Pakistan, India sign Kartarpur Corridor agreement today.

Byline: Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan and India will sign the agreement on Kartarpur Corridor on Thursday (today), paving the way for its inauguration next month ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev.

'As of now, Pakistan and India would sign the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor tomorrow,' Foreign Office spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal said at the weekly media briefing on Wednesday.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry had on Monday announced that it was ready to sign the agreement on Oct 23. However, it has now been scheduled for Thursday.

The signing ceremony will take place at Kartarpur Zero Line.

The agreement would be made public. 'We will share clause by clause details after signing of the agreement,' the spokesman said.

The agreement was finalised after three rounds of negotiations. The negotiations got protracted because of deep differences on various provisions of the agreement and at the same time Pulwama stand-off, Indian reservations over the composition of the committee set up to look after the affairs of the Corridor and elections in India also delayed the process.

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The last sticking point was the $20 service fee that Pakistan would charge from every pilgrim for a single trip. However, India reluctantly agreed to it.

Pakistan is currently working out the mechanism for charging the $20 fee from the pilgrims.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the Corridor on November 9 after which visa free link between Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur and Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab will open for the pilgrims. The exact timings of the opening and closing of the shrine would be announced after the signing of the agreement.

On any day up to 5,000 Sikh pilgrims from India would use the corridor, while on special occasions greater numbers would be accepted depending on capacity.

The signing of the agreement is important because the two countries are doing it despite sharp deterioration in ties over Kashmir dispute.

Dr Faisal, in his briefing, underlined that the real issue was to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, as per the Resolutions of UNSC and the will of the Kashmiri people. 'Until and unless this issue is resolved, the peace and stability in South Asia will remain elusive,' he added.

He said the diplomatic corps and members of foreign media during their visit to the Jura Town in Azad Kashmir were given an...