K-P hands over rest houses to tourism dept

Notice says concerned departments will pay the salaries and utilities of these rest houses

PESHAWAR: Following directions from Prime Minister Imran Khan, the provincial government on Thursday handed over control of over 80 government-owned rest houses in the province, including the Governor, Chief Minister, Speaker and Inspector General houses, to the provincial tourism department.

However, the Governor House in Peshawar will remain under the control of the provincial government.

A notification issued by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Administration Department dated August 22 states: “In pursuance to the decision of the provincial cabinet of K-P, the provincial government is pleased to transfer the management along with human resource of the following government rest houses to the tourism department with immediate effect, for further renting out of the same, in phased wise manner to the general public”.

The list includes some 28 rest houses of the communications and works department — most of which are located in the Hazara division, 10 houses of the irrigation department, 11 of the local government and rural development department, one of the police department and 35 of the forest department.

The notice directed the relevant departments to start preparing updated inventories of each rest house and accordingly finalise handing-taking over of these rest houses by the end of the month.

Until such a time, the notice said that the concerned departments will pay the salaries and utilities of these rest houses.

Meanwhile, the K-P tourism ministry said that renovation work on these guest houses has started and once that process is complete, they will start taking online bookings for these establishments.

Senior K-P Minister for Tourism Atif Khan told The Express Tribune that a decision to transform the Governor House in Peshawar into a national museum has been handed over to a committee led by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2019.