Law
Week
CA orders arresting price hike of essentials
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed urged the field-level civil and military officials to take effective measures to keep prices of commodities at tolerable level through ensuring adequate supply in the market. He directed the authorities to open the sealed godowns across the county so that the stored good quality foodstuff can be sold in the market, saying that keeping commodities in sealed godowns would not bring any benefit. The chief adviser was speaking at an opinion-exchange meeting with high civil and military officials of Khulna Division at the local Circuit House. This was his third meeting with government officials outside the capital after the first in Chittagong on February 27 and the second in Barisal on March 4. About the ongoing drive for evicting illegal structures across the country, Fakhruddin cautioned the agencies concerned to ensure the poor do not lose everything. "It is not the intention of the present government," he said. He also asked the government officials to be careful so that no slums or hats and bazaars, which are not causing any problem, are evicted unnecessarily. -Unb, Dhaka, March 12.
Tarique Rahman sent to jail
Senior Joint Secretary General of BNP Tarique Rahman will have to sleep on cold hard concrete in Dhaka Central Jail just like other general inmates as he was denied division facilities after a Dhaka court had sent him there. "We did not provide division facilities to Tarique as he does not qualify under any category to get the facilities," Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddique told The Daily Star. Tarique was kept in a cell with other general inmates, jail sources said. Jail doctors were supposed to take a look at him to treat his headache and pain in the waist. If the doctors would suggest admitting him to the jail hospital he would be admitted there, the DIG said. According to the jail code, government officials who fall under serial No 1 to 18 on the government's warrant of precedence are entitled to get division facilities. Besides, Ekushey Award winners, holders of gallantry awards Bir Uttam, Bir Bikram and Bir Protik, commercially important persons, (CIPs) and general secretaries of political parties with representatives in the parliament may get division facilities in jail. -The Daily Star, March 13.
Political parties to submit income-expenditure reports to EC soon
Parliamentary political parties will soon have to start disclosing the sources of their annual incomes and submit expenditure reports to the Election Commission (EC). The EC has prepared a set of electoral reform proposals that includes this provision to ensure transparency and democracy within parliamentary parties, sources said adding that the provision also stipulates that the parties' accounts will have to be audited every year. Every parliamentary party will have to be registered with the EC giving an undertaking that it will follow the party constitution. An unregistered political party will not be allowed to contest in parliamentary elections, sources said quoting from the draft proposal which will be sent to the government soon. The registration of a political party will be cancelled if it fails to follow the rules, sources said. Once the electoral reforms are implemented through promulgation of an ordinance by the president, parliamentary parties including Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami will have to be registered and will be forced to disclose the sources of their incomes and report their expenditures to the EC. -The Daily Star, March 14.
Rab catches 'corrupt' tax man red-handed
Intelligence officials of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) picked up a joint commissioner of taxation and three others from the tax official's Bijoynagar office in the capital on charges of bribery. Away in Sylhet, the joint forces arrested a Chief Engineer of Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) Saiful Islam from his office on corruption charges. Suspended by Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran on graft allegations, slam admitted to have amassed ill-gotten wealth amounting Tk 20 crore, sources said. Islam also admitted that he has a bank balance of over Tk one crore with Standard Chartered Bank, 10 plots at Bashundhara, flats at Gulshan and Uttara, a petrol pump and a CNG filling station at Sirajganj, sources added. At Bijoynagr, Rab members also confiscated Tk 25,000 from the desk drawer of the tax official and from the pocket of one of the other detainees. The detainees are Joint Commissioner of Taxation (Appellate Division) of Range 4 Harunur Rashid Bhuiyan, Chartered Accountant of Farias Constructions Nitai Chand Roy, Executive Officer of Dutch Bangla Bank Limited Hasanuzzaman, and Advocate Mafizul Islam. -The Daily Star, March 14.
Corresponding with the Law Desk
Please send your mails, queries, and opinions to: Law Desk, The Daily Star 19 Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215; telephone 8124944,8124955,fax 8125155; email: dslawdesk@yahoo.co.uk,lawdesk@thedailystar.net
