Karachi (25 Nov.): Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department Government of Sindh is going to establish the southern branch of Pakistan Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (PITHM), as decided during the meeting held hereon today.
The meeting was chaired by Minister Culture, Tourism, Antiquities and Archives Syed Sardar Ali Shah, and was attended by Secretary Culture Akbar Laghari,
Brig (r) Tariq Lakher Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, Mr. Nawaz Soho Deputy Commissioner Tharparkar, Mr. Agha Sohail, the Managing Director Sindh Technical Education Vocational Training Authority (Stevta), Mr. Niaz Malkani, the Director PITHM, Mr. Aijaz Shaikh, the MD Sindh Tourism Development Corporation (STDC), Mr. Abdul Aleem Lashari DG Culture, and others attended the meeting.
Speaking at the occasion, the Minister Culture said that the Board of Governors of PITHM had, in its last meeting, decided to establish the branches of PITHM at Hyderabad, Larkana and Tharparkar. Now that we have found a suitable building at Mithi, for this purpose, which belongs to STEVTA, so we are going to establish it according to requirements of hospitality institute.
“We are in search of such government buildings at Larkana and Hyderabad too, where we want to establish more branches of PITHM”, he said.
The meeting, after threadbare deliberations, decided that the new branch of Pakistan Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (PITHM) will be established at Mithi as a tripartite joint venture of Culture Department, Stevta and Sindh Engro to train the local youth to become professionals in Hospitality industry.
For this purpose, Stevta will provide their building at Mithi, and Sindh Engro would help in revenue components through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund. The culture department through PITHM would operate and run the institute to cater to the needs of growing tourism and hospitality industry. In this regard, the secretary Culture Ghulam Akbar Laghari would soon finalize the venture agreement.
The meeting also decided that the relevant officers i.e. Director PITHM Mr. Niaz Malkani, and MD STDC Aijaz Shaikh would visit the proposed building of Stevta in the next week, and would submit the feasibility report to the Minister.
It was stressed, during meeting, that time was high to start such institute as soon as possible as the local youth is naturally good at art of cooking, and without any proper trainings, they have already spread into urban areas and have grabbed major chunk of home-chef opportunities. It was hoped that after the PITHM Mithi campus such talented youth of Tharparkar would further improve their professional skills in food creation and hotel management sectors, thus paving the way for more employment opportunities and small business startups.
Minister Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that the department has at least provided the minimum faculties at all the tourists sites across the province, and now we are moving towards better site management by improving the standards, and adding new sites into tourism ambit by exploring the potential sites at different locations of the province.
“We aim to identify new tourists attraction points throughout the province, analyze their tourism potential, and get minimum facility for tourists provided”, said the Minister.
He added that STDC will soon establish new tourists points at New Gaddi Bhit, Islamkot, rest house near NaonKot fort, and other sites.
Handout (Saeed Memon)
