ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched on Sunday a heritage trail at the Alberoni site in Jhelum’s Nandana Fort to “promote tourism and generate job opportunities for the coming generations”.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, he said preservation of heritage and tourism sites is necessary to apprise the future generation about rich cultural and historical assets of Pakistan.
“Unfortunately, we did not develop and preserve our archaeological sites,” he pointed out, adding the recent discovery of a 40-feet long statue of sleeping Buddha from Haripur shows rich cultural heritage of Pakistan.
“We have to protect these sites for our coming generations and the world to attract tourists from across the globe as tourism is a big source of employment and earning revenue,” the prime minister said.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Zulfiqar Hussain Bukhari briefed the premier about the tourism project. Chief Minister Sardar Usman Khan Buzdar and Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhary Fawad Hussain were also present on the occasion.
The site’s archaeological significance dates back to the 11th century when famous scholar Abu Rehan Al-Beruni during his stay quantified the circumference of the Earth. Al-Beruni later wrote a famous book about the region and mentioned Nandana as a great center of learning. The historical Nandana Fort is located in tehsil Pind Dadan Khan of district Jhelum.
 Imran Khan on Sunday launched Al-Beruni Radius, a tourism project for the revival of Pakistan's heritage.){kind=link}