| August 23, 2005 | Tuesday | Rajab 17, 1426 |
It’s Muttahida against the rest in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: The local body elections have become a matter of ‘life and death’ for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Hyderabad, given the fact that it lost two seats, one of the National Assembly and the other of the Sindh Assembly in the 2002 general elections to a powerful conglomerate of religious parties.
The thrill of visiting Pakistan
WE may not have the shopping centres of Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, the beaches of Phuket in Thailand or Langkawi in Malaysia, or the entertainment facilities of Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Nevertheless, promoting tourism here should have been a cinch, given the majestic beauty the country possesses in the mountainous north, long coastal line and desert in the south as well its Gandhara, Mughal and Indus civilization heritage.
According to reports, foreign mountaineering expeditions, which dived to a low of 30 in 2002 after 9/11, have risen to 73 this year.
Incidents like the recent sensational helicopter rescue of a Slovenian mountaineer trapped on Nanga Parbat in the Himalayan range, provide great publicity for tourism in the Northern Areas. So do foreign television documentaries and travel series on Pakistan’s snowy mountain ranges, as well as Hollywood films such as Vertical Limit featuring K-2 as the backdrop.
Last week’s inauguration by our national airline of a thrice weekly Air Safari of the northern mountains starting from Islamabad is the latest effort to tap the country’s tourism potential. The Air Safari is obviously aimed at the less adventurous tourists who do not want to climb mountains but simply want to view the thrilling sites from a safe distance.
Not many know that the unique Air Safari had first started several years ago as a weekly flight and was later increased to twice weekly, but somehow it was never properly projected. Now it has been revived as a thrice weekly flight, taking tourists on a two-hour breathtaking tour manoeuvring through the steep gorges and valleys of hundreds of majestic peaks in the Northern Areas.
However, many in the tourist business here lament that we have not quite capitalized on our tourism potential.
The growth of tourism here has been hindered by a combination of bad luck (9/11 and its aftermath in the region) and negative international publicity about our nuclear bomb and acts of terrorism in the country. And we also have ourselves to blame for the slow recognition of the importance of tourism, not only as a foreign exchange earner but also as a public relations (PR) exercise for promoting a positive image of the country.
A senior official in the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation was recently reported to have said that the entire tourism ministry had a budget of only $40 million whereas India was spending $300 million alone on publicity campaigns.
It is not surprising thus that the general public’s response to the government’s recent declaration of 2006 as “Visit Pakistan Year” has been somewhat sceptical. Why would people want to visit Pakistan? is the question being asked.
Many potential tourists are being frightened away not only by foreign governments which issue travel advisories every now and then warning its citizens against visiting Pakistan, but also by Pakistani staff at our missions abroad, who instead of projecting Pakistan and encouraging foreign visitors, often discourage them from coming.
Complaints about some of our embassy staff’s discourteous attitude with visa seekers abroad appear in the press occasionally, including the one in an English daily two weeks ago which related how a group of nine Japanese tourists who had approached the Pakistani embassy in Nepal for visas were thrown out of the office. The writer’s concluding question was why would anyone go through such agony to visit Pakistan!
Indeed, some foreign academicians, businessmen, etc., have been discouraged from coming to Pakistan to attend conferences and meetings not only by their own governments which issue travel advisories against travelling to this country, but also by Pakistani embassy staff who often themselves advise potential visa seekers not to travel there. This was exactly what happened to a Hungarian academician when he approached the Pakistan mission last summer for a visa to attend a conference in Islamabad. He decided not to come.
If we really want to promote tourism and make the official slogan “Visit Pakistan 2006” a success, we need to do two things for starters: One, push for the withdrawal of travel advisories with foreign governments, and two, grant visas to tourists upon their arrival at entry points instead of subjecting them to red-tape and long waits at Pakistani embassies abroad.
It is one thing for the government to wish that the number of Japanese tourists visiting Buddhist sites in Pakistan should increase to 70,000 from 7,000 last year. But it is quite another to actualize and facilitate this huge potential increase in the number of Buddhist pilgrims visiting Pakistan, beginning from readily issuing them visas to making their visit here pleasant and comfortable.
Tourism promotion should not only be aimed at attracting Buddhist devotees from Asian countries to make pilgrimages to archaeological sites of the Gandhara civilization, or mountaineers from other countries to climb the tall peaks in the Northern Areas. Much more tourist inflow can be expected from those wishing to come to Pakistan for the purpose of business, attending conferences or visiting relatives.
It is not enough that our tourism ministry participates in travel fairs abroad by merely setting up stalls there, e.g., at the forthcoming JATA World Travel Fair 2005 in Japan where we are expected to participate. Since tourism is a very competitive global industry, we need to do much more in publicizing Pakistan as a place that offers a more unique experience and better attractions than neighbouring rivals like India and Nepal, especially in terms of mountain scenery and historical sights.
Colourful brochures and catchy advertisements on major international television channels and other foreign channels featuring thrilling attractions in Pakistan and special airfare- cum-hotel-cum-city tour packages can do wonders.
Rather than the specific and rather bland “Visit Pakistan 2006” slogan, a more general and captivating slogan like, for instance, “Thrilling Pakistan” or “The Pakistan Experience”, can perhaps prove more effective in attracting visitors in the long run.
The influx of money-spending foreign tourists out to have the thrill of their lifetime will go a long way in helping to erase the image of Pakistan as a country where visitors come mainly to attend seminaries or to get indoctrinated in terrorism.
While the MQM claims to be fully prepared for the polls, it faces serious allegations of kidnapping, harassing and intimidating the candidates backed by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Ittehad-i-Millat Group.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain has already made it clear to the party cadre that like in Karachi he wants to see MQM-backed candidates at the helm in the district.
Councillors backed by MQM’s Haq Parast Group (HPG) returned to the municipal corporation in Hyderabad, grabbing slots of mayor and deputy mayor in the 1987 local elections, held by the military government on a non-party basis.
It boycotted the National Assembly elections in 1993 in the wake of it called an army operation against its cadres after it had returned to power in 1988 and 1990 general elections, forming coalition governments with the PPP and the Nawaz-led government.
In 1997 it became an ally of the PML only to quit the government in October 1998 following the murder of Hakim Said in Karachi Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s allegation of involvement of MQM activists in the killing of the former Sindh governor.
The MQM did not participate in the 2001 local polls, enabling the groups by arch rivals Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan to rule the local body institutions in Karachi and Hyderabad –- the cities which had been its bastion of power since late 80s.
Perhaps that boycott cost the party its vital national and provincial assembly seats in the general elections in the two cities in the 2002 general elections.
In the elections the party faced serious problem because of newly-demarcated constituencies. Besides, in the wake of the US-led aggression against Afghanistan, the MMA with its strong anti-west stance influenced the religious minded people, especially in Phulelli and Paretabad which form part of assembly constituencies –- the stronghold of the late Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani’s JUP.
As a result, JUP-backed Haji Moinuddin Sheikh retuned as Taluka Nazim City, openly claiming to have liberated the people of fear from the MQM.
He proposed a number of various development projects to the district government, some of which were executed but the other remained pending till the district was bifurcated.
The LB representatives belonging to religious parties also played a role in countering the MQM during the general elections of 2002. However, after forming coalition governments at the centre and in Sindh the MQM tried to make its presence felt in the city, claiming credit for the Rs10.5 billion president’s Hyderabad Development Package, release of funds under Rs500 million governor’s package, Rs1 billion Hyderabad special project and the recent allocation of Rs1 billion for filter plant schemes announced from the Muttahida’s platform by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the July 17 public meeting.
In the current LB elections in Hyderabad, it is MQM versus the rest as the PPP, MMA and PML-N have forged seat adjustment accords in union councils.
There was a strong feeling among the defunct district government leaders that the MQM was instrumental in delaying the release of funds of the HDP in order to claim credit for development work as it is poised to form district government in Hyderabad, especially after its division into four districts.
The party had originally planned to divide Hyderabad into two districts, for the city fulfils the requirements for a city district government under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), but the coalition partners disagreed and finally Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar and Matiari, talukas of defunct Hyderabad district, were declared as full-fledged districts.
The district now has 52 union councils with four talukas and according to the election commission its population stands at 1,372,469. The City taluka has the highest number of UCs (20), followed by Latifabad (17), Hyderabad (rural) 11 and Qasimabad 4.
The MMA and the PPP have fielded joint candidates in Hyderabad and Latifabad whereas in Qasimabad and Hyderabad (rural), talukas candidates of PPP’s Awam Dost Panel (ADP) will be up facing government-sponsored candidates.
In the City and Latifabad talukas nazims backed by the JUP and JI had returned in nine UCs in the last LB elections. The ADP grabbed four UCs in the two talukas but it clinched an overwhelming majority of UCs in Hyderabad rural taluka and emerged victorious in two UCs of Qasimabad taluka.
The PPP which had got its district nazim elected in Hyderabad district and Taluka Nazims in five talukas in the last LB elections appears to be vulnerable in the new districts largely due to differences within the Makhdoom family.
Even former Zila nazim Hyderabad Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman is said to be backing the candidates of an independent group (Awami Ittehad) in Qasimabad taluka, headed by former Taluka nazim Noor Mohammad Shoro against ADP’s candidates, nominated by its district election board.
Mr Shoro has met with the Sindh chief minister in Hyderabad last week for seat adjustments.
The Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STPP) has also fielded its candidates in the union councils of Qasimabad making the contest quite interesting.
In view of the electoral understanding among the opposition parties, the ruling PML and MQM also have entered into seat adjustments agreement at the district at UC level.