AJK's week-long winter festival comes to an end
A week-long winter festival at Ganga Choti, Bagh, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) concluded on Monday.
Rawalakot Division Commissioner Chaudhry Raqeeb attended the closing ceremony of the festival and presented awards to participants who exhibited their talents in different games and activities.
Commissioner Raqeeb said such festivals should be organised in other areas of AJK to attract tourists to enjoy the natural beauty of the area.
The festival was a celebration of winter and included a range of activities and events for visitors of all ages. Participants enjoyed winter sports, including snowboarding, skiing and ice skating, as well as local traditional winter games.
“I came from Lahore and the beauty of the area is unbelievable and snow-covered peaks give an impression that we are in somewhere Europe, not in AJK, “ said Nusrat Akhtar.
Read Winter tourism flourishes in upper K-P
Skier Ahmed said, "The skiing track is good but it needs time to attract global players," adding that work needs to be done to make the area ideal for skiing.
The food stalls and cozy bonfires made it the perfect family-friendly event in the cold weather of the region 10,000 feet above sea level.
"We feel honour while hosting the winter festival here in Bagh that we are provided an opportunity to bring families and adventure seekers from all over the country together to enjoy the winter and mesmerising natural beauty of snow-covered peaks, “ said Ali Shaukat, general manager of Medical Transcription and Billing Company (MTBC).
He appreciated Rawalakot Division Commissioner Chaudhry Raqeeb and Bagh Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Kiyani for making the winter festival a story of success.
Read more Kalash Winter Sports Festival ends
He said that Care Cloud is committed to supporting local communities through such events that will help promote tourism and generate economic activity in the area.
The festival was jointly organised by MTBC and the AJK government to promote winter tourism in the area.
The MTBC is a NASDAQ-listed (publicly traded) healthcare-information technology company that specialises in providing cloud-based proprietary software, technology-enabled solutions and related services/products to the American healthcare industry which includes physicians, hospitals and healthcare organisations.
The company has been headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, since its incorporation in 1999 and has steadily expanded to include offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Colombo (Sri Lanka).
It currently has around 4,000+ personnel in its employ globally, of which 3,200 are employed in Pakistan alone.