Nearly 78 years after chanting the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad” with much enthusiasm, the son of Dula Mia Saudagar, a Chittagong-based goldsmith and member of the Pakistan Muslim League National Guard, 85-year-old Muhammad Yunus successfully finalized his own political organization, the Jatiya Nagorik Party or the National Citizens’ Party (NCP), on February 27, a day before the formal launch at Manik Mia Avenue.

Nahid Islam, who resigned as the information and broadcasting adviser on February 25, will lead the King’s party.

The event is taking place at a time when the government is severely criticized for lack of rule of law, culture of impunity for violence by government supporters, abuse of power, corruption and irregularities, patronization of the defeated force of the 1971 Liberation War and Islamist extremists, negligence towards minorities and women, demolition of shrines, hostility towards the Indian government, love for Pakistan and shrinking space for democratic values, and a suppressed freedom of press.

Born in 1940, the 2006 Nobel Peace laureate and former managing director of Grameen Bank inspired his student advisers to form the party and provided all-out support while holding the post of Chief Adviser to the interim government, which was installed on August 8, three days after the fall of the Awami League government.

Yunus’ all-party anti-Awami League Advisory Panel and the two government-sponsored groups—Jatiya Nagorik Committee (National Citizens’ Committee) and the Students’ Movement Against Discrimination (SMAD)—consist of members and supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Islami Chhatra Shibir, AB Party, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Hefazat-e-Islam, and Ahle Hadith.

Several advisers, reform commission chiefs and members are linked to teaching, NGOs, Yunus’ Grameen Bank and other enterprises, and his relatives from Chittagong.

The leaders and supporters of the banned extremist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and Pakistan-based Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI-B) and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) are also supporting the interim government and enjoying impunity.

Previous attempt

Seventeen years ago, when the army captured power and declared a state of emergency on January 11, 2007, Yunus refused to join the interim government as the chief adviser. He, however, launched his party, named the Nagorik Shakti or the Citizens’ Force, in association with the civil society leaders and his well-wishers on February 22 and declared his intention to contest the parliamentary election.

On May 3 of the same year, he decided to “stand aside by accepting the reality that it is correct not to go any further down the path.”

In an open letter to the nation, Yunus said: “…despite my all-out efforts I could not create a team that can boost my confidence. In the light of the experience I have gained from this process, I think, I will not be successful even if I wait for a longer period.”

He added: “I wrote the first letter on February 11 seeking your opinions whether I should join politics. I wrote the second letter on February 22 declaring the decision to join politics and form a political party following your encouragements.”

Yunus said the people responded to his call by sending many letters, faxes, emails, and SMS to support his initiative. “You have given advices by sending letters to newspapers. You have also given your suggestions in newspaper post-editorials and television discussions. A number of you have informed me after you have formed preparatory teams in your areas. A number of expatriates have informed me after forming their committees. Young people both here and from overseas have voluntarily come forward to give their time and talent. I am grateful to all of you.”

He said he had dedicated all his strength towards forming a party. As part of the first step, he concentrated on forming an organisational team in such a way so that it created confidence in people and it could generate massive political force.

Yunus added that after his announcement, people known or unknown to him, politicians, and people who weren’t politicians but were interested in politics contacted him. But he later understood that those who were encouraging him would not join politics themselves and would not give public support because of their own problems. “And those who are in political parties will not leave their parties, at least, now. They might join later if the political situation changes. After all calculations, I realised that nothing much is being accumulated. So, whom will I form the strong team with?”

Previously, Yunus became an adviser during the first caretaker government in 1996.

Love for Pakistan

At the age of 7, Muhammad Yunus celebrated the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” and setting off fireworks from the roof of their house at 20 Boxirhat Road (Sonapotti) in Chittagong.

On August 13, 1947, the Pakistani crescent-starred flag and white-green festoons were flying on the streets and houses of the Boxirhat area; political speeches and the “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans by thousands of locals filled the entire area.

Before midnight, his father and jewelry shop owner, Dula Mia Saudagar, who was a member of the Muslim League National Guard, proudly donned the uniform of that force in the joy of the creation of Pakistan. He then put on his “Jinnah cap” and took to the streets with his young children.

At exactly 12 o’clock, the electricity was cut off, and a moment later, electricity came to a new country. India was divided, and Chittagong became a part of Pakistan. The entire city was filled with the “Pakistan Zindabad” slogan. The night sky was lit up with fireworks.

The sons of Dula Mia were deeply committed to the Partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. For Yunus, it was a moment of pride that he could feel in his veins. His dreams and hopes were fulfilled that day. “The roaring slogan resounded again and again, from every part of Chittagong—Pakistan Zindabad! At the age of seven, this was the first shot of pride and intoxicating enthusiasm for our people I had felt in my veins. Many more were to come,” Yunus writes in his book Banker to the Poor.

Yunus said that the minority Muslims in India had many grievances and distrust towards Hindus. He read in the newspapers and heard on the radio that there was violence between Hindus and Muslims in India. However, its influence was very little seen in Chittagong. “Our political leanings were never in any doubt. We were all deeply committed to partition from the rest of India.”

In addition to Yunus, Dula Mia took to the streets that night with his eldest son Salam, aged 10, Ibrahim, aged two, and baby Toonu in his arms. Salam was Yunus’s playmate, reading companion, and political informant. Yunus would get jealous when Salam would raise the flag with his friends and chant “Pakistan Zindabad.”

Ibrahim was just learning to talk. Yunus wrote: “He called the white sugar he liked ‘Jinnah sugar’, and the brown sugar which he did not like ‘Gandhi sugar’ (Jinnah was the leader of the partition movement, and Gandhi of course wanted to keep India whole.)”

According to Yunus, his father was a devout Muslim all his life and went to Mecca for Hajj three times. He always wore white pajamas, a Punjabi, a cap and sandals. His square-framed glasses and white beard made him look like an intellectual. But he was never a bookworm, because he could not pass school. He was more inclined towards business. His other two important tasks were to pray five times a day in the mosque and to spend time with his family. Yunus used to hide his easel, canvas and pastels away from his father who believed that reproducing human figures was not sanctioned by Islam.

At the age of 13, Yunus had the opportunity to travel by train on the way to the First Pakistan National Boy Scout Jamboree in 1953.

History of activism, politics

At the age of 16, Yunus was elected general secretary of the United Students’ Progressive Party, based in Chittagong College. He said it was a dominant party with a good chance of winning the election for the students’ union.

“We were against the government of the day which was oppressively conservative and exploited the religious sentiment of the people, but this did not mean I was ready to take orders from the highly regimented and secretive underground ultra-left party which controlled us as one of their front organizations.

“With the support of my central committee, I engineered a coup d’etat within my student party, and ousted senior functionaries who were manipulating us. It had been quite a feather in my cap to be general secretary, but to use the post to challenge the status quo created a political bombshell in student politics, which sent ripples all through the Chittagong District. Ever since then I had always tried to steer an independent course.”

When the Liberation War began, 31-year-old Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. On March 26, at a meeting of six Bengalis from East Pakistan in greater Nashville, he proposed the formation of the Bangladesh Citizens’ Committee after learning that Bangladesh had declared its independence and for issuing a press release immediately for the Nashville print and electronic media.

One of them was a “supporter of the conservative pro-Islamic Jamaat party… Those who do not join Bangladesh, I will consider them Pakistanis and enemies of Bangladesh,” Yunus wrote in his book.

On March 27, Yunus was elected secretary of the Bangladesh Citizens’ Committee and spokesperson for the group. Throughout the war, Yunus, along with other Bengalis in America, including former East Pakistani embassy officials, teachers and students, campaigned for the recognition of an independent Bangladesh, the release of Prime Minister-elect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and stopping of US military aid to Pakistan.

Latest political ambition

In 2009, after the Awami League came to power and started investigations into his corruption and irregularities, stemming from his attempts at depoliticization in 2007-08, Yunus sought Hillary Clinton’s help. He later got acquainted with the anti-Awami League quarters, including the BNP, Jamaat, Kalyan Party, and even Kader Siddiqui’s Krishak Sramik Janata League.

Yunus and his associates also played a key role in the formation of the Jamaat’s B-team Amar Bangladesh (AB) Party in 2019.

The statements, interviews, and decisions since the July-August movement also reveal that Yunus was behind the formation of Ganatantrik Chhatra Shakti or the Democratic Student Force, formed just before the 12th national election on October 4, 2023, with former Dhaka University student Akhter Hossen as its convener and Nahid Islam as its member secretary.

Chhatra Shakti leaders Nahid and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, now LGRD adviser, led the anti-quota movement under the banner of Students Movement Against Discrimination (SMAD).

After the Awami League launched a crackdown on the movement, blaming the BNP-Jamaat clique for using the students against the government to commit violence and arson attacks, the SMAD turned it into a government-ouster movement with the patronage of current and former leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir. Meanwhile, the all-party anti-Awami League clique, the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association, like-minded cultural groups, and pro-Yunus NGO leaders assisted them with all-out support.

Previously, Akhter Hossain, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud were leaders of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, which spearheaded the 2018 anti-quota movement. On July 23, 2023, all the 21 members of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad’s Dhaka University unit, including its president Asif Mahmud, resigned en masse.

The Jatiya Nagorik Committee (JNC) was formed on September 8, a month after the Yunus-led advisory panel took oath. On September 13, Akhter Hossen dissolved the Ganatantrik Chhatra Shakti.

The official launch of the National Citizens’ Party (NCP) will occur in front of the National Parliament on Manik Mia Avenue, where the names of the top leadership will be announced.

5 leaders of King’s party confirmed

The top leaders of the government-sponsored JNC and SMAD met in a joint meeting on February 27 at the JNC’s central office in Rupayan Tower.

They finalized Nahid Islam as the NCP convener and Akhter Hossen as the member secretary.

Additionally, SMAD convener Hasnat Abdullah has been chosen as the chief organizer of the southern region and JNC chief organizer Md Sarjis Alam for the northern region, while JNC convener Nasiruddin Patwary is the chief organizer.

Of the trio, Hasnat and Sarjis were previously associated with the Bangladesh Chhatra League, while Nasiruddin was with the AB Party.

Earlier, it was assumed that the announcement of the new King’s party would be delayed due to the eroding image of the student leaders and student representatives in the advisory panel, as well as the growing rivalry between the Jamaat-influenced government and the BNP.

The tensions reached high after BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told BBC Bangla on January 22, hinting that a new government would be needed to hold the next elections since the interim administration had failed to maintain neutrality by patronizing the King’s party.

His statement drew severe criticism from the government, with some advisers alleging that the BNP was trying to rehabilitate by taking a stand against the Yunus-led administration’s election plan: first the local government elections and then the parliamentary elections in December 2025 or in the first quarter of 2026.

To divert attention, on February 5, government supporters vandalized the Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi 32 and carried out planned attacks on the houses and business establishments of the Awami League leaders and activists in at least 35 districts, drawing criticism from all quarters.

Yet, the government chose to take a hard line and started a special crackdown, styled Operation Devil Hunt, to arrest the remaining supporters of the Awami League. Until the afternoon on February 27, the joint forces arrested 11,313 people across the country.