UNDOUBTEDLY Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is lead
ing efforts to promote healthy activities such as its rich culture and tourism. This is not only important to project the soft image of Pakistan abroad but also entails immense economic dividends.
According to a report released on Tuesday, the provincial government has decided to increase the budget for archaeology, sports, culture and youth affairs by around three billion rupees in the ongoing fiscal year. The budget for tourism has also been increased from two billion to five billion rupees. Indeed these are the areas which have never been given due prominence or importance in the past and this is the reason that we could not project the true face of Pakistan to the world. The development of sports infrastructure is also important to engage the youth in positive activities and one expects that the complexes to be built in the province will also provide sporting facilities to the women folk which are fifty percent of our population and their equal participation in such activities is important to raise the Pakistani flag at the world’s women sporting events. Provincial Minister for Sports and Tourism Muhammad Atif Khan really deserves appreciation for giving special emphasis to exploit the true potential of tourism and this is the reason that he is also receiving good response and assistance from the major world institutions. Just the World Bank has agreed to provide grants worth 17 billion rupees for tourism sector of the KP. We are confident that this assistance as well as the annual budget allocations will be fully spent on developing state-of-the-art tourist infrastructure that fully facilitates the travel and accommodation of the tourists to the scenic sites. It is also important that other federating units also give due focus to the promotion of tourism as alone this industry has immense potential to trigger economic activity in the country.
