GB govt to honour Ali Sadpara by establishing mountaineering school

• GB govt to nominate Muhammad Ali Sadpara for Pakistan's highest civil award
• GB govt to employ Ali Sadpara's son Sajid in tourism department
• Ali Sadpara and two foreign climbers were declared dead by family last week

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan government will set up the Ali Sadpara Mountaineering School to honour one of the country’s greatest climbers who was declared dead by his family a few days ago.

GB government spokesperson Ali Taj said Ali Sadpara's son Sajid will be employed in the school that will be set up in his memory.

The cabinet, which  approved the establishment of the school, agreed to put forward Muhammad Ali Sadpara's name  to the Government of Pakistan for the country’s highest civil award. 

They have also agreed to provide Rs3 million to the deceased climber’s widow.

Pakistani climber declared dead by family

Last week, the family of Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara declared him and two other missing foreign climbers dead.

The announcement was made by Ali Sadpara's son, Sajid Sadpara, in Skardu. "I will keep my father’s mission alive and fulfil his dream," he said.

He also thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the courageous pilots of the Askari Aviation for conducting a thorough search and rescue operation amid the harsh weather for his father.

Sadpara, Iceland's John Snorri and Chile's Juan Pablo Mohr had departed for their journey on February 3 after Sadpara's birthday, asking fans and admirers to "keep us in your prayers".

They had started their attempt for the final summit in the early hours of February 5 , hoping to accomplish the herculean feat by afternoon.

According to updates posted on Snorri's Facebook account, at 12:29pm, the GPS stopped working and had not updated in six hours.

A few days later, Ali Sadpara's management revealed that the government and other stakeholders were employing their best efforts to find Sadpara and the other climbers who went missing, despite him being missing for almost 10 days.