Religious places to be made attractive for tourists, says Sarwar

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Muhammad Sarwar has welcomed the Indo-Pak agreement to make Kartarpur corridor operational.

He said that India must acknowledge that stubbornness and narrow mindedness would not provide benefit to India because such type of behaviour would prove counterproductive. He added renovation of shrines, temples, churches and Gurdwaras would be done in such an excellent way that international tourists would be attracted to the sites.

"We will also provide security to religious tourists. We will provide rights and freedom to the religious minorities according to the vision of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. We will take steps to promote tourism at religious sites. We will provide facilities to all Sikh pilgrims on the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak," said the Punjab governor while chairing a meeting of the Religious Tourism and Heritage Committee at Governor’s House on Friday.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Provincial Secretary Momin Agha, Tourism Secretary Nadeem Mehboob and Auqaf Secretary Zulfiqar Ghumman attended the meeting. The meeting participants discussed the measures to promote religious tourism at the religious places of Muslims and all other religions.

The Punjab governor said Kartarpur corridor was a great gift for the Sikh community of whole world from Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"We are speedily completing all the development work on our side. India should also fulfil its responsibility. The success of the first round of dialogue between India and Pakistan is a huge achievement," he said. India should reciprocate the goodwill gesture of Pakistan for the benefit of populace of South Asia and religious pilgrims of the whole world. It will be a big step towards the prosperity and development in the whole region, he said.