Pak PM Imran Khan invites Sidhu again, this time for Kartarpur corridor foundation ceremony

Navjot Singh Sidhu has been invited to Pakistan, by Prime Minister Imran Khan for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor foundation stone-laying ceremony.

Sidhu said “I have received an invitation from Pakistani PM Imran Khan and have been contacted by the Pakistan High Commission in India regarding my travel plan.”

The Minister said that, “I will seek permission Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of Punjab and will also seek government of India’s consent to visit the neighbouring country.”

On November 26, President of India Ram Nath Kovind and Amarinder Singh will lay the foundation stone for the corridor on the Indian side. Whereas on November 28, Imran Khan on the Pakistani officials will conduct the historic ceremony.

The news came a day after Indian and Pakistani governments consented to build the corridors on their respective sides, so that Sikh pilgrims could pay their respects at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, in Pakistan about 4 kilometres away from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur in Punjab.

In August 2018, Sidhu was criticised for his visit to Islamabad on Imran Khan’s personal invitation to attend latter’s swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister in Pakistan, where he embraced Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa .

However he justified his visit, by saying that “I went there as an emissary of peace and embraced the Pakistani army Chief as an emotional reaction to the information provided by the Chief that their country (Pakistan) is working on a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib for sikh devotees.”