Efforts to ease visa policy for tourists to sacred places in Iran and Pakistan underway

Rawalpindi

Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director Ch. Abdul Ghafoor Khan has said that there is a lot of potential and attractions for tourists in Pakistan and Iran in addition to ‘ziaraat’ and Religious Tours.

“It is a need of time that Muslim brotherly countries join hands to jointly promote and cooperate in tourism industry,” he stated this in a meeting with Mehdi Aliyari, Adviser of Mahan Airline (Iran) and Incharge of International Affairs and Communication here Friday. He added that efforts are underway easing of obtaining visa for tourists / pilgrims for ‘ziaraat’/visitors to Muslim Sacred places in both the countries. Visa on arrival to group tourist will also be introduced.

Ch. Ghafoor said that Pakistan and Iran share many common cultural and religious values as well as other tourist attractions. There is a need to explore more possibilities for increasing the tourist flow between the two countries. He added that due to security situation in some parts of Balochistan, travelers and pilgrims to sacred places in Iran hesitate to visit by road. Therefore, there is a need to operate direct flights from Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta, which will definitely remove the security risk and road travel hazards.

Mehdi Aliyari said that it has been observed that hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people travel around the world especially Europe every year, and at most of the places, Mahan Airlines flights are operating. They can offer special packages to Pakistanis travelling through Mahan Airlines to Iranian as well as other destinations. He said that a large number of visitors intend to visit Mashhad, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran for ziaraat and visiting sacred holy places. He informed that they are considering operating flight from Lahore to Tehran to cater the needs of Pakistani as well as Iranian travelers.

A.D. Tahir, General Manager (Motels / PTL) proposed that visit of Travel Writers / Journalists / Media Teams from both the countries may be hosted by Iran and Pakistan in order to create awareness among people of both the countries.

Other participants of the meeting were Second Secretary, Iran Embassy; Mukhtar Ali Manager (P&P), Anwar Sajid, Deputy Manager (PTL), Imran Irshad Khan, Incharge (IT) and Ms. Azra Sajid, Assistant Tourism Officer.