B'desh HC expected to decide on Yunus today

The Bangladesh High Court is expected to decide tomorrow on Nobel laureate and microfinancier Muhammad Yunus' petition challenging the legality of a central bank order removing him as the chief of Grameen Bank. The court was likely to rule tomorrow, Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam said after the counsels for 70-year-old Yunus termed his removal as illegal and unconstitutional. The government will present its case before the court tomorrow.

The HC bench heard the submissions by Yunus' counsels — Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Advocate Mahmudul Islam — for about two hours and adjourned the hearing till 2:00 pm tomorrow. Yunus has been in a running battle with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since last year, after allegations by a Norwegian television channel that his bank had misappropriated foreign funds by dodging taxes and accusations that he had overstayed long past the retirement age of 60.

However, Yunus has denied any financial irregularity. Political observers say the fight between him and Hasina was over the banker's political ambitions. As many as nine Grameen Bank directors had moved a supporting petition for him. The sacking of the noted microfinancier has come under global criticism, with Norway's international development minister flaying the move. Founded by Yunus in 1983, Grameen Bank pioneered the concept of reducing poverty by extending tiny loans to the poor. His work spurred a boom in such lending across the developing world and earned him and the bank the the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Hasina and Yunus recently had a verbal dual when the microfinancier suggested he might form his own political party. Following the tiff, Hasina accused the him of treating Grameen Bank as his personal property and claimed the group “was sucking blood from the poor". The development came two days after Yunus was apparently exposed to fresh trouble regarding retirement issues, as the central bank, in a letter to the government, reportedly said he was flouting Bangladesh's retirement rules by serving as head of Grameen Bank.

Yunus was unceremoniously relieved of his duties on Wednesday through a Bangladesh Bank letter sent to Grameen Bank Chairman Khondoker Muzammel Huq. The central bank said Yunus failed to seek its approval when he was reappointed as managing director in 2000, violating one of the statutes of the partly state-owned Grameen Bank.

The bank, however, maintained his position was legal. On Thursday, Yunus filed a writ petition challenging the central bank's order removing him from the post of managing director as the wider international community showed its displeasure at the way the Nobel Prize winner was treated.

With Yunus' forced exit, the microfinance institution's journey of over 30 years enters a different stage.