The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has launched the Host Programme under its home-stay initiative to promote tourism, generate employment for local communities and support economic self-reliance in tourist areas.
Chief Minister Sohaib Afridi distributed cheques of interest-free loans to beneficiaries under the programme, aimed at enabling residents of tourist regions to offer quality accommodation to visitors in their private homes.
Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister said the primary objective of the initiative was to boost tourism while providing dignified livelihood opportunities to local people. He said the provincial government was investing in people despite limited resources to put the province and the country on a path of development.
Officials briefed the meeting that under the Host Programme, interest-free loans of up to Rs3 million were being provided to residents of tourist areas. So far, cheques have been distributed among 95 individuals.
According to the briefing, beneficiaries belong to Swat, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Abbottabad and Mansehra. The programme is expected to facilitate quality home-stay facilities for domestic and international tourists, offering them a more personalised and culturally rooted experience.
The chief minister said the initiative was designed to ensure both income generation and social dignity for local communities. He added that since 2022 the public had been burdened by rising inflation, while outstanding dues of over Rs4,000 billion owed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the federal government had not been released.
He also alleged that, according to an IMF report, corruption worth Rs5,300 billion had been identified at the federal level, claiming that corrupt rulers were living luxuriously at the expense of public funds.
Sohaib Afridi said investment in people was the true guarantee of national development and urged those undermining the public mandate to reflect on the direction in which the country was heading.
