LAHORE: Punjab Minister and former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan to attend Prime Minister Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony was shrouded in controversies. However, Sidhu made sure that he made the most of his visit while he visited the neighbouring country.
Apart from attending Imran Khan's oath ceremony, Sidhu went shopping, met some politicians and cricketers before heading back to India on Sunday.
During his visit, he went to the Taxali Gate in Islamabad. He bought the special tillay walay shoes for himself and for his family, as per a report in Pakistan daily Dawn. The shopkeepers there offered the shoes as a gift to the former Indian cricketer. However, Sidhu refused to accept the shoes for free and paid for the shoes. People also gathered and took selfies with Sidhu.
As per the report, he was supposed to Meet the Press at the Lahore Press Club but the event was cancelled for unknown reasons. Sidhu was hosted in Lahore by Punjab Governor-designate Chaudhry Sarwar.
On his return from Islamabad, the 54-year-old leader said that he received a lot of love from Pakistani people and hoped for peace between the two countries. "I am overwhelmed by the love I received here," he said. To a question about the revival of cricketing ties between India and Pakistan, he said: "I am in favour of resuming cricketing ties. It is a good idea if IPL and PSL winners have a clash."
Imran Khan, who captained the Pakistan cricket team to World Cup glory in 1992, had invited some of his former teammates and friends to witness his formal accession to the top ministerial job in the country.
Sidhu had received backlash for sitting beside Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir President, Masood Khan and hugging Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Islamabad visit. However, the Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu defended himself saying he sat where he was asked to. "If one is invited as a guest of honour somewhere, then they have to sit wherever they are asked to. I was sitting somewhere else but they asked me to sit there," he said.
Speaking about why he hugged the Pakistan Army Chief, the Congress leader said, "If someone (Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa) comes and says that we belong to the same culture and we will open Kartarpur border on Guru Nanak Dev's 550th Prakash Parv, what else I could do?"
