Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has welcomed the Indo-Pak agreement to make Kartarpur Corridor operational. He said that India must acknowledge that stubbornness and narrow mindedness will not provide benefit to India because such type of behavior will prove counterproductive. He said that renovation of shrines, temples, churches and Gurdwaras will be done in such a way that international tourists will get attraction to these sites. He expressed these views while chairing the meeting of “Religious Tourism and Heritage Committee” at Governor House Lahore on Friday. “We will provide foolproof security to religious tourists and will make sure the provision of equal rights to minorities living in Pakistan as per the vision of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah,” said the Governor. Sarwar said on the occasion that best arrangements will be made for Sikh devotees at the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak as the government is committed to promote the religious tourism in the country. Federal Minister for Education and professional training Shafqat Mehmood, Provincial Secretary Momin Agha, Secretary Tourism Nadeem Mehboob, and Secretary Auqaf Zulfiqar Ghumman also attended the meeting of committee. The religious tourism committee has started working for the tourism of all the religions including Sikh, Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism as Pakistan has a rich heritage of major religions. Sarwar was of the view that we have rich heritage sites of Buddhism in Taxila and several religious heritages of Sikh religion are also here in Pakistan so it would help a lot in promoting the religious tourism in the country. Governor Punjab chairs the meeting for promotion of religious tourism “A special tunnel is being constructed from the railway track to the Gurdwara of Baba Guru Nanak in Nankana Sahib for the Sikh devotees where they will get state-of-the-art facilities,” said the Governor. It would be 672 feet long tunnel that will completely be constructed from the donations. Committee discussed the measures and ways to promote religious tourism at religious places of Muslims and all other religions. Governor Punjab Mohammad Sarwar said that Kartarpur Corridor is great gift for Sikh Community of whole world by Prime Minister Imran Khan and we are speedily completing all development work at our side and therefore India should also complete its responsibility. He further added that success of first round of dialogue between India and Pakistan is a huge success and India should reciprocate the good-will gesture of Pakistan for benefit of the people of South Asia and religious pilgrims of whole world. It will be big step towards prosperity and development in whole region. Published in Daily Times, March 16th 2019.