With 56 years of service, to students and youth, the Pakistan Youth Hostels Association (PYHA) is well poised to join in August the celebration of 100 years of International Youth Hostels Federation (IYHF)'s hostelling movement, and its founder the late Richard Schirmann.
As an IYHF member, PYHA has contributed 18 hostels to this international chain. Hostels have been built at historical and scenic beauty spots of the country at Abbottabad, Ayubia, Patriata (Bhurban), Gilgit, Islamabad, (Hyderabad), Lahore, Larkana, Naran, Sharan, and Quetta. Two hostels at Mansehra and Thandiani were destroyed in the devastating 2005 earthquake.
Two new hostels at Karachi and Peshawar offer a number of amenities, corresponding to IYHF international standard. They are expected to be launched within the next few weeks. The central Islamabad 100-bed youth hostell is the most popular in this chain. Dozens of students and youth organisations, including colleges and universities seek accommodation at this hostel for their students.
Islamabad is also the hub for numerous delegations of youth and students, who stay here before moving on to the hills and northern regions above. In 2008 as many as 20,000 guests stayed in this hostel, and in the last 55 years, PYHA have served more than 500,000 visitors. PYHA gives National Membership and Group Membership to universities and colleges and also International Membership. Those applying for International Membership cards are provided access to any or all 45,000 IYHF hostels across the world provided they have obtained visa of the host country. However, the facility is available for short stays, not longer than a week.
In Pakistan youth hostels guests are not allowed to stay beyond five nights, since a number of girls students also choose to stay here to ensure the hostels' cleanliness and security. "We guard our reputation scrupulously and have no intention of turning our hostels as den of scroungers and sleuths," insists PYHA Secretary Agha Afzaal Hussain. Agha Afzaal narrated the history of his organisation, paying eloquent tribute to two past chairmen, late U. Kramat (Past Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University) and the late Jahangir Khan (Former Director of Public Instruction, Punjab) in the late 1950s.
In retrospect, Pakistan became successor of the Indian Youth Hostels Movement in 1947. Then, the management of youth hostel was entrusted to a small cell within the Punjab education department.
In 1951, the two pioneers applied for IYHF affiliation but the request was turned down on the ground that a government department could not join the IYHF. This led to the formation of PHYA as voluntary charitable Trust, registered under Registered Societies Act.
According to an analyst Jonaid Iqbal, in the initial period, PYHA continued to enjoy patronage of a number of important personalities such as Begum Vaqarunnisa Noon, Muhammad Khan Junejo, Malik Miraj Khalid, Begum Abida Hussain, Shaukat Ali, and Wasim Sajjad, the present Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Former Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo inaugurated PYHA headquarters building at Islamabad in 1988. About the future plan, he said it included building an international youth convention centre at Bhurban.
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