Navjot Singh Sidhu can win an election even in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on November 28 as he wondered why there was a hue and cry back home over the former Indian cricketer’s push for peace and brotherhood during his previous visit to the country.
Mr. Khan laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur — the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev — to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of pilgrims.
The corridor made headlines in August after the Punjab Cabinet Minister and Congress leader visited Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his friend Mr. Khan.
Mr. Sidhu was later criticised for hugging Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the event.
“I heard there was a lot of criticism of Sidhu when he went back after my oath-taking ceremony. I don’t know why was he criticised. He was just talking about peace between the two countries which are nuclear armed,” Mr. Khan said. “It is foolish for anyone to think there can be a war between two nuclear armed countries as there is no winning for anyone. So, if there can be no war then what other way is there other than friendship?”
Mr. Khan said the citizens of both countries wanted peace and it was just the leadership that needed to be on the same page. “I am hoping that we don’t have to wait until Sidhu becomes Prime Minister for there to be peace between India and Pakistan,” he said.
Mr. Khan jokingly said that Mr. Sidhu had such a large fan following in Pakistan, specially in the country’s Punjab Province, that if he ran in elections here, he would win. “He can come and contest in an election in Pakistan’s Punjab, he’ll win,” the cricketer-turned-politician said.
