Bangladesh’s state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

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In this handout photo released by Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID), Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (L) shakes hands with Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the D-8 summit in Cairo on December 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Bangladesh has asked Pakistan to settle the issues of 1971 to help Dhaka move forward with its relationship with Islamabad “once and for all for the future generations,” state-run news agency has said.

Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also discussed the revival of the SAARC and called for a strategic relationship between Dhaka and Islamabad.

Also read | Bangladesh wishes to have normal relation with Pakistan: Foreign Affairs Adviser of Bangladesh

Mr. Yunus and Mr. Sharif met on the margins of the D-8 Summit at Cairo on Friday (December 20, 2024) when the two leaders agreed to strengthen relations through increased trade, commerce, and exchange of sports and cultural delegations, state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) said.

Mr. Yunus urged Mr. Sharif to settle the issues of 1971 to help Dhaka move forward with its relationship with Islamabad and said, “The issues have kept coming again and again. Let’s settle those issues for us to move forward.” Mr. Sharif said the 1974 tripartite agreement involving Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India settled things, “but if there are other outstanding issues,” he would be happy to look at them, according to the BSS.

Mr. Yunus said it would be nice to resolve things “once and for all for the future generations.” India, Bangladesh and Pakistan on April 9, 1974, signed the tripartite agreement in New Delhi after the 1971 Liberation War. It dealt with the repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of war in Indian camps since December 1971 and the resettlement of stranded populations in the two countries.

Mr. Yunus and Mr. Sharif also discussed the revival of the SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Mr. Sharif urged Mr. Yunus to work on the possibility of holding a summit of the regional body.

Calling for a strategic relationship between Dhaka and Islamabad, Mr. Sharif said: “We are really looking forward to strengthening our relationship with our brother-in-country Bangladesh.” Pakistan’s state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted a press release from the prime minister’s office and said Sharif expressed gratitude for the facilitation of trade and travel between Pakistan and Bangladesh, including waiving off the condition of 100 per cent physical inspection of the consignments from Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif, who invited Mr. Yunus to Pakistan, also thanked him for ease of air travel for Pakistani passengers to Bangladesh, the APP said.

The first direct cargo vessel from Karachi docked at Chittagong port in Bangladesh in mid-November, which officials said marked a major step in bilateral trade while Bangladesh has already announced to soon resume direct flights to and from Pakistan.

Md Touhid Hossain, adviser for Foreign Affairs of the interim government of Bangladesh. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladesh wishes to have a normal relation with Pakistan, said the Foreign Affairs Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh. In a media interview telecast on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Adviser Mohammed Touhid Hossein said that Bangladesh’s relation with Pakistan should not be limited within the triangular relation involving India.

“For the last several years, relation with Pakistan was cold. Pakistan wants to come out of that phase. We also want to move ahead in the relation with Pakistan to the extent possible. We have a few issues with Pakistan about which discussions have been stalled. We intend to build a normal relation in which Pakistan will look after its interest and we will look after our interests,” said Mohammed Touhid Hossein during an interview with BBC Bangla.

Also read | Instability and uncertainty stalk Bangladesh

He had supported closer ties with Pakistan during a press interaction on September 2, saying, “There is no benefit to be gained by creating enmity with Bangladesh.”

Reiteration of Dhaka’s current position on Pakistan by Mr Hossein, provides a clearer impression about the interim government’s plans on Pakistan with which Bangladesh has had a complicated relation since its birth in 1971. The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government that was toppled on August 5 by a student-people uprising, had an antithetical relation with Pakistan and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina often accused her political opponents of enjoying Islamabad’s support. Her father and founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fought against Pakistan to establish Bangladesh and Ms Hasina often highlighted that struggle to mobilise her support base at home. Due to this attitude of Ms Hasina, meetings between top officials of the Bangladesh government and Pakistan High Commission were a rarity in the previous sixteen years. But that has changed after the arrival of the interim government.

After the fall of the Hasina administration, Syed Ahmed Maroof, the High Commissioner of Pakistan reached out to the interim government’s Chief Adviser Mohammed Yunus and held meetings with several other officials.

Apart from Mohammed Touhid Hossein, Pakistan High Commissioner Maroof also met with fisheries adviser Farida Akhter, education adviser Bidhan Chandra Roy Poddar, finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, and adviser on religious affairs AFM Khalid Hossein. That apart, the Dhaka Press Club held a meeting on the death anniversary of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah on September 11 and the High Commissioner of Pakistan visited the Dhaka University where he interacted with the university authorities. It has been learnt that the Pakistani envoy sought establishment of direct flights between Pakistan and Bangladesh and in this regard on September 11 hosted in his office a team of officials from the U.S.-Bangla Airlines, a major airline company of Bangaldesh

These interactions have provided the context to the reports that Chief Adviser Yunus is expected to meet Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting. PM Sharif had spoken with Prof Yunus on August 30 in which the two leaders discussed the common bonds of “history, faith and culture” between Pakistan and Bangladesh.  “While congratulating him on his new role, lauded his contribution towards socio-economic development of his country and expressed my heartfelt sympathies over the devastating recent floods in Bangladesh,” said PM Sharif after his telephonic conversation with Prof Yunus.