Day: March 20, 2022

Leprosy patients, who were virtually excluded from society, thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for integrating them back into society.

“People suffering from leprosy were loathed in our country. There was hatred in the eyes of relatives, neighbors, and onlookers. Then we came to Dhaka. We were staying at platform number 8 at Kamlapur Railway Station. It was in the air that the Awami League leader was set to come. We thought if we met her, she might find a way out for us,” they said in a visual report shared by Prime Minister’s ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy from his verified Facebook account.

“As we went to meet her, a mat was spread. She came and, putting the mat aside, sat with us. We, 18 people, were given something to eat. She also ate with us. We discussed our habitat issue with us. She promised us that if she was voted to power, she would secure a shelter for us. Then when her party was elected in 1996, she started the housing project for us,” they added.

Recounting how life has changed since then, they further said, “We were trained in sewing and candle making. We were offered a loan from social welfare. We were given treatment and medication for free. Our children were blessed with education. Some of them completed their BSC and some diploma. When we were suffering from leprosy, we had no life, no society. No one cared for us, no one loved us. After coming here, we were integrated back into society. We can get in touch with other people.”

In the post, Sajeeb praised the poverty alleviation model, envisioned and realized by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, paving landless people the path for self-reliance, endowing them with shades overhead and sources of empowerment.

“So far, the government has built one house with land for about 4 lakh uprooted families on the initiative of Bangabandhu daughter Sheikh Hasina. Handing over houses to 1 lakh more families is underway,” he observed.

Shedding light on further initiatives geared towards empowering marginal people, he said, “Ensuring the housing arrangements, the government is now taking various measures for their earnings. These families are becoming prosperous by utilizing the facilities of the developmental infrastructure of Bangladesh.”

“Besides government allowances are reaching the homes of the elderly, widows, the disabled, and the helpless. As a result, their children are returning from their early working lives. Free education and stipends have helped the new generation of helpless people return to school,” he added.

The benefits of independence are reaching at every door, the most of the marginalized people are now daring of dreaming for a better future, he wrote in the concluding remark.

His observations were also substantiated with a visual report incorporating interviews of the beneficiaries who thanked the prime minister for the series of measures transforming their lives.

Beneficiaries including people from transgender communities and ethnic minorities also spoke highly on the initiatives meant for including them in the society.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Sunday said Bangladesh has high expectations from the Biden Administration in terms of building a “comprehensive partnership” as the two countries want to do more to take the relations to the next level.

“This is what we’ve told our US colleagues today. Bangladesh will remain keen in this regard, with the view to work closely with the US in our journey together towards peace and prosperity,” he told reporters at a joint briefing at state guesthouse Padma after the 8th Partnership Dialogue between the two countries.

US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, who led the US side, said they have already a “very strong” 50 years of partnership and the two countries can do even more together.

She said they can do more in the area of growing business and trade, in terms of technology infrastructure, resilience of two economies, in the area of security.

Nuland said they are really pleased to be back in town to “energize and deepen” their already very strong partnership and termed Sunday’s discussion just the “appetizer” on a “very big feast” that we are going to have this year with a number of engagements.

Masud said this year’s Partnership Dialogue is especially significant for two reasons – firstly, the two countries will be soon celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

And secondly, he said, the COVID-19 pandemic barred them from holding the regular dialogue mechanisms in the last two years.

The foreign secretary said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will be holding a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 4 in Washington.

Dhaka keen to build comprehensive partnership with Washington: FS

He said this Partnership Dialogue is indeed the first one with the Biden Administration, and also the first among a series of dialogues scheduled in coming months.

“Thus, Bangladesh is considering today’s discussion as the beginning of a rejuvenated robust engagement with our US friends,” he said.

The two countries are planning to have high level economic dialogue, security dialogue, separate defense dialogue apart from other engagements.

On Sunday, the two sides held “fruitful” discussion on the whole gamut of the bilateral relations between the two countries, encompassing political, economic and security domains.

Masud said Bangladesh deeply values its multifaceted relations with the United States, which is based on shared liberal values of upholding democracy and human dignity, commitment towards maintaining international peace and security and aspiration for socio-economic development of people.

The two countries also discussed the areas of “excellent mutual cooperation” like the Rohingya issue, COVID-19 vaccine support, US development assistance, capacity building in the security sector.

They also exchanged views on areas of yet untapped potentials like exchange of high-level visits, investment, trade facilitation, connectivity, stronger defence and security cooperation.

The FS said they exchanged views on Indo-Pacific Strategy, and also shared Bangladesh’s perspectives on national, regional and global security and geo-political scenario.

The Bangladesh side expressed its willingness to cooperate with each other in UN Peacekeeping operations, and expressed willingness to continue bilateral collaboration in security and defense domains.

“This is an area on which we would have further detailed discussion in the upcoming security and defense dialogues,” said the Foreign Secretary.

In the area of economic cooperation including trade and investment, he said, we look forward to having further discourse in the upcoming high-level economic partnership consultation in early June and possible next round of TICFA this year.

Responding to a question on the Ukraine issue, Nuland said this is a moment for all free nations and all free people to stand together with the people of Ukraine and say this war must end. “We had a rich conversation about that. We know what kind of society we are trying to build.”

Source: United News of Bangladesh

The first namaz-e-janaza of former President of Bangladesh Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed was held at his native village Pemoi in Paikura union of Kendua upazila in Netrokona on Saturday afternoon.

He was given a guard of honor there.

Earlier, the body was brought to Kendua by a military helicopter from Dhaka at 2.30 pm where people from all walks of life paid their last tributes to him.

After that, the helicopter carrying the body left for Dhaka.

The former president breathed his last at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) around 10.30am on Saturday.

He was suffering from different age-related complications and had been undergoing treatment at CMH since February.

The former chief justice of Bangladesh is survived by two sons and two daughters.

The former chief justice will be buried at Banani graveyard after the second namaz-e-janaza at 10am on Sunday.

Born in 1930 in Netrakona, Shahabuddin served as the chief justice of Bangladesh from 1990 to 1995. In February 1991, he formed a caretaker government with apolitical people and held a free and fair general election in the country.

On July 23, 1996, he was elected the president of the country unopposed, after being nominated by the Awami League government. He retired from office in 2001.

President Abdul Hamid expressed shock and grief over the death of Justice Shahabuddin. He also expressed sympathy to the bereaved family.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina too expressed deep shock and sorrow at the demise of Justice and prayed for the eternal salvation of the departed soul. She also expressed sympathy to the bereaved family.

Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique also expressed profound shock at the demise of the former chief justice and prayed for the eternal salvation of the departed soul and expressed sympathy to the bereaved family.

Career of the former president

He entered the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) in 1954 through a competitive examination, successfully completed training at the Lahore Civil Service Academy and attended a special course on Public Administration at the University of Oxford.

After serving for sometime as a magistrate and then as a sub-divisional officer in Gopalganj and Natore, Shahabuddin was promoted to the post of additional deputy commissioner. He was transferred to the judicial branch in June 1960 thus ending his career in the executive branch of the administration.

He subsequently served as additional district and sessions judge in Dhaka and Barisal and as district and sessions judge of Cumilla and Chittagong. In 1967, Ahmed was appointed the Registrar of the High Court in Dhaka.

He was elevated to the bench as a judge of the High Court on January 20, 1972. On deputation, he also served as the chairman of the Labour Appellate Tribunal (1973-74). Thereafter he returned to the High Court Division as a judge.

Shahabuddin was appointed a judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on February 7, 1980.

Justice Shahabuddin was the chairman of the Commission of Enquiry constituted to inquire into the causes of police firing on the agitating students of Dhaka University in mid-February of 1983 that led to deaths of several students.

He served as chairman of the Bangladesh Red Cross Society from August 1978 to April 1982. He attended the International Appellate Judge’s Conference held in Washington DC in September 1990.

Shahabuddin was appointed the Chief Justice of Bangladesh on 14 January 1990. A peaceful revolution took place in the country in early December 1990 following public agitation led by opposition political parties for changing the autocratic system of the government and demanding the resignation of the then government headed by President H M Ershad.

Consequently, on December 6, 1990, then Vice President Moudud Ahmed resigned and Chief Justice Shahabuddin was appointed in his place.

On that very day, Ershad resigned and handed over power to Shahabuddin who became the head of the government as acting president of the country. He formed a caretaker government with neutral non-political persons and held a free and fair election in the country in February 1991.

During this period, he gave back freedom of the press by amending a number of laws, including the Special Powers Act. Thereafter on the election of the president, Shahabuddin resumed his duties on October 10, 1991, as the Chief Justice.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will not be joining the forty-eighth session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to be held on March 22-23 in Islamabad.

Instead, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen will lead the Bangladesh delegation, said an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.

The OIC said the CFM represents the second most prominent OIC activity following the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers held last December on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

Earlier on Saturday, FM Momen indicated his non-participation at the OIC meeting. “We always attend OIC meetings. I said before I’ll go. But recently I got a little sick and the doctor suggested that I take some rest.”

On several occasions, the OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha expressed solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.

He reiterated the commitment of OIC Member States to help bring peace, security, stability and development to this country.

Furthermore, he called on members, Islamic financial institutions and partners to expedite humanitarian assistance for the needy.

Since August 2021, Afghanistan has continued to witness a difficult humanitarian situation with uncertainty about its future.

This prompted the OIC to take several steps towards containing the situation and playing its role in mobilizing support from the international community to the Afghan people, given the specificity of the Organization, which highlights its responsibility in addressing the issues of the Islamic world, according to a message from the OIC.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

A nine-member delegation of Bangladesh Parliament has left Dhaka for Indonesia to attend the 144th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Home Ministry Shamsul Haque Tuku is leading the delegation, said a release of the Parliament Secretariat on Sunday.

The 144th IPU Assembly is being held in Bali, Indonesia from March 20 to 24.

This year’s theme of the General Debate of the Assembly is “Getting Zero: Mobilising Parliaments to act on climate change.”

Joining the assembly, the Bangladesh Parliamentary delegation is supposed to participate in discussions on different agenda, including climate change, sustainable peace, ICT application in education, and pandemic.

The Bangladesh team will also participate in other meetings of the IPU there.

Eight other members of the parliamentary delegation are Gazi Mohammad Shahnawaz MP (Habiganj-1), Sayed Abu Hossain MP (Dhaka-4), Khan Ahmed Shuvo MP (Tangail-7), Basanti Chakma MP (Women Seat-9), Kaniz Fatema Ahmed MP (Women-8), Secretary of Parliament Secretariat KM Abdus Salam, its additional secretary Goutom Kumar and deputy secretary Chowdhury Md Hamid Al Mahbub.

All IPU statutory bodies, including the Governing Council, Standing Committees, Committees on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians and on Middle East Questions, as well as the Forum of Women Parliamentarians and the Forum of Young MPs, will convene during this Assembly.

The General Debate will provide a platform for delegates to deliberate, exchange views and seek to galvanize parliamentary action to address the climate emergency.

The Assembly is expected to conclude with the adoption of an outcome document on the overall theme of the General Debate.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

President Abdul Hamid on Sunday asked the authorities concerned to plan academic curriculum in line with the labour market.

“We need to plan academic curriculum in line with the labour market. It is often seen that students cannot study as per their interests and preferences,” he said at a discussion organised on the ocassion of the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibir Rahman.

The Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh ( APUB) organised the programme at a hotel in the city.

He said that Bangladesh has already evolved from a least developed to a developing country and the government has set a target to become a developed country by 2041.

“In order to achieve this goal, we have to make our young generation educated and skilled,” he said .

“Skilled manpower needs to be created in education, health, agriculture, economy, trade and commerce, engineering, and information technology,” he said.

He called for ensuring that the university education does not become certificate-based in any way.

The president suggested private universities keep some seat tuition fee-free for poor and meritorious students.

Urging university teachers to come forward in research work, he said that researchers need to have enough interest and enthusiasm to know what is being done in other countries about their teaching.

Education Minister Dipu Moni, Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel spoke in the programme while APUB’s chairman Kabir Hossain presided over it.

Source: United News of Bangladesh