The homecoming of former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has not only charged his party supporters, but has also created excitement among the Sikh yatrees.
LAHORE: The homecoming of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after seven years in exile has not only charged his party supporters, but has also created excitement among the Sikh yatrees, particularly those belonging to Jati Umra. Jati Umra is the native village of the Sharifs in Indian Punjab.
The landless joint family of Sharif’s forefathers, including his father Mohammad Sharif and grandfather Ramzan Sharif, lived in Jati Umra village before partition. The family, however, shifted to West Punjab (now Pakistan) before partition in search of greener pastures.
A few years before being banished to Saudi Arabia in 1999, the Sharifs developed an interest in farming. As a result, over 360 acres of land were purchased on the outskirts of Lahore in Raiwind, which was named Jati Umra after their ancestral village in India. The attachment of the Sharifs with Jati Umra can be gauged from the fact that he has decided to contest the 2008 general elections from the same area for the first time.
Sikh Yatrees, who are in Pakistan to participate in the celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak’s birthday, have welcomed the return of Nawaz Sharif. They call his return as a major development that would help revive the broken links between the residents of two Jati Umra villages.
A delegation of the Sikh yatrees from Jati Umra village in Indian Punjab visited the farm house residence of Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Tuesday to greet the former Prime Minister, saying their joy had ‘doubled’ after they found that Sharif is back home. The Sikh yatrees stayed with Sharif for quite some time and expressed happiness that their prayers for his return had been answered.
Massa Singh, a 70-year-old Sikh yatree from Jati Umra, told reporters after meeting Sharif that the residents of Jati Umra handed over an invitation letter to the son of the soil, asking him to visit his ancestral hometown in Indian Punjab.
“The Sikhs of Jati Umra had always prayed that Nawaz returns to his homeland as living in exile is not a happy experience. We know he was innocent and kept in forced exile,” said the man.
Kundan Singh, another yatree visiting the Sharif residence, said they had been praying for last five or six years for the safe return of Sharif. He said his family and other relatives had distributed sweets after they heard that Sharif was returning.
He said that ‘the birthday of Baba Guru Nanak and the return of Nawaz Sharif have doubled their joys’, adding that they couldn’t express their joys in words.
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