Thursday, 28 March 2024, 11:30:29 pm

Secretary Tourism Punjab, Mushtaq Ahmad
October 02, 2021

Punjab has a huge tourism potential with a number of sites of religious, cultural and historic significance dotted across the province.

This was stated by Secretary Tourism Punjab Captain (Retd.) Mushtaq Ahmad in an exclusive interview with News and Current Channel of Radio Pakistan, Islamabad.

Mushtaq Ahmad said the vision of Prime Minister is to promote national as well as international tourism. He said feasibility plans of five places have been made out of ten. He said zonings will be made based on various types of tourism including religious, heritage, historical and scenic.

The Secretary Tourism Punjab said a lot of work is needed to explore the full diversity of tourism in Pakistan. He said Prime Minister is himself heading National Coordination Committee on Tourism and progress review meetings of the committee are held on regular basis.

He said a new tourist destination is being developed at Kotli Sattian to reduce the rush of tourists at Murree and adjoining Galiyats.

Secretary Tourism Punjab said work is being done in Chakwal on a project to promote nature and heritage tourism. He said year round desert safari activities are being planned in Bahawalpur.

Secretary Tourism Punjab said Sikh and Buddhist tourism has a high potential under religious travel in the province. He said Pakistan have a number of key Sikh religious sites including Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Corridor among others.

He said similarly talks are being held between tourism departments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to facilitate Buddhist tourists in both provinces.

Mushtaq Ahmad said plans are being made for licensing and standardization of restaurants at tourist places, so that quality is not compromised on services. He said a tourism police will be introduced on the pattern of advanced countries.

They will be properly equipped and will facilitate and assist tourists in different areas. For this purpose, services of master trainers from Turkey will be hired.

Emphasizing the role of media in promotion of tourism, Mushtaq Ahmad said it can help disseminate information about tourism potential of Pakistan.

He said we are participating in Dubai Expo 2020 in which beautiful tourist resorts of Pakistan will be showcased in order to attract foreign tourists as well as investors.