Yunus to proceed as Bangladesh’s interim govt chief: Adviser

Muhammad Yunus will stay as the pinnacle of Bangladesh’s interim authorities, an adviser in his cupboard mentioned on Saturday (May 24, 2025), two days after a key ally mentioned he had mulled resignation.

“He (Mr. Yunus) didn’t say he will leave. He said that while we face many obstacles in carrying out the work and responsibilities assigned to us, we are overcoming them,” Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud advised reporters after an unscheduled assembly of the advisory council.

“He (Mr. Yunus) is definitely staying,” Mr. Mahmud mentioned.

He mentioned not one of the advisers had been going anyplace as “the responsibility entrusted to us is a significant one; we cannot abandon this duty”.

The Chief Adviser’s determination to remain in workplace got here two days after he advised student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) leaders that he was mulling resignation as he felt “the situation is such that he cannot work”, citing difficulties in working amid the failure of political events to search out widespread floor for change.

Mr. Yunus reportedly expressed an an identical need to stop in a cupboard assembly earlier on Thursday (May 22, 2025), the place his colleagues persuaded him to not relinquish.

As many as 19 advisers, successfully ministers, joined the abruptly known as closed-door assembly, which Mr. Yunus determined to convene following a scheduled assembly of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar space in Dhaka.

The Chief Adviser’s press wing later issued a “statement from the advisory council”, saying the two-hour lengthy assembly included detailed discussions on “three primary responsibilities entrusted to the interim government – elections, reforms, and justice”.

“The Council discussed how unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements, and disruptive programmes have been continuously obstructing the normal functioning environment and creating confusion and suspicion among the public,” it mentioned.

The assertion mentioned regardless of all obstacles, the interim authorities continued to fulfil its tasks by placing nationwide pursuits above group pursuits.

“However, if — under the instigation of defeated forces or as part of a foreign conspiracy — the performance of these responsibilities becomes impossible, the government will present all reasons to the public and then take the necessary steps with the people,” the council mentioned.

It mentioned the interim authorities upheld the “public expectations of the July Uprising” however “if the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps”.

The council mentioned it believed {that a} broader unity was important to take care of nationwide stability, organise a free and honest elections, justice, and reform, and completely stop the return of authoritarianism within the nation and the federal government would hearken to the views of political events and make clear its personal place.

Midway via the assembly, adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan advised reporters that discussions had been targeted on the elections, Mr. Yunus’s reform agenda, and the belated July Proclamation – a manifesto to mark final yr’s student-led rebellion that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.

NCP convenor Nahid Islam emerged from the assembly with Mr. Yunus.

Islam had earlier mentioned that he urged Mr. Yunus “to stay strong for the sake of the country’s security, and future and to meet the expectations of the mass uprising, (and) I hope everyone will cooperate with him”.

Analysts noticed the Chief Adviser’s resignation menace as a take a look at of public backing and political assist.

Mr. Yunus is predicted to fulfill leaders of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami later within the day, following his in a single day name for talks amid the evolving political scenario of latest days.

Several senior BNP leaders, together with Abdul Moyeen Khan and Salahuddin Ahmed mentioned earlier that the celebration hoped Mr. Yunus would oversee an early basic election and step down with dignity, moderately than resign abruptly.

The BNP has emerged as the important thing actor within the political area after the ouster of the Awami League regime in August final yr.

Jamaat, which had appeared to align with the NCP because the BNP distanced itself from its former ally, mentioned a good election was the one option to restore public belief.

“The government has said that elections will be held between December and June. Now, a specific roadmap needs to be announced within this period-not just elections, but also a roadmap for structural reforms in politics and state governance,” mentioned key Jamaat chief Syed Abdullah M Taher.

However, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, a key adviser in Mr. Yunus’s cupboard, mentioned the interim authorities was not fashioned solely to carry elections but in addition to implement reforms and guarantee justice.

The growth of Mr. Yunus’s resignation got here amid reviews of discord between the navy and the interim authorities over the potential timeline for holding the parliamentary elections and a coverage situation associated to Bangladesh’s safety affairs involving a proposed humanitarian hall of support channel to Myanmar’s rebel-held Rakhine state.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman together with the navy and air pressure chiefs met Mr. Yunus three days in the past and reportedly reiterated their name for election by December this yr to permit an elected authorities to take cost and conveyed their reservation in regards to the hall situation.

The subsequent day, Zaman held a senior officers assembly at Dhaka Cantonment and mentioned he was unaware of a number of strategic selections regardless of the navy’s energetic function.

The navy additionally determined to be robust towards rampant “mob justice” in discharging their legislation enforcement duties. Meanwhile, troops who had been known as out of their barracks with magistracy energy to take care of legislation and order had been seen intensifying their road patrols and safety vigil.

Several analysts known as the assembly essential to consolidate the navy energy.

During final yr’s protests, the military prevented a crackdown, as a substitute prolonged its hand for Hasina’s secure exit to India. It additionally supported Mr. Yunus’ appointment as Chief Adviser, as demanded by the SAD, a lot of which later fashioned the NCP.

Mr. Yunus’s administration not too long ago disbanded Hasina’s Awami League, sending lots of its senior leaders, together with former ministers, to jail to face trial for expenses like crimes towards humanity.

Mr. Yunus has been going through calls from the political events, together with the BNP, to announce a date for the subsequent elections. His reported menace to resign got here a day after the celebration rallied 1000’s of supporters to stage a large-scale protest demanding an election on the earliest.

This week, the celebration additionally demanded the elimination of the remaining pupil representatives from the cupboard, whereas the NCP in response known as for the ouster of two advisers, alleging that they had been serving the BNP’s objective by staying within the authorities.

The South Asian nation of some 170 million individuals has been in political turmoil because the ouster of the previous regime, however it escalated previously a number of days with rival events and commerce unions or strain teams protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing calls for.