Golam Rahman new ACC chief

Ghulam Rahman, the country's top energy regulator, will be the new chairman of Anticorruption Commission, an official said Thursday, weeks after controversial former army chief Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury resigned on personal grounds. UPDATES WITH GOVERNMENT COMNFIRMATION

The establishment ministry later in the day published a notification on the appointment of Rahman with the cabinet secretary Abdul Aziz's signature dated Apr 29.

The notification said the appointment of Ghulam Rahman, now in the United States, will come into effect from May 2.

Rahman will be enjoying status and facilities of an Appellate Division judge, it said.

But a Cabinet Division official, seeking anonymity, had earlier told bdnews24.com that the Division approved the appointment Thursday.

Rahman, a former Pakistan Civil Service officer who served as commerce secretary and secretary to PMO, is the third head of the "independent" Commission since it was created nearly four and a half years ago.

He was made chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission years after he ended his regular civil service career as a secretary. Rahman began his career as a teacher and taught economics at Dhaka University in the late 1960s.

Sultan Hossain Khan, a retired High Court judge, was the first chairman of ACC, created on Nov 21, 2004. The 2007-8 emergency government replaced him with Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury in early 2007.

Chowdhury quit on Apr 2, saying the antigraft watchdog needed a new leadership to bring swiftness to its work.

He was appointed on Feb 22 by the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led army-installed caretaker government after resigning as an adviser to the caretaker government led by president Iajuddin Ahmed.

Chowdhury led the antigraft body in its drive against top political figures during the immediate past caretaker regime.

MPs from the ruling Awami League and opposition BNP have since demanded his resignation.

In the opening session of the ninth parliament, prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Feb. 4 told parliament that the ACC should be "reconstituted" to ensure its own accountability.

The prime minister had said that the antigraft drive during the caretaker government's two-year tenure became an "anti-politician drive", and that the ACC was itself tainted by allegations of corruption.

The next day, Chowdhury rebuffed the prime minister's allegations, saying she was "not right".

He met the prime minister on Jan. 21 and discussed ACC's management.

Hasina and former prime minister Khaleda Zia were detained in jail pending trial for more than a year after the ACC brought a slew of graft charges against them during the emergency government's rule.

The commission also sued other high-profile politicians and businessmen including Khaleda's two sons and a score of former ministers.