Why Pakistani State ‘Can’t Trust’ Sikhs
On the first anniversary of the Kartarpur Gurdwara, the government decided to take the management control of the shrine from Pakistan Sikh Gurwara Parbandhak Committee (the equivalent of India’s Shiromini Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). The government organ under which PSGPC works, that is, Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has reportedly transferred various management functions of the Kartarpur Gurdwara to a Project Management Unit composed of all-Muslim bureaucrats of the ETPB.
Although the foreign office issued a strongly-worded rejection of this claim, PMU will be clearly encroaching upon the PSGPC functions as described in the ETPB website.
The Sikhs might be ‘trophies’ – to be put on TV screens or in framed photos on the walls of high offices, but they are clearly not ‘trusted’ when it comes to anything related to India.
(Marvi Sirmed is a journalist and human rights defender from Pakistan. She is currently working from the US on a book about the issues pertaining to freedom of expression and shrinking civic space. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed here are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)