Pakistan stands in solidarity with people of Bangladesh: Foreign Office.

Dhaka/islamabad   -  Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus, who is set to lead a caretaker government after mass protests ousted the premier, called on compatriots Wednesday to be “ready to build the country”, ahead of his hugely anticipated return. The Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer will head the interim government after longtime and autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country, the presidency has said.

“Be calm and get ready to build the country,” Yunus said Wednesday in a statement, a day ahead of his expected return to the country from France, urging calm after weeks of violence in which at least 455 people were killed.

“If we take the path of violence everything will be destroyed,” he added. The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus -- credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country -- to lead.

The decision was made in a meeting with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the heads of the army, navy and air force, and student leaders, the president’s office said in a statement.

Yunus will have the title of chief adviser, according to Nahid Islam, one of the leaders of Students Against Discrimination who participated in the meeting.

Shahabuddin agreed that the interim government “will be formed within the shortest time” possible, Islam told reporters, describing the meeting as “fruitful”.

Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi court on Wednesday overturned a conviction against Mohammed Yunus, a day before the Nobel winner is set to return to lead a caretaker government.

“Professor Muhammad Yunus and three of his colleagues have been acquitted of labour charges,” one of his lawyers, Khaja Tanvir Ahmed, told AFP.

“The court earlier this year sentenced them to six months in prison.”

He was sentenced in January for the labour charge, but immediately bailed pending appeal and later travelled abroad.

Pakistan on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and hoped that they would return to normalcy peacefully and swiftly.

“The government and people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with the people of Bangladesh, sincerely hoping for a peaceful and swift return to normalcy,” the Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement. She also expressed confidence that the resilient spirit and unity of the Bangladeshi people would lead them to a harmonious future.