Punjab state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu may be under fire for his recently concluded Pakistan visit, but he claims to have returned bearing a “precious gift” for Sikhs.
“General Bajwa hugged me and said they were thinking of opening the Kartarpur route during Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations,” said Mr Sidhu during a press conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Dressed in a blue suit and a striking purple turban, the cricketer-turned-politician made the declaration soon after his brief encounter with Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in ceremony of his ‘friend’ Imran Khan-the newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Navjot Singh Sidhu speaking at a press conference in Islamabad Source: ANI/twitter
But while Mr Sidhu claims Pakistan will most likely allow pilgrims from India to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary, the Pakistan government’s silence over his assertion, however, tells another story.
Over the past two decades, civil society activists from Punjab, as well as large sections of the Sikh diaspora, have called for visa-free access to the historic gurudwara in Pakistan’s Narowal district, where the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev, spent his last few years with his followers.
In 2010, the then Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution in support of a ‘religious corridor’ from India to Pakistan to allow access to the shrine located just three kilometres away from the India-Pakistan border, but the plan never saw the light of the day.
Whether Pakistan will hold on to its “promise” remains to be seen, the visit surely has put Mr Sidhu on the spot.
While he’s facing the ire of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for "hugging" Pakistan, he has also made the Sikh community happy with the news of potential access to the holy shrine.
