PESHAWAR : Tourism Day goes unnoticed due to security concerns
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Sept 27: Activities relating to the World Tourism Day, which is celebrated around the globe with fanfare each year, were limited to a one-hour seminar in the NWFP here on Thursday, despite 2007 being declared as the Visit Pakistan Year by the tourism ministry.
The law and order situation in parts of the NWFP, especially the Malakand region, and the ‘war on terrorism’ in the nearby Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) is the main hurdle in the development of the tourism industry, official sources said.
Tourism department officials said this year was the worst vis-a-vis tourism as no activity could be held to celebrate the World Tourism Day in the Malakand region and the Swat valley.
An official said: “We could not even put up a banner there. Holding an activity in a high-risk place like Swat nowadays is impossible.”
The Sarhad Tourism Corporation, a government body for promoting tourism in the NWFP, held a seminar in a luxurious hotel where security measures were strict. The provincial minister for tourism, Hussain Ahmed Kanjo, was the chief guest on the occasion.
Officials said that various activities — like holding food festivals, a convention on tourism, the Khyber Safari steam train service to the historic Khyber Pass and tribal areas near Peshawar — were planned under the Visit Pakistan Year programme but due to security reasons only the seminar could be held.
They said elements needed to develop and promote the tourism industry, including a peaceful environment and good roads leading to tourism resorts, were missing and with every passing day the law and order situation in Malakand region is deteriorating.
An official said: “The Malakand Road offers access to all tourist destinations of the Swat valley and Dir. However, its condition is deteriorating with each passing day despite the ongoing repair and maintenance work for the last eight years or so. This situation discourages the tourists.”
More recently, a surge in terrorist activities and bomb blasts in Swat and other parts of Malakand region have proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the dying tourism industry.
Malakand region is once again in the grip of ‘Talibanisation’. A few months ago, it was Maulana Fazlullah, known as Maulana Radio, who raised issues which tarnished the image of the otherwise peaceful region having a potential for tourism.
Nowadays it is the local Taliban who are blowing up CD, video and barber shops, the Pak-Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management and police checkposts while public figures like district nazim and politicians like Afzal Khan Lala too have been targetted. The Taliban even tried to blow up a rock engraved with the image of Buddha, which is a historic site.
An official said: “Forget about foreign tourists, now even domestic tourists are afraid to go to these areas.” The law and order situation has hit tourism not only in Swat valley but the Takhtbai remains of the Gandhara civilisation, a declared World Heritage Site, is also not receiving many tourists.
The adjoining area of Cachalot, situated on the road to Swat and Takhtbai, poses serious threat to the security of commuters as it is a haven for kidnappers.
“My nephew was kidnapped in broad daylight yesterday by a gang of kidnappers and we suspect the kidnappers were from Sakhakot,” said a noble of Mingora. He added that when the local people were not safe, what to talk of foreign tourists.
