ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday proposed that it could send a delegation to India on March 13 to finalise the draft agreement for the Kartarpur corridor.
Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal in his social media message said that ‘in a spirit of constructive engagement, Pakistan has proposed to India that the Pakistan delegation may visit India on 13 March followed by return visit of Indian delegation to Pakistan on 28 March to finalise the draft agreement for the Kartarpur corridor. We look forward to positive reciprocity from India’.
Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that a committee led by Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammed Sarwar had been constituted to oversee development of infrastructure related to Kartarpur corridor.
He said that the Sikh community across the world was expressing great interest to make investments in Kartarpur corridor related projects such as construction of hotels and other facilities. “We want to streamline the whole process and the Governor Punjab will look into it,” he added.
Last month, Pakistan had shared the draft agreement between Pakistan and India to facilitate Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Narowal, Pakistan.
This was in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s commitment to open Kartarpur Corridor on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak in November this year.
Pakistan has appointed Director General South Asia Dr Muhammed Faisal as focal person and requested India to designate a focal person at its end. Pakistan has also invited India to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the agreement.
Prime Minister Khan had inaugurated ground breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor on November 28 last year. Pakistan took this step to accommodate the longstanding request of the Sikh community, especially from India, particularly in view of 550th Birth Anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak.
India had sent Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri for inaugural event in the Pakistani side. Indian Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also participated.
The Pakistan-India ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. The nuclear armed neighbours, having fought 3 wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947, regularly trade allegations of harassment and espionage against diplomats.
Tensions between Pakistan and India have been high since killing of a Kashmiri freedom fighter, Burhan Wani, in July 2016. An attack on Indian forces in September 2016 – that killed 19 soldiers in Uri area of held Kashmir – further heightened the tensions. India also claimed that it had carried a ‘surgical strike’ to avenge the Uri attack. Pakistan rejected the Indian claim.
Recently, Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan and Indian PM Narendra Modi suggesting ways to maintain the ‘sanctity’ of Kartarpur Sahib.
Sidhu in his letters to the two prime ministers suggested that concrete structures should be avoided to maintain the ‘pristine’ landscape.
“The sacredness and serenity of Kartarpur Sahib and Dera Baba Nanak Gurudwara Sahib await the footfalls of our pilgrims. Yet precisely our footfalls have the power to erode the history, architecture and ecology of these sites. We, who revere most their pristine landscape and terrain, must tread lightly to avoid disfigurement in the name of commercialisation and tourist comforts,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan was ready to hold talks with India to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir dispute, through peaceful means.
In an interview with Sky News, he said that Pakistan had invited India to sit on the negotiating table for dialogue but New Delhi does not seem ready for it.
The Foreign Minister said that India was committing gross human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir. He said that the reports of UN Human Rights Office and British Parliament’s All Parties Parliamentary Group on Kashmir had also acknowledged the atrocities being committed by Indian forces against innocent civilians in Occupied Kashmir. Qureshi said that even the sane voices from within India were talking about the way New Delhi is losing Kashmir.
He said that the Kashmir issue should be resolved through a UN-brokered plebiscite as promised by India and the United Nations and Kashmiri people should be given the right to decide their fate according to their own will.