Bangladesh-Pakistan Relations: A Hostage to History
Dr Amna Mahmood, Dr Sadaf Farooq, Ms. Nadia Awan

Abstract
After 24 years of turbulent relationship between East and West wings, Pakistan disintegrated and a bloody liberation movement resulted in emergence of a new country, Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. Although the diplomatic relations established following the mutual recognition extended to each other in 1974, (Ahmar, 2003) the bitterness of the past and the memories of 1971 civil war in East Pakistan continued to haunt the bilateral relations of two independent states Pakistan and Bangladesh, in post-1971 period. However there are instances of better relations, the trust deficit and bitterness revived time and again due to unresolved issues between the two nations. These tough periods are observed when Awami League (AL) comes in power. This paper is an effort to study the outstanding issues between Pakistan and Bangladesh. It also studies the hurdles in resolving these issues. It concludes that a sustainable relationship between two regional powers is essential to counter the Indian dominance in the region and it is only possible when they would come out of the burden of history.

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