Overview

• Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar completed a two-day visit to Dhaka that included meetings with Jamaat-e-Islami, the National Citizen Party, a six-member BNP delegation, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.
• Both countries signed a visa exemption for holders of official and diplomatic passports and agreed to a cultural exchange programme.
• MoUs covered a joint working group on trade, cooperation between foreign service academies, collaboration between Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation, and an institutional partnership between BIISS and ISSI.
• Dar asserted that two of three unresolved 1971 issues had been settled twice, while Bangladesh’s stated claims include a formal apology, a reported USD 4.32 billion share of pre-1971 assets, USD 200 million tied to Bhola cyclone aid, and repatriation of stranded Pakistanis.
• The article notes APPC is state-run, plans to add Bengali, and has received support from Turkey’s TIKA, while analysts cited in the report caution that the news-agency tie-up could be used to shape narratives, with allegations of ISI influence presented without proof.