New demarcations: Nilofer to paraglide Bahawalpur’s cause

PML-Q senator, Nilofar Bakhtiar, backs popular demand for the restoration of Bahawalpur’s provincial status.

BAHAWALPUR:

Amidst a deafening clamour for new geographical demarcations in the country, a Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid senator has backed a popular demand for the restoration of Bahawalpur’s provincial status.

“It is the right of local people which, I think, must be granted for a fast-paced development of this neglected region,” Nilofar Bakhtiar told The Express Tribune in an interview on Tuesday. “I’ll vociferously campaign for this cause in and outside parliament,” she added.

Nilofar Bakhtiar, who had served as tourism minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, said that she would play her role for the uplift of Cholistan region which, experts say, has a huge tourism potential.

She said that the marvellous handicrafts made in Cholistan were not properly promoted even though they have the potential to earn the local residents worldwide fame.

Bakhtiar, a liberal politician and crusader of women’s rights, was forced to step down in 2007 following a slur campaign by clerics over her parachuting with a French paraglider.

On Tuesday she reiterated her resolve to continue working for the betterment of womenfolk. “I’ll particularly focus on the emancipation of the Cholistani woman who has been denied her due rights,” she added.

Nilofar strongly criticised the government for ‘ignoring’ the cultural heritage of Bahawalpur, especially Cholistan region. “I’ll take up this issue in the Senate, so that the rich cultural heritage of the region, including old palaces and forts, were preserved,” she added.

She blamed successive governments for not working for the economic and infrastructure development of the region. However, she promised that she would do whatever she can for reversing this trend.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2012.