Kartarpur corridor agreement

India says ready to receive delegation from Pakistan

By Mariana Baabar

ISLAMABAD: India reacted immediately to a proposal from Pakistan and on Tuesday informed Islamabad that it was ready to receive a delegation from Pakistan either on February 26 or March 7, to New Delhi, to discuss “and finalise the modalities so that the Indian pilgrims can visit the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor at the earliest”.

“Pursuant to the decision taken by the Government of India on 22 November, 2018 to expeditiously realise the long pending proposal to establish Kartarpur corridor, India has today (Tuesday) shared the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the international border with Pakistan,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

While New Delhi is reluctant to engage on any other bilateral issue, never the less on the Kartarpur corridor it has come forward to ensure that Sikh Yatrees participate in celebrations in Narowal this November.

On Monday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office had informed the Indian High Commission to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise a draft agreement between the two sides for facilitating of Indian Sikh Yatrees to visit the Gurudwara, Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. Pakistan also shared a copy of the draft agreement between the two countries with the Indian diplomats, related to facilitation of (Indian) Sikh Yatrees to visit the Gurudwara.

It is not clear from the Indian statement if the Modi government will be sending a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the draft agreement or whether Pakistan will accept the Indian invitation and travel to New Delhi to put final touches to the draft.

So far, Delhi has also not announced their focal person as was requested by Pakistan on Monday.

“The Government of Pakistan has appointed Director General (South Asia and Saarc) as the focal person and requested that the Government of India designate a focal person at its end. The Government of Pakistan also invited Government of India to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the agreement,” the Foreign Office commented Monday.

Indian sources indicate that India is in the process of finalising a date for the Islamabad visit and will share it with Pakistan’s High Commission in Delhi. Recently, Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria participated in a meeting in India.