E-Bangladesh

[Shahnawaz Alam, Sports Desk.] Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan all-rounder, has pulled out of the South Africa Test series. He indicated that it would be very difficult and affect his performance if he fasts and plays during the holy month of Ramadan. Afridi was the player of the tournament in South Africa Twenty20 Cricket World Cup with 91 runs, at the strike rate of 197.81, and 12 wickets at the economy rate of 6.72 to lead the Pakistan spin attack. The Pakistan squad for the first test will be announced Friday.

Afridi said “I asked the Pakistan board to allow me to skip the two Tests against South Africa because it would be difficult to fast and play in Ramadan,” Afridi told news agency AFP. The PCB is said to have accepted Afridi’s request.

Afridi dismissed suggestions that he had withdrawn because of his poor show in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 against India. “We lost the final due to poor batting and I apologized to the fans for not doing my part in the final but that did not influence my decision of not playing Tests.”

[Shahnawaz Alam, Sports Desk.] Mohammad Yousuf says that he is willing to do anything for Pakistan as he agrees to cancel his contract with the Indian Cricket League and chooses to represent Pakistan after talks with Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

“I had a fruitful meeting with Yousuf and he has signed a central contract with the PCB after agreeing not to play in the ICL,” Ashraf said. “He is now available to represent Pakistan. He is the backbone of Pakistan’s batting and we are happy that he is back.”

Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq signed on with the ICL over a month ago. Although it wasn

Video: Al Jazeera English via You Tube.

[Zafa Noor, USA.]

9 people were killed today (September 27, 2007) in Burma (Myanmar), by the country’s military force. For last few days, freedom-loving people took to the streets, protesting against the oppressive military regime that has ruled Burma for the last two decades. The soldiers under instruction of the Junta used batons, rifle butts and riot shields to beat the protesters, including monks and journalists. When that was not enough to stop the protests, the troops fired automatic weapons on the crowd.

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[Dhaka Correspondent] A faction of the Islami Oikya Jote Thursday alleged that Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh was the mastermind behind the recent incidents that followed the publication of a controversial cartoon in Alpin, a satirical weekly of Prothom Alo.

“The cartoon has undoubtedly hurt the religious sentiments of the people, but the incidents that ensued last week over the issue are part of a clear conspiracy by the Jamaat,” said Misbahur Rahman, chairman of the IOJ faction, at a press briefing. Misbah told newsmen that the meeting between the religious leaders and the law adviser, then the apology by Prothom Alo’s editor the following day and the clash between demonstrators and police near Shahbag occurred at the instigation of Jamaat.

Misbah, terming Jamaat a historical criminal, said that it wanted to prolong the state of emergency and was therefore impeding the democratization process. “For this Jamaat is destabilizing the country by fanning up religious sentiment, and this is part of its conspiracy,” said the IOJ chairman.

He also quoted the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, who on September 18 said, “It is a conspiracy to destabilize the country. We are very concerned over the issue.” The IOJ faction also placed a three-point demand, including promulgation of a blasphemy act and formation of a judicial probe commission to identify those persons who had masterminded the incidents.

Alpin, a weekly magazine of the Prothom Alo, published a cartoon story titled “Naam” on the sixth page of its 431st issue. The cartoon allegedly ridiculed the Prophet by adding his name before a cat.

[Dhaka Correspondent] Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, Thursday said the government should broaden scope for the right to information to cut corruption in society. The former army chief referred to a missing article from an international magazine that had focused on Bangladesh. The article was apparently torn off by the government what Mashhud termed as an “interventionist” act.

Mashhud’s comment came a day before International Day for the Right to Information, when he spoke at a seminar on the same theme. “I wanted to read the article when I saw it in the content page of a widely-circulated English weekly. I turned to the page only to find it missing. Here the state has curbed the right to information.” He said: “It did not work as I read the article online.” Mashhud did not name the magazine.

Many readers had complained that they could not read the article “The minus-two solution” in the September 8-14 print edition of The Economist.

Mashhud apparently agreed with keynote speaker Robaet Ferdous who said post-colonial states are “overly interventionist.” Mashhud said the right to information, good governance and democracy are interlinked and compared them to “blooms of the same tree”. “They will flourish together or die together. If you want to have the fruits you have to start from the soil.”

Expressing solidarity with the spirit of the right to information law, Mashhud said, “Many have spoken about the military budget of Bangladesh. I was personally involved with the matter. Ethically, the information regarding the budget should be disclosed. Nothing would be found if the budget was laid open to the public as 90 percent of the budget is spent on salary and allowances.”

Transparency International, Bangladesh co-organized the seminar with five other non-governmental organizations, including Ain O Shalish Kendro at the LGED Auditorium. Former caretaker government adviser Sultana Kamal, speaking as special guest at the seminar, said, “The notion that information may hamper state security is not acceptable. The security of state means the security of people. When the security of the state runs counter to people’s security, there is an ulterior motive.”

Afghan police continued search for Nurul Islam, a BRAC official abducted in Afghanistan 20 days ago, a BRAC spokesman in Dhaka said Thursday.

“Rescue efforts are on. We are in constant communication with the Afghan government. Afghan police are trying hard to rescue the kidnapped Bangladeshi citizen. We hope the search will see a success soon,” said M Anwarul Haq, director of public affairs and communication of the non-governmental organization.

“I spoke to Nurul Islam’s wife Anwara Parveen in the morning. She sounded quite optimistic about her husband’s freedom,” he said. “My husband went to work in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people achieve development and also brighten the image of our country there. That’s why I believe that nobody will harm him,” Haq quoted Parveen.

BRAC programme officer Jalal U Ahmed went to the Afghan capital, Kabul, to monitor the rescue efforts.

BRAC official Nurul Islam was kidnapped from his office in Afghanistan on September 8. The armed kidnappers looted 30,000 Afghanis during the abduction. Afghanistan launched a special rescue operation in this connection on September 9. Three suspects have been arrested. In a TV broadcast Monday, Taliban officials clarified that they were not responsible for the kidnapping of Nurul Islam.

[Dhaka Correspondent] Cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, her cabinet colleagues Moudud Ahmed and Nazmul Huda and Nazmul’s wife Sigma Huda were challenged in the High Court Thursday. Six writ petitions challenging the cases were filed that would be heard one after another by the High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zobayer Rahman Chowdhury next week.

After filing Khaleda’s writ, her counsel Rafique-ul Huq told reporters the writ might be heard Sunday. As Khaleda, BNP chairperson, is in jail, Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas filed the writ petition through a power of attorney with permission from the bench.

The petition was filed challenging the government and the ACC’s move of bringing the GATCO graft case against Khaleda, Arafat and 11 others in the ambit of the apparently unassailable Emergency Powers Rules.

Arafat also filed a separate writ petition challenging the same issue.

Moudud, Nazmul and Tarique filed three writ petitions challenging the legality of the cases the commission filed against them for amassing illegal wealth and concealing facts in their wealth statements.

Sigma HUda filed another writ petition challenging the commission’s case against her husband, Nazmul Huda, in which she was accused of abetting Nazmul in his crimes.

ACC deputy director ,Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, filed the corruption case on September 2 with the Tejgaon police against 13 people, including Khaleda and Arafat for awarding a contract to “an incompetent and unfit firm, GATCO,” to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and at Chittagong port allegedly in exchange of bribes. The police arrested Khaleda and Arafat the next day.

In their petitions, Khaleda and Arafat claimed the commission and the government had brought the case under the Emergency Powers Rules in violation of the constitution and law.

As the alleged crime was committed much earlier than the enforcement of the Emergency Powers Rules and the Emergency Powers Ordinance, under which the rules were framed, the case cannot be brought under the emergency rules, the petitions said.

In the petitions, they sought ad interim bail and stay on the proceedings of the case under the Emergency Powers Rules.

On similar grounds, the same High Court bench on July 30 and August 7 issued two rules on the government asking it to explain the legality of bringing two extortion cases against Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister and Awami League president, filed by two businessmen, Azam J Chowdhury and Noor Ali, under the emergency rules, would not be declared illegal. The court also ordered the government not to proceed with the cases under the emergency rules and granted Hasina ad interim bail after hearing two writ petitions filed by Hasina. The petitions are still pending with the court.

Four other writ petitions, filed by Moudud, Huda, Tarique and Sigma were the first-ever petitions challenging the legality of any case filed by the commission for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information in wealth statements.

Hasina, however, filed one writ petition challenging legality of the commission’s notification, issued on July 17 asking her to submit her wealth statement and the same High Court bench on August 7 issued a rule on the commission to explain he legality of the notification. The case is still pending.

[Dhaka Correspondent] BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain Thursday said holding a free and fair election and restoration of democracy will be impossible with leading politicians behind the bars. “People suspect ploys in holding of elections without the two main leaders. Nothing can be anticipated over the polls at this moment but it seems that the government is working on a plan.”

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Photo: September 27, Front Page, New Age.

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

On Wednesday, Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) released its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2007. The Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh announced the news with the headline “Bangladesh improves on its graft image: Climbs up to 7th position from bottom of TI’s corruption index.”

Indeed Bangladesh this year tied for the 7th lowest spot on the index and in 2006 Bangladesh tied for the third lowest spot. However, both in 2006 and in 2007 Bangladesh received a CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) score of 2.0. In other words, Bangladesh showed no improvement in corruption between 2006 and 2007.

Bangladesh’s ranking improved only because seven countries of the world became more corrupt this year (Cambodia, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea and Laos all reported worse scores this year than in 2006) and four new countries with worse corruption than Bangladesh were added to the list of countries surveyed (Afghanistan, Tonga, Uzbekistan and Somalia all were new entrants at the bottom of the list).

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