On behalf of Pakistan I have extended an invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj @SushmaSwaraj ,Capt… https://t.co/YxFnkmI1RN — Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) 1543069345000

Kartarpur

(With inputs from agencies)

NEW DELHI: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday invited foreign minister Sushma Swaraj , Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor scheduled to take place on November 28.Tweeting under the hashtag, #PakistanKartarpurSpirit, Qureshi said — "On behalf of Pakistan, I have extended an invitation to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu to attend the ground-breaking ceremony at Kartarpur on November 28, 2018."The ceremony will be inaugurated by Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on November 28.Official sources said that proper invitation letters were also dispatched to them.Earlier in the week, the government had approved the development of corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district to the International Border to facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan.Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will lay the foundation stone for the construction of Dera Baba Nanak-Sahib road corridor up to international border with Pakistan in Mann village in Gurdaspur on November 26.Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Punjab chief minister Amrinder Singh will be present on the occasion.Today, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too expressed his happiness on the opening of the corridor. "It is a good initiative," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.Earlier, a PTI report had said that Navjot Singh Sidhu has accepted the invitation.Sindhu told Pakistan-based Roznama Express that he has gladly accepted the invitation, sent by khan for the November 28 event. He said the Pakistani premier was his friend and he will visit the country whenever he is invited by him. "I don't have words to express my joy," he said.A long-pending demand of the Sikh community to build a religious corridor linking India's border district of Gurdaspur with a historic gurudwara in Pakistan may finally be fulfilled with both the countries announcing that stretches would be developed in their respective areas.In a significant decision, the government on Thursday cleared a proposal to develop a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district to the International Border to facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan.The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came into focus after Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Khan as prime minister of that country.After his return, Sidhu said that Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa had told him that Pakistan may open a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib.