Business Recorder op-ed writer Andleeb Abbas has articulated a highly informed argument in her last op-ed for Business Recorder. According to her, for example, "Most consider it as a smart political move by Pakistan. This is not just a political move but a huge revenue earner in the undiscovered tourism economy of Pakistan. Barely 6,000 Indian Sikhs visit Pakistan, in contrast to over 50 million that visit the Golden Temple just 120 kms away from Nankana Sahib each year. With visa restrictions gone the daily traffic is supposed to cross 5,000 visitors during peak seasons. World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that every rupee of direct expenditure leads to an additional spend of Rs 1.46. Every direct job in the travel and tourism sector also implies an additional 1.55 jobs in related sectors. On these estimates, the total contribution of Sikh tourists has a potential of generating approximately Rs 44 billion every year, creating over 82,000 jobs."
Following the opening of Kartarpur corridor by prime minister Imran Khan, BBC Hindi carried a very interesting programme on the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak Dev. It showed, among other things, how a Sikh family from India's Punjab speaks about its experience. Standing at some distance from Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, all of the family members were full of praise for the arrangements made for the pilgrims by the Pakistani authorities. The youngest member of that family, who must be in his 20s, remarked that he had bought from a souvenir shop sandals to take home and those sandals were similar to the ones worn by prime minister Imran Khan!
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