No formal communication with India on Kartarpur corridor: Pakistan

Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed Sushma Swaraj's claim that there have been no official talks regarding Kartarpur corridor. Pakistan's clarification comes a day after Sushma Swaraj wrote to Harsimrat Kaur Badal saying that there has been no official word from Pakistan regarding willingness to allow Sikh pilgrims access to Darbar Sahib gurudwara through Kartarpur route. The entire controversy started after Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed that Pakistan is willing to give Indian pilgrims passage to the Gurudwara. 

On Tuesday,  the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu said External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj had assured him that a draft was being prepared on Kartarpur passage and she would write a letter to the Pakistan government for opening of the passage. Sidhu claimed that he had written a letter to Swaraj urging for a formal request to the Pakistan government for an early agreement and opening of the Kartarpur passage. Swaraj's assurance was in response to his letter, Sidhu further claimed.

 Swaraj had earlier stated that the Pakistani government has so far neither agreed to include visits to Kartarpur Sahib by Indian pilgrims under bilateral protocol nor has sent any official communication for establishing the corridor.
Earlier Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, flaying a letter of Swaraj, also said that there was no response from Pakistan on opening of the border near Kartarpur. In the letter, Swaraj further informed that over past many years, Pakistani authorities have only allowed a limited number of visits of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara along with the visit to other shrines in Pakistan. Badal said that Swaraj's statement has punctured Sidhu's claims, who on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak said that Pakistan will open the corridor of Kartarpur Sahib.

The Kartarpur route along the India-Pakistan border is barely 3 kilometres away from Gurdaspur, Punjab. If opened, it will allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak died in 1539.