The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Archaeology, Museums, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs while inaugurating the newly renovated Sethi House in Peshawar for the Pakistani and Foreign tourists highlighted some problems related to tourism. He asked the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination to hand over the PTDC properties in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to its government according to the 18th constitutional amendment.
Shah’s demand is genuine because he is an expert on the subject of tourism who always attend seminars, symposium and workshops on tourism in foreign countries to which he goes well prepared with printed material. Above all the is a hotelier and owner of tourist lodges and huts which is the most important part of tourism industry. He properly projects the image of the country and tells the participants that Pakistan is a country in which right from snow capped mountains to archaeological sites of world heritage exist. He specially refers to the Buddhist civilization of Gandhara in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which can be a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhist of the world for which he is working hard to attract them. The largest numbers of tourists come from Japan to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is a land of inspiration for them. so is the KP for the Koreans also. We used to see the groups of the Buddhist monks coming every year before the tragedy of September 11 who performed their religious rites in the Buddhist monasteries and museums of the KP.
The PTDC has not been fully provicialised yet and left untouched because its rest houses and lodges in the KP are used by its employees. It is not performing its responsibilities well and I have not seen their foreign groups tours because its employees do not do marketing abroad well. They attend all the seminars and workshops abroad and install their desks with their tourist literature and material in it. Experts on Pakistan art, architecture, culture and archaeology are needed for their purpose which they archaeologists very well.
Syed Aqil Shah had agreed to absorb all the employees of the PTDC in the KP in the post but the federal government is silent on this issue. There are a few persons in Islamabad and Rawalpindi who oppose the transfer of the PTDC to the provinces and still want to retain it with the federal government, in spite of the 18th constitutional amendment which is not fully implemented. Thus autonomy is denied to the provinces under one pretext or the other. Tourism is not only the foreign exchange earning industry but it has other benefits also. It informs the foreign tourists about the history and culture of the country. This job is done by the tourist guides who travel with the group tours all over the country. They should be highly educated young boys with the knowledge of the foreign languages to explain the places of interests to them in their languages. I saw many young Pakistani guides who speak excellent English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and other languages. They told me that they obtained their degrees and diplomas from the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Islamabad. India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and many more countries of Asia are harvesting the fruit of tourism. Now the European countries USA UK Australia, Canada and others are looking at Asia to travel there. These Asian countries have well organized tourist industries run by experts and professionals who attract rich foreign tourists and tourist agencies that send group tours to them.
As reported by the experts and tourist agencies in Pakistan, 75 percent of tourism is confined to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in which the tourist take interest to travel.
Syed Aqil Shah’s demand is based on facts. Therefore, the Ministry of Inter provincial Coordination should transfer the PTDC and its properties to the government of Kp so that it should work well to promote tourism.
This will bring prosperity to the KP under the able guidance of Syed Aqil Shah, the Minister of Tourism of the government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I would request the Minister of Tourism to approach the authorities concerned to make arrangements to start classes to teach Japanese and Korean languages in Peshawar.
Besides NUML such facility is available in Karachi and Lahore also. This will be a great service of Shah to KP if he succeeds in starting foreign languages courses in Peshawar. Our young guides will explain all the Buddhist sites in Gandhara in a better way because they are its sons who were born and brought up in it and know the history, culture, customs and traditions of this region very well. Their knowledge will play a significant role in bringing more foreign tourists to KP in future.
