Sidhu to visit Pakistan for Kartarpur Border corridor ceremony: Report

Team Udayavani, Nov 24, 2018, 10:41 AM IST

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday that Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu would visit the country to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Border corridor, according to a media report on Friday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony of the facilities at the crossing on the Pakistan side on November 28. Chaudhry confirmed that the former Indian cricketer would visit the country. This will be Sidhu’s second visit to Pakistan this year.

Sidhu told Roznama Express that he has gladly accepted the invitation, sent by khan for the November 28 event. He said the Pakistani premier was his friend and he will visit the country whenever he is invited by him.

“I don’t have words to express my joy,” he said. A long-pending demand of the Sikh community to build a religious corridor linking India’s border district of Gurdaspur with a historic gurudwara in Pakistan may finally be fulfilled with both the countries announcing that stretches would be developed in their respective areas.

In a significant decision, India’s Cabinet Thursday cleared a proposal to develop a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district to the International Border to facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan.

The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came into focus after Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Khan as prime minister of that country. After his return, Sidhu said that Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa had told him that Pakistan may open a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib.