Kartarpur opening.

IT was promised in August, appeared out of reach in September and was thought to be out of the discourse by October. But before the end of November, a new border crossing between Pakistan and India is just around the corner. That is how unpredictable the state of relations between the two countries is. The Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Narowal, one of the holiest sites for Sikhs, will be accessible to devotees from the Indian side soon. India has accepted the Pakistani offer to build a new border crossing to facilitate pilgrims. In this case at least, the two states have overcome their mutual distrust to give their people a chance to mingle. The gift marks the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith. The stimulus for it came in August when Navjot Singh Sidhu, politician and former Indian cricketer, came to Pakistan to take part in the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mr Sidhu had a huge surprise waiting for him: an offer to open the Kartarpur border to facilitate pilgrims from India.

The proposal had been in the air since at least the 1980s but had been put on hold on some pretext or the other. This time, too, whereas the Pakistani side pursued the matter quite diligently, the...