ISLAMABAD - Minister of State for Parliamen­tary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on Wednesday informed the Sen­ate Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) was striving to revive tourism industry of Pakistan adding that National Tourism Board was also set up to promote tourism.

Replying to various questions dur­ing Question Hour, the minister said PTDC has taken significant steps to promote local attractions through a website / e-portal.

PTDC has a plan to develop a new website / e-portal that would highlight tourist attractions and promotes posi­tive image of the country both at na­tional and international levels, he said. He said the website / e-portal would have pictures, videos, information about tourist spots, cultural, archaeo­logical and historical sites etc. with the purpose to gain attraction of tourists.

To another question, the minister said Pakistan Bait-u1-Mal was a pub­lic sector social safety net of the Fed­eral Government working under the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division. It was established through an Act of Parliament in 1991 to pro­vide financial assistance to destitute, widows, orphans, infirm and other needy persons, he said.

He said in line with the provisions of the Act, PBM was executing an In­dividual Financial Assistance (IFA) scheme to provide monetary assis­tance to the marginalized segments of the society for health care, educa­tion and general assistance.

He said PBM provided financial as­sistance upto Rs.1.000 million to the indigent sick persons for treatment of chronic diseases through government hospitals through IFA (Medical).

Similarly, he said PBM provided fi­nancial assistance upto Rs. 100,000/- per annum per student, to the deserv­ing students, admitted in government institutes for payment of institutional dues. Similarly, financial assistance of Rs.10,000/- per annum was provided to a family having one disable member and Rs.25,000/- per annum, as finan­cial assistance to a family having more than one disable member throughout life. Ali Muhammad Khan said a total of 1,571 wheel chairs had been distrib­uted among disable persons since July, 2019 to March, 2020.