ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday assured the family of 35-year-old trekker Raheela Gul, who was preparing to cross the Amazon rainforest on foot but died in the Margalla Towers tragedy, that her memory would be kept alive.

The prime minister held out this assurance to Ms Gul’s family while offering his condolences to her brother Mohammad Wasif on Saturday.

Ms Gul represented the vibrant spirit of Pakistan and her death is a great loss to the country, the prime minister told her brother, adding that he was personally very saddened by the news of her death.

Her contribution would be recognized, was the prime minister’s message to the great adventurer’s family.

Ms Gul had crossed Nara, Thar and Cholistan deserts on foot earlier this year. Apparently the route she took had set two world records. She had also been to the base camps of three great mountains — K2, Rakaposhi and Nanga Parbat — in Northern Areas.

Raheela Gul had met the prime minister on October 5 and they had discussed with great enthusiasm her upcoming project to trek through the Amazon rainforest and the prime minister had promised all support.

Later, she also had a long session with his Media Adviser Mehreen Khan and press secretary Javed Akhtar to discuss various aspects of her Amazon mission that she was to start soon after Eid.

Raheela Gul, a Pakistani-Norwegian, was visiting a friend on a third floor apartment of the Margalla Towers when the building collapsed following the deadly October 8 earthquake.

Her body was pulled out of the debris on Wednesday and identified by her family members later in the evening at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.