Bangladesh - Pakistan diplomatic relation was established in 1976. The relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan has passed the required courses with ups and downs since the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan on December 16, 1971, following a nine-month bloody war. The icy relations got worse stimulation in 2016 when the Bangladesh government executed several leaders of Jamat- e- Islami on charges committing a war crime in 1971. Pakistan claimed the executions and trials as "politically motivated. "

Bangladesh and Pakistan are maintaining a 'quite' diplomacy from the very beginning. As Bangladesh's foreign policy is " Friendship to all, malice to none, "it doesn't say 'No' to any country. That's why Bangladesh hasn’t refused diplomatic relations with Pakistan; instead, it maintains a cold relationship.

There are some reasons why the ice of Bangladesh - Pakistan relationship hasn’t melted yet. Pakistan hasn’t yet asked for an apology for the genocide of 1971. Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed of international relations at Dhaka University said if Pakistan wants ties with Bangladesh, the first and foremost thing that it has to do is to formally apologize to Bangladesh for the genocide committed by the Pakistani military in the 1971 Liberation War. Pakistan also has to achieve that it will not repeat the mistakes it made by opposing the war crimes trial. " The relationship with Pakistan cannot go forward without that," he told The Daily Star.

Munshi Faiz Ahmad, the former chairperson of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, also agreed. He said there is no hurry for Bangladesh to improve relations with Pakistan unless Pakistan apologizes for what its military did in 1971.       

Against the backdrop, on July 1, Pakistan's newly-appointed High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Imran Ahmad Siddiqui, met Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in Dhaka. Many diplomats and foreign policy analysts have taken these diplomatic events as positive initiatives for both Bangladesh and Pakistan. "For the greater interest of our country we will keep relations with all and our constitutional foreign policy is- friendship to all and malice to none,” Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Anadolu Agency. And Pakistan's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Aisha Farooqui, said her country "has a keen desire to see bilateral relations and peoples’ relations with Bangladesh improve and strengthen."

This is due that the atrocities of 1971 by Pakistan is still fresh in the mind of Bangladeshi people. But maybe the time to take in the initiative to reshape the icy relationship between Pakistan and Bangladesh. "Now it's Pakistan's responsibility to rebuild the relationship, "international relations expert Prof. Delwar Hossain said. 

Israt Jahan Leena, Department of International Relations,  University of Chittagong, Bangladesh.