The silence of a state can sometimes be louder than the calamity it refuses to confront, and today Pakistan stands drowned beneath the weight of such silence. Our glaciers, those towering sentinels of purity, those ancient guardians of our rivers and our future, are melting. They are crying. They are collapsing. And for decades, the Ministries of Climate Change and Foreign Affairs have chosen to remain mute, timid, uninterested—as if the vanishing of our frozen lifeblood were merely a seasonal inconvenience, easily ignored, easily forgotten.

On December 8, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in his inaugural address as CDF and COAS, reminded the country that the age of new warfare has arrived and that Pakistan must prepare for emerging threats that transcend guns and missiles. After praising the resolve shown during “Marka-i-Haq”, he warned India with unequivocal firmness, promising a “much more swift and severe” response to any illusions of adventurism. Yet even his resolute words cast a long shadow, for beneath our traditional military strength lies a neglected front far more threatening: water, energy, and economic security. A fortress may withstand armies, but it cannot outlast a dying water tower.

The tragedy deepened a few days ago when India announced that the Detailed Project Report of the colossal Bilaspur–Manali–Leh Railway Line was ready for execution—a USD 15–17 billion infrastructure artery engineered not merely for development, but for strategic military advantage. Six days. Just six days ago, the truth crashed upon me like an avalanche. For over a decade, I laboured to demilitarise the Siachen Glacier, to convert it into a peace park, a shared sanctuary, a symbol of South Asian ecological diplomacy. The Siachen Glacier, our great water bank, our icy vault against future drought, was my life’s commitment. And now India moves to carve steel into this fragile Himalayan spine.

This railway, connecting Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh, has been declared by India’s Ministry of Defence as vital for the rapid deployment of troops and supplies into Ladakh and the Siachen region. Annexures of its Preliminary Project Reports, shocking in their brazenness, show potential extensions reaching across Khardung La towards Siachen Base Camp. It is not simply a railway. It is a military corridor piercing directly through a region already buckling under climate stress. And beneath this engineering triumph lies an ecological funeral.

Melting Mountains: How Climate Change Is Reshaping Pakistan’s Northern Glaciers

How devastating it is that the moment India one day admits, because it will have to, that Siachen, the second-largest glacier outside the poles, is........

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