Law
week
EPR to be relaxed to allow rallies, campaigns
The caretaker government is going to relax the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) allowing rallies and processions for election campaigns in city corporations and municipalities where polls will be held in phases under the state of emergency.
LGRD Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said the government is now mulling which sections of the EPR should be relaxed and will declare it on the day the Election Commission (EC) announces the schedules for polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities. The polls schedules are due to be announced as per an EC decision earlier.-- The Daily Star, June 19, 2008
Right to information ordinance okayed
The cabinet approved in principle the Right to Information Ordinance 2008 to ensure free flow of information to the people.
The cabinet sent back the draft of the Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance, suggesting a few changes in its wording, rewriting a few clauses and merging some sections, said sources. After making the changes, the information ministry, which initiated the move, will have to get the draft vetted by the law ministry before placing it before the cabinet for final approval, the sources added.
A few of the existing 38 sections in the draft may be merged together, said sources. The eight-member ordinance drafting committee of the information ministry had proposed a five-member information commission, which the cabinet decided to have three members. --The Daily Star, June 19, 2008
Niko sued for Tk 746cr over Tengratilla loss
The government filed a damage suit with a Dhaka court against Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, claiming Tk 746.50 crore in compensation for destroying properties and gas reserves in and around the Tengratilla Gas Field in Sunamganj.
The secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources filed the case on behalf of the government and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla).
The defendants are Qasim Sharif, president of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, Brian J Adolph, vice-president and country manager of Niko, Peter Mercier, vice-president (Bangladesh Operation) of GSM Inc--a worldwide company represented by its President Robert D Grace--and GSM Drilling Manager George M Lattimore. --The Daily Star, June 18, 2008
Convicts who served half their terms may be freed
The government has started an initiative to free convicts, who have served half of their punishment, under special consideration since jails are overcrowded with inmates.
"Owing to accommodation problem in jails, we have directed deputy commissioners to send proposals after scrutinising who might be released," Home Secretary Abdul Karim told a press briefing at his ministry.
He said earlier the government considered freeing those who have served two-thirds of their sentences. Bangladesh has the capacity to accommodate 27,386 inmates in jails across the country but as of May 28 the total number of inmates was 85,866.
At the press conference, Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin replying to a query said, "A provision could be considered mentioning where we will apply EPR [Emergency Power Rules, 2007] and where not."
Replying to another question, he said the government is not acting in a biased way regarding the release of former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. --The Daily Star, June 16, 2008
Govt yet to act on EC plan to clip party wings
The caretaker government is yet to respond to the Election Commission's (EC) proposals made more than a year ago to bar political parties from having overseas units and front organisations comprising students, teachers, employees, workers or members of any profession.
The EC sent the proposals to the law ministry in May last year requesting it also to repeal the existing provisions in the Political Parties Ordinance 1978 which allow parties to have front organisations, not party units.
But the law ministry could not yet take any steps in this regard as the government did not ask it to do so, officials in the ministry said.
Once the ordinance is amended in line with the EC proposals, political parties will have to amend their constitutions to de-link their units and front organisations from them, an EC official noted. --The Daily Star, June 15, 2008
Taliban attack helps 1,100 inmates flee Afghan jail
More than 1,100 prisoners escaped during a brazen Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, officials said.
Afghan officials said that at least 15 security guards were found dead.
The complex attack late Friday included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from inside the prison courtyard, setting off a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.
Police official Mohammad Jamal Khan said more than 1,100 prisoners escaped. 15 police officers and eight prisoners were killed, he said, and another 12 police officers were wounded. More than 30 nearby shops were damaged.
Last month, some 200 Taliban suspects at the prison ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised their cases would be reviewed. --The Daily Star, June 15, 2008
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