Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is set to take oath as the head of the Bangladesh's interim government on Thursday, after Parliament was dissolved after the ousting of four-time prime minister Sheikh Hasina who fled the country.
Dr Yunus, 84, is the choice of organisers of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, which spearheaded the weeks-long demonstrations that led to the fall of Ms Hasina.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is a social reformer, economist and the founder of Grameen Bank, a group credited with lifting millions out of poverty by granting small loans and a movement that won him the coveted award in 2006.
He was picked after a meeting between Bangladesh's President Shahabuddin, the co-ordinators of student movement and various political leaders.
Dr Yunus is returning from Paris on Thursday and is expected to be sworn in later in the evening in the presence of 400 dignitaries.
"I'm looking forward to going back home, see what's happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in," he told reporters before boarding a flight at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport bound for Dubai, from where he was to connect to Dhaka.
Who is Muhammad Yunus?
Born on June 28, 1940, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in a well-to-do family, Dr Yunus studied at Dhaka University and later received a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, the US.
He received a doctorate in 1969 and was assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University the following year.
He returned to his home country in 1972 and set up Grameen Bank in 1983 to revolutionise microlending and provide loans to potential entrepreneurs without collateral while empowering them to achieve social and economic development.
Dr Yunus first started giving loans to the poor from his pocket before starting the bank that provided loans under $100 to the rural residents of Bangladesh, mainly basket weavers.
The financing system has since developed into a worldwide movement known as microfinance and has been replicated from South Africa to inner-city Chicago.
The bank has grown to provide loans to 7.5 million clients in more than 82,000 villages in Bangladesh, 97 per cent of whom are women, the Grameen Bank website says.
Dr Yunus won the Nobel Prize for his efforts in microfinance along with numerous other accolades including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, Congressional Gold Medal, Mohamed Shabdeen Award for Science and the King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Award.
He also served as a board member of the UN Foundation from 1998 to 2021.
He credits his mother, who offered help to anyone in need who knocked on their door, as his biggest influence.
"Human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty," Dr Yunus said during his Nobel lecture, daring his audience to imagine a world where deprivation was confined to history museums.
Critic of Hasina
His public profile in Bangladesh earned him the hostility of Ms Hasina.
Dr Yunus had a fractious relationship with Ms Hasina, who accused him of “sucking blood from the poor” and he was labelled as her potential political rival.
He has been accused of profiting from the microcredit enterprise that he set up nearly four decades ago, but his supporters say the charges are politically motivated.
In 2010, he faced separate allegations of misusing Norwegian aid funds, but was cleared by a court later that year.
He has faced a number of criminal cases and was convicted of a breach of labour laws. He was sentenced to six months in jail by a court in January and is currently on bail. He has also been indicted on embezzlement charges.
The government forced him out of Grameen Bank in 2011. Dr Yunus fought the decision but it was upheld by Bangladesh's top court.
In January, he and three colleagues from one of the companies he founded were sentenced to jail terms of six months.
They received bail pending appeal from a Dhaka labour court, which found they had failed to create a workers' welfare fund.
A Bangladeshi court on Wednesday overturned his conviction against him of labour charge, a day before he was set to return to lead a caretaker government.
Political journey
Dr Yunus formed the Nagorik Shakti or Citizen’s Power party in 2007, in an attempt to change the political culture and "dynastic politics" of Bangladesh but dropped plans to contest elections due to lack of support.
On Tuesday, the leaders of Anti-Discrimination Student Movement said they had spoken to Dr Yunus who has agreed to take up the role of the chief government adviser.
He has called the ousting of Ms Hasina, who ruled the country for more than 15 years and participated in elections that were boycotted by opposition and voters, a “second liberation” of the country.
The first was Bangladesh’s liberation movement from Pakistan in 1971.
"I congratulate the brave students who took the lead in making our Second Victory Day possible and to the people for giving your total support to them," Dr Yunus said on Wednesday. "Let us make the best use of our new victory."
