Gilgit-Baltistan was last tourist spot left in the country, which has now been finished with an ugly, tragic incident.
KARACHI: With reference to your story, “Gunmen kill nine foreign tourists, guide in Gilgit-Baltistan” (June 23), it is an unfortunate fact that the tourism industry of Pakistan is now completely finished once and for all. I remember the old days prior to 1985, when a lot of tourists used to come to Pakistan and you could see them enjoying horse carriage rides on Victoria Road in Karachi. The occupancy rate of the hotels used to be 100 per cent. PIA flights used to bring planeloads of tourists.
The downfall of the country’s tourism industry began in 1985 with violence increasing in Karachi that slowly and gradually spread to the whole of Pakistan. Terrorism has broken the backbone of the Pakistani economy with no government succeeding in controlling it.
Gilgit-Baltistan was the last tourist spot left in the country, which has now been finished with this ugly, tragic incident. Unless the PML-N government takes the issue of terrorism head on and with an iron hand, Pakistan will continue to suffer.
Syed A Mateen
Published in The Express Tribune, June 25th, 2013.
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