A file photo of Bangladesh's flag. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE
“Bangla is an older language than Urdu yet in his 1948 speech in East Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam declared Urdu the national language of Pakistan,” Journalist Khalid Chaudhry said on Friday.
He was speaking at a discussion titled Fall of Dhaka Who is Responsible, here at the South Asian Free Media Association auditorium.
Chaudhry said not many countries were established on the basis of religion. “We should apologise to the Bengalis for the discrimination they faced,” he said.
SAFMA Secretary General Imtiaz Alam said the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report should be published and its gist included in the curriculum.
Alam said Bengalis were discriminated against. “Not a single chief secretary was from East Pakistan,” he said.
“The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) acted as an ally of Yahya Khan, who was responsible for the military operation.”
He said it was sad that Pakistan had not learnt from history. “We should apologise to Bengalis for their suffering at the hands of people from West Pakistan,” he said.
Reazud Din Ahmed, a Bangladeshi journalist, speaking via conference call said the people of Bangladesh were not happy with the PTI chief’s statement that Qadir was executed because he had been loyal to Pakistan. “Bengalis want an apology over this,” he said.
Awami National Party (ANP) Central Secretary General Ehsan Wynne said the Bengalis were tolerant people “otherwise East Pakistan would seceded much sooner.”
“The army and feudals in West Pakistan wanted dictatorship, Bengalis were in favour of democracy,” he said.
He said the political leaders of the time were responsible for the military operation of 1970. Wynne said East and West Pakistan had little in common “the way we forced them to seek separation wasn’t right.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2013.
COMMENTS (63)
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@dgggg: oh you mean dirt poor during the "discrimination period" and then richer after "independence"? in that case, you're spot on.
@Naveed Ausaf: English would probably have been a better idea for a language at the federal level. The provinces meanwhile free to do their business in their own local languages.
English would have avoided feelings of resentment and discrimination. Any other language would be supported by its native speakers and opposed or resented by others. Urdu may be a beautiful language with its poets and all but to support it on these grounds seems to ignore qualities of other native languages. If we like this language then we can still learn it for our selves.
Why not another foreign language then? Well, English is important enough internationally in its own right as well.
Too late for this idea now maybe. We should have adopted it at the start.
pakistan has already officially apologised http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/1403185/Musharraf-apology-to-Bangladesh.html
Our military disgraced themselves by committing genocide in our own country (E Pakistan) against our own brothers. At least they should apologize. To shoot unarmed women and children and raping them is the worst act of cowardice.
Apologize for what?! The seeds of discontent were already sown in the form of Agartala Conspiracy and Sheikh Mujib was already in a jingoistic mode upon the instigation of Indians much before the 1970 elections. Operation Searchlight was launched for the sole purpose of crushing the thuggery of RAW trained and financed Mukti Bahini whose cadres had lynched, slaughtered, raped and mass murdered thousands of West Pakistanis or Bengalis supporting a United Pakistan. One cannot absolve the West Pakistani intelligentsia, civil and military establishment of the time for the myopic doctrine of bolstering the defenses of West Pakistan and leaving the East Pakistan borders vulnerable to an Indian onslaught during the 1965 war and inaptly dubbed “Defense of East Pakistan lies in the West.” This flawed strategy was beautifully exploited by Indra Gandhi and Sheikh Mujeeb and the rest is history.
@Naveed Ausaf: Just to clarify, my earlier remark was aimed not at Bengaladeshis - an extremely decent people towards whom West Pakistan behaved with the utmost savagery - but at the incoherent and/or disingenuous babble of those who believe that Urdu was somehow forced onto them or that Bangla/Sindhi/Punjabi/Esperanto should have been the official language of Pakistan.
I am a pakistani muslim living in UK, I am happy to say I have many bengali friends. We have many things in common as muslim brothers, we pray, attend mosques, eat the same, and speak english and urdu to communicate. I am sorry to see that Pakistan East and West had problems. These problems were created by the founders. How can you have one country split by Indian border by over 1000 miles, this should have been thought and considered at that time. Their mother tongue is bengali , my mother tongue is punjabi but having urdu the language of Moghul India is fitting as a national language, however both countries should have been created independently separately by Mountbatten, Jinna & Nehru committee.
@Bob: What a peaceful country!!!
@Aalia: really? please explain how
in his 1948 speech in East Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam declared Urdu the national language of Pakistan......................
HE TOLD THAT TO THE BENGALIS NOT IN URDU, BENGALI OR EVEN IN GUJARATI RATHER IN HIS DESI ACCENT ANGREZI.........IS THE REAL SATIRE!!!!!!!
Apology is a symbol of humility.It does not cost much but has a great impact. Asking for apology does not mean humiliation either. I have met many new generation Pakistanis who are really sorry for what happened in 1971 to us. But they know very little because in Pakistan history is an alien subject. Killing of non-Bengalis before the war is an exaggeration. But I have seen the killing fields in Chittagong where non Benglalis butchered two train load of passengers in Pahartali. I do not want anyone to see such a genocide. Immediately after December 16, 1971 there could have been a massacre in enclaves where non-Bengalis lived. But it did not happen as we thought as the war is over and there is no sense in killing innocent people. But on the other hand, in Dhaka's Mirpur area the non-Bengalis kept on fighting till the middle of January 1972. Jahir Raihan, the eminent film maker who went to search for his brother Shahidullah Kaiser, who was renowned journalist, never returned. After 42 years we are trying our criminals. Pakistan should do the same. They owe it to themselves and to the cause of humanity.
Salam and Warm wishes. A Freedom Fighter.
Any thoughts on the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh
@khan: biharis were also pakistanis.
@Peace:
This is a courtesy . If you do not show this minimum manners, you prove yourself.
Pakistan should apologize to the people of Bangladesh, we, from West Pakistan did discriminate and subjugated them for their resources and all the fingers are being pointed towards the Punjab province and it's people. They were the ones who exploited their resources and kept them away from the levers of power in the Center. Let us not forget the JI and even Z A Bhutto's role in committing atrocities during the civil war in cahoots with the Army. To be fair to the families from West Pakistan living there at the time, Bangladesh should also apologize, the atrocities they have committed against those unarmed civilians, after all we were Muslim brothers and sisters. I think the reason for not apologizing from the State of Pakistan is that Bangladesh will demand their fair share of property and money from Pakistan which Pakistan has kept up till now. Imran Khan and other politicians should be careful what they say in regard to who was and is Pakistani in Bangladesh, those who has committed atrocities and that include the Army and Mukti-Bhehemi should be brought to justice and let both the countries start cordial relationship among themselves, side line the neighbor who is inflaming the situation.
@Aalia: " why to apologise? we were justified to defend our war then.' Bangalis won the majority seats in the national election and naturally were entitled to form the government but how dare the dirty and poor Bengalis claim to form the government In National Assembly of Pakistan. so naturally we are justified to deny them to rule / govern. How can bangalis rule on Pakistani err i mean brave Punjabis. So we imposed war on them All the commanders and the soldiers have been from Punjab and therefore obviously they were taught a lesson and killing say 3 million Pakisstani bengalis ( the then Muslim residents of East Pakistan) were a must to defend the war . M/s Aalia you are right . Why should we apologise.
@Aamir - Toronto: -- " Please don’t be apologetic, we didn’t do anything bad to Bangala people" EXCEPT killing three million Bengalis because they were demanding formation of government after winning the majority seats in election. what bad have we done?
@Akbaruddin: Why so much jumping around for Kashmir
@Ahmad:
That would be Punjabis for refusing to accept Mujeeb's constitutional mandate and committing genocide against Pakistan's own law at the time.
and this will not change. i would have apologized but we must not forget that alot of innocent biharis and pakistani faced same genocide in Bangladesh..which happened even before any military operation..
@unbelievable:
Those were responsible in both sides have gone in other world, they are no more in this world, let us pray for their deprated souls instead of criticising each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971BangladeshGenocide . Worth a read. It's obvious that it many Pakistani's haven't a clue about what actually happened - reminds me of Turks refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide.
Bangladesh deserves more than an apology - it deserves justice.
seems a very biased article, being a reporter its important to show both sides of the picture and explain all the interests in the region. I hope this matter between the states settles down soon enough peacefully.
Whether pakistanis owe an apology to the bengalis or not depends depends upon whether it should be the Govt.of the day or the nation as a whole. Pakistanis tend to live in denial regarding Bengladesh.Not many countries have come into existence on the basis of religion alone other than Pakistan. Right form it's birth pakistan laid roots of it's own destruction in it's attitude towards more populated east pakistan. It was started by the very father of the nation who said on his very first to then East Pakistan that urdu was going to be the official language of Pakistan. I don't know whether the bengalis were consulted or not but it led to riots. One cannot downgrade a language thereby deprive people of their cultural heritage. Pakistanis living in West pakistan always had a patronizing attitude.towards their fallow citizens in the east. I refer to the remarks made by the late Pres.Ayub who used to call them as mosquitos buzzing around his ears and so inferior that they did not satisfy the army's criteria for induction.Even though Mujib won a fair election he was denied the fruits of victory. After calling him the future PM Yahya charged him for treason and sentenced him to death but it was not carried out thanks to authorities of the jail. ZAB supported Yahya all the time ---the end justified the means ,he wanted the top post himself and got it while shedding crocodile tears.After robbing the bengalis of their victory a reign of terror was unleashed against the population. The number killed can be disputed depending whom you believe but in war there are no victors only varying degree of defeat. This was the case of Bengladesh where our army surrendered. If it had local support the Indians would never have subjugated it. Now after over 40 years it still hearts but lessons should be learnt and let our conscious decide.Living in denial does not help but taking stock of it helps. A new generation has grown up on both sides and a mutual understanding of each others position will help to heal other's wounds. To err is human to forgive is divine.
I guess launching an attack against somewhat arbitrary, though reasonable (as reasonable as "somewhat arbitrary" can be) choice of national language should be considered treason too. To harmonise an enterprise you need standards. To unify a nation, you need a national language. Any nation in history, that has prided itself on its cohesiveness, had a standard or "national" language. The English felt the need to propagate their language throughout the empire, the Indians have a national language too, though theirs must be as arbitrary as it gets, in face the of over 5500 language spoken in that country. The Turks (before and after Ataturk) have/had a national lanugage. So do The French, and so did the German empire.
Was it resonable? Consider the alternatives: which one of languages of the native constituents of Pakistan - Punjabis, Bengalis, Sindhis, Balochis, Pathans etc - should have been imposed on al others, with the immediate implication of discrimination that doing so would have carried?
Urdu was the language of many (most?) muslim courts of pre-partition/pre-English India: that of the Mughal courts in Delhi and Lahore, of the Nizams of Hyderabad (where the majority certainly did not and does not speak Urdu), of the fabled Siraj-ud-Daulah the Nawab of Bengal among others. It is as close to the concept of "Muslims of India" the premise upon which Pakistan was founded, as it is possible for a language to get, besides being an obvious, tried-and-tested candidate for an official language.
And what's not to like? Is it Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal or the numerous other greats from most if not all provinces of Pakistan who penned timeless poetry in it? Is it its poetical blend of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit and Turkic languages and literature - preeminent sources from which the Pakistanis may derive their "national identity"?
Alas, "since brevity is the soul of wit And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes", I may have overextended the limbs of my argument, with sunflower wreaths for outward flourishes. But, as a parting note, may I ask you to think of one language that could substitute Urdu as a national language, or think of doing away with a national language altogether...and then imagine the consequences...for just one moment?
I guess launching an attack against somewhat arbitrary, though reasonable (as reasonable as "somewhat arbitrary" can be) choice of national language should be considered treason too. To harmonise an enterprise you need standards. To unify a nation, you need a national language. Any nation in history, that has prided itself on its cohesiveness, had a standard or "national" language. The English felt the need to propagate their language throughout the empire, the Indians have a national language too, though theirs must be as arbitrary as it gets, in face the of over 5500 language spoken in that country. The Turks (before and after Ataturk) have/had a national lanugage. So do The French, and so did the German empire.
Was it resonable? Consider the alternatives: which one of languages of the native constituents of Pakistan - Punjabis, Bengalis, Sindhis, Balochis, Pathans etc - should have been imposed on al others, with the immediate implication of discrimination that doing so would have carried?
Urdu was the language of many (most?) muslim courts of pre-partition/pre-English India: that of the Mughal courts in Delhi and Lahore, of the Nizams of Hyderabad (where the majority certainly did not and does not speak Urdu), of the fabled Siraj-ud-Daulah the Nawab of Bengal among others. It is as close to the concept of "Muslims of India" the premise upon which Pakistan was founded, as it is possible for a language to get, besides being an obvious, tried-and-tested candidate for an official language.
And what's not to like? Is it Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal or the numerous other greats from most if not all provinces of Pakistan who penned timeless poetry in it? Is it its poetical blend of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit and Turkic languages and literature - preeminent sources from which the Pakistanis may derive their "national identity"?
Alas, "since brevity is the soul of wit And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes", I may have overextended the limbs of my argument, with sunflower wreaths for outward flourishes. But, as a parting note, may I ask you to think of one language that could substitute Urdu as a national language, or think of doing away with a national language altogether...and then imagine the consequences...for but a brief moment?
Bangladesh we apologise for the ill treatment of past .Hope the Bangladesh nation forgives us .
I really am sorry for what happend with our brothers with East Pakistan and the government of Pakistan has apologized before for the mistakes it had committed in past. But now this is getting ridiculous, how many apologies do they want and why can't they get over this?
What happened in Bangladesh was treasonous act with the support of foreign elements(India) and that must be condemned in all respect. The author must realize that freedom of expression doesn't mean that someone starts justifying conspiracies and treasonous act to get cheap publicity. Simply deplorable and this article must be removed forthwith.
//“Bangla is an older language than Urdu yet in his 1948 speech in East Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam declared Urdu the national language of Pakistan,” Journalist Khalid Chaudhry said on Friday.// Quite a logic. Yes, Moenjo Darro should have also been the capital of Pakisan.
East Pakistan is history and what is gone is gone. Why should we apologize for mistakes of our predecessors? Did the Brits apologize us for 90 years of colonial rule? Did Bangladesh apologize us for the persecution of people loyal to West Pakistan in post-war events?
That is history now. What is the purpose of bringing that up every fricking year? Now forward! We have millions of our own problems that need attention. Stop apologizing/interfering in their country's matter.
Why blame Bengalis when we have Imtiaz Alam and Khalid Chaudhery? These two persons should be officially despatched to Bangladesh for their loyalties and devotion to that country.
Common, what a myopic view, what about Mukti Bhani & training of Banagalis for terrorist activities by India and innocent people killed by them. I personally know people whose nose & ears were chopped off by Mukti Bhani people. So, beat it Mister, no one is innocent over here. And to Bangla people, stop crying foul every year, I am glad they have got their independence and we have got out peace. So live and let others live as well.
@saad:
Civilians ? They were terrorists . You will have to be realistic and stop supporting PTI.
Apologize for what?! The seeds of discontent were already sown in the form of Agartala Conspiracy and Sheikh Mujib was already in a jingoistic mode upon the instigation of Indians much before the 1970 elections.
Operation Searchlight was launched for the sole purpose of crushing the thuggery of RAW trained and financed Mukti Bahini whose cadres had lynched, slaughtered, raped and mass murdered thousands of West Pakistanis or Bengalis supporting a United Pakistan.
One cannot absolve the West Pakistani intelligentsia, civil and military establishment of the time for the myopic doctrine of bolstering the defenses of West Pakistan and leaving the East Pakistan borders vulnerable to an Indian onslaught during the 1965 war and inaptly dubbed "Defense of East Pakistan lies in the West." This flawed strategy was beautifully exploited by Indra Gandhi and Sheikh Mujeeb and the rest is history.
apoligies for alienation and deprivation yes, but apologies for stuff during war BIG NO. everybody was killing everybody. bengalis were killing non bengalis, they should also apologies
We Pakistanis seriously owe an apology to the Bangladeshis (former East Pakistanis), for all the discrimination they faced and then the genocide they faced.
Simply frustrated, so easy to put a nation on an apology. The party (Bhutto, Mujeeb, Indra, Yahya, Niazi and many others), are now part of the History and today after 42 years of this event, our so called intellectuals are laminating this kind of irritating thoughts. Please let us move forward, and think about this Pakistan. We are absolutely out of any cultural or geographical contact with Bangladesh and a common Religion is for sure out of question with this recent execution. I do respect Bangladesh as an independent nation and simply wonder why they are transforming this mediocrity and obsession with Pakistan to their next generation, yes indeed it is political and with an agenda but still in the end, we heard a common voice.
We give same treatment to all the provinces, first East Pakistan and now Baluchistan. No apology, no regret, no compensation, no love, no sanctity, no humanity. Our culture is different and separate.
Its coming from SAFMA so no surprises there. They forgot to mention though that Pakistan is a failed state, and Taliban will take over, and our nuclear arsenal is not safe, gender inequality, OBL, WWI, WWII, potential WWIII, collapse of Mars, disintegration of Moon... etc etc.
Met a Bengali whose said his sisters have to jump from roof to save from Pakistanis - He could forgive Pakistanis but not Jamaat i Islami's Al Badar, Al Shamas and Razakar. These Jamaat i Islami people were helping our army in identifying the rebels/terrorist who got training in India. Thats why Pakistan should help them and infact offer them political asylum like UK did with many criminals required by Pakistan. Happy to hear about the investment risk for those who put factories there.
As a Bangladeshi, it really is extremely disappointing that Pakistan is yet to apologize let alone bring to justice the perpetrators of the mass killing of Bengalis done by the Pakistani army and its sympathizers. Until such a scenario, we as Bangladeshis will never have any closure and the relationship between the two countries will be strained at best and outright confrontational at worst.
you talk about killings of thousands of innocent non Bengali civilians after December 16, 1971 and ET would block the comment wow typical of the desi english media to deman Pakistan and Pakistanis
@Ahmad: Bengalis were not traitors in fact there were among the creators of Pakistan.
First apologize to the relatives of the civilians killed by Pakistan Army in North Waziristan yesterday in a hotel
Pakistan should demand apology from bangladesh for dragging its name for political advantage in BD. I know 1971 was bad. But the ongoing actions of BD are completely childish. Pakistan does not owe anyone an apology.
Do Pakistanis have to apologize every year now ? Even the Pakistanis who were born after 1971 ?
Please don't be apologetic, we didn't do anything bad to Bangala people.
In a civilised and democratic society the views of the majority prevail with ensuring safeguards to protect the minority. Hence the desire of a majority of Pakistanis to separate from West Pakistan was their democratic right and can never be described as treason. And logically the will of a majority can never be described as secession or for that matter treason. For decades we have been fed mendacious bilge as history and it's a pity that so many people prefer to believe in it and not face the truth. It was the Establishement that selfishly and willfully betrayed Pakistan.
Appology for what??? If West Pakistan abused them politically, socially etc etc, Bengalis retaliated by severing them off from rest of the country and declaring independance... tit for tat already done... why need for appology????
As Bangladesh's economy continues to grow and it ceases to be the basket case of South Asia we will see more demands like this for an apology and, later on, even compensation. No one cared when they were dirt poor but once they start becoming richer all these new found "friends" of their's start making noises.
why to apologise? we were justified to defend our war then.
Can't we leave Bangladesh alone and focus on the current issues? We are lagging behind due to the thought process of so called liberals like these who do nothing for the other country apart from lamenting in the past all the time. Liberals need to update their thinking to modern times.
How many times you will , I think it has been by the Ex. President. Musharraf. Leave Bangla Issue and talk about Pakistan's issue please.
@vaqas: remember the non bengalis executed before the operation
My heartfelt apology to all the people of east pakistan who we alienated and discriminated against. And still do.
We don't apologize to traitors.
Thank you but no thank you for the biased Bengali stance. Period.