Pakistan Mountain Festival: Festival peaks on Int’l Mountains Day

ISLAMABAD:

The fifth Pakistan Mountain Festival (PMF) marked International Mountains Day with engaging activities including a painting competition, exhibition of mountain crafts and a seminar on ‘marketing and mainstreaming of mountain products’ on Friday.

“We need to protect mountain habitats, conserve water resources and biological diversity, promote and mainstream mountain products and places, and beat the cartels exploiting natural resources of mountains,” said Munir Ahmed, PMF director and executive director Devcom-Pakistan.

Junya Matsuura, minister and deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy said he has himself has been a mountaineer and trekker. “They are not just mountains; they are the backbone of biodiversity and wildlife,” he added.

Ashida Katsunori, head of strategic political affairs at the embassy of Japan, said Pakistani mountains attract Japanese people, who are fond of beauty and nature. “Japanese tourist constituted the majority of the tourists that visited Pakistan’s mountains for trekking and mountaineering last year,” he added.

The live painting competition featured 26 students who produced paintings on the theme “the mountain environment”, depicting the beauty and charm of the northern areas of Pakistan.

“Unfortunately, boys’ colleges don’t take an interest in promoting art; that is why they are not represented in the competition.

The government should launch fine arts for boys colleges,” said Riffat Ara Baig, the coordinator of the live painting competition.

The festival is an annual public advocacy event by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) to commemorate International Mountains Day.

This year, the festival is being supported by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Ibex Club.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2015.