Religious Tourism: PTI government to take revolutionary steps
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ISLAMABAD, Jan 8 (APP):Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH), Shafqat Mehmood Tuesday assured his all out support for executing the task of mapping of all the heritage sites across the country to indentify the potential ones for maintenance, preservation and documentation.
Chairing the second meeting of Coordination Committee on Heritage Sites of Pakistan at NH&LH Division, the federal minister emphasized on preparing a consolidated document carrying list of the Buddhist, Sikh and Hindus sites separately for the guidance purposes.
He urged the provincial authorities to enhance coordination and cooperation in the area of literary, built-up and intangible cultural heritage for preservation of this precious heritage for transferring to our future generations. The minister was of the view that the religious sites falling under Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) and Auqaf Department also needs mapping for their maintenance.
He said our country has great potential of boosting religious tourism and it can help generate huge revenues. Shafqat Mehmood also assured to initiate efforts for bringing the recovered artifacts of Balochistan back from other countries to house these in the newly constructed museum.
The participants of the forum agreed to conduct mapping cultural, natural and religious across the country to develop plans for maintenance and preservation of heritage sites.
They also expressed their commitment to work together on preparing nomination of cultural and national heritage sites for inscription on UNESCO’s world heritage list.
The Culture and Archeology Ministers or representatives from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, Balochistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir briefed the minister about initiatives taken in their respective provinces for protection of heritage sites.
The representative of Punjab government gave a detailed presentation on impact of Orange Train Line Project on World Heritage Site i.e Shalimar GardenFederal Secretary for NH&LH, Engineer Aamir Hasan, Director General, Department of Archeology and Museums (DoAM), Islamabad and Director, UNESCO, Vibeke Jensen also attended the meeting.
This forum was set up in June 2018 with the view to enhance coordination and information sharing between federal and provincial governments on heritage of Pakistan.
