ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Wednesday said there was no formal communications so far between Islamabad and New Delhi over the opening of Kartarpur Corridor.
Speaking at weekly news briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammed Faisal however, said Pakistan was “open” on this issue.
“So far no formal communication between the two countries has taken place. The matter pertains to the Ministry of Finance but we are open,” he said.
Earlier, former cricketer and Indian minister Navjot Singh Sidhu who had visited Pakistan to attend Prime Minister Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony last month said Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa had pledged that the Pakistan government will open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.
Later, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also said Pakistan will soon open the Kartarpur border for Sikh pilgrims and allow them to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib without having to obtain a visa. “A system has been formed for the pilgrims entering Pakistan,” he said.
Faisal said no meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Shusma Swaraj had yet been finalised with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “However, talks in this regard are continuing,” he added.
The FM will leave for the US on September 22 to represent Pakistan at the UNGA. On the sidelines, Qureshi will hold meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov among others.
The spokesperson said next meeting of Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity will be held in second week of the next month. He said it was also discussed with the Afghan side to restore counsellor services in Jalalabad as soon as possible.
Regarding any financial support from Saudi Arabia for Pakistan, Faisal denied any knowledge of a Saudi bailout package to shore up the country’s fast depleting foreign reserves.
The denial comes as Prime Minister Imran Khan is on a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Faisal said details, if any, will be announced only after the official visit has concluded.
Regarding the Iran’s nuclear deal, he said Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action represented a very good example of settlement of complex issues through dialogue and diplomacy.
He said unilateral withdrawal and arbitrary rescinding of the agreement, which was an outcome of a decade long efforts of diplomats, would undermine the confidence of the international community in dialogue and diplomacy.
Faisal said Pakistan’s position in Iranian nuclear deal was in line with the principles of upholding international agreements as per the international law and global relations.
About Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Saudi Arabia, he said: “Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are brotherly countries. The PM chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign visit. This is a state visit.”
To a question, he said a decision about the non-career diplomats will not be taken in haste but only after due consideration.
About recent talks with China and visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he said bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest were discussed. “We keep our friends, particularly China appraised of the situation on the Line of Control and in Indian occupied Kashmir, as any escalation can have serious consequences for the whole region,” he added.
Asked about the visit of British Home Secretary Sajid Javid and the extradition treaty with the United Kingdom, he said: “The extradition treaty is the domain of the Ministry of Interior.”
At the start, Faisal condemned the blatant human rights violations by India in occupied Kashmir. He said the Indian forces killed 14 youth including 24-year-old Rouf Ahmad Ganai, Gulzar Ahmad Padder, Faisal Ahmad Rather, Zahid Ahmad Mir, Molvi Masroor Ahmad Butt, Zahoor Ahmad Lone in Kulgam, Sopore, Samba areas of Indian Occupied Kashmir during different operations.
“We denounce the use of force by the Indian Army against the defenceless Kashmiris in the Indian occupied Kashmir. Indian occupation forces have hit a barbaric low desecrating the dead. The human rights violations in Pulwama, Shopian, Islamabad, Kulgam, Kupwara, Bandipore, Baramulla and Srinagar districts of Indian occupied Kashmir are condemnable,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said, is currently undertaking a state visit to Saudi Arabia on the invitation of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
He said Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on September 14 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said Qureshi also led a high-level official delegation on his maiden foreign visit to Kabul on September 15. “The Foreign Minister met Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah and held delegation level talks with his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani,” he added.
Faisal said Qureshi held talks with British Home Secretary Sajid Javid at the Foreign Office on September 17. “The two sides discussed various areas of regional and bilateral cooperation, in particular regional security, counter terrorism, organised crime, migration, human trafficking, and money laundering and asset recovery,” he elaborated.
A delegation of the UK Members of Parliament is currently visiting Pakistan, he said adding, the delegation had already met the Foreign Minister. “They will visit Azad Jammu Kashmir and will call upon the Prime Minister and the President of the AJK, where they will be apprised of the current situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir and on the LoC,” the spokesperson said.