If this comes about, it will be a good for the image of Pakistan - as a nation reaching out to minority religions.
Pakistan to host International Buddhist Summit
Pakistan will host International Buddhists Summit in October this year. The summit is expected to be attended by all priests of Buddhism including the Prime Ministers of the respective countries. The chief priest of Myanmar Dr. Ashin along with a 16 member delegation met with Federal Minister for Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar on Thursday to decide the details of the international congress. During the meeting, also attended by the Myanmar ambassador, it was decided that the summit will be held in last week of October in Islamabad. This annual summit is the holy gathering of Buddhism followers and leading Buddhist scholars from all around the world gather in the congress. The purpose of hosting this summit in Pakistan is to honor this country which gave birth to Buddhism and has been the greatest Buddhist civilization thousands of years ago. The meeting also decided that formal announcement regarding the organization of the summit will be made in May on the birthday of Lord Buddha when another large delegation of Buddhist monks will visit Pakistan along with Myanmar’s chief priest. While floating the proposal of the summit, the Buddhists leader said that Pakistan was motherland of their religion and they respect it a lot. It was also decided during the session that a coordination office for the summit will be set up in Islamabad a month before the religious gathering. Dr. Ashin, who is in Pakistan on a weeklong visit along with a delegation of 52 monks, has visited all holy sites of Buddhism besides Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Taxila and Swat.
Federal Minister for tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar, while speaking to Buddhists leader, said that Pakistan respects all the religion in general and Buddhism in particular. She assured the delegation that her country would do its best to restore and preserve the Buddhists sites. “We would provide maximum facilities to Buddhist tourists,” she stated adding that tourism ministry had chalked out a plan to attract maximum Buddhist tourists to their religious places. She said that this was the part of ministry’s ‘religious tourism’ initiative, which has been taken to facilitate religious tourists. She added that Pakistan has also offered visa on arrival to some two dozens countries for attracting maximum tourists. Later, Nilofar Bakhtiar also hosted a dinner in the honour of the delegation at Damn-e-Koh.