Almost 55 years after 1971, Bangladesh has removed the government that India supported. This is a real chance for Pakistan to rebuild the relationship.
Every Pakistani knows the photograph. Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi is signing the surrender papers in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. For almost 55 years India has shown that picture to the world as proof of its victory, and for almost 55 years it has hurt us.
What happened in East Pakistan was Pakistan’s own political problem, and India had no right to step into it. But India armed and trained the Mukti Bahini and then sent its army across the border, and the country was cut in two. We made serious mistakes of our own there, and our Hamoodur Rahman Commission said so. Even so, the crisis became a war because India chose to make it one. Pakistan is still raising the issue of Indian-sponsored terrorism today.
Fifteen years under Hasina
Sheikh Hasina ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, and in those years the country stayed very close to New Delhi. Pakistani diplomats faced restrictions. Visas became hard to get. Direct flights between the two countries stopped. Some of those who spoke against India’s influence paid a heavy price.
Brigadier General Abdullahil Amaan Azmi is one example. He joined the Bangladesh Army in 1981. In June 2009, a few months after Hasina came to power, he was dismissed without a pension and without any reason being given. In August 2016, according to his family, men in plain clothes took him away from his home. He was kept in a secret cell for eight years, and he says he did not see daylight during that time.
Azmi believes he was picked up for two reasons. He had written against India, and he is the son of Ghulam Azam. Ghulam Azam was the Jamaat-e-Islami leader who opposed the break-up of Pakistan in 1971, and a Bangladeshi tribunal later convicted him.
The people of Bangladesh decided
In the summer of 2024, students came out on the streets of Bangladesh, and the protest grew into a mass uprising. On August 5, Hasina left office and fled to India. She is still living there. Azmi was released the next day. In December that year the army cancelled his dismissal and gave him retirement with full benefits.
In November 2025 a tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced Hasina to death for crimes against humanity. Dhaka has asked India to send her back. India often speaks to its neighbours about democracy, yet its only answer so far is that the request is “under examination”.
We should be clear about one thing. Pakistan did not bring Hasina down. The people of Bangladesh did it themselves, and that makes the change more meaningful.
What has changed so far
Relations have improved quickly since then. Direct flights started again in January after a gap of 14 years. Pakistan is sending rice to Dhaka through direct trade. The head of the Bangladesh Air Force has visited Islamabad. Civil servants from Bangladesh are being trained at the Civil Services Academy in Lahore, which has not happened since 1971. Bangladesh has also said it will positively consider joining the Makkah defence pact.
On September 24, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, and they agreed to work more closely on trade, investment, connectivity and education. Rahman’s party, the BNP, won a two-thirds majority in the February election. Pakistan has usually had better relations with BNP governments. The party was founded by Rahman’s father, Ziaur Rahman, who received the Hilal-i-Jurat as a Pakistan Army officer in the 1965 war.
What Pakistan should do now
Some people in Pakistan still hope that East Pakistan will one day “come back home”. The feeling is understandable, but it does not match the facts. Bangladesh is an independent country of more than 170 million people. Pakistan recognised it in 1974 at the Islamic Summit here in Lahore. Its new prime minister came to power on the slogan “Bangladesh First”.
If we talk about bringing Bangladesh back into a federation, we will only give India a propaganda point and make things difficult for our friends in Dhaka. What we can have is more valuable: a Bangladesh that chooses to stand with Pakistan as an equal.
To get there, Pakistan needs to act quickly and carefully. The flights and rice shipments should lead to a proper trade agreement. Our universities should welcome Bangladeshi students, and visas should be easy to get, so that young people in both countries get to know each other. We should offer defence cooperation without asking Dhaka to choose between us and anyone else. We should also be ready to talk openly about the questions left over from 1971.
India broke Pakistan apart in 1971 by force, and its own attitude has since cost it the trust of Bangladesh. Pakistan now has a chance to earn that trust through respect. We should not let this chance pass.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.
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