Islamabad:
Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday shared some of the dazzling pictures of the
Kartarpur complex and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, saying the revered venue is ready
to welcome the Sikh pilgrims for the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of
Guru Nanak Dev.
The pictures were shared by Khan on his Twitter account ahead
of the planned inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor on November 9.
The year 2019 marks the 550th birth anniversary
year of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, whose birthplace is Sri Nankana Sahib
in Pakistan.
“Kartarpur
(is) ready to welcome Sikh pilgrims,” he tweeted. In another tweet, he congratulated
his own government for completing the construction work on time. “I want to congratulate our govt for readying
Kartarpur, in record time, for Guru Nanak jee’s 550th birthday
celebrations,” he said. It
appears that Khan is trying to sell the idea of religious tourism by attracting
millions of Sikhs who have several holiest places in Pakistan.
Earlier, he also abolished the condition of passport for the
Sikhs coming to Kartarpur and the service fee of USD 20 dollars for those
coming for the inaugural ceremony and on the 550th birth anniversary of the
Sikh Guru on November 12.
The proposed opening of the corridor coincides with the
presence of tens of thousands of protestors in the capital Islamabad. Their
leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman had demanded resignation of Khan as conditions to
disperse peacefully.
Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal, a leader of Pakistan Muslims
League-Nawaz and ally of Rehman, on Saturday criticised the move of Khan to
allow Sikhs from India enter into Pakistan without passport. Iqbal said Kartarpur opening was a good gesture but
“lifting condition of passport for foreigners like Indians was a
blunder”.
The Kartarpur Corridor will connect the Dera Baba Nanak
shrine in India’s Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, just 4 kilometres from
the International Border, located at Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab
province.
Notwithstanding a chill in bilateral ties over Kashmir,
Pakistan and India after tough negotiations signed a landmark agreement last
week to operationalise the historic Kartarpur Corridor to allow Indian Sikh
pilgrims to visit the holy Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.
The two countries decided that 5,000 pilgrims can visit the
shrine everyday and that additional pilgrims will be allowed on special
occasions, subject to capacity expansion of facilities by the Pakistani side.
India and Pakistan have also decided that the corridor will
be operational through the year and seven days a week and that pilgrims, except
kids and elderly persons, will have a choice to visit it as individuals or in
groups. By Sajjad Hussain (PTI)
