AJK prepares for grand gala event

MIRPUR: Brisk preparations are afoot for the three-day Summer Tourism Festival, which will be inaugurated by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider on April 27 here at Asifa Bhutto Park.

The festival is being organised by the AJK Tourism Department in cooperation with the Mirpur District Administration and other nation-building departments.

Addressing a press conference here at the Kashmir Press Club, AJK Minister for Sports Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed and Secretary Information and Tourism Midhat Shahzad said the festival would provide healthy entertainment and recreation to the tourists and families from across the AJK with prime focus to encourage and promote local tourism.

‘The grand gala will be free of charge for all visitors’ adding that the festival was aimed at acquainting the young generation with the centuries old cultural heritage of the Himalayan state of Jammu & Kashmir, they said.

Horse and cattle show, trade exhibition of homemade products, including the Kashmiri handicrafts, cultural show depicting the Kashmiri folk songs, besides the national songs, book festival, exhibition of the pictures depicting the Indian brutalities and human rights violations by the occupying forces in occupied Kashmir, marathon race, mystic poetry, boating, cricket and football matches besides the local sports would be the hallmark of the grand festival, they said.

They said various committees had been formed to design and manage the events of the festival in a befitting manner.

Mirpur Commissioner Muhammad Tayyeb, AJK Director General Information (PID) Raja Azher Iqbal and AJK Tourism Director General Javed Ayub were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2018.