Kartarpur corridor: Pak, India to hold meeting on July 14

Islamabad, July 2 

Pakistan and India on Tuesday decided to hold the second meeting to discuss the draft agreement for finalising the modalities of the Kartarpur corridor and related technical issues on July 14 in Wagah.

The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev.

“Pakistan, today, conveyed to India that the second meeting to discuss the draft agreement for finalising the modalities of Kartarpur Corridor and related technical issues will be held on 14th July 2019 at Wagah,” the Foreign Office said.

“The Indian side has been requested to convey the composition of its delegation,” it said in a brief statement.

It said Pakistan was committed to expedite progress on the matter to ensure that the corridor is operationalised in time for the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev in November 2019.

India had proposed talks between July 11-14.

Official sources in New Delhi confirmed that India will accept the dates proposed by Pakistan as it was in synch with its plan.

The first meeting of officials of Pakistan and India to finalise the modalities of the landmark corridor was held in Attari in the shadow of escalating bilateral tensions in March following the Pulwama terror attack by a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed on February 14.

The meeting was “constructive” and the discussions were held in a “cordial environment”, the Foreign Office had said.

India had conveyed its concerns over the presence of several Khalistani separatists in a committee appointed by Pakistan on the Kartarpur corridor.

The FO had said that the 10-member purely-religious committee referred to by India was indeed PSGPC and was not specific to Kartarpur but responsible for upkeep of all Sikh Gurdwaras in Pakistan.

Last November, India and Pakistan agreed to set up the border crossing linking Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district.

Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur Corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Narowal, 125 km from Lahore. 

Early this month, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government earmarked Rs 100 crore in the federal budget 2019-20 for the development of the much-awaited corridor.

The funds will be used for land acquisition and development of infrastructure of Kartarpur under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next financial year 2019-20. 

Chandigarh: SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has sought from the Pakistan government removal of cap on the number of devotees who pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib and also demanded permit fee waiver for them.

 “Entry fee and permit costs proposed by Pakistan for pilgrims are also very high at Rs 1,600 per person on normal days and Rs 8,000 per person on special days. Pakistan also proposes to restrict this facility for only Indian nationals and People of Indian Origin (NRIs) cannot access it,” the  Ferozepur MP claimed here.

Describing the cap on the number of devotees and permit fee as “unreasonable”, he urged the Pakistan government to “have a large heart”.

“The Pakistan government should waive the permit and entry fee for devotees and allow entry of 5,000 devotees on normal days and 15,000 on special days,” the SAD chief demanded.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for speedy construction of the Kartarpur corridor.

“The Union government has expeditiously started work on a world class and state-of-the-art passenger terminal building complex as well as an all-weather bridge on the Ravi river to facilitate unrestricted and easy flow of pilgrims,” he said.

As much as 50 acres of land had been acquired for project works worth Rs 290 crore. 

“The passenger terminal building will be completed by October this year and national highway connecting zero point will be completed by September this year,” Badal further said.

He expressed dismay over the construction of a causeway by Pakistan instead of a bridge for the Kartarpur Corridor. 

“It is unfortunate that the Pakistan government is indulging in double speak. Pakistan is mouthing platitudes about the work it is taking up to make the Kartarpur corridor a reality, but the fact is that it is constructing a mere causeway on its side instead of a 320 metre bridge,” he said.

Badal lauded the prime minister for reopening of cases pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by the special investigation team (SIT).

The SAD chief claimed that the Centre had accepted the party’s request of scrapping blacklist of Sikhs maintained by Indian missions in countries like Canada, the USA, the UK and Germany. 

He said even the official government black list of 314 persons had been curtailed to only 40, adding that travel restrictions imposed on family members of black listed persons had also been removed. — PTI