Vesak Festival - May 2019

Held at Taxila - Special Assistant to Prime Minister on OPHRD, Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari was the Chief Guest

    Pakistan is blessed with sacred assets of major religions of the World and by promoting and facilitating religious Tourism, foreign tourist influx could be increased. This was stated by Special Advisor to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources, Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari while addressing the participants of Vesak Festival at Taxila today. The Vesak Day Ceremony was organized by Centre for Culture and Development (C2D) in collaboration with Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) at Dharmarajika Stupa at Taxila.
    SAPM said that remains of Gandhara Civilization in Taxila and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are the most sacred for the Buddhist community. However, it has not been properly taken care of, developed and projected internationally to attract religious tourists. He said that Prime Minister’s vision is to promote tolerance, bring inter-faith harmony and facilitate community of all religions to practice their rituals with comfort. Kartar pur is a positive step toward facilitating Sikh community, he said. Present Government led by visionary PM Imran Khan has a special focus on developing Pakistan’s Tourism and every effort will be made to tap the religious tourism potential.
    Managing Director PTDC Syed Intikhab Alam said that PTDC will be facilitating the tourists to visit the sacred places and would work with provincial governments to upgrade the facilities. He said that PTDC will soon launch a publicity campaign to promote and develop tourism to contribute towards economic development through generation of income, employment and foreign exchange.
    Chief Buddhist Monk of Singapore Rev. Dato Dr Sumana Siri, pay homage at the shrine of Dharmarajika Stupa, Taxila, alongwith H.E. the Ambassador of Sri Lanka. People of various Faiths, including Buddhist, Christian and fasting Muslims fully participated in the ceremony to show solidarity with our Buddhist friends.