Pakistan minister invites Punjab CM Mann

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. File.

After Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann expressed his wish to attend an international Punjabi conference in Pakistan’s Lahore, Pakistan Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs and Chairman of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Ramesh Singh Arora, has invited Mr. Mann and all legislators of the Punjab Assembly to visit Pakistan.

Mr. Arora said “..Bhagwant Singh Mann Sahib, as the Minister for Minority Affairs, as the president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and as a Pakistani citizen, we invite you. The Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, invites you.”

Speaking in the Punjab Assembly in Lahore, he added, “... We invite the Punjab Assembly of India to come, and Pakistan will not only arrange your pilgrimage to Kartarpur Sahib, but we will also take you to the sacred places of other faiths present here..”

During the recently concluded session of the Punjab Assembly, Mr. Mann had stated that he wished to accept the invitation from the organisers of the Lahore International Punjabi Conference in Lahore from November 27 to 29 and would want to visit Sikh shrines in Pakistan.

Notably, Sikh devotees, Sikh organisations and political parties have been seeking the reopening of the Kartarpur corridor, which connects the Dera Baba Nanak in India to Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan. It was in Kartarpur Sahib, now in Pakistan, where Sikh Guru Nanak Dev had spent the last 18 years of his life. The corridor has remained shut since May 7, 2025, after tensions escalated between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack.