Troubling development involving fine exemptions comes to light
Another bus robbery raises questions about preventive efforts
Govt must stay the course to recover stolen assets
The recent sedition case filed against eminent lawyers Dr Kamal Hossain, Barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud, and Barrister Amir-Ul Islam, among some 200 others, has left us perplexed and incredulous....
Thanks to the complexities of the Middle East, and America's choice of starting with Afghanistan and Iraq, the war on terror is not going the way it was expected. This war has some relationship with America's long-range strategic purposes as well as, possibly, with the 9/11 incident. If the war has not proceeded according to Anglo-American expectations, new factors are responsible that were ignored....
WE can perhaps now express our optimism with some delight about a positive outcome of the exercise that the advisers had been untiringly carrying out to see a peaceful denouement to the current political situation....
WE express our deep concern at the news of fierce gunfight in Moheshkhali between two rival groups belonging to the Awami League and the BNP that left three people dead and 50 injured. The incident took place while the 14-party alliance was enforcing its blockade programme in the area. It is worrisome indeed that such incidences of growing political killings are spreading into the rural areas of the outlying districts that hitherto witnessed comparative calm and a stable environment....
On the morning following the afternoon when the Pakistan army surrendered to the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Command in 1971, a huge crowd of exulting Bengalis chanted Joi Bangla as it tried to make its way into Governor's House. It was not yet called Bangabhaban, but the crowd, among whom was yours truly, felt that it would be quite some experience taking a walk inside a place that had lately come under heavy shelling, forcing the puppet governor installed by the Pakistanis to quit and take refuge in a neutral zone set up inside the Intercontinental Hotel. The guards, all smiling and so very friendly on what would be the first full day of national freedom, told everyone to be patient, said that there were mines inside, and that, once the mines were removed or defused, the place would be...
The South Asian island state of Sri Lanka seems to be inexorably returning to all-out civil war as the Tamil rebels have announced scrapping of the peace process and demanded full independence for the Tamils. Their supreme and elusive leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, announced that the 2.5 million Tamils in Sri Lanka were no longer keen on making peace with the government of president Mahinda Rajapakse. This marks a reversal of whatever chances that had existed for a rapprochement between the two sides....
The nation has been waiting for election for the last five years. And holding of a free, fair and credible election within 90 days of the expiry of the tenure of a government in office is mandated by our constitution. Our unequivocal preference shall be to follow the constitution both in its letter and spirit. But, under the prevailing circumstances in the country questions are being raised as to whether we have an election with the unresolved anomalies or have a good election that might need us to go marginally beyond the time frame....
Very sadly, the chief justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court seems to have entangled himself in controversy. Allegedly, the CJ also contributed to the consequent conundrums that took place very recently in the highest court of the country. We have long been hearing complaints that the CJ is not neutral, as he is supposed to be, in his power to allocate benches in the court. Advertently or inadvertently he embraced another controversial role this time. Just few moments before the judgments on three writ petitions could be delivered by the High Court (HC) bench, the CJ issued a unique stay order....
At present, we have a six-member Election Commission (EC), including the chief election commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz who is on a 90-day leave since November 22. Election Commissioner Mahfuzur Rahman's declaring himself the acting CEC and the president's unilateral appointment of two controversial persons to the post of election commissioner to increase their number, have seemingly destroyed all hope for reconstituting the EC with neutral persons for holding the ensuing general election peacefully, fairly, and impartially....
Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India surpassed some of the upbeat expectations it had raised. The true measure of its success does not lie in the China-India commitment to doubling bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010, nor even in the large number (13) of agreements signed on various issues....
