Pakistan climber cleanses K2 as shrine to fallen father

This picture taken on July 15, 2023, shows Sajid Ali Sadpara holding his climbing gear at K2 Basecamp, world’s second tallest mountain in the Karakoram range of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. (AFP/File)
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Updated 10 August 2023
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Pakistan climber cleanses K2 as shrine to fallen father

  • Sajid Sadpara and his team have picked some 200 kilograms of litter from K2
  • Move is tribute to deceased father Ali Sadpara who died during 2021 expedition

K2 BASECAMP, Pakistan: Gazing up from K2 Basecamp, Sajid Ali Sadpara sees Earth's second-highest mountain, his father's final resting place, and a blight of litter on the furthest reaches of the natural world.
Sajid dons a down coverall stitched with Pakistan's green flag to scale the 8,611-metre (28,251-foot) spur of rock, clearing an icebound grotesquerie of spent oxygen canisters, mangled tents and snarled rope discarded over decades by climbers questing for the summit.
Over a week some 200 kilograms (400 pounds) of litter is hacked from the pinnacle's frozen grip by his five-strong team and ferried precariously back down, he says, a rare act of charity in one of Earth's most unforgiving environments.




This picture taken on July 5, 2023, shows a mural of Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara, center, in the town of Skardu, Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan. (AFP/File)

It is a high-altitude tribute to Sajid's father, legendary climber Ali Sadpara, honouring the place where they bonded in nature and where his body remains after a 2021 father-son expedition fell foul of the "savage mountain".
"I'm doing it from my heart," Sajid told an AFP team at K2 Basecamp, where 5,150 metres of elevation labours breathing and avalanches tremor off an amphitheatre of surrounding slopes.
"This is our mountain," the 25-year-old said, sizing up the task above. "We are the custodians."

K2 was forged when India collided with Asia 50 million years ago, sprouting the Karakoram range of mountains across Pakistan's present-day northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
It was named by British surveyors in 1856 -- denoting the second peak in the Karakoram range. Over time nearby mountains with alphanumeric designations became better known by names used by locals.
But sequestered up a glacial cul-de-sac on the Chinese border -- days from the faintest suggestion of human settlement -- K2 kept its foreboding moniker, stoking a reputation as a more wild, untamable, and technically demanding ascent than Nepal's Everest, which stands 238 meters higher.
First conquered by Italians in 1954, its winter winds scourge up to 200 kilometers per hour and temperatures plunge to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).
But it also ignites primal passions with its archetypical triangular silhouette -- the shape of a peak a child might draw.
After two days on paths slit through valleys and four more across the Baltoro Glacier -- a 63-kilometer hulk frozen in a permanent storm swell and seamed with crevasses -- K2's first glimpse ripples frisson through hikers.
It stands like an altar at the end of a colossal aisle. Sundown deepens its rocky reliefs and burnishes snowy slopes to rose gold. Pilgrim paragliders come to whirl in its shadow.
One renowned wilderness photographer labeled this vista "the throne room of the mountain gods".
"We love it more than life itself because there's no place of such beauty on Earth," said Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP) warden Muhammad Ishaq.
Against this sublime backdrop, Ali Sadpara stood out among a majority white, Western mountaineering elite as a domestic hero who rose from humble roots to scale eight of the world's 14 "super peaks" above 8,000 meters.
"Pakistan's name was raised high because of Ali," said 48-year-old Abbas Sadpara, an unrelated veteran mountaineer who guided the AFP team to K2.
Two years ago Sajid was attempting a perilous winter ascent of K2 with his father and two foreigners when illness forced him back.
The three men who carried on were later discovered dead below the "bottleneck" -- an overhang that looks like a frozen tidal wave on the final stretch before the summit.
Sajid recovered his father's body and performed Islamic rites at an improvised grave near Camp Four -- the last stop off before the top.
He marked the spot with GPS coordinates before the mountain enveloped the remains at a height of more than 23 Eiffel Towers.




This picture taken on July 16, 2023, shows a man collecting litter from K2 at Basecamp, world’s second tallest mountain in the Karakoram range of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. (AFP/File)

Sajid bears that loss with soft-spoken grace.
His voice, unbruised with emotion, is hard to make out in blaring Islamabad restaurants or the resort town of Skardu where a mural of his father looks on as expeditions jump off in growling jeeps.
But in the nearby village of Choghoghrong -- an oasis of golden cropland blotched with lavender bushes -- it resonates as he recounts the uncommon appreciation of the natural world his father handed down while they worked the land between summit pushes.
"This simple life and this natural life we spent here," Sajid said. "This whole world was my village."
"I am most connected with nature in this village," he said.
But K2 exerts a gravitational pull: a place of extreme risk but also the promise of absolute zen in the curious, adrenaline-addled climber's psyche.
"We want to be on mountains just for mental peace," Sajid said. "If we see any rubbish the feeling is totally different."
Abbas Sadpara said "K2 is no longer as beautiful as it once used to be. We have destroyed its beauty with our own hands."
But Sajid has climbed half the 8,000-metre peaks without supplemental oxygen, a daredevil undertaking, and holds no ill will towards those who jettison gear on the slopes.
"After a summit, you are totally exhausted," he said. "The main thing is survival."
But there is a saying in Islam he is fond of recalling: "Cleanliness is half of faith."
"Climbing to the top is a different thing," he explains. "Cleaning is something that you feel personally from the heart."


In 2019, plastic waste was discovered 11 kilometers below the sea in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth.
With commercialized mountain tourism conveying growing numbers of tourists to the summit, Everest is also growing notorious for vast blemishes of trash.
K2 witnessed a record of some 150 summits last season prompting concern the same ironic dynamic -- of climbers leaving trails of waste while pursuing the world's most untouched vistas -- has crept into play in Pakistan.
"There's two mountains that the trash has been a problem and that's K2 and Everest," said Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, whose summit of the Pakistan peak last month sealed a record-quick ascent of all 8,000-metre mountains in three months and a day.
"Commercial companies, they take in more equipment," explained CKNP ecologist Yasir Abbas, who oversaw a campaign pulling 1,600 kg of refuse off the mountain in 2022. "If more people go to climb there will be more waste."
"What goes up must come down," he says. "The people who are cleaning K2 are risking their life for the environment."
But the clean-up mission goes beyond the environmental, spilling into the code of fellowship climbers abide by at altitude -- beyond the earthbound crutches of rescue services and emergency rooms.
Cast-away ropes can mislead teams with minds clouded by altitude sickness towards oblivion. Abandoned tents force other campers out into more exposed spots at the mercy of the elements. Each tossed O2 canister is another hefty hazard at the whim of gravity and wind.
"It's not my trash or your trash, it's our trash," Harila told AFP in Islamabad.
"Here in K2 if there's some mistake you fall down. If you fall down, all the way you come down," said Mingma David Sherpa, 33, who led a Nepalese team with the Nimsdai Foundation also clearing some 200 kilograms from K2 before passing the baton to Sajid in mid-July.
One day before that moment, the young Sadpara sets eyes on the mountain after days of trekking through glacial wilderness. "I see K2 and I think a different way," he says. But "from a distance you can't see the garbage".
"K2 is more than a mountain for me."


Pakistan PM hails negative SPI inflation, says economic indicators improving

Updated 13 sec ago
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Pakistan PM hails negative SPI inflation, says economic indicators improving

  • SPI focuses on short-term price movements that affect low- and middle-income households most directly
  • Shehbaz Sharif says the government wants to pass on the benefits of improving economy to the public

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday expressed satisfaction over the annual decline in Pakistan’s Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which he said had fallen to -3.52% in April 2025, compared to 26.94% in the same month last year.
The SPI measures weekly changes in the prices of essential items such as food, fuel and utilities across various consumption groups. Unlike the broader Consumer Price Index (CPI), which captures overall inflation, the SPI focuses on short-term price movements that affect low- and middle-income households most directly.
“The [SPI] rate stood at 26.94% in the same month last year, whereas in April 2025, it has been recorded at minus 3.52%,” the prime minister said in a statement issued by his office.
“The country’s economic indicators are improving with each passing day,” he added. “The government is making every effort to ensure that the benefits of these improving economic indicators reach the public.”
Sharif also commended his economic team for their efforts in stabilizing the economy and curbing inflation.​
In May 2023, Pakistan experienced its highest recorded inflation, with the CPI reaching 38% year-on-year, driven by surging food and energy prices.
The recent decline in the SPI indicates potential relief for consumers,​ though the government continues to face challenges in managing the economy, including meeting fiscal targets and securing external financing.


VISA to triple Pakistan office size, partner with 1-Link, PayPak — finance minister

Updated 25 April 2025
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VISA to triple Pakistan office size, partner with 1-Link, PayPak — finance minister

  • Muhammad Aurangzeb hails company’s role in advancing digital payments and financial inclusion
  • The finance minister also assures the US financial services company of the government’s full support

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Thursday US financial services company Visa will triple the size of its office in Pakistan and collaborate with the country’s first-ever domestic payment card scheme, 1Link and PayPak.
Visa Inc. is a global payments technology company that operates one of the world’s largest electronic payment networks, enabling consumers and businesses to make payments using Visa-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards.
Visa doesn’t issue cards itself but partners with banks and financial institutions to do so. 1Link and PayPak is similar in concept to Visa or Mastercard but is designed specifically for local use within Pakistan.
The Pakistani minister, currently in Washington, appreciated Visa’s role in the digitalization of his country’s economy during a meeting with the company’s regional vice president, Andrew Torre.
“He [Aurangzeb] noted that Visa’s decision to triple the size of its office in Pakistan and its collaboration with 1Link and PayPak would contribute significantly to promoting financial inclusion, e-commerce, transaction security, and payment gateways in Pakistan, as well as facilitate remittances,” the finance ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting.
It added the finance minister also assured the company of the government’s full support in resolving any issues faced by them.
Aurangzeb’s meeting with Torre came as the country works toward a more inclusive and digitally empowered economy, with government backing and private sector innovation aligned.


Pakistan Senate rejects Indian attempt to link it to Kashmir tourist attack

Updated 25 April 2025
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Pakistan Senate rejects Indian attempt to link it to Kashmir tourist attack

  • Deputy PM Ishaq Dar says India must be held accountable for its acts of ‘terrorism’ in Pakistan
  • He also reaffirms Pakistan’s ‘moral, political and diplomatic’ support to the people of Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Senate on Friday unanimously passed a resolution condemning what it called India’s “frivolous and baseless” attempts to link Islamabad to a deadly shooting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, rejecting the allegation and accusing New Delhi of using “terrorism” as a political tool.
India has blamed Pakistan for the attack in the scenic town of Pahalgam in Kashmir’s Anantnag district, where gunmen killed 26 civilians on Tuesday in the deadliest assault on non-combatants in nearly two decades.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the incident, with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar reading out the resolution in the upper house of parliament that was later adopted by all the lawmakers.
“The Senate of Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestation, emphasizes that killing of innocent civilians is contrary to the values upheld by Pakistan [and] rejects all frivolous and baseless attempts to link Pakistan with the Pahalgam attack of 22nd April 2025 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
The resolution denounced India’s suspension of the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty and reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
It also accused India of waging a “mala fide campaign” to malign Pakistan.
“The country’s sovereignty, security and interests demand that India should be held accountable for its involvement in different acts of terrorism and targeted assassinations on the soil of other countries, including Pakistan,” Dar continued.
He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s “unwavering moral, political and diplomatic support for and commitment to the Kashmiri people’s just struggle for realization of their inalienable right to self determination.”


Detained Pakistan rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch launches hunger strike

Updated 25 April 2025
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Detained Pakistan rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch launches hunger strike

  • Baloch, 32, was arrested last month on charges of terrorism, sedition and murder
  • Dozen UN experts called on Pakistan in March to immediately release Baloch rights defenders

QUETTA: Detained activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch, one of the leading campaigners for Pakistan’s Baloch minority, has launched a hunger strike along with other detainees, her sister told AFP on Friday.
Mahrang Baloch, 32, was arrested last month on charges of terrorism, sedition and murder.
In her native Balochistan, an impoverished province that borders Afghanistan and Iran, security forces are battling a growing insurgency.
Rights groups say the violence has been countered with a severe crackdown that has swept up innocent people. Authorities deny heavyhandedness. 
Mahrang’s hunger strike “is aimed at denouncing the misconduct of the police and the failure of the justice system to protect... prisoners,” her younger sister, Nadia Baloch, said.
Nadia said the hunger strike was launched on Thursday after the attempted “abduction” of one of the Baloch detainees.
Mahrang’s organization, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), said the inmate was beaten by security officials and taken from the prison to an unknown location.
A security official said the detainee was moved to another prison and denied any mistreatment.
BYC said four other detained Baloch activists have joined the hunger strike.
“All of them are peaceful political workers, imprisoned for raising their voices... Their only ‘crime’ is organizing peacefully in an environment saturated with state terror and violence,” the group said.
Activists say in the crackdown against militancy in the region authorities have harassed and carried out extrajudicial killings of Baloch civilians.
Pakistani authorities reject the “baseless allegations.”
A dozen UN experts called on Pakistan in March to immediately release Baloch rights defenders, including Mahrang, and to end the repression of their peaceful protests.
UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor said she was “disturbed by reports of further mistreatment in prison.”
The judiciary has declined to rule on Mahrang’s detention, effectively halting any appeal and placing the matter solely in the hands of the provincial government.
Insurgents in Balochistan accuse outsiders of plundering the province’s rich natural resources and launched a dramatic train siege in March, during which officials said about 60 people were killed.


Pakistan joins Muslim world in sending condolences ahead of Pope’s funeral on Saturday

Updated 25 April 2025
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Pakistan joins Muslim world in sending condolences ahead of Pope’s funeral on Saturday

  • Over 128,000 people have already paid last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 1800 GMT in ceremony attended by senior cardinals
  • Francis will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus, people will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan joined the Muslim world in sending condolences as the Vatican made final preparations Friday for Pope Francis’s funeral and the last of the huge crowds of mourners filed through St. Peter’s Basilica to view his open coffin.
Over 128,000 people have already paid their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00pm (1800 GMT) in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.
Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending Saturday’s ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, including US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, are expected to arrive later Friday in Rome.
“Pakistan conveys its heartfelt condolences on the passing of His Holiness, Pope Francis, a revered spiritual figure and a worldwide advocate for peace, interfaith dialogue and compassion,” the foreign office said. 
“His Holiness demonstrated unwavering commitment to fostering unity among world religions, advocating for the oppressed and promoting the inherent dignity of all humankind. Pakistan deeply values his tireless efforts to enhance mutual respect and understanding among diverse cultures and faiths.”
The foreign office said the pope’s legacy was marked by “profound humility, selfless service and a unifying vision for humanity,” which would serve as an inspiration for generations to come. 
“At this moment of profound sorrow, Pakistan stands in solidarity with our Catholic brothers and sisters worldwide and with all those touched by the extraordinary life of service.”
Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St. Peter’s under tight security with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby. Further checkpoints will be activated on Friday night, police said.
Vast crowds of people on Friday morning packed Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue leading to the Vatican, for the third and final day of the pope’s lying-in-state.
For a second night in a row, the Vatican kept St. Peter’s open past the scheduled hours to accommodate the queues, only closing the doors between 2:30am (0030 GMT) and 5:40am Friday.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, will preside at the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin of the late Pope Francis on Friday, April 25, at 8:00 PM, ahead of the papal funeral on Saturday morning.
The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.
The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors’ orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
It was his last public appearance.
Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up “contempt... toward the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants.”
After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favorite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
The hearse will pass down Rome’s Fori Imperiali – where the city’s ancient temples lie – and past the Colosseum, according to officials.
Big screens will be set up along the route on which to watch the ceremony, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said.
Francis will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.
People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning, as all eyes turn to the process of choosing Francis’s successor.
With inputs from AP