MULTAN, July 7: The tourists information centre has been functioning in a small room of a private hotel for the last 19 years. The centre, initially established in Hoshiana Hotel in 1988, was shifted to Sindbad Hotel after one year where it still exists in a congested room of only 11 by 22 feet. A four-member staff is running the affairs of the office set up to promote tourism in Multan.

Its first assistant tourist officer, Malik Muhammad Amjad Karlo and his assistant Mehdi Rara Gardezi, had quit their jobs within a year after they realized that the government was least interested in looking up the information centre.

In 2003, then tehsil nazim and present City District nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar, on the motivation of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation Deputy Managing Director Dr Ghazanfar Mehdi, had pledged to provide land for the centre on the premises of the Multan Fort. The Punjab government had also agreed to make available funds for the construction of a cafeteria as well.

Centre in charge Imran Qadir Gillani said that he had suggested acting DCO Qazi Muhammad Ishfaq that the department would arrange funds if the government provided a piece of land for the building. He said he was optimistic that the centre would soon have its own building as the acting DCO had asked the executive district officer (revenue) to submit him report in this regard.

Historian and intellectual Zahoor Ahmed Dhareja opposed the proposal of constructing centre’s building at the Multan Fort as, according to him, it would only deface the historic fort.

He also demanded demolition of all the newly-constructed buildings inside the fort to save it from being ruined.

Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Managing Director Salman Javed said that the corporation would shift the centre from Multan to either Sialkot or Faisalabad because it had failed to generate revenue.

He said Multan had two information centers — one working under the PTDC while the other under the Tourism Development Corporation Punjab (TDCP).

TDCP regional manager Sheikh Shoaib Ahmed said that Lahore is also included in those cities where the information centers of the TDCP are working.

Condemning the decision of winding up of the PTDC centre in Multan, Pakistan People’s Party MPA Dr Javed Ahmed Siddiqi said that tourists centres were not meant for generating revenue but for promoting tourism.

PML-N MPA Babu Nafees Ahmed Ansari said the people of Multan would resist the move of the PTDC to shift its office to some other city.