Govt alone cannot resolve Yunus issue: B'desh minister

A top leader of Bangladesh's ruling party has said that "no one-sided" solution to the issue of removal of Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank was possible despite the government's willingness for an "honourable settlement".

"We always wanted an honourable resolution to the issue. But one-sided solution to the problem is not possible unless all the sides come forward," local government minister and ruling Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters last night after emerging from a party meeting.

He declined to elaborate on the issue since the matter was pending for a Supreme Court decision but said that "it was not the government, but Yunus who dragged it to the court".

Islam's comments came as the apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday adjourned until April 4 the hearing on Yunus's appeal against his removal from the Grameen Bank amid reports of a negotiation process for an amicable settlement of the issue outside the court.

The adjournment visibly allowed both sides to take more time to reach a compromise as insisted by the United States and other major development partners but no progress on the talks was reported by either sides.

Islam's comments came amid growing international criticism against Yunus's unceremonious dismissal from the pioneering microfinance bank that he founded three decades ago.

Yunus earlier this week told a foreign newspaper he was "not a political threat to anyone" in Bangladesh and would like to resolve issues "if any" with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the negotiation process were launched.

"The real issue at stake is the right of the bank's 8.3 million borrowers to control their own financial future or whether they will be forced to cede their control to outside authorities," Yunus said.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith last week said the government looked for ways for an amicable settlement of the Yunus issue as he visibly rallied huge international support behind him since his removal from Grameen Bank last month.

But an anti-Yunus campaign by a section of Awami League was underway despite the launch of the process while the Daily Star newspaper quoting the party "insiders" said the "party high command instructed a section of its leaders, including some top-ranking ones, to conduct the campaign".

The 70-year-old Nobel laureate was fired from his position as the Grameen Bank's managing director last month as the Bangladesh Bank found that his 2000 appointment as the microlending agency's executive chief was faulty because the central bank's mandatory approval was not obtained at that time.