Terming Kartarpur Corridor as historic opportunity for promoting religious tourism, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar said on Wednesday that Pakistan has given goodwill gesture through this initiative and headway will be made in the right direction. The Governor said this while responding to a query of media regarding Pak-India talks starting on Thursday (today) amid the ongoing tension between the two countries.
The officials of the two neighbouring countries will be meeting for the first time on Thursday to finalise the modalities of the Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate Indian pilgrims to pray at the historic Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara throughout the year. In November last year, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, passed the resolution regarding the corridor to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
"This corridor, which is a positive gesture of Pakistan, will provide a major tourism boost as more pilgrims would be able to visit the holy shrine throughout the year," the governor said. "This corridor will be functional and budgetary allocations have been made by the Indian government." Talking to a select group of mediamen, the governor further said that "religious tourism and heritage committee" has been formed under his chairmanship and comprising federal ministers Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Shafqat Mehmood, Noor ul Haq Qadri, Punjab ministers Hashim Bakht Jawan, Raja Yasir Humayun and Saeed ul Hasan. He said there exists tremendous potential in religious tourism.
Answering a question, the governor ruled out any possibility of his differences with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar saying they work in accordance with powers vested under the Constitution. "We are on same page and no difference exists between him and the CM on any issue," he said. He further said that there would be no interference in the affairs of universities and all the VCs of the universities will be appointed on merit within next few months. He said that challenge of his life is provision of clean drinking water to the people.