Beyond Kartarpur

This refers to the editorial, ‘Kartarpur 2.0’ (June 9). Agreeing with the suggestions in the editorial, I would like to add that, apart from ‘religious tourism’ such as Kartarpur, Nankana, Katas etc, there can be several other types of specialized touristic ventures. This would include environmental tourism, mountain hiking and serious professional mountaineering, wildlife and nature tourism, trophy hunting under limited licences, adventure tourism of several types, heritage/historical tourism (further divided into pre-Islamic, Islamic, colonial /British), food and gourmet tourism and so on. What is really needed is sustainable planning, organization and coordination between the federal and provincial governments and local businesses and stakeholders.

At present, we not only lack good tourism infrastructure and facilities but also any properly planned tourism. In most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab at least, it's all a chaotic mess. A holistic tourism master plan is needed for urgent implementation.

Omar Nizami

Abbottabad