ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically rejected the ‘baseless and fallacious’ propaganda by the Indian Government against the Kartarpur Corridor, saying that the claims were also rejected by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) itself.
Earlier in the day, Indian media reported that Pakistan had transferred the management and maintenance of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib from the PSGPC — the representative body of Sikh Pakistanis — to a non-Sikh body.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs said, “Such actions only expose the reality of the Pakistani government and its leadership’s tall claims of preserving and protecting the rights and welfare of the religious minority communities.”
In this regard, FO Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said, “The malicious propaganda by the Indian Government is simply an attempt to malign the Peace Corridor initiative by casting mischievous aspersions against the interests of the Sikh community and to detract attention from India’s own reprehensible human rights violations of minorities in India.”
The spokesperson clarified that the PSGPC remains responsible for carrying out rituals in Gurdwara Sahiban, including Kartarpur as per Sikh Rehat Maryada. “The Project Management Unit (PMU) under the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has simply been created to facilitate the PSGPC in this regard,” he added.
He further said, “Any insinuations regarding transferring the affairs of the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur from the PSGPC to the PMU are not only contrary to the facts but also aimed at creating religious disharmony by the Hindutva-driven BJP government in India.”
“India would be well advised to take steps to protect its minorities and their places of worship, rather than feigning misleading and sham concerns for the rights of minorities elsewhere, ,” the spokesperson concluded.
