Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority (KPCTA) to fully focus on the promotion of tourism activities in the province adding that all the ongoing initiatives and activities should be completed as soon as possible so as to get the full advantages of the tourism potential in the province and to achieve the goal behind the establishment of the authority in its real sense.
The Chief Minister also directed for concrete steps to make the various PTDC units functional in different districts of the province and made it clear that all those PTDC units in which minor repair work has to be done, should be completed soon and such units should be made functional so that these units can be utilized for the facilitation of tourists during the current season.
He issued these directives while chairing 3rd meeting of the Board of Directors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority held here the other day which accorded approval to the budget estimates of authority for the current fiscal year and various other matters related to the authority and ongoing tourist activities in the province. Provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Tourism Tahir Orakzai, Director General KPCTA Abid Khan Wazir and other members of the board attended the meeting.
While briefing the meeting about the progress regarding implementation of the decisions taken in the previous Board meeting, it was told that Tourism Police had been launched through transfer of the officers from police department and recruitment of 176 constables. Besides, Censorship of Motion Pictures Rules 2021, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hospitality and Tourism Sector Regulations 2021 and Culture and Tourism Authority Employees (efficiency, discipline and conduct) Regulations 2021 have been approved and notified under the authority.
The forum on the occasion, formally approved the proposed organogram and creation of posts for the engineering wing under the authority aimed at to ensure effective implementation of the development projects in the tourism sector. The forum also accorded approval to the proposed amendments in the relevant rules in order to adopt the revised pay scales and allowances of the provincial government for the employees of tourism corporation who were absorbed into Culture and Tourism Authority.
It was also approved to increase the upper age limit from thirty years to forty years for the recruitment of class IV posts under the authority. It is pertinent to mention here that the aforesaid age limit is already fourty years in other civil departments of the province. On this occasion, it was directed to create separate posts of General Manager Marketing and General Manager Planning under the authority and to hire experts from the market for these posts.
