BANGLADESH

Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) has been armed with first ever surface-to-air missiles.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday inaugurated the low-range FM-90 anti-aircraft missile system at a function at the Kurmitola Air Base.

Air Force chief air marshal Shah M Ziaur Rahman received her.

She said that introduction of this Short Range Air Defence System (SRADS) is a big step forward towards modernisation of the air force.

"The government will continue with its efforts to modernise the armed forces," Hasina said.

She said this advanced all-weather surface to air missile system has been introduced with the assistance of China. This ground-based air defence weapon system is capable of hitting targets flying at a low or very high altitude.

While addressing the function, the prime minister mentioned steps her 1996-2001 government had taken to modernise the air force.

"We have already completed a fully fledged air base and maintenance unit in Cox's Bazar during this tenure while many other development projects are going on."

Hasina urged the members of the BAF to acquire professional skills to become efficient pilots, engineers and air force personnel.

Later, the prime minister inaugurated the Bangabandhu Aeronautical Centre built with help of China at the Kurmitola base in the city.

Air Force officials said the Centre would be able to repair damaged aircraft and helicopters while light tools and parts of aircraft would be manufactured there.

Several ministers of the cabinet, advisors to the prime minister, chiefs of the army and navy, Armed Forces Division principal staff officer and high military and government officials were also present at the programme.

Traders at the premier bourse are saying the sponsor/directors of listed companies are yet to start buying up to fill their quota that the Securities and Exchange Commission recently set.

They say the SEC rule on sponsor directors' having at least 30 percent share of their companies is in conflict with another one of its regulations.

SEC on Nov 22 made it mandatory for sponsors, promoters and directors to hold 30 percent stake in listed companies, two percent minimum for each director, and reach that level in six months. SEC spokesman Saifur Rahman said the condition has been imposed in line with the Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969.

But according to the Section 4 (2) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Rules 1995, no sponsor, director, officer, auditor, legal adviser or beneficiary owner will be able to sell, buy, give or receive shares of the company from two months before the year ending date of the company to the day the accounts are finalised by the board of directors, which is a total of six-month period. Companies get 14 days after the board finalises the accounts to submit them to the SEC.

Based on this restriction, if a company closes its year on Dec 31 its sponsor will not be able to buy a share from November to May 15.

There are 46 companies on the Dhaka Stock Exchange under the 30 percent requirement, of which 29 close their year on Dec 31. Eastern Bank Limited director Mir Nasir Hossain told  a clear explanation was necessary from the market regulator.

"One of the rules will have to be changed," former SEC chairman A B Mirza Azizul Islam said commenting on the conflict.

SEC's former chairman Faruk Ahmed Siddiqui said the older guideline should stay as it was introduced to prevent schemes. "I think the deadline for buying up 30 percent can be extended to nine months instead of six."

Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, a retail investors' leader, said the directors must buy shares for the sake of the market and urged the SEC to revise its regulations.

Similar recommendations came at a meeting of the FBCCI standing committee on share market on Nov 30. However, the SEC chairman and the member present were unwilling to speak to the press on the issue.

Sheikh Hasina's visit to Myanmar, starting Monday, comes on the heels of Hilary Clinton's high profile tour of the country, as the US-China tussle for this strategic Asian crossroads intensifies.

India has also been engaging the mineral-rich, but paradoxically poor, country for almost a decade now, to gain out of its substantial gas reserves. Besides natural gas, Myanmar has considerable deposits of coal and other precious metal and gems like gold and rubies.

The prime minister's Dec 5-7 visit — the first in eight years by a Bangladeshi leader to this neighbouring nation with whom Bangladesh shares a 193-km border in the southeast— is expected to see two agreements.

"One is on furthering bilateral relations and the other to enhance private sector business under government endorsement," said Golam Sarwar, director general of South East Asia at the foreign ministry.

Sarwar would not give any further details "until the deals are signed".

Although Bangladesh had engaged with its neighbour, isolated by western sanctions but leaned towards China, as early as the 1980's, the government's "faltering attitude" has been behind Bangladesh and Myanmar never really 'getting it on', says Syed Mahmudul Huq, head of the Bangladesh Myanmar Business Promotion Council.

"For instance," he says, "we never got around to building a road link but India has already operationalised a 160-km friendship road from its northeast. But interestingly Bangladesh had begun the groundwork much earlier than India."

A businessman, who ran the first Bangladesh-Myanmar joint venture company set up in the 1990s, Huq said he would recommended including India in a tri-nation gas pipeline as well as road or rail link.

"This should be high on the agenda besides resolution of the maritime boundary and a coastal shipping agreement," Huq said, in an interview with .

The country of 47 million has suddenly found itself in an advantageous position, with more active US engagement competing to dilute Myanmar's dependence on China and counter its foothold in the Bay of Bengal, not to mention Indian overtures.
Says Huq: "Given the situation, Bangladesh cannot just sit back. We can still catch the train. Besides we have a long tradition of trade and business relations with Myanmar."

He said the Bangladesh government had failed to take the initiative although it had signed economic cooperation agreement as early as the 1980s, which in fact led to his short-lived fisheries joint-venture.

Sarwar, the foreign ministry official, sought to defend the government. "The prime minister's visit at this time is only a reflection that we understand the importance of engagement."

Huq mentioned that Bangladesh could well offer transit for the gas pipeline connecting India with rights of gas usage too. "We need not merely act as the conduit. Bangladesh could talk about a jointly-owned pipeline from which it could also get gas supply."

He also mentioned a tri-nation rail and road link would enhance mutual connectivity and together with an operationalised coastal shipping agreement could vastly increase the $150 million worth of trade between the two countries.

"This could jump to $500 million easily," he says.

Although Myanmar is a net exporter to Bangladesh, the trade would add to the economy since most imports are raw materials needed for industrial production while Bangladesh exports a host of consumer items, including substantial amounts of medicine.

The prime minister's 90-strong delegation will meet the foreign minister upon arrival and have formal talks with all top leaders.

Hasina's entourage includes a 38-member business delegation led by AK Azad, head of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries.

Myanmar's general-turned civilian president, Thein Sein, who took office after 2010 elections — the first in 20 years — will meet Hasina on Tuesday morning and host a banquet in her honour the same evening.

Hasina is expected to inaugurate the new Bangladesh mission in the Myanmar capital and visit their parliament building. According to her official itinerary, Sheikh Hasina is not expected to be meeting Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the trip although the new regime has relaxed restrictions on Suu Kyi after years of detention in her home.

BNP has alleged that the ruling Awami League 'cadres' have stabbed former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka in police custody.

Acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the charge at a media call on Sunday afternoon at the party's head office at Naya Paltan.

"Awami League's 'hooligans' stabbed Khoka while he was being taken to detective police's office after arresting him from old Dhaka's Dholaikhal area. He was stabbed in the left leg," he said.

Alamgir also announced that BNP would hold fresh demonstration on Monday in the capital protesting against the incident that took place amidst the strike.

He said the demonstration would take place at 2:30pm in front of the party's head office and the next protest programme would be announced there against the government's decision to divide Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).

BNP enforced the dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the capital on Sunday to register its protest against DCC split which ended at 6pm.

Earlier in the day, Khoka was arrested from the court area in old Dhaka. However, police dropped Khoka, a BNP vice-chairman, off at his house in Gulshan within an hour of arrest saying he was taken into custody for his own safety.

BNP leaders had then said Khoka has taken admission at the United Hospital after he was hit and injured by stones hurled by pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League activists.

Professor of surgery Abu Sayeed M M Rahman, who is overseeing Khoka at the hospital, said Khoka bore injury marks in the lower left thigh.

"We are assessing the injury," he told  when asked whether the injury was because of stabbing as alleged by BNP.

"Even he (Khoka) cannot say how he received the injury," the doctor replied.

Alamgir at the briefing demanded immediate arrest and punishment to the attackers of the BNP metropolitan unit convenor Khoka and said, "This attack is an attack on democracy."

Claiming police admitted 'critically wounded Khoka at the United Hospital', he said, "We are condemning this inhuman disgusting incident."

The acting secretary general added that Khoka was under observation of Prof Sayeed at the private hospital in Gulshan.

He also condemned the attack on labour wing Jatiyatabdi Sramik Dal's metropolitan unit president Nurul Islam Khan Nasim by ruling party 'hoodlums'.

Alamgir claimed at least 250 party leaders-activists were arrested including Nasim, former MP Abul Kalam Azad Siddiqui and several presidents and general secretaries of the affiliated organisations.

He slated the government's 'repressive policy', saying, "Police have arrested our activists from different points of the city amid the peaceful hartal and filed false cases against them. We demand their immediate release and withdrawal of those cases."

'SELLING COUNTRY'

The BNP leader also criticised prime minister Sheikh Hasina for "condoning injustice and unlawful activities just to stay in power forever". [She is] implementing plans one by one against the people interest."

"She is not even hesitating before selling the country for this," Alamgir alleged and criticised the government's 'subservient' foreign policy.

SPLIT DCC ELECTIONS

The BNP spokesman the planned elections in the two parts of the newly divided Dhaka City Corporation as 'premeditated drama of the government'.

"I heard that the Local Government Division has sent a letter to Election Commission to hold the elections. But the Commission has said it's impossible to give the polls within 90 days.

"Which proves it's a drama planned by the government," Alamgir added.

DCC was divided into two separate administrative bodies — north and south, through a bill passed in parliament on Nov 29. The president on Thursday signed it into a law.

The government wrote to the EC asking it to hold mayoral elections within 90 days after Sunday's appointment of two administrators. According to the law, elections must be held within 90 days after the appointment. The interim administrators are to hold the fort until then.

However, two election commissioners have said it was impossible to hold elections by this time as the current commission has barely two and a half months to the end of its term.

Alamgir on Sunday claimed that the appointment of the administrators is 'against the constitution".

"The government hurried through the formalities of passing the bill and appointing the administrators overlooking public opinion. The government has violated the constitution's fundamentals by appointing unelected administrators to an electedl organisation."

The prime minister has put swirling rumours to some rest giving Obaidul Quader communications portfolio that was Syed Abul Hossain's.

Cabinet Division sources said Abul Hossain will be running the newly-carved Railways.

They said the necessary orders were being issued Sunday night following approval from Sheikh Hasina.

Quader got the portfolio five days after he had taken oath to office on Nov 29 when prime minister Hasina expanded her cabinet a third time.

The current Awami League cabinet was formed on Jan 6, 2009 with 32 members. Six others had joined the council of ministers after 18 days and on July 31 the same year, a new minister and five state ministers had taken oath. The cabinet now has 45 members.