On a recent trip to Nathiagali, I realized how touristy the place has become, the obvious hallmark being the thugs that are there everywhere to con the tourists out of money. My brother parked his car in Doongagali and a guy handed him a parking ticket. Later, when I tried to take the car out of that parking spot, this man tried to charge me Rs.50 for the ticket. When I looked at the ticket it only had the words 'Doongagali Cooperation written on it in Urdu. I asked the man which company he worked for and that he should show me a company card but he did not have any on him. When I asked him where his office was, he pointed to a hotel and said, Thats my office. This made me even more suspicious so I asked him to give me his office phone number so that I can verify on which he started yelling and told me that if I didnt want to pay then I could go with out paying. I happily agreed, thanked him, and got into my car amidst applause of the locals who had gathered to watch the altercation. The whole point of the story is to tell you how these con men trick tourists into paying fake charges for services they do not provide and are not even authorized to do so. They use haggling and hounding as a tactic to pressurize anyone who refuses to pay. Most tourists dont want to create any unnecessary argument while on a holiday with their families. So they pay them just to get them out of the way. If the authorities didnt move to stop these conmen now, they would be emboldened further to attempt more outrageous schemes to filch money of the tourists. -SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER, Peshawar, June 13.