Twelve senior Bangladeshi civil servants landed in Karachi last month for an executive leadership programme jointly organised by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission and Civil Services Academy. The training began with a four-day engagement at the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) in Karachi, alongside visits to key public institutions in Pakistan’s financial capital. The delegation then proceeded to Lahore’s Civil Services Academy, the institute that had trained bureaucrats of undivided Pakistan before 1971. This marked the first such institutional exchange between Islamabad and Dhaka in more than five decades.
The development is significant because until recently, Bangladeshi officials routinely trained in India. The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie hosted mid-career officials from Dhaka under a framework formalised through a series of agreements since 2014. Over 1,000 Bangladeshi officials underwent training in India during the 2019-24 period. Although a training cooperation agreement for 2025-2030 has been renewed, no Bangladeshi civil servant has visited LBSNAA since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
The collective memory of 1971
Bangladesh emerged from the traumatic events of 1971. The Pakistan army’s war crimes are deeply embedded in its national identity. During Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure (2009-24), Pakistan was largely treated as a pariah partner, while the Awami League drew much of its political legitimacy from the liberation war narrative.
“Incidents of 1971 cannot be forgotten…the pain will never go away," Hasina had told a visiting Pakistani envoy in December 2020. Visa restrictions, the absence of direct connectivity and recurring disputes over historical accountability ensured that relations remained distant.
I remember probing a young Pakistani researcher during my visit to Islamabad in 2012 — the same year that the Hasina government banned direct flights between Dhaka and Karachi. “Pakistani leadership has apologised and approached the political leadership on many occasions, but Dhaka has never given us a fair chance. Till she (Hasina) is sitting in Dhaka, normalisation is not possible."
Hasina’s exit and de-hyphenating the past from the present
The student-led uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 and sent her into exile in India opened space for a reset with Pakistan. Islamabad moved quickly. Cargo shipping resumed between Karachi and Chittagong, senior Pakistani officials travelled to Dhaka and structured cooperation expanded across trade, connectivity and governance.
Thus, the Bangladeshi delegation’s four-day initial orientation in Karachi was equally symbolic. Exposure to institutions in Pakistan’s financial capital, including the State Bank of Pakistan and Customs House, reflected Islamabad’s effort to familiarise Bangladeshi officials with the country’s commercial, regulatory and trade architecture at a time of expanding economic engagement. Meanwhile, the remaining 10-day course in Lahore was likely intended to expose participants to Pakistan’s administrative traditions and governance practices.
Under the interim administration of Muhammad Yunus, Dhaka has adopted a more pragmatic approach towards Pakistan. While unresolved issues from 1971 remain, they are no longer being treated as a barrier to engagement. Thus, by de-hyphenating past issues from present realities, both sides seem to have found a new diplomatic space.
However, the significance of the civil service training programme goes beyond the diplomacy of trade and tourism. These programmes are designed to shape how officials think about governance, statecraft, regional politics and national interests. For years, Bangladeshi officials attended training programmes in India and were exposed to administrative practices, governance models and strategic perspectives shared by New Delhi and Dhaka. Pakistan now has an opportunity to engage a new generation of Bangladeshi policymakers and administrators who may occupy influential positions in the future. This is why the exchange of ideas may ultimately prove more consequential than the exchange of goods.
According to US-based Bangladeshi researcher Asif Bin Ali, Bangladesh is trying to show that India will no longer remain the “default destination for bureaucratic training and institutional exposure." Exposure to Pakistani institutions, policy debates and administrative traditions will now shape their perspectives. In that sense, Islamabad is not merely hosting visiting bureaucrats; it is attempting to shape elements of Bangladesh’s strategic culture, an arena where Indian influence has long been dominant. Pakistani analysts have argued that such exchanges should be institutionalised through long-term agreements so that the relationship is not left vulnerable to changing political cycles.
Faith, identity and diplomacy
For decades, Dhaka-Delhi ties defined the boundaries of the Dhaka-Islamabad engagement. That constraint has loosened following political change in Bangladesh and the cooling of India-Bangladesh relations. Religious affinities have also become more visible in the post-Hasina period.
Both countries are Muslim-majority states and members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The current political landscape in Bangladesh appears more willing to acknowledge this dimension of identity than the Awami League government, whose legitimacy rested primarily on secular Bengali nationalism.
This does not mean Bangladesh has abandoned the liberation war as a foundational national narrative. Rather, the post-Hasina political order appears less constrained by history and more driven by national interest, thus allowing Pakistan to fit within Dhaka’s evolving strategic approach.
Whether genuine reconciliation can occur without addressing the unresolved questions of 1971 remains uncertain. The Bangladeshi officials attending training programmes in Pakistan carry with them the memory of a difficult past and a society where distrust of Pakistan has long been widespread. Such historical baggage cannot disappear overnight.
Yet, the visit of Bangladeshi officials to Karachi and Lahore reflects the willingness of both countries to test the possibility of normalisation, and that in itself is a milestone.
