Festival organised to promote Khanpur orange

HARIPUR: For promoting the local specie of orange and motivating the farmers to grow the orchards, the tehsil administration and Khanpur dam administration jointly organised orange festival on Saturday.

The festival, which was organized at Khanpur Lake, attracted a number of families from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Wah Cantonment, Hassanabdal and Haripur who enjoyed the watersports exhibited by players from government and private organisations.

The farmers and local traders displayed different species of Khanpur orange and its plants at the stall set up specifically for this purpose whereas the folk dancers and singers presented Hazara dance to enthrall the tourists who had come to attend the festival.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Communication and Works Akbar Ayub Khan inaugurated the day-long festival.

Speaking to media persons, he said the purpose of orange festival was to portray the picturesque beauty of Khanpur valley so that the tourism could be promoted in the peaceful area of Hazara division.

He said protecting the Khanpuri orange was one of the objectives of the event as it was on extinction due to spiraling commercialisation of land in the area.

Assistant Commissioner Gul Bano Bibi briefed the audience on the future planning of the tehsil administration with regard to promotion of tourism in the Khanpur valley that housed a treasure of Gandhara civilisation and the natural beauty.

PTI’s leader Yousaf Ayub Khan, MPA Arshad Ayub Khan, GM Tarbela Dam Ansar Warraich, DPO Haripur Dr Zahidullah Jan, Additional Deputy Commissioner Baidullah Shah, Assistant Commissioner Dr Mujtaba Arafat and officials of Wapda and tehsil municipal administration were also present on the occasion.