The 10 members were part of an expedition led by world-renowned British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja. They were struck by the avalanche on July 30. Purja’s company later announced that there were no survivors.

CM Hussain expressed deep concern over multiple accidents during mountaineering activities this year, which claimed the lives of 13 foreign climbers including two Pakistanis.

In another recent accident, Pakistani clim­ber Asma Mushtaq, 34, died on GB’s Spantik Peak on Aug 20 while desc­ending from the mountain after suffering from high-altitude sickness. A ground team recovered her body on Monday, almost 10 days after her death on the 7,027-metre-tall mountain.

The GB chief minister has directed the committee to review the relevant procedures, terms and conditions, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for dealing with mountaineering incidents. It has also been tasked with determining responsibility for any negligence or administrative lapses in the delayed rescue operations following recent accidents.

The committee will be headed by Forest, Wildlife and Parks Secretary Subtain Ahmed, with Information Technology Secretary Zameer Abbas and Baltistan Division Commissioner Kamal Khan serving as members.

The CM has further directed the committee to determine responsibility for any shortcomings in the Broad Peak incident, conduct a clause-by-clause review of the existing trekking regulations, and identify outdated, ineffective or incomplete provisions.

He also directed the relevant institutions to ensure the safety and security of mountaineers, trekking groups, guides and porters.

A source told Dawn that complaints had been submitted to CM Hussain regarding negligence and delay in rescue operations.

CM Hussain said it was essential to update regulations concerning permits and registration, briefing and debriefing, the responsibilities of liaison officers and mountain guides, safety equipment, porters’ wages and welfare, insurance, medical facilities and evacuation, communication systems, and emergency response procedures.

He specifically directed a review of the existing insurance coverage for liaison officers, mountain guides and porters, adding that realistic and effective insurance coverage should be proposed in view of current risks and costs.

He further directed the committee to review arrangements for search and rescue, helicopter evacuation, weather forecasting and early warning systems, communications, and emergency assistance in remote and restricted areas.

CM Hussain tasked the committee with developing mandatory safety protocols to minimise the risk of loss of life in the future.

The chief minister said that, given the growing popularity of trekking and mountaineering in Gilgit-Baltistan, the existing classification of open and restricted zones, as well as various trekking routes and mountain passes, should also be updated in accordance with ground realities.

He said a digital permit and registration system, effective coordination among relevant institutions, and periodic reviews of laws governing the trekking and mountaineering sector were now essential.

CM Hussain also reiterated that the GB government would promote mountaineering and tourism in the region without compromising the safety and security of tourists, mountaineers, guides and porters.

The committee has been directed to submit a comprehensive report, recommendations and a draft of the proposed amendments to the laws and SOPs to the relevant authority within 15 days.

The committee has not yet submitted its report.

A government official familiar with the region’s tourism industry told Dawn that the committee had found some tour operators responsible for violating mountaineering rules during the expedition.

According to the official, some tour operators had failed to arrange insurance for climbers or helicopters in case of a rescue operation.

“Under the rules, if a ground rescue team or helicopter is needed, the tour operator is responsible for arranging a rescue team and paying for helicopter insurance,” the source said.

Some operators had also failed to conduct the briefing and debriefing sessions required under the 1999 Trekking Rules, according to the official.

In a recent statement, the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) said that search-and-rescue operations relied on government resources, adding that Pakistan lacks a dedicated and properly established high-altitude rescue system.

The ACP said that it was working with relevant authorities to develop an effective rescue framework and support improvements to the country’s mountaineering infrastructure.

More than 2,200 foreign climbers and trekkers visited GB during the summer season from April to August this year, a senior official of the GB Tourism Department said.

Sajid Hussain, deputy director of the GB Tourism Department, told Dawn that foreign adventurers visited the region to scale some of the world’s highest peaks and trek in restricted areas, including K2 (8,611 metres), Nanga Parbat (8,126m), Broad Peak (8,047m), Gasherbrum-I (8,080m) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035m).

The official added that a large number of foreign and domestic tourists were currently visiting popular destinations across GB. Foreign tourists visiting open-zone areas do not require permits.

Officials further said foreign tourists visiting GB’s tourist destinations and open-zone areas from multiple countries during the spring, summer and autumn seasons were expected to surpass 10,000 this year.

GB Tourism Department’s Hussain said the number of foreign adventurers visiting GB this summer was higher than last year.

As of June 30, the GB government had earned Rs350 million from expedition and trekking pe­­rmits for this summer.

“I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee told reporters as he visited Palestinian-Americans in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir laid out a plan on Thursday that aims to see the departure of 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the roughly two million residents over the following six years.

His remarks came a day after Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel was ready to remove Palestinians from Gaza by sea and land but was waiting for the United States, which he said was discussing where the population would go. Katz, without citing his source, claimed 80 per cent of people in Gaza wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them.

Huckabee said that President Donald Trump’s administration — which has made hostility to international migration a central priority — wanted to give Palestinians the option to leave by choice.

“There is an open-mindedness if people wish to leave, that they should have the right to leave,” Huckabee said, calling it a “disgrace” to “incarcerate” Palestinians inside Gaza.

“Nobody is suggesting there would be forced displacement — the Israelis are not, the Americans are not. I know of no one who supports that,” he said.

Forced displacement of a civilian population from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Virtually the entire population of Gaza has already been displaced internally by Israel’s military offensive following the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Since the war, some far-right Israeli politicians have spoken of bringing settlers back to the Gaza Strip, where Israel dismantled settlements in 2005 as part of a unilateral plan to disengage from the densely populated region.

The remarks on displacement come in the run-up to the October 27 elections, in which polls show a tight race for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has brought once-shunned far-right figures into his cabinet.

US President Donald Trump stunned the world early in his second term by proposing to displace all Palestinians at least temporarily from Gaza and turn the rubble-strewn Mediterranean territory into a luxury resort.

He backtracked after pushback from countries including Egypt, the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.

Israel has ‘responsibility’ to ensure safety of West Bank Palestinians

The US ambassador to Israel also said that the Israeli government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians’ safety and should impose “severe consequences” over violence, as he visited families after a surge in settler attacks.

Mike Huckabee, long known as a staunch supporter of Israel and settlers, visited a Palestinian-American’s home in the West Bank that has been repeatedly targeted by settlers and said he wanted to hear the community’s “legitimate grievances”.

As the ambassador met families inside a finely manicured old house in the town of Turmus Ayya, where around 80pc of the 4,000 residents hold US citizenship, a settler from a nearby illegal outpost approached in a quad bike.

“One of the messages that we have been sending and we will continue to send is that people in these communities have a right to live with a level of security and safety, and that the government has a responsibility to make sure that that happens,” Huckabee said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks ahead of October 27 elections.

Huckabee stopped short of criticising Israel by name but said: “Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror.

“When people do it they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences,” Huckabee said.

He said that taking action was in the “best interest” of Israel, which already faces growing criticism around the world, including in key ally the United States, over the devastating offensive in Gaza in response to the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

“Their reputation does not do well when it appears that this tiny little group of marauders are somehow representative of the larger population. I don’t believe that it is,” Huckabee said.

“There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many,” Huckabee said.

‘US has the ability’

“We have many issues that we will address,” Nawwaf Zaghoul, the town’s mayor, told reporters ahead of the meeting, describing what he said were constant attacks by settlers.

He said that the town’s residents would be asking the ambassador to help secure their safety and security. About 80 per cent of the town’s roughly 3,000 residents were Palestinian Americans, he said.

Huckabee spent about two hours meeting Palestinian-Americans inside the home of Samir Hazmeh before joining the community in a lunch of maqluba, a dish of rice and meat served after flipping the pot upside down.

Hazmeh said the house in which he welcomed Huckabee had its windows smashed twice by settlers, who have also tried to open the gates and burn it down. He has put up both barbed wire and an American flag in hopes of protection.

Yasser Alqam, who met the ambassador, owns land just 100 metres away but said he cannot return after several attacks by settlers.

“The United States already has the ability to put pressure on Israel to at least arrest those settlers who are known to the authorities,” he said, voicing shock that US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on settler extremists imposed by predecessor Joe Biden.

Alqam’s wife Jinan, wearing a traditional Palestinian dress, said she voiced hope to Huckabee that he “can do something for us and provide us with protection from the settlers so that we can reach our land and pick the olives” in the coming season.

Huckabee also visited Taybeh, one of the only Christian villages remaining in the West Bank, in June 2025 after a church there was vandalised. Huckabee said at the time that the desecration of a place of worship was an act of terror and a crime.

‘Thou shalt not steal’

Ahead of elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been ramping up approval of new settlements, which are illegal under international law. More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank amid three million Palestinians.

Despite Huckabee’s dismissal of violent settlers as a small minority, Netanyahu has brought into his government far-right ministers who have openly mused about expelling the Palestinian population.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former governor of Arkansas, has long cited his faith to back Israel and earlier would not even use the term Palestinian.

Speaking of violence by settlers, Huckabee said, “I think the Scripture is pretty clear — Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not even covet.”

Huckabee earlier intervened when settler extremists camped out and blocked basic supplies from reaching another Palestinian-American in the town of Qusra last month, leading to rare condemnation by Netanyahu of settlers.

Huckabee refers to the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, a term used by the Israeli government but not adopted by the US government. He has visited Shiloh, a settlement near Turmus Ayya, at least twice since 2025.

In February, Huckabee drew widespread condemnation from at least 14 countries, including Pakistan, after he suggested that he would not be opposed to Tel Aviv taking over large swathes of the Middle East.

Similarly, the forum recommended 12 additional Deeni Madaris for equivalence of their qualifications with SSC and HSSC, bringing the total number of institutions under the equivalence framework to 26. It also agreed to include B-Form/CNIC numbers on SSC and HSSC certificates, making academic records easier to identify, access and verify.

Additionally, the commission will offer scholarships and overseas exposure opportunities to board toppers, besides arranging winter and summer camps for high-achieving students to provide them with broader learning, leadership and exposure opportunities.

These decisions were made during the 184th IBCC Forum meeting in Murree.

“The two-day IBCC Forum concluded in Murree with a series of important decisions aimed at transforming Pakistan’s examination system from rote learning towards conceptual assessment, while improving transparency, uniformity and international recognition of Pakistani qualifications,” a press release said.

It added that chairpersons from Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISEs) across the country, technical education boards, and senior representatives of curriculum and textbook boards had come together for the meeting.

According to the press release, National Coordinator of the IBCC Forum Inayatullah Waseem emphasised the importance of active participation and collective ownership of examination reforms.

He said the IBCC Forum provided an important national platform for boards to learn from one another, share successful practices and develop common solutions to challenges faced by the examination system.

The national coordinator also stressed that greater coordination among boards and consistent implementation of agreed reforms were essential for ensuring fairness, quality and public confidence in examinations across the country.

“A major focus of the forum was the implementation of the prime minister’s directives for standardisation of the examination system across the country. The forum adopted measures for greater uniformity in assessment and examination practices, which will also support the credibility and international recognition of Pakistani qualifications,” the press release said.

It stated that the forum was informed that examination boards in Sindh, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), the AJK Board, the KIU Board, the Aga Khan Board and the Ziauddin Board had implemented the new grading policy, under which the minimum passing marks had been increased to 40 per cent. Awareness sessions and workshops would also be organised to facilitate implementation of the revised grading formula across the country.

Meanwhile, the forum agreed to develop a uniform calendar for theory and practical examinations and formulate common guidelines and procedures for practical examinations to ensure greater consistency, fairness and transparency across examination boards.

During the meeting, BISE Kohat, BISE Quetta and FBISE presented their best practices, innovative initiatives and outcomes for possible adoption and replication by other boards.

Speaking on examination reforms, IBCC Executive Director Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah appreciated the Punjab government for the merit-based appointment of chairpersons of examination boards. He observed that competent professional leadership was adding value to the IBCC Forum and strengthening the national effort to shift examinations from rote learning towards conceptual assessment.

Dr Mallah also appreciated the Sindh government and chairpersons of Sindh examination boards for implementing e-marking across the province, describing it as an important step towards greater transparency, efficiency and credibility in the examination system.

He emphasised that the reforms being pursued through the IBCC Forum were part of a broader national effort to develop an examination system that tests understanding rather than memory, rewards genuine learning, embraces technology, and strengthens the national and international credibility of Pakistani qualifications.