Maryam Nawaz reaches out to Sikh pilgrims at Pakistan's Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara

Chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province Maryam Nawaz on Thursday invoked Punjabi pride, met a group of Sikh pilgrims, mostly from India, and reminded the gathering at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara that her father Nawaz Sharif said the country should not fight with its neighbours.

Maryam, as part of the first official state-level celebrations of Baisakhi, the harvest festival of Punjab, welcomed some 2,400 Sikhs who are currently visiting Pakistan to attend the festivities.

Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur Sahib has the samadhi of the first Sikh master Guru Nanak and Sikh pilgrims from all over visit the place to perform rituals.

Addressing the gathering at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, 130 km northeast of Lahore, Maryam quoted her father and three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as saying, “We should not fight with our neighbours. We need to open our hearts for them.”

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Maryam, 50, is considered the political heir of Nawaz Sharif. She was elected as the first woman chief minister in Pakistan in February.

“When I became the chief minister, I received greetings from Punjabi brothers from across the border too. I am a Pakistani, but I am a Punjabi (hardcore Punjabi) too,” she said.

“We wish to speak Punjabi here like the people of Indian Punjab. My grandfather, Mian Sharif, is from Jati Umra, Amritsar. When a Punjabi Indian brought soil of Jati Umra, I placed it on his (grandfather’s) grave,” she said.

Maryam said she made Ramesh Singh Arora the first Sikh minister in her government.

“My father laid the foundation of Kartarpur Corridor in 2013. He also made a Sikh a member of the Punjab Assembly,” she claimed.

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She said on the wish of Sikhs, she has ordered the construction of a road at Kartarpur.

The corridor was opened in November 2019 by the then prime minister Imran Khan. Maryam tried to take credit for the corridor by saying her father was keen to open it for Indian Sikhs and he took the initiative by making a local Sikh lawmaker.

Maryam also said that this is the first time that the Baisakhi festival is being celebrated in Pakistan at a government level. “This is my Punjab and we are celebrating all festivals of minority communities such as Holi, Easter, and Baisakhi together,” she said.

At the gurdwara, she sat in the sanctum with pilgrims and then had langar with them. Later, she also hugged an old Indian woman who came from Amritsar and exchanged pleasantries.

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