Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif celebrated a telephone conversation on Monday with the main advisor of the Government Professor of Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, to extend his warm wishes and greetings on the occasion of Eid Ul-Fitr, Pakistan radio reported.
In the years elapsed since the division between Pakistan and Bangladesh, the leaders of Dhaka, especially the regime expelled from Sheikh Hasina, firmly remained in the Indian camp, preferring to maintain close ties with New Delhi and keep Islamabad along the arm.
However, since a popular uprising that saw the Hasina government collapsed in August last year, with the prime minister willing fleeing his former ally of India, there has been a thaw between the two capitals, with commercial and bilateral relations seeing a marked improvement.
“The prime minister expressed his satisfaction with the positive impulse in bilateral relations between the two countries, particularly in commerce and travel,” the report said.
He added that the two leaders reaffirmed their shared desire to further strengthen bilateral relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Shehbaz was summoned by saying that Pakistan was looking forward to the visit of the Vice Prime Minister Ishaq to give Dhaka in April and said that a commercial delegation would also accompany him.
He also stressed the need to revive institutional mechanisms to revitalize the bilateral relationship at all levels, the state station added.
The exchange of cultural groups was also discussed to promote people’s contact.
“The prime minister invited a cultural company in Bangladesh, which includes old and new artists, including the legendary Runa Laila, to visit Pakistan,” the report said, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz reiterated his invitation to Bangladesh’s main advisor to visit Pakistan in his earliest convenience.
At the beginning of the month, interim president Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani had said that Pakistan and Bangladesh have enormous opportunities to increase cooperation in the areas of commerce, economy, culture, health, education and links of people to people for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
He made these comments at a meeting with Bangladesh’s high commissioner to Pakistan Mohammad Iqbal Hussain Khan, who called Aiwan-Sadr.
During the meeting, it was emphasized that improving aerial links and shipping connections between Pakistan and Bangladesh would improve bilateral trade, as well as increase the links of people to people.
Last month, Bangladesh and Pakistan began direct government trade to government after decades of relations with imports of 50,000 tons of rice, said Dhaka.
Direct private trade among countries was restarted in November 2024 when a container ship sailed from Karachi to Chittagg.
It was the first cargo ship in decades in navigating directly among countries.
“For the first time, we are importing 50,000 tons of Pakistan rice, and it is the first government to government between the two countries,” said Ziauddin Ahmed, a senior official of the Ministry of Food in Dhaka on the occasion.
