Pakistan Day: Military, civilian awards conferred to 217 people

President Zardari confers civil and military awards to 217 people at the investiture ceremony.

ISLAMABAD:

President Asif Ali Zardari conferred the civil and military awards to 217 people at the investiture ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, federal ministers, parliamentarians, services chiefs, Islamabad-based diplomats and other prominent citizens also attended the ceremony.

President Zardari decorated both civil and military personnel with medals along with foreign nationals for their services to Pakistan.

Over 217 individuals were conferred awards at the ceremony in which the president gave away around 120 civil and 10 military awards in different categories. The rest of the awards were given by provincial governors at separate ceremonies held at provincial headquarters. Forty-eight awards were given in Lahore, 22 in Karachi, eight in Peshawar, four in Quetta and one in Gilgit.

The Pakistan Civil Awards are given in recognition to the contribution of men and women who rendered commendable services to the country in their respective fields.

The Pakistan Civil Awards were established on March 19, 1957. The announcement of the civil awards is usually made on the Independence Day on August 14 and the investiture ceremony takes place on the following Pakistan Day.

The awards are conferred for bravery, heroism, courage and rendering of dedicated services with selfless devotion in human rights and public services.

For parliamentary services, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Wasim Sajjad, Raja Pervez Ashraf, MNA Naveed Qamar, MNA Farooq Sattar and Haider Abbas Rizvi, Nawabzada Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri  and ANP Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel were awarded the Nishan-i-Imtiaz.

Hilal-i-Shujaat was awarded to the late minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti. Hilal-i-Imtiaz was given to Mian Iftikhar Hussain, and for journalism to Najam Aziz Sethi , Hameed Haroon and Abbas Athar. The late actor Waheed Murad was posthumously awarded Sitara-i-Shujaat.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.