Conventional Tourism Laws in Pakistan and their Appraisal in the Light of Islamic Law(A Lego-Historical Perspective)

Abstract

Managing tourism and its ancillary matters always remained a challenging issue, primarily, for less developed countries. Owing to this fact, tourism laws were developed. The case of Pakistan was not different where Pakistan Tourist Guide Act 1976 and Pakistan Tourist Guide Rules 1996, had developed for managing the affairs of tourism.  The religion of Islam was not different in this regard, and, therefore, on several written and verbal attempts motivated the believers to perform travel in search of knowledge, wisdom, exposure and etc. Moreover, an effective legislation had been developed for the elaboration and safeguard of tourists’ rights and duties respectively. Such legal spectrum could be found in the Holy Qurān, hadīth and work of Fuqahā (classical Muslim jurists). The present work tried to investigate whether Pakistan Tourist Guide Act 1976 and Pakistan Tourist Guide Rules 1996 were in conformity with the basic principles, envisaged by Sharī’ah for tourism or not Findings showed that majority of such rules were not in line with the basic tourism laws in Islam. Additionally, it was also found  that Islamic guidelines and legislation, about traveling and touring, were more comprehensive and versatile in nature comparatively Tourist Guide Rules, prevailing in Pakistan.