Gulf News

Two ministers to attend Kartarpur ceremony

Indian External Affairs Minister to send two Sikh union ministers for event in Pakistan

- BY EVANGELINE ELSA Community Solutions Editor

India will send two Union ministers to Pakistan for the opening of the much-publicised Kartarpur corridor.

On Saturday night, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter to inform Pakistan that she was unable to travel to Kartarpur and was instead sending two Sikh Union Ministers, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri to attend the ceremony.

Through a tweet sent out using her @SushmaSwar­aj account, she said: “I thank His Excellency Makhdoom Shah Mahmoud Qureshi Foreign Minister of Pakistan for inviting me to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor on the Pakistan side of the Internatio­nal boundary on 28 November 2018.

“Since I am unable to travel to Kartarpur Sahib on the scheduled date, Government of India will be represente­d by my esteemed colleagues Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Mr. HS Puri,” she said in a second tweet.

In a third tweet she wrote: “We hope that the Government of Pakistan will expedite constructi­on of the corridor in order to ensure that our citizens can pay their respects at the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor as soon as possible.”

Indian newspaper Financial Times reported: “[A] day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of Berlin Wall fall to point out the potentiall­y transforma­tive nature of developmen­t in the Kartarpur corridor between the two nations, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi invited External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to attend the ground-breaking ceremony at Kartarpur on November 28. The ceremony will also be attended by Pakistan PM Imran Khan.”

Swaraj also called out a couple of journalist­s for misinterpr­etation of her statement and spreading misinforma­tion. She tweeted: “Please do not spread misinforma­tion. We welcome this proposal and we are sending two Ministers to represent Government of India.”

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