CHANDIGARH: Pakistan Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs and Chairman of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), Ramesh Singh Arora, has invited Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and all MLAs of the Punjab Assembly to visit Pakistan, following Mann’s recent expression of interest in attending an international Punjabi conference in Lahore.
He added that Pakistan remained committed to strengthening religious, cultural and people-to-people ties across the border.
Extending the invitation, Arora said Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also welcomed CM Mann and would be pleased to receive him in Pakistan.
He invited Mann and the entire Punjab Assembly to visit Kartarpur Sahib and other holy places of different religions in Pakistan. “Bhagwant Singh Mann, we salute you. You had stated on the floor of the Assembly that you wish to visit Pakistan. As Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs, on behalf of the PSGPC and as a citizen of Pakistan and Punjab, I invite you,” he said.
This invitation comes after Mann, during a session of the Punjab Assembly on October 23, expressed his desire to accept Pakistan’s invitation to attend the fourth International Punjabi Conference in Lahore from November 27 to 29.
The invitation was extended by the organisers, including Punjabi poet Baba Bashir Hussain Najmi, popularly known as Baba Najmi, and the Punjabi Parchar Organisation.
Responding to Mann’s remarks in the Punjab Assembly, Arora also offered them an opportunity to witness religious freedom and interfaith harmony in the country and added that Pakistan’s Constitution guaranteed equal rights to all citizens. He further said that the country wanted to promote peace, tolerance and harmony among people of different faiths.
Expressing hope that the Indian government would permit CM Mann to visit Pakistan, Arora also invited Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and all Punjab MLAs.
“I do not know whether the Government of India will allow him to travel to Pakistan, but I appreciate Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, with whom I share cordial ties, who was also keen to visit through the Kartarpur Corridor. I invite the entire Punjab Assembly to Pakistan, not only to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur but also holy sites of other faiths so that they can see the religious freedom prevailing here,” he said, while reiterating Pakistan’s support for cultural exchanges, religious tourism and interfaith harmony.
But Mann had expressed doubts over whether the BJP-led Central Government would grant the necessary political and security clearances for the visit. Taking a jibe at the Centre, Mann had remarked, “They do not even let me go to France or Japan. How will they let me go to Pakistan?”
Mann had also suggested that, if approval were granted, the entire House could travel together through the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor to pay obeisance at historic Sikh shrines in Pakistan.
He had said the conference organisers had invited him to visit Lahore and offered to host him. He had added that people on both sides shared the same culture and that poets and other personalities would also visit Lahore. Mann also expressed his desire to visit Lahore personally. During the discussion, Speaker Sandhwan asked Mann to take him along if he received permission to visit Pakistan.
As several MLAs also expressed a desire to accompany him, CM Mann called for the reopening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor so that the entire House could travel together to pay homage at Kartarpur Sahib and Nankana Sahib.