Pakistan to stamp passports of pilgrims

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Dera Baba Nanak, October 29

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Contrary to earlier indications that passports of pilgrims travelling through the Kartarpur corridor will be used only for verification purposes, it has now become clear that the immigration staff of the Pakistan Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) will actually mark the travel documents with entry and exit stamps.

The FIA is a border control criminal investigation, counter-intelligence and security agency under the control of the Interior Ministry of Pakistan.

Technically speaking, since the corridor is visa-free, the passports will not be stamped with visas but will be marked by entry and exit stamps.

It is a known fact that passports of any country bearing Pakistani stamp are normally frowned upon by foreign embassies. There are instances galore of UK and European Union countries, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand denying visas to people who had Pakistan visas stamped on their passports irrespective of their nationalities.

As many as 5,000 devotees will cross over on November 9 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the passage on the Indian side. Pakistan PM Imran Khan will preside over a similar ceremony the same day on the other side of the border.

Once devotees clear all formalities, including immigration and security at the ICP, they will have to walk the 600-metre distance till the gate that has been established at the zero point.

Zero point is the place where the coordinates of the two borders meet.

From the zero line, the pilgrims will be taken in special buses till the Pakistani ICP, two kilometre away, where again they will have to undergo more formalities conforming to international travel law.

There are two ICPs being built on the corridor route, one of the Indian side and the other across the border.

While the Pakistan building is almost complete, the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), tasked with constructing the ICP, is struggling to get its act together.

Sources said the construction of the ICP would remain incomplete and it would have to commence operations with make-shift facilities.

Pilgrims will be escorted both ways by Pakistan Rangers, the equivalent to the BSF, till Kartarpur.

Meanwhile, Cabinet minister and local MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa inaugurated an RO drinking water system established near the corridor and donated by Dubai-based businessman SPS Oberoi. Oberoi had given Rs 5 crore for establishing a state-of-the-art hospital at the border. The main features of the hospital will be a modern dialysis unit, pathological laboratories and X-ray centres.

Randhawa urged NRIs to donate liberally to ensure more facilities could be established which, in turn, could benefit people crossing over to Kartarpur.