A damning report on the performance of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has revealed that the federal body has miserably failed to discharge its primary duty of maintaining and preserving ancient and holy sites of minority communities. A one-man commission headed by Dr Shoaib Suddle submitted its finding to the Supreme Court stating unequivocally how the ETPB is responsible for the ‘decay and obliteration’ of two of the four most revered evacuee sites in the country. ETPB’s response to the report smacks of incompetence and a general lack of concern as it revealed how out a total of 470 places of worship spread across Pakistan it was managing only 31. The report further questions why with its ample resources and access to technology the ETPB has been unable to geo-tag a majority of the locations that have been instead left to the mercy of land mafias while some are being maintained by the communities that use them.
One of the central themes of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reform plan for Pakistan is to promote tourism, more importantly religious tourism. To that end, the Kartarpur Corridor project, a visa-free border crossing that connects the Gurdwara Darbar Sahab in Pakistan to India is a success story. A lot of economic activity was generated as a result with Sikh devotees flocking to the site when it was opened last year, staying at hotels and spending foreign exchange on the various paid facilities there as well. Apart from the economic benefit, it helped promote a softer, more tolerable and positive image of Pakistan around the world. This was in stark contrast to India’s recent nationalistic pro-Hindu tilt that has been on display of late. It is therefore criminal that the ETPB’s shameful neglect is the only thing standing in the way of similar initiatives that develop and promote holy sites to be frequented by Hindus and Sikhs who live not only across the border but in Western countries too. The government must look into the reasons as to why the ETPB, despite being sufficiently funded, is unable to deliver on the most basic of its functions. If there is an element of corruption then those responsible must be brought to book. Short of this, any hopes of increasing religious tourism in the country should be abandoned.
