DHAKA: Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's Nobel laureate and celebrated pioneer of microfinance, has been fired from the bank he founded after months of political pressure for him to quit, a colleague said Wednesday.

"The (central) Bangladesh Bank has relieved Yunus of his duties as the managing director of Grameen Bank with immediate effect," Muzammel Huq, Grameen Bank chairman, told AFP.

According to Huq, Yunus was removed because he violated a clause in the Grameen Bank ordinance -- the law which established the bank in 1983 -- concerning the appointment of the managing director, Yunus's position.

"Yunus was appointed as the managing director of Grameen Bank in 2000 without the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank," said Huq, who is government appointed and is openly hostile to Yunus.

"The Grameen Bank bylaw 14.1 clearly states that 'there shall be a managing director who shall be appointed by the board with the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank,'" he said.

"Yunus was appointed to the position of managing director indefinitely in 2000 without prior approval from the Bangladesh Bank and that is why he has been removed," he said.

Grameen Bank's deputy managing director Nurjhan Begum said the bank would issue a formal statement on Yunus's dismissal shortly.

Yunus has been under intense pressure from the government to quit his post. In early February, Finance Minister A.M.A Muhith asked the Nobel winner to go and the Bangladesh Bank wrote to him Monday saying his tenure was illegal.

Following the release of a Norwegian documentary in December which accused Yunus and Grameen of malpractice, Yunus has been vilified in the Bangladeshi press and has seen his bank become the target of a government investigation.