Pak unlikely to give passport waiver for Kartarpur visit

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Dera Baba Nanak, Dec 24

Sundays are turning out to be the favourite days for pilgrims to cross over to Pakistan to pay obeisance at the Kartarpur shrine. The weekly holiday is actually turning out to be the saviour for the corridor, say officials working at the Integrated Check Post (ICP).

Barring November 10 (Sunday) when just 229 devotees crossed over, the rest of the six Sundays since the opening of the corridor, saw more than 1,300 pilgrims using the corridor. The maximum rush was witnessed on December 15 when the number of pilgrims touched 1,962.

However, on other days in the week, the figure is pegged between 450 and 600 devotees.

Officials claim the mandatory condition of having passports, which is acting as a damper, may not be rolled back by the Pakistan government due to security concerns.

“The Centre has written to the Pakistan government to waive off this condition. However, till now no reply has been received from there. In the future, too, the response may not be favourable as Pakistan will never put aside the condition. Their officials view passports as verification documents. Aadhaar or Voter I-cards hold no value at all for them. It is only through a passport that the antecedents of a person can be verified. Hence this condition will stay. Nepal allows Indians to cross over by showing driving licenses, Aadhar cards or voter I-cards, because it is a friendly country. On the other hand, Pakistan is an enemy country. For this very purpose, their officials have to check the details of each and every person. And this they can do only through passports. There are chances of anti-social elements entering their country if the passport checking is not carried out. This pre-requisite will never be waived off,” said an immigration officer.