Dhaka: Bangladesh is in turmoil.
Less than a year after Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was named head of an interim government following then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigning and fleeing to India, the country has been engulfed in a political crisis.
Rival parties have been protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka, with a string of demands.
Amid reports of a rift with Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Yunus is reportedly mulling resigning as chief adviser.
The buzz got stronger after Yunus called an unscheduled meeting of the advisory council on Saturday.
“He is likely to sit with the Advisers (effectively ministers) shortly after the ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) meeting, which is underway as scheduled,” PTI reported citing UNB news agency.
The unscheduled meeting comes hours before Yunus is due to meet leaders of top political parties in the country.
Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam told AFP that he would be meeting leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami shortly.
BNP media official Shairul Kabir Khan also confirmed the meeting, saying that senior party members will be present.
There has been no official communication about the agenda of the meetings.
Yunus has reportedly threatened to resign if political parties don’t support him.
One of the primary issues is general election in the country.
Yunus has promised that polls will be held in Bangladesh latest by June 2026, but BNP supporters have been demanding that a date be fixed.
His differences with the Army has not helped matters, with General Waker-Uz-Zaman saying that elections should be held by December this year.
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, one of the cabinet members in the interim administration, said on Friday that Yunus needs to remain in office as interim leader to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
“For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” said Taiyeb, who heads the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications & Information Technology, in a post on Facebook.
“The chief adviser is not going to step down. He does not hanker after power,” Taiyeb added.
