Pakistani politician and former world class cricket player Imran Khan has inaugurated a new chairlift at Pakistan ’s only commercial ski area, Malam Jabba, seven years after the Taliban were driven out of the area where it is located.
Malam Jabba ski area was originally created with assistance from the Austrian government in the 1990s and finally opened in 2000 but the Taliban overran the beautiful Swat Valley area where it is located in 2007 and destroyed the original chairlift and other resort facilities including a hotel.
Locals had continued to ski on the slopes and run basic ski school and rental services with aged equipment as well as rigging up a make shift lift but money secured in the past few years allowed for a proper chairlift to be rebuilt, which Imran Khan inaugurated on September 1st.
The 800 metre long lift is reported to have taken 53 days to build at a cost of one billion rupees (£7m).
