Pakistan says willing to grant visa to Bhagwant Mann if he wishes to visit

Pakistan on Friday said it was willing to consider issuing a visa to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann if he wished to visit the country, following his announcement that he had been invited to attend the World Punjabi Conference in Lahore later this month.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan made the statement during his weekly media briefing while responding to a question about the possibility of Mann travelling to Pakistan.

The Pakistani government would "consider issuing him a visa if he wished to visit the country", Khan said. However, he clarified that whether the Indian government would allow the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader to travel across the border was a separate matter.

On October 23, Mann had revealed that he had received an invitation to attend the World Punjabi Conference scheduled to be held in Lahore on November 27. However, he expressed uncertainty over whether he would be permitted to visit Pakistan.

"Our culture is the same. Many poets from here will go there," Mann had said.

The Punjab Chief Minister had also expressed a desire to take all members of the state legislative assembly to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan if the Kartarpur Corridor reopened.

The Kartarpur Corridor connects Dera Baba Nanak in India's Punjab with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, a shrine associated with Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism. The visa-free arrangement allows Indian pilgrims to visit the gurdwara and return on the same day, subject to applicable travel arrangements.

However, the corridor has remained closed to pilgrim movement from the Indian side since May 7, 2025, when India launched strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor, following the Pahalgam terror attack.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson said Islamabad remained willing to facilitate religious pilgrims once the restrictions were lifted, reiterating that the country welcomed visitors of all faiths to its religious sites.

Khan said Pakistan issued more than 9,000 visas to Indian religious pilgrims in 2025, including Sikh and Hindu devotees. It also granted over 4,000 additional visas to Sikh pilgrims during the first half of this year.

"Pakistan looks forward to welcoming a large number of Sikh pilgrims at Nankana Sahib later this month to mark the 557th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji," he said.

Khan also highlighted the Kartarpur Corridor as a special initiative to facilitate Sikh pilgrims, saying it had enabled more than 5,000 devotees to visit the shrine daily and return on the same day.

He referred to the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines between India and Pakistan, which provides a framework for facilitating religious pilgrimages between the two countries.

The spokesperson further said Pakistan was taking steps to preserve Buddhist heritage sites, including those in Taxila and Takht-i-Bahi, and had established a special task force for their protection.- EndsWith inputs from agencies