Time to move on

It is time that Bangladesh move on to seeking reconciliation with Islamabad by treating history as history

It had been a blood-soaked separation. And a significant section of the population of Pakistan, to this day, regrets the excesses and injustices meted out to the people of the then East Pakistan by the country’s establishment before and during the events of 1971. Those of us who still regard our Bangladesh brethren as our own acknowledge that the people of the erstwhile East Pakistan faced significant discrimination on various fronts during the years leading up to 1971. There were vast disparities in income and economic opportunities for the people of East Pakistan were hard to come by. The bloodshed seen during 1971 is another chapter that is clearly not easy to erase from national memories.

These memories are embedded in the history of the very birth of Bangladesh. The people and the government of Bangladesh have every right to recall the events of their country’s genesis while celebrating their hard-won independence. Nobody would deny them the right to relive on such occasions the cataclysmic events that led to their country’s birth and condemn those who in their opinion had played a villainous role during the events of 1971.

But the recent decision of Dhaka University to cut all relations with Pakistan, though seemingly a symbolic gesture, does reflect a contrived national mood. Of course, it is one thing to relive the bloody memories while celebrating independence, but to continue to stoke anti-Pakistan sentiments around the year without rhyme or reason, 44 years after freedom was won, is another matter. It is time that Bangladesh, especially the Hasina Wajed regime, which could be resorting to such policies under domestic political compulsions, moved on to seeking reconciliation with Islamabad by treating history as history instead of letting it come in the way of its relations with Pakistan. Our government, too, should be aware of the sensitivities of the Bangladeshi people. We may feel apprehensions with respect to the tone the Bangladesh regime has taken vis-a-vis Pakistan in recent times, and the way the war crimes tribunals have been working in the country. However, we should continue to strive for better ties with Bangladesh.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2015.

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