Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder and director of Grameen Bank, speaks during a ceremony at the foreign affairs ministry in Lima September 27, 2010. - Photo by Reuters

DHAKA: Bangladesh's Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been fired from the pioneering microfinance bank he founded, a Grameen Bank official told AFP Wednesday, following months of political pressure.

“The (central) Bangladesh Bank has relieved Yunus of his duties as the managing director of Grameen Bank with immediate effect,” Muzammel Huq, Grameen Bank chairman, told AFP.

According to Huq, Yunus was removed because he violated a clause in the Grameen Bank ordinance – the law which established the bank in 1983 – concerning the appointment of the managing director, Yunus's position.

“Yunus was appointed as the managing director of Grameen Bank in 2000 without the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank,” said Huq, who is government appointed and is openly hostile to Yunus.

“The Grameen Bank bylaw 14.1 clearly states that 'there shall be a managing director who shall be appointed by the board with the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank,'” he said.

“Yunus was appointed to the position of managing director indefinitely in 2000 without prior approval from the Bangladesh Bank and that is why he has been removed,” he said.

Grameen Bank's deputy managing director Nurjhan Begum said the bank would issue a formal statement on Yunus's dismissal shortly.

Yunus has been under intense pressure from the government to quit his post.

In early February, Finance Minister A.M.A Muhith asked the Nobel winner to go and the Bangladesh Bank wrote to him Monday saying his tenure was illegal.

Following the release of a Norwegian documentary in December which accused Yunus and Grameen of malpractice, Yunus has been vilified in the Bangladeshi press and has seen his bank become the target of a government investigation.

Supporters of the 70-year-old Yunus, including former Irish president Mary Robinson, say there is a campaign of politically orchestrated attacks on the Nobel laureate after he fell out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2007.

The two clashed when Yunus briefly proposed setting up a political party.

In December, Hasina accused the Nobel laureate of treating Grameen Bank as his “personal property” and claimed the group was “sucking blood from the poor”.

Yunus has been summoned to appear in three separate court cases in Bangladesh over the last month, all nominally connected to Grameen.

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

IHK resolution
Updated 08 Nov, 2024

IHK resolution

If the BJP administration were to listen to Kashmiris, it could pave the way for the resumption of the political process in IHK.
Climate realities
08 Nov, 2024

Climate realities

THE Air Quality Index in Lahore once again shot past the 1,000-level mark on Wednesday morning, registering at an...
Rule by fear
08 Nov, 2024

Rule by fear

THE abduction of an opposition MNA, as claimed by PTI, is yet another grim episode in Pakistan’s ongoing crisis of...
Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...