The independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971 led to the abandonment in the Bengali-majority state of around half a million "stranded Pakistanis", who traced their ethnolinguistic heritage to the Bihar region. In 2008, a Supreme Court ruling granted the Pakistani Biharis full voting and citizenship rights and in 2022 NADRA issued CNIC cards to Pakistani Bengalis as Pakistani citizens, making them legal citizens and granting them full voting and citizen rights.
