Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's government has earmarked Rs 100 crore in the federal budget 2019-20 for the development of the much-awaited Kartarpur corridor. The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev.
The funds will be used for land acquisition and development of infrastructure of Kartarpur under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next financial year 2019-20, Geo TV reported.
Meanwhile, Pakistan announced that its defence budget for the next fiscal year (2019-20) will remain the the same as the last year's Rs 1,150 billion amid an austerity drive by the government to solve the cash-strapped nation's financial woes. Pakistan's military, in a rare move, early this month decided to voluntarily cut the defence budget for the next fiscal year and assured the nation that there would be no impact to its "response potential" due to the voluntary cut in the budget.
