Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday that Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi would be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Dawn online reported.
India had boycotted the 2016 SAARC event, which led Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan to also pull out.
Addressing the ‘Kashmir Conference’ in Islamabad, Faisal reiterated Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘ openness to resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue with India’.
“We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly,” Dr Faisal said.
The FO spokesman said that the Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of members of India’s Sikh community to their religious site in Pakistan, will is to be inauguarated today, is expected to be completed within six months.
Earlier, the Union Cabinet headed by PM Narendra Modi announced building the Kartarpur road corridor up to the international border between India and Pakistan to let Sikh pilgrims visit the gurdwara on the banks of the river Ravi in Pakistan.
Both Pakistan and India made the decision to allow the pilgrims visit the holy shrine without having to secure a visa.
The foundation stone in Gurdaspur was laid by Vice-President of India Venkaiah Naidu in the presence of the CM and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday.
“In this century diplomacy has completely changed,” he said, adding: “Now policies are made based on citizens’ emotions and wishes.”
He said that the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor is ‘a great success for the country’.
He added that media from the neighboring country had been invited and that ‘Pakistan is not hiding anything’.
