October 1, 2013

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Where have all the negotiating tables gone?

Ashwin 16, 1420 Zilkad 24, 1434 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 1 No 190

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT ALLOCATIONS

Half the money goes down the drain n Mohosinul Karim At least a half of the food allocations meant for rural development work and social safety net do not reach the target population due to the system loss that has its roots in the allotment policy, officials and local government representatives say.

Misuse takes place at different stages — from receiving goods from government’s food warehouses, formation of project committees, implementation of the projects to getting the seal of approval from the project officials.

Elected representatives of union parishads and municipalities, local government units responsible for implementing food aid programmes at the grassroots, say the existing government policy requires them to go through all the stages which eats up 50% of the allocations which come in the form of food grains, mainly rice, worth Tk50bn annually on an average.

As per the policy, local government representatives have to collect the

Drug traders threaten to strike n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

sanctioned amounts of rice or wheat and sell those in the open market to fund the development projects earmarked. Problems start with getting the amount released from upazila level warehouses and continue throughout the whole process.

Local government representatives blame the allotment policy for an estimated annual loss of Tk25bn in food-aided programmes meant for generating seasonal employment during the lean season and feeding the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

They say they want the system to go but officials in the local administration are not interested to take steps in this regard.

According to the of Directorate General of Food, the government has allocated total 6.493mmt rice as special and general allotment for the local government institutions in four years and nine months of the present tenure, up from 4.028m tonnes allotted in the full five-year term of the previous  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The war crimes tribunal will announce its verdict in the case against Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, an influential BNP policymaker, today for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The three-member International Crimes Tribunal 1, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, set the date, yesterday morning.

This will be the first war crimes verdict regarding any BNP leader and seventh since the tribunal was instituted to try war crimes under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973.

The case was kept for CAV (Cu-

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Business

B1 Transparency still lacks in the stock markets as existing trading and financial disclosures by listed companies are insufficient to gauge the market pulse properly, analysts say.

Op-Ed

11 The editor of a leading English daily wrote about minimum wages for the RMG sector in the Daily Star last Friday, stating that the garments industry pays 0.8% tax whereas corporate tax for other sectors is 40%.

RAJIB DHAR

SQ Chowdhury case verdict today Reception for PM, sufferings n for commuters

The Bangladesh Chemist and Druggist Samity has given two days’ ultimatum to the government for the unconditional release of the 20 drug traders, who were arrested on Saturday on charges of selling fake drugs.

Sadekur Rahman, president of BCDS, said yesterday afternoon unless the traders were released, they would shut down all drug stores in the country on Thursday and go on an indefinite strike.

A mobile court on Saturday seized three truckloads of drugs worth over Tk50m from the market near the Mitford Hospital in downtown Dhaka,

INSIDE

The prime minister’s return from New York is marked by severe traffic congestions in the city as thousands of Awami League activists thronged the airport to greet her

ria Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term which means the verdict could be delivered any time) after the proceedings were completed on August 14.

In the case, 41 witnesses testified against Salauddin Quader, a sixtime lawmaker from Chittagong.

On July 24, the tribunal stopped deposition of defence witnesses as the defence repeatedly failed to produce their fifth and last witness.

The accused defended himself as the first defence witness. Earlier, the defence submitted a list of 1,153 witnesses.

Salauddin Quader claimed that he had been in Pakistan from March 29, 1971 to April 20, 1974, and three  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Mueen-Ashraf case ready for verdict n Muktasree Chakma Sathi The war crimes tribunal yesterday assigned the case against fugitive war crimes accused Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan for verdict as proceedings in the case ended.

The case has been kept in CAV, [Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term ] which means verdict in the case would be given any day.

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 gave the order after the pros-

ecution and the defence completed placing their closing arguments around 3pm.

“We are keeping the case in CAV. We are not setting any date for the judgement,” said the tribunal that comprises Justice Obaidul Hasan, Justice Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Shahinur Islam.

The tribunal also asked prosecutor Shahidur Rahman to submit a written argument on “instruction,” jointly with prosecutor Tureen Afroz within one week.

This would be the second case when a verdict will be passed after holding a “trial in absentia.” Earlier, the same tribunal conducted a “trial in absentia”, sentencing former Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar to death.

Mueen and Ashraf, now believed to be in London and New York respectively, were indicted jointly on 11 charges of crimes against humanity that include the abduction and  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Sheikh Hasina dedicates the ‘South-South Award’ to the people of the country Pratim Bhattacharjee n Partha and Abu Hayat Mahmud The journey from the capital’s Gulshan 1 intersection to Mohakhali is less than a 10-minute drive on a free road. After office hours on working days, it generally takes about half an hour.

However, yesterday, it took Kamrun Nahar more than an hour to cover the same distance after office because she had to walk.

She had no other option because of the traffic gridlock that was created in the capital centring the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s return home after attending the UN General Assembly.

Thousands of Awami League supporters gathered on either side of the road from the capital’s Farmgate to the Shahjalal airport in order to greet and congratulate their leader for receiving the “South-South” Award.

Earlier, hundreds of processions converged on the road leading from Farmgate to Uttara almost completely blocking the link roads.

Thousands of vehicles stood still on the roads and streets in the capital’s Kuril, Badda, Banani, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Farmgate and Bijoy Shoroni areas.

The prime minister’s motorcade that reached her official residence, Gana Bhaban around 7pm, left on its tail a three-hour traffic gridlock.

Soon after Hasina reached the Gana Bhaban, the situation got worse as traffic police had to make way for the PM’s motorcade followed by the processions of supporters.

Mir Rezaul Alam, joint commissioner (traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, claimed that the traffic jam was not caused by the PM’s reception.

Commuters said the city’s traffic system virtually fell every day, but the scenario was different yesterday.

It took a long time to cross even a short distance, forcing many to get down from passenger vehicles and walk home, they said.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Security beefed up in Dhaka, Ctg Sarkar and n Kailash Tarek Mahmud Security has been beefed up across the country with the deployment of additional forces from the police, Armed Police Battalion and Rapid Action Battalion ahead of the verdict on detained war crime accused former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury today.

Officials in police and Rab said they had taken the extra security measures to check any kind of untoward incident and ensure public security measures.

Apart from vigilance by plainclothes security personnel, additional uniformed forces have also been deployed at different strategic places and around key installations, including the tribunal.

Acting inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque said apart from the security measures, all the commissioners of metropolitan police have been directed to seek help from the Border Guard Bangladesh if they feel necessary.

However, Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman of Dhaka Metreopolitan

Police (Media) said the DMP authorities had not yet sought BGB deployment.

Shaikh Yusuf Harun, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka District, said they were yet to receive any instructions from the home ministry or any other authorities for BGB deployment.

Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman, director of Rab Legal and Media Wing, said, “The security measures have been intensified to ensure public security and keep the law and order situation normal.”

More than 150 CCTVs have also been set up in and around the tribunal area while restrictions have been imposed at the entrances to the tribunal and the Supreme Court area.

Security has been tightened across Chittagong, which is BNP leader SQ Chowdhury’s hometown and election area.

Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Abdul Mannan told the Dhaka Tribune that BGB personnel would be deployed in five upazilas – Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia, Sitakunda and Fatikchhari – from 6am today. BGB men were on standby in case of emergencies, he added. l

Tax payers get 1 more month to submit returns n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

Senior Awami League leaders and cabinet colleagues greet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Hazrat Shahajalal International Airport on her return from New York yesterday PID

The National Board of Revenue has extended the deadline for submitting income tax return up to October 31 following demands from trade bodies and also for complications in the newly introduced eTIN system.

An official at the NBR said following requests and letters from taxpayers, especially trade bodies, and the tax lawyers’ association, the revenue body had decided to extend the deadline by another month. In its letter, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) also pointed out the upcoming public holidays of Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Fitr for consideration.

The NBR official said many taxpayers had failed to submit their returns because of changes in circle and zonal offices and corrections in TINs. The letter of the taxes bar association said many taxpayers’ income tax jurisdiction had changed because of the expansion and re-structuring of section offices while others were facing complexity in the recently introduced eTIN system and taxpayers needed more time to be familiar with it. l

Reception for PM, sufferings for commuters

Hearing on Rampal plant petition begins

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

n Nazmus Sakib

A private bank employee Rajib Ahmed said, “Normally, I come back from Motijhel to Asad Gate in 40 minutes, but last day it took one hour and a half.”

He added that his bus took about 30 minutes only to cross the Farmgate area as a tedious tailback blocked the Farmgate-Mohakhali road.

“It’s not fair that the ruling party will block up the city’s busy road and cause us sufferings,” said a frustrated Rajib.

Visiting the Mohakhali area yesterday, this correspondent found that the ruling party leaders and activists created another obstacle to traffic movement by parking their vehicles on the road.

A bus named Salsa Bil Enterprise was parked on the road in Mohakhali area.

Bus driver Md Khokon told the Dha-

ka Tribune, “We carried Awami League leaders and activists from Postogola area in the capital, and they asked me to park the bus on the road.”

Earlier, the aircraft carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina landed at the Shahjalal International Airport around 5pm.

She went to the USA on September 22 to join the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations.

During the tour Hasina received the “South-South Award” for her government achievements in alleviating poverty.

The ruling Awami League hosted a reception in honour of the prime minister, and the public gathering causing the tailback in the city was a part of that.

Party leaders, cabinet members, heads of three forces, government high-ups, the deans of the diplomatic

SQ Chowdhury case verdict today  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

other defence witnesses echoed him.

Sensing violence, security measures have been beefed up across the country including Dhaka for the verdict day.

In Chittagong, Border Guard Bangladesh personnel would be deployed in five upazilas – Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia, Sitakunda and Fatikchharhi – from 6am today.

The tribunal 1, formerly headed by Justice Md Nizamul Huq, indicted Salauddin Quader on April 4 last year on 23 charges of crimes against humanity including genocide, murder, rape, arson and robbery he allegedly committed in Raozan and Rangunia of Chittagong.

The charges say he was involved in the killings of more than 200 people, mostly Hindus including Nutan Chandra Singha, founder of popular herbal medicine brand Kundeshwari Oushodhalaya.

The prosecution submitted the formal charges against the BNP Standing Committee member on November 14, 2011. The tribunal took the charges into cognisance on November 17.

The accused was arrested in the early hours of December 16, 2010 and the tribunal on January 17, 2011 ordered him to jail in connection with the war crimes case. He is now in Kashimpur jail.

Son of Convention Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin Quader was an adviser to former prime minister Khaleda Zia during the BNP’s 2001-06 tenure.

Prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum yesterday told newsmen that they could prove 17 out of the 23 charges beyond doubt and hoped that capital punishment would be given to the accused.

On the other hand, the defence earlier claimed that the prosecution had “failed” to prove any of the 23 charges.

They placed witnesses for only 17

charges. They also claimed that the prosecution conducted a “false” case with some “fake witnesses” against Salauddin Quader.

According to the charges, Salauddin Quader during the war had controlled a torture centre called “Goods Hill,” at his parental residence.

He was indicted for attacking the house of Motilal Chowdhury on Ramjay Mahajan Lane in the port city on April 4 or 5, 1971 and for abducting seven unarmed civilians from the house. Six of the abducted people were tortured to death at the Goods Hill in his presence.

The other, Sunil, was hacked with a knife but was later released due to his age.

The BNP leader is also facing charges for raiding the Hindu community area at Madhya Gohira of Raozan on April 13, 1971 where five persons were killed.

The same day, Kundeshwari Oushodhalaya founder Nutan Chandra was killed at his residence. Salauddin Quader allegedly led the Pakistani occupation army to Kundeshwari at Gohira, entered the house and dragged him out of his prayers room. The army personnel shot at him first and then the accused fired at him to make sure that he dies.

According to the charges, Salauddin Quader led the army to Jagatmalla Para at Raozan on April 13, 1971 where 32 Hindu people were killed. Another charge says on April 13, the army and associates of the accused raided Banik Para of Sultanpur at Raozan. Under the leadership of Salauddin and his father, four Hindu people were killed.

The accused also led his men and the army to attack Unosottor Para at Raozan on April 13. At least 69 Hindu people were killed, who had been brought to a gathering on the pretext of a peace meeting, says a charge. On April 20, the army and razakars following the

Drug traders threaten to strike  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

arrested 103 people, filed 74 cases, fined over Tk10.25m and sealed 28 stores.

Sadekur said: “The traders [who were arrested] cannot be held responsible for the fake, adulterated and sub-standard drugs that the mobile court had seized.

They do not have any laboratory. How would they know which drug is fake and which is not? The drug companies are the main culprits.”

He also said those companies would not be allowed to do business in the Mitford market until they paid all the fines that the mobile court imposed on the traders.

After Sadekur made the announcements, the drug traders reopened their stores around 2pm yesterday, which they had kept closed since the mobile court drive.

Earlier, around a thousand drug traders gathered in front of the BCDS building yesterday morning, chanting slogans against the BCDS leaders, especially those of the Dhaka city unit.

They demanded that the committee of the BCDS Dhaka city unit be immediately dissolved and election be held.

They alleged that none of the leaders could be found anywhere around when the mobile court had conducted the drive on Saturday.

corps and the US ambassador to Dhaka were present at the airport to receive the premier.

On behalf of the ruling party, its acting President Syed Sajeda Chowdhury and General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam welcomed Hasina with a bouquet at the VVIP lounge of the airport.

Civil society members, national Prof Dr MR Khan, Vice-Chancellor of National University Dr Harun-or-Rashid, veteran journalist Rahat Khan, cultural personalities Ramendu Majumder and Golam Quddus also congratulated the PM. A little later at the VVIP lounge, Sheikh Hasina told journalists: “This belongs to everyone, every citizen.”

“As people have voted us to power, we have been able to achieve the award. I thank the countrymen,” Hasina said, adding that her government had been working to make Bangladesh a middle-income country by 2021. l

instructions of the accused, killed people who were hiding in paddy fields and in the jungle. Later, 76 people, among those killed, were identified.

Salauddin Quader is also facing charges for abducting the then Awami League leader Sheikh Mozaffar Ahmed and his son Sheikh Alamgir on April 17 and Awami League supporter Md Hanif on May 20. They had never been found following the abductions.

The charges also state that on May 10, Peace Committee leader Oli Ahmed after being directed by Salauddin Quader went to Ghasi Majhirpar. Oli looted houses, shot six people dead and wounded two more. Five women were also raped there.

He is also facing charges of abducting and torturing several other persons.

According to the charges, the accused also participated in the robbery at one Manik Dhar’s house.

During the closing arguments, the prosecution portrayed the accused as a superior responsible at regional-level for war crimes in 1971. The prosecution sought death penalty for Salauddin Quader since the charges include collaborating with the Pakistani occupation army to kill and torture unarmed people, persecuting people on religious and political grounds; and committing atrocities on the Hindus.

The tribunal 1 earlier gave verdict against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee and its former chief Ghulam Azam.

On the other hand, the tribunal 2 delivered verdicts in the cases against former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mujaheed and Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla. l

Sadekur also assured that the BCDS committee would be dissolved and elections would be held within a very short time in order to ensure smooth operation.

The current committee of the BCDS Dhaka city unit has been in place for around 20 years.

Jakir Hossain Rony, a local Jubo League leader and the owner of three medicine markets in the area, was giving lead to the agitated traders.

He said: “The Dhaka city unit [BCDS] has 16 leaders. None of them stood beside the traders during the drive. Some of them are involved with the illegal medicine business.” l

A High Court bench yesterday began the hearing on a fresh writ petition that sought the court’s directives to stop the construction of 1,320MW coal-fired power plant at Rampal, on the bank of the Pashur River near the Sundarbans.

The bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Jafar Ahmed fixed tomorrow for further hearing in response to a plea by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, said Manzill Murshid, lawyer for the petitioners.

He said many environmentalists

had cautioned that the plant would be a fatal one for Sundarbans, which will ultimately prove disastrous for Bangladesh. Their arguments could not be ruled out.

Manzill told the Dhaka Tribune: “I informed the court that after storing coal imported from India at Jaflong of Sylhet, the soil and plants in the region had been harmed severely. The coalbased power plant at Rampal near the Sundarbans might also cause severe damage to the area.”

So the court has to direct the government to form a committee comprising

of national and international experts to assess the impact of the proposed plant on the environment and the lives of the common people of the surrounding area, he added.

The petition was lodged on Sunday by four lawyers including Asaduzzaman Siddiqui and Aklas Uddin Bhuiyan. It sought a stay order on the project until submission of the final report by the experts’ committee.

Earlier, two more petitions were filed against the Rampal project. The High Court yesterday sought copy of orders regarding those petitions. l

Mueen-Ashraf case ready for verdict  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

killing of 18 intellectuals including Shahidullah Kaiser and Selina Parvin between December 11 and December 15, 1971.

Among the 18 intellectuals, nine were Dhaka University teachers, six were journalists and three were physicians, according to the probe report of the prosecution.

The militia force al-Badr, which was formed in 1971 with the activists of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, is responsible for the killings of leading intellectuals. The force executed the plan of the Pakistani occupation army. According to the prosecution’s submission, Mueen was al-Badr’s “operation in-charge,” while Ashraf had played the role of “chief executor” of the force.

While placing arguments for Mueen, state-appointed defence counsel Salma Hye said since the country’s independence, 40 cases had been filed against abduction and killing of the intellectuals.

“No case, except one filed in 1997, mentioned my client’s name.

The 1997’s case was filed for the abduction and killing of Prof Giasuddin. But, my client was acquitted since there was no witness against him.”

She argued that Mueen could not be charged with the same offence, of which he had been acquitted earlier.

Prosecutor Shahidur, however, later argued that the 1997’s case had never proceeded. Referring to the constitution, he also said: “An article states that a person cannot be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.”

He also argued that the charges brought against Mueen were not the same as the earlier one. “Rather, these [charges against the duo] include 11 counts of charges for their involvement in the killing of 18 intellectuals.”

Before the prosecutor’s arguments, defence lawyer Abdus Shukur Khan had claimed that his client was not the same Ashrafuzzaman who had been involved in the killings in 1971.

The tribunal responded: “Have you found the main Ashrafuzzaman that you are referring to?” The counsel remained silent.

The tribunal then mentioned that all witness statements, the investigation officer’s findings and documents from several institutions mentioned that the accused Ashraf was the brother of one Rowshan Ali Khan. The tribunal asked the defence lawyer whether his client had a brother named Rowshan or not.

Counsel Shukur Khan failed to answer it.

The defence counsel also argued that there was no example of trying absconding persons in the history of war crimes trial.

However, the rules of procedure of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 provides for trial in absentia “if the accused fails to appear before the tribunal within the designated time frame.”

On May 11, the tribunal ordered a public announcement in the newspapers, in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Act, asking the duo to appear before it within 10 days of the publication.

Following the order, notices were published in the national dailies on May 12, asking the duo to appear in the court. But they did not comply with the tribunal order. l

Half the money goes down the drain  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

BNP-led government.

The amount included nearly 1m tonnes given to the members of parliament as special allocation. The rest went to chairmen and mayors across the country as general allocations for food-aided social safety net programmes including food for work, test relief (TR), general relief (GR), vulnerable group feeding (VGF) and vulnerable group development (VGD).

Local government professionals said the allotments channeled through union parishads, municipalities and MPs for the development of rural infrastructures and social institutions like maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts, renovation works of schools, colleges and religious worship grounds and direct food aid for the poor people are not being used properly.

They pointed out that though all the liabilities finally go to local UP chairmen and mayors, most of them are not aware about how the allocations made to MPs are used and for what.

The MPs form project committees with local party leaders and get them to implement the projects. The allocated food grains are sold at half the mentioned price and the money is used showing different projects which in most cases exist only in paper, the local government analysts said.

Abu Sayeed, chairman of Churain UP of Dhaka’s Nawabganj and Anwarul Haque Sarker, chairman of West Chhatnai UP of Dimla in Nilphamari told the Dhaka Tribune that chairmen and may-

ors get allocations for physical works, but they are not aware about the allocations given to MPs, who form project committees with unelected people having no accountability to the people.

President of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum Mahbubur Rahman Tulu claimed that around 50% of the allotments for local government are being wasted due to the government’s policy.

He said according to the government policy, chairmen and mayors have to do development works by selling allocated rice or goods. The price of rice was set at Tk32,500 per tonne. But, chairmen or mayor has to show the selling price at Tk15,000 to Tk16,500 per tonne to cover the cost of the system that involves a syndicate of traders and warehouse officials.

“UP chairmen have to manage local MP or leaders and project implementation officers (PIO) before starting physical works. Finally, they have to face criticism or allegation of corruption,” he added.

Officials concerned did not agree to their suggestions for changing the policy and making sale of allocated goods at market price mandatory, he said.

Local government expert Tofayel Ahmed said that the system of special and general allocations for local government itself prompts chairmen or mayors to be involved in corruption.

So, the allocation process should be changed and reformed soon.

“The representatives of local government institutes can use a very small portion of the allocation, but they take

liability of the assets and misappropriation. They need to pay the bureaucrats, warehouse officials, local leaders and finally local project implementation officers for their work,” he added.

AKM Mustafizar Rahman, MP of Kurigram said MPs never interfere in works of local representatives, who work independently with the allocations that they get as they are the implementing authority.

“But they have nothing to do with the specials allocations that the MPs get from the government as they also have some responsibilities to the local people as an elected MP,” the lawmaker told the Dhaka Tribune.

Local Government Secretary Abu Alam Md. Shahid Khan admitted the fact that local government allocations are not being used properly. “It’s known to all that major portions of the allocations are being wasted.”

“Despite knowing about the high price of goods, they are taking it as there is a huge scope of corruption and misuse of assets,” he said, blaming the local government units and defending the government policy.

A total of 4,547 UPs and about 350 municipalities are involved with the development works of at least 15 ministries and divisions including local government division, food ministry, disaster management and relief ministry, social welfare ministry, primary and mass-education ministry and land ministry.

Sometimes, they have to work with the national or international NGOs and aid organisations. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Government to pursue a legal framework on migration in UN n Rabiul Islam Bangladesh would pursue the inclusion of a legal framework on migration at UN high level dialogue on international migration and development, according to expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry officials.

The officials said the high level dialogue would be held on October 3 and 4. A six-member delegation, led by Expat Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, has left Dhaka Sunday night to attend the dialogue.

The delegation included Expat Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan and Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar.

“We would raise voice to include a legal framework on migration at the UN high level dialogue on international migration,” Zafar Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.

He said many labour recipient countries have not ratified the UN Convention 1990 yet and as a result, protection of migrant workers’ rights at the recipient countries was not possible.

According to a top official of the expatriates’ welfare ministry, many countries including America, Russia are not interested to include a legal framework at UN body as they would have to ensure the rights of the migrant workers.

The official seeking anonymity said benefits such as weekly holiday of the migrants would also have to be ensured. l

Wakkas’ remand plea rejected n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday rejected a remand plea and asked the police to interrogate Mufti Mohammad Wakkas, nayeb-e-ameer of Hefazat-e-Islam, at the jail gate in a case filed with the Paltan police station.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzman Noor passed the order after DB police produced him before the court with a plea for 10 days’ remand.

Defence lawyers also filed a petition with the court, seeking bail for Wakkas.

After hearing, the court rejected the remand petition and asked the police to interrogate Wakkas at the jail gate.

On September 9, a Dhaka court granted 15 days’ remand against Wakkas in five cases after detectives produced him before the court, seeking a 50-day remand.

Earlier on September 2, the DB picked up Wakkas, a former state minister during Ershad’s regime, from Chowdhurypara of Malibagh.

Wakkas, also the superintendent of Madaninagar Madrasa in Jessore, was elected MP as an independent candidate from Jessore 5 constituency in 1986. l

Medicine traders stage a demonstration in the city’s Mitford area yesterday, protesting an interdiction on expired medicines by a BSTI mobile court

Mitford: A hub of illegal drug ingredients n Moniruzzaman Uzzal The greedy profiteering motives of some pharmaceutical companies and wholesaler of drug-making materials have put the lives of a huge section of the country’s population at stake.

There are allegations that some renowned pharmaceutical companies have been importing more raw materials than is needed for their production and selling them in the open market, mainly concentrated in Mitford area.

Most of the sellers of this “buffer stock” do not have proper storage facilities. These drug-making substances must be stored in certain temperature and humidity for them to stay usable for longer stretches of time.

Unless stored properly, some of these substances may even transfigure into deadly poisons.

Some smaller pharma units with questionable integrity have been reportedly buying these ingredients and manufacturing drugs – often lifesaving ones.

The less educated people in the country’s rural areas are the end buyers of these dangerous drugs.

Asked why they had been illegally storing and selling the raw materials,

some of the sellers said the question should be directed to those who distribute them in the open market.

On Saturday, a team of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), conducted a raid in the Mitford area. Sensing their presence, most of the sellers of illegal raw materials locked their outlets and fled the scene.

A member of the team said they could have recovered huge amounts of illegally hoarded raw materials had these sellers not fled the scene.

According to the DGDA, more than 250 allopathic pharmaceutical companies in the country import drug-making raw materials worth Tk30bn every year.

Existing regulations bind these companies to mention the exact volume of drugs they will manufacture using the raw materials.

Seeking anonymity, a DGDA official said it was the National Board of Revenue’s duty to make sure through VAT registration that the pharma companies did not import extra raw materials.

He alleged that some companies made their way through with the buffer stock by bribing NRB officials.

He also said the irregularities could be easily dug out if the intelligence agen-

cies inspected the documents that the NBR officials issued to these companies.

The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that some unscrupulous businessmen import drug-making substances from India in the guise of food materials and sell them to the traders in the capital’s Mitford, Babubazar and Chakbazar areas.

Monir Hossain, deputy secretary general of Bangladesh Chemist and Druggist Samity, said it was true that a bulk of the supply of substances for adulterated drugs in the country came from these markets.

He suggested that the production of all kinds of low-quality drugs could be stopped if these markets were shut down.

Professor Dr ABM Faruque from the Pharmacy department of Dhaka University told the Dhaka Tribune that selling drug-making substances in the open market was a serious crime.

DGDA Director Selim Barami told the Dhaka Tribune that selling drug-making substances in the open market was illegal. Mainly the food and perfume manufacturers import these substances illegally.

He said stronger monitoring was needed to check the illegal practice. l

TARIQUE-MAMUN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

WEATHER

Slight fall in temperature likely n UNB Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at most places over Khulna and Barisal divisions and at many places over Rajshahi, Rangpur, Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions in 24 hours till 6pm today.

Moderately heavy to heavy falls are also likely at places over the country, Met Office said. Day and night temperature may rise slightly over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:46pm today and rises at 5:51am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 33.5 degree Celsius at Cox’s Bazar and lowest 22.8 degrees at Sylhet and Dinajpur was recorded yesterday.

Highest and lowest temperature recorded in some major cities and towns today were: City

High

Low

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

29.6 32.0 27.8 29.6 29.7 28.6 28.8 33.5

24.2 26.0 24.7 23.6 24.6 24.6 22.8 25.0

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

Revolting primary teachers warned of legal threats n Tribune Report

4:35am 5:49am 11:49pm 4:07pm 5:47pm 7:02pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Testimony of prosecution witness deferred till Oct 8 n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday fixed October 8 for submission of the High Court order and recording of deposition in connection with the money-laundering case against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and Gias Uddin Al-Mamun.

Dhaka Special Judge 3 Md Motaher Hosain fixed the date yesterday.

The court deferred the date till October 8 for submission of the High Court order.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Deputy Director Syed Tahasinul Haque and Mohammad Ibrahim were present before the court yesterday for giving deposition in the case, but the court did not record their depositions since the High Court order on cross-examination of witness and change of the trial court was yet to be reached.

The defence lawyer filed a petition with the High Court division mentioning that they had no confidence in the trial court, and so they wanted to transfer the case to other court in order to get a fair justice.

INSIDE TODAY Hot Topic FRINGE BENEFITS Written in the Stars

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The High Court on September 26 rejected the petition for case transfer, but allowed to cross-examine prosecution witness Syed Tahasinul Haque.

The court testified a total of 12 prosecution witnesses so far in the case.

According to the case details, ACC filed the case against Tarique and Mamun with Dhaka Cantonment police station on October 26, 2009, accusing the duo of “siphoning off Tk204.1m to Singapore” between 2003 and 2007.

The amount of money was allegedly taken by Mamun as bribe from Khadiza Islam, director of Nirman Construction Ltd, for helping her get the contract of installing an 80MW power plant at Tongi.

On July 6 of 2010, The ACC submitted the charge sheet of the case to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka after investigation.

On 8 August last year, the court indicted Tarique and Mamun under the Money Laundering Act 2002 and issued an arrest warrant against Tarique.

Mamun allegedly deposited the money into the Capital Street Branch of Singapore’s City Bank. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

The Press Information Department issued a press note yesterday threatening legal action against revolting government primary school teachers over what it said “creating obstacles” in academic activities in the name of movement.

The note urged them to continue carrying out their academic duties “in the greater interest” of students, as failure to do so might result in legal action.

The teachers, grouped under the banner of Bangladesh Primary Teachers Association, have been demonstrating for the past several months with the demand to raise the salary of assistant teachers and upgrade the status of head teachers from class III to class II. In this regard, the note said the agitators’ demands were under the “highest consideration” of the government and were being “processed.”

However, despite various initiatives taken in favour of primary teachers during this government’s tenure, some of them were misguided by “vested quarters” and observed work abstentions, it stated.

“Such programmes are totally unacceptable.”

“That said, the government is sincerely considering those two demands.” l

JU teachers now confine register, deputy register n JU Correspondent The section of teachers at Jahangirnagar University (JU) yesterday confined university’s register and deputy register (teaching) at their office protesting the appointment of three new deans at three faculties of the university.

Teachers under the banner of General Teachers’ Forum alleged that the authorities had violated the agreements that were formed at the meeting with Education Ministry’s regarding the movement against the Vice-Chancellor of the university.

Prof Dr Amir Hossain, dean of social science faculty, said: “The VC is not allowed to appoint anyone in any post of the university until the investigation report is published but he has violated that condition by appointing theses three new deans.”

“Prof Anwar Hossain is behaving like an autocrat and behind this he has a sinister motive we believe,” he added.

Source said Vice-Chancellor of JU Prof Anwar Hossain yesterday appointed three deans-Prof Abdul Bayes, Prof Dr Md Rafiqun Nabi and Prof Dr Nasim Akhter Hossain at business faculty, life science faculty and law faculty respectively.

Hearing the information, the agitated teachers confined the register

Abu Bakr Siddique and deputy register (teaching) Md Abu Hossain around 2pm and stopped them from processing the appointment already signed by VC. Teachers alleged that the VC had replaced former law faculty dean Prof Sheikh Md Monzurul Haque by Prof Nasim Akhter Hossain without any reason or any particular allegation against him .

Moreover, Prof Monzurul was yet to complete his term as the dean of the faculty. On the other hand, the appointment Prof Rafiqun Nabi as the dean of life science faculty was against the university’s rule as he never worked as a dean before, they claimed.

General Teachers’ Forum general secretary Prof Kamrul Ahsan told Dhaka Tribune: “We, both the Education Minister Md Nurul Islam Nahid and the protesting teachers, came to an agreement that the VC could not preside over any meeting of the senate, syndicate, financial committee, academic council or disciplinary committee of the university until the investigation was over and that he could not give appointment to anyone at any post in the university.”

“But, the VC had violated that condition which blatantly shows his disregard towards the decisions taken at the meeting with the Education Minister,” Prof Kamrul added. l

4

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Where have all the negotiating tables gone?

Sanyal and n Awrup Nadine Murshid

them because they know that they can get away with it.

conomic growth cannot sensibly be treated as an end in itself.

Development has to be more concerned with enhancing lives we lead and the freedoms we enjoy,” posits Amartya Sen in his book “Development as Freedom” (1999).

Yet, Bangladesh has grown – developed at a decent rate of 6.7% over the last year – without enhancing the lives of workers, without the freedoms that Sen would like workers to enjoy, as exemplified, perhaps, by the recurrent protests by garment factory workers in Dhaka, protests that have a history of turning violent.

How should we view these recurrent labour protests? Why is the “language of negotiation” so violent, so public? Why is there not a process of demands, listening, analysing, negotiating, and implementing that should be a part of any industry, especially one that garners as much respect and clout as that of the readymade garment industry in Bangladesh? Why is there no participatory process that allows all actors to come together and make decisions in a democratic way?

The math

“E

When garment factories burn to ashes, who loses out? Building owners, factory owners, workers. And when these three groups clash, who loses out? The entire nation. This is especially true in Bangladesh where the economy is dependent, to an extent, on the readymade garment industry; where 80% of exports are accounted by RMG; where a large part of the female working population is employed in this industry.

This is precisely why the current revolt by the workers needs to be taken seriously; this is the actual “aam-janata.” That they have to burn factory buildings to have their voices heard is not an indictment on them, the workers, but an indictment on garment factory owners, BGMEA, organisations such as Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS) that are meant to advocate for workers, and perhaps even the government.

When garment factories burn to ashes, who loses out?

Building owners, factory owners, workers. And when these three groups clash, who loses out? The entire nation

The current revolt

The backdrop, according to trade union leader, Shahidul Islam Shobuj, is that the BGMEA has agreed to increase the minimum wage to Tk3,600 ($38) per month, by Tk600 for the first time since 2010 – an increase that does not account for inflation, while the workers demand Tk8,100 ($100) because subsisting on $38 a month is next to impossible, forcing people to live well below the $1.50 poverty line set by the United Nations.

But factory owners are reluctant to raise wages. The question is why. Is it because: i) They will lose the comparative advantage, as some have suggested, given that Bangladesh has the lowest minimum wage in the world which gives Bangladeshi RMG manufacturers an edge in keeping costs and therefore prices down (see Table 1 below)? Or, ii) They can continue to make the same amount of profits that they have been making (because in spite of the large numbers of agitated workers, Bangladesh has an abundance of unskilled labour that is willing and able to take the places of protesting workers). It is just plain math; it makes zero business sense to give in to the demands of paying workers more than double of what they have been paying

Minimum wage rates. Source: Institute for Global and Human Rights

Flag

Because, what they are asking for is not much: a $100 a month for working 60 hours a week, which often goes up to 80 hours a week according to reports from trade union leaders (industry insiders insist that is because workers want overtime, to which one can respond: should the industry allow overtime that increases working hours to 80 a week? Maybe not).

Some disagree with the “not much” notion; they argue that a $100 wage rate is high enough to strip Bangladesh of the comparative advantage that it has in providing cheap garments to foreign buyers (such as Wal Mart, H&M, Gap, Macy’s among others). Others argue that wages should be around $60 a month to still be wage-competitive in the international market. But who is doing the math? And how?

We are no mathematician (or economist), but we know that total costs of making a product, even in economic terms, are not just the monetary costs of production, i.e. the cost of labour (wages), raw materials, land (rent), and capital; there are social costs that need to be taken into account. By definition, social costs are “costs of produc-

RAJIB DHAR

tion that are not borne by the producer or included in the price of the product” (Paul Craig Roberts, 2013).

The social cost of the garment industry, therefore, includes not just the textbook example of “pollution” that is associated with all factories, but the cost in terms of physical and mental health problems incurred by workers as a result of working long hours, the cost borne by the workers’ children who are deprived of their parents, the cost of stress and anxiety that unsafe working conditions create, in addition to the direct cost of unsafe working conditions that has led to factory collapses and fires that led to injury and death of many workers that have, in turn, resulted in loss of income and loss of livelihood for many families.

In such a scenario, it is difficult to exactly measure how much it costs to produce a garment. But this much is clear: the cost is much higher than what we are told, and a large portion of this cost is borne by the workers themselves.

As such, when analysts do the math to figure out the “optimum cost” they more often than not make it a one-factor model, i.e., wages, and don’t factor in the afore-mentioned social costs.

Thus, the basis for measuring optimal cost remains largely economic, and largely inadequate, much like the poverty index.

The counter argument against incorporating social costs into the math can be that there are social benefits of businesses being businesses, as they employ a large number of people which generates income aka purchasing power for those people, which is again injected into the economy and

Country

Hourly Wage

United States

$8.25-14.00

United Kingdom

$7.58-9.11

Venezeula

$2.73

Costa Rica

$2.19

Guatemala

$1.21

Colombia

$1.20

Honduras

$1.02

Philippines

$0.94-1.00

China

$0.93

Peru

$0.92

El Salvador

$0.92

Jordan

$0.74

Malaysia

$0.73

Nicaragua

$0.65

Bahrain

$0.57

Thailand

$0.56

India

$0.55-0.68

Collective bargaining gone violent

Mauritius

$0.55-0.65

Vietnam

$0.52

Egypt

$0.50-0.87

Mexico

$0.50-0.53

Sri Lanka

$0.46

Pakistan

$0.37

Indonesia

$0.35

Cambodia

$0.24

Bangladesh

$0.21

When workers can no longer negotiate with their employers about working conditions, including minimum wage, we perhaps get what we are seeing today: clashes between workers and police who have resorted to using rubber bullets and tear gas to dispel what they call “unruly workers,” factories being torched, garment manufacturers via BGMEA threatening to withhold wages and Eid bonuses. And the question, again, is why. Why aren’t they talking to each other across a table?

The garment industry, being as important as it is for Bangladesh, should have had in place a system of negotiation that works – a system that does not increase the aforementioned social costs in terms of infrastructure (dam-

DT Infographic/Asmaul Hoque Mamun

aged property), police activities that could have been deployed elsewhere, a climate of unrest, street violence, and associated costs of violence on the environment, in addition to the direct costs associated with workers being on the streets instead of the factories in which they work.

Why don’t we see BGMEA – the representative of garment manufacturers, and trade unions – the representative of workers, sitting together across a table to discuss grievances and demands for better working conditions and wages? What is it that happens when workers want change? Are their trade unions not allowed a chair on the negotiating table? Or are workers not being properly represented by their trade unions? How exactly do their demands get translated to violence on the streets? Possible answers: i) BGMEA does not allow trade unions in their premises ii) BGMEA allows trade unions but do not accept their demands iii) BGMEA accepts part of the demands made by trade unions but not to the extent to make workers “happy” iv) Negotiations break down and problems are deemed unsolvable by all parties

What should BGMEA do?

A. Create an environment where all voices are heard, understood, and respected.

B. BGMEA needs to ensure that negotiations take place at the table, not on the streets, not via threats. Relatedly, they need to take into account the cost to the society (and even the losses they face everyday, which amount up

When protestors have to resort to lighting fires on buildings, it is a disgrace for BGMEA and garment manufacturers because it is a sign of failed talks/negotiations

invested in education, health.

But, all of this would have been true had there not been such levels of dissatisfaction and unrest among the people that these businesses employ; had the positive externalities outweighed the negative.

to several crores a day) when workers go on strike and production comes to a standstill.

These increased costs and potential losses should be enough reason for them to ensure that the negotiating table is where negotiations take place.

C. They need to instil the idea of efficiency in business owners, instead of focusing on wages, as a one-way road to lower costs.

D. They need to be more compassionate, need to understand that the cycle of poverty needs to end in the lives of the workers, that that is the root of the problem – that workers are really protesting against poverty; willy-nilly industries have a role in that too.

Had BGMEA ensured an income for their workers above poverty line (living on $1.50 a day, as set by the United Nations), many would have found that to be an acceptable solution. As Kazi Anis Ahmed of Gemcon Group said: “Ideally, one should be able to make a living wage with no more than 60 hours/ week. Whether RMG can take $1.50 for eight hours a day as a starting point,

someone in the industry has to say.”

E. They need to be aware that workers have many needs, one of which is economic. As a global player, the RMG sector has to start incorporating elements of the corporate world that they serve such as health insurance, education benefits, and paid holidays for their workers.

participatory processes if we cannot implement those ideas. There is no way that Bangladesh can sustain its comparative advantage in the RMG sector with workers who are consistently unhappy.

Relatedly, there must be zero tolerance on violence. On all levels.

In all sectors. In all forms. All said and

We must be clear about where the violence is stemming from – from a need to stand up for themselves in reaction to violence inflicted upon them; from deep-seated poverty juxtaposed with deep-seated resentment at not being treated fairly

F. In their effort to be globally competitive, BGMEA and factory owners have kept their wages low, which has resulted in Bangladesh becoming a destination for many clothes manufacturers across the world.

However, events such as the Tazreen factory fire, the Rana Plaza collapse, as well as news of unrest among garment workers send chills across consumers, who respond by not purchasing from stores and brands with the “sweatshop” stigma, which in turn affects decisions of the buyers in choosing their outsourced destination, resulting in businesses being driven away from Bangladesh. BGMEA needs to be cognizant of this stigma and its effects.

G. It is imperative to grade and then classify factories based on their working conditions including the wages they provide, so that there is transparency for both workers and buyers, regarding what they can and cannot expect from a factory with an associated grade.

As such, a factory that earns A will provide a working environment that is conducive to productivity, will operate efficiently, pay minimum wages that are acceptable by workers; others will have to strive to earn that A. This way all the eggs are not in one basket, and the pressure is not global. It is up to BGMEA to create this classification system.

Whatever the case may be

There has to be a meeting of minds.

Many minds. Minds of workers, trade unionist, relevant ministries and governing bodies (BGMEA), managers, buyers. The garment industry in Bangladesh cannot be viewed as “new age slavery,” as it has been since the Rana Plaza collapse that captured worldwide attention. For an industry as important as RMG, there must be a process that leads to healthy outcomes for workers, not just the economy.

There should be no need for a rebellion; workers need to be treated as colleagues, as partners in development, not cash-cows ready to be minted till they burn out. The day we all can view each other as partners, respect the lives and livelihoods of those who work for us, and those we work for, and organically work towards the common good, we can perhaps find harmony.

There is no good in signing on to ILO conventions and talking about

done, workers have the right to protest, but there has to be an acceptable “language of protest” that has to be respected (and this applies to all forms of protests). And those protests cannot be met with violence.

A “sit in,” a token strike, black armbands, and memorandum of demands placed to the public should not culminate in clashes with members of the police force or cadres of political parties. Because when protestors are met with police brutality (or any brutality), that is an injustice not just for those workers who are exercising their democratic rights, it is an injustice for a nation that believes in democracy.

When protestors have to resort to lighting fires on buildings, it is a disgrace for BGMEA and garment manufacturers because it is a sign of failed talks/negotiations, a sign that there is no systematic process in which demands are heard and discussed cordially through proper channels.

When such practices normalise everyday violence, it is at the expense of everyone who are forced to witness and experience the violence, and then use it when necessary when their turn comes, perpetuating a cycle of violence that can only incur irrecoverable losses for the nation.

Needless to say, this cycle must be stopped. Moreover, we must be clear about where the violence is stemming from – from a need to stand up for themselves in reaction to violence inflicted upon them; from deep-seated poverty juxtaposed with deep-seated resentment at not being treated fairly, justly. For someone working up to 80 hours a week, that is the least that she can expect. The least she can expect is to live, even marginally, above the poverty line, with dignity.

And what exactly does it mean to live above that line? To have the freedom to lead an enhanced life not just through “income and wealth,” but “freedoms [that] depend on determinants such as social and economic arrangements (for example, facilities for education and health care) as well as political and civil rights (for example, the liberty to participate in public discussion and scrutiny)” (Sen, 1999).

The time has come to sit at the negotiating table. And talk. l Nadine Murshid, Phd, is a researcher of social problems. Awrup Sanyal is a fiction writer and a communication consultant.

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Wind power mapping starts next month The mapping will be conducted in coastal zones, onshore and inland areas

n Aminur Rahman Rasel The Power Division has decided to conduct mapping of wind resources in eight places of the country next month with a view to assess the possibility of power generation.

The mapping would be conducted in coastal zones, onshore and inland areas: Inani Beach of Cox’s Bazar, Sitakunda and Anwara of Chittagong, Khepupara of Patuakhali, Morelgong of Bagerhat, Chandpur and Rajshahi.

“If there is potentiality, the interested investors can take up projects on the basis of data gathered from the mapping,” Project Director Md Bazlur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune Sunday.

“The project will be implemented with the financial assistance of the USAID. The estimated cost of the project is Tk119m,” said the official, who is also a deputy secretary of the Power Division.

The physical work of the project will begin after a team of the USAID visits Dhaka in mid-October. German-based Centre for International Migration and Development and US-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will conduct the mapping.

The project period was set earlier between November last year and October next year.

Int’l Day of Older Persons today n Tribune Desk The International Day of Older Persons will be observed in the country today as elsewhere across the globe.

The theme of this year’s Day is: “The future we want: what older persons are saying.”

Different social and philanthropic organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages on the occasion.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged has countries and people to commit to removing barriers to older persons’ full participation in society while protecting their rights and dignity. l

Man sentenced to death for killing wife for dowry n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong A Chittagong court yesterday awarded death sentence to a person in charge of murdering his wife for dowry in 2009.

Judge of Women and Children Oppression Repression Tribunal-3, Sharif Mostafa Karim, gave the verdict while the convict Rashedul Islam Chowdhury, 35, was on the run.

As the charges against the accused were proved before the court, it passed the order according to section 11 (A) of Women and Children Oppression Repression Act, said Bhabatosh Nath, special public prosecutor of the tribunal.

The court also fined the convict with Tk100,000. The court directed the district collector to collect the money from him and hand it to his daughter, Nath said.

Rashedul, hailing from Mirsarai upazila in Chittagong, used to torture his wife Tahmina Sultana, for want of dowry after their marriage in 2007. He wanted to go abroad with the money, according to the case document.

Rashedul went to Dubai taking money from Tahmina’s family but he returned in the country within a week and again started torture to Tahmina for further money.

On October 10, 2009 he stragulated Tahmina,to death at one point of altercation.

Rashed fled away after killing her and is absconding till today.

Anwara Begum, mother of the victim, lodged a case with Mirsarai police station on that day while police submitted the charge sheet of the case on January 31, 2010.

On October 5, 2011, the court framed charges against him.

The verdict came upon testifying six prosecution witnesses, said court sources. l

Under the project, wind velocity in the proposed spots will be assessed.

According to a source in the Power Division, Bangladesh’s average wind velocity per second is 4.5 metres and it varies with locations and heights.

The Power development board (PDB) had installed wind mills in Kutubdia and Feni aiming to generate 1MW. But the projects failed as the Kutubdia 1 megawatt (20kw capacity having 50 turbines) was hit hard by cyclone Aila while the other having a capacity of 225kw (having four turbines) had to be shut because of inappropriate wind mapping.

Power Division officials say around 50-200MW of electricity could be generated from wind power in different coastal and inland sites.

Bangladesh now produces about 112MW of electricity from renewable energy resources, said another official.

Siddique Zobair, senior advisor for Sustainable Energy Development Programme of the Power Division, said prospects of wind power are bright in Bangladesh. The mapping studies above 50 metres will give the actual data for this primary energy.

He said the wind speed varies for different locations and heights. Usually, wind blows more in the coastal zones than at the offshore in the Bay. l

Students of Willes Little Flowers form a human yesterday, marking the National Child Daughter Day

289 killed in political violence this year: ASK n Tribune Report

Political violence in the country took 289 lives in the last nine months, compared to 84 in the last year, a statistical report by rights group Ain o Salish Kendra has showed.

Citing information collected by ASK staff and from the news reports in the national dailies, the report said from January to September this year, a total of 13,075 people were injured in at least 533 incidents of violence around the country.

According to the report, an alarming number of 23 Bangladeshis were killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) during the period. Eleven among them were shot and 12 tortured inhumanly to death.

The report was sent to different media houses in the form of a press release yesterday. BSF also injured 68 people

and abducted 132 during the period.

Among the abducted, BGB brought back 39 through negotiation while the remaining could not be traced.

Based on newspaper reports, ASK sketched that 32 people were killed in “crossfire” with law enforcers in the nine months. Among them, Rapid Action Battalion killed 18, police 13 and BGB killed one.

The ASK report cited family members to claim that some 33 people had been picked up by law enforcing agencies during the period and the five of their bodies were found later.

During this nine months, two journalists were killed, 25 received death threats from political goons, government officials, criminals and unnamed persons. Moreover, 248 journalists were tortured in different ways. Apart from those, 99 people were lynched and 54

were killed in custody. Among them, 29 were convicted and 25 detained.

The report said the government had imposed section 144 at least 105 times in different places in the country in the last nine months.

Repression on Women The report said 92 women committed suicide because of repression by family members, employers, local goons, criminals and influential people.

Among them, 13 committed suicide after being raped. Moreover, four men and three women were killed because they tried to resist torture. 219 people, who protested tortures on others, were harassed.

The report showed that 21 women were tortured following arbitration and among them, two women were lashed.

A total of nine domestic helps succumbed to the injuries that they

had suffered in the hands of their masters over the last nine months.

Furthermore, two others were raped and killed and the reasons for the deaths of 23 others could not be known.

Five other domestic helps committed suicide.

Centring dowry, three fell victim to acid terror, 127 were tortured to death and 21 committed suicide. Apart from them, 39 women committed suicide after failing to bear with domestic violence.

A total of 239 women were killed by their family members or relatives during this nine-month period.

According to the report, 702 women were raped in the country and 69 of them were killed.

Twelve women took their lives after being raped and criminals attempted rape on 166 women. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

450 wild bird sized in Gazipur n Our Correspondent, Gazipur Wildlife management and nature conservation division recovered about 450 wild birds of different species from a rental house at Paler Para, Gazipur yesterday.

Md Shohel Rana, inspector of wildlife management and nature conservation division of Dhaka, said they raided the house in the morning and recovered the birds kept in cages. The traders – Palash, Md Kausar and Fazlur Rahman- managed to flee the scene.

Shohel said: “It is illegal to catch, kill, and keep in captivity or importexport these birds.”

A case would be filed under wildlife management act and with the permission of the court the birds will be set free in Bangubandhu Safari Park in Gazipur, he added. l

Strict enforcement of fish laws urged MCCC-Toma JV gets n second package of MoghbazarMouchak flyover Tazlina Zamila Khan

Speakers at a workshop yesterday said the practice of fish adulteration cannot be stopped if fish laws are not enforced and unscrupulous traders and exporters get scot-free.

“Only formulating laws and policies is not going to get results; we need to ensure they are rightly enforced,” said Mike Robson, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN in Dhaka.

‘The sector (fisheries) generated employment for more than 600,000 people in the country, playing an important role in addressing the problem of unemployment’ The workshop was meant to be a brainstorming session about two fish acts passed in recent years, namely Fish and Animal Act-2010 and Fish

Hatchery Act-2010.

It was organised by advocacy organisation Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Bangladesh Agriculture Alliance.

Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas, who was present as the chief guest of the event, said: “A group of corrupt businessmen have been active in marketing and exporting low-quality fish, which is damaging the country’s reputation.”

“The sector (fisheries) generated employment for more than 600,000 people in the country, playing an important role in addressing the problem of unemployment.”

As per the two acts, passed on separate days in 2010, license is mandatory for every fish hatchery and fish producers have to renew their licenses every year. In addition, fishes are subject to laboratory tests before they are marketed.

Among a total of 868 private hatcheries across the country, 488 were brought

under registration and the rest are likely to be registered by this December.

Dr Shelina Afroza, secretary for the fisheries and livestock ministry, said, an increasing growth rate of the sector would help meet the demands for food in the country. “The sector grew at a rate of 6.22% in the last four years.”

The speakers also reflected on the current condition in shrimp production.

Main Uddin Ahmed, president of Shrimp Hatchery Association of Bangladesh, said, “As the price of shrimp is high internationally now, we can further our revenue by increasing our export volume.”

Among others, Dr Mahmudul Karim, executive director of BSFF, Hendrik Jan Keus, “chief of party” of Feed the Future Aquaculture Project of World Fish, Syed Arif Azad, director general of the Department of Fisheries, Tenya L Jackson, agricultural officer of USAID Bangladesh, and Mashiur Rahman, president of Poultry and Feed Industry Coordination Committee, were also present at the programme. l

CCC starts demolishing another risky building n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) authorities started demolishing another risky building in the port city’s Laldighi area yesterday morning.

A mobile court led by CCC Executive Magistrate Najia Shirin, conducted the drive in the area under Kotwali police station around 11am and evacuated residents from the building named JM Sen Avenue”, CCC sources said.

Then workers started demolishing the building in presence of the magistrate.

The CCC magistrate said they gave ultimatum to the building owner on September 10 to demolish the building after vacating it within one week as the

establishment remained in risky state.

Even after the completion of the deadline, the city corporation authority granted two more weeks to demolish the building, but the owner neither evacuated the residents nor demolished its building.

The Chittagong Development Authority made a list of 64 risky buildings in the city in 2009 and submitted the list to CCC for taking necessary steps So the CCC authorities have to take the decision to demolish the building in order to save lives of people, said the magistrate.

Najia Said: “Such drives will be continued until all risky buildings are demolished.” The building was established in 1928 where different types of shops were set up later, said the sources.

The Chittagong Development Authority made a list of 64 risky buildings in the city in 2009 and submitted the list to CCC for taking necessary steps.

But only three of the 64 buildings were demolished by their owners upon directives from the CCC. Earlier on September 12, CCC authority started demolition of a risky buildings named ‘Barua Bhaban’ situated in PK Sen Lane area under Sadarghat police station in the city with the order of Executive Magistrate Nazia Sharmin. l

n Asif Showkat Kallol The government has decided to award the second package of the integrated Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project to MCCC- Toma JV Ltd to construct a total of 3,937 km four-lane road project to ease gridlock at eight intersections of the Dhaka city, official sources said.

The project proposal of the local government division will be placed to the cabinet committee on public purchase, a senior local government official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The official also said MCCC- Toma JV Ltd has been selected from seven companies that participated in the second tender.

Local Government Division Secretary Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan told the Dhaka Tribune, “We don’t know when the second package work on the Moghbazar–Mouchak flyover will start.

There is no master plan for the Dhaka city.”

Design of the second package will be finalised after digging the ground of the project route as there are water, sewerage, electricity and gas lines crisscrossed haphazardly under the ground, he pointed out.

The secretary also said his division has not yet evaluated the existing work of the Moghbazar–Mouchak flyover.

As per the local government ministry proposal, the cost of the second package work will be Tk3.43bn

(Tk343.70 crore) and the Saudi Development Fund (SDF) has already endorsed the selection of the MCCCToma JV Ltd. Under the second package, a wing of the flyover will go from Malibagh Chowdhurypara to Mouchak intersection via to Malibagh rail-crossing and will be extended to Rajarbagh Police Line, while another wing will run up to the Shantinagar crossing.

Seven firms that vied for the second package were Sichuan road and Bridge Corporation Limited, TEC-AML JV, Monem, Gammon-Spectra JV Gammon House, Veer Savarkar Marg, Prabhadevi India, Simplex-Navana JV, SamwhanMir Akhter Joint Venture Erectors House, MBEC-PBL JV, PBL Tower and MCCC-Toma JV Ltd. Earlier the government approved the proposals of the two packages W4 and W6 while W5 package was not approved as construction firms failed to meet technical requirements.

Construction work on the integrated Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project began in August this year, following some readjustments that were made in the design of the 8.25-km structure only to keep the underground utility infrastructures unaffected.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) is the main financier for the project offering more than Tk3.75bn, while the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) pledged Tk2bn and the remaining Tk2bn will come from the public exchequer. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

7

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

One to die, 3 get life in murder case

Withdrawal of false cases against Ershad demanded n Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

A Bagerhat court on Sunday sentenced a man to death and three others to life term of imprisonment for killing a man in 2003.

The court also fined the lifers Tk10,000 each, in default, to suffer one year more in jail.

The condemned convict was identified as victim’s nephew Khalilur Rahman, 45, from Kejurbaria village of Sharankhola upazila.

The lifers are victim Abdul Latif Hawlader’s two sons Shah Alam Hawlader, 35, and M Jirul Hawlader and his another nephew M Selim, 40, brother of Khalilur Rahman.

According to the prosecution, Abdul Latif went missing since he went out of home for Fazr prayers on May 7, 2003.

Later, police recovered his stabbed body from a pond at Khejurbaria village in Sharankhola upazila on the same day.

Latif’s son Kamkrul Islam Yunus filed a murder case against some unknown people.

Later, investigation officer of the case submitted charge sheet accusing the victim’s two sons and two nephews on August 15. l

Lalmonirhat District Jatiya Party demanded withdrawal of all false cases and stopping of all kinds of conspiracies against the party Chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad on Sunday afternoon.

Commerce Minister GM Quader and district Jatiya Party Member Secretary AKM Mahbubul Alam Mithu, led a procession through the main roads in town. Later the minister addressed the gathering as chief guest at the Mission Intersection area in the evening.

JP leaders said the Awami League president was trying to hatch conspiracies against Ershad by threatening action against him over false cases.

They also urged the government to withdraw all the false cases against Ershad immediately, and threatened to launch tougher movements if their demands were not met soon. l

n UNB

Students of Khulna Polytecnic Insttute put up barricade on the Khulna-Jessore Highway yesterday, protesting downgrading of their job status

FOCUS BANGLA

BSF kills 86 along Dinajpur 7n killed in road accidents border in seven years Tribune Report

n Tribune Report

Although Indian Border Security Force promised several times of not killing anyone along the border, it’s never kept its promise and consequently such unprovoked killings on borders have not decreased.

Members of the security force killed 86 Bangladesh nationals along Dinajpur border in the last seven years, raising concern over human rights violation.

This was revealed at a roundtable at Dinajpur Press Club on Sunday.

Relief International with support from Human Rights of Labour and US State Department organized the discussion titled “Human Rights on Ban-

gladesh-India Border”.

Giving the statistics of year-wise killings, the speakers said the BSF troops had killed 21 Bangladeshis in 2007, 12 in 2008, 19 in 2009, 8 in 2010, 11 in 2011, 13 in 2012, and two in last eight months of the ongoing year.

Apart from shooting to death, members of the security forces abducted a numbers of Bangladeshis from the border areas and later tortured them to death, they said.

Press Club President Chitta Ghosh, Nayek Subedar Nazmul Hasan of Dinajpur-2 BGB, and Vice-President of Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce Anwarul Islam, among others, spoke at the roundtable.

The speakers said the BSF troops

NEWS IN BRIEF 4 shops, 3 warehouses gutted Magura At least four shops and three storehouses were gutted in a fire in Alamkhali bazar in Sadar upazila early yesterday. Fire Service sources said the fire originated from an electric short circuit in a jute storehouse in the area around 12:30am and soon engulfed the four adjacent shops and two other storehouses. On information, fire fighters from Magura Fire Service rushed to the spot and doused the flames after three hours of frantic efforts. – UNB

1076 bottles Phensidyl seized in Munshiganj Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members recovered 1076 bottles of Indian contraband Phensidyl from Mawa ferry terminal in Munshiganj on Sunday night.

The elite force also seized a private car carrying the contraband item from the spot. Contacted ASP Obaidul Islam Khan,

camp Commander of Bhaiggyakul Camp of Rab-11 told UNB that acting on secret information the elite force conducted a raid at the ferry terminal around 7pm.

They found 1076 bottles of Phensidyl searching a private car. – UNB

Indian goods worth Tk 2 lakh seized in Chuadanga Members of Border Guard Bangladesh in separate drives seized Indian goods worth Tk200,000 from Darshana and Kusumpur borders in Damurhuda upazila on Sunday. BGB sources said being tipped-off, a BGB team of Darshana camp conducted a drive at Ishwarchandrapur in the early hours and recovered 35 bottles Indian Phensidyl and parts of television worth Tk89,000. Besides, another team of BGB members from Kusumpur camp recovered 10 bottles of Phensidyl syrup and TV parts worth Tk94,000 from a field near Shyampur border. – UNB

killed the Bangladeshi nationals by firing gunshots while they were working in their own fields adjacent to the border.

Usually, after a killing and abduction incident, a flag meeting held between BSF and Border Gourd Bangladesh authorities that ultimately cannot bring any positive results, the speakers observed.

The speakers also stressed the need for setting up mills and industries to ensure employment for the people living near the border as they engage in smuggling through the borders for want of regular source of income.

According to available information, BSF have killed nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis, including children, along the borders in the last 10 years. l

Road accidents killed seven persons while 70 others were injured across the country.

Among the deceased four died in Bogra, two in Mymensingh and another one was killed in Jhalakathi.

Bogra police said a Dhaka-bound bus of “SR Paribahan” collided head-on with a truck coming from the opposite direction on the Dhaka-Bogra highway at Dhonkundi in Sherpur upazila yesterday around 8:30am, leaving four dead and 15 people injured.

The deceased were the truck driver, his assistant, and two other passengers of the truck. Police seized the two vehicles.

Mymensingh police said the accident took place when a staff bus, that was carrying workers of Satchand Mills

in Masterbari of Bhaluka towards their destination, turned turtle at Mollickbari as the driver of the vehicle lost control over the steering on Sunday around 10pm.

Two of the workers died on the spot while 20 people were injured.

UNB reports, a college boy was killed and 35 others were injured in a road accident on Rajapur-Bekutia road at Saturia village under Rajapur upazila in Jhalakati on Sunday.

The deceased Babu, 18, who was a student of Kaukhali Degree College.

Witnesses said the accident occurred when a recklessly driven bus crashed into a roadside tree around 2:30pm, leaving Babu dead on the spot.

Among the injured, 12 people were admitted to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in critical conditions. l

Generating community leadership for social development underscored n

BSS

Generation of more responsive citizens alongside community leaderships had become an urgent need for substantial and sustainable social development, speakers at a discussion said.

The observations came at a post-training learning sharing session and coordination meeting of some of the trained community and youth leaders.

Manob Kolyan Parishad (MKP) under its “Leadership Development Program” organised the meeting at Paba Upazila Parishad Conference Hall in Rajshahi yesterday in association with Counterpart International and the USAID. The speakers viewed many of the citizens could not participate in the

mainstreaming decision making processes because of their lacking towards civic rights and duties.

To mitigate the odd situation, time had come to build the capacity of community leaders and youths to become change agents for democratic processes and development, they added.

UNO Razzaqul Islam addressed the session as the chief guest with MKP Project Coordinator Safiul Awal in the chair.

In his project-briefing speech, Safiul Awal said the programme intended to increase capacity and participation of citizens effectively and actively in democratic processes and enhanced community development.

To attain the cherished goal, 300 youths and 300 local leaders in five

Robbery at police super house Correspondent, n Our Noakhali

People form a human chain in Mymensigh town yesterday with a call to ignor propaganda against women

FOCUS BANGLA

A gang of robbers looted valuables, including gold and cash, worth about Tk1.3m from the house of police super at Karimpur village under Begumganj upazila in Noakhali in the early hours of yesterday.

Family members said a gang of robbers numbering 15 to 20 stormed into the house of the police official after breaking down collapsible gate and looted 30 tolas of gold ornament, four mobile phone sets and Tk7,000 in cash keeping house residence hostage at gun point. Later, the robbers left the scene safely with the booties.

Meanwhile, another robbery took place at a house at Moshpur village under the same upazila.

The dacoits took away six tolas of gold ornament and Tk250,000 from the house. l

unions of the upazila have been prepared as advocates for poverty alleviation, job creation, environmental protection and more within their communities.

The programme has trained them in participatory appraisal, mobilised them for community development initiatives and established a leadership mentor network and organised different events to attain its goal.

UNO Razzaqul Islam said the collective efforts of community and youth leaders could work as a pressure group towards mitigating all the existing social problems especially poverty and corruption. He also urged them to discharge their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty to take forward the society as a whole. l

Burglary at Hindu temple in Chittagong n Tribune Report A gang of thieves took away valuables worth about Tk100,000 from a 65-yearold Hindu temple named Bhavanibhaban Matrimandir located at Dakkhin Sarwatoli village under Boalkhali upazila in Chittagong in the early hours of yesterday.

Dr Tapan Kanti Das, general secretary of the temple, told the Dhaka Tribune that the burglars stole the ear rings of Durga goddess, some ancient metal utensils used for offering worship, temple’s microphone, high voltage battery, charger and cash breaking into the donation box of the temple sometimes at the night.

In the morning, devotees of the temple went there for offering worship and found that the temple in ransacked-state.

On receiving information, public representatives, government officials and law enforcing agencies visited the temple.

Jahirul Islam Sabuj, officer-in-charge (OC) of Boalkhali police station, said police were investigating the matter and trying to nab the thieves, added the OC. l

Four get life-term for rape n Our Correspondent, Netrakona Four people, convicted for raping a girl, were sentenced to life in prison yesterday and fined Tk100,000 each, and failure to pay the fine would result in them getting three more years in prison.

Netrakona Additional District and Session Judge Mohammad Abdul Hamid pronounced the verdict after examining the witnesses and evidence in the case.

The convicted were Raiot Ali, Mohammad Sultan Mia, Johur Ali, and Azizul of village Goalakanda under Durgapur upazila of the district.

According to the case details, on October 13, 2001, the convicts had entered the house of the victim, who resided in the same village, by breaking open the door and raped her.

The victim’s father later filed a case with the Durgapur police station accusing the four convicted in this connection. l

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

Baghdad car bombs kill at least 42

Australia dismisses ‘offensive’ sinking survivor claims

n Agencies Nine car bombs, mainly targeting Shiite-majority areas of Baghdad province, killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 100 on Monday, Reuters reports.

The blasts are the latest in a string of sectarian attacks in central Iraq that have raised the spectre of a return to the all-out Sunni-Shiite conflict that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

The bombs hit eight different areas, six of them Shiite-majority, one confessionally mixed, and another Sunni-majority.

The deadliest was in Shuala, a mainly Shiite area of north Baghdad, where a car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded at least 19, says AFP. In Baghdad Jadida, a bomb exploded in a car park, burning vehicles, destroying a fence and shattering windows of nearby shops and a women’s clinic.

Security forces deployed to the area closed off streets and used dogs to search for more bombs.

Central Iraq has seen a series of sectarian attacks in recent days.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked mourners at a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad, collapsing the roof and killing 47 people.

On Friday, bombs exploded near two Sunni mosques in Baghdad as worshippers left after prayers, killing six people.

Another bombing targeted Sunni mourners in Baghdad on September 23, killing 15 people, while an attack on a Sunni funeral killed 12 the day before.

Bombings targeting Shiite mourners

Mumbai’s governing body probes collapse, suspends staff

n AFP, Mumbai

Mumbai’s municipal government said it has suspended seven engineers and is investigating another 11 members of staff after the collapse of a five-storey residential building last week, which left 60 people dead.

The collapse happened at daybreak on Friday while more than 90 people were inside the building owned by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), which has said it asked residents earlier this year to move out.

It was unclear why residents had not moved, or why they had been asked to do so, but local media said the building in Mumbai’s east had been listed as needing “urgent repairs.”

“The corporation has ordered an official inquiry against 18 officers and workers after the multi-story building collapsed on Friday,” the MCGM said in a statement on Sunday night.

Out of these 18, seven engineers have already been suspended, it added, without giving details.

A two-member committee has also been named to determine the cause of the accident and set up a team of technical experts, who would submit a report on the incident within a month. l

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

n AFP, Sydney

Security forces and citizens inspect the site of a car bomb attack in front of the main security forces headquarters in Irbil killed 73 people in Baghdad on September 21, and two blasts in a Sunni mosque north of the capital killed 18 a day before that.

The UN refugee agency has said it is “increasingly concerned about the situation in Iraq, where recent waves of sectarian violence threaten to spark new internal displacement of Iraqis fleeing bombings and other attacks.”

It said that about 5,000 Iraqis had already been displaced in 2013, joining more than 1.13 million who fled or were forced out of their homes in past years.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country

was just emerging from its brutal sectarian conflict.

Diplomats and analysts say the Shiite-led government’s failure to address the grievances of the Sunni Arab minority, who complain of political exclusion and abuses by security forces, has driven the spike in violence.

The government has made some concessions aimed at placating anti-government protesters and Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-al-Qaeda fighters, but underlying issues have yet to be addressed.

The civil war in neighbouring Syria

AP

has also fuelled sectarian tensions in Iraq.

The latest bloodshed brings the September death toll to more than 840, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources. Upwards of 4,600 people have been killed so far this year.

In addition to major security problems, the government has failed to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread.

Political squabbling has paralysed the government, while parliament has passed almost no major legislation in years. l

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Monday dismissed “offensive” questions over Australia’s response to a refugee boat tragedy off Indonesia as he declared the country “shut” to asylum-seekers arriving by sea.

Morrison said, a sinking in the rough seas of Java, which claimed at least 36 lives on Friday, was a “chilling reminder of what can occur when you put your life in the hands of criminals” as he defended the new government’s response to the disaster.

Some 28 people escaped alive but between 80 and 120 Middle Eastern asylum-seekers were estimated to have been on board, meaning dozens remain unaccounted for.

Fronting the media for the first time since the incident, Morrison said it had “occurred in Indonesia’s search-andrescue region, close – very close – to the Indonesian coast.”

He emphatically rejected suggestions from survivors that repeated calls had been made to Australian authorities and that help was promised but never materialised.

“Australians working in our border protection and maritime agencies routinely put themselves at risk in responding to search and rescue incidents,” Morrison told reporters.

“They respond with a professionalism, a selflessness and a sense of urgency that all Australians should be

Muslims hide in Myanmar after sectarian strife flares n Reuters, Yangon Terrified Muslims hid in their homes in northwest Myanmar on Monday after armed police dispersed a Buddhist mob that torched houses and surrounded a mosque in the latest outbreak of sectarian tension.

Clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslims have killed at least 237 people and left more than 150,000 homeless since June 2012.

The violence threatens to undermine political and economic reforms launched in the two years since a quasi-civilian government replaced a military junta.

The situation in the town of Thandwe was precarious after police restored order by firing shots in the air to break up the mob late on Sunday, said two security sources, who sought anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

“We’re now scared and hiding inside our homes, like the previous times,” Kyaw Zan Hla, chairman of the Kaman Muslim Party, told Reuters by telephone, adding that about 200 people had joined the mob, some wearing

masks and carrying flaming torches.

He said he had himself become embroiled in a row after he objected to a Buddhist man parking a motorcycle in front of his home late on Saturday and rumours spread that he had insulted Buddhism.

Police reported no deaths or injuries from the incident in Thandwe, home to an airport used by tourists who visit resorts on the popular Ngapali beach nearby.

In April, the government said 192 people were killed in June and October 2012 clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, most of whom Myanmar regards as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite roots going back generations.

The United Nations has described the Rohingya as “virtually friendless.”

Clashes between Rohingya and Rakhines in June 2012 led to unrest elsewhere in the country, where other groups of Muslims have been targeted, including Kamans, who are of different ethnicity from Rohingyas. An estimated 5% of Myanmar’s population of about 60 million is Muslim. l

proud of and of which I am proud. Any suggestion otherwise is as offensive as it is wrong.”

Air Marshal Mark Binskin, part of the government’s military-led Operation Sovereign Borders aimed at halting asylum-seeker boats, said police were first contacted by Melbourne-based friends awaiting the vessel’s arrival shortly before 8am on Friday. “(They) reported that they had friends on a vessel that had departed Jakarta four days ago with 80 people on board,” he told reporters.

“The caller reported the vessel had broken down, had no food or water, was sinking and that there were a number of unconscious people on board.”

Within an hour a passenger on the boat had been reached by telephone and Indonesia’s Basarnas rescue agency was called in at 9.44am, though Binskin said they refused to take on coordination of the search.

An emergency broadcast was made to merchant ships in the area and an aircraft was sent to look for the boat without success, he added, describing Australia’s response as “professional and timely.”

Binskin said there had been a “large level of confusion (and) disorientation” from those on board.

Morrison remained tight-lipped on whether Australia had turned back any vessels to Indonesia as promised during the recent election campaign, citing “operational” security. l

Gunmen kill 3 Egyptian policemen, militants post video

n Reuters, Cairo

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Ankara

AP

Turkey unveils reforms, some aimed at Kurds n AP, Ankara, Turkey Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a package of proposals that include lifting of some restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language, as well as further steps to liberalise the wearing of Islamic headscarves.

The planned reforms announced Monday were anticipated as key to the Kurdish peace process and for Erdo-

PROTESTS AGAINST BASHIR

gan’s political prospects as he faces local, general and presidential elections in the next two years.

The unveiling of the package has been delayed a number of times. Kurdish rebels said this month that they were suspending their pullout from Turkey into bases in northern Iraq, which was part of the peace efforts, saying Erdogan’s government had not made good on promises to enact reforms to improve Kurdish rights. l

WORLD WATCH Abandoned gold bars baffle German police

Attention all passengers: could the person who left a stash of gold bars and a pile of banknotes in the luggage deposit at Cologne’s main railway station kindly contact German police? That was the appeal that police in the western German city issued Friday for information to track down the owner of the several kilos (pounds) of gold and a six-figure sum of euros in cash.

The stash was found in April in a luggage locker at the station, a major European transport hub. Police said they’re going public after being unable to link the haul to any crime and hearing nothing from any legitimate owner. Whoever the owner is shouldn’t leave it too much longer.

Police say that if nobody comes forward, the stash will be sold.

Escaped Inmate dials 911 during runaway

A Sudanese woman chants slogans against longtime President Omar al-Bashir during a protest in front of the Sudanese embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday. Sudanese security forces in pickup trucks opened fire Saturday, Sept. 28 on hundreds of mourners marching after the funeral of a protester killed a day earlier AP

Gunmen killed three policemen in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula on Monday, security sources said, and an Islamist militant group released a video of a deadly drive-by shooting of a man they identified as an army colonel.

The Sinai has become a major security headache for the Egyptian authorities since the army overthrew elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July.

Almost daily attacks by al-Qaeda-inspired militants have killed more than 100 members of the security forces since Morsi’s ouster, said the army spokesman on September 15.

Instability in the Sinai worries Western governments because the region borders Israel and flanks the strategic Suez Canal, the quickest sea route between Asia and Europe.

The Sinai is also difficult to police because it borders the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Egyptian army says Gaza-based militants take part in attacks over the border and accuses Hamas of doing too little to secure the area, allegations it denies.

In the latest attacks, gunmen opened fire on a police station in the city of El-Arish in North Sinai. l

Prisoner Joshua Silverman passed up a taste of freedom this week and called the police instead. Silverman could have fled with two other inmates who stole the unattended transport van he was riding in, but he dialed 911 and alerted authorities about the escape. Guards left eight prisoners, including Silverman, in a van unsupervised while delivering some ill inmates to a hospital. Inmates Lester Burns and Michael Coleman kicked out a partition in the van and drove the van for about a mile before ditching it and fleeing

on foot, according to police. Silverman, one of six inmates left behind, was reluctant to escape. Struggling to describe his whereabouts and unable to give an exact location, the prisoner volunteered to walk to a nearby road to flag down an officer. Silverman remained on the phone until a patrolman arrived on the scene.

Silverman was in custody on drug-related charges. Police said Silverman’s call helped police narrow their search for Burns and Coleman, who were taken back into custody later that day.

Nearly 9 in 10 kids in China know cigarette logos: study

Nearly nine in 10 children in China can identify a cigarette logo, according to a US study out Monday that measured tobacco recognition among five- and six-year-olds in various countries. The study in the journal Paediatrics covered six nations – China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, as well as China – where adult smoking rates are the highest, according to the World Health Organization.

More than two thirds of the children studied (68% of the 2,423 participants) could identify at least one cigarette brand logo.

More than a quarter could identify two to three cigarette brands, and 18% knew four or more. The findings raise concerns about whether low and middle income countries are complying with international bans on tobacco advertising to young children, the study authors said.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

9

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Typhoon leaves 74 missing in China as Thailand and Vietnam brace for flood n Reuters, Beijing Seventy-four Chinese fishermen were missing on Monday after a typhoon sunk three fishing boats in the South China Sea as Thailand and Vietnam brace themselves for torrential rain and flooding.

The ships were hit by the Typhoon Wutip on Sunday as they navigated gales near the Paracel Islands, about 330km from China’s island province of Hainan, Chinese news agency Xinhua said, citing the Hainan maritime search and rescue centre.

Rescuers had rescued 14 survivors, the sources said. The boats were sailing from

the southern province of Guangdong.

Rains from the storm are expected to reach Vietnam on Monday before hitting Thailand on Tuesday.

Thai officials warned that more heavy rains could inundate already flood-hit areas of the northeast. At least 22 people have been killed in this year’s flooding.

“We’re expecting more flood,” Teerat Ratanasevi, a government spokesman, told reporters on Monday. “Soldiers have been asked to help evacuate people trapped in flood zones.”

Authorities in central Vietnam have moved children and elderly people to schools and other more sol-

id buildings ahead of the storm.

In the central province of Quang Tri, an estimated 82,000 people would need to be evacuated if Wutip made a direct hit, a government statement said.

Vietnam said heavy rain had been falling in several central provinces while flooding and landslides could strike the region later this week.

Typhoons gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall. They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a typhoon season that lasts from early summer to late autumn. l

Netanyahu warns White House about Iran n AP, Jerusalem Mortified that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don’t be fooled by Tehran’s new leadership.

Netanyahu contends that Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb.

He will deliver strong words of caution — and fresh intelligence — in an attempt to persuade the US to maintain tough economic sanctions and not allow the Islamic republic to

develop a bomb or even move closer to becoming a nuclear threshold state.

With the White House cautiously optimistic about its dialogue with Iran, Monday’s meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama could be tense.

“I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles,” Netanyahu said before boarding his flight to the US on Sunday.

“Telling the truth today is vital for the security and peace of the world and, of course, it is vital for the security of the state of Israel.”

Israeli leaders watched with great dismay what they derisively call the

US Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR) (C) holds a football as Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) (L) arrives with fellow Congressional Republicans for a House rally at the US REUTERS

Capitol Hill quiet as federal government shutdown closes in n Reuters, Washington

“smiley campaign” by Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, last week. Rouhani delivered a conciliatory speech at the United Nations in which he repeated Iran’s official position that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon and declared his readiness for new negotiations with the West.

Capping off the visit, Rouhani and Obama held a 15-minute phone call as the Iranian leader was traveling to the airport. By the end of the call, the first conversation between the nation’s leaders in 34 years, Obama was suggesting that a breakthrough on the nuclear issue could portend even deeper ties between the US and Iran. l

As the US government teeters on the brink of a partial shutdown, congressional Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the failure to reach agreement on a temporary funding bill to keep federal agencies open.

Congress was closed for the day Sunday after a post-midnight vote in the Republican-run House of Representatives to delay by a year key parts of President Barack Obama’s health care law and repeal a tax on medical devices, in exchange for avoiding a shutdown.

The Senate is slated to convene Monday afternoon just hours before the shutdown deadline at midnight, and Majority Leader Harry Reid has

already promised that Democrats will kill the House’s latest proposal.

In the event lawmakers blow the Monday deadline, about 800,000 federal workers would be forced off the job without pay. Some critical services such as patrolling the borders, inspecting meat and controlling air traffic would continue. Social Security benefits would be sent and the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and poor would continue to pay doctors and hospitals.

The latest fiscal fight underscored the deep divide between the Republicans and the Obama administration and its Democratic allies. Republicans insisted the health care law was costing jobs and driving up health care costs.

Obama has said he will not let the law,

his chief domestic achievement, be gutted. Democrats say Republicans are obsessed with attacking the overhaul, which is aimed at providing health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans, and the president.

Since the last government shutdown 17 years ago, temporary funding bills known as continuing resolutions have been noncontroversial, with neither party willing to chance a shutdown to achieve legislative goals it couldn’t otherwise win. However, with exchanges set to open on Tuesday where people could shop for health care coverage from private insurers, lawmakers from the Republicans’ ultraconservative tea-party wing are willing to take the risk in their drive to kill the health care law, known as Obamacare. l

Kerry sees potential for No survivors expected in quick Iran nuclear deal fiery California jet crash

Briton, jailed in missiles-to-Iran case, back in the UK n AP, London n Reuters, Washington A British businessman jailed in the US for trying to sell missile parts to Iran has been returned to serve his sentence in a UK prison.

Lawyer Karen Todner told the BBC on Monday that Christopher Tappin is now in a British prison.

Tappin pleaded guilty in a US court in November to trying to buy missile parts from undercover US agents for possible sale to Iran. He had initially denied the charges.

He received a sentence of nearly three years with the understanding that part of it could be served in Britain with the approval of British and US authorities so that he could be nearer to his ailing wife. l

Death toll from Pakistan market attack rises to 42 n Reuters, Peshawar The death toll from a car bomb explosion in an ancient market in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar rose to at least 42 on Monday, after the third attack in the area in a week.

The blast ripped through the busy centuries-old market known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers’ bazaar, in Peshawar’s old city on Sunday, exactly a week after more than 80 Christians were killed in a twin suicide bomb attack on a nearby church.l

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a deal on Iran’s nuclear program could be reached relatively quickly, and it would have the potential to dramatically improve the relationship between the two countries.

Kerry said intensifying diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program could produce an agreement within the three- to sixmonth time frame that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for.

“It’s possible to have a deal sooner than that depending on how forthcoming and clear Iran is prepared to be,” Kerry said in an interview aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

“If it is a peaceful program, and we can all see that – the whole world sees that – the relationship with Iran can change dramatically for the better and it can change fast,” he said.

Kerry said Iran could prove its sincerity by immediately opening its nuclear facilities to inspections and keeping its uranium enrichment efforts at lower grades that were not suitable for military use.

Iran has defended its right to enrich uranium as part of a civilian nuclear energy and medicine program and denied that it aims to develop atomic weapons, but the United States and its allies have sought an end to higher-grade uranium enrichment that could be a step away from the production of weapons-grade material.

“Iran needs to take rapid steps, clear and convincing steps, to live up to the international community’s require-

ments regarding nuclear programs, peaceful nuclear programs,” Kerry said.

“Words are not going to replace actions,” he said. “What we need are actions that prove that we and our allies, our friends in the region, can never be threatened by this program.”

In a separate interview, Iran’s foreign minister said the country’s right to peaceful nuclear enrichment was not negotiable but it did not need to enrich uranium to military-grade levels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was willing to open its nuclear facilities to international inspections as part of a nuclear deal as long as the United States ended painful economic sanctions.

“Negotiations are on the table to discuss various aspects of Iran’s enrichment program. Our right to enrich is non-negotiable,” Zarif told ABC’s “This Week” program.

“We do not need military-grade uranium. That’s a certainty and we will not move in that direction,” Zarif said.

“Having an Iran that does not have nuclear weapons, is not just your goal, it’s first and foremost our goal.”

Zarif said Iran was willing to have its facilities visited by international inspectors to prove it was not seeking a nuclear bomb.

“If the United States is ready to recognize Iran’s rights, to respect Iran’s rights and move from that perspective, then we have a real chance,” Zarif said.

“We are willing to engage in negotiations. The United States also needs to do things very rapidly. One is to dismantle its illegal sanctions against Iran,” he said.l

n AP, Los Angeles Rescuers and investigators were working amid the smouldering wreckage of a private jet and the hangar it hit after landing at a Southern California airport, but they did not expect to find any survivors from the flight from Idaho with an unknown number aboard, officials said.

“This was an unsurvivable crash,” Santa Monica Fire Department Capt John Nevandro said Sunday night at a media briefing hours later at Santa

Monica Municipal Airport.

Because the hangar collapsed in flames around it and a crane would be required before the plane could be reached, investigators had been unable to determine how many people

They did not expect to find any survivors from the flight from Idaho with an unknown number aboard

were aboard the twin-engine Cessna Citation designed to hold eight passengers and two crew members, officials said.

It had taken off from Hailey, Idaho and landed in Santa Monica when it went off the right side of the runway at about 6:20pm on Sunday and struck the hangar, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The blaze did minor damage to two other buildings and destroyed the hangar.l

Firefighters work near a collapsed hangar at the site of a plane crash in Santa Monica, California

AP

Vatican to saint Paul II and Joha XXIII on April 27, 2014 n AFP, Vatican City The Vatican on Monday said late popes John Paul II and John XXIII would be made saints at an unprecedented joint ceremony on April 27, 2014 in a bid to unite Catholic conservatives and liberals.

Pope Francis made the historic announcement at a meeting of cardinals known as a consistory.

The canonisation of the two popes is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome.

The popular Polish pope John Paul and his Italian predecessor known as “Good Pope John,” are two of modern-day Catholicism’s most influential figures.

The double sainthood is seen by Vatican watchers as an attempt to breach a traditional left-right divide in the Church.

“John XXIII is generally a hero to the

Clergymen follow Pope Francis’ Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican church’s progressive wing while John Paul II is typically lionized by Catholic conservatives,” said John Allen, from the National Catholic Reporter, a US weekly.

AP

Allen said the decision could be interpreted as “a statement that any attempt to set them at odds is artificial, and that what they had in common is

more fundamental than any perceived differences.”

Sainthood normally requires two “confirmed” miracles, though Francis has approved the canonisation of John XXIII (1958-1963) – with whom he shares a common touch and reformist views – based on just one.

John Paul II, who served as pontiff from 1978 to 2005, was credited with his first miracle just six months after his death, when a French nun said she had been cured, through prayer, of Parkinson’s – a disease he had also suffered from.

His second miracle was reportedly carried out on a woman in Costa Rica, who said she was healed from a serious brain condition by praying for John Paul’s intercession on the same day he was beatified in 2011.

The Polish pope was popular

throughout his 27-year papacy and helped topple Communism – although he alienated many with his conservative views and was blamed for hushing up paedophile priest scandals.

At his funeral in 2005, crowds of mourners cried “Santo Subito!” – “Sainthood Now!” – prompting the Vatican to speed up the path to sainthood, which normally begins five years after death.

John XXIII made his name by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which overhauled the Church’s rituals and doctrines and reached out to other faiths.

Many compare the Italian pope, who died in 1963, with the current head of the Roman Catholic Church for their similar pastoral attitudes, humble, open manner and sense of humour.

The reportedly miraculous healing of

an Italian nun who had severe internal haemorrhages was attributed to John XXIII when he was beatified in 2000.

Francis is believed to have waived the need for a second miracle because his canonisation had been called for by the participants of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, who wanted to pay homage to the man who ushered the Church into modern times.

Francis also promises to be a reformist pope, planning an overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy and finances and promising a “poor Church for the poor.”

On Tuesday, he will begin three days of talks with an advisory board of eight cardinals he has appointed to help him clean up the troubled Roman Curia – the intrigue-filled administration – and improve communication between the Vatican and local churches. l

10 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

Friends of Liberation War award for Pakistani politicians is a welcome move

Fair and lovely?

September 26 To me, it’s really unfortunate to see we still judge a girl by her skin colour, and why wouldn’t we? Fair and lovely, in 1, 2, 3 days, and wow the girl is totally free of dark spots! And they’ve got everyone praising her in the office! And wait, wait, there is another thing. Anti-age miracle creams. Companies are promoting this. Why? So girls won’t get older? Or is it a crime to get older?

In my view, the blame goes to those companies who present products that are not good for society. They focus on the wrong messages in their ads. But, the message that says, stay beautiful, is very good. To that, I want to add, believe in yourself and be happy with the beauty given by Allah.

Shamim Hasan

B

Wages in the RMG industry September 26

Recently this minimum wage issue has been addressed in the papers, on television, etc. These workers had to go to the streets just to demand their rightful wages. Owners always say it’s not logical to raise wages, that it will hamper profits, and so on.

But the funny thing is, owners keep buying new model cars, new houses, so no problem there.

Then, what’s the problem giving the workers a minimum wage? And where are our social workers now? Where are our NGOs? The real truth is when it comes to the rights of the poor, we tend to be

observers, and say: “No comment please.”

Shams

“While our workers in the RMG industry do deserve a respectable wage, preliminary studies suggest that the present condition of the industries may not be supportive of a minimum wage hike to more than Tk5,200 or $65 per month.” Mr Rashid is trying to sound compassionate and “respectable,” while justifying starvation wages. Workers in the RMG sector deserve more than crocodile tears.

John Smith

Road in distress September 23

The same goes for the roads of Mirpur 10. It’s been like this for more than a year now, and we are all suffering for this long. Please come have a look if you guys can.

Adnan Ferdous Haque Oh the suffering!!!

Promises, old and new September 25

Brilliant article! The points made and the way in which they are made is simply fantastic. The truth is very scary.

Ali Ahmed It is better to not expect anything from our parties, because it will just not happen. They promise so many things for the country, but once in power, those promises go out of the window. This is a habit they have mastered very well. So, only a miracle can change our pre and post-election situations.

SH

No case for Rampal

Pay heed to TIB recommendations

September 26

Our Royal Bengal Tigers are not for trade, not are our Sundarbans.

Akram Hasan Sharkar

f the government is serious about holding the elections under a political government, it has to properly empower and separate the Election Commission. The Election Commission should have all the assistance and authority it needs to successfully conduct the polls.

Under the circumstances, the Transparency International recommendation that the Election Commissioners are made returnWe do not intend to ing officers, instead of Deputy question the integrity Commissioners, is valid and the of the public servants, government should implement it. but when it comes to Deputy Commissioners are a the general elections, part of the administration and the process needs to are susceptible to influence by various sectors in the governbe devised in a way ment, especially members of the that uncomfortable parliament and the ministers. questions are not We do not intend to quesraised against it tion the integrity of the public servants, but when it comes to the general elections, the process needs to be devised in a way that uncomfortable questions are not raised against it.

Considering the political culture and the scenario of Bangladesh, it is possible that such undue influences take place.

Regardless, questions will probably be raised anyway, if there is room for finger-pointing.

The government should bolster the Election Commission so that the authority of the Deputy Commissioners does not conflict with the EC. Hence, it is only natural the ECs are made returning officers instead of the DCs. Furthermore, the government should take into consideration the 13-point recommendation from TIB as many issues raised in it, like the irregular promotion of civil servants and the amendment of the laws, are real issues regarding a successful election.

Govt firm to move with Rampal project: Tawfiq September 25

Coal plants are factories of death that generate the highest greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy obtained. While many countries are leaving coal dependency, we’ve jumped into this project ignoring the growing and powerful climate movement that urges all too immediately act and transform all coal-burning power projects. Whatever the rationale behind this project, we don’t want to know, but it has to be stopped.

We actually need everybody to promise to do things necessary to shut down every coal-fired power plant in the entire world.

If one is too dirty, so are all the rest. I urge all concerned to please come up with an urgent plan to wean the country and world off of the use of coal in order to ensure our shared survival. Please, wise up! sirajul_islam_1

September 23

Looking forward to seeing it happen.

Nazmul Hossain Araf

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the Editor

LETTER OF THE DAY

angladesh is going to posthumously award two Pakistani politicians, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan, for their contributions in supporting the 1971 Liberation War. In total, 60 foreigners are being conferred with national honours by the president and prime minister for being “foreign friends” of the country during its independence struggle. This is a For politicians valuable way to acknowledge the from the then West international solidarity and supPakistan, it would port which Bangladesh received have been a highly during 1971. brave move to It is fitting that two major support Bangladesh Pakistani politicians are being while their Pakistanawarded the “Friends of Liberabased supporters tion War Honour” as part of this were subject to strict year’s ceremony. For politicians military censorship from the then West Pakistan, it would have been a highly brave move to support Bangladesh while their Pakistan-based supporters were subject to strict military censorship and propaganda, labeling such actions as treasonous.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan had been a famous figure in Pashtun politics for many years, having been a friend of Gandhi before Partition. His commitment to peace and autonomy made him naturally sympathetic to the rights of Bangladesh’s people.

As a leader of theNational Awami Party, Khan Abdul Wali Khan was one of the few leading politicians inside West Pakistan to protest the military junta’s brutal crackdown in 1971. His role went so far as to help a senior East Pakistani diplomat’s son escape to Afghanistan to avoid internment. In retaliation against the NAP’s protests, the party was banned during the war and experienced mass arrests of activists.

We welcome the opportunity to remember these principled individuals.

I

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Don’t worry, Barack Obama, you are not alone! n Abdul Matin

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Why the double standard for RMG wages?

T

n Omar Chowdhury he editor of a leading English daily wrote about minimum wages for the RMG sector in the Daily Star last Friday, stating that the garments industry pays 0.8% tax whereas corporate tax for other sectors is 40%. This is a blatant misrepresentation of facts and a clear example of negative media bias towards the garment owners.

The fact is, garments exporters pay 0.8% tax at source on gross export, regardless of profit or loss. With industry average profit margins of less than 5%, that translates to 20% tax on profit, even though the corporate tax rate for garments is 10%. The government does not refund this excess tax, even if we claim a loss.

Meanwhile, our competitors in China do not pay tax on exports, get preferential rates of exchange and other export incentives. Bangladeshi garment exporters have to import fabric from China, our main competitor, at additional cost and longer lead times, so the only competitive advantage we have is lower wages, which account for less than 20% of the cost of a garment.

Dysfunctional politics, hostile unions, inadequate infrastructure and higher interest rates are challenges that our Chinese competitors do not have to deal with.

When the minimum wage was increased from Tk1,662 to Tk3,000 in 2010, buyers were compelled to pay higher prices, as long as we were still price competitive with China. The big question is – can we still compete with China after the next wage increase?

The aforementioned editor has fully endorsed the CPD recommendation to increase the minimum wage to Tk6,560. CPD has made this recommendation based on the minimum living cost of a garment worker taking into account house rent, nutrition etc.

Three months ago the government set the minimum wage for jute mill workers at Tk4,380. So my question to our esteemed economists at CPD is – do jute mill workers eat less than garment workers? Have our esteemed economists at CPD ever set foot in a

high, so it is difficult to get them for less than Tk6,000. With overtime, festival bonus and other benefits, they earn more than Tk8,000 per month.

This is a healthy sign for the garment industry – wages being determined by demand and supply in a sustainable way i.e. market forces instead of riot forces. The minimum wage for Grade 1 operators is Tk9,300 – if garment wages are increased 128%, they will get Tk20,615. Umm, excuse me CPD, but how much do entry level university graduates make in Bangladesh?

Our competitors in China do not pay tax on exports, get preferential rates of exchange and other export incentives.

Bangladeshi garment exporters have to import fabric from China, our main competitor, at additional cost and longer lead times, so the only competitive advantage we have is lower wages

garment factory, or conducted a study on price structure and production costs of garments?

First of all, there is simply too much hullaballoo about minimum wage – it is totally misleading. There are 7 grades of garment workers – Grade 7 workers get a minimum wage of Tk3,000 and comprise less than 1% of garment workers. Grade 7 workers are novice unskilled workers like helpers and cleaners, and are available in abundant supply. Many of these workers go on to become skilled operators and earn 2 to 3 times the minimum wage.

The majority of workers are Grade 4 skilled sewing operators, whose minimum wage is Tk4,218. But the demand for skilled workers is very

The media keeps highlighting the minimum wages vs the perceived affluence of all garment owners, thereby adding fuel to the fire engulfing the garment industry. But here are the facts: there are 5,600 garment factories registered with BGMEA, of which 2,400 are closed. Of the remaining 3,200 factories, 20% control 75% of the business and are extremely wealthy.

The largest garment company in Bangladesh does over one billion dollars of export. But 80% are small to medium factories just struggling to survive. I beg the media to highlight their struggle instead of focusing on the wealth of a few garment owners.

Any diversion of orders from Bangladesh will lead to hundreds of these

factories going out of business and lacs of workers losing their jobs. The unrest will stop when the unions stop feeding off the negative public perception of garment owners.

The reality is that the garments industry is exposed to great risk and is extremely vulnerable. Unlike jute mills or other industries, we do not make a generic product. Every order is different and made for a specific customer. Any disruptions in production can lead to cancellations and air shipment, which is suicidal for any garment factory.

Shut down production for a week, and that factory can go bankrupt. This is the kind of leverage unions have in the labour intensive garment industry.

Perhaps that will explain why there are 147 unions for garment workers registered in Bangladesh.

During the unrest in the garment sector in 2006, hundreds of factories closed down permanently and hundreds of thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unions were used to incite unrest prior to elections in 2006, and they will be used again prior to the next elections. The victims will be both workers and owners of the garment industry.

The media has a big role to play in the interest of the whole nation.

Let us start by not applying double standards to the garment industry.

Why Tk8,000 minimum wage just for garment workers? Why not make Tk8,000 the national minimum wage for all workers in all industries and service sectors? Let the government decide the minimum wage and make it the national minimum wage for all workers. l Omar Chowdhury is a garment industrialist.

I

f you ask anyone who the most powerful person is on the planet, you are most likely to get only one answer: “It is Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.” Is the answer correct? No more. According to a recent disclosure, there is someone else more powerful than him. No, I am not kidding!

While chatting off-guard with a UN official recently, Barack Obama said that he hadn’t had a cigarette in probably six years. Then he explained the reason why he had given up smoking. He admitted with a smile: “That’s because I’m scared of my wife!”

Is Barack Obama the only man who is scared of his wife? What about President Bill Clinton? Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoir “Living History” that she wanted to wring Bill Clinton’s neck after he had admitted his affairs with a White House internee. Consequently, President Clinton had to sleep on the couch for at least two months! Buddy the dog was the only member of his family to give him company. Poor Bill Clinton!

Are there others like them? I knew a renowned civil servant who used to work every day at his office from morning till late at night. He had such a dominating personality that he always kept his subordinates on their toes. It was later found out that his wife, who was more dominating than him, also kept him like that at home.

So, in order to escape from the torture at home, he preferred to work at his office as long as he could.

There must be numerous similar stories. I recall to have read one by Syed Mujtaba Ali, one of the greatest satirist of Bangla literature. I may not remember the story word for word. It goes like this: One morning, the chief minister of an old Indian State was surprised to find the King in a very sad mood. He gathered enough courage to ask the King, “Why are you so sad today, Your Majesty?”

The King frankly replied, “I am scared of my wife.”

The chief minister said, “This is no reason to be sad, Your Majesty, as all husbands are like you.”

“Is this true?” The King asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty, it is true.” The chief minister confirmed.

“Can you prove it?” The King asked again.

“Yes, I can.” The chief minister replied.

The King promised to offer one thousand gold coins to the chief minister if he could prove it. The chief minister accepted the challenge and ordered all husbands of the state to gather in a large field on a certain day.

While chatting off-guard with a UN official recently, Barack Obama said that he hadn’t had a cigarette in probably six years. Then he explained the reason why he had given up smoking. He admitted with a smile: ‘That’s because I’m scared of my wife!’

Accordingly, all the husbands gathered at the venue on the scheduled day. At one point, the chief minister ordered, “Those of you who are scared of your wives should go to the north side of the field and those who are not should go to the opposite side.”

The King was pleasantly surprised to see that all the husbands had rushed to the north side of the field except a thin man who had been standing alone on the opposite side.

The King congratulated the chief minister and said, “You have won one thousand gold coins, Chief Minister, but I want to know why the lone man standing on the opposite side is not scared of his wife.”

Accordingly, the man was brought before the King and was asked to explain the reasons.

He replied, “Your Majesty, There is only one reason for me to go to the opposite side. While I was coming out of my home, my wife instructed me to avoid the crowd.”

So, don’t worry, Barack Obama, you are not alone! l Abdul Matin is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

Liquid fuel from plastic waste n SA Mansoor

R

esearch on finding a process to recover oil to use as fuel from waste plastic began in the mid

1980s.

Initially, a Zeolite Catalytic process was developed, converting plastic waste to liquid fuel under high pressure hydrogen. Unfortunately, the cost of production was found to be very high, and it could not be competitive against traditionally refined fuel from crude petroleum.

The refining of plastic waste uses infra red energy to break up the various plastics into their hydrocarbon components. The gas that is produced in this process, is removed, dried and subsequently can be used as gaseous fuel

Subsequently, BP scientists developed a non-catalytic chemical extraction process, followed by fractionation.

In the process, plastic waste in small pellet form (under 20mm) was heated and cracked in a reactor vessel, with-

out air, to produce acceptable liquid fuel; which could be further processed to make gasoline or diesel suitable for automotive use.

In the process, pellets of waste plastic are fed in an air-free environment. The pellets are liquefied with no possibility of coking. Subsequently, the liquid product is refined by chemical extraction and fractionation to produce gasoline and diesel.

Most kinds of plastic waste can be used for this process. This includes Polyethylene plastics (PE), coming from used food bags, and the coverings of industrial and engineering products prior to packing. Also Polypropylene plastics (PP) which are woven into bags for packing cement, fertilizer, food grains and other bulk products.

Similarly polystyrene which is used for fish, fruit and vegetable packing, and as candy boxes etc and polystyrene paper used in foam packing as insulation and for lining delicate equipment prior to packing into other containers.

Municipal waste collection can provide a readymade major source for

these materials and is increasing day to day; it is conservatively estimated that even in developing countries, the amount of waste plastic amounts to as much as 12-15% of average municipal waste collections.

The refining of plastic waste, uses infrared energy to break up the various plastics into their hydrocarbon components. The gas that is produced in this process, is removed, dried and subsequently can be used as gaseous fuel.

Liquified plastic is then treated with a mixture of chemical additives to remove unwanted elements. The treated liquid is then fractionated to produce all three types of liquid fuel. These are: a) Light Liquid Oil; that is identical to gasoline b) Medium Liquid Oil; which is the same as diesel. c) Heavy Liquid Oil; which is the same as the Bunker C fuel used in ships, locomotives and steam boilers The fractionated end product can be varied according to market demand.

Instead of all three products, one may have any two products or only any one product, as desired. This

inherent flexibility of the process is an added advantage for the refiner.

The dry gas, separated earlier, can be used as a fuel for gas engine or for firing the boiler.

This is an interesting and quite viable proposition for Bangladesh as there is an abundance of empty plastic bottles and various types and sizes of plastic containers

As the process is based on infra red ray for heating, “non PVC” plastics are preferred.

If there is PVC in the waste plastic; then it needs additional chemicals and the end liquid fuel output is reduced. Furthermore, in the heating of PVC, Hydrochloric acid is formed, and needs to be neutralised by adding Sodium Hydroxide; which naturally increases operating costs so the profit and yield is also lower. Ideally it is

preferable to limit PVC content to below three percent for good results; however up to a maximum of ten percent PVC can be tolerated.

This is an interesting and quite viable proposition for Bangladesh. Empty plastic bottles and various types and sizes of containers are being trashed or resold. These can provide the needed raw material. Potential investors, looking for new products to be manufactured, should go for this local possibility of producing much needed liquid fuel; all of which is now imported.

Our entrepreneurs should invest in this valuable by product; from waste plastic sheets and other packaging wastes. This is freely available in Bangladesh, and a processing plant is justified; since the market for the products are expanding day by day in Bangladesh. Such investment would create jobs and energy and would be a boon for the country! l SA Mansoor is an engineer with over 50 years of experience in chemical and other process industries.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Mehreen’s takes on Bangladeshi Idol and more What is your experience as a judge in Bangladeshi Idol?

When I heard that the Idol franchise will hit the country as Bangladesh Idol, I instantly felt the urge to be a part of the show. Idol really inspired me and the opportunity to work with seasoned singers such as Ferdousi Rahman, Andrew Kishore and Aiyub Bachchu is quite something for me. Ferdousi Rahman also happens to be my “guru.”

How comfortable are you with other judges?

I was working with seasoned and popular music personas of the country since my student life in Dhaka University and I used to host various shows of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. During few occasions, I worked closely with Rezwana Chowdhury Bonnya.

In my twenty years of musical career, I accumulated knowledge by respecting the views, opinions and decisions of those who are older and more experienced than me. In Bangladesh Idol, I got to exercise these years of knowledge and experience I have acquired earlier. Also, through this show, I have learned the art of diplomacy.

It is an honour being a judge of this show as the other judges in the panel are my idols and they respect my opinion on matters. I am thankful to sit side by side with these humble judges as it is a great platform for me to learn.

What is your specialisation in the judging panel?

I am the youngest judge of the panel and I represent the youth of the country. My specialisation in the show to judge the presentation and sense of fashion among the participants, since I can relate to the youth of the country and the excitement and the aura of youthfulness.

Do you have any plan to launch another music album?

Popular fusion singer Mehreen Mahmud

n Shadma Malik Popular singer Mehreen Mahmud began her career in 1994 and made waves among the music lovers for her unique tone and stylish presentation. The stylish singer’s debut album “Anari” released in 2000 and gained huge popularity all around the country. Mehreen holds a position in the judging panel of the popular talent hunt show “Bangladesh Idol.”

The judges’ panel of the Idol franchise in Bangladesh also includes singer Ferdousi Rahman, Andrew Kishore and Ayub Bachchu.

Dhaka Tribune caught up Mehreen about her experience as a judge in Bangladeshi Idol and more about her career:

I have stopped working on music albums from 2010.

The effort and time required for the job is simply not worth it. So, instead of producing a bundle of songs, I believe putting all the “sugar” in one song that would sway the audience.

Before coming out with the song “Aj Ek Notun Din,” I conducted an extensive research for six months to produce a piece with much determination and effort. Also, I will be working with Ayub Bachchu on a single song from next month. For budget constraints, I prefer to produce one song in one season.

Who is your favourite musician?

AR Rahman, he is not only a brilliant musician but also I admire him as a person. l

TODAY IN DHAKA Exhibition

I am Gautam Chakraborty Time: 1:00am – 7:30pm Galleri Kaya, Sector 04, Uttara Unity of Souls Time: 10am – 8pm Athena Gallery of Fine Arts AJ Heights, Cha-72/1/D, Progati Shoroni Invitation to the Dance Carel Richter Time: 12 - 8pm Bengal Art Lounge Gulshan, Dhaka Dhamrai Metal Craft Brass and bronze sculpture exhibition EMK Centre, Dhanmondi 27

Concert

Rock star James performs in an indoor show at Boston on September 29

Channel i celebrates 15th anniversary n Cultural Correspondent Channel i is celebrating its 15th anniversary today holding a day-long programme on the premises of the channel’s office.

The daylong event features a colourful procession and a gorgeous cultural programme including presentation of music, dance, theatre and more. Leading cultural personalities in the country will participate in the show and also deliver speeches on the contribution of Channel-i in upholding the Bangladesh rich cultural heritage and promoting young talents. The cultural programme will continue till 7pm. The event will be wrapped up with fireworks display.

Earlier, the channel organised an array of seminars that ran for two weeks.

The seminars discussed about different contemporary issues such as nature and life, women empowerment, agriculture, politics and others. On the other hand, subjects related to TV productions such as reporting, reality show, news presentation in electronic media and more have also been discussed in a number of seminars.

Channel i began its journey on October 1, 1999 and is considered as one of the leading private TV channels in the country. l

Hebbyjoss Concert Organised by Incursion Music and The Break Live performances by Oblique, Savagery, Echoes, Metaphor Time: 4pm Venue: The Break Jamuna Future Park

Discussion on Albert Camus’ The Outsider today n Entertainment Desk To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Albert Camus, Alliance Française de Dhaka and The Reading Circle have organised a discussion on the Nobel laureate’s The Outsider (L’Etranger), one of the masterpieces of world literature.

The session will be held at 6pm at the auditorium of AFD. The novel was published in 1942.

Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of existentialism, and its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as well as determinism, nihilism, naturalism, and stoicism.

The title character is Meursault, an Algerian who seemingly irrationally kills an Arab man. The story is divided into two parts: Meursault’s first-person narrative view before and after the murder, respectively.

Albert Camus’ idea of morality in “The Stranger” is completely unconventional and this can be seen through the protagonist who is a total embarrassment to the society in which he finds himself.

There is a big question mark on conventional morality which the author finds to be absurd. He seems to be questioning the fabric of societal morality and values which designs a human being’s psyche.

His refusal to satisfy the feelings of others and of society only increases his guilt in the eyes of the law. But soon Meursault discovers that he is being tried not simply for his crime, but for his lack of emotion, which condemns him for being an outsider, a stranger.

The discussants from the Reading Circle will be Dr Niaz Zaman, Asfa Hussain, Shahruk Rahman, Jackie Kabir, Shirin Islam, Syed Badrul Ahsan, Raana Haider.

Besides Olivier Litvine, Director of Alliance Française de Dhaka will also participate in this discussion. l

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

SD Burman’s 97th birth anniversary today n Entertainment Desk Sachin Dev Burman, respectfully called “Sachin Katta,” is considered as one of the most dynamic composers who is equally popular to both Bangla and Hindi speaking people. S D Burman composed music for 100 Hindi and Bangla films. His Son Rahul Dev Burman was also a music director.

Also as a singer, his thin but powerful and accented voice made a distinct position for him among the music lovers. He is a darling to the people of Bangladesh for his renditions on timeless songs like Ami Takdhum Takdhum Bajai Bangladesher Dhol, Ke Jash Re, Mono Dilo Na Bodhu, Borne Gondhe, Shono Go Dokhin Hawa and many more.

The legend was born on October 1, 1906 as one of the nine children of Prince Komilla of Tripura. His father Nabadwipchandra Dev Burman, was a sitarist and dhrupad singer as well as Sachin’s first teacher too. Later his training continued with Ustad Badal Khan and Bhishmadev Chattopadhyay, and this classical training gave him a firm rooting for the music that he was to compose later in life.

He had explored the forests of Assam and Tripura from where he gained his formidable knowledge and rich repertoire of the folk of that region and Bengal.

He started his musical career in Bengal as a singer of folk and light classical music and also composed music for the radio, which bore prominent traces of East Bengali and north-eastern folk music which had inspired him early in life.

His first Film debut singing was for Tinkari Chakraborthy’s “Sanjher Pidim” (1935).

His film compositions are influenced by his huge repertory of folk-tunes from the Bengali Bhatiali, Sari and Dhamail traditions of the North East.

Sachin started work as a music director in Kolkata in 1939. Five years later, he moved to Bombay. His first major breakthrough came the with the Filmistan’s “Do Bhai” (1947) “Aath Din” (1948) and “Sabnam” (1949).

His singing was limited after he ventured in to composing music full time. His accented voice was used for tunes that required a folk-like rendition.

Sachin was very choosy in selecting films for scoring music. He never took too many assignments at a time.

Likewise, he was very choosy in selecting the singers. It is said that he used to call the singers via telephone early in the morning, study their voice indirectly while making conversation and then select.

SD Burman’s compositions have been mainly sung to a large extent by the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Shamshad Begum, Mukesh and Talat Mahmood.

His career never flagged till 1974 when he quit signing films from ill “health. He is remembered even today, through his great compositions. This great composer attained his heavenly bliss on October 31, 1975. l

I wanted to work with Rituparno Ghosh: AR Rahman n Entertainment Desk Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman regrets that he did not get a chance to work with director Rituparno Ghosh.

“One Bengali director I really wanted to work with in any film project is Rituparno,” Rahman expressed in a recent interview.

“His death is a great loss for everybody concerned. His films and musical sense was content-rich, and different.

I always look forward to interact with your Bengal’s cultural icons. Many of them are my good friends,” said the world famous composer who will start his “Rahman Ishq” tour from Kolkata on October 1.

“This time during my visit to the city I would love to catch up with Pt Ajay Chakraborty, Pt Ustad Rashid Khan, Pt Shankar Ghosh and others,” Rahman said. Asked if “Rahman Ishq” would include something from Bengal, like Rabindra sangeet, Rahman said, “There could be something. We are working on it. Wait for the show to begin. Kolkata

will set the trend of ‘Rahman Ishq’ which will then go on trip to other cities - Vizag, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.” Rahman, who would perform along with Sukhwinder Singh, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Shweta Pandit and Harshdeep Kaur, said he would love to interact with young musicians from Bengal.

Rahman said Rabindranath Tagore’s “Chitto Jetha Bhoysunyo” (Where the mind is without fear) is one of the most striking compositions he had come across so far. This year’s Independence Day special “Jagao Mere Des Ko” by Rahman is inspired by “Chitto Jetha Bhoyshunyo.”

Asked what is next for the musician, he said, “My topmost priority now remains to groom young musicians. The KM College of Music and Technology has come into being. We must look forward,” said Rahman. l

Saif Ali Khan put on raw avatar for Bullett Raja

ATN Bangla to air Neer Khoje Gangchil tonight

n Entertainment Desk

n Entertainment Desk

In the recent past Saif Ali Khan was seen in the raw avatar that he has donned for his upcoming movie “Bullett Raja.” As the audiences have been eager to watch the fresh on-screen chemistry of Saif and Sonakshi Sinha, the makers have just launched the first look of the film.

“Bullett Raja” is a gangster-thriller film which is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia.

This movie deals with the story of the underworld and it is said that the film will be set against the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh-based mafia. One of the posters released has Saif riding a bullet (bike) and also firing a bullet at the same time. This clearly explains the title of the movie. The poster also has a phrase that says, “Aayenge toh garmi badjayenge.” This means when Bullett Raja arrives, the heat is going to increase.

In another poster, we see Saif pulling the rickshaw in which Sonakshi is seated. This gives us a glimpse to the romantic element of the movie. This poster says “Auratho ki respect karthe hain” which means that Bullett Raja respects women. This movie will be the first film which stars the two actors together. The film will hit the theatres on November 29 this year. l

Watch out for drama series “Neer Khoje Gangchil” tonight 8:40pm on ATN Bangla. The attention-grabbing drama is written and directed by Mohon Khan, featuring popular actors Mita Noor, Noushin, Shahed Sharif Khan, Mir Sabbir, Shoeb, Hasan Masud, Mamuduzzaman Selim,Ananya and many more.

Mr Chowdhury is a man of huge stature and everyday he jogs twice, once in the morning and once again in the evening.

After his usual routine, he takes his meal by the seaside. His two assistants, Nisha and Pulak are always by his side, trying their level best to fulfill his crazy, but unique and interesting demands.

He is an interesting man with versatile taste and on many occasions, he prefers spending time with the fisherman of the community and sometimes he chooses the company of visiting tourists from all around the country.

He spends a much colourful and busy life revolving all the attractive and different personalities he comes across his eventful social life.

The story of the series moves forward with the different incidents he faces with all the diverse personalities he meets everyday. But, the magnificent and vibrant man keeps quite whenever anyone tries to know about his personal life.

Very few had the privilege to break the barrier of silence Mr Chowdhury puts up when he is inquired about his personal life.

Like the wave of the sea, numerous individuals deposit the sad and happy events of their life with this friendly and dynamic man, thus the drama unfolds with all these tales. l

Did you know?

Atletico Madrid beat Real Madrid 1-0 at Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday to register their first league victory over their neighbours in 14 years

Sport

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

14 Chelsea face ‘must-win’ match, Arsenal flying high

14 Returning Suarez sends Liverpool second

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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15 Reigning champ Azarenka crashes out

Cricket returns to historic venue n Tarek Mahmud from Chittagong

A smiling Sheikh Jamal skipper Mushfiqur Rahim walks off the pitch after their Dhaka Premier League match against Abahani Limited was abandoned due to rain yesterday

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Brothers powered by Williams’ seven Shakib returns from injury with below-par performance against Khelaghar n Mazhar Uddin Zimbabwean allrounder Sean William’s seven wickets, including a hat-trick, and Tamim Iqbal’s blistering 95 off just 65 balls helped Brothers Union to a nine wicket win over Kalabagan Cricket Academy at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium yesterday. The win saw Brothers go to the top of the league table alongside Doleshwar.

Sri Lankan recruit Jehan Mubarak’s all-round performance helped Kalabagan Krira Chakra to a 131 run win in a rain curtailed match over Khelaghar SKS at the BKSP-3 ground. The match between Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi club and Abahani Ltd was abandoned due to rain at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium yesterday.

Brothers v Kalabagan CA Rain reduced the match at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium to a 34 overs affair. Brothers captain Tamim Iqbal won the toss and elected to field and on a turning pitch, Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams was almost unplayable.

Left arm spinner Williams took an epic hat-trick by dismissing countryman Hamilton Masakadza and Shagir Hossain off the last two balls of the 19th over and adding another Zimbabwean Sikandar Raza – with the first ball of the 21st over.

Hamilton Masakadza’s 39 off 27 balls, while Sharif Ullah made 30 and Vusi Sibanda made 25 in Kalabagan’s total of 148 all out in 32.1 overs.

Eventual man-of-the-match Shaun Williams finished with figures of 7/25 while another Sri Lankan spinner, Ajantha Mendis, took two wickets.

Captain Tamim Iqbal launched a blistering attack in Brothers’ chase.

Though opener Imtiaz Hossain fell for 14, Tamim and his brother Nafis flayed the bowling to all parts of the ground to complete the chase in just 22.3 overs.

Tamim eventually finished on 95 not out off 65 balls (six fours, seven sixes), as Brothers won their fourth win of the tournament.

Kalabagan KC v Khelaghar Rain turned the game at BKSP-3 ground into a 31 over match. Khelaghar opted to field first after winning the toss but the Kalabagan batsmen proved to be dominant. With opener Mithun Ali’s 78 from 64 balls (six fours, five sixes), Jehan Mubarak’s 69 off 64 balls and Chamara Kapugedara 58 off 33 balls (four fours, five sixes), Kalabagan posted an imposing 248/7 from their 31 over.

Voter list finalized for BCB elections, objections dismissed n Raihan Mahmood The Election Commission of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) released the final voter list for the upcoming election yesterday and declared all 16 objections raised against the election null and void.

Abdur Rahman, the Chief Election Commissioner of the BCB Election Commission, spoke to the press at 6:15pm – three hours after deadline for submitting the voter list, which was pinned on the Election Board’s notice board at around 6:00pm.

Abdur Rahman said he did not find any anomalies regarding the voters list. “We have verified all the procedures in order the reach a clear cut conclusion over the 16 objections we received. After the procedure, we found that there is nothing wrong and so we’ve gone ahead and put out the final voters list.”

Earlier, objections were raised against the councillorships of Naimur Rahman Durjoy of Manikganj, Monjur Kader of Munshiganj, Akram Khan of Chittagong Division, Imtiaz Ahmed Shamsul Huda Kislu of Rajshahi Division, Sheikh Sohel of

Khulna Division, Nuruddin Nayon of Laxmipur, Saiful Islam of Khulna, Ashrafuzzaman Pintu of Narail, Ahmed Sajjadul Alam Bobby of Sheikh Russell and Jalal Yunus of Rayer Bazar Athletic Club. Moreover Mirpur Boys, Sonar Bangla, Hillol Juba Sangha and North Bengal Cricket Academy lodged complaints about not maintaining the third division cricket league tables properly.

We did not find any logical ground to accept the objections. We checked the sources and found the councilors we have included in the draft voters list are ok Rahman said he had received a certified copy of the Appellate Division verdict, which provided direction for the BCB election. “We now have the certified copy of the verdict. On Sunday it was asked whether we have the copy or not. At that time we did not possess it but the National Sports Council possessed it, now the Election Commission also has a copy,” said Rahman, flashing the

copy in front of TV cameras.

“We did not find any logical ground to accept the objections. We checked the sources and found the councilors we have included in the draft voters list are ok. As per the amended constitution of 2012, a person can be nominated from the district sports association even if he is not a member of the particular DSA, so there are no ground for not accepting such a nomination,” said Rahman.

Asked about the presence of the BCB CEO at the meeting that finalised the decisions, Rahman said that it was not illegal. “I can seek help from the representative of the concerned organization to sort out the difficulties. He was not a part of the decision making process, his role was just a supportive one,” Rahman said.

When asked how he felt about being in the hot seat of chief election commissioner for the BCB election, Rahman was professional. “A fair and transparent atmosphere prevails in the election scenario and I am a government employee. The NSC has ordered me to hold the election and it’s my responsibility. I don’t feel any pressure.” l

Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s much awaited return to the field was less than memorable as the left-hander was bowled by Abdullah Al Imran after scoring 6 runs.

Abdullah Al Imran took three wickets and Masum Khan two for the bowling side.

Khelaghar never seemed to be in with a chance in their reply and lost wickets at regular intervals. Number nine batsman Forkan top scored with 30 not out as the newcomers finished on 132/7 to lose by 131 runs.

Dilhara Lokuhettige claimed three wickets for Kalabagan and man-of-thematch Jehan Mubarak scalped two for the bowling side.

The match between Sheikh Jamal and Abahani Ltd will take place today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium after rain washed out play yesterday. l

Brief Score Brothers v Kalabagan CA Kalabagan CA148/10 in 32.1 over Hamilton Masakadza 39, Sharif Ullah 30, Vusi Sibanda 25, Sean Williams 25/7, Angelo Mathews 27/2, Brothers 154/1 in 22.3 over Tamim Iqbal 95*, Nafis Iqbal 36* Brothers won by nine wickets Kalabagan KC v Khelaghar Kalabagan KC 248/7 in 31 over Mithun Ali 78, Jehan Mubarak 69, Kapugedara Chamara 58, Abdullah Al Imram 30/3, Masum Khan 41/2 Khelaghar SKS 132/7 in 31 over Forkar 30 not out, Dilhara Lokuhettige 12/3, Jehan Mubarak 24/2 Kalabagan KC won by 116 runs

Kiwis to land today n Mazhar Uddin

The 13 member New Zealand squad, along with a 10 member support staff arrives in Dhaka today for two Tests, three ODI and a T20 international. Skipper Brendon McCullum, Neil Wagner and Hamish Rutherford will be joining the team in Chittagong after completing their Champions League T20 commitments for Otago Volts.

The Kiwi side will head to Chittagong after landing, where the visitors will play a practice match against the BCB XI on October 4 at the M.A Aziz Stadium and the first Test begins the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on October 9.

The Kiwis will then move back to

Dhaka on October 14 for the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on October 21, after a seven day break for Eid-ul-Azha.

The black caps will play the first two ODI’s on October 29 and 31 at the Sher-eBangla Stadium, while the third ODI will be played on November 3 at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Narayanganj. The sole T20 international will be played at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium on November 6.

Squad: Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, Hamish Rutherford, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Dean Brownlie, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Tom Latham, Bruce Martin, Ish Sodhi, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson. l

A press conference regarding Marcel Refrigerator 22nd National Junior Wrestling was held at the handball federation yesterday COURTESY

Though New Zealand have played in Chittagong before, this tour comes as a fillip for the MA Aziz Stadium as for the first time in eight years an international cricket team will play at the venue.

The last Test played at this venue, was Bangladesh’s first ever Test victory. For the better part of a decade the historic stadium has been left in the wilderness.

Although the match to be held on October 4 is a warm up game, the local organisers, Chittagong Jilla Krira Sanstha (CJKS), hope to start a revival of the venue which has seen better days.

New Zealand will arrive in Chittagong tomorrow where they will start their series against Bangladesh. The first Test match will be held at Chittagong Zahur Ahmed Divisional Stadium but before that a practice match will be held at MA Aziz Stadium.

During the past eight years, many sports events have been held at the stadium leaving cricket by the wayside most of the time. Apart from some local league matches and a few Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) games, no international or domestic matches have been held at the field.

While the ground may have been out of shape for cricket CJKS have redone the entire field and pitch for the New Zealand tour. Stadium sources also said aside from the warm up match, New Zealand will also practice in the venue, thus highlighting a return to good graces of the nation’s cricket cricketing fraternity.

AJM Nasir, general secretary of CJKS, said, “We have completed all our preparations and are hoping for a sizable audience for the practice match.” The CJKS leader also hoped that at least one match of the upcoming T-20 World Cup would be held at the venue.

After eight years, another Test playing nation will play in the stadium and while it may only be a practise match, it is a significant step in the right direction for a ground with history on its side.

Besides, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) has already taken additional security measures on the occasion of New Zealand tour, said Banaz Kumar Majumder, additional police commissioner (crime and operation) of CMP. The New Zealand tour will be the eve of Eid-ul-Adha and cattle market may be held in the adjoining areas of the stadium but Ali Abbas, vice president of Chittagong Divisional Krira Sanstha, said that they have talked with the district administration and they assured the organisers that no cattle market will sit on the adjoining roads to the venue during the cricket match.

Cattle market or not, cricket is returning to the site of Bangladesh’s historic first Test victory. The Tigers can only hope such results return as well. l

Rakib on top after nine rounds n Shishir Hoque

Grandmaster Abdulla Al-Rakib remained at the top of the Berger Paints 39th National ‘A’ Chess Championship points table after beating Mohammed Hafizul Islam Chapal in the 9th round yesterday.

The Duronto Rajshahi player now has 7.5 points after nine rounds.

Rakib with the white pieces won a Queen’s Gambit game against Chapal in 41 moves at the BOA media centre.

International Master Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar of Bangladesh Ansar is in the 2nd position with seven points.

Sagar beat his teammate Fide Master Kh. Aminul Islam in a Queen’s Indian game in 42 moves.

Ziaur Rahman and birthday boy Enamul Hossain Razib played out a draw and the Dhaka Mohammedan Grandmaster duo is in joint 3rd place with 6.5 points. Reigning champion and Grandmaster Niaz Murshed was held to a draw by FM Mohammad Javed of Access Group.

In the day’s other matches, FM Mehdi Hasan Parag beat FM Sk. Nasir Ahmed, FM Debaraj Chatterjee beat Shafiq Ahmed and IM Abu Sufian Shakil beat Md Jamal Uddin. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Chelsea face ‘must-win’ match, Arsenal flying high Celtic braced for Messi-free Barcelona Freiburg on Saturday. n AFP Alexander Kerzhakov became

Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger (R) speaks with former Arsenal footballer Robert Pires during a team training session at Arsenal's London Colney training ground in north London ahead of their Uefa Champions League Group F match against SSC Napoli today AFP

On-form Diego Costa set for Spain call up n AFP Brazilian-born Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa looks set to be included in Vicente del Bosque’s Spain squad for the champions decisive World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Georgia next month. Costa is eligible to play for La Roja on residency grounds having lived in Spain since 2007.

The 24-year-old made two appearances for his native country earlier this year in friendlies against Italy and Russia, but he can still represent Spain as he hasn’t played in a competitive match at senior level. Costa has started the season in fantastic form and his eighth league goal in just seven matches was enough to hand Atletico a memorable 1-0 win over arch city rivals Real Madrid on Saturday. l

Rampant Roma back on top n AFP

AS Roma’s superb start to the season continued with a 5-0 rout of Bologna at the Olympic Stadium which restored their two-point cushion at the top of Serie

A on Sunday.

Roma became the first team since Juventus in the 2005-2006 season to win their opening six games and claimed their first victory with a margin of five goals or more since a 7-0 rout of Catania in November 2006.

Rudi Garcia’s side now lead Napoli and Juventus by two points with fourthplaced Inter, held earlier on Sunday at Cagliari, a further two points adrift.

While Garcia continues to play down Roma’s title hopes, midfielder Daniele De Rossi said: “I think we’ve shown

we’re a really strong squad and can achieve our objective of getting back into European competition.”

A week after claiming his maiden goal for Rudi Garcia’s side, former Arsenal striker Gervinho starred again for the hosts hitting a brace with goals in either half.

However it was Alessandro Florenzi who started the rout, beating Gianluca Curci from close range after a poor clearance from Miralem Pjanic’s free kick.

Ivorian Gervinho made it two when he picked up the ball in midfield and ran unchallenged past a static Bologna defence to beat Curci with a right-foot strike.

Roma went in for the half-time interval 3-0 up after Mehdi Benatia bundled a left-foot volley past Curci from close range from Francesco Totti’s corner in the 25th minute.

Gervinho took his second just after the hour, this time collecting Kevin Strootman’s through ball on the left flank before turning his marker and beating Curci with a right-foot stike.

It was Gervinho’s first brace since hitting two for Arsenal against Southampton 13 months ago.

Second-half substitute Adem Ljajic completed the rout when he sent a delightful chip past Curci in the 85th minute.

Earlier a second-half header from French midfield sensation Paul Pogba secured a 1-0 derby win for Juventus at Torino.

Inter Milan were seven minutes from also going on to 16 points when Argentine striker Mauro Icardi gave them a 1-0 second half lead at Cagliari before Belgium’s Radja Nainggolan levelled for the home side in a 1-1 draw. l

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho believes Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Steaua Bucharest is a match they cannot lose while Premier League leaders Arsenal take on Napoli for the first time.

Basel, who made the Europa League semi-finals last season, stunned 2012 champions Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in their opener with goals from Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller. It was the first win for a Swiss club on English soil in 20 attempts.

Schalke were also winners on matchday one, beating Steaua Bucharest 3-0.

But the German side are only mid-table in the Bundesliga and on Saturday surrendered a 2-0 lead against Hoffenheim to draw 3-3. Kevin-Prince Boateng, man of the match against the Romanians, was on the scoresheet on Saturday.

Chelsea warmed-up for Tuesday’s tie by drawing 1-1 at London rivals Spurs in a match which saw Fernando Torres sent-off and John Terry score his team’s only goal. Juan Mata will start the match that coach Jose Mourinho says is a game Chelsea can’t afford to lose.

The Gunners’ remarkable turnaround after an opening day defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League has seen them reel off nine consecutive wins, including a 2-1 victory away to Marseille in their Group F curtain raiser.

Arsene Wenger celebrated his 17th anniversary as Arsenal boss with a 2-1 win away to Swansea over the weekend with in-form midfielder Aaron Ramsey on target for a fourth game running.

Theo Walcott is sidelined, but Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky could return after a month out.

Rafael Benitez’s Napoli are also off to a strong start in Italy’s Serie A, having dropped just two points from a possible 18. Benitez will have a rested Marek Hamsik to call upon.

Last season’s finalists Borussia Dortmund are off to a flying start in the Bundesliga with six wins from seven matches, including a 5-0 thrashing of

the all-time leading scorer in the Russian league in that game as he notched his 208th career goal.

Austria Vienna, 1-0 losers at home to FC Porto, went down 1-0 at Admira and are in fifth position in the top flight league. They are playing in the Champions League Group stages for the first time.

Atletico have made a fantastic start to the campaign with six consecutive wins in all competitions, culminating in a first league victory over Real Madrid for 14 years on Saturday.

Unfortunately for Diego Simeone’s men, talisman Diego Costa is unavailable as he serves the final match of his four-game European ban.

Porto sit two points clear of Sporting Lisbon at the top of the Portuguese league after six games.

Fixture Basel St Bucharest Dortmund Arsenal Zenit Porto Ajax Celtic

v v v v v v v v

Schalke 04 Chelsea Marseille Napoli Vienna (1600) Atletico AC Milan Barcelona

Ajax will be looking to bounce back from the 4-0 mauling they suffered at the hands of Barcelona and can hold out some hope against an Italian side that has won just twice in six Serie A games.

Celtic gave Scottish football a rare moment of joy last season when they recorded an historic 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League group stage. This time round Celtic manager Neil Lennon is not expecting a repeat.

However, Barcelona will be without Lionel Messi who suffered a thigh injury in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Almeria. With his tough tackling compatriot Javier Mascherano also out of the match with a hamstring injury it poses some problems for coach Gerardo Martino. Defeat for Celtic would be their 100th in all European club competitions. l

Villarreal taste first league defeat n Reuters

Results

Promoted Villarreal suffered a first defeat on their return to La Liga when they fell 1-0 at Real Betis on Sunday, missing out on the chance to move into third place.

The team known as the Yellow Submarine had won four games and drawn two, including holding Real Madrid 2-2, after spending last season in the second division.

They struggled in Seville, however, and Betis forward Nosa scored the game’s only goal after 36 minutes when keeper Sergio Asenjo could only parry Joan Verdu’s shot and Nosa put away the loose ball.

Asenjo kept the visitors in the game with a couple of smart saves and their coach Marcelino was sent off for protesting after the referee waved away a penalty appeal in the dying minutes.

Villarreal stayed fourth in the standings with 14 points from seven games.

“I am satisfied with the team’s per-

Osasuna Celta Vigo Espanyol Real Betis

0-1 0-1 0-2 1-0

Levante Xumetra 88

Elche 1

Marquez 63

Getafe

Colunga 73, 90+2

Villarreal

Nosa 36

formance, though obviously disappointed with the result,” Marcelino told a news conference.

“I am proud of the fact we have had to wait until the seventh round of matches to suffer our first defeat.”

Champions Barcelona and Atletico Madrid top the table with a perfect 21 points after away victories on Saturday.

Barca won 2-0 at Almeria and Atletico beat city rivals Real Madrid 1-0 at the Bernabeu with an early goal from Diego Costa. Carlo Ancelotti’s Real are third with 16 points.

Adrian Colunga scored twice to lead Getafe to a 2-0 win at Espanyol, ending a run of seven successive league defeats on the road stretching back to April.

Stuttgart hammer bottom side Braunschweig n AFP

Match Results

VfB Stuttgart moved up to sixth in the Bundesliga with an emphatic 4-0 rout of bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig on Sunday.

After Bosnia striker Vedad Ibisevic headed Stuttgart ahead five minutes before the break, Guinea midfielder Ibrahima Traore’s parried long-range shot was netted by Romania’s Alexandru Maxim for a 2-0 lead.

The 25-year-old Traore then scored his first league goal of the season when he latched onto Christian Gentner’s pass behind the defence to slot home on 76 minutes.

Werder Bremen

3-3

Nuremberg

Braunschweig

0-4

Stuttgart

Dabanli 8-og, Elia 34, 66

Kiyotake 44, Drmic 53, Hlousek 70

Ibisevic 40, Maxim 51, Traore 76, Harnik 86

Traore then found acres of space on the left wing and his cross was converted

by Austria’s Martin Harnik four minutes from time to inflict a sixth defeat from seven games on Braunschweig.

Earlier, Werder Bremen and Nuremberg fought out a six-goal thriller with Dutch winger Eljero Elia scoring twice for the hosts for a 3-3 draw. l

The striker broke away from his marker on to substitute Pablo Sarabia’s clever pass in the 73rd minute and slotted the ball into the corner.

The same partnership produced the second goal in stoppage time as Colunga fired in at the back post.

Improving Getafe made it three wins from their last four outings and climbed to eighth with 10 points from seven games, one behind Espanyol in seventh.

Levante joined Getafe on 10 points in ninth with a 1-0 win at Osasuna, when Jordi Xumetra netted two minutes from time. The visiting forward reacted quickest to score after Osasuna keeper Andres Fernandez parried a Papakouli Diop penalty.

Promoted Elche won their first game back in the top flight since 1989, triumphing 1-0 at Celta Vigo to climb to 16th on six points.

The Alicante-based club had been unlucky not to earn a point against Real Madrid during the week, but Javi Marquez helped ease the memory as he broke away and drilled a low shot in off the far post in the 62nd minute. l

Monaco top table after Moutinho rescues a point n Reuters Joao Moutinho netted a clever free kick to earn Monaco a 1-1 draw at Stade Reims on Sunday and keep them top of the Ligue 1 table.

The principality club reclaimed top spot with 18 points from eight games, ahead of Paris St Germain on goal difference after the French champions beat Toulouse 2-0 on Saturday.

Antoine Devaux had put the hosts ahead after just four minutes with a neat header. Moutinho levelled for the big-spenders only 11 minutes later, becoming the third player to score for Monaco whose previous 13 goals were credited to Falcao (7) and Riviere (6). l

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez (R) celebrates scoring his team's third goal against Sunderland during their English Premier League match at the Stadium of Light in, northeast England, on Sunday. Liverpool won 3-1 AFP

Suarez sends Liverpool second n AFP

Luis Suarez crowned his Premier League return with a brace as Liverpool won 3-1 at bottom club Sunderland on Sunday to climb to second place in the table.

Having completed a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic last season, Suarez scored in each half at the Stadium of Light as Liverpool ended a run of three games without victory.

Daniel Sturridge had given Liverpool the lead with his fifth goal of the season, with Emanuele Giaccherini replying for Sunderland early in the second half after Suarez had made it 2-0.

It was Sunderland’s first league game since the dismissal of manager Paolo Di

Canio, but although they are now four points from safety, interim coach Kevin Ball took heart from their second-half display. Both sides threatened from early set-pieces, Keiren Westwood denying Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and Sebastian Larsson rattling the visitors’ bar, before the away side went ahead in contentious circumstances in the 28th minute.

Gerrard’s left-wing corner found Sturridge unmarked at the back post and although he shaped to head the ball, it actually struck his elbow before bouncing over the line.

Sunderland’s defenders did not appeal, however, and eight minutes later Sturridge’s teasing low cross from the right allowed Suarez to slide home his first goal since completing his suspension.

The Uruguayan celebrated by lifting his jersey to reveal a T-shirt bearing a picture of his family with his newborn son Benjamin, who was born on Thursday. The hosts were quick to react thThere were chances for both teams, Mignolet denying Gardner again, while Westwood saved from Victor Moses and Kolo Toure, before Suarez tucked in his second goal from another Sturridge cross in the 89th minute.

Earlier, Norwich City won 1-0 against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium to register their second victory of the league season and only their second away win of 2013. Arsenal moved two points clear at the top of the table following a 2-1 win at Swansea City on Saturday, while Manchester City lost 3-2 at Aston Villa and Manchester United were stunned 2-1 by West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Afghanistan eye two-win passage to World Cup

Quick Bytes

Junior wrestling starts today The three day Marcel Refrigerator 22nd National Junior Wrestling starts at the Shahid (Capt) M. Monsur Ali Handball Stadium today. About 150 male and female wrestlers from across the country will participate in seven weight categories. Sponsors Marcel provided a purse of Tk400,000 to the Bangladesh Wrestling Federation. The winner of each event will win Tk2,000, the runner-up Tk1,500 and the third placed participant Tk1,000. At a press conference at the handball federation yesterday, Tabiur Rahman, the general secretary of the wrestling federation, said his federation did not receive the money allocated for training from the National Sports Council and sponsors like Marcel had kept the program alive. “We hope this event will help budding wrestlers maintain a high standard,” he said. Tabiur said the federation is interested in hosting the Islamic Solidarity Wrestling Championship in Dhaka in March 2014. A.F.M. Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of RB Group, wrestling federation vice president Jahidul IUslam Khokon, joint secretary Mesbauddin Azad, ATN Bangla representative Shamimn Ara Munni were also present on the occasion.

- RM

n AFP, Dubai

Under-12 football tour not to be The planned tour of the Bangladesh U-12 football team to South Korea was called off due to the negligence of the sports minsitry. The invitiaon came to the sports ministry and the minsitry informed the National Sports Coouncil, who later forwarded the message to the Bangladesh Football Federation. In response Bangladesh Football Federation expressed their interest in the tour and asked the minsitry to confirm their particiapation. The deadline for confirming was September 19 but it was learnt that the letter reached Korea on September 19 and the South Korean Football Association rejected the tour.

- RM

Four hockey stars served show cause Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) on Monday served a show cause notice to four national hockey players - Kamruzzaman Rana, Russell Mahmud Jimmy, Imran Hasan Pintu and Zahid Hossain - for talking to the press about ongoing matters without permission. The players have been given one week to explain themselves for the breach.

- SH

Australian No 1 Tomic survives early scare in China Bernard Tomic made it through to the second round of the China Open Monday, claiming victory over homegrown star Zhang Ze after the wildcard gave him an early scare. The Australian number one began slowly, and was forced to save two set points against Zhang as he clawed his way back from being 5-3 down. Zhang, who is 190th in the world rankings, appeared to be closing in on the set as he took a 2-0 lead in the tie break, but Tomic eventually won it 7/4.

The 20-year-old then broke Zhang’s serve early in the second set and never looked to be in danger as he sealed victory with the scores at 7-6(7/4) 6-4.

Tomic is number 55 in the world rankings and considered one of the rising young guns of men’s tennis. However, he has developed a bad boy reputation, largely because of the actions of his father and coach. John Tomic received an eight-month suspended jail sentence earlier this month for headbutting his son’s former training partner, Thomas Drouet, breaking his nose and knocking him out in a May assault outside a Madrid hotel.

– AFP

Legendary cricketer Brian Lara, Team Manager of Trinidad Tobago, with a player of Titans while inspecting the pitch before a Champions League Twenty20 match at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday AP

Aussie ‘backlash’ talk doesn’t bother Gatting n AFP Former England captain Mike Gatting has laughed off suggestions Alastair Cook’s men could face an Australia ‘backlash’ when they defend the Ashes ‘Down Under.

Despite losing the recent Ashes series in England by a convincing 3-0 margin, the Australia camp have been in bullish mood ahead of the return campaign which starts with the first Test in Brisbane in November.

But Gatting, who led England to Ashes glory in Australia in 1986/87, told BBC Sport on Monday: “What are they (Australia) going to backlash us (England) with?”

“Have they found another Shane Warne or a Glenn McGrath?” added former batsman Gatting, famously dismissed by leg-spin great Warne’s ‘ball of the century’ at Old Trafford in 1993.

“Yes, the Aussies did improve over the course of the series but you would expect them to improve because Australians are proud cricketers.

“They had a good bowling attack but sadly their batsmen let them down.

“We had the quality to win the important moments, with the ball or with the bat,” Gatting said of an England side that has now won three successive Ashes series.

“We were quite consistent, but the Australians had inconsistencies throughout.

“If the two teams are pretty much the same, I wouldn’t expect the result to be any different.”

Gatting has spent much of his career at Lord’s, first as a player with Middlesex and then England before coaching Middlesex and becoming an England selector.

Most recently, he has worked at the ground as an administrator with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

But Tuesday will see the 56-year-old Gatting extend his relationship with the ‘home of cricket’ still further when he becomes President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord’s and still retains global responsibility for the sport’s Laws or rules.

Gatting will become MCC’s 179th President during a momentous year for both Lord’s Ground and Middlesex.

MCC will celebrate the bicentenary of the present ground in 2014, and Middlesex CCC the 150th anniversary of its formation.

“It is an amazing honour to have been asked to serve as president at the best cricket club in the world,” said Gatting, who captained MCC against the Rest of the World at Lord’s during the club’s bicentenary in 1987.

Gatting said he was looking forward to strengthening Lord’s work with those who live near the ground, situated in north-west London.

“I grew up not far from Lord’s in Willesden. One of my big things will be to get the MCC to really reach out into the local community,” he explained.

“We have been to communities all round the world, helping out with Afghanistan and Sri Lanka -- and doing huge amounts to boost the game in other people’s back yards.

“Sadly we’ve never really looked at our back yard and seen how we can help people in places like Kilburn, Willesden, Islington, Camden, Paddington and Wembley. “So we’ve appointed a community officer to try to make those links with the local area much stronger.

“We need to show we are interested in them and care about them.” l

Afghanistan can reach the World Cup for the first time if they clinch backto-back wins over Kenya in Sharjah on Wednesday and Friday.

With 15 points from 12 matches, Afghanistan are currently in fourth place in the eight-team World Cricket League.

Leaders Ireland, with 24 points, have already made sure of their place in the 2015 World Cup leaving the United Arab Emirates (18 points) and Afghanistan as the only two teams left in contention to grab the second and final automatic qualifying spot.

The UAE on Sunday defeated Namibia by 135 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in their last group game to move into second spot in the table and eliminate third-placed Netherlands (also 18 points) from the direct qualification race by virtue of having won more matches.

Afghanistan now must beat Kenya in their remaining one-day internationals on October 2 and 4 to pick up maximum points and seize second spot from the UAE. While the top two sides qualify automatically for the 2015 World Cup, being played in Australia and New Zealand, the bottom six teams in the World Cricket League will receive a second chance to advance at next

year’s qualifier in New Zealand, when they will lock horns with Hong Kong, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Uganda for the final two spots in the flagship 50-over tournament.

On Sunday, the UAE’s Shaiman Anwar again led with the bat, with a knock of 57 making him the highest run-getter of the tournament (625 runs from 14 innings) and helping his side to a total of 215 all out.

Afghanistan now must beat Kenya in their remaining oneday internationals on October 2 and 4 to pick up maximum points and seize second spot from the UAE Twenty-four year old Rohan Mustafa contributed 39.

In response, Namibia lost some early wickets and never recovered, with Mustafa following up his performance with the bat to claim three wickets for eight runs which helped dismiss Namibia for just 80.

“Winning and moving to second place was what we always wanted before the Namibia matches,” said UAE coach and former Pakistan fast bowler Aqib Javed. “Now we have to see what happens when Afghanistan play Kenya.”

Despite the importance of those clashes, Aqib doesn’t think he’ll be at the Sharjah stadium to watch. l

Court stalls Srinivasan return as BCCI boss n AFP, New Delhi India’s Supreme Court on Monday delayed N. Srinivasan’s return as the country’s cricket chief, saying there was “something seriously wrong” with the body that controls the sport in the cricket-crazy nation.

The 68-year-old cement tycoon, widely regarded as the most powerful man in world cricket, had been elected unopposed as the head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a third year on Sunday.

But the court barred Srinivasan from taking charge until it had ruled on a petition against him over a spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a popular Twenty20 tournament run by the board. “The fact that so many things are coming out of the IPL and BCCI, something is seriously wrong with the apex body controlling cricket,” the court said during Monday’s hearing.

“Why has the BCCI lost its credibility?

The only thing to be seen is how Srinivasan being the president will affect the IPL probe.” The court also fixed October 7 as the next date of the hearing.

A cricket body in the eastern state of Bihar which is not affiliated to the BCCI had asked the court to prevent Srinivasan’s return on moral grounds because his son-in-law had been charged in the scandal. The son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, is among several officials, players and bookmakers charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy, although the BCCI chief himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Srinivasan temporarily stepped aside as president in June when Meiyaappan was named in the scandal, and handed interim control to Jagmohan Dalmiya, a former head of the International Cricket Council. l

Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan (L) and Liezel Huber of the US celebrate after winning their women's doubles match against Serena Williams and her sister Venus at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing yesterday. Chan and Huber won 6-7, 6-4, 11-9 AFP

Marquez closes in on MotoGP title with Aragon win n AFP

Spaniard Marc Marquez closed in on the MotoGP world championship in his rookie season with a sixth race victory of the year in the Aragon Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 20-year-old passed reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo with 10 laps remaining to move 39 points ahead of his compatriot with just four races remaining.

Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi was third as he held off pressure from Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl in a fantastic battle for a place on the podium.

However, it was a disastrous day for Marquez’s Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa as he crashed out seconds after he and Marquez touched wheels to all

but end his championship hopes.

“I braked as I saw I was touching him (Pedrosa) so I went wide. Maybe I touched a cable of his but I am very disappointed for Dani. It is very bad luck for him because it is very rare that this happens.” As in many races this season it was Lorenzo who made the fastest start as he leapfrogged Marquez, who had started on pole, to move into the lead.

However, after losing some time as he ran wide in the collision with Pedrosa, Marquez was gaining on Lorenzo all the time and eventually made his move down the inside of the Yamaha rider with 10 laps remaining.

“I made an error as always at the start and that is something I have to improve on for the future races, but I only lost a second so I was able to be aggressive on the tyres and recover. l

Reigning champ Azarenka crashes out n AFP, Beijing

Day’s Watch Star Cricket 8:20pm 2013 CLT 20 LIVE Rajasthan Royals v Otago Volts ESPN 10:25pm AFC Cup 2013 LIVE Kuwait SC v East Bengal UEFA Champions League LIVE Ten Action 9:55pm Zenit Petersburg v Austria Vienna 12:00am Arsenal v Napoli Ten Sports 12:00am Celtic v Barcelona

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Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts after losing a point against Andrea Petkovic of Germany at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing yesterday REUTERS

Reigning China Open champion Victoria Azarenka crashed out in the first round on Monday as the second seed faced stiff resistance from former finallist Andrea Petkovic.

The Belarusian world number two rarely showed glimpses of the form which helped her claim the title last year, at times appearing sluggish as she committed a staggering 15 double faults in the 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss.

It is the second early exit in a row for the 24-year-old, who complained of feeling ill when she was defeated by Venus Williams in the second round of the Pan Pacific Open last week.

Azarenka appeared agitated in the opening set in Beijing’s National Tennis Centre, even before German Petkovic broke her serve following a string of double faults.

The second seed regained her composure in the second set and appeared

to be on course for victory when she broke Petkovic at the start of the third set.

However, the 2011 finallist then seized the initiative, claiming victory in two hours and 22 minutes.

China’s Zhang Shuai continued her sizzling form, defeating compatriot Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-3 to set up a secondround match against tenth seed Roberta Vinci.

Wildcard Zhang won her first WTA title in Guangzhou earlier this month.

The 24-year-old recruited her own coach in July, following Chinese star Li Na’s example in leaving the tightly controlled state sports system, raising hopes that she can emulate the success of the 2011 French Open winner.

It was a successful day for three Serbian players.

Eighth seed Jelana Jankovic needed three sets to overcome Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1-6, 6-4, 6-0. Compatriot Ana Ivanovic claimed victory

over Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (11/9), 6-1. Ivanovic had been trailing 5-1 in the first set.

“I really struggled to find my rhythm in the beginning. I felt the ball was flying,” she said.

“I didn’t really think I could come back in the first set, but I really played well and stepped up when it was very tight, so that gave me confidence.”

Bojana Jovanovski rounded off a hat-trick for the Serbians, beating Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-2. Also in the first round, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard defeated Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-1 and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova swept aside Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 6-1, 6-1.

The men’s tournament got under way Monday, but it was heartbreak for the home crowd after China’s topranked player fell at the first hurdle.

Zhang Ze was knocked out by Australian number one Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Bangladeshi at the heart of groundbreaking innovation Polymer turned from seafood waste to be used in medical care So, what is his research about? n Syeda Samira Sadeque Saniyat has been working with “Chitosan,” an Bangladeshi material scientist Dr Saniyat Islam, a recent PhD graduate in Australia, has come up with a groundbreaking innovation, which has the potential to revolutionise the manufacture of clothing material used in medical care.

Dr Saniyat, graduating from RMIT school of Fashion and Textiles in Australia, left for his Masters in Science in Australia in 2006.

Before that, he completed his education from Bangladesh University of Textiles and a worked here for a few years.

“While working here, I conceived these ideas and wanted to do further research,” he said, adding that he took off for Australia as it offered better research opportunities compared to here inBangladesh.

It took him a little more than two years to complete the mMasterrs degree. Saniyat says he has been working with “chitosan” –that is the centre of his recent innovation – for seven years now.

“amazing polymer,” as he describes it, that can be derived from seafood waste and can be implemented utilised in a wide range of applications spanning from dietary supplements to drugs to medical use.

“It is the most abundant of the polymers,” he told Dhaka Tribune while in an interview over Skype. “It is a win-win situation if you can utilise waste materials to produce further something something useful of it. It boosts sustainability as well,” he asserted.

“Chitosan” is a natural polymer found in the shells of prawns, crabs and other Crustaceans and contains some useful chemical properties whichproperties, which, thanks to Saniyat’s research, can now be used cost-effectively for medical purposes, like making dressing materials for wounds.

Earlier, for his Masters research, Saniyat had used the polymer as an odour-absorbing and anti-bacterial material for products such as car seats to alleviate bad odour.

During his PhD, he took his research a step

Dr Saniyat Islam further, when he discovered that it could be applied in the field of medical care, by mixing ‘when chitosan’ is mixed with wool, giving it which has excellent moisture-absorbing properties.

This combination, Saniyat discovered, helped produce a dressing cloth for wounds, which is highly absorbent as well as has a wound dressing with both good absorbency and excellent anti-bacterial qualities.

Away from home Saniyat says Bangladesh is still reliesy mostly upon theories when it comes to textile exploration, whereas, developed economies such as the one in Australia and other countries of the western world, focus more into on “technical” aspect of textiles.

For example, while Bangladesh deals with textiles in context of apparels and clothing in large, Australia has expanded their its foci focus to other factors, like, automobile seats and bulletproof vests.

While venturing out in Australia, where he worked on this topic for his masters, he explored all these boundaries, yet untouched in Bangladesh. To meet his quest he delved further into it during his PhD. The son of retired economics professor Md Nazrul Islam Mazumder and Sultana Razia, a DGM at Sonali Bank Sultana Razia, Saniyat had previously worked at a couple of renowned organisations including the Square Textiles Ltd. He said his experience of exploring out of the limited cubicle of researches in Bangladesh has revolutionised his thinking process.

“My thoughts took a different course after coming hereto Australia. I found that they had provisions for research on so many aspects of textile and material – ranging from diapers to hospital curtains to vests and so on,” said a contented Saniyat.

“Bangladesh is yet lags far behind in developing scopesfor such providing a scope for such in-depth research largely, because of lack of knowledge and awareness on the wide array of research that could be done in this field,” he added.

Closing thoughts Saniyat’s innovation might have been conducted in Australia, but it can be implemented in the context of other countries too.

“It’s cost-effective, and my samples have been tried against those from many contemporary companies, and they were proven to be 25%-30 % more efficient,” he claimed.

However, some challenges still remains.

Some ground tests are yet to be doneconducted, informs the researcher.

Saniyat is currently looking for funds to

Bill placed to bar war criminals from polls

Tk2m compensation for each Rana Plaza n Kamran Reza Chowdhury victim proposed

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The committee on compensation for the Rana Plaza victims has proposed a minimum of Tk2m for each- dead or missing.

A committee meeting held at the Savar Cantonment yesterday made the final proposal after the sub-committee’s proposal of Tk2.2m.

The High Court, however, will make the final decision on the amount of compensation.

Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, general officer commanding of the ninth infantry division at the Savar Cantonment, presided over the meeting.

Earlier on April 30, the High Court ordered to form a committee to fix adequate compensations for the victims of the deadliest clothing factory incident which killed over 1,100 workers and injured more than 2,500.

When contacted, BGMEA leader Shahidullah Azim termed the proposal as “impractical.”

“The payment of Tk2m compensation will require a total amount of Tk3bn.

While making compensation proposal, the committee should have taken the reality [of the industry] into account,” said Azim, vice president of BGMEA. According to him, such type of proposal will discourage the investors to continue their business.

The meeting sources said the ministry of labour representative to the committee laid emphasis on following the labour law to finalise the compensation.

Another member of the committee said the compensation for Rana Plaza victims should not be less than that of Tazreen fire victims.

The committee also proposed Tk1m each for those who lost one limb and Tk1.5m for those who lost two limbs and Tk2m for the workers who lost more than two limbs.

An amount of Tk600,000 has also been proposed for each injured worker who are under long-term treatment.

Earlier, a sub-committee made proposal of minimum Tk2.2m for each of the victims killed and missing in the Savar tragedy. l

Law Minister Shafique Ahmed has tabled in parliament proposals to amend to the electoral parent law stripping the convicted war criminals of their right to contest in polls in future.

The new proposed law Representation of the People (amendment) Bill, 2013 was placed yesterday as the Jatiya Sangsad resumed its session with a 10day recess in absence of main opposition BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami.

The bill was later sent to the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry for further scrutiny before its passage.

The standing committee recommendation is a must for enactment of the proposed law.

The Representation of the People Order RPO), 1972 is the basic law for the general elections. The Electoral Code of

Conduct of 1973 is the rule made under the law promulgated by then president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in absence of parliament after the independence of Bangladesh.

On September 16, the law minister also tabled the Voters’ Roll (second amendment) Bill, 2013 to drop the convicted war criminals from the voters’ list amid absence of the opposition.

Fazle Rabbi Mia, chairman of the standing committee, yesterday tabled the recommendations on the voters’ roll amendment bill.

The bills are set to pass in the current session ending on October 24, the de facto last day of the Awami League-led ninth parliament, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune.

The two war crimes tribunals have already convicted six persons, all former and current leaders of Jamaat.

They are Abul Kamal Azad alias Bach-

chu Razakar, Ghulam Azam, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, Abdul Quader Molla and M Kamaruzzaman.

All of them will lose their voting and candidature rights after the passage of the two bills.

More opposition leaders have been awaiting trial for their alleged involvement in war crimes. Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and AKM Yusuf and the BNP’s Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Alim are the leading political figures facing the trials.

The constitution also contains a provision that debars the war criminals to lose the rights.

The RPO bill also proposed amending some other sections. In its proposal to amend section 16, the bill proposes that any political party fielding more than one candidate for a constituency must inform the returning officer

A recent YouTube video documenting “happiness” of people in Dhaka has taken a hit on social media, with many blogging that Bangladesh is indeed one of the happiest countries as various reports have suggested.

Pedestrians from a varying range of class, age, and gender in different areas of the capital shared their philosophy on happiness and their own experiences from life in a short video compiled

by Farhan Hussain and his friends.

“Bangladesh is consistently ranked one of the happiest in the world and we wanted to find out how accurate this is,” the 5-minute video reads in the beginning.

In a phone interview with the Dhaka Tribune, Hussain, who started this during the summer, said: “You never see anything other than news when you search for Bangladesh, and I wanted to change that. I wanted to make something our people could relate to.”

Hussain is a second-year student

‘Toll’ demanded from home minister n Our correspondent, Chandpur Through a letter to Zia Ahmed Sumon, the upazila nirbahi officer of Kachua in Chandpur, a person has demanded TK1m from him and the home minister.

The hand-written letter, sent through courier by a Bashundhara area resident Rashed Alam Khan, reads: “The Upazila Nirbahi Officer, if you and Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir MP keep the wishes to be alive, you will have to send Tk1m to the following numbers. And tell the prime minister that her time for being departed is coming soon.”

The numbers are 01987521286, 01929291634, 017686757-90, 01769922787, and 01851542366. The UNO yesterday filed a general diary with Kachua police station. M Alamgir Hossain Majumder, officer-in-charge of Kachua police station, said necessary measures would be taken upon investigation. l

Bills on food safety, MLM placed in JS n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Wildlife management and nature conservation division recovered about 450 wild birds of different species from Paler Para, Gazipur yesterday. Story on Page 6 DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Are you happy?’ Bangladeshi video goes viral n Syeda Samira Sadeque

concerned in writing the name of one candidate as its nominee before the last day of the withdrawal of nomination papers. The candidature of other contestants will not remain valid.

The returning officer will display a photocopy of the party decision over candidate selection.

The draft law proposed raising the amount of deposit for vying in the polls – Tk20,000 from the previous Tk10,000. It also increased the amount of electoral expense from Tk1.5m to Tk2.5m excluding the cost of countrywide tours of the chiefs of the political parties.

It also hikes the limits of donations of individuals and institutions for the parties. According to the proposal, a person can donate up to Tk2.5m, which is Tk1m at present. Similarly, donation for institutions has been proposed Tk5m from Tk2.5m. l

boost up the project and in the mean time hasd been offered with a two-year fellowship at RMIT. “No matter how many challenges lie, we cannot stop, we have to keep going,” he said.

Since Bangladesh is heavy on textile production and export, there is speculation that such a cost-effective method of producing material for medical care could create a marked difference in the market here.

Therefore, when asked whether he intends to come back to Bangladesh, he cheerfully replied: “Of course! I grew up inthe air and breeze of in this countrycountry; I ought to give something back to it.”

Regarding his journey for over the last one decade, Saniyat, now a father of two, said it had not been so easy and smooth.

“It took me almost a year to settle down.

Nevertheless, it was my ability to dream and determination to hold on that brought me here. Therefore, I would say, when you dream, work towards it, even if it means working 24/7 at times, work ceaselessly. Challenge your capabilities!” l

at State University of New York. His friends Ejaz Mehedi, Safat Chowdhury, Sajeed Sarwar, Tahmid Azeez, Raihan Ansari, Salman Nahiyan worked with him on this project.

Hussain says about 100 people were originally interviewed, but they had to eliminate many clips in order to keep the video short. The final version, showing stories of about 20 people, documents their varying definitions of happiness.

“I just met my grandmother, so I am happy,” a young man smiles gleefully.

Some others discuss happiness as a vast phenomenon.

“Happiness is something you have to enjoy in your own way, and I am enjoying in it my own way,” says one lady.

Another says: “I have been happy ever since I was born. Happiness is a subjective matter, whatever I have achieved is happiness and what I haven’t isn’t sadness, but a driving to force to achieve it.”

A smiling rickshaw puller says: “By grace of God, I am happy!”

In a rather stark contrast to this, some express sorrow or remorse.

An elderly lady speaks of her husband’s death in a road accident in 2010.

A young boy speaks about having been insulted by those around him.

“But I won’t give up,” he says. “Because nothing is impossible.”

Many in the video speak about being happy in personal life but not with the country.

“With the current situation, the lower and middle-income families like us are struggling a lot,” says a middle-aged man.

“In that regard, I am not happy, but I’m happy in my personal life,” he adds.

The theme of financial insecurity appears in other comments as well.

“I came here from Khulna for a job but with no reference; plus I haven’t completed my degree. So it might be a bit difficult,” an anxious youth says.

Interestingly, even those who speak about being unhappy or stressed do so with a tinge of smile on their face, generating a sense of hope in their responses.

The video ends with a little boy explaining why he is happy: “I am happy,” he giggles. “Because there is happiness!”

Lukewarm responses

Since Tuesday, the video has received more than 30,000 views and various comments.

“I absolutely started tearing up by the time the widow shared her tragedy...a beautiful film. Thank you,” commented one Atif Choudhury on YouTube.

“Thank you guys for doing this. The most amazing is your idea and sense of empathy. I am a Bangladeshi and I am happy,” wrote user Adnan R Amin.

The video also received criticism for lacking in variety of class. One Nathan Flintoff wrote only “middle or upper class” people were filmed.

“I tried to cover as much demographics as I could,” Hussain said over the phone. “But often, the ‘poverty’ in Bangladesh gets overrepresented to attract sympathy and I wanted to move away from that.” l

The government placed a legislative proposal yesterday to create a high-powered authority to ensure safe food for people and try the food adulteration offences under a Safe Food Court that will dispose of the charges as summary trials.

Food Minister Abdur Razzaq tabled the Safe Food Bill, 2013 in parliament in absence of the main opposition and the proposal went to the parliamentary standing committee on food ministry for further scrutiny.

According to the bill, the government will form a 30-member National Safe Food Management Advisory Council, headed by the food minister, comprised of 14 secretaries, 11 heads of different government entities and representation from other stakeholders.

This will be the highest policy making body for food safety activities.

A Central Safe Food Management Coordination Committee, headed by

the chairman of the Safe Food Authority, will coordinate activities of the agencies involved in food production and distribution.

Abdur Razzaq also initiated the Bangladesh Council of Science and Industrial Bill, 2013 mainly to rescind the exiting Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Ordinance, 1978 promulgated by Ziaur Rahman.

The bill went to the parliamentary standing committee on the science and technology ministry for further scrutiny. The watchdog will have to finalise its recommendations in seven days.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Faruk Khan, in absence of Commerce Minister Ghulam Muhammad Quader, tabled the Multi-Level Marketing (regulation) Bill, 2013 to replace the existing MLM Ordinance, 2013.

The parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry must prepare its report in the next two days and refer back to the House before the bill’s enactment. l

Polytechnic demos off n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Technical Student Council announced yesterday evening that they would call off their demonstrations for next 15 days after a meeting with the education and public works secretaries, following two days of violent protests by polytechnic students across the country.

“We have decided to call off our demonstration for the next 15 days as we were assured that all our demands will be met,” Jakir Hossain Sagor, president of the council, told journalists after emerging from the meeting.

He said they were assured that the scholarships of polytechnic students would be increased by 50%, the status of engineers would be raised and there would be an increase in the promotion of diploma engineers.

Jakir demanded that the students detained in the last two days be released and announced that students would return to classes in three days.

Agitating polytechnic students van-

dalised dozens of vehicles on Sunday and Monday during their demos across the country to press home a two-point demand. Several hundred people were injured in the violent demos.

The demands include amendment of the 2008 gazette which terms the diploma engineers as supervisors and a raise in scholarships and internship allowances.

Housing and Public Works Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain earlier announced the government had decided that the diploma engineers would be called “diploma engineers” or “sub assistant engineers” and it would amend the 2008 gazette after law ministry vetting.

Education Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury urged students to return to classes and take part in examinations. He said that the ministry would start solving the issues raised in two or three working days.

Among others, President of the Institute of Diploma Engineers AKM Hamid and Secretary General Shamsur Rahman were present. l

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B2 Telenor invests in 3G

after assurance about licence

B3 WB to fund $10m for

solar irrigation pumps

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

Business www.dhakatribune.com/business

Stock investors suffer from disclosure deficiency ‘Detailed disclosures – bad or negative – should be disclosed in more specific way’ n Kayes Sohel Transparency still lacks in the stock markets as existing trading and financial disclosures by listed companies are insufficient to gauge the market pulse properly, analysts say.

Compared to the disclosure presentation mode being practised by the stock exchanges in the region –Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) – the country’s two stock exchanges lag behind them in most cases.

For example, the company disclosures and price sensitive information have been posted on the Colombo Stock Exchange websites by scanning the original copies from the companies. This practice is absent in the local stock markets.

Shariful Islam, a retail investor, said actually most investors in our market invest without analysing the company fundamentals. “Detailed disclosures – bad or negative – should be disclosed in more specific way, which will make us aware.”

The local stock exchanges should pick up best practices of other countries for the greater interest of investors and market as well, he said.

Breakdown of trading volume and even script-wise investment by the fund managers, institutional investors and foreign investors are displayed on the screen on daily basis in the KSE and BSE. Those data can easily be analysed to gauge what the most sophisticated and relatively rational investors are thinking about market which can help the retailer measure market direction.

These are the glaring examples of making the stock market more transparent and accountable. It is unclear whether any investors were truly able to take advantage of the timing of the earnings release and other disclosures.

“Market lacks transparency in some ways,” said Wali-ul-Maroof Matin, an analyst and ex-chief executive officer of Chittagong Stock exchange.

He said transparency in revelation has been a grey area due to lack of adequate regulations and proper monitoring. “We need to come out of the odds because peoples’ in-

volvement is increasingly growing.”

He said: “Investors want transparent and clear disclosure about present and future corporate operations and performance. Disclosures should include the most relevant information in a format that investors can understand.”

The country’s two stock exchanges – Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange – need to improve the information revelation mode for presenting information in more transparent and specific way.

Mahmood Osman Imam, a professor at the University of Dhaka, said stock exchanges should disclose details as far as it can for bringing more transparency and accountability in the market.

The disclosures will include details that are required to create a correct picture of the companies’ true financial situations and opportunities, he said.

“Still, there is enough room for a lot of im-

provements in the mode of disclosures,” said Yawer Sayeed, a fund manager.

He said more information revelation means more transparent and useful for the investors. “However, there is no end of excellence in presenting the revelations.”

Admitting the fact of lacking existing disclosure system, DSE President Ahsanul Islam Titu said: “We’re working on it. DSE will post original copies of the company announcements. So the investors can read it as it is.”

Chittagong Stock Exchange President Al Maruf Khan said breakdown of investment volume of institutional, foreign and mutual funds can be seen soon as CSE is making its efforts over the last eight months in this connection. He said there are some legal barriers to disclose information of the company in some cases.

An analyst preferring not to be named said: “At a time when there continues to be a growing global demand for increased

transparency and disclosure, the disclosure system of local stock exchanges is unfortunately being emasculated because of benign neglect.”

The listed companies are (at present) publishing quarterly financial statements in the website of the bourses in a very concise form, without showing details of some vital components of financial statements, such as detailed sources of income, he said.

He said institutional investors are assumed to take rational investment decision.

“So the international practice of disclosing the buy and sell amount of market turnover by foreign investors, local institutional investors and mutual funds can help retail investors to know the market direction. If our neighboring exchanges can disclose it, we should follow the same practices.”

These information, he observed, are crucial for investors to make knowledgeable investment decisions. l

Draft GB law to be placed before cabinet Thursday n Tribune Report Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the proposed Grameen Bank law 2013 will be placed before the cabinet on Thursday.

The main feature of the proposed law focused on the rules for election of the directors of the

bank, he told reporters, after a meeting with the Institution of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh at his secretariat office.

Besides, a tax holiday would be offered to the bank for a certain period, he said. Bangladesh Bank would be the regulatory authority of the micro-credit entity.

The Minister said the draft law would be sent to parliament for enactment of the law after necessary approval by the cabinet. He said the Grameen Bank Commission did not submit its final report on Monday, the deadline for submission of the much-talked about report. “I’ve been waiting for the commission chairman and members, but

they did not come … they may come on Tuesday.”

Muhith said the commission had submitted an interim report in February with some recommendations. The commission was formed to investigate into the irregularities in the microfinance institution.

The commission, headed by former bureaucrat Mamunur Rashid, was formed in May, 2012. l

2 IMF mission inquires about progress on VAT system automation n Syed Samiul Basher Anik A four-member International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission yesterday inquired about the current status of progress in implementation of the budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 as well as the status of implementation of Value Added Tax system automation.

They had a meeting with National Board of Revenue Chairman Ghulam Hossain and asked about the progress of the macroeconomic indicators what they review routinely against their ECF loan of around US$1bn, said a senior NBR official.

He said they also wanted to know the current status of the hard term loans the government wishes to take from different sources.

The chairman updated the IMF mission on the latest status of the issues they inquired, said another official.

The delegation, led by mission chief Rodrigo Cubero, is now in Dhaka for the third Extended Credit Facility (ECF) review, following disbursement of the third installment of US$136.6m from the package. The latest review would facilitate disbursement of the fourth installment.

The IMF, earlier this month, had submitted a requisition to the Ministry of Finance to provide some key economic information including inquiry on FY 14 budget, monthly and full-year target for FY14, sizable revenue shortage in FY13 and main measures underlying FY14 tax revenue collections, including the new tax policy measures.

The IMF team also sought information on update of VAT implementation including update on the progress toward selecting a vendor for VAT automation system (December 2013 benchmark) and update on steps taken to allocate personnel and financial resources for the VAT implementation project team. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

Safeguard labour rights to save EU market: Hanna ‘Bangladesh can’t take for granted trade preferences it enjoys’ n Tribune Business Desk Bangladesh needs to ensure fair wages and other rights to workers to safeguard the market access for its textile products to European market in days to come, said European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh William Hanna.

He was speaking at a national dialogue in Dhaka yesterday.

“European citizens are closely watching the labour rights situation in Bangladesh and are annoyed with the recent images of people fighting for rights that made news on media,” the EU ambassador said.

“The European citizens can never accept the ruthless exploitation of workers. The exploitation has to stop,” he told the dialogue on “RMG workers’ rights issues,” organised

by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) at the LGED auditorium.

The EU is ready to be part of the success in the readymade garment sector (RMG), but not of exploitation, he said.

Hanna stressed that the country must ensure workers’ rights to form association, collective bargaining, occupational safety and fair wages if it wants to secure the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for its textile products in the European market.

Citing the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, he cautioned that Bangladesh cannot take for granted the trade preferences it currently enjoys.

Earlier, Karel De Gucht said: “I want to make it clear that Bangladesh – or for that matter any other Least Developed Country — cannot take for granted the trade preferences it currently enjoys.”

EU Ambassador to Bangladesh William Hanna Karel De Gucht came up with this assertion at a press conference after the Global Sustainability Compact in Response to Bangladesh Tragedies held at Geneva in July.

“Bangladesh also enjoys an extremely favourable trade regime under the EU’s ‘Everything But Arms’ initiative. This is of particular importance for ready-made garments, which represent about 90% of Bangladesh’s exports to the EU,” said Gucht.

“Under the Everything But Arms scheme, the EU may consider appropriate action should there be no or insufficient progress for Bangladeshi workers,” he added. l

BRAC Business School Oil prices tumble on concerns holds seminar on over US budget impasse effective leadership key influence on crude prices. n Tribune Business Desk n AFP, Singapore Investors are also eyeing a more critical BRAC Business School organised a seminar on “Effective Leadership” at the university auditorium in Dhaka recently. It was aimed at sharing experiences with the audience on how an effective leader transforms an organisation.

Novartis Bangladesh (NB) managing director and country president Kuntal Baveja was the key speaker of the session, said a press release. NB head of Corporate Affairs and Communications Moutushi Kabir and head of Human Resources Mushfequr Rahman also spoke. BRAC University MBA Forum organised the seminar.

Among the others, Business School dean Professor Golam Mohammad, BRAC University MBA Programme coordinator Mohammad Rezaur Razzak, career service office advisor Kumar Murshid and Business School’s senior lecturer Md Tamzidul Islam also attended the function. l

Oil prices tumbled yesterday in Asian trade as a budget impasse in the United States threatens to shut down parts of the economy, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in November fell $1.35 to $101.52 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for November was down 95 cents to $107.68.

Crude tracked losses on most Asian equity markets after the House of Representatives approved a Republican bill seeking to delay President Barack Obama’s health care law.

With Democrats refusing to accept demands for cutbacks in the healthcare programme, there are fears that hundreds of thousands of US federal employees will be sent home from Tuesday.

The US is the world’s biggest oil consuming nation and the health of its economy is a

row over the US debt ceiling, which must be raised before mid-October, when the government runs out of money to pay its bills.

If the spending limit is not hiked, Washington will be unable to service its debt obligations and will in turn default. A similar standoff in 2011 sent global markets sliding and led to a historic downgrade of the country’s AAA sovereign rating by Standard & Poor’s.

“The budget impasse in the United States is certainly creating uncertainty, but there is also hope among investors that there will be a last-minute save like the last time round,” David Lennox, resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, told AFP. DBS Bank said a forced shutdown of the US government could see the US Federal Reserve expanding its $85bn a month bond-buying programme, instead of winding it down as expected. l

British-American Tobacco Bangladesh gets new MD n Tribune Business Desk British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) is getting Shehzad Mumin as new managing director from today.

He will be the first Bangladeshi to be appointed as MD of the BATB since the start of BAT’s operation in Bangladesh, said a press release.

Prior to this role, Shehzad worked as the MD of BAT for South Asia Area. He also served in many senior management positions in Bangladesh, New Zealand, Australia and South Asia Area Head Quarter in Pakistan, said a press release.

Shehzad Mumin joins as the new Managing Director of British American Tobacco Bangladesh Shehzad Mumin has joined as the Managing Director of British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) from October 1. He is the first ever-Bangladeshi MD in more than 100 years history of BAT’s operation in Bangladesh.

Prior to this role, Shehzad worked as the MD of South Asia Area, BAT. Shehzad joined BATB Right after his graduation from IBA in 1997. In just 16 years at BAT, he served in many senior management positions in Bangladesh, New Zealand, Australia and South Asia Area Head Quarter in Pakistan. Under his Leadership BAT South Asia Area achieved ever-highest turnover and market share.

Shehzad has a long success record locally and internationally within the BAT Group and is known for his passionate people leadership. l

Pakistani team visits Dhaka to see structuring of informal jobs n Tribune Business Desk A delegation of 14 high-level officials from Pakistan’s public and private sectors recently arrived in Bangladesh on a five-day visit to learn about the implementation of a ILO project in government and industrial sector.

The ILO project is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reform Project.

The delegation concluded their visit on Friday last, said a press release.

The apprentice employees are exploited in the country’s informal job sector.

The project is to structure apprenticeships in the sector and in trades such as motorcycle servicing, mobile phone servicing, tailoring and dressmaking.

About 87% of workers in Bangladesh hold informal jobs, including wage labourers, self-employed persons, unpaid family labour and piece-rate workers.

Such employees remain unequipped and unskilled for years.

The government, non-government organisations and private sector, supported by the ILO, are working to change the situation introducing structured pathways to learn skills. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

WB to fund $10m for solar irrigation pumps n Tribune Report The World Bank will fund $10m at low cost to help farmers of Bangladesh install solar irrigation pumps.

Economic Relations Division Additional Secretary Arastoo Khan and Acting Head of World Bank Bangladesh Christine Kimes signed an agreement on the project in Dhaka yesterday.

The project is expected to enable setting up of more than 1,300 solar-powered irrigation pumps covering more than 65,000 bighas of land for rice cultivation, said a statement. It will be financed by the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF), an innovative multi-donor financing mechanism.

The pumps would provide farmers with access to clean energy in a comparatively lower cost. Traditionally, Bangladeshi farmers rely on more expensive diesel based irrigation pumps for rice cultivation.

By replacing the diesel pumps with solar ones in the off-grid areas, the project would reduce dependence of farmers on diesel supply, which is often erratic and costly particularly in remote rural areas.

Reliance on costly diesel imports for irrigation puts a pressure on the country’s foreign exchange. Some 1,300 solar pumps will help save $3.2m in foreign currency annually due to the replacement.

SIBL holds its 549th EC meeting n Tribune Business Desk Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) recently held its 549th meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) at the head office of the bank.

The meeting was presided over by SIBL EC Chairman Alhaj Mohammad Younus, said a press release.

During the meeting the members of the committee discussed various issues relating to investment in different sectors. Among others EC Vice-Chairman Alhaj Md Sanaullah Shahid, Directors Alhaj Mohammed Solaiman, Alhaj Mohiuddin Ahmed, MD Md Abdur Rahman Sarker, DMD Md Abdul Jabber Chowdhury, Md Setaur Rahman and Khondoker Nayeemul Kabir were also present in the meeting. l

JBF moves five entities to own building n Tribune Business Desk Jamuna Bank Foundation (JBF) recently shifted its 5 entities to its own building at Mohammadpur, Dhaka.

JBL Chairman Kanutosh Majumder was present as chief guest at a function on the occasion, said a press release. The function was presided over by JBF chairman Nur Mohammed.

JBL director Engr Md Atiqur Rahman and managing director Shafiqul Alam also attended. l

Officials exchange documents after signing the $10m fund for solar pumps in Dhaka yesterday “Wider use of solar powered irrigation pumps will help Bangladesh to save foreign exchange in diesel imports. Due to clean and renewable energy use, the project will reduce carbon emission by 10,000 tons every year,” said Christine Kimes.

Private sponsors will be responsible for installation, operation and maintenance of the solar pumps. BCCRF will provide up to 50% of the pump costs in grant while International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank will provide 30% in concessional credit. Private sponsors are expected

to provide 20% of the pump costs as equity.

“The project directly contributes to the Government of Bangladesh’s climate change adaptation vision,” said Arastoo Khan.

BCCRF has provided $10m in grant in the first phase for the solar irrigation project and the total commitment for the project is $24.5m as grant.

The Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) will implement the project through private sponsors as part of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development II (RERED II) Project. l

DSE turnover dips below Tk3bn n Tribune Report Stocks continue to fall for the second consecutive session yesterday with turnover dipping below Tk3bn-mark.

The benchmark DSEX index was down 31 points or 0.8% to 3,937 – its lowest since August 12 this year. The blue chip index DS30 dropped 8 points or 0.6% to 1,440.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, declined 56 points to 7,674. Trading activities continued to decline at DSE as the total turnover value stood at Tk2.8bn, down more than 18% over the previous session’s value. It was also lowest since August 13 this year.

“Fear of potential turmoil in political frontier knocked investors’ sentiment very negatively during the session,” said IDLC Investment in its daily market analysis.

It said seemingly, investors were neutralising quick returns especially in most of the micro cap scrips ahead of Eid-Ul-Azha.

Conversely, it added, investors were focusing fundamentally strong large cap scrips as those were providing lucrative price ad-

vantage in the recent times.

Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 287 issues traded 57 declined, 215 advanced and 17 remained unchanged in the prime bourse.

Zenith Investments Limited said the share market strongly reflected the upcoming political change with the low participation in volume. “Following last one week’s trend, it seems that investors prefer holding their asset towards a better return in the future that is expected with the stability of political sector.”

All the sectors ended in red except telecommunications and food & allied.

The price appreciation of large cap stock – Grameenphone – helped the telecommunications sector gain 1.13%. Among the other major sectors, non-banking financial institutions lost 1.79%, pharmaceuticals o.58%, power 0.58% and banks 0.07%.

Square Pharmaceuticals became the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk206m changing hands, followed by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, Argondenim, CMC Kamal, Grameenphone, Continenetal Insurance and RN Spinning. l

3

Yen jumps in Asia on US budget fears n AFP, Tokyo The yen jumped yesterday in Asia as a budget impasse in Washington threatens to bring the US government to a halt, while the euro was weighed by political tensions in Italy.

The dollar weakened to 97.87 yen in Tokyo, from 98.24 yen in New York Friday afternoon, while the euro slipped to 132.08 yen from 132.88 yen.

The European single currency also slipped to $1.3495 from $1.3519.

The US government is on the brink of shutting down after the House of Representatives approved a Republican bill seeking to delay President Barack Obama’s health care law.

But Obama has threatened to veto any bill that undercuts his sweeping health overhaul and with with no agreement likely before a deadline of midnight Monday the government is close to first shutdown in 17 years.

“Markets are bracing for the worst, with risk aversion rising, US equities and the US dollar falling,” Credit Agricole said.

But it added that “it’s not just in the US where politics is fuelling market tensions”.

In Italy, Prime Minister Enrico Letta is battling to save his coalition from collapse after Silvio Berlusconi said he was pulling his party’s ministers out of the cabinet.

“As if the parlous state of the US government wasn’t bad enough, the Italian government coalition has crumbled,” National Australia Bank said.

Efforts to form a coalition government in Germany continue after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election victory last weekend.

Investors are also watching a European Central Bank meeting this week with the euro down from multi-month highs as ECB officials voice concern about liquidity in the European banking system. l

Rahima Food share trading suspended n Tribune Report The Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday suspended the trading of Rahima Food for an indefinite period, as the bourse opened an investigation into an abnormal hike in the low-cap company’s share prices.

In the last one month till yesterday, prices of the company’s shares jumped more than 200% to Tk55.7 a share. l

BRB Cable relocates Gulshan Sales Centre n Tribune Business Desk BRB Cable Industries Limited Sales and Marketing Executive Director Md Tofazzal Hossain yesterday inaugurated the relocated Gulshan Sales Center at Shop No 1-2, Sabera Market, Gulshan North C/a, Road 52, Gulshan-2.

DGM Marketing M A Karim, Brand Manager Md Mashukur Rahman and other members of Sales department were present at the opening ceremony. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

Default or not, Asia a hostage to US debt n Reuters, Beijing Unless the US Congress settles a political showdown to raise the country’s debt ceiling in coming weeks, it will be left on the edge of an unprecedented default. But America’s main creditors in Asia may be the least of its worries.

The creditors - China, Japan and other Asian governments - have a hoard of US Treasuries in their $5tn cache of foreign exchange reserves, the equivalent of almost a third of US gross domestic product.

Despite having so much at stake as bond prices lurch violently, they are not about to do anything more than minor tweaking of their portfolios.

Sovereign reserve managers and advisers cite conventional reasons for the thinking.

Asian governments consider a US debt default unthinkable and see the eventual tightening of US monetary policy as a bigger issue for managing their reserves. Even if the United States was to default, its debt markets would still be the safest and most liquid in the world. Importantly, they take a far longerterm view than most private investors.

“We’re keeping an eye on potential market risks such as tapering, the debt ceiling and a government shutdown, but that does not necessarily mean we regard the current situation as critical,” a Japanese government official, who declined to be identified in the absence of authorization to speak openly to the media, told Reuters this week.

They also face a Hobson’s choice. These reserve managers would rather stay invested in Treasuries than be the cause of global market bedlam if they were to shift all that wealth.

More than 60% of the $5tn that Asian central banks hold is denominated in US dollars and invested in American bonds and stocks, the International Monetary Fund estimates.

About $2tn of that amount was accumulated after November 2008, when the US Federal Reserve embarked on its 5-year ultra-easy monetary policy, which included flooding global markets with cheap cash that drove US yields to record lows.

Now, as an impending turn in Fed policy drives yields up and bond prices down, investors face a decline in the value of their bond portfolios.

A US debt default would rock the bond market but most investors consider it implausible that US lawmakers would allow that to happen. A similar political showdown in 2011 pushed the nation to within days of missing payments and led ratings firm Standard and Poor’s to strip Washington of its top-notch credit rating.

But veterans from both political parties in Washington are aghast that some lawmakers openly speak of managing a default that could be triggered next month if they don’t authorize more borrowing.

In exchange for agreeing to raise the $16.7tn debt ceiling, Republicans are seeking big spending cuts, which may strike at the heart of programs considered sacrosanct to President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats.

Ironically, the uncertainty of Fed tapering and increasing the US debt ceiling sent investors last week scurrying into the refuge

of US debt, rather than casting any doubt on how risk-free Treasuries really are.

Still, with the Federal Reserve set to relax its stimulus and eventually even tighten monetary policy, Asian reserves managers are preparing for a longer-term slide in the value of US debt.

Making a profit from FX reserves had been easy during the last three decades as global interest rates gradually fell, said Choo Heung-sik, the head of Bank of Korea’s reserve management group.

“But the expected returns from bond investment will fall greatly in the future,” Choo said. “How to deal with this structural change in investment environment is what all the central banks are agonizing over.”

US bond yields have already risen more than 100 basis points since May, when the Fed first indicated it is going to cut back on its $85bn per month asset purchases.

“We attach greater importance to safety and liquidity in managing foreign reserves,” the Japanese official said.

“From that standpoint, we undoubtedly see US Treasuries as chief investment products with vast market size and high creditworthiness.” Investors broadly are however more fixated on the Fed’s policy maneuvers than on the debt-ceiling debate. Many have scurried

for cover by shifting to the short end of the market, which tends to see less volatility.

Central banks managing FX reserves in Asia have done likewise but on a much smaller scale, partly because they are mindful of the impact they could have on markets when they move their billions.

Data from the US Treasury shows China’s holdings of Treasuries has declined modestly, to $1.277tn at the end of July from a peak of $1.297tn at the end of May. But the composition has shifted. In the three months to March, Treasuries comprised 81% of China’s $66bn purchases of long-term dollar bonds and stocks. That proportion dropped to 56% in the second quarter. In July, China sold $6.4bn of Treasuries and bought $20bn of bonds issued by US government agencies.

The change in China’s allocation may reflect signs that the global economy is picking up, said an economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE).

China has the world’s biggest currency reserves at $3.5tn.

“China may be buying more risky assets,” said the economist, who declined to be identified. “When the recovery is shaky, China tends to hold more low-risk assets, such as US Treasuries.” l

Do or die as US, Congress face government shutdown n AFP, Washington Lawmakers have one final day to try to prevent the first US government shutdown in 17 years, but a deal appeared remote yesterday as congressional leaders showed little intent to compromise.

With Congress going into crunch sessions ahead of an 11:59 pm (0359 GMT Today) deadline, a House Republican leader offered a glimmer of hope when he hinted that his party could offer a new plan that might pass muster in the Democratic-held Senate.

“I think the House will get back together in enough time, send another provision not to shut the government down, but to fund it, and it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at again,” number three House Republican Kevin McCarthy told Fox News Sunday.

Congress must pass a stopgap funding measure before the new fiscal year begins Tuesday or much of the US federal government will close down.

The procedure became dramatically more complicated when Republicans linked the budget legislation to an attempt to thwart President Barack Obama’s health care law.

After the Senate passed a straightforward spending bill on Friday, the House countered after hours of debate Saturday by attaching amendments seeking a one-year delay to socalled Obamacare, as well as repeal of a medical device tax which helps fund the law.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who refused to call the chamber into session over the weekend despite the rapidly approaching deadline, warned before the vote that such a measure would be dead on arrival.

The White House also sharply rebuked the move, and warned that the president would veto it even if the Senate did approve it.

On Monday “the Senate will do exactly what we said we would do and reject these measures,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said.”

“At that point, Republicans will be faced with the same choice they have always faced: put the Senate’s clean funding bill on the floor and let it pass with bipartisan votes, or force a Republican government shutdown.”

Republican McCarthy hinted that if the Senate rejects the measure as expected, the new House approach would still retain a provision “that I believe the Senate can accept, that will have fundamental changes into Obamacare.”

That provision may well be the medical device tax. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the tax in March, but it was a non-binding budget resolution.

The Senate’s number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, appeared open to the possibility.

“I’m willing to look at that, but not with a gun to my head, not with the prospect of shutting down the government,” he told the CBS Sunday talk show “Face the Nation.”

With Republicans and Democrats in a dangerous game of political chicken, the government was on the verge of ordering hundreds of thousands of federal workers to stay home. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

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Shanghai trade zone publishes restrictions for foreign investment n Reuters, Shanghai The Shanghai government yesterday published a list of sectors where foreign investment will be banned or restricted within its new free trade zone (FTZ), but in a departure from usual practise, no permission will be required to invest in other sectors.

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade zone officially opened for business on Sunday, and officials have outlined ambitious plans for bold reforms in the country’s currency, interest rates, trade and industry policies in the zone, but without giving details on implementation.

The “negative list,” published on the FTZ’s website, zbw.sh.gov.cn, closely resembles the central government’s current catalogue of nationwide restrictions on foreign investment.

Officials have said the list will be shortened over time as zone liberalizations gain steam and risks are better understood.

Top leaders were not present at the zone’s opening, and state media has tried to manage expectations by quoting unnamed officials saying dramatic reforms are unlikely to be rolled out this year, while also discouraging property speculation around the zone that has already seen prices for some commercial properties rise 20% over several months.

The list is the first of its kind in China and a step forward compared with China’s national “foreign investment catalogue”, that

A woman walks with her pet dog at Lujiazui financial district of Pudong in Shanghai divides investment permissions into broad categories - encouraged, allowed, restricted, or banned - which foreign companies complained were too vague and inconsistently interpreted to be of use.

The “negative list” approach means that if a sector is not on the list, foreign companies can invest in it without any restriction or joint-venture requirements; overseas entities just need to register for their projects

REUTERS

without applying for approval.

“For all fields not on the negative list, an approval system for foreign investment projects is now replaced by a registration system,” the Shanghai municipal government said in a statement accompanying the list.

“Those (projects) related to national security, censorship and anti-trust investigations must also comply with related regulations.”

The negative list for the Shanghai FTZ is

composed of hundreds of line-item restrictions in 16 major industrial categories, ranging from culture to hydropower to telecommunications, many of which trade partners argue China committed to opening up long ago when it was allowed to join the World Trade Organization.

For example, foreign firms are still banned from investing in China’s tightly controlled media organizations; from publishing newspapers, magazines or books; and from producing electronic publications.

Similarly, they are banned from setting up internet cafes, conducting gambling businesses or opening pornographic venues, according to the list.

Foreign firms are also proscribed from the production and development of genetically modified seeds. The list however includes items which allow limited foreign firms investment in new economic areas, such as the exploration of shale gas.

For the first time foreigners will be permitted to invest in projects exploring non-traditional national gas resources, such as shale gas and sea-bottom natural gas, but only via joint-ventures with Chinese partners.

The FTZ will also be bound by provisions in national laws that set restrictions for foreign participation in insurance brokerages and commodity futures trading companies.

The list, which comes into effect immediately, will be subject to timely changes in line with developments of the zone, the statement said without elaborating. l

Global Economy: Faith in revival put to test n Reuters, London On top of these recurrent pitfalls, banks and households in Europe are still shedding debt, several big emerging economies are slowing and markets are struggling to decode the Federal Reserve’s policy signals.

No wonder that words like ‘modest’ and ‘moderate’ pepper many of the latest growth outlooks. Yet there is a guarded confidence at some banks that a recovery, not powerful but worthy of the name, might finally be within reach.

Credit Suisse, for instance, is penciling in 3.8% global growth for 2014, up from 3% this year and surpassing what it sees as the trend rate of 3.5%.

A lessening of fiscal headwinds will be important in allowing the hoped-for pickup in the United States, said John Calverley, head of macroeconomic research with Standard Chartered Bank in Toronto.

“So you should start to see growth moving up well into the 2.5%, 3% range, maybe more, over the next couple of years,” he said.

The US economy has expanded at an average pace of less than 2% in the last four quarters.

NO BLINKING IN WASHINGTON YET But that view could be sorely tested in coming days.

In Washington, a government shutdown from Tuesday drew nearer after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to delay Democratic President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law for a year

as part of an emergency spending bill.

The White House, in its fourth major budget standoff with Congress since 2011, has vowed to veto the bill.

Congress also needs to raise the federal debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default in mid-October.

The notion that the issuer of the world’s main reserve currency might be unable to meet its obligations is simply unthinkable for most in the market.

“Our basic view is that we will get through it as we’ve got through it time and time again,” Jim McCormick, head of asset allocation research at Barclays, said.

Italy’s political instability has also revived concerns about its stagnant economy. Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi effectively brought down the government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta by pulling his ministers out of the cabinet on Saturday, further delaying agreement on changes intended to reduce debt and revive growth.

President Giorgio Napolitano signaled that he would like Letta to try to forge a new coalition rather than call elections, but the uncertainty risks a further damaging rise in Italian bond yields, which hit a three-month high on Friday.

“We are paying for our political instability,” Labour Minister Enrico Giovannini said.

CENTRAL BANK SIGNALS To date bond investors have been largely reassured by the conditional promise that European Central Bank President Mario

Draghi gave a year ago to buy the bonds of struggling euro member states if necessary to keep the single currency afloat.

Draghi could use the power of the pulpit to send a message to Rome’s feuding politicians when he holds a news conference after an ECB meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

With the euro zone economy gathering modest momentum, no change in interest rates is on the cards.

But the ECB chief is likely to reaffirm his readiness to provide a new round of cheap, long-term funding if need be to prevent an unwanted rise in money market interest rates.

Some reckon the ECB could act in December, which is when the Fed might start to reduce its bond buying from $85bn a month.

‘Might’ is the operative word because markets are no longer sure how to anticipate the Fed’s reactions since the central bank shocked them by deciding this month not to start withdrawing monetary stimulus yet.

The Bank of England, and the ECB to a lesser extent, have also struggled to provide clear ‘forward guidance’ of how economic developments might shape their policy thinking.

“The most visible risk at the moment is the learning curve associated with new central bank procedures. The process of their learning how to talk to us and our learning how to listen to them is fraught with risks to financial stability,” the Credit Suisse report said.

With Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke emphasizing that his timetable for reducing stimulus depends on the economy, investors could start to price in an October start if Friday’s employment report is strong.

The economy is forecast to have added 180,000 non-farm jobs in September, above the latest three-month average of 148,000.

JAPAN GRASPS THE TAX NETTLE In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected on Tuesday to confirm that sales tax will rise in April to 8% from 5%, the first significant effort in 20 years to rein in the country’s galloping debt.

To cushion the economic blow, Abe is preparing a stimulus package that will include tax breaks for companies that increase wages or capital expenditure.

Abe’s announcement will follow the Bank of Japan’s closely watched “tankan” business sentiment survey, with economists polled by Reuters expecting a bullish report.

If they are wrong, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is likely to redouble his efforts to expand the monetary base and so banish 15 years of deflation, said James Malcolm, a foreign-exchange strategist with Deutsche Bank in London.

“Disappointing results would almost certainly bring forward expectations of additional central bank easing,” he said in a note, suggesting that such a move “might even become a live option” when policy makers conclude their next meeting on Friday. A more realistic date, however, was the BOJ’s

6

Share

DHAKA TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

DSE Broad Index: 3937.68 ⇓ 0.78%, Turnover: 2719.95 M.Tk ⇓ 18.12%, PE: 12.41 Turnover 2,960.22 MTk . ⇓ 18.39% September 29, 2013 MarketCap. 1,927.64 BTk. ⇓ 0.48% CSE All Share Index: 12153 ⇓ 0.72%, Turnover: 240.27 M Tk. ⇓ 21.39%, PE: 12.15 Combined Turnover Leader

BANK ABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 188529 D: 22.90 ⇓ 0.87% | 22.96 | 23.50 / 20.80 C: 22.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 22.90 | 23.00 / 22.00 CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 274361 D: 15.50 ⇓ 0.64% | 15.54 | 16.00 / 14.20 C: 15.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.40 | 15.60 / 15.30 IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 291389 D: 19.70 ⇓ 0.51% | 19.86 | 20.10 / 18.00 C: 19.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 19.67 | 20.00 / 19.50 ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 1282652 D: 36.10 ⇑ 1.40% | 35.72 | 36.50 / 32.50 C: 35.80 ⇑ 0.85% | 35.40 | 36.10 / 34.00 NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 1982237 D: 10.40 ⇓ 1.89% | 10.50 | 11.50 / 10.00 C: 10.60 ⇓ 0.93% | 10.61 | 10.70 / 10.50 PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 466270 D: 31.20 ⇑ 0.65% | 31.21 | 31.50 / 28.00 C: 31.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 30.97 | 31.30 / 30.30 RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 4400 D: 57.60 ⇓ 0.86% | 57.73 | 58.10 / 57.60 UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 900721 D: 17.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.29 | 17.50 / 16.00 C: 17.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.19 | 17.40 / 17.00 UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 194742 D: 25.00 ⇓ 0.79% | 25.11 | 25.50 / 23.60 C: 24.80 ⇓ 1.20% | 24.81 | 25.00 / 24.70 ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 128000 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.72 | 5.90 / 5.70 EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 60237 D: 26.70 ⇓ 0.37% | 26.67 | 27.00 / 24.30 C: 26.40 ⇓ 0.38% | 26.30 | 26.50 / 26.00 ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 246122 D: 14.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 13.99 | 14.10 / 12.70 C: 13.90 ⇓ 0.71% | 13.91 | 14.00 / 13.80 PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 1381596 D: 17.50 ⇑ 0.57% | 17.40 | 18.00 / 15.80 C: 17.60 ⇑ 1.73% | 17.21 | 17.70 / 17.50 SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 352445 D: 14.90 ⇓ 0.67% | 14.93 | 15.50 / 13.50 C: 14.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.87 | 15.00 / 14.70 DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 83318 D: 17.70 ⇑ 1.72% | 17.69 | 18.00 / 16.10 C: 17.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.25 | 17.30 / 16.00 NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 332558 D: 11.00 ⇓ 1.79% | 11.06 | 11.50 / 10.40 C: 10.90 ⇓ 1.80% | 10.98 | 11.10 / 10.50 SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 207020 D: 11.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.42 | 11.50 / 10.50 C: 11.30 ⇓ 0.88% | 11.29 | 12.00 / 11.00 DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 10000 D: 90.20 ⇓ 0.99% | 90.20 | 91.00 / 89.10 MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 41111 D: 14.40 ⇑ 0.70% | 14.43 | 14.60 / 13.90 C: 14.20 ⇑ 1.43% | 14.20 | 14.20 / 14.20 STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 217951 D: 12.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.84 | 13.00 / 11.80 C: 12.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.73 | 12.80 / 12.60 ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 638017 D: 14.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.38 | 15.50 / 13.00 C: 14.30 ⇑ 0.70% | 14.29 | 14.40 / 14.20 BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 420051 D: 19.70 ⇑ 1.03% | 19.63 | 21.40 / 17.60 C: 19.70 ⇑ 6.49% | 18.88 | 19.70 / 17.00 MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 390760 D: 11.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.58 | 12.00 / 10.30 C: 11.30 ⇓ 0.88% | 11.35 | 11.50 / 10.40 EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 575939 D: 10.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.84 | 11.20 / 9.80 C: 10.80 ⇓ 1.82% | 10.87 | 12.00 / 10.00 JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 105900 D: 12.90 ⇓ 3.01% | 13.00 | 13.50 / 12.00 C: 13.00 ⇓ 1.52% | 13.01 | 13.10 / 13.00 BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 160829 D: 27.70 ⇓ 0.72% | 27.77 | 28.00 / 25.50 C: 27.20 ⇓ 0.37% | 27.31 | 28.00 / 25.00 SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 170302 D: 13.90 ⇓ 0.71% | 13.90 | 14.20 / 12.60 C: 13.80 ⇓ 0.72% | 13.93 | 14.10 / 13.00 PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 182963 D: 9.10 ⇓ 1.09% | 9.13 | 9.50 / 8.30 C: 9.10 ⇓ 1.09% | 9.17 | 9.20 / 9.10

TO M. Tk.

% of TTL

Square Pharma -A

1237039

214.65

507830

111.00

ADLimited-A

2503320

105.06

3.55

41.97

CMC Kamal Tex. -A

2479185

85.20

2.88

34.37

398039

74.45

7.25

Avg. P

BD Submarine Cable-A

Grameenphone-A

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share) DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

Vol.

3.75

2.52

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 69363 D: 16.70 ⇓ 1.18% | 16.76 | 17.00 / 15.80 C: 16.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.22 | 16.70 / 16.00 FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 208977 D: 11.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.21 | 11.30 / 10.10 C: 11.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.15 | 11.20 / 10.00 NON BANKING F I IDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 87974 D: 56.70 ⇓ 1.56% | 56.95 | 57.60 / 55.00 C: 56.60 ⇓ 0.70% | 56.62 | 56.70 / 56.60 ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 39760 D: 26.00 ⇓ 0.76% | 26.11 | 26.50 / 24.00 UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 79485 D: 72.00 ⇓ 1.64% | 72.08 | 73.00 / 65.90 C: 72.00 ⇓ 0.83% | 71.99 | 72.00 / 71.50 MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 6650 D: 30.20 ⇑ 0.33% | 30.23 | 32.90 / 28.00 FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 203610 D: 24.00 ⇓ 0.41% | 24.03 | 25.00 / 21.90 C: 23.80 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.90 | 24.00 / 23.80 PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 378873 D: 21.90 ⇓ 0.90% | 21.97 | 22.50 / 19.90 C: 21.90 ⇓ 2.23% | 22.07 | 24.00 / 20.50 PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 168388 D: 22.60 ⇓ 2.16% | 22.76 | 23.40 / 21.00 C: 22.50 ⇓ 2.60% | 22.71 | 23.30 / 22.50 PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 171504 D: 10.20 ⇓ 0.97% | 10.24 | 10.40 / 9.50 C: 10.10 ⇓ 0.98% | 10.12 | 10.30 / 10.10 ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 425109 D: 15.40 ⇓ 1.28% | 15.44 | 15.70 / 14.60 C: 15.50 ⇓ 0.64% | 15.60 | 16.30 / 15.40 LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 175556 D: 55.60 ⇓ 1.77% | 55.92 | 57.00 / 51.00 C: 55.80 ⇓ 1.59% | 55.67 | 56.50 / 55.00 BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 79110 D: 15.20 ⇓ 3.18% | 15.31 | 16.00 / 14.20 C: 14.90 ⇓ 5.70% | 15.05 | 15.10 / 14.90 IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 130444 D: 18.00 ⇓ 2.70% | 18.22 | 19.20 / 17.00 C: 18.00 ⇓ 2.17% | 18.20 | 18.40 / 18.00 UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 160983 D: 29.50 ⇓ 1.01% | 29.62 | 30.50 / 28.10 C: 28.30 ⇓ 1.74% | 28.35 | 29.50 / 28.00 BDFINANCE | 0.57 | 14.77 | Vol. 269418 D: 19.00 ⇓ 1.04% | 19.04 | 19.50 / 17.50 C: 18.80 ⇓ 1.57% | 18.73 | 19.30 / 18.60 ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 402540 D: 13.20 ⇓ 5.71% | 13.53 | 13.90 / 13.20 C: 13.30 ⇓ 5.00% | 13.37 | 13.70 / 13.10 PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 67682 D: 28.30 ⇓ 1.74% | 28.48 | 28.80 / 27.00 C: 27.30 ⇓ 8.08% | 27.30 | 27.30 / 27.30 FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 361893 D: 13.90 ⇓ 2.11% | 14.03 | 14.30 / 13.50 C: 14.00 ⇓ 1.41% | 14.03 | 14.20 / 13.90 NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 237225 D: 28.80 ⇓ 1.37% | 28.96 | 29.50 / 28.00 C: 28.30 ⇓ 2.41% | 28.54 | 29.30 / 28.00 BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 77610 D: 26.30 ⇓ 1.13% | 26.30 | 26.60 / 24.50 C: 26.20 ⇓ 2.60% | 26.26 | 26.50 / 24.30 ICB | 109.65 | 769.98 | Vol. 3100 D: 1869 ⇓ 1.85% | 1885 | 1909 / 1862 C: 1827 ⇓ 2.87% | 1850 | 1862 / 1827 GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 47453 D: 24.10 ⇓ 2.82% | 24.19 | 25.00 / 22.40 FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 910500 D: 15.00 ⇓ 3.85% | 15.19 | 15.60 / 15.00 C: 15.00 ⇓ 3.85% | 15.13 | 15.50 / 15.00 INVESTMENT 1STICB | 75.63 | 942.30 | Vol. 200 D: 850.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 850.00 | 850.0 / 850.0 4THICB | 29.24 | 229.24 | Vol. 300 D: 171.3 ⇓ 0.81% | 170.00 | 172.0 / 171.0 5THICB | 23.45 | 188.92 | Vol. 100 D: 157.0 ⇑ 0.64% | 157.00 | 157.0 / 157.0 6THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 13400 D: 45.70 ⇓ 1.93% | 45.82 | 46.80 / 44.00 8THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 7000 D: 49.30 ⇓ 2.38% | 49.43 | 50.00 / 48.60 1STBSRS | 14.43 | 161.88 | Vol. 14500 D: 95.70 ⇓ 1.44% | 95.72 | 97.20 / 94.50

173.52 218.58

187.04

DSE Gainer

C%

A%

CP

DSE Loser

C%

A%

CP

Imam Button -Z

9.90

9.15

11.10

Modern Dyeing-B

-9.99

-11.37

100.90

Rahima Food -A

9.86

3.73

55.70

Aziz Pipes-Z

9.73

10.78

20.30

9.59

8.48

8.00

8.97

8.97

8.50

ISN Ltd.-A Jute Spinners-A Desh Garments-B Monno Stafllers-A

LR Global BD MF1-A Meghna PET Ind.-Z

AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 349750 D: 38.20 ⇓ 4.26% | 38.77 | 40.70 / 37.90 C: 38.50 ⇓ 3.51% | 38.63 | 39.10 / 38.50 ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 17500 D: 17.20 ⇓ 1.71% | 17.20 | 17.30 / 17.10 GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 241000 D: 45.30 ⇓ 3.82% | 46.00 | 48.00 / 45.10 C: 45.10 ⇓ 3.43% | 45.24 | 45.90 / 45.00 ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 7000 D: 22.70 ⇓ 1.30% | 22.83 | 23.80 / 22.50 C: 26.20 ⇑ 0.77% | 26.20 | 26.20 / 26.20 ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 148500 D: 9.20 ⇓ 3.16% | 9.43 | 9.70 / 9.20 C: 9.50 ⇑ 2.15% | 9.57 | 9.70 / 9.40 GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 617500 D: 16.30 ⇓ 4.12% | 16.60 | 17.30 / 16.20 C: 16.30 ⇓ 4.12% | 16.37 | 16.70 / 16.10 1STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 703500 D: 22.20 ⇓ 4.31% | 22.56 | 23.90 / 22.00 C: 22.40 ⇓ 3.03% | 22.76 | 23.80 / 22.10 EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 345636 D: 6.80 ⇓ 5.56% | 6.92 | 7.30 / 6.60 C: 6.90 ⇓ 4.17% | 6.93 | 7.10 / 6.90 ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 44500 D: 5.50 ⇓ 3.51% | 5.54 | 5.70 / 5.50 C: 5.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.60 | 5.80 / 5.40 ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 302500 D: 5.80 ⇓ 1.69% | 5.90 | 6.00 / 5.80 C: 5.70 ⇓ 3.39% | 5.71 | 5.80 / 5.70 TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 1023738 D: 7.30 ⇓ 3.95% | 7.33 | 7.70 / 6.90 C: 7.30 ⇓ 3.95% | 7.30 | 7.70 / 7.00 PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 38500 D: 5.40 ⇓ 1.82% | 5.44 | 5.80 / 5.30 C: 5.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.27 | 5.40 / 5.20 DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 154500 D: 5.50 ⇓ 1.79% | 5.59 | 5.80 / 5.50 C: 5.40 ⇓ 5.26% | 5.55 | 5.60 / 5.40 IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 1042320 D: 6.20 ⇓ 6.06% | 6.37 | 7.00 / 6.20 C: 6.30 ⇓ 3.08% | 6.37 | 6.60 / 6.20 PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 434000 D: 5.40 ⇓ 5.26% | 5.64 | 6.00 / 5.40 C: 5.50 ⇓ 6.78% | 5.80 | 6.10 / 5.50 ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 253000 D: 5.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 5.08 | 5.20 / 5.00 C: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.09 | 5.20 / 5.00 1JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 380000 D: 5.70 ⇓ 1.72% | 5.80 | 6.00 / 5.70 C: 5.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.83 | 5.90 / 5.70 GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 778500 D: 5.10 ⇓ 3.77% | 5.18 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇓ 3.77% | 5.17 | 5.20 / 5.10 POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 406187 D: 5.80 ⇓ 3.33% | 5.97 | 6.20 / 5.50 C: 5.80 ⇓ 3.33% | 5.82 | 6.50 / 5.40 IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 181500 D: 5.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.38 | 5.50 / 5.30 C: 5.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.30 | 5.40 / 5.20 PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 452500 D: 5.40 ⇓ 3.57% | 5.50 | 5.60 / 5.40 C: 5.40 ⇓ 3.57% | 5.45 | 5.50 / 5.40 AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 136500 D: 6.30 ⇓ 1.56% | 6.36 | 6.50 / 6.30 C: 6.20 ⇓ 4.62% | 6.23 | 6.40 / 6.20 MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 106500 D: 6.40 ⇓ 1.54% | 6.43 | 6.60 / 6.20 SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 678100 D: 8.00 ⇓ 3.61% | 8.23 | 9.10 / 7.50 C: 8.10 ⇓ 2.41% | 8.12 | 8.30 / 7.90 EBLNRBMF | 1.07 | 10.88 | Vol. 9500 D: 7.50 ⇓ 3.85% | 7.58 | 7.70 / 7.50 RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 1167750 D: 8.30 ⇓ 4.60% | 8.61 | 9.00 / 8.00 C: 8.30 ⇓ 5.68% | 8.40 | 8.90 / 8.00 LRGLOBMF1 | 0.50 | 10.82 | Vol. 267000 D: 8.00 ⇑ 9.59% | 7.93 | 8.00 / 7.30 ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 212000 D: 7.10 ⇑ 1.43% | 7.18 | 7.40 / 7.00 NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 1467450 D: 9.50 ⇑ 3.26% | 9.56 | 10.00 / 9.00 C: 9.80 ⇑ 7.69% | 9.73 | 9.90 / 10.00 FBFIF | 1.30 | 10.27 | Vol. 5000 D: 9.10 ⇑ 2.25% | 9.20 | 9.20 / 9.10 NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 20500 D: 9.50 ⇑ 2.15% | 9.61 | 9.90 / 9.50

-9.70

-10.63

21.40

-8.54

-10.77

102.80

-8.34

-9.46

76.90

-8.05

-8.15

382.50

ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 334000 D: 6.20 ⇓ 4.62% | 6.35 | 6.60 / 6.20 C: 6.30 ⇓ 5.97% | 6.43 | 6.60 / 6.30 EXIM1STMF | 0.00 | 10.91 | Vol. 11000 D: 7.10 ⇓ 1.39% | 7.09 | 7.20 / 7.00 ENGINEERING AFTABAUTO | 4.29 | 52.65 | Vol. 347422 D: 103.5 ⇓ 1.71% | 104.02 | 107.0 / 95.00 C: 103.9 ⇓ 1.98% | 104.36 | 108.9 / 103.1 AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 137250 D: 20.30 ⇑ 9.73% | 20.14 | 20.30 / 19.10 C: 21.60 ⇑ 9.09% | 21.59 | 21.70 / 21.00 OLYMPIC | 5.94 | 14.91 | Vol. 134880 D: 206.9 ⇓ 1.38% | 206.72 | 210.0 / 195.0 C: 204.5 ⇓ 2.62% | 204.64 | 205.3 / 203.8 BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 30650 D: 148.8 ⇓ 3.44% | 150.21 | 155.0 / 147.0 C: 146.7 ⇓ 3.87% | 147.72 | 151.5 / 145.5 ECABLES | 2.04 | 18.87 | Vol. 1300 D: 68.50 ⇓ 1.58% | 68.46 | 70.00 / 63.00 MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 3700 D: 382.5 ⇓ 8.05% | 384.59 | 395.0 / 379.6 SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 98938 D: 199.0 ⇓ 2.69% | 200.90 | 205.8 / 190.0 C: 199.3 ⇓ 2.02% | 199.96 | 202.1 / 197.0 ATLASBANG | 11.98 | 207.70 | Vol. 15066 D: 170.2 ⇓ 1.90% | 172.34 | 174.9 / 158.0 BDAUTOCA | 0.25 | 6.23 | Vol. 71599 D: 45.30 ⇓ 4.23% | 46.23 | 51.90 / 42.90 QSMDRYCELL | 1.17 | 57.54 | Vol. 128420 D: 33.60 ⇓ 1.47% | 33.76 | 35.00 / 32.70 C: 33.60 ⇓ 1.18% | 33.02 | 34.50 / 32.50 RENWICKJA | 5.62 | -90.00 | Vol. 10450 D: 159.1 ⇓ 2.21% | 160.19 | 165.0 / 156.0 NTLTUBES | -2.52 | 312.10 | Vol. 55432 D: 70.60 ⇓ 3.16% | 71.19 | 73.00 / 69.00 BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 429360 D: 29.30 ⇓ 2.98% | 29.96 | 31.00 / 29.10 C: 29.50 ⇓ 2.64% | 29.75 | 31.00 / 29.00 ANWARGALV | 0.51 | 8.08 | Vol. 128000 D: 27.50 ⇓ 2.14% | 27.73 | 29.30 / 26.00 C: 28.40 ⇓ 0.35% | 28.22 | 29.00 / 26.60 KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 19000 D: 16.90 ⇓ 4.52% | 16.92 | 17.50 / 16.40 C: 16.60 ⇓ 0.60% | 16.60 | 16.60 / 16.60 RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 63000 D: 94.20 ⇓ 2.28% | 93.85 | 96.80 / 92.00 C: 91.40 ⇓ 3.79% | 91.67 | 95.00 / 90.30 SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 126150 D: 39.20 ⇓ 1.75% | 39.45 | 40.00 / 37.00 C: 39.10 ⇓ 2.01% | 39.10 | 39.30 / 39.00 GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 169929 D: 41.00 ⇓ 1.68% | 41.02 | 41.50 / 37.60 C: 40.40 ⇓ 2.65% | 40.34 | 41.00 / 40.00 BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 197730 D: 65.30 ⇓ 1.06% | 65.46 | 66.40 / 59.40 C: 65.10 ⇓ 1.66% | 65.19 | 65.50 / 65.00 NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 50332 D: 64.60 ⇓ 0.77% | 64.44 | 65.20 / 60.00 C: 64.00 ⇓ 2.59% | 63.99 | 66.70 / 63.60 DESHBANDHU | 1.16 | 12.02 | Vol. 403692 D: 21.10 ⇓ 4.52% | 21.30 | 22.10 / 20.10 C: 21.30 ⇓ 3.18% | 21.35 | 21.60 / 21.10 GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 108800 D: 41.00 ⇓ 2.61% | 41.26 | 42.00 / 38.00 C: 41.80 ⇓ 0.71% | 41.66 | 41.90 / 40.50 BENGALWTL | 2.42 | 20.72 | Vol. 70800 D: 42.30 ⇓ 1.17% | 42.45 | 43.00 / 42.20 C: 42.30 ⇓ 1.17% | 42.24 | 43.70 / 39.10 NPOLYMAR | 2.01 | 324.37 | Vol. 101359 D: 58.70 ⇓ 1.68% | 59.11 | 61.90 / 54.00 C: 59.80 ⇓ 1.81% | 59.82 | 60.00 / 59.00 FOOD & ALLIED APEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 40100 D: 93.40 ⇓ 1.99% | 94.52 | 97.30 / 92.60 C: 93.10 ⇓ 2.10% | 93.10 | 93.10 / 93.10 BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 71814 D: 493.8 ⇓ 0.88% | 496.92 | 515.0 / 461.0 C: 494.8 ⇑ 0.37% | 499.87 | 509.0 / 483.1 BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 25875 D: 1562 ⇑ 2.45% | 1553 | 1580 / 1450 GEMINISEA | 10.88 | 9.69 | Vol. 750 D: 212.1 ⇓ 0.19% | 212.00 | 214.0 / 206.1

NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 1100 D: 801.8 ⇑ 0.00% | 801.33 | 804.0 / 800.0 C: 825.0 ⇑ 0.49% | 825.00 | 825.0 / 825.0 ZEALBANGLA | -23.01 | -193.09 | Vol. 6500 D: 9.30 ⇑ 4.49% | 9.38 | 9.50 / 9.00 AMCL(PRAN) | 6.53 | 53.37 | Vol. 56600 D: 272.3 ⇓ 1.38% | 272.95 | 281.0 / 270.0 C: 273.5 ⇓ 1.23% | 273.27 | 275.5 / 269.3 SHYAMPSUG | -36.87 | -355.85 | Vol. 2400 D: 8.10 ⇑ 2.53% | 8.33 | 8.40 / 7.90 RAHIMAFOOD | 0.62 | 4.46 | Vol. 955150 D: 55.70 ⇑ 9.86% | 52.28 | 55.70 / 46.20 C: 53.20 ⇑ 9.47% | 51.22 | 53.40 / 46.00 FUWANGFOOD | 1.26 | 12.37 | Vol. 247591 D: 24.60 ⇓ 1.20% | 24.71 | 25.00 / 22.60 C: 24.60 ⇓ 1.99% | 24.75 | 25.10 / 24.50 MEGHNAPET | -0.58 | -1.02 | Vol. 78000 D: 8.50 ⇑ 8.97% | 8.50 | 8.50 / 8.50 MEGCONMILK | -6.68 | -16.22 | Vol. 141000 D: 9.40 ⇑ 5.62% | 9.60 | 9.70 / 9.10 BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 465042 D: 21.40 ⇓ 2.73% | 21.56 | 22.00 / 20.00 C: 21.70 ⇓ 0.46% | 21.78 | 22.90 / 20.10 FINEFOODS | -0.11 | 10.58 | Vol. 430915 D: 25.60 ⇑ 7.56% | 25.19 | 26.00 / 22.00 C: 26.10 ⇑ 9.66% | 25.54 | 26.10 / 23.10 RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 756096 D: 21.40 ⇓ 1.38% | 21.56 | 22.10 / 20.00 C: 21.60 ⇓ 1.82% | 21.63 | 22.00 / 21.00 GHAIL | 1.01 | 22.08 | Vol. 207420 D: 41.90 ⇓ 2.10% | 41.91 | 42.70 / 38.60 C: 42.00 ⇓ 1.87% | 41.76 | 42.40 / 41.30 FUEL & POWER LINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 10200 D: 668.8 ⇓ 2.82% | 670.10 | 678.0 / 666.1 PADMAOIL | 16.38 | 43.67 | Vol. 170611 D: 323.2 ⇓ 1.40% | 323.16 | 327.8 / 310.0 C: 321.8 ⇓ 1.53% | 322.59 | 335.0 / 319.0 EASTRNLUB | 6.32 | 68.68 | Vol. 1000 D: 379.3 ⇑ 3.75% | 379.00 | 390.0 / 366.0 BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 645072 D: 21.30 ⇓ 5.33% | 21.67 | 22.50 / 20.50 C: 21.10 ⇓ 6.22% | 21.54 | 22.20 / 21.00 SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 294644 D: 31.70 ⇓ 1.86% | 31.81 | 32.50 / 29.10 C: 31.90 ⇓ 1.24% | 32.00 | 32.30 / 31.90 DESCO | 2.80 | 35.25 | Vol. 173748 D: 73.40 ⇓ 2.26% | 72.93 | 75.00 / 68.00 C: 75.00 ⇓ 0.13% | 75.00 | 75.00 / 75.00 POWERGRID | 2.56 | 48.08 | Vol. 43500 D: 54.40 ⇓ 1.81% | 54.65 | 56.00 / 53.80 C: 55.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 55.00 | 55.00 / 55.00 JAMUNAOIL | 22.78 | 50.24 | Vol. 189220 D: 227.2 ⇓ 0.09% | 226.44 | 230.0 / 215.0 C: 225.7 ⇓ 0.57% | 225.52 | 227.0 / 224.3 MPETROLEUM | 16.98 | 40.41 | Vol. 168903 D: 264.1 ⇓ 0.53% | 262.07 | 267.0 / 243.0 C: 260.4 ⇓ 1.44% | 260.93 | 262.9 / 260.0 TITASGAS | 9.01 | 36.56 | Vol. 337872 D: 82.40 ⇑ 1.48% | 81.64 | 82.90 / 73.10 C: 81.30 ⇑ 0.37% | 80.48 | 81.90 / 80.00 KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 96279 D: 46.00 ⇓ 1.92% | 46.24 | 47.80 / 42.30 C: 46.20 ⇓ 1.70% | 46.09 | 46.50 / 46.00 BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 901654 D: 30.60 ⇓ 0.65% | 30.67 | 31.20 / 27.80 C: 30.60 ⇓ 1.29% | 30.56 | 31.00 / 30.20 MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 80651 D: 69.90 ⇑ 0.14% | 69.61 | 70.40 / 63.00 C: 69.30 ⇑ 0.29% | 68.81 | 70.00 / 68.10 GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 323626 D: 25.30 ⇓ 1.56% | 25.41 | 26.50 / 23.20 C: 25.50 ⇓ 0.78% | 25.64 | 27.20 / 25.30 SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 279915 D: 50.90 ⇓ 3.42% | 51.56 | 53.00 / 47.50 C: 51.00 ⇓ 3.59% | 51.56 | 53.40 / 50.60 JUTE JUTESPINN | 2.06 | 17.42 | Vol. 17050 D: 102.8 ⇓ 8.54% | 104.05 | 115.0 / 102.0 NORTHERN | -13.80 | -6.19 | Vol. 4800 D: 37.20 ⇑ 8.77% | 37.29 | 37.60 / 34.20 SONALIANSH | 5.54 | 218.80 | Vol. 17800 D: 146.4 ⇓ 5.61% | 148.48 | 153.8 / 145.0

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

7

September 30, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 31,597.18 ⇑ 0.07% NBFI: 19,340.39 ⇓ 1.89% INVS: 4,664.42 ⇓ 2.09% ENGG: 5,765.00 ⇓ 2.19% FOOD: 10,025.82 ⇓ 0.04% F&P: 10,204.55 ⇓ 0.67% TEXT: 3,077.08 ⇓ 2.10% PHAR: 16,953.28 ⇓ 0.09% PAPR: 1,105.02 ⇓ 4.49% SERV: 2,916.19 ⇓ 1.97% LEAT: 5,350.80 ⇓ 0.56% CERA: 503.42 ⇓ 1.06% CMNT: 4,343.59 ⇓ 1.26% INFO: 7,529.42 ⇓ 5.08% GINS: 9,608.90 ⇓ 2.21% LINS: 110,235.95 ⇑ 0.15% TELC: 1,346.78 ⇑ 0.08% MISC: 6,116.11 ⇓ 1.47% TEXTILE AL-HAJTEX | 1.35 | 15.64 | Vol. 104982 D: 98.70 ⇑ 1.75% | 97.87 | 103.1 / 87.80 RAHIMTEXT | 0.51 | 73.88 | Vol. 4550 D: 273.9 ⇓ 3.89% | 276.26 | 300.0 / 271.0 SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 493600 D: 31.90 ⇓ 0.93% | 31.92 | 32.50 / 31.20 C: 31.90 ⇓ 0.62% | 31.85 | 32.40 / 31.30 MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 2400 D: 100.9 ⇓ 9.99% | 101.67 | 108.0 / 100.9 DSHGARME | 0.72 | 12.00 | Vol. 89700 D: 76.90 ⇓ 8.34% | 78.26 | 89.00 / 75.60 DULAMIACOT | -8.46 | -27.78 | Vol. 23700 D: 9.20 ⇓ 5.15% | 9.24 | 9.50 / 9.20 TALLUSPIN | 2.56 | 12.06 | Vol. 881750 D: 43.60 ⇑ 0.46% | 43.33 | 44.00 / 42.50 C: 43.40 ⇑ 0.46% | 43.15 | 43.90 / 42.80 APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 23000 D: 73.30 ⇓ 7.10% | 73.57 | 76.00 / 72.40 MITHUNKNIT | 4.54 | 30.39 | Vol. 117280 D: 103.5 ⇓ 0.58% | 104.15 | 108.9 / 94.10 C: 101.2 ⇓ 2.13% | 101.93 | 104.0 / 100.2 DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 18.12 | Vol. 311200 D: 32.80 ⇓ 1.80% | 33.08 | 33.80 / 32.80 C: 32.80 ⇓ 2.38% | 32.84 | 33.40 / 32.60 SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 307105 D: 20.60 ⇓ 1.90% | 20.93 | 22.00 / 19.50 C: 20.60 ⇓ 4.19% | 20.68 | 21.90 / 20.30 PRIMETEX | 1.01 | 63.54 | Vol. 218000 D: 28.00 ⇓ 3.11% | 28.51 | 29.80 / 27.60 C: 28.10 ⇓ 3.77% | 28.50 | 29.50 / 27.80 ALLTEX | -0.11 | 23.81 | Vol. 656000 D: 10.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.41 | 11.00 / 9.70 C: 10.00 ⇑ 1.01% | 10.55 | 9.90 / 10.00 ANLIMAYARN | 1.19 | 11.01 | Vol. 128500 D: 36.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 35.85 | 36.80 / 34.40 HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 249864 D: 41.20 ⇓ 3.29% | 41.63 | 43.90 / 39.00 C: 40.40 ⇓ 5.61% | 40.44 | 41.60 / 38.60 CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 2479185 D: 34.90 ⇑ 1.45% | 34.37 | 35.60 / 31.00 SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 339909 D: 27.60 ⇑ 0.73% | 27.35 | 28.50 / 25.00 C: 27.70 ⇑ 0.73% | 27.40 | 28.00 / 26.50 SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 139790 D: 89.90 ⇓ 0.77% | 90.15 | 91.00 / 85.00 C: 89.70 ⇓ 1.86% | 89.97 | 90.90 / 89.60 METROSPIN | -1.00 | 19.59 | Vol. 389840 D: 17.50 ⇓ 3.31% | 17.74 | 18.20 / 16.50 C: 17.50 ⇓ 3.85% | 17.62 | 18.00 / 17.30 MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 1517040 D: 15.20 ⇓ 2.56% | 15.37 | 16.00 / 14.20 C: 15.20 ⇓ 3.80% | 15.34 | 15.80 / 15.10 DACCADYE | 1.21 | 31.13 | Vol. 462457 D: 26.70 ⇓ 4.98% | 27.18 | 28.00 / 25.50 C: 27.00 ⇓ 3.57% | 28.45 | 29.50 / 26.60 RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 2090017 D: 29.00 ⇓ 3.01% | 29.25 | 30.00 / 27.00 C: 29.00 ⇓ 3.01% | 29.37 | 30.00 / 28.90 BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 307932 D: 15.60 ⇓ 3.11% | 15.77 | 16.40 / 15.00 C: 15.60 ⇓ 3.11% | 15.64 | 16.10 / 15.50 MALEKSPIN | -1.44 | 46.87 | Vol. 566215 D: 25.40 ⇓ 1.93% | 25.70 | 26.20 / 24.00 C: 25.40 ⇓ 2.31% | 25.69 | 26.40 / 25.20 ZAHINTEX | 1.91 | 35.25 | Vol. 225000 D: 31.20 ⇓ 3.11% | 31.43 | 32.40 / 31.00 C: 31.10 ⇓ 4.60% | 31.65 | 32.40 / 30.80 SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 574500 D: 24.40 ⇓ 3.17% | 24.55 | 25.20 / 24.20 C: 24.50 ⇓ 2.78% | 24.52 | 24.80 / 24.40 GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 1341320 D: 22.30 ⇓ 3.04% | 22.59 | 23.10 / 20.70 C: 22.40 ⇓ 2.61% | 22.66 | 23.00 / 22.30 ENVOYTEX | 3.26 | 39.26 | Vol. 669390 D: 52.90 ⇓ 1.12% | 52.83 | 53.50 / 49.00 C: 52.80 ⇓ 0.75% | 52.66 | 53.30 / 52.00 ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 2503320 D: 42.10 ⇑ 1.20% | 41.99 | 42.50 / 37.50 C: 41.90 ⇑ 0.72% | 41.50 | 42.20 / 40.80 FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 323000 D: 35.30 ⇓ 1.67% | 35.78 | 37.50 / 35.10 C: 35.00 ⇓ 1.13% | 34.96 | 35.00 / 34.60 PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICAL AMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 6058 D: 277.1 ⇓ 2.26% | 279.16 | 285.0 / 275.0 C: 274.0 ⇓ 2.97% | 274.07 | 280.0 / 270.0

DAFODILCOM | 1.12 | 11.14 | Vol. 381500 D: 18.20 ⇓ 3.70% | 18.50 | 19.00 / 18.10 C: 18.40 ⇓ 3.66% | 18.68 | 19.10 / 18.20 AAMRATECH | 1.17 | 20.44 | Vol. 495700 D: 34.30 ⇓ 4.99% | 34.82 | 36.40 / 32.50 C: 34.00 ⇓ 5.29% | 34.68 | 36.00 / 33.90

BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 159655 D: 44.60 ⇓ 1.11% | 44.74 | 46.00 / 41.00 C: 44.50 ⇓ 0.89% | 44.80 | 45.10 / 44.30 GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 1000 D: 959.4 ⇓ 1.70% | 959.00 | 976.0 / 935.0 ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 16512 D: 161.4 ⇓ 1.22% | 161.35 | 164.0 / 148.0 C: 162.1 ⇑ 0.62% | 160.86 | 163.0 / 160.0 RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 18800 D: 703.2 ⇓ 3.13% | 704.10 | 715.0 / 695.0 PHARMAID | 5.06 | 26.30 | Vol. 35150 D: 188.0 ⇓ 3.79% | 190.50 | 195.2 / 185.4 KOHINOOR | 9.52 | 10.49 | Vol. 1275 D: 415.0 ⇑ 0.97% | 409.41 | 430.0 / 380.0 IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 115988 D: 103.2 ⇓ 4.36% | 104.10 | 110.0 / 100.0 C: 103.0 ⇓ 4.10% | 104.70 | 108.0 / 101.8 LIBRAINFU | 4.64 | 1565.37 | Vol. 1800 D: 529.8 ⇓ 6.21% | 530.00 | 531.1 / 523.5 C: 510.0 ⇓ 21.54% | 510.00 | 510.0 / 510.0 ORIONINFU | 8.72 | 1.73 | Vol. 150600 D: 45.00 ⇓ 2.17% | 45.30 | 46.70 / 44.90 C: 43.70 ⇓ 4.17% | 44.55 | 45.20 / 43.00 SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 1237039 D: 173.9 ⇑ 1.22% | 173.57 | 175.2 / 155.0 C: 172.5 ⇑ 1.00% | 172.37 | 174.5 / 170.0 IMAMBUTTON | -1.68 | 5.67 | Vol. 87500 D: 11.10 ⇑ 9.90% | 11.09 | 11.10 / 10.90 C: 12.10 ⇑ 10.00% | 12.07 | 12.10 / 12.00 KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 392291 D: 23.30 ⇓ 2.10% | 23.53 | 25.00 / 21.50 C: 23.50 ⇓ 1.26% | 23.66 | 24.00 / 23.20 BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 6550 D: 824.7 ⇑ 1.80% | 822.90 | 830.0 / 793.2 ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 51650 D: 77.50 ⇓ 0.39% | 77.09 | 78.30 / 75.50 C: 76.20 ⇓ 3.42% | 76.23 | 77.00 / 75.00 MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 7900 D: 797.2 ⇓ 0.93% | 799.62 | 806.0 / 788.1 C: 805.0 ⇓ 3.71% | 805.00 | 805.0 / 805.0 BEACONPHAR | 0.33 | 11.97 | Vol. 308275 D: 14.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.52 | 15.00 / 14.00 C: 14.70 ⇑ 0.68% | 14.64 | 14.90 / 14.50 ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 328293 D: 92.10 ⇓ 0.97% | 92.33 | 93.30 / 84.00 C: 92.20 ⇓ 0.54% | 92.19 | 92.50 / 92.00 SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 301347 D: 21.10 ⇓ 2.76% | 21.23 | 22.00 / 19.60 C: 21.40 ⇓ 1.38% | 21.37 | 21.70 / 21.00 GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 153000 D: 45.10 ⇓ 2.17% | 45.38 | 46.00 / 45.00 C: 45.10 ⇓ 2.38% | 45.25 | 45.60 / 45.00 ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 341640 D: 61.10 ⇓ 1.61% | 61.42 | 62.10 / 56.00 C: 61.70 ⇓ 1.44% | 61.65 | 62.50 / 61.20 JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 205000 D: 259.3 ⇓ 2.88% | 266.49 | 280.0 / 254.1 C: 270.6 ⇑ 7.04% | 268.85 | 274.9 / 254.1 CENTRALPHL | 0.61 | 10.99 | Vol. 271000 D: 33.80 ⇓ 1.74% | 34.02 | 34.60 / 33.80 C: 33.80 ⇓ 1.74% | 33.97 | 34.50 / 33.30 PAPER & PACKAGING HAKKANIPUL | 0.64 | 11.02 | Vol. 49500 D: 35.10 ⇓ 4.88% | 35.86 | 38.00 / 34.20 C: 34.30 ⇓ 6.54% | 35.14 | 37.90 / 33.40 SERVICE SAMORITA | 2.31 | 17.25 | Vol. 21184 D: 103.4 ⇓ 3.45% | 104.10 | 105.2 / 102.1 C: 102.0 ⇓ 6.16% | 101.46 | 102.0 / 100.0 SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 183424 D: 25.20 ⇓ 3.08% | 25.46 | 26.00 / 23.40 C: 25.50 ⇓ 1.54% | 25.62 | 27.00 / 25.40

EHL | 2.87 | 18.48 | Vol. 265735 D: 54.40 ⇓ 2.16% | 54.60 | 55.90 / 50.10 C: 54.40 ⇓ 2.86% | 54.35 | 55.00 / 54.00 LEATHER APEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 129500 D: 116.8 ⇓ 2.67% | 117.41 | 122.0 / 114.5 C: 116.1 ⇓ 4.37% | 116.47 | 119.0 / 115.5 BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 7800 D: 721.2 ⇓ 2.22% | 723.97 | 730.0 / 718.1 APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 31400 D: 367.3 ⇓ 2.65% | 369.84 | 377.0 / 365.0 SAMATALETH | -0.07 | 12.08 | Vol. 5000 D: 14.10 ⇑ 2.17% | 14.00 | 14.60 / 14.00 C: 14.00 ⇓ 2.10% | 14.00 | 14.00 / 14.00 LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 681485 D: 44.60 ⇑ 4.21% | 44.84 | 47.00 / 38.60 C: 44.30 ⇑ 1.37% | 44.43 | 47.00 / 40.00 CERAMIC MONNOCERA | 0.71 | 96.33 | Vol. 73100 D: 34.20 ⇓ 5.00% | 34.71 | 36.50 / 33.80 C: 33.20 ⇓ 8.29% | 33.77 | 34.60 / 33.20 STANCERAM | 1.07 | 15.97 | Vol. 10000 D: 39.60 ⇓ 3.18% | 39.67 | 41.00 / 38.60 C: 44.50 ⇑ 6.71% | 44.50 | 44.50 / 44.50 FUWANGCER | 1.43 | 13.25 | Vol. 266325 D: 19.30 ⇓ 3.02% | 19.55 | 20.00 / 18.00 C: 19.60 ⇓ 2.49% | 19.63 | 20.00 / 19.20 SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 339954 D: 16.20 ⇓ 2.99% | 16.38 | 17.00 / 15.20 C: 16.30 ⇓ 2.98% | 16.42 | 16.70 / 16.20 RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 139990 D: 52.20 ⇓ 0.57% | 52.44 | 53.00 / 47.30 C: 52.00 ⇑ 0.19% | 51.55 | 52.00 / 47.90 CEMENT HEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 69700 D: 378.4 ⇓ 2.67% | 379.83 | 386.0 / 377.5 C: 375.9 ⇓ 1.88% | 375.90 | 376.0 / 375.6 CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 99390 D: 119.0 ⇓ 1.57% | 119.54 | 121.9 / 118.0 C: 119.6 ⇓ 0.91% | 119.11 | 120.9 / 118.5 MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 70800 D: 133.8 ⇓ 2.41% | 134.75 | 140.8 / 133.5 C: 133.6 ⇓ 3.19% | 134.83 | 140.0 / 133.5 ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 32550 D: 76.30 ⇓ 0.26% | 76.36 | 78.90 / 73.50 LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 387000 D: 33.20 ⇑ 0.30% | 33.25 | 33.90 / 33.10 C: 32.90 ⇓ 0.90% | 33.06 | 33.30 / 32.90 MICEMENT | 4.14 | 40.00 | Vol. 134582 D: 90.60 ⇓ 1.41% | 90.63 | 92.40 / 83.00 C: 90.90 ⇓ 1.20% | 90.74 | 91.50 / 90.20 PREMIERCEM | 3.59 | 22.92 | Vol. 135400 D: 101.9 ⇓ 2.30% | 101.73 | 104.1 / 100.0 C: 103.3 ⇓ 0.77% | 101.71 | 99.00 / 100.0 IT IINDUSTRIES ISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 277078 D: 21.40 ⇓ 9.70% | 21.60 | 23.50 / 21.40 C: 21.10 ⇓ 9.05% | 21.37 | 22.30 / 20.90 BDCOM | 1.00 | 14.91 | Vol. 609389 D: 27.10 ⇓ 3.56% | 27.51 | 29.00 / 26.00 C: 27.20 ⇓ 2.86% | 27.60 | 29.80 / 27.00 INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 388627 D: 18.00 ⇓ 7.22% | 18.41 | 19.80 / 17.90 C: 18.10 ⇓ 5.73% | 18.42 | 19.10 / 17.90 AGNISYSL | 1.07 | 25.52 | Vol. 339745 D: 23.30 ⇓ 3.72% | 23.50 | 24.00 / 22.00 C: 23.10 ⇓ 6.10% | 23.21 | 24.00 / 22.80

GENERAL INSURANCE BGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 60935 D: 29.20 ⇓ 2.01% | 29.58 | 30.00 / 27.00 C: 28.80 ⇓ 3.36% | 28.92 | 29.40 / 28.80 GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 32533 D: 100.3 ⇓ 0.69% | 100.18 | 103.9 / 91.00 C: 99.00 ⇓ 1.00% | 99.14 | 99.00 / 100.0 UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 9000 D: 45.00 ⇓ 2.60% | 45.00 | 45.30 / 44.50 PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 366610 D: 31.40 ⇓ 1.88% | 31.94 | 32.70 / 31.00 C: 31.10 ⇓ 3.42% | 31.30 | 32.00 / 31.00 EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 10755 D: 39.30 ⇓ 2.96% | 39.33 | 39.50 / 38.00 C: 41.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 38.00 | 41.10 / 41.10 JANATAINS | 7.84 | 170.69 | Vol. 12898 D: 276.8 ⇓ 5.30% | 278.21 | 292.0 / 270.0 C: 276.3 ⇓ 4.72% | 275.10 | 279.8 / 272.0 PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 24902 D: 40.00 ⇓ 0.99% | 40.08 | 41.40 / 38.00 EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 144800 D: 48.00 ⇓ 2.44% | 48.40 | 52.80 / 47.70 C: 47.50 ⇓ 8.48% | 47.50 | 47.50 / 47.50 CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 31004 D: 28.60 ⇓ 3.70% | 28.84 | 29.00 / 27.50 C: 29.00 ⇓ 2.36% | 29.10 | 30.80 / 27.60 KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 115720 D: 23.30 ⇓ 4.51% | 23.43 | 24.10 / 22.00 RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 35152 D: 32.60 ⇓ 2.69% | 32.85 | 34.00 / 32.50 C: 32.30 ⇓ 2.71% | 32.28 | 32.30 / 32.20 FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 245379 D: 23.60 ⇓ 4.45% | 23.93 | 24.80 / 22.30 C: 23.70 ⇓ 2.87% | 23.72 | 24.10 / 22.00 RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 7582 D: 74.70 ⇑ 1.63% | 74.79 | 78.70 / 72.70 PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 315250 D: 23.40 ⇓ 6.40% | 24.02 | 25.00 / 23.20 PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 21431 D: 55.90 ⇓ 3.45% | 55.99 | 60.00 / 55.00 PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 69072 D: 32.80 ⇓ 0.61% | 32.84 | 35.70 / 31.00 PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 47980 D: 67.80 ⇓ 2.45% | 68.33 | 70.80 / 67.00 C: 67.50 ⇓ 10.00% | 67.50 | 67.50 / 67.50 MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 173544 D: 28.80 ⇓ 1.03% | 29.07 | 32.00 / 26.20 C: 28.60 ⇓ 3.70% | 28.63 | 29.00 / 27.50 AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 123621 D: 29.40 ⇓ 4.85% | 29.74 | 30.50 / 28.50 GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 34000 D: 30.00 ⇓ 5.06% | 30.18 | 30.50 / 29.00 NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 66604 D: 35.90 ⇑ 0.84% | 36.02 | 36.70 / 32.10 ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 35500 D: 28.20 ⇓ 3.42% | 28.35 | 29.20 / 28.10 C: 28.40 ⇓ 3.73% | 28.40 | 29.00 / 27.70 SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 248341 D: 26.40 ⇓ 6.71% | 27.11 | 28.40 / 26.00 C: 26.70 ⇓ 5.65% | 26.88 | 27.10 / 26.70 PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 36500 D: 24.70 ⇓ 1.98% | 24.86 | 25.10 / 24.50 C: 24.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 24.80 | 24.80 / 24.80 CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 134536 D: 27.20 ⇓ 3.89% | 27.64 | 29.00 / 25.50 C: 27.30 ⇓ 2.85% | 27.29 | 29.00 / 27.20 CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 1828264 D: 35.70 ⇓ 6.05% | 36.54 | 40.80 / 34.50 C: 37.80 ⇓ 0.26% | 37.80 | 38.50 / 36.50 TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 232527 D: 45.70 ⇑ 3.63% | 43.92 | 48.20 / 40.00 C: 46.00 ⇑ 4.55% | 45.47 | 46.00 / 45.90 STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 3067 D: 40.50 ⇑ 1.00% | 40.10 | 41.70 / 38.00 NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 54496 D: 43.20 ⇓ 3.57% | 43.54 | 47.00 / 41.00 C: 43.70 ⇓ 1.80% | 45.18 | 46.00 / 43.60 REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 49738 D: 49.20 ⇓ 1.20% | 49.20 | 49.90 / 46.00 C: 51.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 47.00 | 51.90 / 51.90

ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 72048 D: 26.50 ⇓ 3.99% | 26.95 | 27.80 / 25.50 C: 26.80 ⇓ 1.47% | 26.68 | 26.80 / 25.00 ISLAMIINS | 1.29 | 11.96 | Vol. 16105 D: 33.10 ⇓ 1.78% | 33.03 | 34.00 / 30.50 PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 60889 D: 29.10 ⇓ 1.69% | 29.12 | 30.50 / 28.00 DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 105000 D: 39.60 ⇓ 3.18% | 39.86 | 41.00 / 39.30 C: 39.30 ⇓ 3.20% | 39.43 | 39.90 / 39.00 LIFE INSURANCE NATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 4885 D: 243.5 ⇓ 1.06% | 242.93 | 244.5 / 240.0 C: 248.0 ⇑ 4.16% | 248.00 | 248.0 / 248.0 DELTALIFE | 38.53 | 189.40 | Vol. 6605 D: 5767 ⇓ 3.14% | 5865 | 6045 / 5730 SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 41845 D: 69.50 ⇓ 1.28% | 69.76 | 72.00 / 65.00 POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 17000 D: 167.2 ⇓ 3.46% | 167.24 | 171.9 / 165.0 FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 24586 D: 92.40 ⇓ 0.75% | 92.53 | 93.50 / 88.00 C: 90.60 ⇓ 1.52% | 91.99 | 94.90 / 90.50 MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 21250 D: 99.70 ⇓ 1.58% | 100.43 | 103.0 / 91.50 C: 98.00 ⇓ 2.87% | 97.45 | 98.00 / 92.00 PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 13668 D: 92.40 ⇓ 3.25% | 92.39 | 94.00 / 92.00 PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 31500 D: 111.0 ⇓ 3.06% | 110.95 | 115.0 / 109.1 PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 9033 D: 95.00 ⇓ 0.52% | 94.86 | 96.00 / 86.00 C: 90.10 ⇓ 2.80% | 89.99 | 90.10 / 87.00 RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 15804 D: 95.60 ⇓ 1.34% | 95.48 | 100.0 / 90.00 PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 27500 D: 61.00 ⇓ 1.29% | 61.04 | 62.00 / 60.90 C: 60.90 ⇓ 1.93% | 60.94 | 62.00 / 60.20 SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 183825 D: 52.30 ⇓ 0.95% | 52.71 | 55.00 / 47.60 C: 52.00 ⇓ 2.07% | 51.97 | 52.90 / 51.00 TELECOM GP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 398039 D: 189.4 ⇑ 1.88% | 187.10 | 190.9 / 180.0 C: 188.5 ⇑ 1.84% | 186.55 | 191.0 / 182.0 BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 507830 D: 215.6 ⇓ 4.47% | 218.60 | 226.9 / 210.0 C: 215.9 ⇓ 4.26% | 218.35 | 223.1 / 215.1 TRAVEL & LEISURE UNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 3088719 D: 17.90 ⇓ 1.10% | 18.01 | 18.50 / 16.80 C: 17.90 ⇓ 1.65% | 17.95 | 18.20 / 17.80 UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 322680 D: 86.30 ⇓ 1.71% | 86.77 | 88.50 / 79.20 C: 86.20 ⇓ 2.05% | 86.58 | 88.50 / 85.70 MISCELLANEOUS ARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 12900 D: 328.3 ⇓ 4.84% | 332.37 | 343.0 / 325.0 C: 330.0 ⇓ 4.51% | 330.00 | 330.0 / 330.0 BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 98710 D: 534.0 ⇓ 3.00% | 541.63 | 553.5 / 530.0 C: 534.5 ⇓ 3.05% | 540.77 | 555.0 / 530.0 USMANIAGL | 0.50 | 26.03 | Vol. 65718 D: 139.3 ⇓ 3.60% | 141.39 | 145.9 / 135.0 C: 139.1 ⇓ 4.33% | 141.69 | 152.9 / 138.0 BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 1003342 D: 29.70 ⇓ 3.57% | 30.15 | 31.50 / 27.80 C: 29.90 ⇓ 2.92% | 30.10 | 30.80 / 29.70 SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 205500 D: 22.40 ⇓ 2.18% | 22.66 | 23.10 / 22.20 C: 22.40 ⇓ 3.86% | 22.70 | 23.20 / 22.30 MIRACLEIND | 0.14 | 14.90 | Vol. 169550 D: 16.70 ⇓ 4.57% | 16.98 | 18.00 / 16.50 C: 16.80 ⇓ 3.45% | 17.08 | 17.80 / 16.70 BOND IBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 180 D: 955.3 ⇑ 0.21% | 960.00 | 956.3 / 955.0 C: 948.0 ⇑ 0.05% | 947.97 | 950.0 / 947.0 ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 70 D: 871.0 ⇑ 0.06% | 871.00 | 871.0 / 871.0 C: 860.5 ⇓ 0.29% | 860.50 | 861.0 / 860.0 BRACSCBOND | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 10 D: 1100 ⇑ 0.00% | 1100 | 1100 / 1100

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013

Telenor invests in 3G after assurance about licence Fredrik Baksaas shares plan for $60 handset partnership with vendors not a party to the 1996 licence agreement. n Muhammad Zahidul Islam Baksaas said: “Apart from that we haven’t Telenor Group President Jon Fredrik Baksaas has said they participated in the 3G spectrum auction and are now preparing for 3G mobile services upon assurance from the government about Grameenphone’s licence.

“Definitely our investment into 3G is based upon assurance that Grameenphone and Telenor group can continue.

Grameenphone’s quality of 3G service would be ‘very good’ and subscribers would not have to wait any more for 4G although compatible handsets were not yet much available in Bangladesh “From that perspective we are here to support Grameenphone and develop. We had a big discussion over this issue,” he told a group of reporters yesterday.

In an interim report submitted to the finance ministry in February, the government-sponsored Grameen Bank Commission recommended immediately suspending Grameenphone’s licence as the operator was

found any final report about it; so, we need to wait and see what happens.”

Norwegian Minister Trond Giske and Baksaas visited Dhaka in April in the wake of the report and met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the ministers for finance, foreign affairs, telecommunication and commerce, and other high officials concerned regarding the issue.

Baksaas shared their plan for affordable 3G enabled handsets: “We are in a position to work with a vendor.

A couple of years ago we launched feature phone with Grameenphone level and that might happen again.

“From Telenor Group we also work on it in different low penetration markets. Markets like Bangladesh need smart handsets below $60 for 3G.” Regarding the ecosystem of 3G he said they needed more local contents to flourish.

“Health and education would be a major sector for 3G but it also needs to go through how the market is reacting.”

Baksaas said there was a huge scope for every operator to grow as lots of people had no

Telenor Group President Jon Fredrik Baksaas speaks to Dhaka Tribune yesterday connection and “we want to put on our board.”

Replying to a question he said Grameenphone’s quality of 3G service would be “very good” and subscribers would not have to wait any more for 4G although compatible handsets were not yet much available in Bangladesh.

Baksaas declined to be specific about Telenor’s investment into 3G service. “Telenor and Grameenphone are a long-term investor and we want to build the network for good communication service.

We have made significant investment but

NASHIRUL ISLAM

I can’t mention the figure.” Telenor, a company owned by the Norwegian government, owns 55.8% of Grameenphone. Grameen Telecom has 34.2% shares in the operator while the rest are owned by IPO investors.

Telenor has investment in 11 other countries and is preparing to operate in Myanmar, which Baksaas expects to happen anytime next year.

Baksaas said from operations in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan they had learnt how to operate low-cost markets. l

Japan’s luxury fruit masters grow money on trees n AFP, Tokyo With melons that sell for the price of a new car and grapes that go for more than $100 a pop, Japan is a country where perfectly-formed fruit can fetch a fortune.

An industry of fruit boutiques has defied Japan’s sluggish economy to consistently offer luscious and lavishly tended produce for hefty prices -- and it is always in demand.

In July, a single bunch of “Ruby Roman” grapes reportedly sold for 400,000 yen ($4,000), making the plump, crimson berries worth a staggering 11,000 yen each.

Every May, a pair of canteloupe melons grown in the north of Hokkaido is auctioned off. They regularly fetch the price of a modest new car. The hammer fell on this year’s pair at a cool 1.6m yen.

While such cases are at the extreme end, top-notch fruit is a valuable commodity in the world of business and as a seasonal gift, signifying just how much importance the giver attaches to the relationship.

“Most of our products are for gift purposes, so we collect large and high-grade products from all around Japan,” says Yoshinobu Ishiyama, manager of a branch of Sun Fruits at Tokyo Midtown, a glitzy office-commercial complex that is also home to a Ritz Carlton Hotel.

“We offer rare products. Above all, they

have to be delicious,” he says.

‘You never forget the experience’ Inside his bright, white-tiled emporium, an array of mouth-watering fruits gives off a heady, brain-tingling aroma as soothing music lulls his well-heeled customers.

While Ishiyama doesn’t have anything you could trade for a mid-range auto, he does have a slightly more affordable example of the “Ruby Roman” grapes - a snip at 31,500 yen for a bunch.

A single white peach - flavourful, perfectly round and about the size of a newborn baby’s head - goes for 2,625 yen. A bunch of Muscat of Alexandria grapes has a 7,350 yen price tag. Then, there is the unrivalled symbol of expensive gifts in Japan: musk melons.

Sitting in individual wooden boxes on the top shelf of a glass-door refrigerator at the back of the shop, they will set you back as much as 16,000 yen.

There are also square watermelons grown in plastic boxes and usually for decoration - which start at 5,000 yen.

As with everything in Japan, presentation is key: serried ranks of cherries line up in boxes, their stalks all facing in the same direction; strawberries nestle in soft packaging, their highly-shined, deep red surface uniformly patinated by seeds.

It goes without saying that there are no

blemishes. Nothing is bruised, everything is exactly the right shape, as if each fruit has been cast in wax by a master craftsman working off the original blueprints.

Of course, not everyone buys their bananas at places like Sun Fruits; much more affordable offerings are on display in the average supermarket.

But to lubricate the wheels of social exchange in a country that has a deeply ingrained culture of gift-giving, nothing matches high-end fruit. At summer and year-end, households send packaged gifts to relatives, business associates and bosses to express their gratitude.

If the two sides of the exchange are of a broadly similar social standing the gift is reciprocated. A 4,000 yen box of cherries might be given in exchange for a 5,000 yen presentation pack of mangoes.

If the giver owes for social favours dispensed through the year, there could be no change from that 16,000 yen musk melon.

But the boss who receives it will understand how grateful you are.

The giving of high-end fruits creates a lasting impression on Japanese clients, says Tokyo-based corporate trainer Farhad Kardan, who was strolling through Sun Fruits choosing possible gifts. “You buy these delicious things and share a great time with people

who are close to you,” he told AFP. “You never forget the experience of having eaten something so delicious. What you pay for is for the quality and the value.”

How can fruit cost so much?

Despite more than a decade of deflation, prices for fresh food in Japan are considered high by world standards, partially as a result of farming practices and import preferences. Consumers are accustomed to paying a premium on Japanese-grown produce, with many believing it to be safer and better quality than imports.

But even so, many open-mouthed visitors to Japan wonder: how can a piece of fruit cost so much?

Ishiyama says his master musk melon grower Toshiaki Nishihara puts a whole lot of love into each fruit he raises in his computer-controlled greenhouse in Shizuoka prefecture, southwest of Tokyo.

He hand-pollinates his crop and selects only one melon on each plant so that all the nutrients, sugar and juice are concentrated in the chosen fruit. Like their $16,000 cousins from Hokkaido, the best-quality melons are perfect spheres with a smooth, evenly patterned rind.

“The prices are very high because of the care and cost that go into the fruits,” Ishiyama said. l