SGPC represents the Akal Takht (The supreme body and platform for the Sikh community). Dobila demanded that its representation be made mandatory in the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (PSGPC). “Pakistan is the birth place of Baba Guru Nanak. We wish to be able to look after gurdwaras located in Pakistan,” Doblia said. He said that he would deliver the message of Akal Takht during the concluding ceremony of Baba Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary celebrations on November 21 at Nankana Sahib.
Nearly 2,300 hundred Sikh pilgrims from India arrived at the Wahga Railway Station through three special trains on Friday. PSGPC’s President Sardar Sham Singh welcomed Indian Sikhs and presented them flowers and other gifts. The pilgrims are in Pakistan for a ten-day visit to participate in celebrations pertaining to the 542nd birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Jee. The first train carrying around 930 Sikh pilgrims arrived at Wahga at 12 noon on Friday and left for Nankana Sahib at 3.15 pm. The second train carrying around 750 Sikhs arrived at 5 pm and the final train carrying around 600 Sikh pilgrims arrived at night.
Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) additional secretary Syed Zahid Bukhari has welcomed the Sikh pilgrims and greeted the Guru Kan Langar at the border railway station. He said that ETPB chairman Asif Hashmi usually welcomed the Sikh pilgrims personally but was unable to welcome the Yatrees this year due to his illness. Pakistan Railways has deployed special staff to issue tickets at Rs640 per passenger to Nankana Sahib. The ETPB makes all arrangements for the Yatrees’ visit free of charge. However the Yatrees are required to pay for their own train fare.
Babo Singh, an Indian pilgrim told The Express Tribune that the Pakistan government had rejected visa applicants who were born in India or in Pakistan before partition. Singh said that all Indians born before partition in localities that now fall under Pakistan are required by India’s government to cite ‘undivided India’ on their national ID cards. He said that the Pakistani government no longer accepts visa applications from any applicant citing ‘undivided India’ as their birthplace. “This is the second year that visa applications have been rejected for people born before partition,” he said. The Yatrees said that they hoped the Pakistani government would be more understanding about the status of visa applications than the Indian government which would not allow any Indian national born before partition to cite Pakistan as their place of birth. Singh said that his relative, Sabeet Kore’s visa application had been rejected by the Pakistani government because she was born in 1943 and her place of birth was ‘undivided India’. “The president of Pakistan should look into this situation and abolish the discrimination,” he said.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)’s member and pilgrim party leader Sardar Swinder Singh Doblia said that the numbers of applicants through the SGPC platform totalled 1,400 and only 1,095 were issued visas. He said that the SGPC demanded that the Pakistan government introduce a process for the nomination of the members and president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (PSGPC). Dobila said that PSGPC’s members and presidents had been nominated without any election and that the organisation needed to adopt the SGPC model with annual elections.
The Sikh pilgrims will start their 48-hour-ritual Arambh (Akhand Paath Sahib) on November 19 at Gurdwara Janamasthan at Nankana Sahib. On November 20 they will perform their second ritual Madh Ki Ardas. On November 21 the Yatrees will perform their final ritual, Bhog. Afer a three-day visit from November 22 to November 25 at Gurdwara Panja Sahib Hassanabdal, the Yatrees will return to Lahore on November 25 and head back home on November 28.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2010.
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