Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh

News:

KARACHI: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday said that Pakistan had moved past “bitter memories” and urged the forging of a new future with Bang¬ladesh amid the recent warming of ties between the two countries. (Dawn)

Comment:

The recent flurry of activity marking a thaw in ties between Islamabad and Dhaka—including high-level military meetings and political visits—must be examined not as a sign of progress for the global Muslim community, but rather as an eye-wash designed to perpetuate the very divisions the Ummah is yearning to overcome.

The news confirms that following the popular uprising in Bangladesh last August, bilateral relations and trade have seen a marked improvement. Earlier in October, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza visited Bangladesh, where he and Bangladesh’s air and navy chiefs vowed to improve defence and security collaboration. Both sides expressed optimism regarding expanding military-to-military engagements and reaffirmed their commitment to deepening relations based on “sovereign equality and mutual respect”.

Yet, these affirmations of shared faith and military “cooperation” remain strictly confined within the nationalistic boundaries of the modern nation-state. While Pakistani and Bangladeshi military leaders stress the need for an “enduring partnership” to remain “resilient against external influences”, this localized focus rings hollow when viewed against the context of the past several decades.

The Ummah has borne witness to the horrific spectacle of genocide in Gaza, where nationalistic divisions among Muslim countries have utterly precluded any meaningful, unified military response. Despite possessing substantial defense capabilities, the nationalistic confines imposed inaction, reinforcing the priority of "sovereign equality" over the needs of the unified body of Muslims. In stark contrast, whenever any of these individual Muslim nations were directly attacked, their response was immediate and befitting, proving that capability exists, but the collective political will is paralyzed by the borders established by the British colonialists all over the Muslim world.

It is time to recognize the destructive nature of these nation-state divisions, which have plagued the Ummah since the tragic Fall of the Caliphate in 1924. Allah (swt) has given us a clear injunction in His Noble Book, warning us against fragmentation: [وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللهِ جَمِيعاً وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا] “And hold firmly together to the rope of Allah1 and do not be divided.” [TMQ Surah Aale-Imran:103].

The divisions Allah is warning us about clearly include these artificial nationalistic partitions. These temporary military collaborations, limited by treaties of “mutual respect” for separate statehood, merely act as a façade, obscuring the inherent unity desired by the Muslim masses. It is now high-time that we realize this reality and change it through dedicated political and intellectual struggle, following the clear manhaj (methodology) of the Prophet (saw). We must move past the "bitter memories" of past political divisions and work towards the unified strength promised by our shared faith. Unification, not union must be the call. Khilafah (Caliphate), not cooperating nation-states is the solution.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Saifudeen Irfan – Wilayah Pakistan