DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is being urged to remain in office despite his recent threat to resign amid a deepening political crisis. A senior cabinet member has said Yunus must stay on to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
Yunus, 84, assumed charge as chief adviser of the caretaker government after a student-led uprising forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to step down in August 2024.
Since then, the South Asian nation of 170 million has remained in a state of political flux, with rival parties staging street protests over various demands.
“For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special assistant to Yunus and head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, posted on Facebook.
“The Chief Adviser is not going to step down. He does not hanker after power,” he added. The post was later deleted.
Local media, citing sources inside Yunus’s office, reported that the interim leader had expressed a desire to resign if political parties failed to fully support his caretaker administration.
“He wanted to tender his resignation, but his cabinet members persuaded him not to,” one source said as quoted by local media on condition of anonymity.
The latest crisis unfolded after thousands of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters rallied in Dhaka on Wednesday in the first major protest against the interim government.
Protesters demanded that Yunus set a definitive date for elections, although he has already pledged that polls will be held no later than June next year.
Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP) — a political group formed by students who led last year’s uprising and previously part of Yunus’s cabinet — met with the interim leader on Thursday evening.
“They spoke about the current political situation,” NCP senior leader Ariful Islam Adeeb told reporters.
“The Chief Adviser said he is reconsidering whether he can continue his duties under the current circumstances.” However, Islam “urged him to remain in office,” Adeeb added.
Meanwhile, Shafiqur Rahman, head of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest political party, has called on Yunus to convene an all-party meeting to resolve the political deadlock, according to a party official.
Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly come under strain. Local media reported that Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, speaking on Wednesday, insisted elections must be held by December 2025.
“Bangladesh is in a chaotic phase,” the army chief was quoted as saying. “The situation is worsening by the day.”
In response, Taiyeb criticised the military’s stance, stating, “The army can’t meddle in politics. The army doesn’t do that in any civilised country.” He added that by setting a timeline for elections, the army chief had overstepped his constitutional role.
The military issued a statement on Thursday night, saying it aimed to counter “misleading information” and efforts to “create a divide between the army and the general public.”
It released a list of hundreds of individuals it had temporarily sheltered in army installations following Hasina’s ouster to “save them from extrajudicial killings.”
Among those were 24 politicians, civil servants, judges, academics, and over 500 police personnel.
