Daredevil feat
Mountaineering looks like a kid's stuff for us Pakistanis. And this is no overstatement. So many of our mountaineers have made the country proud by their daredevil exploits. Sirbaz Khan is the latest in the long list of Pakistani summiteers who have come up with record-setting feats. As Sirbaz scaled Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest peak having an altitude of 8,586 meters, this past Sunday, he clinched a remarkable feat – becoming the first Pakistani, and one of the very few elite mountaineers worldwide, to summit all the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters without supplementary oxygen support. The other 13 Eight Thousanders that Sirbaz has summited are Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna I, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II and Shishapangma.
However, the story of Sirbaz – like nearly all other Pakistani mountaineers – is of paucity and privation in peaking. In the pursuit of his goals, Sirbaz – hailing from Gilgit-Baltistan – has ever had to do without proper hiking gear and essentials. His accomplishments have resulted from pure alpine climbing passion, sans the support enjoyed by his counterparts in the developed world. This is putting life in danger for a national honour – daredevilry in every sense of the word.
There is no death of Pakistani mountaineers who are making a name for the nation on course of their professional pursuit. Sadly though, mountaineers are among the most neglected sportspersons in the country – hardly ever accorded any attention by the government in terms of provision of professional, technical or monetary support that they need and so very well deserve. It's about time the government started paying due attention to the sportspersons who continue to hoist the national flag on the peak of the peaks.
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