Kartarpur talks: Pak insists on $20 service fee

High-level talks between India and Pakistan on the historical Kartarpur corridor project hit a roadblock on Wednesday, with Islamabad adamant on charging a $20 service fee from pilgrims visiting the revered Sikh shrine in Pakistan to pay obeisance.

Amid deteriorating ties between the two nations post the abrogation of Article 370, the 3-hour of meeting held at Attari in Punjab today to stamp the final corridor agreement remained inconclusive. New Delhi cited Islamabad’s inflexibility to derail the signing of the final agreement on Wednesday.

Joint Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs, SCL Das on Wednesday said, “Owing to the persistent inflexibility shown by Pakistan, the agreement fell short of being finalized today”.

He said Pakistan is insisting on charging a service fee from pilgrims. “This is extremely repugnant to the spirit of the project. We persisted on our demand. But am sorry to say that Pakistan has shown complete inflexibility of the issue and were not ready to accommodate our request.”

Islamabad also declined New Delhi’s request to allow consular and protocol officials to accompany pilgrims inside the Kartarpur Sikh shrine. The demand by India to allow additional 10,000 pilgrims on special occasions like Baisakhi too met with resistance from Pakistan. Das said that Pakistan highlighted its infrastructure constraints to agree to additional pilgrims.

Pakistan, meanwhile, agreed on visa-free travel, besides a daily limit of 5,000 pilgrims. The project is likely to be completed by November ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, who spent the last many years of his life in Kartarpur.

In the aftermath of the ruptured ties between Pakistan and India, the Kartarpur corridor project is the lone initiative where Islamabad has shown its resolve to complete the work on time by November.

It has been decided that Persons of Indian Origins having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards would also be allowed to pay obeisance. “The corridor would be operational throughout the year, seven days a week. It would be up to the pilgrims to choose how they wanted to travel- individually, in groups or on foot,” Das said.

A state-of-the-art passenger terminal facility with a capacity to handle over 15,000 pilgrims is nearing completion on the Indian side in Punjab.