Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin has appointed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, the President’s press secretary said on Tuesday night.
Press Secretary Mohammad Zainul Abdin said that this decision was taken in a meeting between President Shahabuddin and a 13-member delegation of the ‘Anti-Discrimination Student Movement’. The chiefs of the three armed forces were also present in this meeting.
“The President appointed Dr Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government,” the press secretary said after the four-hour meeting. He said the names of other members of the interim government would be decided after consultations with various political parties.
According to state news agency BSS, the President is in favour of including at least one fighter of the 1971 Liberation War as an advisor to the Cabinet. Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman, Navy Chief Admiral M. Nazmul Hasan, Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmud Khan, Professor Asif Nazrul of the Law Department of Dhaka University and Professor Tanzim Uddin Khan of the Department of International Relations were present during the meeting.
Yunus is a Nobel laureate who is also known as the “banker of the poorest people”. Yunus (83) is considered a bitter critic and opponent of Hasina. He has described Hasina’s resignation as the country’s “second liberation day”.
