As a Pakistani who has lived in Bangladesh for Quite some time. the thing I’ve noticed is that prior to around 2015-2016, the general view of Pakistanis about Bangladeshis was very positive as compared to the general view of Bangladeshis about Pakistanis, Infact when I went there myself for the first time, I was excited because I thought I was visiting a “Fellow Muslim country”, needless to say I was quite disappointed with both the people and the country (as in economically and in terms of development, keep in mind this was in 2012)
But then we move to the recent years and things have changed drastically. And again my own observations are that the general Bangladeshi public is trying more to embrace Pakistan and accept it positively and they’re much more welcoming and nice now, I’m really thankful for that. (though their education system and government really teaches them otherwise, I would know, I’ve studied there as well…). As for economically/developmentally I would not say Bangladesh has “surpassed” Pakistan. But it’s definitely doing good, much better in Pakistan than some aspects (though some still lag so far behind that I’d call it utterly pathetic, though the same can be said about Pakistan).
Both countries are not really that developed yet, and especially not where they can start claiming that they’re better than the other, but there’s one thing about Bangladesh that always puts me off, they talk about tiny achievements like they’re something huge and act like they’ve broken multiple economical world records just by posting something slightly positive, hence the oft reported “Bangladesh doing better than Pakistan at XYZ”. (Pakistan is quite the opposite, they’re never happy, even when it’s a significant positive thing, they undermine it and just focus on the negatives, doesn’t really make them much better.)
As this thread is about Pak-BD relations, I guess I can say in short that Pakistan and most of its people (in my experience) view BD the same as they did when I went there in 2011 and 2012 for the first time. Meanwhile BD and it’s people have shifted from their opinions quite a lot, from negative to positive (except again, the government, which seems to be the one thing holding it back).
I’ve always felt that Pak-BD could be the thing that India-Pak can never become. A strong alliance that came to be by getting over differences of the past. One thing is for certain, both the nations people do not hold them back from becoming allies, other factors However do.
Is bangladesh better than Pakistan? Not at all.
Is Bangladesh unlike “all other” south Asian countries? Not at all.
Is Pakistan any better? Not at all.
Both counties aren’t good enough in the first place to be declared better or worst than they other, so instead of doing what they do (both mentioned above) they need to focus on getting their Sh*t together.
I’m sorry if this long post is a little off topic, but I’m not a frequent user and am not too sure how things here work, nor did I go into much detail about many things I see. Also remember that this is my opinion, if it offends you, don’t read it
