Pak has ‘Mecca, Medina for Sikhs’, says Imran Khan

DUBAI : Pakistan has “the Mecca and Medina for the Sikhs” and the country is opening up those sites for the community, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday.

“We have the Mecca and Medina of the Sikhs... and we are just opening up those sites for Sikhs,” Khan said at the World Government Summit in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates.

In November, Khan had laid the foundation stone for a corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district.

IMF READY TO SUPPORT PAKISTAN: LAGARDE

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde met Khan on the sidelines of the summit and assured him of support. “I also highlighted that decisive policies and a strong package of economic reforms would enable Pakistan to restore the resilience of its economy and lay the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth,” she said.

Khan said Pakistan needed “painful” economic reforms, signalling a willingness to slash government spending for a bailout from IMF. “Reforms are...like a surgery...the patient suffers but that improves.”