The official position in Pakistan is that our freedom is the result of a conspiracy by Indians , and an accident that the people of Bangladesh didn't really want. Several of our politicians regularly visit Karachi and Islamabad, and feed them the same story in return for fat favours. We should have no dealings with Pakistan until they are prepared to abandon this horrendous lie. Our experience with the Indians shows that at the end of the day, trade with the bigger country usually means making businessmen in that country very rich.

Don't our poor starving maimed 'muktijoddhas' deserve at least some solace in the dignity of our foreign and economic policy?

But perhaps this is wishful thinking. We cannot get our own versions of history right. How can we expect others to do so. Shame on us.

A letter (DS Nov 4) rightly called into question the sincerity of Pakistan's desire for 'expanded ties' when her policy vis-a-vis Bangladeshi visitors is quite miserly. To be fair, however, Pakistan is hardly the only culprit in this regard. My observation over a period of two decades of extensive travelling has been that the actual hospitality of a country towards Bangladeshis is inversely proportional to its rhetoric of Islamic fraternal ties and shared cultural values. I specially mention the 'Islamic' aspect of it because orthodox champions of Islamic norms claim that all Muslims are brothers and that the nation-state has no significance in the eyes of the ummah. The reality is that the loudest denizens of the ummah, from Kuala Lumpur to Karachi to Kuwait, reserve their harshest and most inhospitable treatment for their fellow Muslims, specially those from the poorer countries like Bangladesh. This is all the more galling because we brought Pakistan into being from thin air, built Malaysia's forest industry, and defended Kuwait when her own army had turned tail at the first Iraqi bullet.

I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing the absolute rubbish of 'close Islamic fraternal ties' from politicians, diplomats, journalists, and mullahs. We have needful business relationships with the various Muslims countries; let us not degrade the concept of brotherhood by applying that term to the treatment of our citizens in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran. The Arabs and Pakistanis can call me their 'brother' when they learn to treat my kind with the inherent respect and affection that the ties of consanguinity are based upon.

Esam Sohail Kansas City, Missouri, USA