The New Nation - Internet Edition

Hasina forms 32-member govt: Most are new faces, veterans left out

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed administering oath
to the newly appointed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at
Bangabhaban on Tuesday. Cabinet ministers: (Top) Abul Maal
Abdul Muhith, Begum Matia Chowdhury, Abdul Latif Siddiqui,
Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Ai

Staff Reporter

Ending all speculations and two years rule of the army backed Caretaker Government, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday formed the new government for the second time after securing a landslide victory in the December 29 parliamentary elections.Sheikh Hasina, the eldest daughter of country's founding leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, took oath as the prime minister with 23 ministers and eight state ministers in her 31-member cabinet that completed the country's transition to democratic rule from the military-backed interim regime.

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed administered oath to the AL chief as Prime Minister of Bangladesh at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban in the evening. After taking the swearing in, she signed the oath of office and oath of secrecy.

Sheikh Hasina formed her government mostly with new faces leaving stalwarts in dark.

The ministers who took oath are: Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, Begum Matia Chowdhury, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) AK Khandoker, Raziuddin Ahmed Raju, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Syed Ashraful Islam, Engr Khandoker Mosharraf Hossain, Rezaul Karim Hira, Abul Kalam Azad, Enamul Haque Mustafa Shahid, Dilip Barua, Ramesh Chandra Sen, GM Kader, Lt. Col (Retd) Faruque Khan, Syed Abul Hossain, Dr Abdur Razzak, Dr Afsarul Amin, Prof AFM Ruhul Haque, Dr Dipumoni, Nurul Islam Nahid and Abdul Latif Biswas.

The state ministers are: Advocate Mustafizur Rahman, Capt (retd) ABM TajulIslam, Tanzim Ahmed Sohel Taj, Begum Munnuzan Sufian, architect Yafez Usman, Dr Hassan Mahmud, Dipanker Talukder and Ahad Ali Sarker. Of the cabinet members, five, including Sheikh Hasina, are female and three are non-Muslims.

Former presidents, outgoing Chief Advisor of the caretaker government Dr Fakaruddin Ahmed, Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda, Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin, Judges of the Supreme Court, MPs, political leaders, chiefs of the three services, members of the diplomatic corps, senior journalists, elite and high civil and military officers, among others, attended the function at Darbar Hall overflowed by guests.

Sheikh Hasina's younger sister Sheikh Rehana, daughter Sayma Wajed Putul and son-in-law Khondokar Mashrur Hossain Mithu were also present.

A four-member BNP delegation led by MP-elect Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury joined the oath-taking ceremony. BNP-Jamaat led four-party alliance suffered a crushing defeat in the general elections.

Other members of the team of BNP MPs-elect are MK Anwar, Barkatullah Bulu and Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie.

The oath taking ceremony began with the recitation from the holy Quran at about 6:50pm.

Sheikh Hasina took oath first pledging to preserve, protect and defend the national constitution and state sovereignty. Cabinet secretary Md Abdul Aziz conducted the oath-taking ceremony that lasted for 15 minutes.

The oath taking ceremony was broadcast live though Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar while private TV channels relay it.

Beside, the function was displayed at different places in the city through projectors.

People from different spare of life witnessed the oath taking ceremony.

Move for small clean govt: Distribution of some portfolios raises questions

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

The 31-member Council of Ministers chosen by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reflects her choice overwhelmingly for new faces and a careful preference for those who do not face charges of corruption in courts.

The size of the government has also been consciously kept limited. Four advisers with the rank and status of ministers were appointed soon after the swearing in of the Council of Ministers.

Party stalwarts including Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta, who have been bracketed as reformists since the January 11 change of 2007, have not been included.

The selection also indicates a soft corner for heirs of those AL leaders who were killed in 1975. Syed Ashraful Islam, son of Syed Nazrul Islam, Acting President of Bangladesh during the War of Liberation, Tajnim Ahmed Sohel Taj, son of the first Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed have been made minister and state minister.

Son of AHM Qamruzzaman, Khairuzzaman Liton, has recently been elected Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation as AL nominee. However, Mohammad Nasim, son of former Prime Minister Captain Mansur Ali, has fallen from grace since AL's debacle in the 2001 election.

President Iajuddin Ahmed administered oaths to the Prime Minister, her 23 Cabinet colleagues and eight ministers of state in the packed Durbar Hall of Bangabhaban.

This is Sheikh Hasina's second term as Prime Minister and the third Awami League government since the independence of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina in 1996 headed 'a government of national consensus,' now she heads a government of 'Mahajote' (grand alliance).Five members of her cabinet have previous experience as ministers or ministers of state. They include Abul Maal Abdul Muhit and Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khondakar who were ministers in the Ershad government; Matia Chowdhury who was minister, Syed Abul Hossain and Syed Ashraful Islam who were ministers of state in the 1996 government.

The Cabinet thus has highly experienced members like the Prime Minister herself, AMA Muhit, Matia Chowdhury, AK Khondakar, Syed Abul Hossain, Syed Ashraful Islam as well as 26 others with no ministerial experience.

The ministerial appointments made at the advice of the Prime Minister show a careful attempt made to avoid mistakes committed by past governments since the restoration of democracy in 1991 both in number and quality. Three members of the minority community have been chosen. Two of them also represent the left political alliance and the hill districts. There are two women and two technocrats in the Council of Ministers.

The Prime Minister clearly has shown her guts in dealing with her senior party colleagues and in so doing she has also taken a calculated risk about the performance of her government. However four advisers HT Imam, a former cabinet secretary, Dr. Mashiur Rahman, a former economic relations secretary, Syed Modasser Ali, an eye specialist and Dr. Alauddin Ahmed a former Vice-Chancellor of Jahangir Nagar University are expected to be able to help overcome the experience-gap.

An interesting departure from a negative practice of the past was the presence of four MPs-elect belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party at the oath-taking ceremony although they are yet to take oaths themselves. The BNP MPs were MK Anwar, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Barkatullah Bhulu and Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anny. Two MPs-elect belonging to Jamaat Moulana Shamsul Islam and Hamidur Rahman Azad were also present. The oath-taking ceremonies of the three previous governments had been avoided by the respective main opposition party.

The distribution of portfolios announced late at night were howover questioned by many as important ministeries like Home and Foreign Affairs went to hands having neither previous experience nor high academic backgrounds needed to run those.

Tofail, Razzak, Sajeda, Suranjit, Amu , Jalil gone are the days

Pulack Ghatack

New and young faces dominate the new cabinet that sworn in yesterday, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina picked up none but Begum Matia Chowdhury, Syed Ashraful Islam and Abul Hossain for her second term rule.

Preliminary observation shows that the new cabinet is characterised by moderate in size, minus by stalwarts, no inclusion of accused and reformists and crowded by freshers.

Those who dared to raise voice against the "attacks" on Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League leaders during the emerging rule of the outgoing army-backed government, are seemed to have been rewarded this time.

AL presidium members Abdur Razzaq, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta all of whom earned the name as "reformists," after emerging as critics of Sheikh Hasina in the early days of emergency rule, could not enter into the cabinet.

Two other most prominent absentees from the Cabinet are AL general secretary Abdul Jalil and presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury.

All of the AL heavyweights were in Hasina's previous government that had ruled the country since 1996 till 2001 when they lost the polls to BNP.

Non-induction of Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon and JSD president Hasanul Huq Inu, both of whom were elected MP from the AL-led Grand Alliance, in the cabinet was also conspicuous.

Of the 32-member medium-sized council of ministers, 23 are Ministers and eight State Ministers, most of them new and young faces. Sheikh Hasina picked none in the cabinet who have cases pending with. Air Vice-Marshal (retd) AK Khandaker, the second-in-command of the freedom fighters during the Liberation War, also took oath to the cabinet as a senior minister.

The Liberation War veteran, under the banner of Sector Commanders' Forum, was involved in a desperate campaign for bringing the 1971 war criminals to justice that helped a serious defeat of BNP-Jamaat alliance in the December 29 election.

GM Qader, younger brother of former president HM Ershad, is representing as the lone member from Jatiya Party, the second big party in the winning alliance.

Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, a former finance minister of Ershad's cabinet in the 1980s, was another notable name included in the cabinet.

Five females, the highest number in Bangladesh history, are included in the relatively small cabinet. They are: Sheikh Hasina, Begum Matiya Chowdhury, Shahara Khatun, Dr Dipumoni and Begum Munnujan Sufian.

The installation of the Hasina government completed the country's transition to democratic rule from the two-year-old military-backed interim regime that had taken over following the 1/11 changeover.

Syed Ashraful Islam and Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj sons of two former prominent leaders of the party who were slain inside jail in 1975 were also included in the new cabinet.

Ministers Barrister Shafique Ahmed and Dilip Barua and State Minister Yafez Osman were inducted from technocrat quota.

Hasina, the eldest daughter of country's slain founding father and first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is the only leader of the Awami League to become Prime Minister twice in the eventful history of the party founded in 1948.

Her Awami League bagged 230 out of all 300 parliament seats in the parliament election while the 15-party grand alliance got 262 seats.

Dhaka will ask Delhi to extradite killer fugitives

Mamunur Rasid

The new Awami League government would ask for handover of the killer fugitives when Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Dhaka in the middle of this month.

Ohidul Islam, Shahid Ahmed and Zakir Hussain turned out to be fugitives trying to avoid the death sentence handed down by a country's court for their involvement in several murder cases, including that of an Awami League parliamentarian Ahsanullah Master.

They changed localities frequently to remove any doubt among the local residents.

Prime accused Nurul Islam alias Dipu who fled to Belgium after being sentenced to death came to Kolkata last November and tried to get Indian documents. CID's special operations group arrested all four on Sunday night.

Dipu was also trying to get Indian citizenship. In November, Dipu came back to Kolkata via the India-Nepal border. His wife and children joined him here. He wanted to get Indian citizenship.

Ahsanullah Master, the Awami League MP, was shot dead in broad daylight during a conference of the party's students' wing in Tungi, in May 2004. Dipu, his brother Ohidul alias Tipu and Shahid alias Majnu, were found guilty by a court and sentenced to life in the same case. Zakir Hussain alias Rupak was also convicted in two murder cases.

In 2005, Rupak crossed the border and fled to Bangalore. He stayed there for some time and then returned to Bangladesh when the army crackdown was on there. Rupak claimed he was once nabbed by the army but managed to escape and fled to Kolkata and started staying in hotels using different names. In the meantime, Dipu, Tipu, Majnu and two others crossed the border at Gede. "The remaining two fled to Belgium and are still there, source said.

Tipu and Majnu first stayed in hotels around New Market before shifting to Tegharia. About three months ago, they rented a three-room flat near the Hindustan crossing in Garia. Zakir, too, stays in the same locality. The home department of India will get in touch with the Bangladesh Home Ministry to hand them back to Bangladesh.

BNP, Jamaat MPs-elect at oath-taking: New govt assured of cooperation

Staff Reporter

After the oath taking of Awami League led grand-alliance cabinet, the leaders of BNP in their immediate reaction yesterday said it will cooperate with the new government to consolidate democracy and ensure welfare of the people.

Other leaders of BNP-led four-party alliance also echoed the same voice that they will always lend their cooperation to the Awami League led grand alliance government in fulfilling its promises to the people.

"We hope the new Awami League led government will implement its electoral pledges made before elections," MK Anwar, senior leader of BNP told the journalists after attending oath taking ceremony at Bangabhaban yesterday.

He said BNP, as opposition, will extend all out cooperation to the Awami League-led government, not only in constructive activities but also in bringing structural changes.

"We hope their (AL) words will match their deeds by reducing rice price to Tk 10 per kg, green chilli price to Tk 5 and distributing fertilizer free of cost to the farmers," he added.

Another BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, who also attended the function at Bangabhaban said his party hopes Awami League would implement the commitments made in its election manifesto.

"We want implementation of the Awami League- led government's commitments like one member of each family will get job and let not the people to die without food and reduction of essential commodities price with affordable level," he mentioned.

Asked on the present condition of the party, he said necessary measures will be taken to revitalise and rejuvenate the party.

Replying to a question of disappointing performances of BNP in the elections he said the BNP were not prepared fully for participating in the polls.

"We were not prepared for election in the given situation, but we participated for the sake of restoring democracy, establishing people's fundamental rights and bidding goodbye to the unconstitutional and illegal government," he added.

He also said as opposition the BNP led four-party alliance will extend support to all the constructive activities of the government.

"If we convince through debate, we will even cooperate if the government wants to bring any structural changes," he asserted.

However, BNP will not compromise with anyone on issues such as Islam as the state religion, Salahuddin said.

He said the BNP will support government's initiatives in preventing corruption and terrorism, on food production and boosting export, he said.

"BNP will not support the creation of a 'South Asian taskforce against terrorism', which the AL promised in its electoral manifesto," said the BNP leader and former parliamentary affairs adviser of the BNP chairperson.

On the much-talked-about trial of war criminals, he said, "We do not have any objection in trying war criminals, as we do not have any war criminals among us," he mentioned.

"If they identify anyone as a war criminal they can hold trial," he said.

An influential leader of Jamaat said the new government will be able to fulfil its promises to the people.

A four-member representative delegation of BNP led by MP-elect Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury joined the oath-taking ceremony of the new government at Bangabhaban on Tuesday evening.

Other members of the team of BNP MPs-elect are MK Anwar, Barkatullah Bulu and Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie.

The two Jamaat MPs also attended the function at Bangabhaban. Moulana Shamsul Islam and Hamidur Rahman Azad have represented the jammat.

More than a thousand guests joined the function to witness the installation of the government of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance, which clinched a landslide victory in the December 29 elections.

Upazila polls Magistrates to monitor code of conduct

BSS, Dhaka

Judicial and executive magistrates will remain in the field from January 16 to 24 to monitor the election code of conduct of candidates in the upcoming upazila parishad polls under the local government.

Election Commissioner Muhammad Sohul Hossain told journalists yesterday that upazila elections will be held on January 22 as per the schedule announced by the EC on November 23 and the magistrates will perform their duties in the polls.

He said the voter turnout in the UZ polls might be 91 percent as it was 87 percent in the ninth parliamentary elections. Sohul Hossain said that in the UZ polls a voter would cast three votes for three posts---chairman and vice chairmen (one male and one female). So, 20 per cent polling booths will be increased so that people could cast their votes smoothly, he said.

The election commissioner said elected MPs could not carry out election campaign in favour of any candidates in the UZ polls as it will be held in a non-partisan manner. He said necessary ballot papers for UZ polls will reach timely.

Sohul Hossain expressed the hope that the political government would not make any interference in the activities of the independent election secretariat, rather they would work for strengthening it.

He said 17 ordinances regarding elections were amended during the tenure of the present Election Commission.

Israel hits UN school near Gaza town

AP, Gaza

Israeli forces edged closer to Gaza's major population centers yesterday and attacked new sites, including a U.N. school, claiming more civilian lives after ignoring mounting international calls for an immediate cease-fire. A Palestinian rocket attack wounded an Israeli infant.

The United Nations said three civilians were killed in the airstrike late Monday on the courtyard of its school, where hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had sought shelter from Israel's blistering 11-day offensive against the Hamas militant group.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza.

Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 100 civilians, according to United Nations figures. Nine Israelis have died since the operation began.

"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," Ging said, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."

U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza are not targeted. The Israeli army had no comment on the latest strikes, but in the past has accused militants of using schools, mosques and residential neighborhoods to store weapons or launch attacks.

The international Red Cross also was looking into reports that a Red Crescent ambulance station in the northern town of Jebaliya was hit during the night.

In other fighting early yesterday, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in shelling from tanks and naval craft, local hospital officials said. Two of the dead were confirmed as militants.

Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the new Israeli positions. Israel already has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city. The rising civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say that without distribution disrupted, food supplies are running thin.

"This is not a crisis, it's a disaster," said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. "We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people." He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from yesterday.

Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile. It blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group intentionally seeks cover in crowded residential areas.

"The battle is bitter but unavoidable. We set out on this operation in order to deal Hamas a heavy blow and to alter living conditions in the south of the country and to block smuggling into the Gaza Strip," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. At least 15 rockets were fired Tuesday and one landed in the town of Gadera, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Gaza border, lightly wounding a 3-month-old infant, police said. At the outset of the fighting, militants launched dozens of rockets each day.

Fakhruddin says goodbye to CAS staff

UNB, Dhaka

A state of tranquility tinged with an emotional atmosphere pervaded the premises of CA's office as Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed made his exit Tuesday on completion of his national assignment.

Noticing the CA Office staff members, including some journalists, standing around prior to his departure, Fakhruddin got down from his car and shook hand with them with a smiling face and wished them all well.

The officials of the CA's office lined up in front of the entrance to bid farewell to the head of the two-year-old caretaker government that would go down history as a unique interim regime for its sweeping reform recipe that created a topsy-turvy in the national polity.

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin, accompanied by his wife Neena Ahmed, drove out of the office premises in a motorcade at 2:30pm after the emotional farewell.

Yesterday was the last day in office for the CA, who helmed the statecraft against the backdrop of 1/11 changeover, as an elected government headed by Awami League president Sheikh Hasina was to take oath in the evening.

He had attended first-day office on January 13, 2007, the day after taking oath as Chief Adviser under state of emergency amid a crucial political disorder over stalled parliamentary elections slated for January 22, 2007.

Today (Tuesday), the CA arrived at office at around 9:30am. Last day' s official activities included courtesy call by Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda accompanied by the two other election commissioners and the Secretary of the Election Commission and another courtesy call by Army Chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed.

A delegation of the executive committee of the association of ex-students of SM Hall of Dhaka University led by former Adviser and IGP SM Shahjahan also made a courtesy call on the Chief Adviser. Fakhruddin was a student from SM Hall.

CA's wife Neena Ahmed, who came to CA's office yesterday, went around the office. The CA also went on a walkabout on the office premises when cameramen took snaps apparently to keep the memories ever alive.

Few days back, the CA had formal farewell meeting with officials and employees of the CA's office.

After the December 29 parliamentary elections, the CA had basically no major programmes except for call by some foreign election-observer teams on him and a farewell meeting of the council of advisers.

On Monday, the CA made farewell call on President Prof Iajuddin Ahmed at Bangabhaban.

Talking to reporters at the President's House after the meeting, Dr Fakhruddin had said he would remain in Dhaka and pass his time writing after handing over power.

He further said he is ready to extend cooperation to the new government, if required.

The CA's responsibility was to be over following the administering of oath to the new cabinet by the President at Bangabhaban at 6:30pm on Tuesday.