 "Muhammad Yunus among over 2 dozen Nobel winners to head state: Check list | World News")
An undated photo of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. (Photo: PTI)
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for around 8 pm (local time).
Shortly after Hasina fled to India for safety reasons, Bangladesh Army chief Waqar-uz-Zaman announced in a televised national address that an interim government would be formed to head the nation and urged the public to restore peace.
On Wednesday, President Mohammed Shahabuddin announced that Yunus had been appointed as the leader of Bangladesh’s interim government. The Nobel laureate, while accepting the bid, appealed for peace as the authorities scrambled to contain violence, especially aimed at Awami League officials and authorities in the aftermath of the Hasina government’s collapse.
With this development, Yunus will become the 31st Nobel Laureate to head a state.
Before him, noted leaders including Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Anwar Sadat featured among the list of Nobel Prize winners who were also leaders of their countries before or after receiving the award or while being in office.
List of Nobel winners who also became head of state:
1) Theodore Roosevelt – US
2) Woodrow Wilson – US
3) Hjalmar Branting – Sweden
4) Winston Churchill – UK
5) Willy Brandt – Germany
6) Anwar Sadat – Egypt
7) Menachem Begin – Israel
8) Oscar Arias Sánchez – Costa Rica
9) Mikhail Gorbachev – Soviet Union
10) Frederik Willem de Klerk – South Africa
11) Yitzhak Rabin – Israel
12) Yasser Arafat – Palestine
13) Kim Dae-jung – South Korea
14) Barack Obama – US
15) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Liberia
16) Juan Manuel Santos – Colombia
17) Abiy Ahmed Ali – Ethiopia
18) Auguste Beernaert – Belgium
19) Léon Bourgeois – France
20) Aristide Briand – France
21) Gustav Stresemann – Germany
22) Lester Bowles Pearson – Canada
23) Eisaku Sato – Japan
24) Lech Walesa – Poland
25) Aung San Suu Kyi – Myanmar
26) Nelson Mandela – South Africa
27) Shimon Peres – Israel
28) Jose Ramos Horta – East Timor
29) Jimmy Carter – US
30) Martti Ahtisaari – Finland
First Published: Aug 08 2024 | 12:33 PM IST
