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Pakistan climbing season reaches new heights

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  • Pakistan enjoys bumper climbing season with around 1,400 foreign mountaineers bidding to scale its lofty peaks.
  • There were 57 expeditions planned for 23 Pakistan peaks this season.
  • Secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan Karrar Haidri says climbers this year include 90 women.

SKARDU: Pakistan is enjoying a bumper climbing season with around 1,400 foreign mountaineers bidding to scale its lofty peaks — including hundreds on the 8,611-metre (28,251-feet) K2, the world’s second-highest.

“It is a record number,” Raja Nasir Ali Khan, tourism minister of the Gilgit-Baltistan region, told AFP.

The country is home to five of the world’s 14 mountains higher than 8,000 metres, and climbing them all is considered the ultimate achievement of any mountaineer.

Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP there were 57 expeditions planned for 23 Pakistan peaks this season — with 370 climbers having a crack at K2, known as “the savage mountain”.

Besides being far more technically difficult to climb than Everest, weather conditions are notoriously fickle on K2, which has only been scaled by 425 people since 1954.

More than 6,000 people have climbed Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the top in 1953 — some of them multiple times.

Haidri said climbers this year include 90 women — including at least two Pakistanis aiming to become the country’s first to scale K2.

Russian Oxana Morneva is leading a team on the mountain, having failed in her own attempt in 2012 when she was forced back after injuring her knee.

“My rope was broken by falling rocks,” she told AFP.

She said she had no apprehension about returning.

“When we go to the mountain we have to be peaceful inside, and we have to know what we are doing,” she added.

Around 200 climbers will attempt to scale the 8,051-metre Broad Peak, while similar numbers will try Gasherbrum-I (8,080 metres) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035 metres).

A 36-year-old Norwegian climber, Kristin Harila, is also aiming to reach the world’s 14 highest mountain summits in record time.

Having already climbed seven peaks of over 8,000 metres, Harila hopes to match, if not beat, Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja’s ambitious six months and six days record.

The summer climbing season that started in early June lasts until late August.

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Preliminary ruling on Sheikh Rashid’s exoneration plea on conspiracy to assassinate President Zardari

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On Thursday, the Islamabad District and Sessions Court reserved judgment on Sheikh Rashid’s (leader of the Awami Muslim League) appeal in the matter of alleged plot to assassinate President Asif Ali Zardari.

Earlier, Sheikh Rashid sought exoneration in the matter by lodging a plea.

On Thursday, the session was presided over by Civil Judge Yasir Mehmood.

The ex-minister of the federal government and his legal team made an appearance in court.

In court, lawyer Sardar Razaq contended that the FIR filed against Sheikh Rashid did not adhere to the law.

The veteran politician’s lawyer begged the court to clear his client’s name in the case that was filed with the Abpara Police Station.

The case’s ruling was postponed by the court.

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KP CM Ganadapur granted three weeks of travel bail by PHC

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The chief minister of KP, Ali Amin Gandapur, has been granted three weeks of transit bail in his plea with the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

The appeal for information regarding charges against Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was considered by a two-judge panel from the PHC, which included Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah.

The chief justice noted that the chief minister showed up for the court hearing, even though he was actually scheduled to be in Islamabad for an IMF meeting.

The applicant’s legal representative has asked for specifics of all pending charges against Chief Minister Gandapur, including those in Punjab.

According to the assistant attorney general, he told the ministry of the interior to adhere rigidly to court orders.

According to CJ Ibrahim, they have the option to request a response from the federal government and extend protection bail up to the Punjab region.

In every case, the additional attorney general ensured that court orders were implemented. He said that he had written to each district and requested details from the Punjab Police and the Inspector General.

The assistant attorney general has asked for an extension of three weeks to complete the report.

Gandapur could not attend the court daily due to his administrative duties and his position as chief minister and public office holder, according to Justice Asadullah.

After extending KP CM’s protective bail, the judge postponed the case hearing to December 17.

“Prepared to Protest”

Speaking to the media outside of PHC, KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur declared that he was prepared for the PTI protest meeting and that this time, the action plan will be stringent but undisclosed.

He emphasized that their peaceful protest was in accordance with their constitutionally protected right. According to him, his group was attacked, rubber bullets were shot, and routes were blocked so that protests couldn’t take place.

Importantly, on November 24th, Aleema Khan, who is the brother of PTI founder Imran Khan, said that her brother had called for a final protest.

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A response to an intra-party election case has been granted an extension by PTI.

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The matter involving PTI’s intra-party elections was heard by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and the party once again asked for more time to respond.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, chairman of the PTI, and petitioner Akbar S. Babar were both present before a two-member ECP court that heard the matter.

In response to PTI’s plea for additional time to respond, the Election Commission extended the deadline.

Additional case proceedings will not resume until December 4, per the commission’s adjournment.

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