Bangladesh suspends job quotas after student protests

A student blocks a rail track during a protest to demand merit-based system for civil service jobs in Dhaka on July 10, 2024. - AFP

DHAKA: Bangladesh's top court on Wednesday (July 10) temporarily suspended quotas for coveted government jobs after thousands of students staged nationwide protests against what they call a discriminatory system, lawyers said.

The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid and massively over-subscribed civil service posts, totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs, for specific groups including children of liberation heroes.