Pakistan’s Tehreek-E-Insaf Party Turns Against Kartarpur Corridor Initiative

Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of the Provincial Assembly, Momina Waheed submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly secretariat, stating that no construction be carried around the Sikh shrine of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur.

The women lawmaker declared in the resolution that the shrine holds a special significance for the Sikh community. “Baba Guru Nanak plowed the fields of Kartarpur Gurdwara for 18 years. No construction should be carried out in the field where he grew crops.”

Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said the government had prepared feasibility report of Kartarpur corridor project and it would spend two billion rupees on it.

Speaking in a public rally at Umerkot, Mehmood Qureshi said the entire Sikh community was very happy over the opening of Kartarpur corridor and Pakistan had received an overwhelming response on this gesture from the entire world.

On January 21, Pakistan shared a draft agreement with India for facilitation of Sikh pilgrims through the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said that the government had appointed Director General South Asia Dr Muhammad Faisal as the focal person on Kartarpur and asked the government of India to designate a focal person at its end.

Further, the spokesperson said that Pakistan also invited the government of India to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the agreement.

Pakistan took this step to accommodate the longstanding request of the Sikh community, especially from India particularly in view of the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the spokesperson added.

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