The BNP has cried foul over the government's move to bring the Grameen Bank under the supervision of the Bangladesh Bank.
Published : 06 Nov 2013, 02:12 PM
The Grameen Bank Bill-2013 was passed in Parliament on Tuesday.
"The government wants to destroy this institution by bringing the Grameen Bank under the central bank's control and changing its structure," alleged BNP's acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday.
He says the bill was meant for that purpose.
Fakhrul urged the government to let bank run on its own course and give up attempts to control it.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus had been the Managing Director since Grameen's inception in 1983.
The central bank had removed him from his post in March 2011.
Yunus challenged the decision in court but lost the appeal and resigned from his post.
Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 with Grameen Bank "for their efforts in poverty alleviation" through microcredit.
He had been a staunch critic of the government ever since.
The incumbent government took the initiative to amend and scrap ordinances declared during military rule, including the Grameen Bank Ordinance of 1983.
Yunus criticised the government and said it was a plot to 'curb the Bank’s independence'.
Opposition BNP sided with Yunus and demanded the Bank be kept as it is.
The US has also sided with the Bank and Yunus.