Shandur festival from July 2

GHIZER, May 25: This year, the annual Shandur festival may start from July 2, and the incoming Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, is likely to attend the final of the polo match between Chitral and Gilgit teams. The decision to bring ahead the starting date from July 7 to July 2 is being considered keeping in view the advent of the holy month of Ramazan in the middle of July, polo players and other officials here told chitraltoday.net. It is being expected that the prime minister on the occasion will be briefed about the incomplete projects in the region, especially the black-topping of Chitral-Gilgit road via Shandur pass, with a request to sanction funds to complete the projects. A large number of projects, especially in the road infrastructure, were initiated during the regime of Pervez Musharraf that were left incomplete by the previous PPP government. The Shandur festival has become an important annual event attracting people not only from within the country but also from abroad. Besides providing entertainment facilities to the people, the event in the past also brought financial benefits to the local people in terms of tourist arrival. Also, president and prime minister of the day coming to the festival as chief guest used to announce development projects for Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan. But the previous PPP government even did not give importance and none of its top leadership visited the venue.  ]]>