dead friends on the higher ground of Everest including Scott Fischer, Rob Hall, Ube Akira, Kobayashi, Yasuo Kato, Futagami and many more who gave their lives in love of these eternal higher heavens. While waiting for Ben Webster of Canada and two other Sherpas he went on enjoying the most splendid moments of his life with his two Sherpa colleagues taking video shots of Ben and others climbing the last part of the summit ridge and the magical surroundings against the backdrop of the much blessed early morning sun approaching from behind 8462m Makalu, 5th highest mountain in the world. He spoke to the base camp and sent the message of humbleness and happiness back home and to his closest friends who were watching his progress and counting steps up the last part of the mountain as he climbed through the clear night winds. He received hundreds of messages from across the country and the globe including that of Benazir Bhutto who was second to send in her congratulations from London where she lived at the time. Political career As a reward for years of services rendered to the people of Hunza, Sabir was elected as their representative to the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly in the October 1994 elections and was appointed Advisor on Education and Tourism to the then government for a five-year term. Campaigning for the Hunza seat in the 1994 elections he defeated his opponent from the traditional Mir of Hunza family with a huge margin taking away the public mandate as a commoner for the first time. Honors For his outstanding achievements he earned the prestigious Award for Pride-of-Performance in 1982. and was honoured with The Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) in 2001 for his outstanding performance in mountaineering sports. He is the only Pakistani to have been awarded honorary membership of the Alpine Club (UK) in 1992, the Polish Mountaineering Federation in 2002 and the American Alpine Club in 2008. His home ground latest honour is when he was unanimously elected to the seat of the Alpine Club of Pakistan as its fifth but first civilian and mountaineer president after four army generals on 10 October 2004 and again elected for another term in 2007. Presently he heads the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which trains and prepares men and women from all around Pakistan for the outdoors activities and in particular mountain climbing. Environmentalist Sabir is