Pakistan Says Willing To Issue Visa To Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann For Lahore Visit

Pakistan has said it is willing to consider issuing a visa to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann if he wishes to visit the country for the World Punjabi Conference in Lahore on November 27. However, the final decision on whether Mann can travel to Pakistan rests with the Indian government.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan made the remarks during his weekly media briefing on Friday (November 6), responding to a question about the possible visit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader.

“The Pakistani government would consider issuing him a visa if he wished to visit the country,” Khan said, adding that securing permission from the Indian government was a separate matter.

On October 23, Mann had revealed that he had been invited to attend the World Punjabi Conference in Lahore. He had expressed uncertainty over whether he would receive permission to travel to Pakistan, despite the cultural ties between the two sides of Punjab.

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

The Punjab chief minister had also expressed his desire for all legislators of the Punjab Assembly to visit Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan if the Kartarpur Corridor reopened.

The 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. It allows Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the gurdwara without obtaining a regular Pakistani visa, subject to the prescribed 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 following the Pahalgam terror attack.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson said the country remained committed to facilitating religious pilgrimages and welcomed visitors of all faiths. Khan said Pakistan issued more than 9,000 visas to Indian religious pilgrims in 2025, including Sikh and Hindu pilgrims, and granted over 4,000 additional visas to Sikh pilgrims in the first half of 2026.

He also said Pakistan looked forward to welcoming a large number of Sikh pilgrims to Nankana Sahib later this month for the 557th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Khan highlighted that the Kartarpur Corridor was established as a special initiative to facilitate Sikh pilgrims, allowing more than 5,000 visitors daily to visit the shrine and return on the same day.

He also referred to the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines, which provides a framework for religious pilgrimages between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, he added, was taking steps to preserve Buddhist heritage sites, including Taxila and Takht-i-Bahi, through a special task force.