KARACHI: Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput has said that the province of Sindh is home to significant Hindu and Buddhist religious sites and that efforts are being made to preserve and safeguard these sites and identify more such places to attract tourists from Buddhist-majority countries to visit Pakistan.
He said this while chairing a meeting today at the Sindh Secretariat that focused on the Gandhara civilisation and attracting tourists from around the world.
The meeting was attended by Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, chairman of the Gandhara Task Force, Secretary Home Ajaz Ali Shah, Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon, Additional IG Karachi Javed Alam Odho, Secretary Culture Abdul Aleem Lashari, Director-General Culture Sindh Manzoor Ahmed Khanasro, and all divisional commissioners who participated via video link.
Briefing the attendees, Culture Secretary Abdul Aleem Lashari said that there were 369 cultural sites in Sindh, including temples and stupas of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism which attracted a significant number of visitors.
Dr Ramesh Kumar, chairman of the prime minister’s Gandhara Task Force, stated that efforts would be made to preserve historical artifacts and heritage sites associated with the Gandhara civilisation, as well as to discover additional locations to promote religious tourism within the country. In this way Pakistan will gain attention of foreign tourists, especially the Buddhists, and the country will reap economic benefits from this initiative.
He further mentioned that he had visited various cultural sites with foreign ambassadors in different parts of the country and would soon visit Gandhara civilisation sites, including stupas and temples in various cities of Sindh.
As for tourism, the first three-day international conference is scheduled to be held from July 11 to 13, 2023, aimed at attracting tourists from around the world.
Dr Kumar said that the task force aimed to bring up to 500,000 tourists to Pakistan, which will greatly benefit the country on a large scale.
The meeting concluded with a decision that the Culture Department would present a report to the Prime Minister’s Gandhara Task Force regarding the province’s religious sites, existing religious temples and stupas.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2023