With Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Prakash Purb falling in November, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has appealed to Pakistan's High Commission to sharply expand the visa quota for Sikh pilgrims travelling to Nankana Sahib, the Guru's birthplace. More than 7,500 devotees have already submitted passports through the SGPC, far outstripping the roughly 1,800 visas Islamabad typically grants each year under the existing bilateral protocol.
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, who led a delegation to meet Pakistan's Charge d'Affaires Ahmed Waraich in New Delhi, said the surge in applications is partly a direct consequence of the continued closure of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, which has left thousands of would-be pilgrims from Punjab — Jagraon and Ludhiana households among them — without the visa-free route they had grown used to since 2019.
India's Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed the corridor remains suspended on security grounds following its closure in May 2025, with spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal saying pilgrimage arrangements continue to be governed by existing bilateral agreements. For Sangat in the Malwa belt, many of whom had built the corridor into their spiritual calendar, the standoff means this year's Gurpurab pilgrimage again rests on Pakistan's quota discretion rather than the open corridor they had hoped would become permanent.
FAITH & HERITAGE · AMRITSAR & CROSS-BORDER
Source: The Tribune, Amritsar & Pakistan desks (Aug 18–19, 2026).
