Navjot Singh Sidhu will go for Kartarpur opening in Pakistan if cleared by Centre, says wife

india

Updated: Nov 02, 2019 14:20 IST

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was criticised for hugging Pakistan army chief in August last year at Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony in Islamabad, was ready to revisit Pakistan for the inauguration of Kartarpur Corridor on November 9, his wife told reporters on Saturday.

Navjot Kaur Sidhu said her husband had received special invitation from Imran Khan and will definitely go if cleared by the Centre.

“He has applied for required clearances as he had received a special invitation from the office of Pak PM Imran Khan for inauguration of Kartarpur Corridor. If he gets the required clearances and permissions, he will certainly go,” news agency ANI quoted Kaur as saying.

The ministry of external affairs had made it clear this week that those invited by Pakistan will have to get a “political clearance” under the “normal rules” and that there will be “no surprises”.

Sidhu had quit the Punjab cabinet after a running political feud with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and does not figure in the Congress delegation named to visit the Kartarpur gurudwara-- the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India had shared the names of people in the contingent with Pakistan.

The 575-member delegation includes former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Jyoraditya Scindia, RPN Singh, Asha Kumari, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Deepender Singh Hooda and Jitin Prasad.

The Kartarpur corridor’s opening will provide pilgrims a visa-free link between Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab and the Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur.