RIYADH, 11 August 2022, (TON): Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan received a phone call from his Costa Rican counterpart, Arnoldo Andre Tinoco.

During the call, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in all fields to serve the aspirations of the two countries.

They also discussed the latest regional and international developments, and issues of common interest.

By TON Research Desk

Even after six months, three ruling parties listed a motion to impeach the Chief Justice the impeachment proposal stays to be in a state of dividing line in Parliament. UML and ruling coalition lawmakers say time is too short for probing and putting the motion to vote. With the House term nearing an end, parties are trying to rush the impeachment of the suspended Chief Justice.

On Thursday, just as the government declared polls for November 20 to elect a new Parliament, some ruling party leaders said the House of Representatives will now deliberate the motion. As many as 98 lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), and the CPN (Unified Socialist) on February 13 had listed the impeachment motion against the chief justice, leading to his ultimate suspension.

The impeachment motion will move onward from the next meeting of the lower house or the following meeting according to the Nepali Congress whip. The impeachment motion is the business of the current House. It needs to be debated and confirmed without additional delay.

An impeachment recommendation committee was made on March 6 after the motion was listed but it has yet to deliberate the matter. The newly elected deputy Speaker said that since the impeachment motion is the business of the incumbent House, it needs to be discussed and confirmed by the same House.

The motion will be first discussed in the House before it is sent to the impeachment recommendation committee. But whether the impeachment motion can be finalized by the House remains a concern. Parties have tentatively agreed on keeping the House alive until a day before nominations for the November 20 elections are filed.

On Thursday, Chief Election Commissioner said that candidacy registration will begin closely after Dashain (near mid-October). This will mean the House will have a little over two months to debate the impeachment motion to investigate the 29 allegations altogether against the suspended chief justice and submit its report to the House which then has to vote on the suspension.

As per Rule 161 (2) of the Regulation of the House of Representatives, the Speaker can present the motion for deliberations in the House seven days from the date of its registration. Had the process moved smoothly, the motion could have been tabled in the House on February 20. However, neither the Speaker nor the ruling parties showed interest to forward it. Rule 163 of the regulation allows a maximum of three months for the recommendation committee to investigate the charges.

The Parliament would have already voted on the motion by now, following all due procedure, if the ruling parties and the Speaker really wanted the chairperson of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum to say that the ruling parties have misused the constitutional provision of impeachment by deferring action on the motion.

Article 101 (2) of the constitution says one-fourth of the members of Parliament can register an impeachment motion against any official holding a constitutional position on the ground of failing to perform duty effectively or working against the constitution or extremely violating their code of conduct.

The 11-member recommendation committee includes members from the CPN-UML, the Nepali Congress, the Maoist Centre, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, and the CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Janata Samajbadi Party.

As the motion was registered with the sole purpose of suspending the chief justice of Nepal. The ruling parties have proved this by deferring in tabling the motion in the House. However, a motion can still be put to vote within the remaining time of the House. However, it does not appears that the ruling parties really want that.

As all lawmakers look in the election mood from now onwards, the recommendation committee is unlikely to carry out its task smoothly in a short time. They should have forwarded the motion before announcing the election date. Unless there is UML support, the motion, however, is set to fail. To impeach the suspended chief justice the motion needs to be endorsed by a two-thirds majority (181 votes) of the current 271-strong House.

The ruling coalition has 153 votes. Similarly, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party with 13 lawmakers had extended its support to Prime Minister during the vote of confidence. The coalition will have 164 votes if Loktantrik Samajbadi stands in favor of the motion. However, 17 more votes will be required for the endorsement of the motion.

The main opposition has 98 lawmakers in the House. Even ruling party lawmakers agree that there is a time constraint in probing the charges against the chief justice and putting the motion to vote. As the House will function until before Dashain (the third week of October). However, if there is consensus among all the parties to complete the probe and put the motion to vote before the House ends.

DHAKA, 11 August 2022, (TON): Bangladesh’s finance minister has warned that developing countries must think twice about taking more loans through China’s Belt and Road Initiative as global inflation and slowing growth add to the strains on indebted emerging markets.

AHM Mustafa Kamal also said Beijing needed to be more rigorous in evaluating its loans amid concern that poor lending decisions risked pushing countries into debt distress.

He pointed to Sri Lanka, where Chinese-backed infrastructure projects that failed to generate returns had exacerbated a severe economic crisis.

He said in an interview “whatever the situation [that] is going on worldwide, everybody will be thinking twice to agree to this project.”

DHAKA, 11 August 2022, (TON): The second Bangladesh-India Tri-Services Staff talks were held in New Delhi on Wednesday in a warm and cordial atmosphere.

Both sides, while expressing satisfaction at the scope and scale of the Tri-Services military cooperation, committed to enhance the bilateral military ties further, according to Integrated Defence Staff headquarters.

A 15-member delegation of Bangladesh Armed Forces led by Lt Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman, principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division, is visiting India to attend the 4th annual Defence Dialogue and 2nd Tri Services Staff talks.

Lt Gen Waker-uz-Zaman also called on Air Marshal BR Krishna and Lt Gen GAV Reddy, DG DIA.

KABUL, 11 August 2022, (TON): The union of the money exchangers of Sarai-Shahzada and other businesspeople held a demonstration to criticize the US drone strike in Kabul.

They said “the strike violated the Doha agreement.”

They called on the officials to protect Afghanistan’s ground and aerial sovereignty.

Abdul Rahman Zirak, a spokesman for the union of Sarai Shahzada money exchangers, said “the arrival of foreign countries’ drones via neighboring countries’ aerial space is against and Islamic law and we warn them to be cautious.”

The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment called on the international community to consider the situation of Afghanistan and lift sanctions on Afghan banks.

Mohammad Younus Mohammand, acting head of the ACCI said “the Afghanistan private sector wants proper economic relations with the whole world based on a clear economic interest.”

DHAKA, 11 August 2022, (TON): Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard said they want to engage in the UN Security Council and are looking forward to working with Bangladesh to pursue their collective actions in favor of peace, international law, sustainable development and human rights in the multilateral fora.

She said "but let me be clear here. This will not be an easy task, taking into account the numerous global challenges which we are facing, cooperation is essential.”

She added that Switzerland is a serious global player and a reliable partner of Bangladesh.

The Ambassador was speaking at the DCAB Talk at Jatiya Press Club hosted by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh.

DHAKA, 11 August 2022, (TON): The government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme launched a new project to address the unprecedented rise in infectious health care waste caused by the pandemic that is overwhelming waste treatment facilities.

The project will support the national health agencies and other key stakeholders in Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives.

The two-year $11 million “Project for the Improvement of Infectious Waste Management” was officially launched at a signing ceremony in New York City, said the UN agency.

Ambassador Takeshi Osuga, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations and Kanni Wignaraja, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at UNDP attended the signing ceremony.

DHAKA, 11 August 2022, (TON): The United States does not favour any political party in Bangladesh over another, US ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas said “laying emphasis on collective efforts to hold free and fair elections in the country.”

Peter said while speaking at the launching ceremony of an e-learning platform titled ‘Politics Matters’ “and just to be clear, the United States does not favour any political party in Bangladesh over any other.”

He said “the Election Commission, government, media, law enforcement agencies, civil society and political parties had an important role to play in the election.”

He said”from the Election Commission to the government, from the media to law enforcement agencies, from civil society to political parties, everyone has an important role to play.”

He added that if any one of them failed to fulfil their responsibility or if any one of them prevented another from fulfilling their responsibility, free and fair elections would become nearly impossible.

By Afshain Afzal
Tens and Thousands of angry protesters in Bangladeshis took to the streets in protest against the government's decision to increase fuel prices by nearly 52 per cent amid shrinking foreign reserves. The Bangla Government increased petrol prices by 51.2 per cent to $1.38 a litre, 95-octane gasoline by 51.7 per cent to $1.44 and diesel and kerosene by 42.5 per cent.
In a statement on Tuesday, 9 August 2022, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Nasrul Hamid, “The new prices will not seem tolerable to everyone. But we had no other choice. People have to be patient.” The angry masses on the streets have rejected Government's excuse for increase in prices due the condition of the global market in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine. The inner circles of the Government are saying that the Government of Sheikh Hasina is fulfilling the prerequisite to have an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
It is pertinent to mention here that the fuel crisis in Bangladesh has led to electricity blackouts of up to 12 to 17 hours a day. The situation in Bangladesh has been tence since Government announcement of fuel prices hike and masses as well as the leaders of the allies of the ruling Awami League are criticising the Sheikh Hasina's move publicly.
After the fall of foreign exchange reserves at $39.67bn on 3 August, the Bangladeshi Government has also banned the import of luxury goods and put restrictions on fuel imports including liquefied natural gas (LNG) which resulted in shutting down diesel-run power plants.
Bangladesh has sought a $4.5 billion loan from the IMF. The fact cannot be denied that where the export earnings of Bangladesh was a record high of $52.08 billion in fiscal year 2021-2022, the trade deficit recorded a high of $33 billion. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh Foreign remittances record high of $24.77 billion in fiscal year 2020-21 to $21.03 billion this year. Today, Bangladesh's foreign debt is over $90 billion.
It is interesting to note that Bangladesh's around $43 billion foreign debt repayment is on 20 major mega projects; owed mostly to Russia, Japan, and China. Hence, Russia, Japan, and China can bail out Bangladesh from the crisis and joining American alliance would further deepen the crisis. Bangladesh is more or less moving on the right direction as the burden should be share by the Bangla masses rather than additional loans.

CAIRO, 10 August 2022, (TON): Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid held talks following Sunday night’s Cairo-brokered truce between Israel and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, where fighting last week left at least 44 Palestinians dead, including 15 children.

During their phone call, El-Sisi said it is crucial to build on the current calm and take immediate steps to improve living conditions in Gaza and support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Lapid reaffirmed Egypt’s role as a cornerstone for Middle East peace, expressing his gratitude for its effective mediation in recent days.

In a statement, Lapid said “he and El-Sisi talked about the importance of promoting and developing normalization between Israel and the countries of the region and the importance of dialogue for achieving stability in the region.”