PAMIR TIMES

Pamir Times (http://www.pamirtimes.net)is doing a good job for the Gilgit-Baltistan region (GB). I remember during my stay there we used to have a day old or at times a week old newspaper delivered through Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to Gilgit and circulated to only a few and selected offices or people. Online newspapers have made life really easy!

My favourite story was about Samina Khayal, an emerging Pakistani mountaineer, who has recently summited a 6500 meters (21,325.5 feet) unknown peak in Shimshal which is now named as Samina Peak. Sounds great! Another equally exciting news was the medal wins in SAF Winter Games held in India (Uthakhand State from 10-16 January) by the Wali sisters, also hailing from GB. Icredible!

Pakistan is home to five of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks (there are 14 in all) and looms large in climbing history. Despite this, no Pakistani woman has ever ascended a major peak in her home country. Cultural beliefs and economic realities mean that for Pakistani girls, mountain climbing has been reserved for boys—until now. In August, Samina “Khayal” Baig, an 18-year-old Pakistani girl, ascended a previously unclimbed 6,400-meter mountain in the Hunza-Glingit region of Pakistan. Samina was accompanied by a team that included her brother, Mirza Ali, and a Romanian documentary filmmaker, Stelian Pavalache.

Medal wins in Ski by Ifrah Wali and Amina Wali in the Giant Slalom event of skiing in the games have made them the first Pakistani female athletes to win at the South Asian Games’ ski event.