Kartarpur corridor loses its hype

Stringent documentation requirements, hefty entry fee has reduced the number of cross-border pilgrims

KARTARPUR:

Where worsening bilateral ties with India has already diminished the popularity of peace building initiatives, the placement of stringent entry requirements for Indian pilgrims arriving at the Kartarpur corridor, has further exacerbated the issue.

Initiated in 2019, on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Devji, the Kartarpur corridor, a 4.7 kilometre long driveway connecting Pakistan’s Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Narowal district to India’s Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district, was constructed with the aim of allowing up to 5,000 Indian pilgrims, a visa free entry into Pakistani territory for performing their religious obligations at the Sikh shrine on a daily basis.

However, much to the dismay of the authorities the initiative has failed to maintain the influx of Sikh pilgrims, which remains as low as a few hundred per day only, due to the strict entry requirements imposed both by Pakistan and India.

“India expects all the travelling pilgrims to possess a passport before allowing them entry into Pakistan,” revealed Sardar Amir Singh, President of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, who felt that the stringent documentation requirement prevented many devout Sikh pilgrims from travelling to the shrine.

“Similarly, Pakistan too has imposed a 20 dollars entry fee on all Indian pilgrims which withholds many low-income families from paying their visits to the shrine,” concurred a representative of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in India, who further added that removing the mandatory condition of passport, citizenship verification, and other documents, could improve the influx of pilgrims.

According to the Project Management Unit at the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, 680,381 pilgrims visited Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur between November 17, 2021 and August 31, 2023, out of which only 152,577 were Indian nationals whereas almost 511,698 were Pakistani locals.

Surendra Khokhar, a senior journalist and researcher working on the history of Sikhs, opined that both the countries had opened the corridor to make the long-standing demand of the Sikh community a reality, but unfortunately due to mutual differences between the political governments on both sides, significant progress could not be made on the Kartarpur corridor in terms of attracting Indian pilgrims.

“Both governments must allow family visits to increase the number of pilgrims through the corridor. Similarly, families must also be allowed to pay their visits to the shrine after performing important rites of passage like a couple’s marriage or a child’s initiation ceremony,” asserted Khokhar.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on the matter, a spokesman for the Project Management Unit (PMU) at Kartarpur said, “the passport condition and the 20 dollars fee were mutually agreed upon by the two countries under a five-year agreement signed in October 2019, which both countries are bound to implement.”