August 7, 2024: Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus has been chosen to lead the interim government in Bangladesh. The decision was taken at crucial meeting chaired by Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin.
Yunus who is known as the banker to the poor for his work in fighting poverty was the top choice of the protesting students to be the chief advisor to the interim government. Yunus who is now in Paris for medical reasons is likely to return to the country soon.
Though acclaimed abroad, Yunus faced more than hundred criminal cases and was put on trial by the government of Sheikh Hasina. The government forced him out of Grameen Bank five years after he and the institution received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
However, questions remain whether the Jamaat -e-Islamia and Bangladesh Nationalist Party would accept Yunus as the head of the interim government.
Observers in Dhaka feel that while the military could be amenable to the idea of Yunus heading the interim government they are less likely to accept him in a key role.