MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 20: The AJK government has planned a three-day tourist festival, that would coincide with the World Tourism Day, to tap the rich potential of the state in the tourism sector, a senior official said here on Friday.

The festival, which will include a conference of tour operators and investors from across the country, will be held in the third week of September in Muzaffarabad, Chief Secretary Kashif Murtaza told reporters.

Flanked by Secretary Finance Saleem Sethi and Secretary Tourism Chaudhry Khurshid, the CS said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had also listed tourism as one of the three areas which could make AJK economically self reliant.

He expressed a hope that the event would help expose breathtakingly beautiful tourist sites in AJK to domestic tourists and to the outside world.

He, however, could not offer a satisfactory reply to a question on unnecessary procedural complications hindering visits of foreigners to AJK.

He said the situation had improved in the wake of the peace process between Pakistan and India following which the procedure for foreigners had also been simplified.

When asked which official agency foreigners should turn to for a visit to AJK, he said they should seek an NOC from the federal ministry of Kashmir affairs which would subsequently intimate the AJK home department about it.

He claimed that at present focus of the AJK government was on domestic tourists.

He admitted that though the infrastructure in AJK was not at par, the government was determined to provide maximum facilities to visitors.

Going back to the tourist festival, he said that it would also include a number of cultural events, such as a thematic play - “Soul and Spirit of Kashmir” - on the first day and a musical evening dedicated to Kashmir’s legendary singer Malika Pukhraj on the second day.

An artisans’ bazaar would be set up in the Neelum Fort, a photography exhibition in the hotel adjacent to the fort and a food festival at the old Neelum Bridge, he added.

AJK President Sardar Anwar Khan would open the festival whereas Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat would be the chief guest on the concluding day when recommendations and proposals would be put up before him, the CS said.

Federal Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat and the general officer commanding of 12th Division would attend programmes on the second day, he added.

Replying a question, he said the event would put a little burden on the AJK exchequer as 90 percent of its expenditures would be met by sponsors.

Responding to another question, he said that besides investors industrialists, the government would also invite Islamabad-based diplomats and officials of international donor agencies to the festival.

He said the AJK government would prepare documentaries of tourist spots so as to attract private sector to tourism.