Amjad Iqbal, Dawn Correspondent from Wah, requested me to highlight the pathetic state of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and the sufferings of its employees.
It gives one’s heart ache to see the world’s best tourism destination turned into a tourism graveyard through the state’s displaced priorities . Hardly is there a state owned institution that is ever owned or not sold- out under the face saving of privatisation, due to incompetence, knowing the reward for incompetence is higher then the long term return of professional competence to turn around a loss incurring venture into a profitable venture.
Give any of these state owned loss incurring ventures into private hands and see within days they will be in profit because they will hire the very best to run it then the worst to ruin it which is always the priority of every successive government to reward their own cronies then safeguard the very state that fuels the engine of the state of which they are the sole beneficiaries.
It is shocking that our law makers turn out to be the worst law breakers as most of their legislation results into destruction then protection of the state itself. The flawed 18th Amendment passed in haste is one such classic example that killed PTDC leaving its fate hangs in balance leaving it as no more a Federal owned entity or its assets and man power merged into the provincial set up, where these beautifully located motels are located.
It is a shame that we pride to beg for foreign loans and love to hang by the thread every year after year then develope our own indigenous resources whether tourism or agriculture as the word one hears more often is fighting terrorism that kills sometimes then poverty, hunger and joblessness that kills everyday and everyone which proving to be the state’s worst enemy requiring national response through promotion tourism and development of our agricultural sector
The worst is, when we as a state and nation acquiesce ourselves doling out hand – outs whether under Benazir Income Support Programme or any other incentive given to the poor that makes Pakistanies addicted to begging as a state policy then making them self- depended by not allowing them to develop their own potential both as a country and nation whether tourism or agriculture and the classical example of such antipathy is the once profitable state owned PTDC now made dysfunctional with a single stroke of the pen that no one thinks to reverse because it belongs to no one and as such no one’s business either.
