With the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur border crossing between Pakistan and India approaching, Pakistan extended a hand for peace towards India as Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday invited the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to attend the revolutionary ceremony, but the Indian external affairs minister refused to attend it.

With the ceremony for opening the border crossing between the two countries to be held on November 28, Shah Mehmood Qureshi also invited the former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to be a part of the ceremony.

“On behalf of Pakistan, I have extended an invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu to attend the groundbreaking ceremony at Kartarpura on 28 Nov, 2018,” the FM tweeted.

However, Sushma Swaraj said that she had ‘prior commitments’ which would make it impossible for her to attend the event. She thanked Shah Mehmood Qureshi for his invitation and further said that, in her absence, the Government of India would be represented by Harsimrat Kaur Badal and H. S. Puri.

Pakistan earlier sent India a proposal to build a corridor to facilitate the Sikh pilgrims who wished to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Narowal District near the Indian border. India, on Thursday, gave Pakistan the go-ahead in building the border crossing.

Earlier on Thursday, Sidhu had also confirmed that he received an invite from Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s office to attend the ceremony in Pakistan.