Tourism corporation takes over PTDC hotels in Chitral

CHITRAL, Sept 4: The Tourism Corporation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) has virtually taken control of the four hotels of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in line with the provision of 18th amendment. With the aid of district administration, the TCKP men approached the hotels situated in Chitral city, Bumburate, Booni and Mastuj here on Wednesday and asked the staff of PTDC to surrender the charges which they reportedly refused. An official of PTDC said they gave the inventory of the hotels and the staff statement to the district administration on demand but flatly refused to give a written statement to the affect of their surrender as they had got no any orders from their managing director. When asked about their intention when they were forcibly evicted from the hotels, he said that they will not offer any kind of resistance as they have no option but to comply with the directions of district administration. He said that although TCKP has posted their own employee for each hotel, but the control of the hotels is still in the hands of PTDC employees. He said that the abrupt change of management will create a number of problems both for the hotels and its employees as they faced uncertain situation about their future when PTDC surrenders to the province. The PTDC hotels are running on loss as it has to pay its employees the salaries of eighteen months. When the acting deputy commissioner of Chitral, Abdul Ghafar was contacted, he confirmed that the charges of the PTDC hotels had been given to the TCKP officials. However, he said the TCKP officials will take over control of administration after a strategy is put in place considering its minute details.–Zahiruddin]]>