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Kalasha people introduces a large number of Home guest houses
 
By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: Kalash people have grown clever enough to discover new avenues to augment their income and the latest one is the introduction of guest house system in their homes for the tourists, a Japanese couple told chitraltimes.com who had earlier visited the Kalash valleys in 1980s. They said that they had faced a suitable accommodation problem that time but now they found a network of small guest houses offering a decent place to live where they felt at comfort and really enjoyed the visit. “It provided us with an opportunity to peer the unique life-style of the primitive people”, they said. Regarding the new idea of guest houses, the Kalash people said that it was basically a part of Regional Women Empowerment Project (RWEP) of economic empowerment of women project of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. Looking for different means of earning livelihood for the women folk in the valleys, it discovered the idea of introducing small guest houses to generate additional income, they said. RWEP provided training to the women on how to use their additional rooms as guest houses for the tourists and manage it, they said and added that the idea worked well and the people added or renovated a room or two for the guests with basic necessities. Mostly couples and families opt for such types of accommodation in the valleys where they cook food for themselves and enjoy an environment which the hotels cannot offer. Akbari Khan Kalash of Rumbur valley said that his life standard has raised due to the additional income accrue from the one-room guest house attached his home. He said that he had no source of income other than subsistence farming. The Kalash people said that they feel pleasure to host the tourist couples and families as paying guests. Regarding the rate of fares, they said that there was no hard and fast rate fixed but it is placed at the wish of the guest. The Kalash people demanded that credit must be made available to those who did not afford to raise additional rooms and make necessary settings for guest house as some of them suffered abject poverty.

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All Health institutions exempted from Saturday holiday

Chitraltimes Report

PESHAWAR: The Administration Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through a circular has clarified that all healthcare institutions including government dispensaries, basic health units, rural health centres, tehsil/district headquarter hospitals will be exempted from implementation of the notification to the extent of office timings and additional holiday on Saturday. All these institutions will continue to observe six days working week with the same timings as observed earlier. However, medical colleges, nursing schools and other training institutions under the health department shall remain closed on Saturdays and also observe new timings.