Bangladesh, which considers Pakistan "not only a friendly but brotherly" country, is ready to talk about any bilateral issue but with its apparent anti-Pakistan honeymoon with India. Monday saw top diplomat from Dhaka talking here on "Pakistan-Bangladesh Relations" but giving a cold shoulder to overt and covert assertions the members of Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR) made to persuade Bangladesh on introducing a "paradigm shift" in its foreign policy priorities in the region.
The concerns expressed by the KCFR members ranged from Bangladesh's growing diplomatic ties with India where, what the Council's chairman and a former ambassador Shahid Amin said, Modi regime is following an anti-Muslim "Hindutva philosophy" to undo the events of 1947, to the execution of political leaders, mostly belonging to Jamat-i-Islami, having supported Pakistan during what is known in Pakistan as `Dhaka debacle' in 1971.
New Delhi, a questioner asserted, was the "common enemy" of Pakistan and Bangladesh which was creating troubles for the two brotherly countries. "This is a subject where I know you have a lot of complaints," said Suhrab Hossain, Bangladesh's High Commissioner in Pakistan, while addressing a breakfast meeting organised here at a local hotel by KCFR.
Conducted by KCFR general secretary Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi, the event was attended by a host of the council's members, including former diplomats, security experts, academicians and businessmen.="Bangladesh is an independent country and the people being tried (there) are its nationals," Hossain, also the dean of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, told a questioner.
"We have our internal matters. We don't have to be bothered about each other's internal matters and should look forward," added the soft-speaking high commissioner, who was able to duck all the questions having a mention of his country's increasing relations with India. Earlier, KCFR chairman Amin said Pakistan had "serious problems" with its hostile eastern neighbour where the BJP's Prime Minister Narender Modi was manoeuvring to rewrite the history of partition through its "hegemonic" designs, which the nuclear-armed Pakistan had successfully been thwarting, so far.
"The tragedies and sorrow are part of history, but nations finally have to look for a paradigm shift in their priorities," the former envoy told the Bangladeshi diplomats. Deputy High Commissioner Noor-e-Helal Saifur Rahman was also present. Recalling the joint struggle waged for independence by the leaders of erstwhile East and West Pakistan before 1947, Amin said there was a consented desire in Pakistan that good paternal relations should prevail with Bangladesh.
Pakistan and its brave armed forces, he said, were not only playing the role of a "vanguard" against terrorism, but also thwarting India's hegemonic designs to undo the partition of sub-continent. "More or less similar observations are made by the people who (tend to) counter Pakistan," the Bangladeshi official later told a KCFR member who termed India as a "common enemy" of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Dwelling on basic principles of his country's foreign policy, Hossain said Dhaka was strictly following the notion of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. "We have some outstanding issues with Pakistan, but we consider Pakistan friendly and a brotherly country," he said.
Urging the need for increased people-to-people contact between the two nations, Hossain said Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena Wajid was following in the footsteps of her father Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman by partnering with Pakistan to promote prosperity in South Asian region. Underlining bilateral support and cooperation Islamabad and Dhaka had been extending to each other on various international diplomatic and trade issues, he said, rising though, the volume of bilateral trade was still insignificant and in the former's favour. In FY13, he said, Bangladesh's exports to Pakistan accounted for $68 million compared to its $489m imports.
Stressing the need for making this trade balance mutually favourable, the commissioner said the liberal and investors-friendly policies in Bangladesh had attracted Pakistani investment in textile sector. Other potential areas, he said, could be pharmaceutical, IT and agro-based industry for Pakistani investors.
He also urged the need for establishing a direct shipping link between the two countries, saying when connected Karachi and Chitagong ports could provide an easier shipping route for the mutual benefit of the two sides. An American official, Hossain recalled, had once wondered while commenting on Pak-Bangladesh relations saying: "You fought each other one time and are friends now". "This is the beauty of our relationship," the Bangladeshi official told the gathering.
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