Kartarpur : Advantage Pakistan ; Should India should Respond By Making A Multi Speciality Apollo Hospital and Pakistan by Opening A Visa Free Market At Border
R.K.Upadhyay 
Kartarpur corridor is a historical bold peace initiative by Pakistan which will be remembered and appreciated by Indians particularly Sikhs for a long time .Imran Khan and the whole government needs to be applauded for this bold move .Even if the ISI intends to draw some vicious vicarious advantage on Khalistan by opening a visa free Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims , it can do it even otherwise by so many means as Gen Hamid Gul had done it in past . So while India should remain alert but it would be very cynical to dismiss this great move as a just PR exercise .
The ball is now squarely in India’s court although India is very hurt at present by the highly immature and unnecessary confrontationist course this government has adopted in UN and otherwise.
Pakistan’s unnecessary international harp on Kashmir and its ill advised suspension of trade and air passage is an immature pay off move of the government on its army’s insistence from which Pakistan has to come out soon as its population is suffering far more by suspension of free trade by costlier medicines and vegetables etc .. However if the Kartarpur spirit is acknowledged and allowed to grow it will be a big achievement for both the countries .
A very good gesture by India will be to open an Apollo type multi speciality hospital near the Barmer border which the people of Sindh and rest of Pakistan can use by avoiding heavy travel cost . India can permit visa free travel just the way it has been done at Kartarpur . A dharmshala of 100 rooms can be built for low cost stay . India being a big country can afford to build it although full payment will have to be made for treatment . Generic medicines can be made available for poor patients .
Pakistan on its part can permit a big 2 km long custom duty free free market with roads and storage facility for India and Pakistan traders . Population can come without visa to free market to this fenced no man land or free area at border near Lahore or Sialkot . Shoppers can come in their car or trucks and go back on same day . Indian and Pakistan banks can be opened in this area .
This beginning could be very courageous but opening Kartarpur corridor was also an equally big move . Why can we not promote the Kartarpur spirit . Armies of both the countries may oppose it but their concerns for misuse can be satisfactorily resolved .Its advantages are obvious to both . If successful this beginning can be expanded in other areas .
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