A trip through Pakistan is a face-to-face encounter with a fascinating land that has withstood countless invasions and preserved the essence of its conquerors in the form of present day monuments and archaeological heritage.
From the mighty stretches of the Karakoram in the North to the vast alluvial delta of the Indus River in the south, Pakistan remains a land of high adventure and nature.
Trekking, mountaineering, white water rafting, wild boar hunting, mountain and desert jeep safaris, camel and yak safaris, trout fishing and bird watching, are a few activities, which entice the adventure and nature lovers to Pakistan.
Pakistan is important for many religions of the world. The Indus Valley gave rise to one of the first great civilisations. Mahayana Buddhism also developed here, as did the Sikh religion under Guru Nanak.
Swat, once the pride of tourism in the region and rightly called Pakistan’s matching response to Switzerland no more presents the same picture.  
It’s the scourge of extremism that has now shaken the area. It has dealt a blow to the congenial atmosphere. It scares the local as well as foreign tourists.
In an interview with Weekly Pulse Brig. (Retd) Amanullah, who assumed the charge of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) as its new managing director feels equally worried over the decline of tourism. The corporation is facing financial hardships in the wake of devastating earthquake in October 2005 that reduced a number of its hotels/motels to debris.
Talking to Pulse he said that they had planned a lot of tourist activity in the country to promote participation of domestic as well as foreign tourists this year. He said that they were trying to provide easy access to the tourists to the fabulous destinations of the country.
The corporation’s new chief, who was very close to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said that they were approaching educational institutions to encourage students to explore the beauty of their country. These attractive tourist destinations have tremendous facilities to offer that are arranged by the PTDC.
Expressing his views about tourism in Pakistan that their first priority was to improve and facilitate the tourists as the incident of 9/11 affected tourism industry all over the world, but Pakistan was hurt badly because of the geographical proximity with Afghanistan. Lack of peace in the tribal areas of the country decreased the number of tourists intending to visit Pakistan, especially in Swat, which had always remained an important tourists destination.
He said that PTDC was an independent organisation and its four big motels were the main source of its income, but the previous government privatised 23 motels out of 43 including four big motels.
He said that although they were facing a financial crisis, but they were trying to promote the tourism in Pakistan but for this purpose media has to play an important role. In relation with promotion of tourism, PTDC would celebrate Gandhara Festival, as Japan is keen in Gandhara civilization has decided to organize an academy.
Brig (retd) Amanullah said that the corporation had taken a number of steps to promote tourism particularly domestic such as Naran, Kaghan and Northern Areas.
In response to a question he said that Pakistan is an important country for Sikhs as they have sacred shrines, to attract more Sikh Yatri government has decided to provide more and more facilities like terminals and big hotels would be constructed in Nankana Sahib. PTDC has plans to upgrade its information department and 'Tourism Day' would be observed in October this year at this occasion Fun fairs would be held in all big cities including Federal Capital.
Further he told that they are upgrading the roads and work on ten new projects has been started in Azad Kashmir, while Balakot would be reopened soon for the tourists. Answering a question he said that to attract the foreign tourist they have talked to Foreign Minister to convey the international community that Pakistan is safest and an attractive country for tourists.
Talking about Swat he said that tremendous tourism opportunities lie in Swat, but hoped the situation would soon become normal once the law and order is restored which has gradually started improving.
Answering another question regarding mountaineering, PTDC head cleared that there is no chance of Osama bin Laden's presence on K-2 mountain.