Nothing final on polls process, says Suranjit

Awami League advisory council member Suranjit Sengupta on Friday said nothing was final on how the next elections would be conducted and the door would remain open for discussions on the issue till the last moment.

He also called on the opposition to return to parliament and place their arguments in support of their demands ‘instead of waging a war against the people.’

‘Nothing is final; the door is open and will remain open till the last moment for discussion,’ he said at a discussion on ‘The Caretaker Government and Today’s Reality’ at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the afternoon.

Suranjit said it was too early to say how the next elections would be conducted and hoped that the opposition, which was boycotting parliament, would agree to hold discussions on the issue.

‘Going ahead of time is good but it may sometimes bring trouble. If we start discussing right now about things which will happen after two years, it might bring trouble. But I am sure they will come for discussion,’ he said, reciting a line from Tagore: ‘Samay Jedin Asibey Aponi Jaibo Tomar Kunje’ (I will visit your place when time comes).

He said the Awami League

government had shown ‘an extreme level of tolerance’ at every stage while amending the constitution and scrapping the provision of caretaker government.

‘The summary of the court ruling was that the provision of caretaker government was against the constitution and we just abided by it. We had invited them for discussion but the opposition leader refused on advice from a “famous barrister” fearing their attendance would give legitimacy to the amendment. Now she is threatening to wage a war,’ Suranjit told the discussion organised by Suchinta Foundation.

Jurist M Zahir called on both the ruling and opposition parties to reach a consensus to avoid a possible catastrophe. ‘Both the parties need to change their minds first,’ he said.

He said he had opposed the idea of caretaker government since it was proposed.

Referring to his opinion given to the court as amicus curiae in the case on the caretaker government, Zahir said he had suggested formation of an interim administration with representation of both the ruling and opposition parties which would only carry out day-to-day affairs.

He laid stress on a transparent electoral roll and strong Election Commission for holding fair polls. ‘Before the end of the government’s tenure, the Election Commission should go from door to door with representatives from the ruling and opposition parties and check the electoral roll,’ he said.

He lamented that the court had given a positive ruling but it failed to provide a full judgment yet.

Former chief of army staff Harun-or-Rashid questioned the demand of the opposition leader for a caretaker government. ‘Does a caretaker government guarantee fair elections? Were the elections of 1996, 2001 and 2008 fair? If so, why you are out of parliament now? Why had you brought the allegation of vote rigging?’

He laid stress on strengthening the Election Commission so that the government could not influence it. He cited the instance of former Indian chief election commissioner TN Seshan.

Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1

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CLNB calls for halt in yarn to save import textiles

Staff correspondent

The coalition of local NGOs in Bangladesh on Wednesday urged the Government to save the ban on imports of yarns, the local textile industry.

The demand came from a human chain formed at the National Press Club, said a CLNB release.

The speakers on the program, said while yarns from abroad were imported hundreds of tons of local yarns in the value of approximately 6,000 crore TK remain unsold.

Union Leader Harunur Rashid Bhuiyan, said that the yarn import had urged the livelihood of cotton farmers, weavers, and industrial scale on the brink of collapse.

Banks and insurance, leasing and transport companies that are connected to the local textile industry in many ways, suffer along with them, the speaker said.

She pointed out that Bangladesh main competitors in the area were India, Pakistan and China, where people who receive many different types of support from their Governments in the industry.

In these countries the entrepreneurs have made local machines, necessary raw materials and other infrastructure facilities and financial incentives also.

Runs Bangladesh textile industry, which they said required support from the Government on its own strength, on the contrary, adding that lack of support is ultimately solved itself has immense views of the sector.

Local producers are often forced to sell, she also complained their products at a price less than their cost.

Among others were Union leaders Shahjahan Kabir Jahir, Shamsul Alam, Shah Alam and Ratna Yasmin in the programme, the publication said.

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Gaddafi, in meat locker, still divides Libya

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

UN rights office for full probe into the death

Reuters . Misrata, Libya

Muammar Gaddafi’s body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments over a burial, and his killing after being captured, dogged efforts by Libya’s new leaders to make a formal start on a new era of democracy.

With a bullet wound visible through the familiar curly hair, the corpse shown to Reuters in Misrata bore other marks of the violent end to a violent life that was being broadcast to the world in snatches of grainy, gory cell phone video.

The interim prime minister offered a tale of ‘crossfire’ to explain the fallen strongman’s death after he was dragged, very much alive, from a highway drainage culvert. But with footage showing him being beaten, while demanding legal rights, to the sound of gunfire, many assume he was simply summarily shot.

Gaddafi’s wife, Aisha, who found refuge in neighbouring Algeria while her husband and several sons kept their word to fight to the death, demanded an inquiry

from the United Nations. Its human rights arm said one was merited.

Controversy over the final moments of a man who once held the world in thrall with a mixture of eccentricity and thuggery raised questions about the ability of Libya’s National Transitional Council to control the men with guns, as well as discomfort for Western allies about respect for human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.

The body appeared to be the latest object of wrangling among the factions of fighters who overthrew him — along with control of weapons, of ministries and of Libya’s oil wealth.

Libyans, and the Western allies who backed their revolt that ended Gaddafi’s 42-year rule two months ago, have indicated their impatience to begin what the United States declared was a democratic ‘new era’.

But regional and other rivalries were holding up the disposal of the corpse of Gaddafi, who was seized by fighters on Thursday, and a formal declaration of Libya’s ‘liberation’.

A failure to find Gaddafi’s son and heir-apparent, Saif al-Islam, left another loose end after Thursday’s surprise climax to eight months of war, when the 69-year-old fugitive was discovered hiding in a drainage culvert under a roadway.

NATO jets had halted a bid by a large armed convoy to break out of his last redoubt in his hometown of Sirte.

Addul-Salam Eleiwa, a commander of the Misrata fighters who brought Gaddafi’s body to the city whose resistance made it a symbol of courage for the rebels, said it would be treated with due respect and buried soon.

Showing the corpse to Reuters, he reflected Muslim custom to inter remains within the day. ‘He will get his right, like any Muslim. His body will be washed and treated with dignity. I expect he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery within 24 hours.’

The body lay on a mattress in a cold storage plant formerly used for meat and other produce in Misrata’s old market area.

A senior military commander for the National Transitional Council said members of Gaddafi’s Gaddadfa tribe were talking to the fighters to discuss the possibility of taking on the task of burying him — a procedure that would follow a tradition also recognised when Saddam Hussein was hanged in Iraq.

However, unlike Saddam the NTC hoped that Gaddafi, his son Mo’tassim and others of his entourage could be buried in secret, to prevent the site becoming a place of pilgrimage.

A senior official of the NTC said there was still division in the upper reaches of the interim authority over where Gaddafi’s final resting place should be. ‘They are not agreeing on the place of burial. Under Islam he should have been buried quickly but they have to reach an agreement whether he is to be buried in Misrata, Sirte, or somewhere else,’ he said.

Interim oil minister Ali Tarhouni said he was urging colleagues to leave the body in cold storage for some days to help dispel any doubts that Gaddafi was indeed dead.

Saif al-Islam was reported by one senior official of the interim government to have escaped the clan’s final showdown in Sirte and to be heading across the Sahara for Niger, which has given refuge to another son and other senior aides.

The United Nations human rights office called for a full investigation into the death of Muammar Gaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed.

Fighters from Misrata, Libya’s third city, have been among the most prominent groups pushing for a bigger say in government.

A declaration of liberation would also, under present plans, formalise a move of the government from Benghazi, the second city and home of the rebellion, in the far east, to Tripoli, the capital, in the west.

But NTC officials were still unclear as to whether the declaration itself would be made in Benghazi or Tripoli.

Long-standing regional rivalries in a country only put together under Italian colonial rule in the 1930s are part of a complex of tribal, ethnic and other divisions which Gaddafi exploited at times to control the thinly populated country of six million and its substantial oil and gas resources.

As NATO powers prepared to wind down their air support mission which helped topple Gaddafi from Tripoli two months ago, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said his death marked the start of a ‘new era’.

Oil minister Tarhouni said that he was hoping he might be named prime minister next week as the new phase of transition to democracy begins. A period of eight months that had been hoped for as a schedule for a new constitution might be optimistic, however, Tarhouni added.

Confusion over exactly how Gaddafi died illustrates the challenge Libyans face to summon order out of the armed chaos that is the legacy of eight months of conflict.

The killing or capture of senior aides, including possibly two sons, as an armoured convoy braved NATO air strikes in a desperate bid to break out of Sirte, may ease fears that diehards could regroup  —though cell-phone video, apparently of Gaddafi alive and being beaten, may inflame his sympathisers.

Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1

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Ivy, Taimur fear vote robbery, ask EC to play neutral role

Narayanganj

Selina Hayat Ivy and Taimur Alam Khandoker, two out of three heavyweight candidates in Narayanganj City Corporation polls, on Friday iterated their fear that the votes to be cast in their favour could be snatched away on October 30.

On the other hand, ruling Bangladesh Awami League-backed candidate AKM Shamim Osman claimed that there would be a fair election, but said the BNP-backed candidate Taimur Alam Khandker might quit the electoral race to pave the way for Ivy to win the polls.

‘I am still in a fear that there might be a vote robbery on October 30,’ said Selina Hayat Ivy, AL’s city unit vice-president whom the AL refused to back in the mayoral race, while talking to newsmen during her electoral campaign yesterday.

Ivy hinted that men of Shamim Osman might snatch away the votes on the election day—an allegation rejected outright by Shamim Osman. 

Selina Hayat Ivy also alleged that the people of Shamim Osman were tearing her posters and festoons every night and demanded immediate action from the Election Commission.  

‘Nobody but the people of my senior brother, Shamim Osman, will dare to tear posters in Narayanganj,’ she added.

On the other hand, Ivy on Friday wrote a letter to the returning officer for the election, Biswas Lutfor Rahman, with an appeal to play a neutral role in the election to ensure a level playing field for all.

Mentioning more than one incident of removing festoons by magistrates and snatching away the leaflets, Ivy, in her letter to the EC, alleged that the local administration was not playing a neutral role.

She reiterated her demanded for reshuffle in the local administration without any further delay to ensure holding of a free, fair and transparent election on October 30.

When his attention was drawn to Ivy’s fear, Shamim Osman told newsmen a tale of a thief and honest. ‘If someone is honest, he will think honestly and if someone is a thief, he will think in that way,’ he replied. But he hastened to add, ‘I, however, do not brand her as a thief.’

Asked whether he has fear of vote robbery in October 30 election, Taimur Alam Khandker said, ‘Yes, there is such an apprehension given the past incidents carried out by different people in the area.’

‘But I think they would not be able to do so in view of the massive wave of public support created in the country in favour of Khaleda Zia,’ Taimur Alam added.

Taimur was confident about his victory in the election, particularly in the wake of the rift in the ruling AL camp in Narayanganj. ‘People of Narayanganj want to live in a terrorism-free city,’ he added.  

He, however, asked the Election Commission to play a neutral role to hold a free and fair election.  

Meanwhile, the candidates have intensified their electioneering with only eight days to go for the votes. All the three candidates conducted massive campaigns on Friday, the weekly holiday, in different parts of the city.

Selina Hayat who started her campaign accompanying AL district convener yesterday and pledged to the voters that she would stamp out all kinds of terrorism from Narayanganj city.

She also said the people of Narayanganj wanted to get rid of the ‘repression’ of the Osman family, the family of her rival Shamim Osman.

She conducted her campaign at Jamtala and Bandar in the city yesterday while both Taimur and Shamim conducted campaigns at Siddhirganj, four-kilometer north of the zero point of the city.  

Talking to newsmen during his campaign at Siddhirganj, Shamim said the electoral fight will ultimately be held between the AL and BNP.

‘But so far, I have heard that BNP-backed candidate [Taimur] sensing his defeat is looking for an excuse to boycott the election,’ he said.

Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1

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Graduation ceremony of BIRDEM of nursing bridge place

The Centre for development research, Bangladesh of Chairman, Mizanur Rahman Shelley, addresses the nursing degree ceremony at the BIRDEM Auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday. -New-age-photo

Staff correspondent

AK Khan healthcare trust on Wednesday organised the graduation ceremony of the first batch of nursing bridge of the Bangladesh Institute of research and rehabilitation for diabetes, endocrine and metabolic disorders.

Centre for development research, Bangladesh Chairman Mizanur Rahman Shelly was the Chief Guest and Centre for the rehabilitation of the Coordinator of Neurology Valerie A Taylor of the special guest of the ceremony

in the BIRDEM Auditorium place.

Mizanur Rahman said that maintenance would allow Bridge program, the nurses as candidate at the international level to compete successfully.

Valerie A Taylor said, make the nurses, dramatically, the country's health system would improve qualified and better trained in their profession.

The NBP started in August 2010 with 18 nurses BIRDEM hospital.

The NBP despite many obstacles, has been a success, said the program organizers.

The objective of the programme is to increase the nurses in South Asia Professional on par with their Western counterparts.

In addition to BIRDEM National Heart Foundation and Chittagong Ma O Shishu hospital the NBP also initiated during the Ibrahim cardiac Research Institute, hospital and a number of other hospitals are Sylhet North East to the implementation of the programme.

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QPR in movement for Barton

Agence France-Presse. London

Queens Park Rangers in talks with Newcastle controversial midfielder Joey Barton about a potential transfer to the newly promoted League are the premier page, was reported here Wednesday.

The 28-year-old has in the last year of his contract at St James' Park is and was made available on a free transfer after the Magpies criticize this summer.

According to Britain's Press Association QPR have to talk about a concept for Barton, and the Loftus road side permission, players have received the.

Barton already with his manager Alan Pardew and Club officials after a number of outbreaks in the social network of Twitter venting his frustration at Newcastle politics.

Despite the high-profile made fall out Pardew then overtures, Barton, suggesting that the line not the end of Barton's time at the North-East side can refer.

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Baichung Bhutia bids to int ' l football

Agence France-Presse. New Delhi

Baichung Bhutia, the flagship of the Indian football, announced his international retirement on Wednesday after months of injury problems.

Turns Baichung Bhutia, 35 in December, said his failure regain full fitness after his 16-year career finish him with the national side prompted India's campaign in the Asian Cup in Qatar is missing the most in January.

"This was the best decision under the circumstances," said Bhutia reporters in New Delhi. ' I made several attempts in the last few months a comeback, but could not because of recurring injuries.

"But I will continue to play club football."

The striker, from which coming North-Eastern State of Sikkim, regional and United FC Sikkim in the Indian national football plays.

Baichung Bhutia was first Indian professional football in Europe to play, when he was signed in 1999 by bury FC on a three year contract.

He is India's fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri and was also awarded the Arjuna award, the country's second highest Sports Award.

Bhutia of more appealing personality wore football to the fore in India cricket crazy, what his lucrative endorsement contracts with major companies such as adidas and Nike later.

Baichung Bhutia he said frustrated, that India have been ranked a low 153, in the FIFA world rankings despite a huge population, added that he was willing to sport management.

"My commitment and contribution to the Indian football will not take away and I am willing to help the AIFF (all India Football Federation), in what way they want me," he said.

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| Source: newagebd.com