Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at the Pakistan Strategy Dialogue at Davos, Switzerland, where he said Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous places in the world when his government took over but that “we had decided to partner with peace”.

“There was the ‘war on terror’ which left 70,000 people dead. Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous places in the world,” the prime minister said.

“Secondly, the legacy of the 80s, where we were left with the militant groups still operating in Pakistan, my government is the first one that has now disarmed them and tried to rehabilitate them.”

As a result of this, the PM said, the first benefit Pakistan saw was in the field of tourism.

“In terms of tourism, Pakistan is perhaps one of the most undiscovered countries in the world. It has one of the oldest civilisations, the Indus Valley [civilisation] which is 5,000 years old, and has sacred places for four religions,” Imran said.

“We are one of the most tourism-friendly countries and all this potential was untapped, especially the mountain areas,” he said.

The first impact was that tourism recovered in a year, he said. Referring to Pakistan topping the list of tourist destinations in 2020, the prime minister said: “We believe Pakistan can collect a lot of revenue from tourism.”

The second step was investment, said Imran, adding that the government is doing everything possible to attract investment and to give incentives to industries.