DHAKA: Bangladesh's central bank on Wednesday fired Muhammad Yunus from the celebrated microfinance lender he founded, capping months of political pressure for the Nobel prize winner to quit.
Bangladesh Bank said Yunus had failed to seek its prior approval when he was reappointed managing director in 2000, violating one of the statutes of the partly state-owned Grameen Bank, which was set up in 1983.
But his removal was disputed by Grameen, which said he was still there.
"Professor Muhammad Yunus has been removed from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank," said the order, which was sent to the bank's government-appointed chairman Muzammel Huq.
The edict, seen by AFP, added that "his position and tenure as the managing director of the Grameen Bank is illegal".
Grameen, whose board is mostly loyal to Yunus, immediately disputed the attempt to force out their talismanic leader. Earlier, chairman Huq had said that Yunus had been relieved of his duties "with immediate effect."
The bank, which is 25-percent state-owned, said in a statement it had "complied with the law in respect of appointment of the managing director."
"According to the bank's legal advisers, the founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, is accordingly continuing in his office," it added.
The bank pioneered micro-lending in the 1980s in which small amounts of money were leant to mostly poor and rural entrepreneurs, catapulting Yunus to international fame and his Nobel prize in 2006.
Yunus, 70, has been under intense pressure from the government to quit his post. In early February, Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith asked him to leave and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has disparaged his work.
Previous attempts to force him from the helm have focused on his age, with the government claiming he had exceeded the age limit for holding a directorship and should retire.
"I do not think there will be any problem with Yunus's removal -- I am sure there will be a smooth transition and the bank will not face any problem," said Huq, who is openly hostile to Yunus.
Yunus's troubles, which have multiplied in recent weeks, are thought to stem from 2007, when he briefly proposed setting up a political party, irking the powerful Hasina and her political allies.
His supporters, including former Irish president Mary Robinson, have written an open letter calling the campaign against him "politically orchestrated."
The US ambassador in Dhaka, James Moriarty, has also pressed the government to treat Yunus with respect.
In December, Hasina accused the Nobel laureate of treating Grameen Bank as his "personal property" and claimed the group was "sucking blood from the poor".
Separately, Yunus has been summoned to appear in three separate court cases in Bangladesh over the last month, all nominally connected to Grameen, and faces a government enquiry into the use of Norwegian aid money.
A Norwegian enquiry cleared him of any wrong-doing after a documentary by a Norwegian journalist in December alleged he had misused it.
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