Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee

With their main focus on the national election, archrivals Awami League and BNP will use the upcoming city corporation elections to gain ground. Sources in both the parties said they would employ their “full strength” in next month's Dhaka North City Corporation mayoral race to make a good start early in the election year.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has given the green signal to AHM Khairuzzaman Liton and Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran to run for mayor in Rajshahi and Sylhet city corporation polls as AL candidates.

The president will be able to make 10 percent of the appointments to four superior posts of public administration from outside the civil service considering their “special merit, skill, eligibility and essentiality” if a proposed law is approved.

Following the death of Annisul Huq, the Awami League and its archrival BNP are having intra-party informal discussions to pick their best contender for the post of the Dhaka north mayor.

Apparently not content with being confined to public universities and colleges, Bangladesh Chhatra League now moves to form committees at schools.

Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday categorically told her party lawmakers that nominations for the next national polls would be given based on popularity of the prospective candidates.

A number of ministers yesterday demanded stricter monitoring of the activities of the local and international NGOs operating in Bangladesh. They also called for scrutinising the earnings and expenditures of the non-governmental organisations, alleging that some of those provoke workers to create chaos.

With the next national polls a year away, the ruling Awami League is scaling up its organisational activities while the BNP is focused on drumming up support for a non-partisan election-time government.

While the BNP sticks to its demand for holding the next national elections under a non-partisan polls-time government, the ruling Awami League insists the elections will be conducted as per constitutional provisions.

The Awami League and its archrival BNP look to summon all their strength to ensure victory in the upcoming mayoral polls to six important city corporations as the elections will be a crucial test of their popularity ahead of the parliamentary polls.

The BNP chairperson's road trip to reach out to the Rohingyas living in refugee camps is a refreshing deviation from a long hibernation of the party in terms of drumming up support.

If you are poor and in jail for some reason and you happen to be seriously ill, you are probably out of luck. But if you are a rich inmate or have political clout, you do not even need to be sick to have extended holidays at the country's leading government hospitals.

Jail inmates of different foreign nationalities often have to languish in prison beyond their conviction period due to the cumbersome process of securing their release.

The government, the ruling Awami League and the BNP are happy over Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's statement on the Rohingya issue as they hope that India's stance on the crisis will expedite the process of achieving a solution.

The ruling Awami League is going to propose introduction of electronic voting for the next general elections and request the Election

Four Vice-Chancellors and 11 teachers of different public universities are included in the draft list of the ruling Awami League’s sub-committee on education and human resources.

The Police Headquarters has instructed the law enforcers to form a committee in every district to maintain communal harmony across the country, especially in the Buddhist-populated areas.

In the wake of a fresh violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State and the influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, the ruling Awami

Some parties consider it achievable, some need more time to do so and there are many others who consider it a distant goal.

The government has decided to set up a camp in Cox's Bazar to accommodate all newly arrived Rohingyas from Myanmar and also