CHITRAL, Sept 20: The district is being denied its due share in the compensation money by the provincial government which it had claimed from the federal government due to the colossal loss it received in the tourism sector due to the volatile situation in the NWFP for the last three years.

According to sources, the provincial government has requested the federal government to extend financial support to it to make up the losses and its approval is in the final stage. They apprehended that a large chunk of the aid money would be diverted to Swat and other areas while Chitral had been neglected almost.

They said that Chitral was one of the few districts of the country where there was tremendous potential for the promotion of tourism and where a large portion of the population was depending on tourism for their survival.

Although relative tranquillity and peace prevails in the district, but it is a fact that it has lost half the number of tourists during the recent years and a large number of people has been rendered jobless.

No foreign expedition team has arrived for the last three years to scale different peaks in the Hindukush range which included Trichmir, they added. The expedition teams used to spend a good deal of time in the area and employed the local people in different capacities and paid them handsome remuneration. Thousands of people have lost their source of income which they derived from the tourism industry.

The sources said that all the stakeholders of the tourism industry were facing financial losses due to the limited influx of tourists during the past many years.

“Baroghil festival was cancelled by the federal government apparently on security grounds which could have attracted a large number of foreign tourists,” an official said, adding that recently the provincial government on the same ground cancelled the Jashn-i-Chitral festival.

The sources said that even the Kalash festival Chilim Jushi has been thrown to low profile as less number of foreigners visited the valleys during the last three years. They said that it would be quite injustice with the district if it was ignored in the development of tourism and demanded large portion in the compensation money to rehabilitate the affected persons in the industry.