Government urged to boost support for mountaineering

Mountaineers say annual grant to alpine club too low to meet routine expenses

ISLAMABAD: Having unfurled the green and white on the world’s tallest, and the fourth and fifth tallest mountains, mountaineers Muhammad Ali Sadpara and Mirza Ali Baig on Monday urged the government to acknowledge mountaineering as an industry and to extend greater support to those who are in the sport.

The said this while addressing a news conference at the Pakistan Sports Complex organised by the Alpine Club of Pakistan on Monday. Both Baig and Sadpara returned from Nepal over the weekend. The former completed an ascent of Mt Everest and hence his Seven Summits while Sadpara climbed the fourth and fifth tallest mountains of Lhotse and Makalu, becoming the only Pakistani with climbs of the most eight thousand metre peaks.

The two went on to say that Pakistan is also blessed with many high peaks which can attract international climbers and tourists — quite like Nepal.

Sadpara and Baig went on to share their experiences of climbing in Nepal and spoke of the hardships that occurred during their summits.

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Baig, whose sister Samina became the first Pakistan to complete the Seven Summits — climbing the highest mountains on each of the seven continents — thanked his parents.

"I want to set an example for my son that one should never give up in life no matter how hard the situation might be," he said, adding that said his summit bid, he had suffered from snow blindness.

Sadpara, who became the first man in the world to summit Nanga Parbat in winter along with Spaniard Alex Txikon, said that mountaineering has a lot to offer and an industry must be set up in this regard.

Earlier ACP President Abu Zafar and ACP Secretary Karrar Haidri said there was no training centre for mountaineers in Pakistan.  Pakistan is very rich in this sector, but authorities need to pay proper attention to it so it can flourish as a tourist attraction and boost the country's economy, they said. They added that the ACP's annual grant is barely enough to meet its routine expenses.

Despite that, they said that the ACP will hold a peak programme to attract youngsters towards mountaineering.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2019.