A Japanese trekker who went missing in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) area was found dead following a week-long search involving volunteers from a local mountaineering club, a rescue official said on Saturday.

The Japanese visitor, named as 64-year-old Yosuke Akiba, had visited the Masroor Rock vantage point GB’s Skardu area. The spot, approximately 3,700 meters above sea level, is a famous trekking destination that offers spectacular, panoramic views of the city, the Indus River and neighbouring mountains.

Rescue 1122 service spokesman Ghulam Rasool informed the media that Akiba’s body was recovered from a deep crevice in the Hussainabad region near the rockside, where he had gone without a local tourist guide.

“Rescue 1122 Skardu recovered the body of the missing Japanese tourist from a deep crevasse after a continuous seven-day search operation,” stated the official.

“Rescue teams continued the operation with professional expertise and untiring efforts through the extremely difficult mountainous terrain.”

The body was being hauled down to Skardu with the use of ropes and sophisticated equipment, the official said.

Sadpara Mountaineering Club volunteers also took part in the search mission.

Four senior members of the club took part in the operation, club chairman Ghulam Muhammad Sadpara told Arab News.

“Our climbers assisted with the rescue early Saturday morning and the team was able to locate the body,”

A Malaysian visitor died last month in Skardu after purportedly suffering a stroke, according to authorities. Chong Yong Huva, 60, was found dead on April 16 in her hotel room.

The spokesman of HESCO, Sadiq Kubar told here on Saturday that it was the 55th feeder under the jurisdiction of the business which will be exempted from the line-losses-based load shedding.

The feeder mostly served the city’s markets with 2,502 commercial and 1,116 household consumers, he said.

There are 102 pole mounted transformers, high transmission lines are spread over 7.8 kms and low transmission cables are spread over 6 kms, he said.

Separately, Hyderabad SITE Association of Trade and Industry (HSATI) appreciated HESCO’s Chief Executive Officer Faizullah Dahiri for declaring 11 KV Khattar Bifurcation Feeder in operating division Latifabad, Hyderabad free from load shedding.

The move will allow the industrial consumers to boost their production, said the association’s Chairman Zubair Ghangra in a statement issued here on Saturday.

The country has witnessed a large increase in foreign finance during the current fiscal year, as per official statistics that has shown a significant jump in external inflows compared to the last year.

The country got $11 billion in external loans between July and April, up by roughly 83% from $6 billion in the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Both bilateral and multilateral inflows had aided the rise in foreign financing, as had deferred payment arrangements and rollovers of existing deposits.

The ministry said overall external financial inflows during the period included $8.31 billion of non-project financing and $2.7566 billion of project financing.

Pakistan also got $120 million in grants over the same time compared with $570 million in the same period last year.

Much of the inflows came in April 2026 alone, when the country received roughly $4.5 billion.

Saudi Arabia was among the primary contributors, providing a $1 billion oil finance facility through deferred payment agreements. The Islamic Development Bank provided loans of $480 million.

Multilateral lenders also made a major contribution, including $1.924 billion from the Asian Development Bank and $1.6639 billion from the World Bank Group.

The article also stated that $3 billion in deposits from Saudi Arabia had already been rolled over, with an additional $9 billion in safe deposit rollovers planned from Saudi Arabia and China throughout the fiscal year.

Pakistan repaid $3 billion to United Arab Emirates in April 2026. In sum, the Ministry of Economic Affairs forecasts the overall external inflows for the current financial year to be $19.39 billion.