BANGLADESH

The National Board of Revenue filed another tax dodge case on Sunday against Ekushey Television Chairman Abdus Salam.

Deputy Tax Commissioner Mohammad Bazlur Rahman charged Salam with concealing Tk 1.76 billion of earnings during the 2006-07 and 2008-09 fiscals and dodging tax on them.

The court of Dhaka's Senior Special Judge Mohammad Jahurul Haque recorded the statement of the plaintiff after the case was filed. Salam, also a director on the board of the private TV, was told to appear before court on Sep 11.

On Mar 20, the revenue watchdog filed another case against Salam and ETV Managing Director for not filing returns of the television channel between 2007 and 2009. They did not even respond to the notices.

Judge Bazlur Ranman on June 7 framed the charges against them and ordered the trial to start.

However, the witness deposition could not be heard after the High Court stayed the proceedings of the case in the lower court, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court's Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu told

Medical and dental colleges will enrol students based on their GPAs in the SSC and HSC examinations from this year as the government has decided to do away with admission test.

Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque told bdnews24.com that there would be no admission test from this year.

"We have taken this decision after discussing with all," he said, "students will be enrolled based on their GPAs in public examinations –SSC and HSC."

Altogether there are 8,493 seats in all medical and dental colleges in Bangladesh.

The number is 2,811 in 22 government medical colleges while 4,245 in 53 private medical colleges.

The nine public dental colleges and medical colleges' dental units have 567seats while 14 private dental institutes have 870 seats.

The minister, however, said they were yet to outline the technical details of how those seats would be filled up by thousands of top-graders.

"We will finalise it shortly," he said.

Thousands of Bangladeshi female workers, working for a readymade garments factory in Jordan, have claimed to be suffering from acute sense of insecurity, raising allegations that 23-24 of their colleagues have gone 'missing' over the last one year.

The workers also alleged that the Indian owner of 'Classic Fashion' and the Bangladeshi authorities there are tied to the 'disappearances' and 'killings'. The female workers are also unable to return home as their passports have been taken by the owners.

After failing to elicit positive response from the office of the Bangladeshi honorary consul there, they have, in a desperate attempt for a resolution, resorted to abstaining from work for the last three days. Allegations have also been levelled against the Bangladeshi authorities that instead of taking steps, they are 'pressuring' the workers to rejoin work.

However, the government has refuted the claim, dismissing the accusations of killings and forced disappearances of the workers.

Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Jafar Ahmed told bdnews24.com, "We have already talked to the parties concerned about the workers' issues. They have taken steps and the problems have been solved. They have accepted the demands of the workers, including providing security. They will be joining work from Sunday."

But when asked about the workers' allegation of forced disappearances and killings, he denied them and said, "These charges are baseless. None of our workers has been killed or gone missing there. "

Classic Fashion is owned by Sanar Kumar, who hails from Kerala. It is located in Jordan's Al Hasan area and employs over five thousand worker, of which, nearly three thousand are Bangladeshi women.

Champa Akhter, a Bangladeshi worker who works for the factory, alleged that criminals recently abducted one of their co-workers, Nazma Akhter. Another of their colleague, Polly, also went missing a few days back. But the complaints did not cut ice with the factory authorities. Instead, the owners claimed that Nazma and Polly have fled the factory to work for another organisation.

She added that the office of Bangladesh's Consulate General there also did not act to protect the workers. A number of her colleagues also alleged that some of the Bangladesh officials and their Indian allies were tied to the occurrences and that the 'abducted' female workers could have been 'raped' and 'murdered'.

When pressed about the problems of the female workers, Jafar Ahmed said, "Our girls also create problems. They have gone to work for that factory on a two-year contract. But they are violating the terms and fleeing to work for other organisations. As a result, the organisation is facing losses."

The Bangladeshi Consul General in Jordan, Tawfique Islam, could not be reached for his comments on the issue.

Communications and Railways Minister Obaidul Quader has blamed negligence of the railway officials for the murders of 12 people whose corpses were found beside the rail tracks in Gazipur over the past month.

The minister visited Mirer Gaon area under Sadar Upazila of the district on Saturday following a report published by bdnews24.com on Thursday that five corpses were found in the last seven days and 12 in a month in the 1.5 kilometre area.

Though any motives behind the deaths are yet to be found, local residents believed incidents of hijacking were allegedly linked with the deaths.

Obaidul Quader blamed rail officials for their negligence over retrieval of the corpses. "What they do sitting there is corruption."

At one point, the visibly irate minister called a railway official over mobile phone and said, "You are celebrating Eid at the office! People are dying here, and you don't have any initiative?"

He ordered the officials to investigate the incidents while saying allegations of link between the hijacking racket and railway staff would also be looked into.

The Railways Minister also said a police check post would be set up in that area.

Quader also suggested Tangail and Gazipur district administrations to take immediate measures.

While on his way back to Dhaka, the minister was annoyed after seeing kitchen markets and temporary shops set up beside the Dhaka-Mymensingh road in Gazipur. He ordered the police to evict those.

Police have arrested three students for posting 'distorted' pictures of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the popular social networking website, Facebook.

Mrinal Chowdhury, Tushar Chowdhury and Shuvo Hasan are all higher secondary students of the Brahmanbaria Government College.

Brahmanbaria's Superintendent of Police Jamil Ahmed told  that the trio was arrested from the college's hostel on Saturday.

"Cases have been filed against them under the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006 and the pornography act."

The police official, however, declined to provide any further details.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) has expelled seven of its activists for their involvement in factional clashes at Dhaka University on Thursday that left at least two injured.

The ruling Awami League's student front announced the punitive actions in a media statement signed by central BCL President H M Badiuzzaman Shohag and General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam on Friday afternoon.

The expelled activists are the university unit BCL Joint General-Secretary 'Sanjay', Zohurul Haque Hall unit activists 'Sharif' and 'Joy', Bangabandhu Hall unit activist 'Mehedi', Mohsin Hall unit activist 'Hannan' and Kabi Jasim Uddin Hall unit activists 'Saikat' and 'Taj'.

They have been directed not to take part in any programme of the party until their expulsion is withdrawn, the statement said.

At least two Chhatra League activists were injured in clashes between the supporters of two BCL factions of the university unit from Thursday afternoon to night.

They were identified as Fazlul Karim Riad of Islamic Studies department and Abdus Salam Shyamal of Institute of Education and Research, both second-year students.

Maverick former minister Nazmul Huda, who recently left the BNP, has formed a new political party, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Front, and announced that he will have candidates for all the 300 seats in the next election.

Huda, who is the Convenor of this party, officially announced the constitution of the Jatiyatabadi Front on Friday afternoon at the Imperial Hotel at Gulistan in the city.

"Jatiyatabadi Front as a political party will uphold nationalist ideals. We will have candidates for 300 seats in the next election," he said at the meet.

Huda on Jun 6 had told at a press briefing that he was resigning from the BNP once again to protest party's Chairperson Khaleda Zia's failure to engage in talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Later, he sent in his resignation to Khaleda.

Speaking about the new party to bdnews24.com earlier in the day, he said," Jatiyatabadi Front was previously formed just before the 1978 presidential elections. (Former President) Ziaur Rahman was elected as President from this front."

"The BNP, a new political party, had emerged from the front," he said.

Huda, a founding member of the BNP, said, "Jatiyatabadi Front has been off the limelight since the BNP was formed. I am going to announce that Front as a new political party."

He said the party would have a 21-strong Steering Committee as the highest policy-making body and added the Central Committee would include 101 members, but their identity could not be known immediately.

Huda, who faced corruption charges during the 2007-08 military-backed government's tenure, had served as the State Minister for Information in the 1991-96 BNP government and was fired for his remarks in 1995.

Then the Vice-Chairman of the BNP, he was thrown out of the party in 2010 for going against the party position after Khaleda left her home of 28 years in Dhaka Cantonment after losing court battle.

He was reinstated in the party after he had regretted his comment.

"My newly-formed party's Central Committee will be constituted on Nov 7," he said.

Huda said an independent, neutral and powerful Election Commission, based on the opinion of all political parties, was a must to supervise transparent and fair elections.

"That commission must be given all authority during the polls," he added.

He said he believed power could only be transferred through elections and added he wanted to bring changes to political ideologies.

He said he was hopeful that many people from the old Jatiyatabadi Front and other parties would join his party.

Main opposition BNP is preparing an outline of a non-party caretaker government based on the 13th Amendment of the Constitution to oversee the next general elections, a senior party leader said on Saturday.

The non-party caretaker government to oversee the national polls was annulled through the 15th amendment of the Constitution in June last year.

"The next general elections would have to be held under a non-party government. That's why we are preparing to present an outline for a non-party caretaker government based on the 13th amendment of the Constitution," Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed said.

He said the draft outline would be made public and they would ask the government to implement it.

Moudud's remarks came on Saturday while he was speaking at a discussion at the National Press Club at the capital amidst row between the ruling coalition and the opposition over poll-time government.

The party decided to prepare the draft outline of non-party government on Jul 2 at the National Standing Committee meeting presided over by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Several newspapers had published reports, but Moudud is the first one from BNP to make any official comment on the issue.

BNP has been protesting against the scrapping of the non-party caretaker government provision and demanding its reinstatement. Even, BNP chief Khaleda Zia has ruled out Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent idea of an all-party poll-time government. But the Awami League led by Hasina is adverse to the idea of handing over power to an unelected administration.

Moudud on Saturday said, "Everyone lost faith on the present government for their actions. They have made the administration into a partisan one in such a way that it would not be possible to hold fair polls under this administration."

"That's why we have raised the demand for a non-party government," he added.

He said only a non-party government would not serve the purpose. "The whole administration must be changed. Unbiased officials have to be posted in the field level administration by changing the partisan DCs-SPs-UNOs-OCs."

Giving reasons for rejecting the Prime Minister's proposal to join the all-party interim government, the former law minister said, "To overcome the political crisis in 1996 former Australian Governor General Sir Ninian Stephen had proposed to form an interim government drawing five members each from the two parties and led by then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Why Sheikh Hasina did rejected the idea then?"

"This party [Awami League] has no principle. They led demonstrations in 1996 demanding the caretaker government. They observed 173 days of general strike. And then they scrapped the system and added the provision to hold the elections under a partisan government," he added.

Even if an interim government was formed under the incumbent Prime Minister, it would not be possible to hold fair elections, Moudud claimed adding that BNP would go for tougher agitations to realise their demand non-party caretaker government after the Eid-ul-Fitr.