ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government is inviting former Indian prime minister and veteran Congress leader Dr Manmohan Singh to the inauguration of Kartarpur Corridor in November instead of an (Indian) government leader.

“It has been decided after consultations that we will invite former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to the opening of the very important Kartarpur corridor,” said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a video statement released to the media on Monday.

The foreign minister said a formal invitation letter was being sent to Mr Singh. He said Mr Singh was being invited as a representative of the Sikh community.

The corridor, an initiative of the Pakistan government, is being constructed to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in November. The corridor would provide Indian Sikhs visa-free access to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan.

Pakistan is constructing a nearly 4km-long stretch of the corridor from the border to the Gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, whereas India is developing the corridor from Dera Baba Nanak, in East Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, to the international border.

Former prime minister of India is being invited as a representative of Sikh community

The corridor is expected to be inaugurated on Nov 9 ahead of the commencement of Guru’s birth anniversary celebrations.

The BJP government had in its last tenure sent two Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri to represent India at the ground-breaking ceremony last year, but it is unlikely that India, because of heightened tensions with Pakistan, would have official representation at the inauguration of the corridor. Moreover, visit of ministers Badal and Puri had ended in a war of words between the two countries. The then Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had after the trip said that the union ministers travelled to Pakistan “to offer prayers” and had not been trapped by Pakistani “googlies”.

There was scepticism if Manmohan Singh would accept Pakistani invitation. The sceptics recall that Dr Singh, during his 10 years in the prime minister office, did not visit Pakistan. Moreover, Chief Minister of Indian Punjab Amarinder Singh, who belongs to Congress, had turned down the invitation for the groundbreaking ceremony.

Mr Qureshi said the government invites the Sikh community to visit Kartarpur and participate in the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.

Protest lodged

Meanwhile, Indian deputy high commissioner Gaurav Ahluwalia was summoned on Monday to the Foreign Office to receive protest over the latest ceasefire violations in which two people were martyred.

“The Director General (SA & SAARC), Dr Mohammad Faisal, summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, Mr Gaurav Ahluwalia, again today and condemned unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control (LoC) on 28th and 29th September 2019,” the FO said in a statement.

Salamat Bibi, 60, and Zeeshan Ayub, 15, were martyred, while a number of others were seriously injured.

“The deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation,” the FO said, urging India to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2019