Kartarpur corridor: Pak says there has been no formal communication with India

Pakistan Government on Wednesday clearly stated that there has been no official communication with India on the Kartarpur corridor opening. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Mohammad Faisal, was addressing a weekly press briefing in Islamabad where he made the statement, contradicting Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The statement came a day after Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal accused Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu of misleading people about Pakistan’s alleged assurance on allowing Sikh pilgrims direct access to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, along with the India-Pakistan border, next year. 

In August, ex-cricketer and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu who had visited Pakistan to attend Prime Minister Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony had said Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa had told him the Pakistan government will open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.

Sidhu courted controversy by hugging Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit.

The Kartarpur gurdwara is currently built on the site where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, died on September 22, 1539.

It was just a hug and not a Rafale deal

Sidhu on Wednesday said his hug with the Pakistan Army chief has been blown out of proportion. A day after Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised him for hugging Bajwa, Sidhu said it was just a hug and “not a Rafale deal”.

Sitharaman on Tuesday said that he could have avoided it as the gesture had “an impact” on Indian soldiers. “Sidhu has a lot of admirers...somebody of that stature going there and then hugging the chief of the Army – an Army about which in India we have very clear feelings – it certainly has an impact on soldiers,” Sitharaman said. “It demoralises the people. I wish Sidhu would have avoided it.”

(With inputs from PTI)