Minister Nasrul Hamid

had said solar panels would not be en-couraged in urban areas anymore; rather, its use would be encouraged in rural areas.

Since its formation in December 2012, Sreda has reportedly made little progress, despite its ambitious plans of producing 800MW of electricity sus-tainably by 2015. Bangladesh currently produces about 100MW from renew-able sources.

Earlier in May 2011, the government re-sumed giving new connections to house-holds after a halt of several months. l

WAR CRIMES TRIAL

Prosecution mulling over national committee for witness protectionn Udisa Islam

With the government still not “ready” to formulate a witness protection act, the prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal is looking to form a “national committee” in this regard which law professionals have said will not be able to solve the problem.

According to sources in the prose-cution, the proposed committee would comprise at least nine intellectuals,

journalists, law professionals and ac-tivists. This committee would form sub-committees at all the districts in the country to ensure protection for the witnesses of the war crimes cases.

The proposal also included an ar-rangement for a hotline, which the wit-nesses could access anytime for seeking and giving advices and information.

The issue of witness protection came to the forefront after a prosecution wit-ness and a relative of another witness in war crimes cases were killed recently. Reportedly, a number of other witness-

es have also received death threats.On December 10, Mostafa Hawlad-

er, a prosecution witness against death row war criminal Delawar Hossain Saydee, was killed, sending a wave of concern about the state’s witness pro-tection mechanism.

Referring to the case against Jamaat leader AKM Yusuf, Prosecutor Jahid Imam said: “We have been � nding it really di� cult to convince some of the witness-es about their security arrangements.”

Although there is still no formal wit-ness protection act in place in the coun-try, the home ministry has a specialised “Witness Protection Committee,” com-prising the deputy commissioners of 12 districts.

However, many witnesses said they did not know anything about these committees. They said they felt con-fused and helpless about who to con-tact whenever they received threats.

According to sources from the pros-ecution o� ce, a proposal for forming the committee has already been sent to a number of government o� ces includ-ing the home ministry.

However, Sawkat Mostafa, addition-al secretary of the home ministry, said he did know anything about the matter as yet.

The prosecutor o� ce also said the idea of the “national committee” was to ensure comprehensive protection for the witnesses which would con-tinue even after the verdicts were de-livered and the guilty persons served sentences.

Seeking anonymity, a senior pros-ecutor of the war crimes tribunal told the Dhaka Tribune that the govern-ment was not ready to formulate the act for some reason they had no idea about.

“We have no power in this regard. So, from the very beginning, we have been trying to give every possible security in-surance to our witnesses,” he said. “But, when we saw that many witnesses had been living under threats, we decided to form a national committee.”

Eminent historian Muntassir Ma-moon, also an activist who has been campaigning for war crimes trial for years, said nothing could replace a law.

Noted writer Shahriar Kabir, anoth-er leading campaigner for war crimes trial, said: “We have been pressing the authorities for enacting a law that will ensure protection for the witnesses.”

Criticising the authorities for the ab-sence of a witness protection act, he also said: “Two months ago, one of the judg-es’ house came under attack and now they cannot � nd any chairman for the � rst International Crimes Tribunal. Next they will not � nd any witness and then they will fail to get any prosecutor. This has gone beyond the level of tolerance.”

A couple of years ago, the law min-istry prepared a draft of a law titled “Witness Protection Act 2011” and sent it to the home ministry. Law Minister Sha� que Ahmed last year said the draft law had since been lying idle in what he called was the home ministry’s “deep freezer.” l

Modi: India must shelter Bangladeshi Hindu migrantsn Tribune Report

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi yesterday said Hindu migrants from Bangladesh must be accommo-dated in the country and detention camps would be done away with once his party comes to power.

“As soon as we come to power at the Centre, detention camps housing Hindu migrants from Bangladesh will be done away with,” Modi told a public rally at Ramnagar in Silchar in Assam, a northeast state of India, according to Press Trust of India.

“We have a responsibility toward Hindus who are harassed and su� er in other countries. Where will they go? India is the only place for them. Our government cannot continue to harass them. We will have to accommodate them here,” he said.

Stating that this did not mean that Assam has to bear the entire bur-den, he said: “It will be unfair on them and they will be settled across the country with facilities to begin anew life.”

Earlier, Hindus from Pakistan had arrived in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his rule as prime minister, created schemes to accommodate them in di� erent states, Modi said.

The BJP leader alleged that the As-sam government, as part of its vote bank politics, had violated human

rights of Hindu migrants in detention camps.

Speaking on the issue of “doubtful” voters, Modi said this was also a part of the Congress’ vote bank politics of de-nying a section of the people their right to vote.

He urged the Election Commission to remove the tag of doubtful voters and give these people the right to vote to ensure free and fair polls.

Modi said there were two kinds of people who came from Bangladesh to Assam; those brought as a part of a “political conspiracy” for vote bank politics of a particular party, and others who were harassed in the neighbouring country.

He claimed that those brought for vote bank politics and smugglers from Bangladesh should be pushed back, while the second category must � nd a place in the country.

“Bangladesh is next to Assam, while Pakistan is next to Gujarat. Assam is harassed by Bangladesh whereas Pa-kistan is bothered by me,” the Gujarat chief minister said at his second meet-ing of the day in the northeast.

“You have to decide whetheryou will continue to tolerate Ban-gladeshi harassment or put an endto it. I have come to you for your an-swer. Trust me and as soon as we come to power we will take immedi-ate steps to redress these problems and ensure that justice prevails,” headded. l

The idea of ‘national committee’ was to ensure comprehensive protection for the witnesses which would continue even after the verdicts were delivered

The visually-impaired schoolgirls sing at the launching ceremony of their audio album yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Workers restore the Sonargaon Folk Arts and Crafts Museum building in the suburbs of the capital yesterday. South Korean company Youngone Corporation has taken the initiative to conserve the age-old heritage of the country SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

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 O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Continue to the Business section...

Business

www.dhakatribune.com/business SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2014

B3 Wal-Mart’s China syn-drome a symptom of international woes

B4 G20 mobilises support for ambitious global growth target

Imported bandwidth eats up BSCCL cake n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Bandwidth importers are selling in-ternet service at less than half price, apparently o� ering challenges to the state-monopoly Bangladesh Subma-rine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) that already lost 26% of its market share in only four months period.

The publicly listed company started feeling the pinch since the private com-panies commenced with the imported bandwidth, though often blamed for their poor quality, industry insiders said.

Six International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) links imports more than 30GB bandwidth from India and o� ering per Mbps (Mega bites per second) below Tk2,000, said an executive of a ITC op-erator.

BSCCL sells the same bandwidth at Tk4,800, which resulted in dropping the use of their capacity to only 32GB at present from 42GB just three months ago, industry sources said. The usage is falling every month.

“We are giving quality services at lower charges. So, customers are com-ing to us,” Sumon Ahmed Sabir, chief strategic o� cer of Fibre@Home, told the Dhaka Tribune.

About the criticism as to why the ITC’s are importing despite the country having huge unused bandwidth from a total of 200GB, he said: “It is true we

are importing bandwidth, but we also made the country always connected with the globe.”

The BSCCL Managing Director and Chief Executive O� cer Md Monwar Hossain, however, criticised the quali-ty of imported bandwidth and the busi-ness houses, which he blamed were destabilising the market in the name of competition.

“Some are destroying the band-width business in the name of compe-tition. They are not importing quality bandwidth from the neighboring coun-try. As they sell it at reduced price � xed by the government, customers are go-ing to them,” he said.

He, however, recognised the oper-ators made alternative connections

with India and added some value in the country’s software and outsourcing business.

“But when we will connect with our second submarine connection, these ITC’s will have no functions,” said the BSCCL MD. The second submarine con-nected is expected to go live in 2016.

In 2012, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) awarded six ITC licences to Novocom Limited, Firber@Home Limited, 1Asia Alliance Communications Limited, Mango Teleservices Limited, BD link Communications Limited and Summit Communications Limited. They are connected with Indian submarine cable through � ber optic cable. l

Book building method back on track after two yearsn Kayes Sohel

The book building method – an IPO price discovery method of stocks – has been resumed in a new shape after more than two years.

Amid wide criticism from every corner for its � aws, the securities regulator in January 2011 temporarily suspended the method that was largely blamed for the market debacle in late 2010 and later in September 2011 modi� ed it taking views and opinions from stakeholders.Since then the method has been struggling

to take o� , but recently some companies were preparing to go public using the method, sources said.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has allowed United Pow-er Generation and Distribution this month to commence bidding by the eligible institution-al investors for price discovery of issuance.

Some issue management companies are working to � le IPO using the method to the regulator, sources in the issue management said. Some other has taken “wait and see” pol-icy in the wake of market volatility, they said.

“As the method earned some bad name

earlier, many issuers feel discouraged to go public under this method,” said a head of an issue management company. “But as far as I know a very few issue management companies are handling with such IPO.”

Under the modi� ed book building method, indicative price does not exceed 15 times of weighted average earnings per share (EPS) of the preceding three years, or three times of net asset value (NAV), or whichever is lower but not less than the NAV of a stock.

In the bidding for price discovery, at least 20 institutions from six categories will

have to participate. From each category, at least three institutions will have to take part in the bidding.

Directors and sponsors of an issuer company would not be an issue manager for their own company under the system.

An issuer company will have to run advertisements in � ve national dailies with a 10-day notice about holding a road-show, and within next three workdays of the road-show, the issuer company must set the indicative price of its shares and submit it to the SEC.

The asset management companies

would be allowed to become institutional investors and they can participate in the bidding.

Some 10% shares of an IPO will be reserved for the institutional investors who will set the indicative price, and the ratio of eligible institutional investors would be 40%. An eligible institutional investor can bid for the highest 5% share. The lock-in period for the eligible institutional investors would be four months.

“The method is still cumbersome and time consuming,” said MA Ha� z, a director of a leading issue management company AAA Consultant.

When any issuer hears the procedure of the method, he said, they prefer to go for � xed price method instead of book building method.

“Price discovery method should be sim-pli� ed,” he said, adding that the market will determine the price of a company’s share in line with the book building rules.

Union Capital managing director Akter H Sannamat said the market lacks enough analysts for valuation of a company, which re� ected earlier through in� ating pricing.

“The pricing should be done professional-ly taking company’s fundamentals and pres-ent market situation into account,” he said.

Earlier, former BSEC chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi said there should not be any cap or ceiling in determining the indicative price.

“Instead of identifying the basic prob-lems and solving those, inclusion of new clauses such as the valuation ones will

hamper the spirit of the book building method.”

After the stock market debacle in De-cember 2010, the government instructed the BSEC to suspend the book building method.

But following recommendations by a probe committee on the share market crash, the government later instructed

the regulator to bring changes to the book building norms, instead of suspending the system, as it is practiced in other countries.

Before the suspension of the method, there had been complains that many com-panies were misusing the system taking advantage of some rules of the method and in connivance with the regulator, auditors and issue managers in� ated indicative

prices, which do not match with their fundamentals.

In some cases, some auditors helped the company authorities in � xing high indicative prices through window-dressed balance sheets.

As a result, a vast amount of money was allegedly siphoned o� from the stock market causing liquidity crisis. l

Factory safety show begins todayn Tribune Report

The country’s � rst “International Trade Expo on Building and Fire Safe-ty” opens in Dhaka today to provide an opportunity learning more about ways of working together to improve the building and � re safety of readymade garment industry in Bangladesh.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the two-day show at Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Hotel.

C&A Foundation in association with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), the Alliance and Accord for Bangladesh Workers’ Safety and International Fi-nance Corporation is organising event.

A total of 52 stalls will display products at the � rst such show in the country, aimed at making RMG factory owners knowledgeable and aware about lat-est � re, building and electrical safety equipment, BGMEA President Atiqul Islam told a press conference yester-day.

A group of industry people has been introduced with the � re and building safety issues, but it did not reach up to the mark and that is why the expo is organised to help the sector, he added.

It’s time to assure right kinds of products, which would help the facto-ries, said M Rabin, executive director of Alliance for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

The fair will display products that would help take remedial measures for the factories on � re and electrical safe-ty, said M Rabin. Through the fair, the factory owners would be able to learn about factory safety equipment and their standard.

After the tragic incident of Tazreen Fashion Fire and Rana Plaza building collapse, the issues of � re, building and electrical safety came under spot light.

Following the incidents, the Eu-ropean Union and American buyers forced the RMG industry to take e� orts to protect employees and improve � re, building and electrical safety stan-dards. l

The fair will display products that would help take remedial measures for the factories on � re and electrical safety

'Instead of identifying the basic problems and solving those, inclusion of new clauses such as the valuation ones will hamper the spirit of the book building method'

Tea prices, sales dip on supply glut, poor graden Reuters

Tea prices in Bangladesh fell nearly 11% at an auction on Tuesday as the vol-umes o� ered were the highest for the season so far and included a higher per-centage of low-grade leaf, brokers said.

At the latest auction, Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 160.26 taka ($2.06) per kg against 180.03 taka in the previous week’s auction, when prices fell 2%, an o� cial from National Bro-kers Limited said.

More than 3.33 million kg of tea was o� ered at the auction centre in Chit-tagong, with almost 63% remaining unsold.

At the previous auction, nearly 2.92 million kg of tea had been o� ered, of which 51.80% went unsold.

The latest o� ering was the largest of the season so far, while supplies of end-of-season poor-grade tea also were on the rise, the o� cial said.

“Poor quality season-end supplies pulled down both prices and sales vol-ume sharply.”

The auction next Tuesday will of-fer even larger supplies than this week as unsold quantities will be added to fresh supplies, he added.

Bangladeshi buyers also have im-ported bulk quantity of tea from neigh-bouring India, which contributed to a glut in the domestic market and re-duced demand for tea at the auction, industry sources said.

Bangladesh’s tea production in 2013 rose 1.6% from a year earlier to a re-cord 63.5 million kg, due to favourable weather.

That was still less than the domestic consumption of about 65 million kg. Bangladesh has moved from becoming a net exporter to a net importer of tea as consumption has risen. l

SEZ feasibility reports completed, to be tabled today n Asif Showkat Kallol

The feasibility studies on the pro-posed special economic zones (SEZs) have been completed and the report is scheduled to be placed at a high level meeting today, o� cial sources said.

The government had decided to set up � ve economic zones under pub-lic–private partnership (PPP) initiative within a short period of time.

O� cials at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said the feasibility sur-vey of three of the four zones was com-pleted recently and it was not done for the one was proposed to be set up in Sirajganj due vulnerability of river erosion.

Additional Secretary Arastu Khan said the ERD would place the World Bank conducted feasibility study at the meeting on the three possible econom-ic zones at Anowara and Mirersarai in Chittagong and Sherpur in Moluvibba-zar.

Mongla Port Economic Zone is the � rst venture after the BEZA was con-stituted through a parliamentary law in 2010.

The formation of BEZA was the re-sult of a decision in 2010 by the Prime Minister’s O� ce to develop � ve eco-nomic zones at a total cost of Tk1,400 crore during 2012-13 and 2013-14 � scal

years.Industries Minister Amir Hossain

Amu last week said the government is working to set up two more economic zones.

“The process is underway to select possible sites to this end,” he told a meeting with newly elected board of directors of Dhaka Chamber of Com-merce and Industry at the Industries Ministry.

In 2010, former country director of World Bank in Bangladesh, Ellen Gold-stein, had assured the global lender would help set up 15 to 20 new private economic zones in Bangladesh with a total capacity to accommodate 500 to 700 new companies or expanded units of existing ones by 2021.

Earlier, the government gave Tk47 crore to Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) as inter-est-free loan to acquire land and devel-op site for the Mongla Port Economic Zone.

The money was given from the current budget as non-development expenditure. Finance Minister AMA Muhith , however, discouraged the interest –free loan to BEZA which, ac-cording to him, would earn through leasing out of its lands and infrastruc-ture and soon be able to repay the loan with interest. l

GENDER BUDGETING

Economists for mindset change of society n Tribune Report

The existing mindset needs to be changed for e� ective implementation of gender budgeting and ensuring gen-der equality in the country, economists said in Dhaka yesterday.

They said the national budget does not contain su� cient statistics about the expenditure on women, resulting in failure of desired results.

The economists were speaking at a book publication ceremony in Dhaka.

Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Research Director Fahmida Khatun authored the book in Bangla titled “Bangladesher Orthoniti: Vitor ebong Bahir (Bangladesh Economy: Ins and Outs)” that consists of published arti-cles on di� erent dailies.

Former adviser to a caretaker gov-ernment Dr Akbar Ali Khan, CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan, Prime

Minister’s International A� airs Adviser Gowher Rizvi, former � nance adviser to a caretaker government Mirza Azi-zul Islam and eminent rights activist Khushi Kabir, among others, spoke at the function.

Akbar Ali Khan said the book rightly points out about the gender budget-ing, which requires much attention for securing gender equality in public re-source allocations.

“The mindset of the society needs to change for better management of gender budgeting,” he said, add-ing that, in many projects, equal ex-penditure of allocation for male and female is written but no speci� c pol-icy has been taken for implementing them.

“If we look at the national income account, contribution of female is not recognised at all as most women are engaged with the non-market activi-ties that are not included in the nation-

al output,” he said.He said, in Bangladesh, woman is

in top position at the administration but women’s presence in every layer of the society is important to ensure equality.

However, it has started from grass root level as seen in microcredit sector, where most borrower are women, he said.

“To get the desired result of gender budgeting, problems should be identi-� ed.”

The government had initiated gen-der budgeting in the � scal 2005-06 for four ministries. As part of the process, the government added 15 more minis-tries in the current budget, raising the total number of ministries executing gender-related projects to 40.

In the budget for FY2013-14, bud-getary allocation in various projects for women has increased to 27.68% from 26.26% a year earlier.l

RAJIB DHAR

B2 Stock Sunday, February 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks stay � at last week amid volatility n Tribune Report

Stocks stayed � at in the past week in volatile trade, after witnessing mod-est price correction in the previous week.

The benchmark index of the Dha-ka Stock Exchange (DSE), DSEX, ended at 4,759, gaining 12 points or 1.8%. The blue chip comprising DS30 index dropped 8 points or 0.6% to close at 1,688. The DSE Shariah In-dex (DSES) witnessed fractional losses with a fall of 0.5 points to 995.

The past week opened � rst ses-sion in a bearish mood and sellers were very dominant. Selling pres-sure continued till the third session. The DSE turnover was also falling rapidly. Buyers knocked out sellers on fourth session and market healed all its lost points in last two trading days of the week.

Market participation at DSE re-mained sluggish with the daily turn-over averaged Tk373 crore, a sharp decrease of more than 35% over the previous week.

“Market level correction as well as volatility prompted investors to be somewhat meticulous, initially. However, a sum of 174 points mar-ket correction in last eight sessions, o� ered investors a signi� cant price advantage,” said IDLC Investment in its market analysis. Abetted by this, later part of the past week showcased investors’ intension to be in a buying mood, it said.

It said pro� t booking started slic-ing market sentiment like previous week. “Meanwhile, volatility made a strong comeback as investors fo-cused scrip-wise switching. Along-side, investors remained watchful over downbeat sentiment in recent sessions.”

Amid this declining scenario, positive news regarding banks’ non-performing loan assisted some sectoral gain. But, market recov-ered suddenly at the fourth session breaking its bearish spell as inves-tors were in buying mood over lu-crative price advantages.

Meanwhile, mutual funds knocked investors’ attention and seven mutual funds emerged in the top ten gainers list. The recovering streak extended at the � nal session over investors’ preference to micro cap and small cap scrips.

Fuel and power, and pharma-ceuticals had leading positions in turnover for the third consecu-tive weeks, capturing 14.34% and 14.24% of the week’s total value.

Among the major sectors, textile, food and allied, cement performed well, whereas life Insurance, phar-maceuticals and non-life insurance declined on pro� t booking.

The top traded stocks were Square Pharmaceuticals, Bangla-desh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, Olympic Industries, Meghna Petroleum, Delta Life Insurance, Ja-muna Oil and Southeast Bank. l

Weekly news from trade serverDividend/AGMPRIMEINSUR: The Board of Directors has recommended stock dividend @ 15% for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 23.03.2014, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Trust Milonayaton, 545 Old Airport Road, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka-1206. Record Date: 26.02.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 2.56, NAV per share of Tk. 16.69 and NOCFPS of Tk. 2.15 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.LANKABAFIN: The Board of Directors has recommended 15% cash dividend and 5% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 31.03.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Spectra Convention Center, House # 19, Road # 07, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212. Record Date: 02.03.2014. The Company has also reported consolidated net pro� t after tax of Tk. 954.55 million, consolidated EPS of Tk. 4.58, consolidated NAV per share of Tk. 32.83 and consolidated NOCFPS of Tk. (7.94) for the year ended on December 31, 2013 as against Tk. 348.02 million, Tk. 1.67 (restated), Tk. 31.07 (restated) and Tk. (2.73) (restated) respectively for the year ended on December 31, 2012.

Audited/unaudited Financial Reports:DACCADYE: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 31.12.2013 (July'13 to Dec'13), the Company has reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 65.49 million with EPS of Tk. 0.91 as against Tk. 104.42 million and Tk. 1.45 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas net pro� t after tax was Tk. 45.27 million with EPS of Tk. 0.63 for the period of 3 months (Oct'13 to

Dec'13) ended on 31.12.2013 as against Tk. 65.45 million and Tk. 0.91 respectively for the same period of the previous year.DELTALIFE: (Q3): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 3rd quarter ended on 30th September 2013 (July'13 to Sep'13), the Company has reported an increase in life insurance fund of Tk. 367.32 million as against Tk. 789.38 million for the same period of the previous year. Whereas increase in life insurance fund was Tk. 2,172.52 million for the period of 9 months (Jan'13 to Sep'13) ended on 30.09.2013 as against Tk. 2,370.04 million for the same period of the previous year. Total life insur-ance fund stood at Tk. 28,504.09 million as on 30.09.2013 as against Tk. 25,652.08 million as on 30.09.2012.BSC: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 31.12.2013 (July' 13 to Dec' 13), the Company has reported pro� t/(loss) after tax of Tk. 165.95 million with EPS of Tk. 12.00 as against Tk. (208.75) million and Tk. (25.23) respectively for the same period of the previous year. Accumulat-ed pro� t/(loss) of the Company was Tk. (2,046.31) million as on 31.12.2013.

Fixed Assets/Right/Investment:LANKABAFIN: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to issue Non-Convertible Zero Coupon Bond of Tk. 3,000.00 million to meet its ongoing � nancing requirements subject to the ap-proval of Bangladesh Securities & Exchange Commission (BSEC) and other Regulatory AuthoritiesBEDL: The Company has informed that the 50 MW HFO � red power plant owned by 51% subsidiary Company of Barakatullah

Electro Dynamics Limited (BEDL) named Baraka Patenga Power Limited has started its test run on February 11, 2014 at 5:57 P.M. Four engines out of total eight engines have � red so far and supplying electricity to the national grid on a test basis. The process of test run will be performed rota-tionally for all 08 engines until commence-ment of commercial operation.BDCOM: The Company has informed that "BDCOM Online Limited has decided to investigate with mutual interest the possibilities and conditions to establish a joint venture entity to create and operate a mobile � nancial services hub in Bangladesh with eServGlobal SAS, a Company duly organized and existing under the laws of France, having its registered o� ce at 244, avenue Pierre Brossolette, 92245 Malakao� Cedex, France in accordance with the approval of the Board of Directors of the Company. In this regard a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed today (19th Feb 2014) between BDCOM online Limited and eServGlobal SAS."

MiscellaneousBRACBANK: The Company has further informed that the Bank was supposed to conduct a discussion session with Bangladesh Bank Inspection team prior to the � nalization of the Audited Financial Accounts, which has been postponed due to unavoidable circumstance. The consider-ation of the accounts at the Board meeting is being deferred until such time that the Company receives con� rmation from Ban-gladesh Bank. The Company has further informed that intimation on the scheduled date will be given in due course.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

GreenDeltaInsu -A -18.81 -18.87 79.35 79.40 98.80 79.00 0.652 3.21 24.7RAK Ceramics-A -15.61 -14.69 52.40 51.90 58.00 49.30 16.327 2.03 25.8Samata LeatheR -Z -9.20 -9.26 23.70 23.70 23.70 23.70 0.024 -0.04 -veMaksons Spinning-A -7.26 -7.10 16.61 16.60 17.20 14.90 10.065 0.64 26.06th ICB M F-A -6.30 -6.96 61.00 61.00 65.00 61.00 0.247 6.54 9.3Apex Foods -A -5.78 -5.55 102.97 102.70 110.00 93.00 0.350 3.56 28.9Prime Islami Life -A -5.41 -5.03 110.64 110.20 126.00 110.00 0.551 4.95 22.4Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -5.25 -6.45 115.60 115.60 120.00 113.50 0.469 9.21 12.6Continental Insur. -A -4.69 -4.63 30.50 30.50 30.50 30.40 0.172 2.35 13.0Apex Tannery -A -4.29 -4.65 168.67 167.30 180.00 163.00 12.305 4.86 34.7

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

GreenDeltaInsu -A -18.30 -18.41 79.83 79.90 98.40 73.00 16.988 3.21 24.9RAK Ceramics-A -15.17 -14.96 52.42 52.00 58.00 46.00 225.264 2.03 25.8Shampur Sugar -Z -9.52 -9.52 7.60 7.60 8.50 7.60 0.055 -50.84 -veMaksons Spinning-A -7.26 -7.58 16.59 16.60 17.60 14.80 57.621 0.64 25.9Eastern InsurA -6.29 -6.65 41.67 41.70 45.00 37.00 5.329 2.60 16.0Meghna Life Ins. -A -5.42 -5.36 136.61 136.00 146.90 128.00 67.488 6.45 21.2Kohinoor Chem -A -5.23 -5.40 333.00 333.70 370.00 308.00 1.556 7.88 42.3Midas Financing-Z -5.13 -5.46 29.45 29.60 31.00 27.00 0.623 -5.96 -veR. N. Spinning-Z -4.73 -4.10 30.44 30.20 32.00 28.00 67.005 6.11 5.0Prime Islami Life -A -4.46 -3.13 116.86 115.80 123.00 106.10 7.179 4.95 23.6

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

BD Submarine Cable-A 736,827 159.00 8.73 217.60 -0.09 217.80 225.50 200.00 220.47AFC AgroBiotech-N 1,496,000 101.57 5.58 72.70 20.56 60.30 73.00 59.50 71.40Square Pharma -A 277,796 71.63 3.93 259.00 -2.81 266.50 266.30 237.60 261.09LankaBangla Fin. -A 906,400 64.34 3.53 72.80 3.26 70.50 74.00 68.50 71.16BSC-A 126,200 63.29 3.48 544.30 12.00 486.00 544.30 466.00 544.25Appollo Ispat CL -N 1,641,400 52.02 2.86 31.90 0.31 31.80 32.80 30.80 31.94Grameenphone-A 250,200 51.62 2.83 207.60 0.34 206.90 208.00 203.40 207.35UCBL - A 1,799,373 51.31 2.82 28.60 3.25 27.70 29.50 26.00 28.74Southeast Bank-A 1,963,641 46.11 2.53 23.40 0.86 23.20 24.00 20.90 23.52Delta Life Insu. -A 155,300 42.01 2.31 270.30 -3.43 279.90 284.00 262.50 271.07

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Square Pharma -A 3,796,338 979.52 5.25 258.90 -2.74 266.20 268.00 234.00 261.44BD Submarine Cable-A 4,007,754 862.91 4.63 217.70 0.51 216.60 230.00 191.80 220.18Olympic Ind. -A 3,796,755 758.27 4.06 207.40 1.72 203.90 210.00 179.00 206.73Meghna Petroleum -A 2,534,431 722.71 3.87 282.70 -3.22 292.10 305.00 256.00 286.46Delta Life Insu. -A 2,326,865 631.23 3.38 270.40 -2.98 278.70 285.00 262.30 271.34Jamuna Oil -A 2,372,588 553.18 2.97 231.90 -2.19 237.10 245.00 209.50 233.28Southeast Bank-A 22,178,648 521.18 2.79 23.60 2.16 23.10 25.00 20.70 23.66LankaBangla Fin. -A 7,023,649 496.44 2.66 72.20 3.00 70.10 75.00 62.00 70.98AFC AgroBiotech-N 7,074,500 480.73 2.58 72.40 18.88 60.90 73.30 58.50 71.22Grameenphone-A 1,991,617 410.52 2.20 208.30 0.53 207.20 209.00 195.00 207.75

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

AFC AgroBiotech-N 20.56 16.88 71.40 72.70 73.00 59.50 101.566 1.53 46.7CVO PetroChem RL-Z 16.77 16.86 911.47 910.80 915.00 800.00 2.201 -4.06 -veBSC-A 12.00 11.14 544.25 544.30 544.30 466.00 63.288 24.00 22.7Hakkani P& Paper -B 10.53 10.18 31.49 31.50 31.50 28.70 0.527 0.28 112.5Fine Foods A 9.33 9.97 21.29 21.10 21.70 19.00 3.895 -0.98 -ve Argon Denims Limited-A 9.24 8.14 70.53 70.90 71.50 61.00 6.458 3.33 21.2AMCL 2nd MF-A 8.70 10.97 7.69 7.50 7.90 6.80 1.201 0.88 8.7Beach Hatchery -A 8.37 6.55 27.96 28.50 28.60 25.80 22.053 0.79 35.4AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 7.79 8.21 8.30 8.30 8.50 7.80 0.548 1.24 6.7Bengal Windsor-A 7.67 6.69 60.64 61.80 62.50 53.00 25.945 2.50 24.3

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

AFC AgroBiotech-N 18.88 15.58 71.22 72.40 73.30 58.50 480.726 1.53 46.5Savar Refractories-Z 17.44 18.63 66.67 66.00 66.10 60.90 0.145 0.60 111.1CVO PetroChem RL-Z 15.59 16.62 901.11 903.00 907.00 781.00 121.464 -4.06 -veBSC-A 11.89 11.10 543.49 543.50 543.50 466.00 234.428 24.00 22.6GeminiSeaFood-Z 11.55 11.98 178.38 177.70 208.90 175.20 3.290 6.44 27.7 Argon Denims Limited-A 10.26 8.59 70.56 70.90 71.70 57.00 139.109 3.33 21.2Desh Garments -B 9.61 7.90 80.34 81.00 81.10 70.90 16.050 1.18 68.1Al-Haj Textile -A 9.55 8.83 91.62 91.80 94.70 80.00 33.011 2.06 44.5Fine Foods A 8.29 9.77 21.13 20.90 22.20 18.00 11.349 -0.98 -veHakkani P& Paper -B 8.14 6.66 31.54 31.90 32.40 29.10 2.407 0.28 112.6

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 2391.81 12.82 241.41 13.24 2633.22 12.86NBFI 1101.42 5.90 120.10 6.59 1221.52 5.96Investment 609.63 3.27 25.57 1.40 635.20 3.10Engineering 1465.74 7.86 206.17 11.31 1671.92 8.16Food & Allied 1282.82 6.88 90.14 4.95 1372.96 6.70Fuel & Power 2662.49 14.27 145.06 7.96 2807.55 13.71Jute 4.65 0.02 0.00 0.00 4.65 0.02Textile 1538.15 8.24 162.38 8.91 1700.52 8.30Pharma & Chemical 2642.23 14.16 254.44 13.96 2896.67 14.14Paper & Packaging 2.41 0.01 1.01 0.06 3.42 0.02Service 68.53 0.37 9.18 0.50 77.72 0.38Leather 241.88 1.30 20.22 1.11 262.10 1.28Ceramic 270.53 1.45 21.78 1.19 292.31 1.43Cement 787.25 4.22 62.96 3.45 850.20 4.15Information Technology 255.75 1.37 37.63 2.06 293.37 1.43General Insurance 305.31 1.64 12.64 0.69 317.94 1.55Life Insurance 1116.97 5.99 63.56 3.49 1180.53 5.76Telecom 1273.43 6.83 210.62 11.55 1484.05 7.25Travel & Leisure 215.02 1.15 41.80 2.29 256.83 1.25Miscellaneous 419.24 2.25 96.12 5.27 515.36 2.52Debenture 1.40 0.01 0.12 0.01 1.51 0.01

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4761.18102 (+) 0.04% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1688.02777 (-) 0.51% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14762.4568 (+) 0.02% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12441.5244 (-) 0.63% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 9341.6937 (-) 0.22% ▼

DSE key features February 16-20, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

18,656.65

Turnover (Volume)

383,764,526

Number of Contract 405,352

Traded Issues 299

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

153

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

142

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,304.45

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.93

CSE key features February 16-20, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 1,821.44

Turnover (Volume) 41,125,261

Number of Contract 64,990

Traded Issues 243

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

129

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

108

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,198.22

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.65

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

ANALYSTMarket level correction as well as volatility prompted investors to be somewhat meticulous

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

BD Finance Capital Holdings Limited, a full-� edged merchant bank signed a brokerage service agreement with PFI Securities Ltd on Wednesday. Mohd Ahsan Ullah, managing director and CEO of BD Capital and Kazi Fariduddin Ahmed, CEO and managing director of PFI Securities Ltd signed the agreement on behalf of their companies

IDLC Finance Limited on Wednesday held a seminar titled “Loan Syndication - Past, Present and Beyond”. The seminar was aimed at promoting better management of various loan syndication deals in the country

Arafah Islami Bank Training and Research Academy held a day-long workshop on “AML & CFT issues for BAMLCOs” on Feb 18. The bank’s managing director Md Habibur Rahman inaugurated the course as chief guest

Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury has been appointed as the president and managing director of AB Bank Limited. Prior to his present position Chaudhury was working as the president and managing director (Acting) at the bank. Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury, Masters of Business Administration with major in Finance started his banking career as a management t rainee with American Express Bank Limited in 1980

Mutual Trust Bank Limited has recently opened its eighth Smart Banking Kiosk at WW Tower, Motijheel C/A in Dhaka. Syed M Altaf Hussain, CEO of WW Grains Corporation inaugurated the Smart Banking Kiosk having three modern automated teller machines (ATMs) and cash deposit machine at a ceremony held at WW Tower

BRAC Bank has opened a new service outlet on Wednesday in Uttara to provide most modern banking services to growing customers in the township. Tamara Hasan Abed, senior director, Enterprises, BRAC formally inaugurated the outlet at Jashim Uddin Avenue

Oil markets cap solid week with retreatn AFP, New York

Oil prices fell on Friday amid as inves-tors booked pro� ts from the week’s sol-id gains that put prices at their highest point since the start of 2014.

New York’s main contract, West Tex-as Intermediate (WTI) for April deliv-ery, lost 55 cents in its � rst day of trade, closing at $102.20 a barrel.

In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April slid 45 cents to settle at $109.85 a barrel.

“The petroleum markets are seeing some moderate pro� t-taking to � nish the week,” said Tim Evans of Citi Futures. l

Facebook mega-deal for WhatsApp ‘a brilliant move’n AFP, Washington

Facebook’s $19bn deal for the red-hot mobile messaging service WhatsApp is a savvy strategic move by the world’s biggest social network, even if the price tag is staggeringly high, analysts say.

The agreement unveiled Wednes-day - seen as the largest for a venture-backed tech startup - gives Facebook entry into emerging markets and im-portantly keeps the free-messaging app out of the hands of rivals such as Google.

“Although the deal appears to be pricey... we think that it has compel-ling strategic logic,” Shebly Seyra� at FBN Securities said in a research note Thursday.

While Facebook is paying a high price by any measure, Seyra� said “we

see other bene� ts to the deal,” point-ing out WhatsApp’s big user base in countries such as Brazil, South Africa and China.

“We think that in addition to the revenue obtainable from WhatsApp it-self, Facebook will bene� t from better integration... that will make Facebook more engaging while driving further growth internationally and in mobile,” the analyst said.

Facebook shares shook o� early de-clines and rose 2.3% to close at $69.63, despite the fact that the company is di-luting its value with the massive cash-and-stock acquisition.

The purchase includes $12bn in Facebook shares and $4bn cash. It calls for an additional $3bn in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp founders and employees that will vest over four years.

Analyst Stephen Ju at Credit Suisse said the move appears to make sense from a long-term viewpoint.

“Looking past the sticker shock of $19bn... we view this as an o� ensive move to gain additional share of the consumer’s time spent - which should engender additional opportunities for monetization,” he said.

Key in emerging economies Trip Chowdhry at Global Equi-

ties Research called the move a “very smart and an essential acquisition for Facebook,” because WhatsApp works on less expensive “feature phones” still predominant in emerging econo-mies such as India.

“Most of the developing world still is on the feature phone, as the majority cannot a� ord a smartphone,” Chow-dhry said.

“WhatsApp is the only applica-

tion that runs equally well on feature phones and on smartphones.”

Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Sandler said Facebook’s acquisition of What-sApp “solidi� es its position as the top company in mobile globally” exclud-ing China, where Facebook is banned.

Sandler said that even though Face-book is not planning to deliver ads on WhatsApp for now, this may change over time.

“We believe that as users become accustomed to native mobile advertis-ing and as the quality of the various monetization strategies improve, we expect opportunities to emerge,” he said in a note to clients.

Victor Anthony at Topeka Capital Markets said the deal will help diver-sify Facebook with a broader set of mobile services.

“As was the case with PayPal, You-

Tube and Instagram, hindsight will be the best judge of how valuable this acquisition will be,” Anthony said in a research note.

“The valuation appears reasonable on a per user basis. From what we see, the acquisition makes strategic sense and the combined company will likely accelerate user growth of both plat-forms, similar to what we see with In-stagram.”

Staving o� Google threat Jack Kent at IHS Technology said

the move helps Facebook “neutralize a competitive threat.”

“To understand Facebook’s ratio-nale, the focus must be on the cost of Facebook not buying WhatsApp rather than the price Facebook paid for What-sApp,” Kent said.

“Facebook could not risk What-sApp’s 450 million monthly and 315

million daily active users falling into the hands of a competitor such as Google.”

Fellow IHS analyst Eleni Marouli said the deal allows Facebook to get better data on users worldwide, which has value in itself.

“WhatsApp’s strong presence in key emerging markets such as Brazil and India will provide Facebook with in-sights in countries that are still largely under-monetized,” Marouli said.

“Building good mobile data on con-sumers in these markets is essential as they are not only mobile-� rst in their use of the Internet, but often mobile-only.”

Youssef Squali at Cantor Fitzgerald pointed out that Facebook may be able to use WhatsApp to create a new kind of telecom service which has not ex-isted so far. l

Wal-Mart’s China syndrome a symptom of international woesn Reuters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, famed for its low prices, has stumbled in the one major market where consumers say price is less of a driver in their buying deci-sions: China.

There, consumers say they want food that is safe and authentic, and, after 17 years, Wal-Mart is changing its approach, closing some big-box stores that never quite caught on with lo-cals. Instead, it’s focusing on private-label products and imports, putting its stamp on quality and safety.

“We’re closing some stores because we got enamored with growth,” said Raymond Bracy, head of corporate af-fairs at Walmart China. “We’re not go-ing to do that again. We’re focusing on quality � rst.”

Getting China right is crucial for Wal-Mart’s international ambitions. The world’s largest retailer ranks third in Chi-na behind Sun Art Retail Group Ltd and state-backed China Resources Enterprise Ltd, according to Euromonitor. Brazil and India are proving challenging, too.

“If you went out and asked mem-bers or customers, ‘What’s your single biggest worry?’ they’ll tell you trust and authenticity,” said Greg Foran, who took over as Walmart China CEO in 2012. “Once you’ve got their trust, the next question they ask themselves is, ‘How much is it?’”

Walmart International, which con-tributes less than a third of net sales, has su� ered from aggressive expan-sion and is a big concern for new CEO Doug McMillon, who previously led the international unit.

The retailer on Thursday forecast lower full-year pro� t than analysts had expected for � scal 2015. Walmart International net sales in the fourth quarter dipped 0.4% to $37.67bn, and November-January operating income fell 45.8%, hit by store closures in Bra-zil and China and a charge related to terminated agreements in India.

“We have initiated actions in Mexi-co, Brazil and China to improve our op-erating performance and this is a prior-ity for � scal 2015,” David Cheesewright, president and CEO of Walmart Interna-

tional, said in a statement.Foran told reporters during a De-

cember tour of Sam’s Club stores - where members bulk buy - that Wal-Mart aims to have private labels make up a � fth of its China sales within the next decade, up from less than 1% now. Private labels typically price at 10-40% below local brands, but pro� t margins are higher for the retailer. They make up close to half of sales in Britain.

Bracy said the retailer is rational-izing its supply chain in China and building its own distribution centers to manage quality, while also lowering costs. “Our costs have come down so much on pork that people ask us, ‘Gee, is it too low?’ They wonder, ‘Is it legiti-mate? Can we trust it?’” he said.

On an annual basis, Walmart Inter-national’s revenue growth last � scal year was the slowest in four years.

Mixed messagesChinese consumers seek out large for-eign brands for reliability and quality, said James Roy, an associate princi-pal at Shanghai-based China Market Research. “Yet they’re seeing mixed messages from Wal-Mart because they have tried to sell the ‘every day low prices’ concept and Chinese consum-ers equate ‘every day low prices’ with

being cheap and not very safe.”Wal-Mart has previously exited mar-

kets such as Germany and South Korea where it’s cheap prices and large stores model failed to work, but it has stuck it out in China, the world’s second-larg-est economy, for nearly two decades, struggling with its brand positioning.

Its international business has been under the spotlight after it was accused in 2012 of bribery in Mexico, its biggest business outside the United States. It later launched graft probes in China and Brazil and in India, where the in-vestigation hit its � rst-mover advan-tage in a $500bn market.

The graft has less of an e� ect on the business in China, but food safety scan-dals - from fatal tainted milk to recy-cled ‘gutter oil’ used for cooking - have hurt it. In January, Wal-Mart recalled its popular “Five Spice” donkey meat after tests showed traces of fox meat.

Food, especially fresh produce and meat, is an acknowledged tra� c driver for Chinese hypermarkets, making it a bigger part of the retail equation than elsewhere. “That’s the most fundamen-tal thing about getting food right,” said Bracy. “If you ... say, ‘I’m not satis� ed with the quality,’ then you may go to an-other store. So we lose not just the food purchase, but also the jean purchase.”

Just to make things tougher, though, Chinese “will walk a block to save 1 ren-minbi on a kilo of rice,” said Bracy.

Wal-Mart’s share of China’s hyper-market segment dropped to 10.4% last year from 11.3% in 2008. It was over-taken as market leader in 2009 by Sun Art Retail, which is now tied for � rst place at 14% with CRE, according to Eu-romonitor, whose data indicates that hypermarkets make up 15% of China’s grocery retail market. Wal-Mart’s gro-cery retail value in China has grown 50% since 2008.

Even as it plans to open 110 new stores by 2016, Wal-Mart has an-nounced the closure of at least 29 stores in China.

“For the � rst year a lot of my atten-tion, and my team’s attention, has been focused on just getting the foundation � xed, sorting out what stores we need to exit, being much more clever about where we’re going to open stores,” Fo-ran said.

Big isn’t always bestChinese customers prefer small neigh-borhood stores, where they don’t have to travel far and can buy just a few items per visit. It’s a similar picture in Brazil, where market leader Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) better serves local customers’ preference for smaller con-venience stores. GPA also appealed to Brazilians’ desire for special deals with limited duration, heavily advertised promotions.

The big box store model has been a costly mistake in terms of real es-tate losses for Wal-Mart, said Stephen Springham, senior retail analyst at Planet Retail in London. As more Chi-nese opt to shop online, the US � rm ac-quired web retailer Yihaodian in 2012, which claimed 24 million online users last October.

China, though, will be a slow turn-around for Wal-Mart, said Himanshu Pal, director of retail insights at Lon-don-based Kantar Retail. “They are not able to invest as much as they should because shareholders are not as patient as they used to be, especially with US and European markets not doing very well.” l

Employees stand in front of the gate to a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Chongqing municipality REUTERS

OECD: World risks era of slow growth, high unemployment n Reuters, Sydney

Sweeping reforms are urgently needed to boost productivity and lower bar-riers to trade if the world is to avoid a new era of slow growth and stub-bornly high unemployment, the OECD warned on Friday.

In its 2014 study on “Going for Growth”, The Organisation for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Develop-ment said momentum on reforms had slowed in the aftermath of the global � nancial crisis, with much of it now piecemeal and incremental.

The report echoed Australia’s attempt to push an agenda for growth as it hosts � nance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies in Sydney this weekend.Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has been pressing for the adoption of a for-mal global growth target which would be more ambitious than the Interna-tional Monetary Fund’s current fore-cast for 2014 of 3.7%.

“The widespread deceleration in productivity since the crisis could pres-age the beginning of a new low-growth era,” warned Pier Carlo Padoan, deputy secretary-general and chief economist at the Paris-based OECD.

“These concerns, already prevalent among advanced OECD countries for some time, now encompass emerging-market economies and are fuelled also by

high unemployment and falling labour force participation in many countries.”

Padoan highlighted a range of prob-lems from a slowdown in global trade to lacklustre business investment and persistently high levels of unemploy-ment in many countries.

Recommended remedies included reductions in regulatory barriers to competition, greater openness to for-eign trade and investment and shifts in taxation from labour towards con-sumption, property and inheritance.

Di� erent countries faced di� erent challenges.

Those with an ageing population, such as Germany, Japan and South Ko-rea, needed to expand participation, in part by attracting more women to the workforce.

For the UK, Australia, Canada and the United States, problems included low productivity and high healthcare costs, Among the recommended re-forms were improved access to edu-cation and lifting barriers to foreign investment.

Many emerging market countries needed to improve access to quality education, ease physical and legal in-frastructure bottlenecks, and bring more workers into formal employment and out of the black economy.

The task was all the more urgent, said the OECD, as emerging markets were vulnerable to the eventual nor-malisation of monetary policies by the major central banks.

Steps by the US Federal Reserve to scale back its asset-buying program had already caused bouts of extreme stress in some emerging markets as foreign funds went seeking better re-turns in the developed world.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is likely to hear plenty of those concerns asshe attends the G20 meeting this weekend. l

'The widespread deceleration in productivity since the crisis could presage the beginning of a new low-growth era'

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 23, 2014

EU to back G20 growth target if accompanied by reformsn Reuters

Europe is in favour of setting an eco-nomic growth target for the world’s 20 biggest developing and advanced economies (G20), but only if they agree on bold reforms, the European Union’s Economic and Monetary A� airs Com-missioner Olli Rehn said.

G20 � nance ministers and central bank governors are meeting in Aus-tralia on Saturday and Sunday to � nd ways to boost global economic growth by focusing on investment, competi-tiveness, trade and employment.

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said support was building for setting a numerical goal for growth, but Rehn said it only made sense if reforms got equal support.

“I see that economic growth is a con-sequence of right policies and global coordination. So yes, we need a bold growth target, but only on the condi-tion that we can also agree on bold eco-nomic reforms and sound economic policies,” Rehn said.

“That is what this G20 is about,” he told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the meeting.

He said the growth target discus-sions were based on an IMF study which envisaged boosting growth by 0.5% of GDP annually over the current projections.

But to get such faster global growth, Rehn said, G20 countries that have a cur-rent account surplus need to boost do-mestic demand and investment, while those that run a de� cit have to make their public � nances sustainable, create jobs and become more competitive.

“Once you agree on that, it is mean-ingful to have a bold growth target in the world economy,” Rehn said.

He said reforms were also the best defence against the � nancial market turmoil which shook many emerging market economies at the start of the year.

Some of the a� ected countries blamed the market volatility, which forced interest rate rises in Turkey, South Africa, India and Brazil, on the

policy of the Federal Reserve to start reducing its monetary stimulus to the U.S. economy.

But Rehn said that past policy choic-es in the emerging markets themselves were mainly behind their troubles now.

“Some economies that have been better prepared are doing better, also in the context of the recent � nancial mar-ket turbulence, while those that have been worse prepared are facing deeper turbulence and more serious challeng-es,” he said.

“For instance, the European emerg-ing markets -- the central and eastern European economies, have by and large been shielded from the recent turbulence ... mainly because they have done the right policy choice in the past, learning the lessons of the 1990s,” Rehn said.

To make sure that G20 countries implement what they pledge, reform progress could be monitored by the In-ternational Monetary Fund and the Or-ganisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Rehn said.

“I believe that we will see further evolution of international policy coor-dination,” he said, noting that Europe’s economic governance model, which coordinates policies of 28 di� erent countries, could serve as a benchmark.

“The G20 can benchmark its coordina-tion and country surveillance on Europe, where countries have agreed to pool their sovereignties to strengthen economic policy coordination. We are ready to share our experiences,” Rehn said.

He said the G20 � nancial leaders should send a message to calm markets that they were ready to work together on global � nancial stability.

“It is of paramount importance that we reiterate our commitment to coop-erate to ensure sustained and stronger growth in the global economy, which also requires some policy coordination in monetary policy,” Rehn said.

“The preparatory discussions we have had so far were constructive and bode well for a cooperative spirit as re-gards economic policy coordination,” he said. l

German minister: Emerging marketsmust do homework n Reuters, Frankfurt

Emerging markets should get their own houses in order before demanding solidarity from other nations, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

The troubles in emerging markets would be the main topic discussed by � nance ministers and central bank chiefs at the G20 summit in Sydney this weekend, Schaeuble told CNBC in an interview broadcast on Friday.

Stock, bond and currency markets in developing countries have convulsed in recent months, hit by concerns over weaker economic growth and the wind-ing down of stimulus in the United States.

Emerging nations want the US Fed-eral Reserve to calibrate its winding down of stimulus so as to mitigate the impact on their economies, but indus-trialised nations have responded that the troubles in the emerging world are mostly home-grown.

“In my opinion we must always strive towards an approach of solidar-ity. Everyone must � rst of all do their own homework and then countries can demand solidarity from others,” Schaeuble said.

In late January, Reserve Bank of In-dia Governor Raghuram Rajan said the United States should be mindful of the impact of its policies on the rest of the world.

When questioned on those com-ments, Schaeuble said that there were su� cient internal problems in India that were not caused by the monetary policy of other countries.

Schaeuble said emerging countries must ensure they carried out structural reforms and did not rely only on mon-etary policy.

“We’ve had the problem recently in Europe and have always used the tool of monetary policy to gain some time, but this should not be misused to avoid solving the problems,” he said. l

Bloomberg: G20 draft communique pushes growth n Reuters, Sydney

The Group of 20 will commit to con-crete measures to signi� cantly raise global growth while recognizing the need for monetary policy in advanced economies to normalize, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a draft communique.

“We commit to developing new measures to signi� cantly raise global growth, while maintaining � scal sus-tainability,” Bloomberg quoted the draft for the weekend meeting of G20 � nance ministers and central bankers in Sydney as saying. “We recognize ac-commodative monetary policy settings in advanced economies will need to normalize in due course, in line with stronger growth.”

The draft, ahead of the communi-qué’s o� cial release on February 23, cites ambitious policies that could raise collective gross domestic product by “at least 2%” above the trajectory implied by current settings over � ve years, according to the report. l

Russia: G20 should do more to stabilise emerging marketsn Reuters, Sydney

The Group of 20 meeting of � nance ministers and central bank chiefs needs to discuss the impact on emerging mar-kets of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s wind-ing back of stimulus, a top Russian cen-tral banker said on Friday.

Ksenia Yudaeva, � rst deputy gover-nor of the Bank of Russia, told a confer-ence in Sydney ahead of the weekend G20 meeting that more cooperation was needed between global central banks to help stabilise markets.

“One of the agendas that are clear to me that � nance ministers and central bankers need to discuss even at today’s meeting and tomorrow’s meeting and throughout this year, is the situation in emerging markets, the reaction of markets to the Fed’s tapering,” said Yu-daeva.

Earlier this week, Russia’s central bank warned that investors were likely to steer clear of emerging markets as

the U.S. Federal Reserve winds down its monetary stimulus. That will dry up a stream of money that had been � ow-ing into the developing world.

“Clearly it’s a worry for Russia be-cause particularly in the past two months Russia was one of the countries which experienced signi� cant out� ow and signi� cant depreciation of its cur-rency,” Yudaeva told Reuters at the sidelines of the event. “We’re thinking about our strategy and how to react.”

The central bank lowered its mid-term economic growth forecasts to below 2% until at last 2016, in an ac-knowledgement that Russia’s economy will be sickly for some time.

“We’re worried about the general economic situation, mainly the fact that Russian growth rate has declined quite substantially,” she said.

Yet the central bank was also con-cerned that in� ation was proving too “sticky”, in part because of the depre-ciation of the rouble. l

G20 mobilises support for ambitious global growth targetn Reuters, Sydney

The world’s top economies may agree to set an ambitious target for faster global growth at a weekend meeting in Sydney, where major central banks are also being urged to coordinate policies to avoid “surprises” that could further roil emerging markets.

Opening the two-day meeting of the Group of 20 � nance ministers and central bankers on Saturday, Australian Treasur-er Joe Hockey said support was building for setting a � rm goal for growth.

“I have a great sense of hope that this G20 meeting will be able to lay down a real and tangible framework for an increase in the growth of the global economy over the next � ve years,” said Hockey, who is hosting the Sydney gathering.

If adopted, the plan would be a departure for the G20, as previous at-tempts to set � scal and current ac-count targets have faltered. And while Canada’s central bank chief Stephen Poloz called the goal “aspirational” and

doubts remain about its implemen-tation, it would give the group fresh focus and mark a sea change from re-cent meetings where the debate was all about growth versus budget austerity.

France’s � nance minister, Pierre Moscovici, welcomed a goal of lifting world growth by a total of 2.5 percent-age points over � ve years, calling it am-bitious but “not unrealistic”.

A G20 source said Germany had dropped its opposition to setting an overall target, as long as there were no goals imposed for individual states.

However, not all the German camp seemed to be happy, with Jens Wei-dmann, head of the country’s cen-tral bank, calling quantitative targets “problematic”.

And Nhlanhla Nene, South Africa’s Deputy Finance Minister, said the tar-get would be meaningless unless issues faced by emerging economies such as inequality, high unemployment, and volatile global � nancial conditions were addressed.

The plan borrows wholesale from

an International Monetary Fund paper prepared for the Sydney meeting which estimated that structural reforms would raise world growth by about 0.5 percent-age point per year over the next � ve years, boosting global output by $2.25tn.

The IMF has forecast global growth of 3.75% for this year and 4% in 2015.

The laundry list of reforms run the usual gamut of liberalizing product and labor markets, lowering barriers to trade, attracting more women into the workforce and boosting investment in infrastructure.

Still there were no details on how or whether the G20 would police each country’s progress on the reforms, many of which would likely be politi-cally unpopular at home.

Olli Rehn, European Union’s Eco-nomic and Monetary A� airs Commis-sioner, said the bloc would back the growth target for the G20 group that accounts for 85% of global economic output provided it came with a � rm commitment to bold reforms.

He suggested that reform progress

could be monitored by the IMF and the Organization for Economic Coop-eration and Development and that EU’s policy coordination and surveillance could serve as a model.

The onus would be on the rich na-tions to pick up the baton on growth from the developing countries, who had carried the world economy in the wake of the global � nancial crisis.

The emerging members have also been pressing for the US Federal Re-serve to try to avoid sparking market volatility through better messaging as its throttles back on asset buying.

There was never much expectation the Fed would consider actually slow-ing the pace of tapering, but its emerg-ing peers were hoping for more coop-eration on policy.

“I think if there was a ‘no surprises policy’ in relation to monetary policy, and that central banks around the world have reasonable warnings of what may be events that do create market volatil-ity, then I think that is not unreason-able,” said Australia’s Hockey. l

US calls on China, Japan and Europe to boost domestic demandn Reuters

China, Japan and Europe need to con-centrate on boosting domestic demand to help rebalance the world economy, the head of the US Treasury said on Friday.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a � nance conference ahead of this week-end’s G20 meeting that Japan’s eco-nomic reforms, known as Abenomics after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had made progress, although more still needed to be done.

Asked about the risks from China’s shadow banking sector, Lew said the sheer size of the Chinese economy meant Beijing had the scope to deal with any dangers. l

G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors begin their annual meeting in Sydney. G20 host Australia urged better advance notice of policy changes by central banks to avoid shockwaves for emerging economies at a meeting of � nance ministers where rifts over US monetary policy loomed large AFP

G20 OFFICIALS MEET IN SYDNEY TO BOOST GROWTH AND CREATE JOBS

Delegates of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors pose for the group photo in front of Sydney's iconic landmarks, the Opera House (right) and Harbour Bridge AFP