Bangladesh: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus appointed interim prime minister

Bangladesh – Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has been appointed as the interim prime minister, succeeding Sheikh Hasna Wajid who left Bangladesh following anti-government protests.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, citing officials, Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the interim prime minister following a meeting between the country’s president, Muhammad Shahabuddin, and leaders of the anti-discrimination student movement.

She added that the remaining members of the transitional government will be determined after consultation with various political parties.

On Tuesday, Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin announced the dissolution of parliament in preparation for the formation of an interim government after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country.

Student representatives who organised the protests also said they would push for 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to oversee the interim government.

Yunus, 83, is considered one of the most famous economists and bankers in the world. He was part of the student movement supporting independence, and returned to Bangladesh in 1972 to become head of the economics department at Chittagong University.

On Sunday, protests demanding the resignation of Sheikh Hasina’s government resumed after the government banned the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing. The death toll from renewed protests across Bangladesh rose to more than 231, while hundreds more were wounded by gunfire.

Previous protests in Bangladesh erupted after the Supreme Court in June reinstated a quota system that allocates 56 percent of government jobs to certain demographic groups, including families of veterans of the 1971 war of independence that separated the country from Pakistan, and up to 30 percent of government jobs.

On July 21, the Supreme Court ordered the government to reduce the quota of government jobs reserved for certain demographic groups, including families of veterans, to 7 percent.

The Supreme Court reduced the veterans quota to 5 percent, with 93 percent of jobs allocated on the basis of merit, while the remaining 2 percent will be allocated to racial minorities, women and the disabled, according to the Associated Press.

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