Mr. Rahman also made the serious, specific accusation that: "Research associates working at CPD are now being forced to engage in political activities. And if someone denies [i.e. refuses], CPD is sacking him."

In response to this broadside, CPD held a press conference Tuesday to defend itself. Executive Director Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya made short work of Mr. Rahman's intemperate accusations that CPD was involved in a conspiracy to make the country look bad, which he suggested was premised on a basic misunderstanding on the part of the BoI chief as to the role CPD plays with respect to the World Economic Forum and Unctad reports that Mr. Rahman had found fault with.

Dr. Bhattacharya, with admirable restraint, wisely took the high road when it came to responding to Mr. Rahman's more offensive personal comments, contenting himself with the pithy and succinct: "We shall ignore all his crude and brash remarks on subjects beyond his competence as we feel embarrassed to discuss them."

But here is where the proceedings take a somewhat farcical turn.

Near the end of the press conference, CPD trustee board member and former adviser to the caretaker government, Syed Mahmud Elahi, asked to respond to the accusation of being a "conspirator," misheard, and thought that the questioner had asked him to comment on the accusation of being a "collaborator."

Mr. Elahi's response was philosophical, something along the lines: "It's a free country. Anyone can call anyone anything. Even you can tell me: 'you [i.e. Mr. Elahi himself] collaborated with the Pakistan army in 1971.' Many people call him [pointing to Dr. Bhattacharya] a razakar. Probably [joking] he is the only Hindu razakar."

One would have hoped that the matter would end there. But no. The next day, two newspapers, The News Today and the daily Inquilab, ran prominent stories that claimed that Mr. Rahman had been accused of being a collaborator by Mr. Elahi.

Let us leave aside for now the coincidence of which two newspapers misreported Mr. Elahi's statement. Mr. Rahman was apparently unimpressed by the fact that none of the other newspapers which had been present at the press conference had run an account of how he had been defamed by Mr. Elahi, nor did he apparently see fit to check for himself the veracity of the newspaper accounts before filing a charge of criminal defamation against the five speakers at the press conference: CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan, Dr. Bhattacharya, and CPD trustee board members, Mr. Elahi, Ms. Laila Kabir, and Mr. M. Syeduzzaman.

The complaint against the five is an exceedingly odd document. Nowhere does it state with specificity the statements made that are alleged to be defamatory and nowhere does it state with specificity who is alleged to have said what. The respondents are merely alleged, collectively, to have made statements against Mr. Rahman that are: "defamatory, disgraceful, indecent, misleading, conspiratory, false, fabricated, and baseless."

This from a man who is on record as stating that the executive director of CPD "does not have the right to live in the country."

On Thursday, the five respondents appeared in court and were granted anticipatory bail. Even though it is now clear that the newspaper accounts on which he based his rather feeble cause of action were inaccurate, as of the time of writing, Mr. Rahman had still taken no steps to withdraw his case.

Mr. Rahman's actions from the beginning to the end of this shabby little performance have been unworthy of a public official. It was he who struck the first blow in his press meeting of August 6, when it was he who made frankly defamatory comments against CPD in general and its executive director in particular.

Since then, it has been he who has remained on the offensive. It is he who has filed a cause of action on unbelievably tendentious grounds, the accuracy of which he did not even have the common decency to confirm.

It is he who has continued to make defamatory and derogatory statements. It is he who, once the falsity of the newspaper reports on which he based his claim had been established, has not (till time of writing) withdrawn his cause of action, requiring the respondents to appear in court for anticipatory bail.

It seems to me a depressing sign of the times that Mr. Rahman apparently feels confident enough to file such a transparently meritless case. It is even more indicative of the all-encompassing power and reach of the government that an arrest warrant was issued with such alacrity by the presiding magistrate.

The fact that an arrest warrant was issued so quickly against five such prominent citizens of the country raises the question of what recourse an ordinary citizen would have if he or she found herself facing baseless charges. On the evidence of the last few days, not much.

One final point: one reason that foreign investors remain wary of doing business in Bangladesh, even though the country's macroeconomic fundamentals remain strong and many other indicators are pointing in a positive direction, is their misgivings about the rule of law in the country and the perception that the courts remain hostage to arbitrary and capricious manipulations.

Mr. Rahman is the head of the BoI. As he is fond of telling anyone who will listen, it is his job to attract foreign investors to the country. I am sure that foreign investors watching the comedy of errors that has unfolded in Dhaka over the last few days are now falling over themselves in their enthusiasm to pour money into the country.

Nothing that CPD has ever said or could ever say could possibly do as much damage to Bangladesh's image as an attractive destination for foreign investment than the recent machinations of the BoI chief.

Mr. Rahman, for the good of all concerned, not least the country he professes to serve with such devotion, should withdraw his cause of action and tender a full and unconditional apology to the five respondents, and bring this sorry spectacle to a close.

[Full disclosure: CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan is my father. Journalistic ethics require that I inform my readers of this connection, and then the readers can make up their own minds how much credence to give to my opinion on this matter.]

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.