Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib after the starting of construction work on corridor
New Jersey, May 24, 2019 : The American Sikh Council (ASC) has expressed its disappointment over the Imran government' unresponsive attitude towards the demand of the Sikhs of the World to protect the heritage of Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara and its surroundings from destruction and then modernization to construct tourist destinations.
The ASC in a statement said , " Since December 2018 ASC and its representatives has done the following in trying to safeguard and preserve Guru Baba Nanak Sahib’s 500 year old living legacy.
Pic- 1 - Kartarpur Gurdwara Sahib before construction work of corridor started
After all the concentrated work that has been put in by ASC representatives, it seems that everything has gone to waste, because the Pakistani authorities have decided to turn a deaf ear to all our pleas and no amount of common sense or logic seems to wake up their conscience. Rather all the sleazy businessmen from the diaspora have their ears and the only thing that is driving this massive erasure of the holy Guru’s legacy is greed."
ASC has also questioned the date of Guru Baba Nanak Sahib’s birthday being followed by Pakistan government in the month of November . The ASC has also slammed SGPC for not raising voice on the issue of protecting the heritage of Kartarpur Sahib and its surroundings .
It may recalled that Navjot Sidhu had also wrote a letter to Imran Khan and the same issue was taken up a woman law maker in the Punjab assembly of Pakistan but the pictures of the construction work being displayed shows that Pakistan authorities are least bothered about sentiments expressed by the Sikhs world over.
Pic.2 -- Surroundings of Kartarpur Gurdwara Sahib before construction work of corridor started
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The full text of the statement of ASC is as under :
The American Sikh Council (ASC) has put in a tremendous amount of effort to highlight that the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, Kartarpur, Punjab, Pakistan and its surrounding 104 acres remain untouched and absolutely not be turned into a tourist attraction through complete destruction and then modernization by the Pakistan government.
Since December 2018 ASC and its representatives has done the following in trying to safeguard and preserve Guru Baba Nanak Sahib’s 500 year old living legacy:
After all the concentrated work that has been put in by ASC representatives, it seems that everything has gone to waste, because the Pakistani authorities have decided to turn a deaf ear to all our pleas and no amount of common sense or logic seems to wake up their conscience. Rather all the sleazy businessmen from the diaspora have their ears and the only thing that is driving this massive erasure of the holy Guru’s legacy is greed.
The Pakistani authorities need to be reminded that Guru Baba Nanak Sahib’s birthday was on April 14 and absolutely not in November, since the current rush to completely destroy and construct the new modern Kartarpur Sahib to meet an arbitrary self-imposed deadline based on the erroneous birth day celebration of Guru Sahib in November 2019.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Amritsar, a body which is responsible for the management of gurdwaras, in (East)Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh has not put out a single statement in reference to the preservation of the Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan), because they have been culpable in the destruction and modernizing of many gurdwaras in East Punjab themselves!
The American Sikh Council (ASC) hoped and prayed that the government of Pakistan would use this opportunity to truly make its mark in the annals of religious history by using a very sensible approach of preserving the five century old religious site instead they seemed to have got sucked into the same pattern as the East Punjab marbleizing brigade.