Zubair Qureshi
A three-day photo and painting exhibition “The Colours of the Ice” depicting the majestic mountains of Pakistan kicked off here on Monday at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).
The exhibition simultaneously marked the 13th edition of the Pakistan Mountain Festival—the annual flagship event of Devcom-Pakistan— and the International Mountain Day that falls on December 11 every year.
The event was jointly organized by the Embassy of Italy, Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), EvK2CNR, UNDP and the IUCN.
Italian Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese, the chief guest on the occasion, said the mountains and glaciers played a key role in life on the planet. The Italian government has always been supportive of research, conservation and development of mountain sights and for this purpose a project ‘Glaciers & Students’ involving the Pakistani and the Italian universities students has been launched to conduct in-depth study and research of these glaciers and create a database with all the required information that will remain available and usable for the local institutions.
Pakistan’s northern parts are home to some of the vast stretches of glaciers after the North Pole and these glacier reserves feed local livelihood systems and support unique ecosystems of global importance in addition to serving as a major source of water for downstream areas. The ambassador said since the very beginning of the diplomatic relations, there had been an uninterrupted line of Italian scientists, professors, mountaineers and researchers who visited the north of Pakistan though with different reasons but all of them had a longing to visit these beautiful mountains.
This exhibition he said not only highlights climbing and climbers but it also identifies the major issue i.e. conservation of glaciers.
The ambassador was of the view that the Pakistani authorities agreed there was a necessity for expertise and technical instruments to monitor and preserve this wonderful world heritage i.e. glaciers. The Italian government together with UNDP has decided to invest and intervene to preserve these glaciers and make a long-term investment and prevent any possible natural calamities, he said.
