By Rob Crilly in Islamabad<\/p>\n
Published: 10:00PM BST 11 Jul 2010<\/p>\n
Essa Khan found the bag of notes stuffed in a safe deposit box while carrying out a routine inspection of a room vacated by a Japanese NGO worker before another guest arrived.<\/p>\n
After years of negative publicity from terror strikes and political unrest, politicians have lauded the housekeeper’s honesty as the “real face of Pakistan”.<\/p>\n
But Mr Khan told The Daily Telegraph he was simply doing his job.<\/p>\n
“I have a responsibility as a human being, as a Pakistani, a Muslim,” he said on Sunday. “I never thought about keeping the money.”<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Khan, 50, has worked for the past 20 years at the Gilgit Serena Hotel, which stands amid dramatic scenery at the foot of the Karakoram mountains, in northern Pakistan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hotel staff managed to track down the guest, who works for the Japan International Co-operation Agency, and return the money, which was intended to fund a feasibility study into tourism projects in northern Pakistan.<\/p>\n Rashid Uddin, the hotel’s general manager, said the Japanese man, who has not been named, was embarrassed to learn he had lost the cash.<\/p>\n “Even after three days, he had no clue that he had left the money,” Mr Uddin said by telephone from Gilgit.<\/p>\n “He came in the next day, and it was easy to see from the look on his face just how relieved he was.”<\/p>\n The hotel has given Mr Khan a 10,000-rupee (\u00a377) reward for his honesty.<\/p>\n But his general manager said his actions deserved wider recognition.<\/p>\n “In these economic conditions, and in a region of poverty, we should be very, very proud of people like this,” said Mr Uddin.<\/p>\n The story has been taken up by politicians in a country tired of negative publicity. Years of suicide bombings mean tourist hotels have struggled to survive as foreigners stay away.<\/p>\n Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, declared Mr Khan a “national hero”.<\/p>\n “He’s a humble housekeeper and we are really proud of him,” he said. “This is the face of Pakistan that people don’t see normally.”<\/p>\n