Calls for lifting ban on liquor at PTDC hotels

Recommendation aimed at enabling govt-run hotels and motels to overcome financial difficulties.

ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s standing committee on tourism will recommend lifting of a ban on the sale of liquor in government-run hotels and motels, enabling them to overcome financial difficulties.

During a meeting to discuss the privatisation of hotels and motels run by the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation(PTDC), Chairperson of the committee Nilofer Bakhtiar said that the move was solely a measure to ease the financial problems of these tourist-oriented units.

She said: “When five-star hotels are allowed to sell liquor, what is the justification for imposing a ban on PTDC motels?”

Bakhtiar cited the example of Rawalpindi’s Flashman Hotel, which was profitable until it was allowed to sell liquor. Since the imposition of the ban two years ago, it has been running in loss, she said.

“If we want to attract maximum number of tourists, we should provide them with a complete set of facilities,” she said. None of the committee members objected to the idea, but there was no consensus either.

Bakhtiar has been a former federal minister for tourism in Shaukat Aziz’s cabinet, who had to tender her resignation amid mounting criticism and a ‘Fatwa’ issued by the Lal Masjid clerics on her controversial parachute jump in Paris.

Earlier, the committee discussed the privatisation of the three PTDC hotels made in the past, including Cecil, Deans and Faletti’s .The committee underlined that the motels were running at a profit until they were privatised and in future, financial positions of state entities will be taken into account before privatising them.

Expressing disappointments over the fact that important institutions like Cecil and Deans were sold at much below their actual value, the committee said that the ministry concerned should have kept national interest above all others.

The committee finally decided to call buyers of Faletti’s Hotel along with officials of the ministries of tourism and privatisation in the next meeting.

The committee also decided to call the buyer of Islamabad’s Nafdec Cinema, and also the owner of Melody Cinema to find out about their problems.

The committee members said that they were more interested in finding out if the buyers of these entities were using these properties in accordance with their agreements with the government.

The committee appreciated the decision made by the Punjab chief minister regarding the termination of entertainment tax on films.

It urged politicians and bureaucrats to work in tandem while privatising national assets. The committee also agreed to direct the finance ministry to reimburse the outstanding amount of Rs14 million to PTDC from the share of the privatisation proceeds of motels along with interest on the money since 1998.

The meeting was attended by senators Waqar Ahmed Khan, Kazim Khan, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Farah Aqil Shah, Pervez Rashid and Javed Ali Shah.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2010.