LESS THAN a week after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Islamabad and met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, India and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to renew their pact on the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for another five years. The pact was due to lapse on October 24.
“It has been agreed between India and Pakistan through diplomatic channels to extend the validity of the agreement on Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for a further period of five years... The agreement, signed on October 24, 2019 to facilitate the visit of pilgrims from India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, Narowal, Pakistan through the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, was valid for a period of five years,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
It said the “extension of the validity of this agreement will ensure uninterrupted operation of the Corridor for use by the pilgrims from India to visit the holy gurdwara in Pakistan”.
In view of the continued requests of pilgrims regarding the removal of US$ 20 service charge levied by Pakistan per pilgrim per visit, India has once again urged Pakistan to not levy any fee on the pilgrims, it said.
The 4 km-long Kartarpur Corridor provides visa-free access to Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev.
While the Corridor was opened in November 2019, movement was suspended in March 2020 after the pandemic struck. It was reopened later.
The development comes days after Jaishankar went to Pakistan on October 15-16 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting of Council of Heads of Government — the first visit by an Indian Foreign Minister after Sushma Swaraj went to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia meeting in December 2015.
Jaishankar and Dar, who is also Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, spoke twice in less than 24 hours — the first direct conversation between India and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministers since 2015 — and there were indications that these talks explored the idea of resuming some form of cricketing ties between the two countries, as reported by The Indian Express.
Sources, however, had underlined that these conservations were very preliminary and “need to be thought through” on both sides, given that ties between the two countries have remained frozen for years. But the talks do open a window and a possible first step could be the Champions Trophy being hosted by Pakistan next February.
Jaishankar and Dar had met on October 15 evening at the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Sharif at his residence. After exchanging pleasantries and a few words as they shook hands, the two ministers had a conversation over dinner, sources had said. According to sources, the ministers decided to carry forward the conversation over lunch the next day, and were seated next to each other.
However, the MEA spokesperson said no meeting took place between the two ministers, and no cricketing ties were discussed.
On October 17, underlining that India and Pakistan should “bury the past” and “think of the future”, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad was a “good beginning” and a “good opening” and the two countries “should move forward from here”.
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