Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has lost the appeal he filed with Bangladesh’s high court to challenge an order removing him as managing director of Grameen Bank, the microfinance institution he founded some 30 years ago.
>> Muhammad Yunus Takes Legal Action Over Removal From Grameen Bank
“Yunus has been continuing in his job with no legal basis. Therefore his petition is rejected,” Agence France-Presse quotes Judge Muhammad Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed as saying.
The court upheld the Central Bank of Bangladesh’s order to remove 70-year-old Yunus from his post on the ground that he is past the law-mandated retirement age of 60.
The Grameen Bank expressed disappointment over the ruling.
“We have received the order and are very disappointed. We are consulting with our lawyers about the next steps. We hope that in the meantime nothing will jeopardize the stability of Grameen Bank. Eight million borrowers and 26 thousand members of Grameen Bank has brought the bank to this level through their hard work and is deeply involved in building the future for their children- we hope nothing will disrupt that,” the bank said in a statement.
Several international aid donors, institutions and supporters of Yunus have previously raised concerns that Yunus’ removal from the bank would deal a huge blow to poor people in Bangladesh. Some of Yunus’ supporters accused the Bangladeshi government, with which the Nobel Prize winner has had a fallout, of trying to take over the Grameen Bank.
Yunus has said he is ready to step down from his position in the Grameen Bank provided there is smooth transition of leadership within the institution. In a letter released a day before the court issued its ruling and published in full by the Financial Times, Yunus urged people to support “the call of smooth and joyful transition in Grameen Bank.”
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