KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan formally inaugurated three-day Shandor Polo Festival on Sunday. The concluding ceremony of the festival will be hold on Tuesday (July 9, 2019). Besides, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Media, Iftikhar Durrani, Senior Minister Mohammad Atif Khan, Information Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Inspector General Frontier Corps (IGFC) and IGP other senior authorities were also present on the occasion. The chief minister reviewed all arrangements and facilities available for tourists at the venue and expressed satisfaction over them.
The chief minister said that the organizing of the Shandor Polo at the highest sea level in Chitral by Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) in collaboration with district administration and provision of all facilities to tourists is a matter of proud for the provincial government. Besides, cultural night, local embroidery and local culture would also be promoted during the three-day Polo Festival.
The chief minister said that during last tenure, the PTI government took priority based steps for the promotion of tourism, culture and sports in the province while the present government is also making all-out efforts in this regard. He said that the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan is to give top priority to tourism in the country and in that context the provincial government has provided all possible resources to the three-day remarkable Polo Festival.
The chief minister further said that polo game is enjoying historic status that had now become part and parcel of our culture. He said that the polo teams of Chitralm Gilgit-Baltisan and other areas are participating in the festival that had turned the Shandor Polo into a centre of attraction for the tourists. He pledged that the provincial government would celebrate Shandor Polo Festival each year with the same zeal and enthusiasm to promote the sports at international level and attract maximum number of tourists. On this occasion, the chief minister also distributed prizes among different winning teams.