BN Report
The interim government of the country headed by Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on Thursday.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath during a ceremony at Bangabhaban.
The members of interim government are as follows:
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of BELA; Farida Akhtar, women’s rights activist; Adilur Rahman Khan, founder of Odhikar; AFM Khalid Hossain, Hefazat-e-Islam nayeb-e-ameer and Islami Andolan Bangladesh adviser; Nurjahan Begum, Grameen Telecom trustee; Sharmeen Murshid, freedom fighter; Bir Pratik Faruk-e-Azam; Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, DU students and key organisers of the Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement; Salehuddin Ahmed, former governor of Bangladesh Bank; Prof Asif Nazrul, Dhaka University law professor; AF Hassan Ariff, former attorney general and adviser of Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government; Brigadier General (retired) M Sakhawat Hossain; Supradip Chakma, chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB); Prof Bidhan Ranjan Roy, director of the National Institute of Mental Health & Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry; Touhid Hossain, former foreign secretary.
Supradip Chakma, Bidhan Ranjan Roy, and Faruk-e-Azam are outside the capital, so they could not be sworn in today.
Leaders of various political parties including BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiyo Party, Krishak Sramik Janata League, were present at the ceremony, among others.
Besides, Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman and other officers, secretaries of various ministries, diplomats of various countries, also attended among more than five hundred people at the event.
Earlier in the day, an Emirates flight (EK-582) carrying Yunus, who had been in France for a minor medical procedure, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 2:15 pm local time.
Earlier, Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman and key organisers of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement welcomed Yunus at the airport.
The interim government has been formed on Thursday after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country on 5 August following the student-led mass uprising.
During the early hours on Monday (6 August), Nahid Islam, one of the coordinators of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, announced in a video message that they want Dr Yunus as the chief advisor of the interim government.
According to media reports, Dr Yunus initially declined the students’ request but ultimately gave his consent to be the chief adviser following persistent appeals.
Prof Yunus, Bangladesh’s sole Nobel laureate, is internationally recognised as a pioneering social entrepreneur and economist.
Renowned as a “global citizen,” he has been honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
Yunus gained worldwide acclaim for founding the Grameen Bank in 1983, a revolutionary institution that pioneered microcredit and has empowered millions through microfinance.
Born in Chattogram in 1940, Yunus completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Dhaka University before pursuing advanced studies in economics at Vanderbilt University in the United States through a Fulbright scholarship. He earned his PhD in Economics in 1969.
Upon returning to Bangladesh, Yunus took on the role of head of the economics department at Chittagong University in the mid-1970s. During this period, his groundbreaking work began. Observing the plight of impoverished basket weavers, Yunus started providing small loans, a precursor to the establishment of the Grameen Bank in 1983.
This revolutionary approach transformed the lives of millions, earning Yunus the title “Banker to the Poor.” The Grameen Bank model has since inspired similar initiatives in over 100 countries worldwide.
