The 5th Pakistan Mountain Festival concluded with cultural performances and distribution of prizes among the winners of the painting completion and display of mountain products at the Ibex Club on Sunday. The festival is a landmark annual public advocacy event by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) to commemorate the International Mountains Day.
This year Pakistan Mountain Festival is being supported by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Ibex Club.
Ambassador of Nepal Bharat Raj Paudyal was the chief guest on the closing ceremony. Speaking on the occasion he said, Pakistan and Nepal shares mountain heritage, culture and challenges as well being imposed by the changing climate. Both countries can have joint celebrations in the year to come. Appreciating Pakistan Mountain Festival he said, it is a unique idea to develop a brand for the promotion of mountain communities and their culture and products, tourism and eco-systems services.
Over 100 youth participated in the Margallah Hills Trail-3 hiking and clean up, organised in collaboration with the IESE-NUST, and other universities. Asif Shahjahan, Secretary CDA Board was the chief guest who distributed certificates of appreciation among the participants. The exhibition of mountain products and painting competition also continued Sunday.
The festival peaked up on the International Mountains Day (December 11) with a number of activities including a seminar on 'marketing and mainstreaming of mountain products', a painting competition for the students of colleges and universities, exhibition of mountain products and variety of cultural performances.
Junaya Matsuura, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in Pakistan, Ashida Katsunori, Head of Strategic Political Affairs, Embassy of Japan in Pakistan, and Luca Listo, Project Director SEED-EvK2CNR, under the framework of Pakistan-Italy Debt Swap Agreement (PIDSA), Dr Imran Hashmi, Dean, IESE-NUST, were the guests of honour on Friday events.
In his welcome address, Munir Ahmed, the founder and Director Pakistan Mountain Festival and Executive Director Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) said Pakistan Mountain Festival has become a brand ambassador of Pakistan's mountains and its people.
Munir said, "We need to protect mountain habitats, conserve water resources and biological diversity, promote and mainstream mountain products and places, and more importantly, we need to beat the cartels exploiting natural resources of mountains indiscriminately."
Junaya Matsuura who himself has been a mountaineer and trekker said Pakistan has several magnificent mountains and it always great pleasure to visit the mountains. They are not the mountains only; they are also backbone of life, biodiversity and wildlife.