External affairs minister to take up issue of Kartarpur Saheb with her counterpart

New Delhi, Sep 20: Ministry of external affairs has clarified the matter related to Kartarpur Saheb which has become a belligerent issue between the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal. The ministry has not only clarified the issue but said that external affairs minister would take up this issue with her counterpart in the US.

Actually cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed that the Pakistan government was waiting for the official request from India to reach Islamabad to open the route but Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal not only refuted his claim but said that Sidhu deliberately made it look like Islamabad was ready to let in Punjabi pilgrims and the delay was from New Delhi's side.

Sidhu asked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to take up the issue of Kartarpur Sahib corridor for Sikh pilgrims from Punjab. But Badal flayed Sidhu for lying on issues related to the Sikh faith to further his political agenda.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that the matter has been taken up with Pakistani several times in the past. "There is a 1974 Protocol between India and Pakistan on visit to religious shrines. Kartarpur Saheb does not form part of this list. During the visit of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore in 1999, the issue was raised to consider a visa-free visit to the shrine but there was no response from the Pakistani side," said Kumar.

He said, "Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a request from Punjab CM Praksh Singh Badal announced on the eve of 400th anniversary of Prakash Utsave on September 1, 2004 at Amritsar the provision of corridor to Kartarpur Saheb. Following this, on September 4, 2004, during the foreign secretary level talks, we requested that Kartarpur Saheb be included in the list under Protocol. This was not agreed upon by the Pakistani side. In 2005, Pakistan agreed to allow visit to three shrines with visas including to Kartarpur but did not include it in Protocol."

In the year 2008, the then external affairs minister raised the issue of Kartarpur Saheb corridor with the then Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Kureshi. However, there has not been any official response from Pakistani side since then.

The MEA spokesperson said that all political parties have taken up this matter. Recently Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also wrote to external affairs minister on this matter to which she replied that she would raise this issue with the Pakistan government. "Even now, we have not received any official communication that the Pakistani Government is willing to consider this matter. External affairs minister will, therefore, raise this issue in her meeting with the Pakistani Foreign Minister on the sidelines of UNGA," added Raveesh.