Scaling Everest without oxygen

When I wrote a post about two Pakistanis’ desire to scale the Mt Everest or the Mt Chomolungma as the Chinese call it, I was rather skeptical. And then when as days went by and there was no news, I thought my fears to be right. But that was not to be so. On 11th May, the dream of one of the two Pakistanis came true when he finally stood at the top of the world.

Hassan Sidhpara had his dream of reaching at the top of the world. What makes his climb special and unique is that he did it without oxygen – something that requires extreme guts and very high standard of physical fitness as oxygen is so thin at Mt Everest that is is extremely difficult to breathe. He became the second Pakistani to have achieved this honour, Nazir Sabir being the first who scaled Everest on 17th May 2000.

The expedition was sponsored by the Alpine Club of Pakistan and had the patronage of the president of Pakistan. The team comprising of three climbers left for Nepal in the last week of March earlier this year and established their base camp III at 7,200 metres overlooked by the gigantic Everest.

The other two members of the team, Mohammad Sadiq and Ghulam Muhammad Faisal could not materialize their dream of scaling Everest. But a determined Hassan from Baltistan province of Pakistan continued despite all odds against him and finally scaled the highest peak of the world at stood at 8,848 metre. Standing by the Pakistani national flag he hoisted atop the peak, Hassan Sidhpara had created a world record for not using oxygen for his climb to the top of the world.

Related:
Hassan conquers Mount Everest with no oxygen kit
Conquering Everest – dream of two Pakistani brothers

Originally posted at JahoJalal

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Top 10 Women that made headlines in Pakistan – 2010

The year brought good news when two female members of our SAARC games squad (left top and below) won gold medals in athletics and Karate. Naseem Hameed became the fastest women of South East Asia when she won the 100 metres women title. The 22 years old clocked 11.81 seconds, 0.12 seconds ahead of Sri Lanka’s Pramila Priyadarshani, and became the first female athlete to win the race in Pakistan’s sports history. Sara won gold for her superb performance in Karate.

Later in the Asian Games, the Pakistani women cricket team won gold for Pakistan and made headlines as this was their first ever victory at such a prestigious sports venue.

Hadiqa Kiani is a famous pop singer of Pakistan, who besides singing takes active part in caring for the poor, socially children. For her love and care for the poor, she along with the famous Pakistan tennis player Aisam ul Haq, was appointed as UN Ambassador of Goodwill.

Angelina Jolie needs no introduction for her superb acting in many Hollywood motion pictures. But Miss Jolie won the hearts of countless poor Pakistani, especially the women and children when she visited the flood affected areas of Pakistan earlier this year. Miss Jolie, dressed in makeup-less attire was seen wading through muddy flood waters and reaching out to the poor and console them and offering her whole hearted support as UN Ambassador of Goodwill.

Asma Jahangir is is a leading Pakistani lawyer, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and an human rights activist, who works both in Pakistan and internationally to prevent the persecution of religious minorities, women, and exploitation of children. She has also recently become the first female President Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.

Sana Mehmud is the captain of the women football team of Pakistan. Like the women cricket, she has high hopes to bring glory to women of Pakistan by competing and winning international football events. The star Indian tennis player Sania Mirza hit headlines both in Pakistan and India when she married Shoaib Malik, a Pakistan cricketer, earlier this year.

Dr Afia Siddiqui is a victim of pride and prejudice. Indicted as a suspected terrorist, she was convicted by a US court to 86 years in prison despite the fact that the case against did not have solid evidence and witnesses. The whole Pakistan nations want their daughter back as everyone is of the opinion that a case has falsely been framed against her with lot of loose ends and ambiguous claims.

The last photo in the right column is that of the anguished eyes of the veiled women of Pakistan who make headlines everyday when they are subjected to injustice in a male dominated society.

We do hope to have more females making headlines in year 2011 in the fields of science, technology, and other disciplines besides sports.

25th December – birthday of the Christ and the Quaid

The last week of December is a week of celebrations – when the entire Christian World is engrossed in celebrating the birth of Prophet Isa (May peace be upon him) or the Christ. Yes I am talking of Christmas – falling on 25th December, the birthday of a prophet. Unlike the Christian world, for whom there is no prophet to revere after the Christ, we the Muslims have same respect as we have for any prophet that came to this world before Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him). For us, the birthday of a prophet is as respectful as it is for his followers.

So Happy Christmas to all Christians around the globe. And I wish everyone peace, love, prosperity and all the happiness in life. When I went to market today, I saw lot of rush on shops selling Christmas trees……

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