BANGLADESH

President Zillur Rahman has urged the opposition to return to parliament.

"Place all your (opposition) proposals and complaints in parliament. It will enrich democracy," he said on the opening day of the 12th session of the ninth parliament on Wednesday.

The session, the first this year, started at 3pm amidst continued boycott by the opposition lawmakers.

Parliament leader and prime minister Sheikh Hasina was present on the first day of the session.

The main opposition has been saying it will not join parliament without revival of the caretaker government system, which was annulled through the 15th Amendment to the constitution

Zillur, however, thanked the government for the amendment.

"The spirit of the 1972 charter has been revived through it…the four fundamental principles have also been re-established."

The president expressed his hope that trial of war criminals and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutineers will be completed soon.

"With respect to international laws and norms, laws to try war crimes have been passed. I hope the trial of war criminals will finish soon," he said.
"Those tied with the killings in BDR headquarters at Pilkhana will also be punished properly, I hope," he said.

After his speech concluded, speaker Abdul Hamid adjourned the session until Sunday.

Apart from Awami League MPs, JaSad president Hasanul Haque Inu and Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon attended the session.

Jatiya Party MPs, except chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad, were also present in the House.

Five new woman MPs – A N Mahfuza Khatun Baby Maudud, Fazilatunnesa Indira, Pinu Khan, Hasina Mannan and Fazilatunnesa Bappy – took part in the proceedings on the opening session of the session. It is their first session.

The BNP on Wednesday called for the government's cooperation to peacefully stage the Jan 29 public procession in Dhaka, which opposition chief Khaleda Zia is scheduled to lead.

"Our programme shall be peaceful. We have already sent letters to the home minister, home secretary and Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner to take necessary steps to ensure peace and discipline," acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists.

BNP will host processions in Dhaka and around the country on the day demanding reinstatement of the constitutional provision of caretaker government to oversee parliamentary elections.

"We hope that the government will help us to successfully host our peaceful, democratic programme," the spokesperson said but was quick to warn the government that it would have to bear consequences should there be any bar to the procession.

The caution was thrown in the air after a meeting of the four-party coalition and like-minded political parties in the evening at BNP's Naya Paltan headquarters.

"Hosting processions and rallies are the democratic and constitutional right of political parties. Any bar to this programme will force us to announce harsher agitation," he added.

However, when asked, the BNP leader could not specify which streets the opposition supporters will march down, saying, "The route is yet to be finalised."

Local authorities on Wednesday banned all sorts of public gathering at Narail Sadar upazila as two rival factions of Juba Dal, the youth wing of opposition BNP, announced simultaneous rallies at the same venue.

The Section 144, banning public gatherings, took effect within 200 metres of the city's main intersection near the BNP office from 9am to 8pm, additional district magistrate Khandakar Hasnat Tarik told .

Narail Sadar Police Station OC Mohammad Rafiqul Islam said Mashiar Rahman, the president of Juba Dal's Narail district unit, called a rally at 11am in front of the local BNP office to welcome the unit's new office-bearers.

Local Juba Dal leader Kamruzzaman also convened programmes at the same venue to observe the 76th birth anniversary of the party's founder late Ziaur Rahman, he said.

"It leaves chances of deterioration of law and order," Rafiqul Islam said.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday lavished tributes on Abdur Razzak, the late political stalwart who was one of the key organisers of nation's independence war.

"The country has lost a valiant freedom fighter and an efficient and patriotic leader at his death," she said at a discussion on the obituary references at the deaths of Razzak and 20 other eminent persons on the first day of the 12th session parliament.

Razzak, a former minister and Awami League presidium member, passed away at a London hospital on Dec 23 while undergoing treatment, thus bringing a 50-year-long distinguished career in politics to a close.

Hasina also paid tributes to 20 other eminent persons, including national professor Kabir Chowdhury, former state minister Rashed Mosharraf, Abdur Rouf, Shamsur Rahman Shahjahan and Rashid Talukdar, who died after the 11th session was prorogued.

Later on, a one-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to their memory.

Referring to the beginning of Bangladesh Chhatra League, Hasina said she is fortunate that she could work with Razzak when she did politics of Chhatra League.

"He had led Chhatra League with efficiency during the freedom struggle and took advices from my mother in absence of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the independence hero who was then imprisoned)," she said.

Razzak was twice general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Awami League's student front. In 1967, he served the East Pakistan Chhatra League as its general secretary.

Hasina said her mother had profound affection for Razzak and even arranged marriage for him.

Before her, senior AL leader and long-time comrade Tofail Ahmed said Razzak was uncompromising on the issue of the trial of suspected war criminals. "The trial is in progress."

Suranjit Sengupta said there had been an erosion of political idealism, honesty and ethics following the death of Razzak.

Deputy leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, senior AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Jatiya Party secretary general Ruhul Amin Hawlader, JSD president Hasanul Haque Inu, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon and Rahmat Ali also took part in the discussion on the obituary references.

In his opening speech, speaker Abdul Hamid said: "Parliament is the centre point of politics. It (parliament) is the main centre to fulfil the people's demands and expectations."

"Both the government and opposition party MPs can go ahead towards achieving political goals using this national assembly. Besides the ruling party, the opposition can play a crucial role in making parliament effective."

At the beginning of the session, the speaker nominated a five-member panel to preside over the current session when he and his deputy will be absent.

The members are Abdul Matin Khasru, Mohammad Mujibul Haque, A K M Mozammel Haque, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury and Nazma Akhter Khanam.

The search committee has invited the political parties that had dialogues with the president to put up their nominees for the chief and members of the new Election Commission.

The move was decided from the maiden meeting of the committee held at the Supreme Court conference room on Wednesday.

Senior information officer of the Cabinet Division Munshi Jalal Uddin in a media statement said each of those political party can propose a maximum of five names with bio-data of the nominees to the Cabinet Division secretary by 3pm on Jan 29.

The meeting, led by chairman Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, an Appellate Division judge, asked the Cabinet Division secretary to send to it names of all his predecessors and retired former principal secretaries to the prime minister.

It also asked the Supreme Court registrar to send in the names of retired district judges.

The meeting also decided that the committee members would collect the names of the persons they deem fit to become election commissioners.

President Zillur Rahman formed the search committee, following a series of dialogues, to reconstitute the Election Commission.

The Cabinet Division published the names of the committee in a gazette on Tuesday. The committee has been given 10 working days to recommend names for the next Election Commission.

Though main opposition BNP took part in the dialogue, it demanded restoration of the caretaker government system, which was scrapped on June 30 last year through the 15 amendment to the constitution, before reconstitution of the electoral commission.

Two other members of the committee, High Court's Justice Md Nuruzzman and Public Service Commission chairman A T Ahmedul Hauqe Chowdhury were present at Wednesday's meeting.

Syed Abul Hossain has launched a passionate defence of himself against a rash of criticism over allegations of irregularities and corruption in the $2.9 billion Padma bridge project during his time as communications minister.

In an interview with , the man who shares much of the blame for the World Bank freezing its promised loan, said, "When facts are revealed, all unjustified allegations should be resolved and the misconceptions in the media, the World Bank and [among] the people should be cleared up."

The World Bank in last October suspended a $1.2 billion loan to the government for the project that has been awash in corruption allegations the Anticorruption Commission is currently investigating.

The loan, which was its biggest-ever off-credit line to any country, was signed in April last year to help finance Bangladesh's longest bridge that would link the country's north with its more-isolated south.

The tension between the government and the global lending agency burst into public view after the project co-financier slapped allegations against Abul Hossain that he was engaged in extortion during river dredging, appointment of consultants and preliminary selections.

Hossain, shuffled to the newly carved out information and communications technology ministry, says he "ensured complete transparency and accountability".

He pointed the finger at "the conspiracy and acts of sabotage by a faction" that delayed the much-vaunted scheme. The minister added, without calling names, that the faction "spread misinformation through nameless letters and created debilitating misconception about corruption in this project."

Things started to go wrong in early September when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the offices of SNC-Lavalin, an engineering firm bidding on the bridge project, after the World Bank's anti-graft unit referred its concerns about violations of Canadian law.

"Sadly, not only the people of the country and the media, but even the World Bank have been caught in this web of misconception," the minister remarked.


He laments that the fund freeze stalled the process of main tender invitation and the contractor selection.

"Any allegation of corruption at this stage is nothing other than pure speculative and baseless accusation. These fictional and rumor-based accusations will inevitably be proven untrue in any thorough and fair investigation."

The man well known for his broad smile says he is "sure that the World Bank will discover the genuine facts" and "recognize the unfortunate misconception that has so detrimentally delayed this long awaited project".

After several deadly accidents and passenger sufferings on rundown roads and highways, his public spat with party colleagues – which degenerated into an ugly mudslinging match – played out on the front pages of newspapers and in primetime bulletins last year.

Asked what he makes of the intense media gaze during those tough times, he suggests the media blew things up in some cases, while he recognised the freedom of speech.

"What I found most unfortunate is that media's role is becoming perhaps an unsuspecting instrument in some of these orchestrated protests. To my absolute disappointment I witnessed several news articles that reported inaccurate conjectures."

He cited instances of getting a taste of often hostile media scrutiny.

"There were criticisms in the media about the renovation of the minister's office- the cost of which was colorfully reported by Prothom Alo to be 1 Crore 20 Lacs; but in fact, the cost was 7 Lac 20 thousand. There was also extensive news coverage about a luxurious car being bought by the Communications Ministry - which was in fact never bought.

"In 2005 I started the construction of a guesthouse in my village near the Sheikh Hasina Academy and Women's College with my own Tax Paid money. The construction was completed this year and I have never even stayed at this house for a single day. Even this philanthropic act of development for my constituency was scrutinized and criticised by Prothom Alo."

Despite all this, Abul Hossain says he is confident that he will be cleared of charges levelled by the World Bank over the Padma bridge project.

"I expect that if the investigation's report is completed and accurate, it should reveal that there [were] no acts of corruption or any other irregularities in the proceedings of the Padma Bridge Projects."