Daily Times

“Bangladesh is a suspected country,” an Airport Security Officer (ASF) informed me when he checked my luggage and passport in Karachi airport during my last visit to that county, which once hosted 54 percent of Pakistan’s population. It was also the region that was politically more aware and active in terms of the establishment of the All India Muslim League. I was amazed to hear such a response since Bangladesh was no India. Interestingly, Pakistan has, in 1974, recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign and independent state. If this is the case, then a common Pakistani like me should not be unceremoniously stopped, unnecessarily questioned and unempirically suspected at airports when visiting Bangladesh where Pakistanis still live in overcrowded (Geneva) camps, narrow slums and open squares. I am referring to Urdu speaking Biharis who are termed “stranded Pakistanis” waiting to be brought back to Pakistan as equal citizens.

Successive Pakistani governments, both civil and military, overlooked this otherwise greater humanitarian concern. I would hold the Pakistan state more responsible than Bangladesh for the marginalisation of the aforesaid community who still speak and write in Pakistan’s national language. I can vividly recall my small chat with some Bihari children who rushed up to me and abruptly hugged me when I addressed them in their mother language. “I live in Dhaka running this small corner shop but my heart beats with my family based in Karachi,” narrated a 60-year-old Bihari whose family members were able to travel to Pakistan in the wake of the 1971 crisis.

Nevertheless, I was pleased to have been meted out an altogether different treatment at Dhaka airport: neither was I stopped by any security officer nor was I suspected. Instead, their very warm and cordial local hospitality was inspiring and thought provoking at a time when Bangladesh’s streets were full of left-leaning youth protesting to bring war criminals to book. The subsequent visit to the Shahbagh Square near Dhaka University revealed some hitherto unknown facts about Bangladeshi politics, society, media and the state.

To begin with, Bangladesh is a highly homogenous society as far as culture is concerned. From rural to semi-urban to urban areas, everybody is very porously practicing their cultural values in terms of a common language, dress and food code, and a shared sense of history and geography. “Bengalis were and are ahead of other South Asian nations due to the fact that we established links with the outside world a long time ago because of our geographical location,” claimed a professor of International Relations. The process and project of Bengali nationalism was intensified in the 1960s due to exclusionary politics played by the then West Pakistan based state’s ruling elite. After the partition of Pakistan in December 1971, Bangladeshi nationalism subjectively might have replaced Bengali nationalism but this is only an academic concern. In practice, there is no departure from the linguistic, historical and geographical past.

I was surprisingly pleased to observe that all signs and (numerical) symbols were expressed in Bangla literally everywhere. Importantly, a majority of public places of a historical nature along with signs, such as billboards, carried the country’s history, especially the freedom movement. For instance, a tissue paper pack had an image of freedom fighters on it. Similarly, a popular cigarette brand is named Sheikh, referring to the father of the Bangladeshi nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Interestingly, his home, where he was assassinated, has been converted into a public museum. Hence, all such nationalistic notions have helped society and the state to gain and sustain legitimacy in terms of the ‘otherisation’ of Pakistan as an exploitative, ruthless and stubborn state. Quite recently, certain people who were thought to have turned anti-Bangladesh during the 1971 debacle have also been singled out and brought to book owing largely to the ultra-nationalist politics of the ruling Awami League.

The latter’s political and ideological opponents such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have criticised Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League and the current Prime Minister (PM), for resorting to the “bitter past” for her present politics. For instance, the opposition has questioned the arbitrary establishment and use of criminal tribunals to politically victimise an otherwise very entrenched JI, which runs (Islamic) banks and a television channel in the country. In the context of the politics of death, i.e. hanging of Mullah Qadir and company, Bangladeshi politics has turned violent in terms of regular strikes, street agitation and consequent widescale killings both in the rural and urban areas. The protestors, who mostly belong to the BNP-JI cadre, have refused to accept the conduct and results of the last election held early last year. Since then, hundreds have lost their lives on all sides. The country’s economy has been impacted negatively. A left-oriented and considerably pro-Awami League (government) newspaper commented the day before yesterday, “In the name of containing the law and order situation, the law enforcing agencies can in no way indulge in human rights violations. The government cannot be oblivious to such gross violations of human rights. In the existing culture of impunity it will only make the situation worse. And both the ruling and opposition alliances should stop this politics of decimation and find a peaceful solution where fundamental rights of the people will prevail over narrow party interests.”

The foregoing has certainly impacted Bangladesh’s foreign policy towards Pakistan to the extent that one of the latter’s diplomats has been declared persona non grata and asked to leave the country the other day. According to the Bangladeshi authorities, the concerned diplomat was found to have been “dealing in Indian currency and maintaining ties with Islamic militants”. The Pakistani version is quite the opposite. Resultantly, the two states’ bilateral relations have been strained despite the fact that Bangladesh hosts a good number of Pakistani students, visitors and businesses. I was happily surprised to see Pak Fan being commonly used in offices in Dhaka.

In order to improve and consolidate bilateral relations in the context of current ultra-nationalist politics, both states need to think more in moralist terms. Pakistan, in my view, should formally apologise to the Bangladeshi people and the state for the wrongs committed in 1971. There is a precedent set by the Europeans in this respect. Moreover, our religion does emphasise the realisation of mistake and compensation. Similarly, the Bangladeshi nation and the state need to accept such an apology wholeheartedly and take a compassionate view of the past, which the majority of today’s Pakistan (born post-1971) has nothing to do with. I am sure such a response from our side will help build sustainable ties in the economy, foreign policy and culture. Only then will the Biharis be able to land in the Pakistan of their imagination.

The writer is an independent political scientist and the author of Military Agency, Politics and the State in Pakistan. He tweets @ejazbhatty