File image of Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Bangladesh’s interim chief has refused to present a timeframe for elections following the ouster of his predecessor, saying in an interview printed Tuesday (October 8, 2024) that reforms are wanted earlier than polls.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the nation’s “chief advisor” after the student-led rebellion that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in August.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a brief administration, to sort out what he has known as the “extraordinarily powerful” problem of restoring democratic establishments.
“None of us are aiming at staying for a protracted time,” Mr. Yunus stated of his caretaker authorities, in an interview printed by the Prothom Alo newspaper.
“Reforms are pivotal,” he added. “Should you say, maintain the election, we’re prepared to carry the election. However it could be unsuitable to carry the election first.”
Ms. Hasina’s 15-year rule noticed widespread human rights abuses, together with the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
Greater than 600 individuals have been killed within the weeks main as much as her ouster, in line with a preliminary United Nations report which stated the determine was doubtless an underestimate.
Her authorities was additionally accused of politicising courts and the civil service, in addition to staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its energy.
Mr. Yunus stated he had inherited a “utterly damaged down” system of public administration that wanted a complete overhaul to forestall a future return to autocracy.
“Reforms imply we won’t permit a repetition of what occurred previously”, he added.
‘Write as you please’
Mr. Yunus additionally batted away criticism on the quite a few politicians, senior law enforcement officials and different Ms. Hasina loyalists arrested on homicide fees after her authorities’s ouster.
The arrests have prompted accusations that Mr. Yunus’ caretaker authorities would maintain politicised trials of senior figures from Ms. Hasina’s regime.
However Mr. Yunus stated it was his intention that any prison trials initiated in opposition to these arrested would stay free from authorities interference.
“As soon as the judicial system is reformed, then the problems will come ahead, about who will likely be positioned on trial, how justice will likely be carried out,” he stated.
At the least 25 journalists — thought of by Ms. Hasina’s opponents to be partisans of her authorities — have been arrested for alleged violence in opposition to protesters since her downfall.
Press watchdog Reporters With out Borders has condemned these arrests as “systematic judicial harassment”.
However Mr. Yunus insisted he needed media freedom.
“Write as you please,” he informed the newspaper. “Criticise. Until you write, how will we all know what is going on or not occurring?”
Printed – October 08, 2024 02:55 pm IST
