Pakistan welcomes new gov't in Bangladesh

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday welcomed the Awami League’s victory in Bangladesh's recently held election.

"We welcome the newly elected government in Bangladesh and hope and expect that it would help take the bilateral relationship away from the irritants that it has faced in the recent times," Mohammad Faisal told reporters during his weekly briefing in Islamabad.

Relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan have been strained in the recent years following Islamabad's reaction to Dhaka's executing several leaders of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party under the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1971 war between the two nations.

“We want Pakistan-Bangladesh relations to move forward in line with the 1974 tripartite agreement,” Faisal added, referring a deal between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan on the repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees.

Incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League party clinched a landslide victory in the violence-marred and mostly-boycotted elections on Sunday.

The opposition alliance led by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party rejected the results accusing voter intimidation, vote rigging, and partisan behavior by election officials, and demanded a fresh election under a nonpartisan government.

The election commission and ruling party rejected the vote-rigging and election violence reports, saying the elections were mostly peaceful, fair, and non-violent nationwide.

Regional heavyweights India and China also congratulated Hasina over the victory wishing close cooperation with Dhaka.