Pakistan said on Friday, November 6, 2026, that it would consider issuing a visa to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann if the Aam Aadmi Party leader wished to visit the country. Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan made the remark at his weekly media briefing, responding to a question about a possible trip by Mann.

There is a catch, and Khan was quick to name it. Whether the Indian government would allow Mann to travel to Pakistan, he said, was an entirely separate matter. Islamabad can open the door, but New Delhi still holds the key.

An invitation to Lahore, and a doubt about travel

The story began on October 23, when Mann said he had been invited to attend the World Punjabi Conference in Lahore on November 27. He did not sound confident about going. He openly questioned whether he would be allowed to travel to Pakistan.

Mann still framed the idea in cultural terms. His words on the matter were direct and warm, and they set the tone for the wider debate that followed.

“Our culture is the same. Many poets from here will go there,” Mann had said.

Mann also put a condition on a broader Kartarpur idea. He said he wanted all legislators of the Punjab Legislative Assembly to visit Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, but only if the Kartarpur Corridor reopened. That condition is now the heart of the story.

What the Kartarpur Corridor is, and why it is shut

The Kartarpur Corridor connects Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab with the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. It was built to help Sikh pilgrims reach the shrine associated with Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism.

Under the arrangement, Indian pilgrims can visit the gurdwara without needing a visa for Pakistan, subject to the applicable arrangements. On paper, it is one of the most visible examples of people-to-people contact across the border.

In practice, the corridor has not been open to pilgrim movement from the Indian side since May 7, 2025. That was the day India launched pre-dawn missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, following the Pahalgam terror attack.

Pakistan says it has stayed ready. Khan said the country remained ready to facilitate pilgrims once the restrictions were lifted, and that the corridor was set up as a special initiative to serve Sikh pilgrims.

Pakistan’s numbers and its pitch to pilgrims

Khan used the briefing to make a case built on figures. He said Pakistan welcomes pilgrims of all faiths and remains committed to facilitating visits to religious sites.

According to Khan, Pakistan issued more than 9,000 visas to Indian religious pilgrims in 2025, including Sikh and Hindu pilgrims. In the first half of this year, it issued over 4,000 additional visas to Sikh pilgrims.

He also described the scale the corridor can handle when it is working. Khan said it enables more than 5,000 pilgrims to visit the shrine daily and return on the same day.

Looking ahead, Khan pointed to a near-term event. “Pakistan looks forward to welcoming a large number of Sikh pilgrims at Nankana Sahib later this month to mark the 557th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji,” he said.

The 1974 protocol and a heritage push

Khan said the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines between Pakistan and India provided a framework for facilitating religious pilgrimages between the two countries. That agreement is the legal scaffolding that Pakistan is pointing to when it talks about shrine visits.

He also said Pakistan was taking steps to preserve and protect Buddhist heritage sites, including those in Taxila and Takht-i-Bahi. To handle that work, Pakistan has established a special task force.

What happens next

For now, nothing has been decided on the Mann visit. Pakistan has said it will consider a visa if he asks for one. The decision that matters most sits in New Delhi, and the spokesperson made that point without any ambiguity.

The timing gives the story its edge. The Lahore conference is set for November 27, and Nankana Sahib events are expected later this month. Those dates will test whether a political invitation, a religious corridor and a diplomatic message can move in the same direction.

Mann’s own words capture the mood. He framed the exchange as shared culture. Pakistan framed it as a welcome mat. Whether India opens the gate is the question nobody in Islamabad could answer on Friday.