Tribute paid to Mount Everest climbers

Ceremony held to mark the first summit of the mountain

ISLAMABAD: Just days after Colonel (retired) Abdul Jabbar Bhatti became the fourth Pakistani to summit Mount Everest, tribute was paid to all the mountaineers who have scaled the world’s tallest mountain, especially those from Pakistan.

Mount Everest Day 2017 was celebrated by the Nepalese Embassy at the Serena Hotels. Nepal has been celebrating Mount Everest Day since 2008 called Sagarmantha. The day is marked at the end of the climbing season and marks the anniversary of the day Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to summit the mountain.

During the event, a documentary about mountaineer Nazir Sabir was shown. Sabir was the first Pakistani to have summited Mount Everest on May 17, 2000. Others who have summited Everest from Pakistan include Samina Baig (who became the first Pakistani woman to summit the mountain), Hassan Sadpara and Col Bhatti (his summit is yet to be certified by the Nepalese government).

Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division Tariq Fazal Chaudhry congratulated the people of Nepal for the day.

“Pakistan and Nepal have both been blessed with spectacular mountains and extraordinary historical treasures many of which are world heritage sites,” Chaudhry said.

“It is heartening to see so much interest in celebrating this important day,” Nepal’s Ambassador Sewa Lamsal Adhikari said. She explained that on May 29, 1953, Everest was scaled for the first time.

“Humans reached the top of the world and since then some 4,000 climbers have reached the peak. I am told more Pakistanis have planned to climb Mount Everest this year and I wish them the best of luck,” Adhikari said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2017.