36 years ago, on December 16, 1971, then East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
Last year Adil Najam had a very touching post on the same topic and I’ll strongly recommend a revisit to it here. Raza Rumi had also written a post after revisiting Dhaka recently.
I belong to a generation which did not see those times. My knowledge about this significant event of our history comes from the books I’ve read, things I have heard on the media and from elders, and from Pakistani and Bengali friends I’ve talked to.
A lot of water has passed under the bridges since then. Both nations have gone through a lot in these 36 tumultuous years. Whatever the past may have been – the good times and the bad – we at ATP pray for a bright future for both Pakistan and Bangladesh. We want to wish good luck to Bangladesh and its citizens for a bright future.
This December 16 is also time to seriously think about those Pakistanis who remain stranded in Bangladesh living in camps.
These are people who consider themselves Pakistanis, want to live in Pakistan, and whom we have ignored and forgotten. It is time to welcome them. If Pakistan can give refuge to millions of people from its western bordering country, we can welcome the few thousand who are our own, who remain stranded and stateless in Bangladesh, and who want to return to Pakistan.
Its time to bring them home!
I am taken aback by the contempt and hatred shown by some of the posters here for those who sacrificed their lives and property to save East Pakistan.
The “Biharis” are better Pakistanis than the feudals who maraud Pakistan and its tax-payers….
“I personally have no objection for anyone to move in and out of the country. Nation states are just borders of economic activity that try to integrate linguistic and cultural variations in order to create a myth of one nation”.
Wow Jamshed Nazar. What profoundness on your part. No objection to move “in and out” of the country!!! So should Pakistan open its doors and let any body and every body in? Don’t you think there is enough chaos in the country already that you want make the doors wide open?
“Nation states are just borders of economic activity” and “a myth of one nation”. If you are not a Pakistani then I have nothing to say to you. But if you are, then it makes me sad that you hold such a low and warped opinion about your country and your nation. I like to impress upon you that borders of Pakistan are not “just borders of economic activity”. Not to this reader at least. Borders of Pakistan are sacred and must be defended at all costs. Pakistan is not a myth. It is a reality.
And about ethnic Bihari and Assami Muslims in Bangladesh. A 36 years old should be uprooted from his place of birth and moved 1000 miles away to a country he knows nothing about? Is it not a shame that this 36 years old person is forced to live in a refugees camp and denied his rights of citizenship at his place of birth? Bangladesh needs to absorb these people and restore their rights of full citizenship just like Pakistan did for all those who chose to migrate to Pakistan in 1947 and few years after that.
Having spent an inspiring year of my life I can say irrefutably that Bengalis were treated as second-class citizen with little or no effective share in decision-making process and felt as colonized. The West Pakistani
Owais,
A good post. I agree its time the real Pakistanis our behari brothers and sisters are returned home. It is a scandal that they still sing the song for Pakistan yet successive regimes have ignored their love.
I remember Pervez Elahi saying not much can be done because of money and ethnic issues. However I disagree as why is it we can find space and money for Soomro and his clan to perform Hajj on state expenses and the like yet cannot even build small village towns for these great people.
To end I hope one day we are united once again in a loose federation and more on this will come inshallah in a post on my website at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Jeeyo East and West Pakistan
Feimanallah
Wasim
BanglaDesh should have been an independant country from day 1. The geography of the two “East and West Pakistan” regions dictated just that.
The arrangement of such a “country” was based in a colonial mind set. Priorior to WW2, many europeon empires including France, UK, Portugal, Holland etc had constituient parts scattered across the oceans, but these parts were only functioning colonies and could never become equal parts of a “democratic” empire.
After the birth of the new country, the center of gravity of the Pakistan movement moved from UP / Bengal to Karachi / Punjab and Bengalis were left out of the mainstream. With the abscence of an “inclusive” mentality towards Bengalis, there was no choice for them other than to create their separate sovereign identity. Good for them and shame on the west pakistanis for who were at the helm of leadership at that time for isolating the Bengalis.
The best option for leftover migrants from Bihar / Assam, to me, appears to be that they are integrated in the mainstream Bangladeshi society. If Islam is considered as the basis of nationality, then Bangladeshis are as much, if not better, Muslims as the Pakistanis are.
One could bring over thousands of these families out here in West Pakistan from the refugee camps of Bangla Desh. However, is it any better than living in Bangla Desh itself? Unfortunately, the dream of a golden, rocking Pakistan is just that – a pipe dream. The reality in the streets of Pakistan is no different than the reality in the streets of Dacca itself.
I personally have no objection for anyone to move in and out of the country. Nation states are just borders of economic activity that try to integrate linguistic and cultural variations in order to create a myth of one nation.
The people in the Bangladeshi refugee camps should be given an opportunity to move to Pakistan or stay and integrate in Bangladesh. The Pakistani Government should work with its counter part fom Bangladesh to provide such options and provide incentives for either case.
Sitting in a camp and labelled as a refugee from an ill fated war and considered to be on the wrong side of the barbed wire of nationality, these ex-Pakistanis must be given an oppotunity to be part of the main stream society in either Pakistan, Bangladesh or both. They can even provide bridges between the two communities for times to come.
However, to expect such, atleast from the Government of Pakistan of this time, is a bit too much. It is too busy conquering its own people in Swat, Wairistan and Balochistan etc.