Want ‘strong’, ‘civilised’ ties with India: Pak PM at Kartarpur event
CONTENTIOUS Pakistan invites PM Modi for SAARC summit, India turns it down
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said Pakistan wants a “strong” and “civilised” relationship with India and the two countries can resolve all issues with determination, even as external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj turned down Islamabad’s invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the SAARC summit in the neighbouring country saying it would not accept any dialogue “unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India.”
Khan laid the foundation stone for the historic corridor linking two revered gurdwaras on both sides of the border, in the presence of Punjab minister Navjot Singh Siddhu, Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented India at the ceremony, and Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur – the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev – with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims.
KARTARPUR (PAKISTAN)/NEW DELHI: Unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC [summit]
Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. Guru Nanak is believed to have spent 18 years there.
“We want to move forward in our relations with India,” Khan said. “If France and Germany who fought several wars can live in peace, why can’t India and Pakistan.”
Khan said whenever he visited India, he was told that politicians are united but the army won’t allow the friendship between the two sides. “I am saying today, that our political leaders, our army, and all other institutions are all on one page. We wish to move forward, we want a civilised relationship. We have just one problem, Kashmir.”
“I assure you that we can solve this problem. But determination and big dreams are necessary,” he said, reiterating that if India takes one step forward, Pakistan will take two steps forward in friendship.
Khan said that there have been “mistakes on both sides” and asserted that the two sides should not live in the past. “Where Pakistan and India stand today, we have seen such a situation for 70 years now,” he said.