I have html template like this:
$scope.template = \'
You could try ng-include and put your template in to a static file instead.
Putting HTML content in scope variables kind of goes against some angular philosophy guidelines, I believe.
If you were to later change the template, would you want it to rebind itself and be processed again?
Perhaps you need to compile the template inside the controller?
angular.controller('ABCDCtrl', function($scope, $compile){
var templateHTML = '<span class="pointer"><i class="icon-refresh pointer" ng-click="refresh()"></i></span>';
$scope.template = $compile(templateHTML)($scope);
});