Boosting morale: Senate panel wraps up Siachen trip

Expresses solidarity with soldiers deployed on world’s highest battleground.

ISLAMABAD: Members of the Senate Defence Committee on Tuesday concluded a visit to Siachen to express the solidarity of parliament and political forces with the soldiers and officers deployed on the world’s highest battleground.

According to a statement issued, committee chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain lauded the valour and morale of troops deployed at Siachen, and appreciated their determination to perform duties in the harshest of conditions.

“People can never forget the sacrifices of armed forces in defending every inch of the country,” Mushahid had said while speaking to troops at the Bilafond-la strategic outpost.

During the two-day, the first of its kind by any parliamentary panel, members of the committee received a preliminary briefing at Skardu, before flying to Giyari – which lies at a height of 12,500 feet – and Bilafond-la – located at a height of almost 17,000 feet, not far from an Indian Army post.

At Giyari, where 140 soldiers and officers of the Pakistan Army lost their lives in an avalanche in 2012, the panel members laid a wreath at the monument for martyrs.

According to the press release, Senator Mushahid expressed concern about the adverse affects of climate change and urged India to join hands with Pakistan and other countries in South Asia to form a regional strategy to tackle the issue. He criticised the Indian military establishment for sabotaging all efforts for peace in Siachen.

The Senate panel included Senator Sabir Ali Baloch, Senator Haji Adeel, Senator Mohsin Leghari, Senator Abdur Rauf and Senator Dr Saeeda Iqbal, as well as Secretary of the Defence Committee, Dr Pervez Abbas.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2014.