Participants of a discussion at the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here on Monday agreed that Bangladesh and Pakistan needed to enhance cooperation and forget the bitter historical legacies of the past. Sayed Kamaluddin, editor, weekly Holiday Dhaka, was of the view that there was no chance of a confederation between Bangladesh and Pakistan. He added that Bangladesh was a sovereign political reality that wanted to have good relations with all the regional countries, including Pakistan.
Kamaluddin regretted the low volume of trade between Bangladesh and Pakistan. He considered lack of direct shipping line between the two countries as one of the reasons for the low volume of trade and strongly urged both the governments to establish a direct shipping line. He firmly believed that there was a market for Pakistani cotton-based products in Bangladesh.
Dr Rezwan Hossain Siddiqui, acting editor, daily Dinkal Dhaka, called for greater people-to-people interaction between the two countries. He said the people of Bangladesh still liked Pakistan, which was evident from the support Pakistan cricket team got in Bangladesh.
Dr Siddiqui was of the opinion that people-to-people contacts could get rid of negative sentiments between the people of the two countries. He suggested establishment of a cultural centre in Dhaka by Pakistan. He acknowledged that there was a war museum in Bangladesh, which reflected somewhat negatively on Pakistan, but added that it did not mean that the two countries could not look towards better relations in the future.
Kamaluddin said that if atrocities were committed by the Pakistani armed forces against Bengalis, the Bengalis also committed atrocities against the non-Bengali population of Bangladesh after independence. He added there were several authors and commentators in Bangladesh who were calling for accountability of the Bengalis perpetrating violence on the non-Bengali population of Bangladesh.
IRS President Ashraf Azim proposed a joint rewriting of the history surrounding the circumstances of the partition by Bangladeshi and Pakistani authors to overcome what he called, “obfuscations created by external forces.”
IRS Senior Research Analyst Farhat Parveen criticised the use of the term ‘liberation’ by Bangladesh to describe their independence. She was of the view that Bangladesh was not subjugated by Pakistan to be liberated.
Basharat Hussain, a research scholar at IRS, called for positive perception-building among the Bangladeshi children and youth through media and textbooks. Imran Sardar, another research scholar at IRS, maintained that both Bangladeshi and Pakistani governments would have to evolve a futuristic outlook on their bilateral relationship.
Other participants of the roundtable were Sadeq Khan, editor, South Asia Journal Parlin, NJ, US; Masumur Rahman Khalili, news editor and special correspondent, daily Naya Diganta Dhaka.
