Resolution submitted in PA against construction in Kartarpur

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Momina Waheed submitted on Saturday a resolution in the Punjab Assembly secretariat, demanding that no construction be carried around the Sikh shrine of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, ARY News reported.

The women lawmaker states in the resolution that the shrine holds a special significance for the Sikh community. “Baba Guru Nanak plowed the fields of Kartarpur Gurdwara for 18 years. No construction should be carried out in the field where he grew crops.”

Earlier, on Jan 26, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said the government had prepared feasibility report of Kartarpur corridor project and it would spend two billion rupees on it.

Addressing a public rally in Umerkot, Mehmood Qureshi said the entire Sikh community was very happy over opening of Kartarpur corridor and Pakistan had received an over-whelming response on this gesture from the entire world.

Pakistan on Jan 21 shared a draft agreement for facilitation of Sikh pilgrims with India through the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said that the government had appointed Director General South Asia Dr Muhammad Faisal as the focal person on Kartarpur and requested that the government of India designate a focal person at its end.

He said that Pakistan also invited government of India to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the agreement.

Pakistan took this step to accommodate the longstanding request of the Sikh community, especially from India particularly in view of 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the spokesperson added.