Pak, India considering some future steps to 'narrow the gap' between them:FO

Encouraged by the "recent overtures", Pakistan and India are considering some future steps, including opening the Kartarpur border for the Sikh pilgrims, to "narrow the gap" between the two neighbours, the Foreign Office said today.

"In the wake of recent overtures by both Pakistan and India to lessen the ever-widening gulf between the two neighbours, some future steps are under consideration," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said, without sharing the details.

"I will share details with you, in due course," he said at the weekly media briefing here.

"We are making efforts to narrow the gap between Pakistan and India. The Kartarpur Corridor can be one of the moves in this direction," he added.

Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.

During cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his friend Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had hinted at temporary opening of Kartarpur border on the occasion of Guru Nanak's birth anniversary.

The 550th birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru, who breathed his last in Kartarpur, is being observed in November 2019.

Faisal said that India-Pakistan relations were a "complex conundrum."
He said that the "road (to peace) would be difficult, but I can assure you that we, both India and Pakistan, have to take this journey."
Faisal also said that the informal session of the SAARC Council of Ministers take place every year on the sidelines of the UNGA Session in New York and "this year too the Informal Session will be held."