Bangladesh's interim govt chief Muhammad Yunus threatens to resign amid turmoil: Report

Time of India

23-05-2025

Professor Muhammad Yunus, the chief of Bangladesh's interim government, is contemplating resignation due to the failure of political parties to find common ground. Nhid Islam, the CP party chief, conveyed Yunus's concerns after meeting with him, stating that Yunus feels unable to effectively govern in the current polarized environment.
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Bangladesh's interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, is mulling resignation as he finds it difficult to work because political parties failed to reach a common ground, BBC Bangla service reported at midnight on Thursday quoting student-led National Citizen Party CP party chief Nhid Islam.Muhammad Yunus has also informed his cabinet that he wanted to quit if political parties did not give him their full support, reported AFP quoting a source inside his office. Yunus's reported threat to stand down comes a day after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time."We have been hearing news of sir's (Yunus) resignation since this morning. So I went to meet sir to discuss that issue . . . He said he is thinking about it. He feels that the situation is such that he cannot work," Islam told the BBC Bangla.The South Asian nation of some 170 million people has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in August 2024. But this week has seen an escalation in political crisis with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.The NCP leader, however, said there was no point in Yunus staying if he could not do his work adding, "If the political party wants him to resign now . . . why he will stay if he does not get that place of trust, that place of assurance?".Yunus's government in the past two days was exposed to several challenges with a major one involving Bangladesh's presumably consolidated military forces, which played a crucial role during the last year's student-led uprising.Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP -- seen as the frontrunners in highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown -- demanded he fix a date.Yunus's relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated. On Wednesday, it was reported that powerful army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said elections should be held by December. "Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase," Waker-Uz-Zaman was quoted by newspapers as saying."The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute."The movement toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League regime and installed Yunus to power and during the protest the army preferred not to launch a crackdown on protestors despite being called out to tame the uprising.The military, however, extended its hand for Hasina's safe exit to India using an air force plane and installation of Yunus as the chief adviser, effectively the prime minister, in line with the demand of Students against Discrimination (SAD), a large part of which now emerged as NCP.