I spent the second week of this month (May) in Bangladesh, a country where I grew up, a country in transformation, a country not in self-pity but in renewed confidence, a country aspiring to be what it always wanted to be – a democracy that would work for its people and for their rights. That it faltered and was hijacked on its way to that destination is their lament today and to get back on track is now their determination.
A week spent amongst them leads me to believe that they are well on their way to that goal. How long it will take to reach there is uncertain.
I took a rather circuitous route to Dhaka, not availing myself of the twice-weekly Karachi-Dhaka Biman flight because of its late-night schedule, which made connections from Islamabad extremely inconvenient. I wish our Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would encourage other non-Pakistan-registered airlines (due to overflight restrictions imposed by India) to operate flights (fifth freedom rights, as called in aviation parlance) from Lahore or Islamabad to Dhaka. That will not only serve the cause of Pakistan-Bangladesh relations but also improve the perception, right or wrong, that Pakistan CAA is more busy hindering than facilitating and promoting private-sector investment in connecting remote towns of Pakistan with the country’s major cities.
Coming back to my visit to Bangladesh, I must confess it generated a rare excitement within me, both in my mind and in my heart. It always does. It was my fourth visit to the country where I lived from infancy to my youth until I flew from Dhaka to Karachi on November 16, 1971 to join the Academy after selection for what was then called the Central Superior Services, never to go back again to what was then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh, I did visit Bangladesh in 1984, 1993 and 2006 before this last visit earlier this month after a gap of twenty years. The sentiments today are the same there, the difference being that they are more pronounced now than ever before. But that should not throw us in Pakistan into a fit of excitement bordering on fantasies.
Let us always keep in mind that Bangladeshis cherish their freedom and guard it jealously. They cherish their rights and value democracy. The slogan of ‘Amee kay, Tumee kay-Razakar, Razakar’ that charged and ignited the oust Hasina movement at the cost of many lives was a direct response to the allegation by the Hasina regime that the agitators or demonstrators were ‘Razakars’, a reference to the pro-Pakistani elements in the then movement for Bangladesh in the post March, 1971 scenario. That response was instantaneous and an equally taunting, emphatic retort to the taunt raised by the Hasina government against the participants and supporters of the ‘agitation’ I prefer to call a movement.
The movement was also anti-India for sure. But it was not pro-Pakistan or pro any other country. It was not pro any other Bangladesh political party. It was clearly and overwhelmingly against a regime that allegedly looked to a nod from New Delhi’s South Block for all major decisions it needed to take. It was an emphatic rejection of the muted response, if not a painful silence, to the Indian manipulation of Bangladesh’s due rights to its share of river waters and the construction by India of the Farraka Dam, a story India is now trying to write against Pakistan too but mercifully for us, is rejected internationally at every relevant forum.
It was also a movement or a protest against the Hasina regime’s policy of filling up public-sector jobs with Awami League loyalists under the garb of quota for sons and daughters of freedom fighters even over 50 years after gaining independence. And equally important were large-scale disappearances, torture and deaths of opposition cadres in what is infamously called the Ainaghar, the house of mirrors. No wonder the present regime continued with the caretaker administration’s project of turning former PM Hasina’s official residence into a museum with all those signs and voices (recorded while she was in office) intact.
My visit to Bangladesh was purely private. It had two objectives: one, to meet my classmates and friends from my days in Faujdarhat Cadet College (they had been urging me to come); and two, to condole with my very dear and close friend Maj (r) Hafizuddin Ahmed, who lost his wife only days after being elected as the speaker of the Bangladesh parliament. He and I shared a hostel room at Fazlul Haq Hall in Dhaka University. He had visited me here in Islamabad in December 2024, soon after Sheikh Hasina’s exit, and had stayed with me for a week, interacting with his PMA coursemates and intellectuals, as well as his football friends. He had captained the Pakistan national football team in the late 1960s.
My one week in Bangladesh was too crowded with lunches and dinners hosted by friends every day, including one at each of the Kurmitola Golf Club and the Army Golf Club. It was a series of reunions where the ladies (Bhabis) were as enthusiastic about Pakistani summer lawns, from all brands, as the men were about the food in Lahore and Karachi. I also visited my alma mater, the Faujdarhat Cadet College, where the principal, Col Adnan, showed me around the campus, including my dormitory, all very well maintained. Later, he hosted a lunch for me, with my two classmates from Chittagong joining, for a fun-filled day. The college’s (FCC) motto was and remains “deeds, not words”. It was coined by its first and founding principal, Lt-Col William Maurice Brown.
I came back to Pakistan with a few conclusions. Physically, Dhaka and Bangladesh have progressed more than I had expected. Their solution of toll-paid elevated expressways connecting different parts of the city, avoiding the maddening rickshaw-riddled traffic, is commendable in both Dhaka and Chittagong. The bazars were full of stocks and buyers, as were the stores. Lack of space remains a major handicap despite their success in population control. Anti-India sentiment is far more pronounced and no longer muted, especially among the young, who continue to remember the ‘viceroy’s’ orders from New Delhi – their word, not mine. Interestingly, the new prime minister is maintaining a low profile, perhaps focused more on challenges than gimmicks.
A note of caution to the overenthusiasts: let Bangladesh settle down after a painful and traumatic two years. Let them set their priorities. Encourage and help them whenever and wherever asked, like two brothers in a family. Let us build a robust, mutually beneficial bond without appearing condescending. India they can handle themselves. That is the way forward for both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
My college motto would serve Pakistan-Bangladesh relations best: deeds, not words. The writer is a former federal secretary.
