Kartarpur back on agenda

After much procrastination, New Delhi has finally acquiesced to hold talks with Islamabad on just how to go about fulfilling the pledge the two sides had made with the Sikh community – to build the Kartarpur crossing linking Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. India has proposed tentative dates for talks with Pakistani officials to finalise matters relating to the Kartarpur Corridor ahead of Baba Guru Nanak’s 550th anniversary in November. New Delhi has suggested July 11-14 for talks on the Pakistani side of Wagah border, where officials would deliberate on a draft treaty to facilitate the movement of Sikh devotees and resolve technical issues concerning the passageway’s alignment and infrastructure.

The development comes after Indian authorities postponed the second meeting over what they called ‘the inclusion of pro-Khalistan activists’ in a Pakistani committee to facilitate the Sikh pilgrims. So far three rounds of technical level discussions have been held at the experts’ level to try and finalise the alignment, crossing point and infrastructure along the corridor. India claims to be speedily building the requisite infrastructure, including a four-lane highway and a state-of-the-art passenger terminal for the corridor and says more than 45 per cent of work on its side has been completed. According to a report in the Indian press, New Delhi is aiming to complete the road by the end of September and the passenger terminal by end of October in time to operationalise the Kartarpur corridor on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev’s anniversary in November.

For its part, a senior Pakistani official said there was no delay on Pakistan’s part. The corridor, once operational, will provide visa-free access to Sikhs from India to their holiest Shrine located inside Pakistan. This will also be the first visa-free corridor between the two nuclear-tipped neighbours since their independence in 1947. The proposal has been in the works for over two decades. However, it only began to take shape when in August, the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan was planning to open the corridor.