Pakistan says renewed Kartarpur Corridor agreement with India to facilitate Sikh pilgrims
Pakistan says renewed Kartarpur Corridor agreement with India to facilitate Sikh pilgrims/node/2576386/pakistan
Pakistan says renewed Kartarpur Corridor agreement with India to facilitate Sikh pilgrims
Sikh pilgrims arrive to take part in a religious ritual on the occasion of the 481st death anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism, at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur near the India-Pakistan border on September 22, 2020. (AFP/File)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has renewed its agreement with India for the Kartarpur Corridor that gives Indian Sikh pilgrims visa-free access to the final resting place of their religion’s founder, the Pakistani foreign office said on Tuesday.
The visa-free border crossing, from India to Kartarpur in the Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab, was inaugurated in November 2019 just ahead of the 550th birthday of Sikhism’s founder Baba Guru Nanak.
The corridor connects the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak in India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, in Kartarpur and is seen as a rare example of cooperation and diplomacy between the two South Asian neighbors.
Originally signed on October 24, 2019 for a period of five years, the Kartarpur Corridor agreement between the nuclear-armed rivals was due to complete its term on Thursday.
“Its renewal underscores Pakistan’s enduring commitment to fostering interfaith harmony and peaceful coexistence,” the Pakistan foreign office said in a statement.
“The agreement continues to offer visa-free access to pilgrims from India, enabling them to visit the sacred site of Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur where Baba Guru Nanak, the revered founder of Sikhism, spent his final days. Since its inception, the Corridor has facilitated the pilgrimage of thousands of worshippers to this holy site.”
Much of the Sikh heritage is located in Pakistan. When Pakistan was carved out of India at the end of British rule in 1947, Kartarpur ended up on the Pakistani side of the border, while most of the region’s Sikhs remained on the other side.
For over seven decades, the Sikh community had lobbied for easier access to their holiest temple.
Pakistan’s initiative to open the corridor earned widespread appreciation from the international community, including the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres who described it as a “Corridor of Hope.”
“The Kartarpur Corridor fulfills the long-cherished aspirations of the Sikh community for an access to one of their most revered religious landmarks,” the Pakistani foreign office said.
“It reflects Pakistan’s recognition of the importance of safeguarding the rights of religious minorities.”
KARACHI: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday held a series of meetings with officials of the World Bank, Fitch Ratings and others in Washington, aimed at advancing the country’s economic agenda and highlighting its commitment to reforms under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
Aurangzeb met President of the World Bank Ajay Banga on the sidelines of the IMF–World Bank annual meetings and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to deepening its partnership with the Bank, according to the Pakistani finance ministry.
He briefed the World Bank president on the government’s response to recent floods, which killed over 1,000, affected another 4 million and caused an estimated $1.3 billion losses.
“The Minister endorsed the proposal of leveraging technology platforms and cooperatives to effectively reach small farmers and enhance agricultural resilience,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
“Aurangzeb thanked the World Bank for its technical assistance in developing Pakistan’s Tariff Policy and informed Mr. Banga about the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed with provinces for the implementation of the Country Partnership Framework (CPF).”
He requested additional support under the International Development Association (IDA) windows in light of reduced allocations and discussed the importance of adopting a holistic approach toward reforming Pakistan’s gas and power sectors to ensure long-term sustainability and efficiency.
The finance minister earlier met officials of Fitch Ratings agency in Washington DC and briefed them on his government’s commitment to structural reforms. He thanked the agency for upgrading Pakistan’s credit rating to B- with a stable outlook and expressed satisfaction that all three major international rating agencies were now aligned in their assessments.
“He briefed the Fitch team on the recently announced Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and highlighted Pakistan’s progress on key structural reforms in taxation, energy, privatization, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs),” his ministry said.
“The Minister underscored the government’s resolve to expedite the privatization process to enhance efficiency and fiscal sustainability.”
Islamabad has described the agreement with the IMF for the release of a $1.2 billion loan tranche as a strong external validation of Pakistan’s economic reform agenda.
Aurangzeb apprised Fitch officials of the government’s ongoing efforts to issue Panda Bonds in the Chinese market and referred to successful trade and tariff negotiations with the US administration, which saw the lowering of tariffs on Pakistan from 29 percent to 19 percent.
“The meeting concluded with an interactive exchange, during which the Minister responded to queries from the Fitch team and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to maintaining macroeconomic stability and sustaining reform momentum,” the finance ministry added.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and intelligence chief will be traveling to Doha today, Saturday, to hold talks with representatives of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani state media reported, hours after another Pakistani airstrike in Afghanistan.
The fierce battles between the two neighbors along their long, porous border broke out last Saturday and have led to the deaths of dozens of people on both sides, with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes in Kandahar and Kabul before a two-day truce that expired Friday evening.
Pakistan “conducted precision aerial strikes” in Afghan border areas on Friday, a security official said, adding that it targeted the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Friday’s strikes killed three Afghan cricketers among 10 people, authorities said.
The latest strikes ended 48 hours of calm between the two countries which was earlier reportedly extended for talks between Pakistani and Afghan officials in the Qatari capital of Doha.
“Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and Intelligence Chief Lt General Asim Malik are scheduled to depart for Doha on Saturday,” the state-run Pakistan TV reported. “Taliban delegation is expected to be of equivalent seniority.”
Islamabad said the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group had been involved in a suicide bombing and gun attack at a military camp in the North Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan, which left seven Pakistani paramilitary troops dead on Friday.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board told AFP that three players who were in the region for a tournament were killed by Friday’s airstrikes, revising down an earlier toll of eight.
Meanwhile, United States (US) President Donald Trump offered to help end hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“I do understand that Pakistan attacked or there is an attack going on with Afghanistan,” he said in a meeting with the Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
“That’s an easy one for me to solve if I have to solve it. In the meantime, I have to run the USA. But I love solving wars.”
The clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan broke out amid Islamabad’s claims that the Afghan Taliban had been sheltering banned militant groups like the TTP and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which carry out cross-border attacks against Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegations.
KARACHI: For nearly 40 years, Baz Mir, a young Afghan who escaped war and uncertainty in his home country, called the dusty outskirts near the southern Pakistani city of Karachi his home, where he built a life from scratch in a temporary settlement for people like him.
As bulldozers closed in on what remained of the Afghan refugee camp, the 48-year-old father of six watched on the walls of his modest house tremble, not just by heavy machinery but also from the emotional weight of a life being dismantled.
Mir, his wife, mother and five children are among 1,384 Afghan nationals who are still awaiting repatriation to Afghanistan from Karachi, according to official documents reviewed by Arab News. Authorities say over 14,000 have already returned to Afghanistan from his area, including one of Mir’s son and his wife.
Since late 2023, Pakistan has gradually repatriated more than 1.5 million Afghans blaming them for a surge in militancy and crime. Human rights groups have criticized the policy as collective punishment, warning it would uproot families with no safety net across the border.
“If I have lived here for 40 years and I see my house being demolished in front of me, of course my heart will break too,” Mir, who came to Pakistan in 1989 as a teenager, told Arab News, standing inside his modest home as authorities brought in heavy machinery to demolish the settlement.
But as families depart, a new kind of chaos is taking root in the form of land grabs.
On Tuesday, Karachi police launched a pre-dawn anti-encroachment operation over reports of land grabbers storming the area and marking empty houses as their own.
What began with markings on walls quickly escalated into clashes.
“Around 12 to 14 people were arrested after they attacked police with sticks and stones,” Shayan Anjum, a police officer overseeing the operation, told Arab News. “We are clearing it to hand over the possession to rightful owners.”
The Afghan refugee camp comprises more than 3,100 houses, according to police records. Of them, up to 250 are occupied by Pakistani families, while the rest were built or inhabited by Afghan refugees.
But now others have set their eyes on these houses.
“Wherever a house was empty, they sat there. Where people were still living, they wrote their names on the walls and left, claiming that house as theirs,” Mir said, adding that refugee families leaving for Afghanistan were bothered by both land grabbers and the sounds of the bulldozers dismantling homes.
Officials confirm these attempts.
A recent police report warned that “certain land mafia elements and illegal grabbers are making attempts to illegally occupy and encroach upon” portions of the said land, but those doing so deny wrongdoing and insist they are reclaiming “what was always theirs.”
“Sindhis have returned to their own land and homes, what’s wrong with it,” asked Ali Babbar, an activist who was leading a group of protesters whom the police called “landgrabbers.”
Afghan refugees load their belongings on a bus as they prepare to leave for Afghanistan, in Karachi on April 8, 2025. (AFP/File)
Babbar lamented the authorities were questioning “locals” about documents, while Afghans had lived at the same place for decades.
“For 50 years, these people haven’t been given proper housing,” he said, criticizing the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for not providing housing to the poor people in Sindh, of which Karachi is the provincial capital.
Tensions flared again on Wednesday as Babbar among a group of men pelted stones at police, while the law enforcers responded with tear gas shelling before resuming the demolition drive and arresting some of them.
Amid this chaos, dust and debris, Mir tried to come to terms with the harsh reality.
“It hurts deeply. You spend forty years at a place and then everything is broken right before your eyes, everything gone,” he said. “It would be better if they demolished it after we leave, we won’t feel as much pain.”
KARACHI: Pakistan’s central bank governor said on Friday improved foreign exchange buffers and a more stable market environment had enabled the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to purchase $20 billion from the interbank market over the past three years to rebuild reserves and strengthen its capacity to absorb external shocks.
Governor Jameel Ahmad told senior executives from global financial and investment institutions on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington the SBP’s strategy to reform exchange companies and promote remittances through formal channels had stabilized the market, allowing Pakistan to increase its foreign reserves nearly five-fold since February 2023.
“SBP has improved the stability and transparency of the FX market through structural reforms in exchange companies and the promotion of remittances through formal channels,” Ahmad said, according to an official statement. “These efforts have brought stability in the FX market, allowing SBP to strategically purchase $20 billion during the last three years from the interbank market to build its FX reserves.”
He added that the central bank now aims to raise foreign exchange reserves to $17.5 billion by June 2026, emphasizing that the stronger position reflects SBP’s focus on building buffers “to withstand external shocks.”
Ahmad said headline inflation had declined sharply to 5.6 percent in September 2025, down from over 25 percent two years earlier, while core inflation had fallen below 8 percent. Despite flood-related disruptions, he projected inflation would stabilize within the 5-7 percent range in the medium term.
Pakistan’s economy grew by 3 percent in FY25, the SBP governor said, and growth in FY26 was expected to remain between 3.25 and 4.25 percent.
He added that policy consistency and fiscal discipline had created space for structural reforms, enabling Pakistan to pursue “sustainable growth and socioeconomic uplift” with support from multilateral partners such as the IMF and World Bank.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s food trade deficit shot up to $1.14 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY26), with economists on Friday attributing the increase to recent floods that damaged exportable crops like rice and disrupted supply chains.
Last year, in July-September, the country’s food trade deficit with the world stood at $45 million, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, Pakistan witnessed yet another devastating monsoon that led to massive flooding, killing more than 1,000 people and 22,000 livestock while washing away crops over 2.2 million acres since late June, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
“The widening deficit partly reflects flood damage caused to rice, maize and vegetable crops, which have reduced exports and lifted food imports,” Khaqan Najeeb, a former adviser to the Ministry of Finance, told Arab News.
Pakistan witnessed a food export decline of 31 percent to $1.1 billion in July through September, while its imports rose 36 percent to $2.25 billion, according to PBS data.
Najeeb attributed the surge in imports to higher machinery and raw-material inflows, signaling an uptick in economic reconstruction activity in the country.
Pakistan’s overall trade deficit widened by 34 percent to $9.43 billion in the first quarter of FY26, PBS data showed, with exports shrinking 4 percent to $7.6 billion and imports rising 14 percent to $17 billion.
Pakistan mainly exports textiles, rice, cotton yarn, meat and seafood, while its major imports include petroleum products, palm oil, electrical machinery, plastic materials, iron and steel, liquefied natural gas, mobile phones, steel scrap and motor vehicles.
Garment factory workers inside a manufacturing facility in Karachi on July 8, 2025. (AFP/File)
Given the situation, Najeeb said Pakistan should discuss the trade targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the $7 billion loan program.
“The authorities and the IMF may need to revisit the $26.6 billion FY26 trade deficit target, with the gap already at $9.4 billion in the first quarter, well above projections,” he said.
Shankar Talreja, head of research at Topline Securities Limited, said lower rice sales have dragged Pakistan’s food exports in the ongoing fiscal year.
He noted that during the first three months, rice exports dropped 42 percent to $419 million, vegetables 41 percent to $42.2 million, tobacco 48 percent to $19.3 million, spices 9 percent to $20 million, and oilseeds, nuts, and kernels 68 percent to $37 million.
“The disruption is due to supply-chain-related issues after the floods,” he said.
NDMA data shows the floods damaged 2,811 kilometers of roads, 790 bridges and more than 229,000 houses.
“The impact of floods on crops will become visible in the second half of this fiscal year [between January and June],” he added.
Talreja said Pakistan’s food exports may further decline as a 10 percent loss to the rice crop could mean a reduction of about 500,000 tons in exports.
He said the government may also need to import wheat to stabilize domestic flour prices and cotton to ensure a steady supply of raw materials to its $18 billion textile industry.
“The cotton imports will be close to last year’s, around 700,000 tons, meaning four to five million bales would be required at minimum,” said Talreja, who believes Pakistan could avoid future crop losses by constructing additional waterways.
Pakistan’s textile sector consumes about 14 million cotton bales annually, double the country’s current production, which has fallen to seven million bales in recent years, partly due to climate change and governance challenges.
“There is no quick fix to this…. climate change is real,” he added.
Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer of Arif Habib Commodities Limited, said floods had affected rice, wheat, cotton and sugarcane crops, mostly in Punjab, which is Pakistan’s breadbasket.
“The impact on the overall trade deficit to the extent of $1 billion in the first quarter could reach $3 billion by the third,” he said.
Mehanti said the government could mitigate flood impacts by reviving degraded soil, providing quality seeds and repairing irrigation infrastructure in Punjab through flood-alleviation schemes.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has already said initial assessments suggest floods have damaged the rice and cotton sectors, likely denting economic growth to between 3.5 and 4 percent.
“The challenge is to sustain recovery without worsening external pressures,” Najeeb said.
