Poet Ahmed Faraz’s family to get ‘new’ medals after robbers destroy originals

Police say out of seven robbers, three have been arrested and are now behind bars

ISLAMABAD: A Senate Standing Committee, on Monday, directed the cabinet division to provide new medals to the family of late poet Ahmed Faraz that were stolen two years ago from his son’s house in the capital.

After a long wait, the police recently arrested some of the robbers involved in the burglary at the house of Senator Shibli Faraz in G-6/3 sector Islamabad.

During the incident that unfolded in 2015, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz bestowed upon the famed poet were also stolen.



According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sajid Kayani, investigating the matter, the robbers said they had thrown away the awards as they were artificial and useless for them.

“Since the medals and awards were of artificial metals, they [robbers] destroyed them,” revealed SSP Kayani in front of the Senate panel.

Chairperson of the Senate panel, Senator Rehman Malik of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), took exception to the polices' inability to arrest all culprits involved in the incident.

Malik said that he had directed the cabinet division to issue new medals (Nishan-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz) for the late poet that would be presented to his son during the next meeting.

Ahmed Faraz’s son was upset to learn that a breakthrough was made in the case of a female Canadian senator of Pakistani origin who was robbed in Islamabad in April, but not in this father’s case.

SSP Kayani informed the Senate panel that they managed to arrest the muggers who robbed the Canadian senator in Sector F-6 of the capital within 24 hours.

“Such efficiency of the police department was only for high-profile people while the same police failed to recover his father’s prestigious medals and even to arrest all the culprits,” Senator Shibli Faraz complained.



On this occasion, SSP Kayani told the committee that “out of the seven robbers, three have been arrested and are now behind bars. The remaining robbers have fled to Jalalabad in Afghanistan and it is difficult for us to arrest them from there.”

He said the police cannot arrest the robbers in the neighbouring country and could only keep them under surveillance once they enter Pakistan.

Born on January 12, 1931, in Kohat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ahmed Faraz died on August 25, 2008. Taking notice of the robbery, the senate panel had earlier directed the police to recover the stolen items as quickly as possible.