Work on five-star Bejaan Hotel begins
CHITRAL: Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar (Zulfi) Bukhari on Wednesday inaugurated work on a five-star Bejaan Hotel in Chitral.
Mr Bukhari arrived in Chitral in a special plane on the invitation of Mr Anwar Aman, a USA-based Chitrali business tycoon who is building the Bejaan Hotel.
The hotel will be constructed on a hillock in Gankorini at the confluence of Lotkoh and Mastuj rivers near the Chitral town where Mr Aman has purchased the land for Rs80 million.
Sources told ChitralToday that the 80-room hotel would be ready by 2023 at a cost of Rs5 billion.
A function was held at Gankorini in which work on the first ever five-hotel hotel of Chitral was inaugurated in the presence of a large number of people belonging to different walks of life.
Mr Aman told the gathering that the hotel would be a catalyst not only in promoting the tourism potential of Chitral but also Chitral’s unique culture and traditions in the world. Besides, he added, it would provide job opportunities to the local people.
Dast Aman, the father of Mr Anwar Aman, on the occasion said Chitral is rich in mineral and other resources and people of Chitral should collectively work for development of the area. He said on his advice his son decided to establish the five-star hotel in Chitral.
Speaking at the event, Zulfi Bukhari said since the PTI came to power there had been a marked increase in foreign investment in the country and the construction of Bejaan Hotel was one example of it.
He said the government would soon launch a “Brand Pakistan” portal in which all information related to tourism would be available. Moreover, provinces would formulate policies to set up integrated tourism zones across the country and one such zone would be set up in Chitral.
He said while coming to the venue of the function from Chitral airport he saw people demanding construction of roads. He said roads were vital for promotion of tourism and work on the construction of the road infrastructure in Chitral would be started soon.
He said the 150 km Chitral-Booni-Shandur road has been federalized and given to the NHA and tenders also floated for its reconstruction so work on this project would start very soon. He also said work on the 70 km Garam Chashma and Kalash valleys would also begin soon.
At the end, Molana Khaliquz Zaman said from speeches in the function he realized that Anwar Aman had decided to set up the five-star hotel in Chitral not with the sole purpose of business but for the betterment of Chitral.–Karim Ullah
Good to see a Chitrali son coming back to Chitral to improve life of Chitralis. By investing billions of rupees in Chitral he is taking a risk of losses and other hindrances but passion to do something for Chitral has motivated him to do so. He could have invested his money in USA, UAE or even in other parts of Pakistan but Anwar Aman, a true Chitrali opted for Ganko Rini to raise a five start hotel that is pure Chitrali and others should also learn a lesson from him.
Also tributes to all those wealthy Chitralis like Sirajul Mulk who have stayed on and invested in Chitral in shape of hotels etc showing their love for Chitral and aiming to improve life of Chitral.
There must be other people who can do something for Chitral like opening a hospital, or at least a dispensary, building schools or colleges etc,
Best wishes for Anwar Aman and hope he will succeeed in his noble mission of developing Chitral.
It’s low mentality of ours that if a big hotel is erected smaller ones will be defected. If my neighbour gets a horse I envy him and worry for the downgrading of my donkey.
Everything and everyone has his own peculiar position and share of fortune. When Chitral town was comprised of 500 smokes, many did not have enough food for living. Now when it’s near 5000, all are well fed even when corn fields are populated.
We are happy to room a hotel With all its stars in our beloved hometown. It will bring up the position of our area in particular and will host visitors of higher profile that will benefice tourism in general.
A Nice Job first by the proprietor and then by Mr. Maghfirat Shah.
Agree with you, but here we also have the inborn habit of taking everything on basis of personal like and dislike and becoming judgmental to please one’s ego.
Allow me to say that the construction of BeJaan will usher in a new era of development in the district.
The ex-nazim who also happens to be a very good friend of mine did something EXCELLENT by floating the idea to Anwar Aman to build such a wonderful hotel in a district where there is not a single place worth accommodating guests especially VVIPs – coming from the down districts and abroaf.
I would strongly recommend Anwar to expedite the constriction of the hotel as much as you you can. Give it your best shot. Make all the efforts to build it overnight. Build it within a year if possible if it is going to take some years because the delay will give birth to further complications which you had already experienced within a short span of time.
So dear Aman, since you have the experience of making a fortune in a country like US, but in a country like Pakistan especially in a district like Chitral, things are altogether different as we have to face MAFIAS with every step. Defeating the mafias is need of the hour or else, I am afraid to say, making inroads in a society like ours [Chitral] not only become difficult but also hit snags sometimes rather often times which then take years to be addressed.
Go for it, Wish you all the best, man!
Greetings Anwar,
First of all congratulations, buddy! I would give you 100 out to 100 to you the way you managed to make the breaking ceremony possible despite all the hurdles created by some quarters in order to sabotage the construction of the hotel in the area. The sole purpose of the issues you had to face was to stop the development of the area. They wanted to keep their monopoly intact by hook or by crook. After all woh kehte hein na Urdu me: Paisa phenk tamasha dekh. And this is what you did and it proved instrumental in removing all the hurdles in construction of the hotel.
With the construction of BeJaan in Chitral, the monopoly of a local hotel wala is over. A well throughout strategy by a former district nazim and I am sure he must be excited the way he floated the idea to you during his visit to United States of America. Good luck, buddy! And say my salam to the ex-nazim.