LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.546
TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.07.2017
PANT-MIRZA AGREEMENT
546. SHRI BAIJAYANT JAY PANDA:
Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) the names of shrines covered in terms of Pant-Mirza Agreement of 1955; and
(b) the annual expenditures incurred in the maintenance of shrines under this scheme?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]
(a) & (b) Visits by nationals of India and Pakistan to mutually agreed list of religious shrines in each other’s country are facilitated under the ‘Bilateral Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines’ signed in September 1974. This includes visits to shrines
of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti (Ajmer), Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi), Hazrat Amir Khusro (Delhi), Hazrat Mujaddid Alf Sani (Sirhind Sharif) and Hazrat Khwaja Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir (Kalyar Sharif) in India and Shadani Darbar (Hyat Pitafi), Shri Katasraj
Dham (Lahore), Gurudwaras of Shri Nankana Sahib (Rawalpindi), Shri Panja Sahib (Rawalpindi) and Shri Dera Sahib (Lahore) in Pakistan.
Under the Protocol it is the obligation of the concerned country to make every effort to ensure that the places of worship in the agreed list of shrines under the Protocol are properly maintained and their sanctity preserved. Government of India ensures that
these Shrines in India are properly maintained and their sanctity preserved.
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