Pakistan appoints senior ISI officer as CEO of Kartarpur Corridor

Pic Credit: File Photo

Why did the Pakistan government has appointed a senior officer of its intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Project Management Unit  (PMU) that manages the affairs of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib on the Pakistan side of Kartarpur Corridor? Though it is not new for Pakistan to appoint senior officers of ISI to ‘interfere and manage’ the cross-border minority community affairs as the chief of ISI Javed Nasir had been heading the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to look for the ‘soft targets’ among people going to Pakistan on pilgrimage.

According to highly placed sources, the Deputy Secretary (Administration), ETPB had on January 11 issued a notification number 212 for the appointment of Muhammad Abu Bakar Aftab Qureshi, Deputy Director General, Directorate General ISI as CEO, PMU, Kartapur Sahib for a period of three years.

The appointment of an ISI officer as well as a non-Sikh as head of PMU is being criticized by the international Sikh community who are of the view that a non-Sikh couldn’t take ‘correct’ decisions with regards to the religious affairs of Sikhs besides being an official of ISI, he could use the platform of PMU to further anti-India agenda.

Earlier, in 2021 Pakistani government had appointed a former army brigadier Muhammad Latif as the first CEO of PMU which evoked sharp criticism from Sikh bodies across the globe who wanted a Sikh to manage the affairs of PMU. However he was reportedly unceremoniously removed from his post by the Pakistan government and  Rana Shahid was appointed as the new CEO, PMU. In the recent past, Rana Shahid was also removed and an additional charge of PMU was given to additional secretary, ETPB, Sannaulla Khan.

A non-Sikh didn’t understand the Sikh maryada (Sikh code of religious conduct) due to which there had been several incidents of violation of maryada (Sikh code of conduct) in the past such as the printing of a photograph of a Pakistani brand of cigarette on the packing of Pinni Prasad given at Kartarpur Sahib, modeling by Pak models in Gurdwara parikarma, holding of Jashan-e-Bahara entertainment programme in Kartapur corridor, cycling in parikarma, etc.