Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin on Monday criticised the head of the country’s former interim government Muhammad Yunus, alleging that he “did not follow the country’s constitution”.
In an interview to Bangladeshi newspaper Kaler Kantho, Shahabuddin spoke about several aspects of his relationship with the Yunus government.
He claimed that the interim government did not brief him about important decisions, including Bangladesh’s trade deal with the United States. The agreement was announced on February 9, three days before Bangladesh held its national elections.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the February 12 elections and formed a government with Tarique Rahman as the prime minister.
The polls were the first since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024. Hasina had fled to India after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government that had been in power for 16 years.
The interim government headed by Yunus had taken charge after Hasina’s ouster.
Shahabuddin was elected unopposed as the president in 2023. He was a nominee of Hasina’s Awami League in the presidential election.
On Monday, Shahabuddin alleged that during the 18 months of the interim government, there had been “many attempts to permanently destroy the peace and order of the country and create a constitutional vacuum”.
The president also claimed that there had been a conspiracy to depose him, adding that the plan failed because the Bangladesh Nationalist Party supported him.
Shahabuddin alleged that while Yunus had gone on more than a dozen trips, “he never told me”.
“The Constitution states that whenever he [chief advisor] goes on a foreign trip, he should meet the president after returning from there and inform me of the output,” Shahabuddin said in the interview. “He is supposed to inform me in writing about what was discussed, what happened, whether any agreement was made, what kind of talks were held.”
Yunus, who stepped down upon the election of a new government, has not commented on the allegations.
When asked if this meant that he was unaware of the bilateral trade deal with the US, the president said “I do not know anything”.
He alleged that it was a “constitutional obligation” for the interim government to inform him about such a deal, but that “he [Yunus] did not do it”.
He alleged that the interim government had blocked two of his official foreign trips during the period.
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