an ordinary citizen

The theme of Transparency International for this year is corruption in water sector throughout the world. It identifies corruption in water sector is an unidentified threat for development and sustainability.
They have also studied the corruption in this sector in Bangladesh and focus the image of corruption in water sector in Bangladesh in their main report. The study year is 2006.
It is said that government officials are responsible for 84.8% corruption in the country’s water sector while politicians and contractors are responsible for the rest. The Daily Star reports detail

An ordinary citizen

Despite common expectations, graft increases in Bangladesh under ongoing drive by the caretaker government,said TIB (Transparency International Bangladesh) in its latest report.[DS][PA]
Some of the sectors are more affected than the others like police, rapid action battalion, joint forces and land administration.
In terms of magnitude, law enforcing agencies including the joint forces, police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) were found to be the most corrupt while land administration was found the most corrupt in terms of the amount of bribe that went into any sector, according to the National Household Survey on Corruption 2007. (more…)

I was reading an article in Prothom Alo written by Asif Nazrul, a professor of Dhaka University, Law Department where he said that Govt took very hard stand for the trial of the corruption cases. He accused that the measures taken by the government violates the human rights. (more…)

The political parties didn’t respond to the address of the Chief Adviser(CA) of the caretaker Government(CTG) Dr. Fakhruddin Ali A as was expected by the people and the intelligentsia. It is become difficult for the ordinary citizen to understand the inner thinking of the political leaders by his limited information and knowledge. (more…)

As Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus said in his acceptance speech of Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December 10 2006 ‘Poverty is the absence of all human rights.’ (more…)

When a political system is corrupt, not only the political leaders are benefited, the benefits may go to the political cadres of all strata of the parties, especially the party in power.

The party leaders attain the higher post in the government, assume greater responsibility, and enjoy more  privileges. The party cadres at different level also share the privileges. They get the contracts; get the tenders, selected for employment, preferred for admission, promotion, training at home and abroad.

Beaucracy is also benefited by corruption. They also took the advantages of corruption in the political system. They  take undue promotion, unhealthy privileges and participate in underhand negotiations. The government employs to the lowest level take the advantage of the system.

The businessmen also take the privilege of the  corrupt system. They procure orders in illegal ways, bypass taxes, compromise with the quality of goods and of works, they patronize the parties and take advantage in exchange. They themselves enter into politics, purchase the seats and purchase the voters.

The media also compromise and they don’t maintain the neutrality and they speak in the light of their political affiliation.

 The Judiciary is also afflicted. The appointment is compromised. The promotion is manipulated. They lost their judgment and they give verdict in favour of their political interest.

 The universities become sit of politics rather the seat of academic exercise. The teachers are more interested in discussing politics than principles. Getting good score in exams is more a matter of political connection than a matter of merit. The recruitment in faculty is also dictated by political menuaver than academic excellence.

 It seems that all are beneficiaries of a corrupt system of politics except the common people.

An ordinary citizen

After 1/11, when the present Caretaker Government (CTG) started arresting the politicians, most of them were from BNP, AL appreciated the move of the new government. When the CTG started arresting a few leaders of AL, AL tried to explain to the public that government is trying to balance the sheet.

BNP took the move as an attempt by the new government to crush the party.

General public was also under the illusion that the new government is more anti-BNP than anti-AL. The illusion was created more because of the speeches of the Chief of Army where he expressed his intention to declare Sk Mujibur Rahman as the Father of the Nation and set the history in its true form.

The new government continued its arrest spree and more and more AL leaders were arrested along with BNP leaders, few businessmen and some beaucrates. Government reiterated its stand that it is against all sorts of corruption by the politicians or by anybody else. As the advisers told the politicians are the leaders of the country, they are mainly responsible for the corruption prevailed in the country and they had created the environment for others to compel to adopt the corruption for them.

Government gradually increased its pressure on more powerful and son of a prime minister was arrested.

When allegation of corruption floated against the ex-prime ministers, one was heard to say that she had enough wealth from her parents and she didn’t touch any money by herself.

The political parties they belong also couldn’t accept the arrests. Acting President of AL Zillur Rahman many a times told that Hasina can’t involve in any corruption. He also told that arresting her is a conspiracy.

BNP leaders though took measures to reform the party and to make some changes in the party constitution, they also didn’t speak anything about the corruption of the party leaders. None of the factions told that there will no place of the corrupted leaders in the party. Rather strong allegations of corruption are there against the top leaders of the two factions.

Recently I had a talk with a close associate of a top party leader. He said that as there was corruption, there was flow of money. All the parties of a business deal would have been benefited from the deal. He asserted as there is no benefit now, the ADP is minimally implemented in the FY.

With the perception, politicians are above corruption and corruption is a necessity, how Bangladesh dreams of a country free of corruption in future?

An ordinary citizen

Formation of Truth Commission is underway. A Special Committee has been formed to formulate the necessary rules and regulation of the Truth Commission. Initially it was thought only for the businessmen as economy is being affected because of the arrest of businessmen and remain behind the bar for long. As an alternative they now will confess the guilt and refund the money they illegally acquired.

Initial proposal for the privilege only for the businessmen was criticized from different fronts. Question arises why the politician and others will not get the opportunity. Considering the reaction from the public and experts, Government has given a second thought to the idea and is making necessary adjustment.

Barrister Moinul Hossain, Law Adviser said that the committee is working on accommodating the politicians and for that it is taking a little more time. The politicians if they feel guilty of corruption they will confess and they will be barred from politics and they may escape jail.We guess that the politicians will also return their money illegally earned.

Still questions remain unanswered. What will happen to the beau crates and professionals? I think the law should be extended to cover the beau crates and professionals. They also should be allowed to confess the guilt, return the money and lose their job.

By extending the scope of Truth Commission, the Government would be able to clean the business, politics, beau cracy and professional arena of Bangladesh.

 An ordinary citizen

In response to the Admin Cadre reaction, Barrister Moinul Hussain, Law Adviser said that he would meet with the secretaries and hope to come to a solution as these people are part of the government . If they have any grievance they can put it to the government.

Later the cadre leaders met with the Adviser and put their demands which they didn’t disclose publicly nor the Adviser told much in the public.

Then it was understood that Government is considering to accommodate some of the demands of the Admin cadre. These are-

1) to return some of the judicial power to the administrative officials

2) to remove the discrepancy between the service experiences required for the admin and judicial cadres to be absorbed in the judicial service

3) to prepare separate rooms for the judicial magistrates and not to vacate the offices and spaces occupied by the Admin Cadre magistrates

But the adjustment will ultimately depend on the approval of the Supreme Court.

Different organizations and individuals condemn the attitude and emotions expressed by the Admin Cadre. Among those are Association of Judicial Service, Supreme Court bar Association, Dr. Kamal Hussain and others .

Many appreciated the mover of the Government to separate the Judiciary. Professor Mujaffar Ahmed, Justice Naimuddin, Ex Adviser Akbar Ali Khan, AL, NAP are among them..

Some demanded the punishment of the Admin cadre officers who violated the code of conduct of the Government Service and dishonor the Court.

A case has been filed against 5 officers of the Admin cadre who were accusing the Government in the meeting for his attempt to separate the Judiciary from the Administration.

Rokonuddowla , the magistrate has been withdrawn from the magistracy and turned into an OSD. He also publicly seek apology for his mistake in the meeting.

Barrister Aminul Islam, President oof the Bar Association has expressed that the preventive power of magistracy will lie with the civil admin magistrates and there is no need of alteration of the set rules. Any deviation of the set rules will go against the spirit of separation, he said.

In spite of all the hue and cry about the separation, the Government is determined to separate the Judiciary officially on the 1st November 2007.

An ordinary citizen .

After the disclosure of the study report of Transparency International Bangladesh titled ‘Problems in good governance in the NGO sector: The way forward’ released few days back,  the issue of corruption in NGO become a topic of arguments and counterarguments in the media and among the public.

The study which covered 20 representative NGOs from international, national and local groups revealed that the NGOs operating in Bangladesh are indulged in various irregularities and malpractices.

In the immediate reaction, Federation of NGOs refuted the allegations and said that the the study is not based on scientific methodology and a sweeping conclusion cannot be drawn on the samples of 20 where 3000 NGOs are working.

The FNB also said the information provided in the TIB report on NGOs’ governing bodies, their decision-making process, procurements, employees’ salaries, organisational management and inflated evaluations are not true for most NGOs.

In reply, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman in a press release said , ‘The study report did not say that all the NGOs are corrupt. The report did not measure the individual range of corruption in individual NGOs in relation to their sizes, ways of getting funds, their ranges of work and their locations. The report even shows that the identified problems don’t exist in all the surveyed NGOs. There was not any sweeping comment on the NGO sector.”

Dr Iftekhar said in the release that the methodology used for the research is scientific and widely accepted. Data were collected through interviews with NGO officials of different levels, from case studies and focus group discussions (FGD), and through interviews with the main sources of information. “So it is absolutely logical to have a perception on the sector’s problems in good governance and its nature, through the scientifically extracted data on 20 chosen NGOs.”

Meanwhile, the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (Adab) in a separate news release lambasted the TIB report claiming that the report had labelled 80 percent of the total 47,000 NGOs in the country as corrupt.

‘The methodology used in the study is faulty and information gathered from a faulty research cannot be acceptable,” said the Adab release signed by its Director Aminul Islam. A composite picture of the vast sector cannot be perceived on the basis of a survey of a mere 20 organizations’, the Adab director said in the release.

There are also other allegations against NGOs. One of the major allegations against he NGOs is their political involvement in elections and political programs and another allegation is the involvement of NGOs in the last year’s widespread protest, ransacking and fire of the garment factories

TIB study also reveals that it could get the cooperation of the NGO bosses and interview had to take from the employees going to their houses.

In the above background, the Government should make  an inquiry into the state of NGOs, their mode of operations and transactions of accounts and take necessary steps to regulate the NGO activities in our country to make it corruption free, transparent and accountable.

An ordinary citizen

Few days back Law Adviser Barrister Moinul Hussain disclosed that Government is thinking of forming Truth Commission for Businessmen as the economy of the country is affected because of the arrest of the businessmen, the business community is not gaining confidence and the business houses are in difficulty in carrying out their work because of the absence of their bosses.

The concept of Truth Commission is not new for Bangladesh. The Truth Commission or like were formed in many countries for confession of the crimes and reconciliation such as in South Africa etc.

But immediately after the disclosure of the idea, criticism from different quarters poured in for considering a special quarter separately. Many raise the question why the businessmen will be considered separately? They are equally at fault for rampant corruption that is prevailing  in our country for years. As someone says the politicians, beau crates and the businessmen form the unholy alliance to make illegal money in our country.

Many argue that if there is any Truth Commission it should be for all. In the constitution , there is no provision for any section to be considered separately. All are same to the eyes of the law.

Many argued that the Government unnecessarily magnifying the role of arrested businessmen. The release of the businessmen will have no impact on the economy or the price of the essentials rather it may encourage more corruption by the businessmen in future.

The ordinary citizen feels that if the Government thinks of forming Truth Commission, it should form it for all. All section of corrupts whether politicians, businessmen, beau crates or professionals should be allowed to get the opportunity to confess, surrendered their wealth earned illegally , quit politics (politicians) or lose their jobs (beau crates & professionals). It may decrease the legal and physical load of the Government and save the Government from lengthy legal complexity. It will also allow the Government to focus attention to other important issues.

But before coming to a decision, the Government must rethink that privileges to the corrupts do not jeopardize its own declared objective of forming a new society and giving a  solid foundation for democracy in Bangladesh.

An ordinary citizen. 

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Research Officer Shadhan Kumar Das presented a study titled ‘Problems in good governance in the NGO sector: the way forward’ in a discussion meeting at Cirdap Auditorium in the capital recently. TIB trustee Board chairman Professor Mujaffar Ahmed presided over the meeting.

The study took into account the activities of 20 NGO’s operating in different districts of six division in the country. On them, one is an international NGO, eight are national NGOs and 11 are local NGOs.

The study observed that many NGO’s are registered with the government in exchange of bribes and some of those have existence only in paper and the government officials assisted them in the process.

The range of corruption could not be assessed as the NGOs did not provide TIB with adequate information and the NGO chiefs did not cooperate properly. The study said.

Due to lack of transparency and autocratic attitude of the NGO chiefs, an environment is created where corrupt practices become obvious. They are not accountable to the beneficiaries, rather to the donors’ TIB Chairman said. There are only a few NGOs that receive 90 % of the resources from the donors, he added.

TIB Trustee Board Chairman cautioned that involving politics with rights-based activities may bring about dangerous result.

The study found that the NGO activities are inflated to the donors to bring money for addressing problems that are actually artificial.

The Author said that due to weak institutional framework, the NGO Affairs Bureau cannot monitor the NGO activities, while the NGOs give more than enough gifts to the donors to satisfy them and cover up their irregularities.

The study said that selection of employees and selection of auditors are not regular. The procurement process of the materials is also not transparent. Retired high officials are appointed in the Governing body to help in the administration.

The study recommends a) formation of an independent umbrella body to monitor the NGOs’ activities b) formulation of a guideline for formation of governing bodies c) making all information of the NGO’s available to the stakeholders d) holding the NGOs accountable to the government, donors and beneficiaries.

The ordinary citizen had also bad experience with NGO. When he was about to have a contract with an NGO, he was cautioned not to poke into the deep of the matters.

An ordinary citizen

Post Script:

6/10/07

The Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh reacted strongly against disclosure of the facts in the study and also the comment passed by the Chairman of TIB.

Ref: The Daily Star, Prothom Alo 5/10/07, Daily Star 6/10/07

11 Nov 07

Akbar Ali Khan, Ex Adviser said that the NGOs are becoming business minded. Very few NGO’s has got transparency and accountabilty.

13 Nov 07

NBR asked the commercial bbanks to freeze all the accounts of Proshika Cahirperson Quazi Faroque Ahmed and his family members.

A report by Emily Wax is published in Washington Post on 3^rd October, 2007 saying that a quiet revolution is undergoing in Bangladesh against corruption.

The report said that corruption was ingrained in social fabric that even the Bureau of Anti-corruption accepted a bribe and Bangladesh persistently ranked top most corrupt country in the world.

The paper continued, ‘Now, two former Prime Ministers, rival politicians who have dominated the countries politics for 16 years are behind the bar. They are awaiting trials for siphoning off millions of dollars from the Government. Also incarcerated on graft, tax evasion and corruption charges are 170 members of the ruling elite, along with an estimated 15000 political underdogs, local government officials and businessmen’.

It said that they have all alleged to have stolen 150 million people who have long languished in abject poverty.

The paper added that the arrests this year are unprecedented for South Asia Region, a reputation for widespread impunity when it comes to thievery in Government corruption. ‘It is completely unthinkable in SA that a country’s demigods are now in jail’ the paper quoted Iftekher Jaman, Executive Director of Transparency International, Bangladesh chapter, ‘For most people what matters is daily life and corruption is so deep rooted here… that there has to be a painful transition. But in the long terms, it has to happen’.

The report observed that the transition , from a system in which corruption rules, to one, in which institutions do, has indeed been difficult. The interim government says these are normal growing pains, and the only way to change the system.

‘Even a little corruption is bad because it sets a tone that anything goes.’ said the Hasan Masud Chowdhury, Chairman of AntiCorruption Commission (ACC) which has replaced now defunct Bureau of AntiCorruption; “Corruption is tied to poverty. Africa has its Big Men, with their sycophants who benefited from their power. Well, Bangladesh has its Big Women and their blind followers. And why should we all be too afraid to take back what our citizens lost? And why should we all be too afraid to take back what our citizen lost?’

The paper obversed that some Bangladeshis say they are optimistic but cautiously so. The ordinary citizen is also of the same opinion.

‘What is happening here is nothing short of a quiet revolution without violence,’ the paper quoted Barrister Moinul Hussain, Care Taker Government key law and justice official.

An ordinary citizen

Ref: Washington Post 3/10/07, Prothom Alo 4/10/07

Former Adviser Akbar Ali Khan yesterday said that undertaking wide spread reforms within a short time may affect the country adversely is more than possibility.

He was speaking in the 4^th‘Policy Debate on Reforms’ by Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at a city Hotel where several other former Advisers, experts, politicians were also present.

Akbar told that instead of undertaking gradual reforms, it seem that they are undertaking big bang reforms, what is likely to have adverse rather than positive effects in the country. He said that big bang reforms entail dismantling institutions, structures and rebuilding from the scratch –which can have dangerous consequences if carried out within a short time.

He added ‘we have to try to reconcile our emotions with hard, political realities. We can’t give in to our emotion to change everything that we dislike right away.

There is a notion among the public, which is rather common that the present Care Taker Government has taken up more agenda than they could accomplish perfectly. This notion of the common people is expressed in the language of AKbar Ali Khan.

But are all these maneuver are out of emotion and Government has no calculation of his own. An individual can be emotional but not a collective group of leadership. So Government must have its own calculation.

But the ordinary citizen can also ask -were all these necessary- the wide spread reforms, the arrests, the cases? Will Government be able to complete all its task before it leaves by December 2008? Will the foundation be strong enough by this time so that the reform would be continued in future? Or the hastily done reform will be collapsed and backfired as predicted by Akbar Ali Khan?

Let us wait and see and let the Government make necessary adjustment in cool brain if any.

An ordinary citizen

Bangladesh is in 7^th position in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report for 2006-2007 with the score at 2. Last year Bangladesh was in 3^rd position with the same score. Before that from 2001- 2005 Bangladesh had consecutively in no 1 position for 5 years.

In 1996, Bangladesh had score 1.2. It takes 10 years for Bangladesh to come to the score 2 where score 3 is considered for a country to be against corruption.

This year no 1 position is hold by Myamner and Somalia, Iraq in 2^nd position, 3 rd is Haiti, Afganistan is in 5 th position..

Among the Saarc Countries Bangladesh is again at the bottom. Then Pakistan with 2.4, Nepal 2.5, SriLanka 3.2, India 3.5, Bhutan 5.0.

On the better end, at the top are Denmark, Finland, NeoZeland with 9.4 score, Singapure and Sweden 9.4 score, UK 8.4 and USA 7.2.

TIB Chairman Professor Mujaffar Ahmed while declaring the TI Index in a press conference strongly stressed that TIB has no role in deducting the score for Bangladesh. In the past, some ministers of the last regime tried to deplore the TI statement and were blaming the TIB for presenting partial facts of Bangladesh.

In CPI it is the score which is important and not the position. He explained that Bangladesh position is up with the same score of the last year as some of the countries had more downward trends. It is good that Bangladesh had avoided that downward trend. He appreciated the present steps against corruption taken by the Care Taker Government but said that it will take more time to be stabilized the state and perceived by the people.

This report is prepared by the Berlin –based Transparency International. The CPI of 2007 is prepared from the 14 surveys conducted by internationally renowned 10 independent bodies. For Bangladesh 7 references has have been used .

The main context of the used references are corruption and exchange of bribery, exploitation of Government position for personal and political benefit, Governance, tax collection, Collection of extra money for Government jobs including Judiciary, above all Government capability, success and failure in combating all such corruption.

We hope that Government anticorruptions measures would be successful and the trend it is creating will be continued in future and Bangladesh will come out with better score in future.

An ordinary citizen

‘Most of the private medical college in the country are in grave condition’ runs the report in Prothom Alo on 15^th August 2007, a leading daily.

Starting in late 80’s there are 32 medical colleges and 8 private dental colleges in contrast to 14 Govt medical college and 1 govt dental college in Bangladesh.

Most of the private medical colleges has no adequate teaching facilities, not enough regular teachers, no proper laboratories, no hospital with proportionate patients, not adequate infrastructures and no transparency of accounts etc.

Though the rules dictate that every medical college should have atleast 250 bedded hospital at a proportion of 5 patients for a student. So for 50 students the college should have 250 bedded hospital and for 100 college should have 500 bedded hospital, but very few have got these facilities.

Again, though the private universities are not allowed to run the medical college but to our knowledge there is private medical college running under private university defying government ban and government is not settling it for long through legal procedures.

Many private medical colleges started without proper permission and many given permission on political ground. Many started with underhand negotiations.

The fees taken in the private medical colleges are not regulated and also the account is not transparent. Where many of the colleges are run by Trustee Board, but the money goes to the individual accounts. Many of the initiatives are absolutely business targeted and over all control of the past Governments were weak.

Where the admission in Government medical colleges is highly competitive, the private medical colleges open up the opportunities for the less meritorious students with the support of their parents’ affluence to study medicine in Bangladesh. With more private medical colleges the scale is becoming heavier on their side.

While in developed countries, the medical education is highly regulated and highly standardized, in Bangladesh it is compromised to the extreme.

And corruption played a important part to develop this compromise. This government should also enquire into this compromise and find out and punish the corrupted individuals who are destroying our medical education and our health system for their own personal gain.

An ordinary citizen

Rangs building is being demolished. Law Adviser termed the building as the symbol of abuse of power. Government won on appeal petition in the judgment of the Supreme Court where the building from the 7thfloor upto 22 nd floor (upper 16 floor) has been declared illegal.

Rajuk started to demolish the building from today. It will take 3-4 months for complete demolition of the building.

Governments were in fight with the Rangs owner from early nineties Despite the opposition of the Rajuk and Civil Aviation Ministry Rangs raised the building to 22 nd floor. Rajuk termed it illegal. But with an order from High court in 2000, it remain intact .Govt made appeal in the supreme count against the judgment. Now the judgment goes in favour of the Government.

Government will also acquire the land of the Rangs building and the area behind the bulding.

Government needs the land according to the master plan to develop a road to interconnect two highways to lessen the traffic in the capital.

Rangs Building is the monument of illegality.This is an example how the influential of Bangladesh ignore the rules of the land and ignore the orders of the governmental authorities. It shows how they influence the laws and ignore the courts. No political governments so far could do anything in this regard and the owners were so confident that they invested about 700 crore taka in constructing this. This confidence came from the political linkage they have developed over the years with the political parties and our legal system.

By demolishing the Building and acquiring the land and then preparing the planned road, not only the traffic will be eased up but it will also increase the confidence of the public on the Government and Government intension to do good for the country without fear or favour to anybody.

Bdoza

Special Tribunals have given verdicts on some graft cases put up by ACC (Anti-Corruption Commission) against the ministers, bureaucrats and others.

In these verdicts, Barrister Aminul Hoque, Ex BNP Minister along with other associates has given 31 years 6 months jail for patronizing militancy.

Mr. Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, Ex state Minister of BNP along with others has given jail for 8 years for looting and ransacking the houses, shops and bazaars.

Mr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, a powerful bureaucrat who later turned to be the state Minister in AL regime has been given imprisonment for 3 years for concealing assets in his wealth statement and 10 years for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known source of income. The Judge examined the testimony of 37 prosecution witnesses, 7 defense witnesses and the records on 3 charges. 3 eminent citizens-Mr. Akbar Ali Khan, ex Secretary and ex-Adviser of the past Care Taker Government, Mr. Barakat, an Economist of Bangladesh and a DU teacher and an Economist from USA had given their testimony in favour of Mr. Alamgir. Mr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir is also very much known to the public for his alleged involvement in anti Govt activites when he was the cabinet secretary before the fall of first BNP regime of Khaleda.

Earlier, the court jailed former State Ministers Mr. Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin and Mr. Amanullah Aman for 3 years for concealing assets and 10 years for amassing wealth beyond their known source of income. They are also fined and their properties and assets disproportionate to their known source of income were confiscated.

Barrister Aminul Hoque was tried in abstentia and he had no lawyer to plead for him and he will not get the opportunity to appeal in the higher court if he does not surrender by this time.

Lawyers of the other accused were not satisfied with the verdicts and had expressed their willingness to fight in the high court against these judgments.

With these verdicts a chill will pass through the spines of the other accused and also not yet arrested but corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and others.

But the questions are:

1) will the Government able to withstand the challenges in the high court because of appeal by the accused?

2) will the party activists try to throw a political challenge to the Government by creating a law and order situation in the country?

(an ordinary citizen)

Hasina was arrested on the charge of extortion few days back amid tight security. It is reported that Government has ample evidence against her involvement. About a dozen case are about to be framed against her.

Few weeks back when Hasina was abroad, Government was trying to keep her away from the country and trying to deal her more politically, then many quarters raised objection and asked the Government to deal with her more legally.

Now when the Government is taking legal steps, pressures from different angles and different forms are coming on the Government to release SK Hasina and withdraw the case.

Hasina herself and her protagonists are trying to give a political colour to the allegations against her. Hasina is saying that all the allegation against her are false. And CG arrested her to refrain her from election.

Her lawyers are saying that the case is false, the said incident occurred before the emergency rule, she could not be tried under the emergency rule and in special court. Sometime their tone, attitude and content of their statement is more political than legal. 565 lawyers of Chittagong bar also demanded her release.

Intellectuals are advocating her release in the media – their argument is that two minus theory will not work in Bangladesh, absence of SH and KZ will collapse the parties, country will be devoid of leadership, reform can not be imposed from outside, a flower developed in a laboratory will not grow outside, legal process should be transparent etc.

The Academicians in Universities also prefer to voice their protest. Both colours of teachers joined together after 16 years to demand the release of Sk Hasina and protest the harassnment of Khaleda Zia. But they are not asking for fair trail.

The editors and journalists also expressed their concern. Some of them also showing visible shift tin their outlook. The reporters are publishing news magnifying the reactions to the arrest of the Sk Hasina.

The party is also reacting strongly. AL Acting President said that there will be no reform or council until Sk Hasina is released. Recently he added that AL supports all the movements that support the release of Sk Hasina. He was referring to the strike call by the BCL in DU and other Institutions of the country.

So, the lawyers are questioning the legality of the arrest, the intellectuals are demanding the transparency, the loyalists are advocating for the release, the activists are demonstrating in the campus and the party is encouraging agitation of any form.

In the midst of these to overcome these and to prevent the country to go back to 1/11, the Government needs firm determination, transparency of the process and people support as was suggested by a roundtable discussion organized by the leading Daily Prothrom Alo and participated by the different authorities on the subject on 21 July 2007.

So far, people are with the government and they have not participated in any major agitation after the arrest of Sk Hasina.

Bdoza

3^rd day passed..

Khaleda Zia in a statement demanded the immediate release of Sk Hasina and regretted failure of the administration to protect her dignity while being taken to court. She also added that people do not want to see chaos and disorder again which led to the promulgation of unexpected state of emergency. Many welcome the gesture. Some view it as the beginning of a new phase in our politics. Others nullify this and see this just as a token of sympathy which should have been there from the beginning but was absent conspicuously in our politics. Some see it as a preparation of the ground to combat the situation that is coming to Khaleda herself.

Tofael and Razzak two leaders of pro-reform group met with Zillur Rahman, acting President of AL and expressed their determination to remain united in this period of crisis. Zillur Rahman expressed later that the no reform or council will be held until Sk Hasina is released. Now AL has one demand ‘ release of Hasina’. No senior leader was there by his side when he was stating this. We are not sure how the reformist in the party react to this.

Sporadic protests are reported in few parts of the country. The people from Tungipara, the home place of Sk hasina observed Milad and fasting for the release of Sk hasina No major mass reaction observed in the country so far.

Notices have been sent to Hasina and Khaleda to submit their wealth accounts from the Anti-Corruption Commission. Hasiina cliaimed in a letter that the notice is full of error; the allegation was refuted by the anticorruption office.

50 lawyers sat together in the supreme court premises to discuss the ways to deal the cases coming on Sk Hasina. Some layers commented that Emergency Rule will not be applicable for this case as the incident mentioned occured before the emergerncy rule is imposed. However they didn’t make any comment on otherer cases of different political leaders who are under trail and given judgements for corruptions. 8 lawyers have filed petition to see Hasina to discuss the case.

On the otherhand, Barrister Moinul Hussain said that the Govt will not influence the course of the law like that of the past governments. Whatever happen that will be dictated by the law and the court.

The General Secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association in a meeting condemned the arrest of Sk Hasina and demanded the resignation of Law Adviser, Barrister Moinul Hussain. Earlier 65 teachers of Chittagong University protested the arrest of Sk Hasina. The present Government is against the involvement of the teachers in the politics and is promulgating laws to prohibit student and teacher politics in the country.

In the meantime , Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed said in a gathering that a nation can not survive with the liability of corruption on its shoulder.

Bdoza