Dire need to rebuild the Talibaan-stricken PTDC Skiing resort in Malam Jabba

Dire need to rebuild the Talibaan-stricken PTDC Skiing resort in Malam Jabba

Anyone who would dare contemplate a visit to the restive Swat valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) some two years back and had the courage to drool all the way to the scenic Fizaghat, Mingora bazaar, he would have had a chance to stare in the face of a
dilapidated burned down structure which once was the sprawling PTDC Skiing resort of Malam Jabba. One of its kind in Pakistan, the all-weather resort was Build under the patronage of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s last tenure before the gory 9/11 incident.

The resort attracted throngs of local and foreign tourists throughout the year, bringing the Swat valley hundreds of jobs and lucrative capital. Following the 9/11 incident and the rise of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the later stages, the valley was
controlled by Maulana Fazlullah who vowed to forge Shariah in the Malakand district.

The resort was razed and burned to the ground in June 2007 despite an on-going truce between the security forces and Fazlullah’s rampaging squad. Reportedly, three people were also killed in the incident which marked the start of another uprising of the
Talibans who later torched several government installations and girl’s schools.

"Miscreants set the resort on fire last night. The extent of damage is still not known and information is coming in," said Usman Shafi, the then general manager of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), told the reporters just after the incident.
"The PTDC hotel has been set on fire by unknown miscreants. We don’t know the details since there is no government control in that area," Khan further added.

Government after consultations with the paramilitary forces launched a major offensive against the miscreants, capturing and driving out most of them. The valley in general and the Malam Jabba region in particular, have since been relatively peaceful although
the security forces still have a strong presence in the area.

The facility boosted 35 elegantly furnished rooms, chairlift, skiing equipment, and restaurant with both local and foreign cuisines and various other amenities. 314 Kilometers from Islamabad and 51 Kilometers from Saidu Sharif airport, the resort was poised
to become one of the major tourist destinations, until the splendid structure was turned into ashes and has been damaged to the extent that it cannot be restored.

Today, the structure stands as gory picture of the haunting past. There have been some desperate attempts both on part of KPK government and private hotel owners to lure the tourists back to the valley, all ending up with hopeless results. Regardless of
the poor state of affairs of the rest of the government institutions at present, one can only hope that those at the helm of affairs would sanction some capital for the restoration and re-construction of once thriving tourist resort, in order to bring life
back to normalcy. 

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1801

Posted by Naveed A Bari on Oct 28 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry