DHAKA: Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin has alleged that former interim government head Muhammad Yunus attempted to remove him from office several times, days after the new Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) administration took charge.
In an interview with leading Bangla newspaper Kalerkantha published on Sunday, the President said during the past 18 months of interim government rule he was “nowhere in discussion but several plots were hatched against me”.
Shahabuddin said he received the “highest level of support” from the armed forces chiefs who “came to me at different times and boosted my morale”.
"They told me only one thing -- 'Your Excellency, you are the supreme commander of the armed forces. Your defeat would mean the defeat of the entire armed forces. We will prevent that at any cost'-- In the end, they did exactly that," he said.
“Many attempts were made to create a constitution void” during Yunus’ regime, Shahabuddin added.
"I was targeted for removal in so many ways. But I did not break down under any circumstances,” he said.
According to constitution experts, the President's removal could have created a constitutional void affecting the command chain in the military, civil bureaucracy and judicial system.
Soon after taking the oath administered by Shahabuddin under the constitution, the interim government dissolved the parliament and tended to call itself a “post-revolutionary government”.
The president said he could state “unequivocally” that the top leadership of the now ruling BNP, being headed by new Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, stood beside him and expressed their commitment to preserve the “constitutional continuity”.
Shahabuddin said that during that period, overnight, mobs appeared on the street in front of his residence, Banghaban, to mount pressure on him to quit the office, while army troops intensified vigil around the presidential palace.
"On 22 October 2024, Bangabhaban was besieged. This party, that party, mancha, okiya – so many platforms created overnight! These were the same types of people in different forums under different names. Where did they get so much money?” he asked.
"That night was nightmarish for me . . . The army controlled the situation very firmly,” he said.
The president said there was another attempt from within the interim government to remove him from office, when the army, navy and air force chiefs directly told Yunus they would not allow any unconstitutional action to take place.
“I do not know if anyone else had the strength to endure the storm that passed over me,” he said.
Yunus was sworn in as the Chief Adviser of the interim government by Shahabuddin after a student-led violent street protest called the July Uprising toppled then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, 2024.
“He (Yunus) travelled abroad perhaps 14 to 15 times. Not once did he inform me. Not once did he come to see me,” the President said, contrary to the constitutional dictate requiring the head of the government to meet the president and brief him on the outcomes of the visit.
Shahabuddin, however, admitted many of the ordinances (the president signed interim orders) issued at the time were unnecessary and lacked constitutional justification, while several political analysts said many of those were directly contradictory to the Constitution.
In a previous interview several months ago, the Bangladeshi president said under the rule of Yunus, "my voice has been stifled," while he felt humiliated as the interim government took away his press wing and in September, his portraits were removed from Bangladeshi embassies around the world.
“(But) I am upholding my position because of the constitutionally held presidency,” he said at that time.
Shahabuddin was appointed as the President in April 2023 as the nominee of Sheikh Hasina’s then ruling Awami League for a 5-year term.
After Hasina’s government was toppled, Yunus flew from abroad to take charge of the interim government until an elected government with Tarique Rahman as the Prime Minister assumed office last week.
Rahman’s BNP won a two-thirds majority in the February 12 election with Jamaat-e-Islami emerging as the main opposition in parliament.