Zaheer Bhatti
IT is all very well to draw momentary satisfaction
from some positive international indexes for home
consumption such as the fact that Pakistan has been rated as the most favoured destination behind none for tourism, and that it does not figure among top twenty countries listed as most dangerous places to live in, by an International Organization Spectator Index Report, in which India is the 5th, Britain 12th and US the 16th ill-advised destinations for habitation; Brazil topping the list followed by South Africa 2nd, Nigeria 3rd and Argentina 4th. In 2018, the British Black Paper Society ranked Pakistan as the world’s top Adventure Travel Destination describing the country as “ one of the friendliest countries on earth, with mountain scenery which is beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.” Forbes, a global media company focusing on business, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and lifestyle, ranked Pakistan in 2019 as one of the ‘coolest places to visit’. And Traveller by Conde’ Nast’, one of world’s best travel portals in 2020, lists Pakistan as one of the most favourite destinations for tourists. And why not!
With the unmatched variety of topography ranging from lush green plains, seaside and beaches, deserts, plateaus, snow-capped mountains to the largest number of tall peaks of the world, ski resorts, lakes and valleys; you name it; the Pakistani landscape is bedecked with thousands of years old Indus Valley Civilization, Gandhara, the cradle of Buddhist civilization and the Mughal Architectural monuments; not to exclude Gwadar, world’s greatest deep water seaport; the fast developing future Dubai and Singapore of Pakistan. Where on earth is so much available in one basket!
And yet the incapacity or inability of functionaries to attract the world to nature’s unmatched beauty and treasures and capitalize on the opportunity is the sad part of the story. Even though successive Governments have paid lip service to tourism promotion under the banner of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation since 1970 when it was founded and resolved to develop touristic spots across the country, Pakistan figures nowhere among the top ten tourism revenue earning countries which are the US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Germany, Japan, Thailand and China in that order.
The reason is that development of the tourism industry which not only requires development of touristic spots but also a whole infrastructure to go with it including communication links, road access, transportation, guides, motels and a comprehensive promotion drive, has never been a priority with any Pakistani Government. The faltering and fumbling current PTI Government in Pakistan, though, has taken a meaningful practical step in that direction by easing travel with an e-Visa Policy enabling visitors from 175 countries to obtain an on-line single entry visa which enables visitors to stay in the country for 30 days.
But there is a lot of pre-emption Pakistan has to do since it has been struggling to find its feet confronted with the bogey of terrorism transplanted in the country and Indian propaganda of terror funding and fundamentalism against it, thus diverting its energies and limited resources. Now that mercifully the enemy-planted stigma has been removed from the soil at great sacrifice in men and material and the evading peace brought back to the country signified by the return of International Cricket to Pakistan and sight-seeing visit by the Royal British couple, the leadership should be well on course to energize potentially the most productive tourism industry and to garnish the hitherto obscured but the real face of Pakistan laced with natural beauty and the warmest of hospitality acknowledged now the world over.
One area of alert and vigil while actualizing this potential one is sure those at the helm of affairs must already be seized of, is the fifth generation hybrid warfare, Pakistan arch enemy is currently engaged in following Pakistan’s successes at bringing back normalcy which India has always found hard to swallow including any development effort favouring Pakistan’s economy. Contrary to India attempting to develop Chabahar Port in Iran as a counterweight to Gwadar to harm Pak-China business interests, Pakistan welcomed Chabahar and billed it as a mutually complimenting development. India has doubled its efforts to disturb peace in Pakistan with fresh attempts at refurbishing its destroyed sleeper cells in Pakistan of which recent suicide bombings in mosques, targeting men in uniform and reactivating its proxies such as Pakistan Pushtun Movement for so-called Pushtun rights while continuing its bogey of terrorism against Pakistan around the world.
Indian leadership weary of Pakistan’s potential to answer back in kind additionally engages in empty threats of attack only to divert from its own faux pas of Kashmir Merger and its discriminatory Citizenship Act aimed against Muslims and a dozen odd States seeking Independence from Hindutva-obsessed BJP in India which itself appears to be on course to rapid disintegration and to reap what it has been sowing for Pakistan. CPEC, regardless of the imperial discomfort and its efforts to derail the ambitious project, remains a multi-facetted enterprise not just for China and Pakistan but the entire world presenting a corridor for eased business particularly for countries in the region, and it is this flagship which must forthwith take tourism development in Pakistan into its fold. Pakistan struggling economically, has to go miles to provide an enabling environment to achieve compatible industrial productivity in order to truly benefit from the industrial zones being developed and the infrastructure being laid to facilitate business and trading.
The only industry for which raw material in the form of nature’s beauty is abundantly available in Pakistan with no foreign exchange requirements to develop is Tourism, which must be developed with an imaginative promotion drive as a top priority under the CPEC banner. This would not only generate the direly needed revenues but also create tremendous job opportunities to battle the rising spectre of unemployment in the country, for which the answer is certainly not in filling up undesirable vacancies in public sector institutions which are already overstaffed.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
