Mr Yunus is in Paris for a minor medical treatment and will be returning to Dhaka

Agency Report

DHAKA – Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus will be the new leader of Bangladesh’s interim government after the dramatic exit of long-time prime minister Sheikh Hasina following a popular uprising.

Mr Yunus, who is an 84-year-old acclaimed economist and one of the most prominent political rivals of Ms Hasina, has been announced as the chief adviser of the interim government by president Mohammed Shahabuddin’s press secretary.

His appointment was favoured by student protest leaders who have led a mass movement against Ms Hasina since late June and rejected any possibilities of accepting a military-led government.

Mr Yunus will be in charge of restoring normalcy in violence-hit Bangladesh after a protest started against a quota system in government jobs turned into anger against the long-running government of Ms Hasina, leaving almost 400 people dead in mass demonstrations.

The decision came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organisers of the student protests, prominent business leaders, and civil society members.

“When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?” Prof Yunus had said.

Other members of the new government would be decided soon after discussions with political parties and other stakeholders, the president’s press secretary Joynal Abedin said.

Mr Yunus is in Paris for a minor medical treatment and will be returning to Dhaka.

Mr Yunus, awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is an economist and banker who mostly stayed away from politics as he spent much of his time in courtrooms defending the more than 100 cases filed against him under the Hasina administration. His supporters describe these cases as a politically motivated vendetta designed to undermine his position as a potential rival.

Mr Yunus won the Nobel for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, particularly women. He is known as the “banker to the poor” for founding Grameen Bank and pioneering microcredit.

Mr Yunus has never run for office but considered forming a new political party in 2007 after the Bangladesh government split up and the military seized power. But he scrapped the idea within a few weeks.

In January he was sentenced to six months in jail after he was convicted of violating labour laws, in a trial that was criticised as politically motivated ahead of the country’s general election.

He, however, remains a respected figure in Bangladesh and has an international clout among elite businessmen, economists, heads of governments, and European royals.

The president on Tuesday dissolved parliament paving the way for the new interim government after student protesters’ ultimatum threatening more protests.

Mr Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, a longtime Hasina rival who was convicted of corruption charges in 2018, from her house arrest.

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