11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, July 10: The government will support domestic tourism industry with an allocation of Rs50 million, waive mountaineering fees for the next three years and confer decorations on climbers scaling the country's mountains , says Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebrations of K-2 and 51st anniversary of the conquest of Nanga Parbat at a local hotel here.

The prime minister said that these measures would help generate job opportunities in the country's mountainous regions besides helping improve the country's image abroad.

Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat, while announcing the measures to boost local tourism industry, said that it had suffered badly in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, adding that these steps would help improve its condition.

The function jointly organized by the minorities, culture, sports and tourism divisions.

He took the audience by surprise when he began his inaugural speech by saying: "I am the elected prime minister and not a care-taker one." There was apparently no reason for him to make that statement.

Chaudhry Shujaat welcomed foreign visitors who had come to Pakistan to attend the golden jubilee celebrations on behalf of the president.

Earlier, State Minister Rais Munir Ahmed, highlighted Pakistan's strategic importance besides focussing on its mountain ranges - Karakoram, Himalayas and the Hindu Kush.

He thanked President Pervez Musharraf for supporting the golden jubilee celebrations which, he said, had attracted an amazing number of mountaineers from various parts of the world, including Austria, Germany, Japan, Nepal, Poland, the UK and the US, adding that it had established Pakistan's claim as a country with great tourism potential which awaited further development.

Italian Ambassador Roberto Mozzoto said his country was proud of Achille Copagnoni and Lino Lacadelli, both of them Italians, who had first conquered K-2, often described as one of the world's most treacherous mountain.

Italian charge d'affairs Mr. Martin Berger said the celebrations also recalled the conquest of Nanga Parbat, better known for being the 'killer mountain', in July 1963 by an Austrian expedition.

Secretary Tourism Jalil Abbas said that the celebrations had attracted about 1,300 mountaineers from 22 countries. He said that the celebrations would last till August 2 after all mountaineers returned to Islamabad where they would be asked to review the existing infrastructure for promoting adventure tourism in the country.

K-2 and Nanga Parbat peaks were the centre of attention at the first session of the seminar organized to mark the occasion, which was presided over by Minister of Kashmir and Northern Affairs Dr Sayid Ghazi Gulab Jamal.