June 03, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 2: Federal Minister for Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar is reportedly neglecting her office work despite the prime minister’s rejection of her resignation. This is putting into jeopardy activities related to the “Visit Pakistan Year” project.

The Ministr y of Tourism has advertised 2007 as “Visit Pakistan Year”, in which connection some 52 events have been planned across the country to attract an estimated one million international tourists. The celebration kicked off with an inaugural ceremony in Islamabad in December.

But the brouhaha over the paragliding incident and the minister’s subsequent “fall from grace”, has taken its toll on the ministry’s activities. Requesting anonymity, a tourism official told Dawn that since Ms Bakhtiar submitted her resignation to the prime minister’s secretariat, the ministry is “in a total mess.”

“Before these events Ms Bakhtiar, who holds a professional degree in tourism, used to stay in office till late at night, making sure that every event was a success. She personally developed the calendar of events for the project and was overseeing everything,” said the official.

“Now, after her sudden absence from the scene, things have gone all wrong. The entire ministry is in jeopardy.” Since she tendered her resignation, Ms Bakhtiar has come to office only once, he said.

Ms Bakhtiar was recently replaced as the chief of the PML women’s wing by Youth Affairs Minister Sumaira Malik. Reportedly, Ms Bakhtiar lost party support because of a paraglide performed in the company of an elderly French instructor, to solicit charity for the areas hit by the 2005 earthquake. However, some sources said that a group within the PML engineered her ouster by taking advantage of the controversy.