KARACHI, Sept 26 The first meeting of the board of governors of Sindh Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) was held on Thursday. The meeting is held, approximately, after over a decade and a half of its establishment in early 1990s, it has been learnt.

According to highly placed sources, the board, headed by the provincial chief executive, was established to provide guidelines to the STDC so that tourism could be promoted in the province, but as the board could not meet so the guidelines could be not be formulated and in turn the present situation shows how much tourism had been promoted in the province that has assets from natural beauty to remains of the 5000-year-old Indus Valley Civilisation, sunny sandy beaches, wildlife sanctuaries and reserves, etc.

Sources said that rather than making policies that promoted tourism, the existing policies could only be termed anti-tourism policies, while citing an example they said that governments all over the world showcased the photographs of natural beauty, historical places and archaeological monuments etc while the government here had banned the photography at certain archaeological monuments that discouraged tourists who were disappointed when told that they could not take pictures, which could act as free publicity for the country as these tourists would be showing these photographs to other people in their countries tempting them to visit these places.

Sources said the STDC was established in 1992, and its first 10-member board, led by the then chief minister, Muzaffar Hussain Shah, was comprised of nine members, including Ghulam Qadir Malkani, Qabool Mohammad Shah, Afzal Munif, Liaquat Ali Jatoi, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Abdul Hamid Akhund, Bahauddin Sarhindi, Salik Nazir Ahmed and Mumtaz Mirza.The second 20-membered board was constituted on Nov 20, 2001 and it was headed by Sindh Governor Mohammadmian Soomro, who was the provincial chief executive at that time. Its members were Faqir Ayazuddin, Shahid Feroze, Lt-Col (retd) Sharif Akber, Yasmeen Lari, Shahid Ahmad, Shan Ali Junejo, Huzair Ali Soomro, Afshan Nanji, Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi, Khursheed Junejo, Khwaja Jahanzeb, Nawab Saifudin Leghari besides the chief secretary, the ministers of wildlife and planning and development, and secretaries for forests, wildlife, culture, finance, the STDC chief etc.

The present board has 11 members and was constituted in June 2008. Headed by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah its other 10 members are Culture and Tourism Minister Sassui Palijo, Dr Ahmad Ali Shah, Dr Sikander Meendhro, Mir Ghalib Domki, Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman and secretaries for culture, tourism, development, the STDC chief, and representatives of travel agents association and hotels association.

The Thursday's meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and held at his office, stressed that law and order and security arrangements at the STDC resorts located at different places should be increased so that people could visit these recreational places with peace of mind and could enjoy the natural beauty these places offer.

In his briefing Sindh Tourism Secretary Shams Jafrani told the meeting that 12 new huts were being constructed at Keenjhar Lake and would be completed in about a couple of months while a scheme for the construction of a 20-room motel at Nagar Parkar had been approved and construction work would start soon. The department maintained 22 huts at Keenjhar Lake, 24 rooms at Sambara Inn in Larkana, 20 rooms in Lal Shahbaz Tourist Inn in Sehwan and 2 rooms in Marvi Lodge in Mithi. A rescue centre at Keenjhar Lake had also been completed.

It may be recalled that some time back a boat had capsized in the lake resulting in drowning of many people and the tragedy revealed the lack of rescue facilities at the lake, one of favourite day-long excursion sites of natural beauty visited by a large number of Karachiites.

So, it was decided, to establish a rescue centre, which had been completed and was operational, said the secretary at the meeting, which according to him was being held after 15 years.

The meeting also suggested that a proposal to construct a motel at Hawkes Bay be prepared and it was also decided to follow the principle of public-private partnership so that expertise available in the private sector could be utilised to promote the tourism in the province.