DNA

Rawalpindi: The Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) and Evacuee Trust Property Board Punjab have agreed to put joint efforts and cooperation with all available resources to promote religious tourism to earn foreign exchange. Pakistan contains numerous sacred sites of different religions like Islam, Hinduism,. Buddhism, and Sikhism that can easily be transformed into tourist destinations.

These views were expressed by Acting President RCCI Faisal Shahzad with Secretary Evacuee Trust Property Board Punjab Rana Muhammad Arif in a meeting at chamber house. A largely unexplored avenue of tourism in Pakistan is religious tourism mainly Sikh and Buddhist tourism which can potentially generate over millions of dollars for Pakistan, and create over 100,000 jobs, said Faisal Shahzad.

Secretary Evacuee Trust Property Board Punjab Rana Muhammad Arif informed that the Evacuee Trust Property Board is working to develop international competitive religious tourism sector to fully realize its diverse potential and making religious tourism a leading economic sector for the country through public-private partnership.

He said that ETPB has around 70 thousand sites and properties including all the religious shrines and we are trying to explore our tourist sites and to develop infrastructure and accessibility of those sites to promote the soft image of Pakistan.