London Mayor Sadiq Khan arrived today in Pakistan accompanied by a 16-member UK business leaders delegation on a three-day official visit.
Lahore Mayor Colonel (retd) Mubashir received the delegation at Wagah border, Lahore and gave them a warm welcome.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed Khan through his official Twitter account and also held a meeting with him at his office.
Khan will later visit Badshahi mosque whereas a dinner will also be arranged in his honour.
This is the first visit of mayor of London to Pakistan and India. He begun his six-day trade mission to the neighbouring countries by visiting India on December 3 where he stopover in Mumbai, Delhi and Amritsar.
Sadiq Khan is the first London’s mayor to visit both India and Pakistan to promote business and cultural ties between the two countries and the capital.
“As someone whose grandparents were born in India, and whose parents moved to London from Pakistan, I feel a deep affinity for the subcontinent,” the Mayor said in a press statement.
“But what excites me most about this trip is that I know it can deliver real benefits for Londoners. Benefits in terms of business and trade, jobs and investment, and in terms of cultural and technological exchange.”
Khan is here to spread the message that London is open to those who're looking to work, visit or study following the EU referendum.
“I am passionate about showing that my city will always be open to engaging with partners from around the world,” the Mayor said.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on Wednesday said that the British government should apologise for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre during a visit to the memorial site in Amritsar, before departing for Pakistan.
The massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters in the city of Amritsar, remains an enduring scar of British colonial rule over the subcontinent.
Former British prime minister David Cameron described it as deeply shameful when he visited the memorial during a 2013 trip to India, but stopped short of an apology.
Writing in the visitors' book, Khan said it had been “incredibly moving” to see the site of the massacre, calling it a tragedy that should never be forgotten.
“It is time for the British government to finally apologise,” he wrote.
“Our thoughts are with all those who died.”
"Poignant visit to the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and gardens in Amritsar today, where I paid my respects to all those who lost their lives in the horrific Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in 1919," Khan wrote on Twitter later.Colonial-era records show about 400 people died when soldiers opened fire on men, women and children in the enclosed area, but Indian figures put the toll at closer to 1,000.
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at Jallianwala Bagh during a tour of India. But her gaffe-prone husband Prince Philip stole the headlines by reportedly saying that the Indian estimates for the death count were “vastly exaggerated”.
Khan, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver in London, also laid a wreath at a memorial to the victims.
Earlier in the day, he visited the Golden Temple, the most revered place for the Sikh religion, where he covered his head with a white cloth and sat cross-legged on the floor to eat at the community kitchen.
