Standing at the entrance to the parliament building, he declared to the press, "Very soon, I will pull down the prices of essential commodities to the zero-level."

But what he has really accomplished is to pull down his own success count to zero by letting the essentials prices skyrocket virtually unchecked and extortion to continue in trade, especially in the supply chain from rural areas to the capital.

The former air vice marshal can hardly be credited with marshalling adequately the staff and commerce forces under his new ministry, which in the last 19 months has been behaving in a confused manner and without any apparent coherent direction.

Yet, unlike his predecessor, Altaf has been stubbornly denying any essentials price spiral. Many a time, when the government-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) reported of a substantial price hike in essentials in a short span of time, the commerce ministry meetings chaired by Altaf often found the price situation not as 'exorbitant as reflected in the media'.

However, even the most obstinate marshals have to give in to reality at some point. So did Altaf. At a recent press briefing, he at last admitted that his ministry does not have the tools required to contain the soaring market prices of essentials. Then, in an obvious attempt to excuse his office, he said, "We do sit at inter-ministerial meetings to build coordination among the agencies concerned. But, as different market regulating agencies lie with different ministries, it often hampers our coordination measures."

So far so good, but the press was amazed when, in a childish contradiction to his own foregoing statements, Altaf 'dutifully' added the refrain that the four-party alliance government in the last four years of its tenure has been quite successful in reining in the market prices of essentials.

PLANNED WATCHDOGS PUT ON ICE
Two new market regulators -- a 'consumer bureau' for monitoring the domestic market and a 'consumer council' for protecting consumers' interests -- were supposed to start functioning by 2004 to help the government control the market of essential goods.

Though his predecessor, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, left behind the draft documents for the twin regulators ready to be tabled before the Cabinet, Altaf could make no visible progress in this regard. He also failed to push ahead with the proposed Consumer Rights Protection Act lying for long with the law ministry for vetting.

FAILED TCB DRIVE
After keeping the TCB dormant for some three and a half years, Altaf this year engaged it again in import and sales of essential commodities, expressly to check the price spiral.

The state-owned trading agency imported a good quantity of onions, grams, sugar and pulses ahead of Ramadan to keep their prices under control during the month of fasting. It launched a sales programme of those goods at 40 places across the country outside Dhaka and engaged 10 mobile teams to sell the items at 33 points in the city.

But, a mass of irregularities has rendered the move a failure and the consumers have not seen any positive impact of it on the soaring essentials prices in Ramadan.

THOUGHTLESS NEGLECT Of TRADE THINK-TANK
The commerce minister's lack of leadership skills has clearly been demonstrated in the case of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI), which he heads as the chair of its board of governors.

The BFTI came into being in 2003 with an aim to fortify the country's international trade and investment capacity. It was meant to act as a think-tank, do research on trade issues and prepare position papers for Bangladesh on bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, particularly at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

But the institute has not been able to make any notable contribution in any of those fields due to a shocking dearth of manpower and finance that Altaf has done nothing to address or assuage. He simply has failed to lead and mould the newly established body into a definite shape.

Although the BFTI memorandum of articles allots it a 28-strong staff, it has been running since inception with a skeleton three-member staff comprising a junior administrative-cum-finance officer, a computer operator and a messenger. Its board of governors over six months ago formed an eight-member search committee to recruit a chief executive officer (CEO) within the 'shortest possible' time. But the BFTI still lacks a CEO.

The government also has not disbursed the fund pledged to it. And so it needs no more explanation why the institute is yet to start any research work. A few researchers who had become affiliated with the institute in the beginning eventually became frustrated with the situation and finally abandoned it.

EXPORT DIVERFICATION REMAINS A FAR CRY
No significant progress has been made in diversifying the country's export basket and markets, though Bangladesh has been able to increase its export income by more than $1 billion over the last fiscal year, thanks solely to the burgeoning apparel sector.

With a single sector, readymade garments, accounting for around 75 percent of it export proceeds, the degree of vulnerability of the country's export sector remains very high. The risk is so high also because the buyers, particularly of the US and the European Union, have been increasingly raising different compliance issues, prompting the country's leading exporters apprehend that the RMG sector is going to see a bad time ahead.

The exporters said most of the commercial counsellors at Bangladesh missions abroad have been appointed on political considerations and typically are not trained on how best to promote the country's exports to prospective buyers. The commerce minister also failed to chalk out any specific plan for promoting Bangladesh's products in the global market.

However, the ministry last year took a decision to call back some of the under-performing commercial counsellors. But, bowing to political pressures it later shelved the decision. No action has so far been taken against any poorly performing counsellor, although almost half of the 46 missions have been failing to achieve their export targets.

AN EQUALLY INEPT HOME MINISTER
As the minister for home affairs, too, Altaf had been widely criticised for his failure to maintain law and order.

Crime statistics of the first three years of the coalition government's tenure indicate the performance of the home ministry headed by Altaf was not satisfactory, as its anticrime measures had little impact on the widespread criminal incidents prevailing across the country.

Grenade attacks on political rallies, religious shrines and cinemas, killings of political leaders and journalists in broad daylight, increased activities of communist outlaws, religious bigots and militants, and abductions of businesspeople were a few of the criminal acts and trends that outflanked the ministry's anticrime steps.

It was the period when people in the northwest saw the frightening rise of Bangla Bhai, the self-styled operations commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, whose operatives killed at least 15 people, brutally tortured hundreds, sending a terror wave across the region.

According to press reports and human rights watchdogs, about 4,500 people were killed in 2003, up from 4,000 in the previous year. Home ministry statistics however show 3,550 people killed in 2003 and 3,503 in 2002. The ministry records also show a total of 127,616 crime incidents in 2002 and 125,639 in 2003.

PROTECTOR OF LINCHPINS
Altaf hit newspaper headlines this month following the arrest of a top Islamist militant leader, Mufti Abdul Hannan, by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on October 1 in Dhaka.

Hannan, the prime accused in the plot to assassinate the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina on July 20, 2000 at Kotalipara in Gopalganj, is the operations commander of the recently banned Islamist militant organisation Harkatul Jihad's Bangladesh chapter and is also linked with different international militant groups.

At the Rab office, Hannan told the press that he has not fled the country as Altaf, who was then the home minister, assured him of "nothing to fear" if he stayed on.

Hannan submitted a mercy petition to Altaf to drop charges against him for the attempt to assassinate Hasina, as he admitted, "After this government had come to power, I appealed to the then home minister Altaf Hossain for mercy."

"It was Moulana Mohiuddin [editor of monthly Madina] who mediated between me and the home minister and I submitted a petition through him to drop my name from the case on the attempt on Sheikh Hasina's life," he went on.

Asked what the then home minister had assured him of, he said, "He told me to stay on in Dhaka, not to get frightened and to move freely until the situation normalises. It was because of his assurance that I did not consider fleeing the country."

But before Altaf could take any move for his mercy, he was made the commerce minister, Hannan said, adding he has been staying at Badda in the Dhaka suburb since then.

Altaf again became news on October 14, when Mashiur, a Jubo Dal leader who had escaped a Rab raid on his house to arrest him just four days back, was seen travelling in the same car with the commerce minister in Patuakhali, Altaf's home town.

The elite crime-busting force has been on a hunt for Mashiur, against whom there are many allegations of extortion and other criminal activities. Mashiur, known as a close aide to Altaf, went into hiding after the Rab raid.