Returning the award
Hamid Mir, May 7, 2017
Hamid Mir is handed his father’s Friend of Bangladesh Liberation War award by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a ceremony in Dhaka
My friends in Bangladesh are insisting that I explain why I am returning the award bestowed upon my father Professor Waris Mir in 2013 by Sheikh Hasina Wazed. There have been many comments about this both in the Bangladesh media and in Pakistan as well. A legitimate question is being raised, that the award was given to my father who is no longer living. How can I declare that I will return the award? I will have to go back in time to answer this important question. It was winter, 2007. Pakistan’s military president General Parvez Musharraf had suspended the constitution. An embargo was placed on me and a few other TV personalities. Lawyers and journalists had launched a movement against the military president. I would protest outside of the press club every evening. Renowned poet Ahmed Faraz would also turn up there. Many speeches were made. In those speeches it was repeatedly stated that that the reason behind the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 is that a military autocrat refused to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the party which won the majority in the elections. One day even former prime minister Benazir Bhutto came and expressed her solidarity with us. The next day when I met Benazir Bhutto at the Zardari House in Islamabad, she said she and Imran Khan had been students at Oxford University in 1971 and had been strongly opposed to the creation of Bangladesh. Later it was found out that there had been so much oppression and repression there. Benazir said, Bangladesh hasn’t achieved political stability even after separating from Pakistan. The reason behind this was military intervention in politics.
It is imperative that Pakistan and Bangladesh forget their bitter past and build up fresh ties. It was there proposed that we journalists and lawyers should apologise to the people of Bangladesh for the incidents of 1971. Among the supporters of this proposal, retired government official Roadad Khan was quite excited. He had been the information secretary in East Pakistan in 1971. The next day a banner was made, bearing the words that Pakistani journalists and lawyers apologise to the people of Bangladesh for the incidents of 1971. When this picture was published in the papers, it created a storm against me. The picture depicted me prominently, banner in hand. As it was, the Musharraf government was annoyed with me. Now they brought charges of treason against me. I was under pressure to stop attending those protests and demonstrations. I refused to give in. The next day Benazir Bhutto was killed and eventually the Musharraf government too stepped down.
On 26 March 2010 I wrote a column for the renowned English newspaper of Bangladesh
The Daily Star and the Bangla paper
Prothom Alo. I asked, why did I ask the Bangladesh people for pardon? I mentioned my father Professor Waris Mir’s Dhaka visit, and said he had made that trip in October 1971, a few months before the break-up of Pakistan. He had visited Dhaka as part of a delegation of the Punjab University Students Union and had tried to create a bridge between Dhaka University and Punjab University. Javed Hashmi was also a part of the delegation. He wrote a detailed description of the visit in his book
Haan Main Baghi Hoon (Yes, I am a Dissident). In my book I wrote that my father was very sad about the 1971 incidents. He was very worried upon his return from Dhaka. He would say, we should ask the Bengalis for pardon. They had played a vital role in the Pakistan movement. I also wrote that, the appeal for pardon would forge a new relationship with the people of Bangladesh. A few days after this column was published, the Bangladesh government contacted me, asking for my father’s writings which had opposed the 1971 military operation. I handed over those writings to the Bangladesh government. A representative of the Bangladesh government Shahriar Kabir then came to Pakistan and expressed his desire to meet with Javed Hashmi. I arranged them to meet. Hashmi
sahib clearly said to Shahiar Kabir, all of us including Waris Mir were against the military operation and had demanded that power be handed over to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But we were not in favour of Pakistan breaking up. A few days later the Bangladesh government decided to award the Pakistanis who had opposed the military operation of 1971. The awards were presented on 22 March 2013 in Dhaka. In the meantime, the date 23 March 2013 was fixed in Islamabad for me to accept the
Hilal-e-Imtiaz award from the Pakistan president. So, I told the Bangladesh government that my brother would accept our father’s award. The Bangladesh government insisted that I go to accept the award so as to improve ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh. I agreed and went to accept the award.
I had imagined that relations would improve between the two countries, but that dream did not materialise. In July 2013 when the 90-year-old leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Ghulam Azam was sentenced to life imprisonment, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International objected. When I mentioned it in a column, the Bangladesh government sent me a message, I awarded you, don’t talk about this issue. Next charges of treason were brought about against the editor of
The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam and the editor of
Prothom Alo Matiur Rahman. When I took an active stand against these charges, a Bangladesh ambassador said, we awarded you. You should remain silent. Recently Bangladesh refused to send its cricket team to Pakistan. A member of Pakistan’s National Assembly told me, he had prepared quite some time back a proposal for the Pakistan parliament to ask the people of Bangladesh pardon for the 1971 incidents. He had collected the signatures of 13 members of different parties. He would place it in parliament at a convenient time. He said, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accepted subservience to Narendra Modi. She was no longer interested in improving ties with Bangladesh and so as long as Hasina Wazed is prime minister, I will not raise the proposal in parliament.
Around that time, I met an official of the Bangladesh Cricket Board in Dubai and asked him why they were not coming to Pakistan. He replied that India does not like it. I said, has Bangladesh accepted subservience to India? The Bangladesh friend was annoyed. He said, we awarded you and you are criticizing us. I reminded him, you awarded my father, not me. But if you want to silence me with this award, then take it back. It is on record that the award has been returned to Hasina Wazed.
My love for Bangladesh remains strong. This love is not subject to any award, not in the hope of any award.
This column was published in Urdu in the Pakistan national daily Jang on 4 May 2017.