Postal orders have been issued in Bangladesh since 1971. The authority to print postal orders is enshrined in The Post Office Act, 1898, under the laws of Bangladesh. Overprinted Pakistani postal orders After the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which paved the way for the secession of East Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh, it was decided to overprint the stocks of Pakistani postal orders that were in the post offices and issue them. The most common ways of overprinting the postal orders was with rubber handstamps with 'BANGLADESH' in either Bengali or English, and crossing out the name 'PAKISTAN' with a ball point pen, and writing 'BANGLADESH' or an abbreviation, most commonly 'B'DESH'. A stock of Pakistani pre-decimal postal orders had turned up. These were also overprinted. Overprinted Pakistani postal orders were issued in Bangladesh as late as 1983. Bangladeshi postal orders It is not yet known when Bangladesh began to issue its own postal orders, but Bangladesh is still issuing postal orders today. Collectibility of Bangladeshi postal orders Bangladeshi postal orders are not easy to collect, as the postmark datestamps are usually not inscribed in English. The denominations, which are in Poisha and Taka are easy to read, but the poundages are not, unless one can read Bengali.