Faiza Tehseen

There is a dire need for coordination among the archaeological and tourism departments for the renovation of Buddhist historical sites in Pakistan to increase the inflow of tourists/pilgrims, said Manager Tourist Facilitation Centres Mukhtar Ali while talking to WealthPK. Besides renovation of the Buddhist historical sites, introduction of rest houses equipped with all the facilities will contribute a lot towards building the soft image of the country abroad besides generating handsome foreign exchange for the state coffers, he said.

Sharing his views and efforts of the Government of Pakistan for promoting Gandhara tourism, he said a great number of people follow the Buddhist school of thought and arekeen to feast their eyes on the Gandhara heritage.

In order to serve the Buddhist pilgrims, monks, visitors, and researchers, the government has initiated many plans, he said. As a first step, National Tourism Coordination Board (NTCB) was established on March 12^, 2019. It was a mutual working bridge among the provinces. Multiple tourism segments were attached to it. The NTCB has made it easy to coordinate the common tourism interests, i.e., Gandhara civilization/Buddhist remains are found in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Federal Territory, etc. Different tourism segments were its part, i.e., Gandhara tourism, adventure tourism, heritage tourism, archaeologicaltourism, religious tourism related to different sacred places of a multitude of religions, e.g., Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrians, and eco-tourism.

The core duty of the NTCB was to focus on these unattended segments to make them more attractive, peaceful, and productive. Continuing the discussion, Mukhtar Ali shared that afterwards, a task forcenamed National Tourism Coordination Committee (NTCC)was constituted to further promote and monitor the activities of the NTCB. To promote the unattended segment of tourism, especially related to Gandhara, the Gandhara Taskforce is actively playing its role. Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani is actively leading it, being an advisor to the prime minister on Gandhara tourism. The task forcewas made properly functional in early June this year. Dr. Ramesh worked on a war footing for promotion of Gandhara tourism. He took a speedy startand claimed that within three months, he would show productive results.

He also arranged two weekly tours (Monday and Wednesday) to different Buddhist sites. In July, he successfully arranged a three-day international Gandhara symposium (from the 11^th to the 13^th of July 2023) attended by Buddhist pilgrims and famous monks all around the globe. The PTDC, Institute of Strategic Studies, and other stakeholders played an active role in making this event successful. All these activities will play a vital role in the promotion of Gandhara heritage worldwide. Before this symposium,the PTDC launched a mega event related to Gandharain 2006 and 2007. Mukhtar said providing tourism facilities to the people belonging to the Buddhist school of thought will addto the footfalls of Buddha lovers. The government must consider this fact and work to uplift the religious tourism activities which will help generate thousands of direct/indirect job opportunities and foreign exchange for the state wallets, he added.

Credit: INP-WealthPk