Daily Times

UPPER DIR: A two-day festival offering variety entertainment events, organized by a local non-governmental organization (NGO) in collaboration with local government and district administration at the picturesque Kumrat Valley to promote tourism.

The festival ended with high hopes for future of tourism in the area.

Dubbed as “Kumrat Festival”, the low budget gala organized at lush green plains and thick forest of tall Deodar (pine) trees beside the melodious Thal Stream lured at least a few hundred locals besides dozens of tourists to the heavenly Kumrat Valley.

The event consisted of cricket and volleyball tournaments, gaming events for children, including Chindro, a traditional game of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and played by small girls. A music and stand-up comedy show was also part of the festival however, horse race was the event that attracted most crowd that lit up the calm environment of Kumrat with chants and cheers in support of their riders.

District Nazim Upper Dir, Faseeh Ullah, chief guest of the event praised the efforts of the young organizer of the event besides stressing on the need for organizing such event on government level to attract more people besides foreigners to Kamrat and other area full of scenic beauty. “The efforts of Faqir Welfare Organization to organize this event will result in introducing Kumrat to many tourists who are yet to hear about the natural beauty of this valley. The local government is pleased to have been part of this even,” he said at the closing ceremony.

Yahya Faqir of Faqir Welfare Organization (FWO), the organizer of the event thanked crowd for participating in the sports gala. “I am pleased to organize this event with minimal support from the tourism department and other concerned government departments. Our aim is to introduce Kumrat to the world and the local people can play a vital role in doing so,” he said.

Though full of praise for the local government and district administration, Yahya Faqir lamented the lack of response from Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) in supporting the event. “I sent them a number of proposals but they didn’t even gave a thought”, he said.

Though Kumrat can arguably be termed as one of the most scenic valleys of KP and will undoubtedly ranked among the top tourist spots of the country, it has yet to get the attention of the provincial government in regards to the construction of basic infrastructure.

The valley is accessible via a virtually non-existent road. The more or less 80 kilometer road from Upper Dir to Kumrat is in miserable conditions as delayed construction work on it made it hard for commuters. It took more than 32 kilometers and three and a half hours to reach Sheringal from the main N-45 Dir-Chitral highway and another three hours to trek the remaining 55 kilometers.

After visiting the valley via a helicopter in May this year, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman announced making the valley a National Park. However, the Jirga elders of all 10 major Kohistani tribes, the inhabitants of the valley are not happy with his decision as they claim the people of the area were not consulted.

The visit by PTI Chief resulted in first-time influx of hundreds of tourists from KP, Punjab and Sindh provinces this summer and many outsiders have started calling the waterfall visited by Kaptaan as “Imran Khan Waterfall (Abshaar)”.

Muhammad Owais, a student of Haripur University visited the valley with a busload of other students for the festival. “We arrived here a day before the festival and managed to visit Do Janga, Tore Oba and Imran Khan Abshaar. This place is what I think heave would be,” he exclaimed while talking to Daily Times.

Though there are countless tourist spots in the valley, Jahaz Banda and Kundal Lake are a must see places. Both locations can be reached on foot or horseback and are at about the same distance in different direction from Kumrat village.

Local hotel owner Abdul Sher shared his excitement as he has found a way of making extra money in the short summer season. “I sat up my hotel in June and was lending large tents that could occupy 10 persons for up to Rs 5000 per night. The season is almost over as its getting cold by I plan to stay open till December in hope of winter tourists interested in seeing Kumrat in snow,”

Similarly, Imran Khan had announced a scheme for “Camping Paradise Project” in the valley this year but the Provincial Tourism Department rejected the plan and were on course to shift the project to somewhere else in KP.

Yahya Faqir hoped that they would be able to host a much bigger festival next summer that would attract more tourists. “The under construction road will have made some progress as it is finally getting attention of the government. If we get government and tourism department attention, we hope to make Kumrat the most visited tourist attraction in Pakistan in the next few years,” he said.