ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: Public representatives and social figures from Gilgit-Baltistan have expressed concern over the merger of the newly set up Centre for Integrated Mountain Research (CIMR) with the Geography Department of the University of Punjab.

In a letter to the Punjab governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool who is Chancellor of the Punjab University, renowned mountaineer and president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, Nazir Sabir has explained the importance of mountain research as a specialised discipline and urged the governor to restore the separate position of the Centre.

He said the mountains of Pakistan that occupied the entire northern belt and were home to an ancient people with their distinct culture that scientists and scholars came to study from the world over formed a special subject of study as to their geology, glaciology, seismology, wildlife, flora and fauna, mineralogy, water and power resources, and above all its environment on which depended the economy of the farmlands of the plains.

He said, “the Centre had opened a new door of opportunities for the people of the North whose economic life depended on the study, exploration and exploitation of the mountain resources that had not received due attention of the government”.

In fact, he added, international agencies had shown keener interest and many of them were doing yeoman service in the region for the development of the people.

As a mountaineer, Mr Sabir said, he saw the Centre playing a useful role in supplementing and broadening the scope of mountain tourism from just climbing to areas of scientific, cultural and historical research. Such activities could only be taken up under proper academic disciplines.

The Centre, Mr Sabir said, was established after many years’ long struggle. It was the first institute of its kind in a country whose 58 per cent territory comprised its green, black and white mountains.

“It was a pity that the great heritage of the world got so little attention and importance in national priorities.” He mentioned the Kyrgyzstan Mountain Agenda 1992 which draws attention to the importance of mountains in sustainable development of mountain countries.

On behalf of mountain communities, Nazir Sabir, who is the first Pakistani to conquer Mount Everest, urged the chancellor to restore the Centre’s separate status in the larger national interest as its academic research programmes would go a long way in developing and integrating multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches towards the better understanding of mountain environment and its communities.

Besides its work would be of sustaining relevance to the recently established Karakoram University which might one day take up the Centre’s theoretical studies to applied fields.