Fawad Chaudhry takes credit for Mehwish Hayat's Tamgha-e-Imtiaz recommendation

The minister maintains that the decision was enforced on 'merit'

In a recent interview on a local Tv channel, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry revealed that he put forth the name of Mehwish Hayat for Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.

"Mehwish Hayat is brilliant. As minister, I recommended her name for Sitara-e-Imtiaz. I recently met her for the first time," he said in the interview.

The minister said that he acknowledges the prestige of such awards and hence treads really carefully when nominating people. Chaudhry further added that he always wanted the young lot to be considered seriously for national awards.

At one point, Chaudhry was asked by the host as to whether Hayat had requested him for the nomination. To this he simply responded by saying that there is "no limit" to the number of people making requests for nominations.

The minister went on to maintain that the decision to award Hayat was primarily based on merit. "We always wanted awards to be given to the toppers in every field. We enforced this on merit as well," he said, highlighting that Hayat had been awarded for the business that her films did, more than those of  any other.

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