'Pakistan Mountain Festival' kicks off

ISLAMABAD: The second Pakistan Mountain Festival to mark the International Mountain Day kicked off here on Monday at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).

The 3-day festival was inaugurated by the renowned mountaineer Nazir Sabir and Mir Shahjehan Kethran, Managing Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).

The event has been organized by the Development Communications Network (DEVCOM-Pakistan) in collaboration with the Ev-K2 CNR, the SEED project of the governments of Italy and Pakistan, ICIMOD, Gojal
Educational and Cultural Association (GECA) and PNCA.

Country Operations manager EV-K2 CNR Raffeal del Cima while speaking on the occasion said, "The environmental advocacy organizations in Pakistan has been celebrating this day individually but in 2009 DEVCOM-Pakistan initiated the idea of Pakistan Mountain Festival to mark the International Mountain Day jointly and successfully arranged several activities for the two years, 2009 and 2010.

He further said, it was being revived after the gap of a year that needs vigorous support and patronage from the stakeholders.

Over two dozens of mountain communities took part in the exhibition and nearly 50 paintings by the students from the twin cities were displayed.

The best six paintings were given prizes while all the participants were awarded with the certificates of participation.

Talking about the objectives of the festival, the Festival Director and the Director DEVCOM-Pakistan Munir Ahmed said, "the festival is all set to promote the concept of `working together' for mainstreaming the climate change threats facing our frontlines, and conservation of biological diversity and forests and its role in life downstream, and to bring different stakeholders and youth together for large number of activities and for the larger and lasting impact and thirdly to showcase the culture and livelihood and ecosystem services of our mountains.

While giving the details of the festival, Munir said, "A youth seminar would be arranged for the auditorium of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Tuesday at 11 am.

Besides this the anti-littering event would be arranged at the Trail-3 of the Margallah Hills on Tuesday at 3 pm. The Norwegian Ambassador Cecilie Landsverk will be the chief guest and lead the hiking, he informed.

He told that Mountain Music Night would be the grand cultural show of the Pakistan Mountain Festival that is being arranged in collaboration
with the Gojal Education and Cultural Association (GECA).

In addition to this, the leading singers from Gilgit-Baltistan, Wakhan, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Azad Jummu and Kashmir (AJK) would perform at 6pm at the auditorium of the PNCA on Tuesday.

Director General PNCA Touqer Nasir said, "International Mountain Day (IMD) is an opportunity to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build partnerships that will bring positive change to the world's mountains and highlands. (APP)