Law
week
New seat order unsettles JS
In protest at the rearranged seating arrangements, the BNP-led opposition lawmakers walked out of parliament shortly after the House returned from a two-day recess.
They accused Speaker Abdul Hamid of a partisan role, and said they will talk to him today to decide when they will join parliament again.de some changes to the arrangements laid out by his predecessor Jamiruddin Sircar. He allocated the opposition lawmakers eight seats in the front and second rows, down from 21. -The Daily Star, January 29, 2009.
Telecoms watchdog made all too mighty
The caretaker government on December 22 approved an ordinance amending the Telecom Act, 2001 bypassing the telecoms ministry and in contradiction with existing laws, making BTRC extraordinarily powerful.
The approval appears surprising as earlier that month the finance ministry rejected BTRC's proposal to amend the Act to make it more powerful and financially independent. The finance ministry observed that many of the proposals violate the constitution.
The ordinance gives Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) authority to call law enforces for any reason and any time to arrest persons violating the Act without warrant. It also says in dealing with telecoms related crimes, the punishment outlined in the ordinance will overrule any other laws of the land.
One of the major parts of the amended ordinance styled "Amended Telecom Act-2008" is that the telecom watchdog will have full control of inquiry and investigation of any violation and at the same time no court can execute trial without report from BTRC investigators. -The Daily Star, January 29, 2009.
Multi-party JS body to check ordinances
Parliament will constitute a 15-member special committee to scrutinise the ordinances to be tabled as bills and make recommendations on those.
To be comprised of senior lawmakers from different political parties, the committee will be authorised to examine legislative proposals till the standing committees are formed.
Officials at the parliament secretariat said the matter has been included in the orders of the day. The legislature sits at 4:45pm today after a two-day recess.
A total of 122 ordinances promulgated by the immediate past caretaker government were placed before the House Sunday for decision within the next 30 days whether they would be ratified. -The Daily Star, January 28, 2009.
Poll results of seven upazilas cancelled
The Election Commission (EC) suspended poll results of seven upazila parishads on grounds of massive irregularities in the elections, following an investigation sparked by an onslaught of complaints from defeated candidates.
After a series of meetings over the last couple of days, the commission also decided to launch a judicial inquiry to find the details of the irregularities. Earlier, the commission suspended polling in six other upazilas preceding and during the elections due to similar allegations which will be investigated as well.
The EC also decided to let the judicial inquiry committee investigate alleged involvement of government ministers and ruling party lawmakers in the January 22 local government election irregularities. -The Daily Star, January 28, 2009.
Govt leans on advisory clout
The new government has amended its rules of business, empowering Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to appoint as her advisers and special assistants as many persons as she deems necessary.
The amendments authorise the premier to determine the terms and conditions of the appointments as she deems expedient in public interest, and also allow her to let any of the advisers or special assistants attend meetings of the cabinet or any other government committee.
Exercising his constitutional authority, President Iajuddin Ahmed brought the amendments to some sections of the rules of business, sources in the cabinet division said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already appointed to herself six advisers with the ranks and status of full-fledged ministers. -The Daily Star, January 27, 2009.
Telegraph scripts trouble
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) recommended Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) to permanently close all its telegraph offices after a probe revealed that expenditure of the almost idle and corruption-riddled offices were 15 times their income between 2000 and 2008.
The investigation found that even though telegraph is hardly used nowadays, there are about 3,500 people employed in 450 telegraph offices in the country. A number of employees are involved in abusing power and corruption causing a huge loss of government money, the ACC said.
The probe also revealed that during the eight years each telegraph office on a monthly average received and distributed telegrams worth only Tk 200. -The Daily Star, January 27, 2009.
Over 100 complaints lodged with EC
The Election Commission (EC) Secretariat received around 100 complaints from losing upazila election candidates, alleging that ruling Awami League (AL) lawmakers and activists influenced voting, intimidated voters, stuffed ballot boxes, and beat up their polling agents.
There was a similar complaint against BNP leaders and activists in relation to the election in a upazila. The EC is now investigating the complaints and figuring out legal actions to take if any of the allegations prove to be true.
Meanwhile, the EC decided to collect video footages from different private television channels to find evidence that support the allegations. -The Daily Star, January 26, 2009.
3 investigations find 3 different reasons
Three probe committees that investigated the recent break-ins at Rail Bhaban in Dhaka and a railway office in Chittagong came up with three different conclusions.
However, all the reports said no important files went missing. The probe committee formed by Bangladesh Railway filed its report saying "organised criminal gangs" took advantage of security guards' negligence in duty and committed the burglary at Rail Bhaban. The committee formed by the communication ministry said "criminals broke in to search for something valuable but illegal" and
After talks between chief whips of the treasury and opposition failed to resolve the row over seat plans Tuesday, the speaker ma it was not a mere theft incident.
The other probe committee investigating the Chittagong railway office break-in said it was "a simple lifting incident".
Lack of coordination and difference of opinion became more visible after the two committees probing the Rail Bhaban break-in submitted their reports and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Detective Branch (DB) of police made arrests separately. -The Daily Star, January 26, 2009.
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