Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said that he recommended Pakistani actress Mehwish Hayat's name for the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz honour.
Fawad was the guest on Aik Din Geo Ke Saath's latest episode. During the show, in a candid discussion with host Sohail Warraich, the federal minister disclosed that he recommended Hayat's name for the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest civilian honour.
"Mehwish Hayat is brilliant," he said, when asked about his favourite actress. "As minister, I recommended her name for Sitara-e-Imtiaz. I recently met her for the first time," he added.
Fawad said when he was a minister, he took awards very seriously. The federal minister said he had recommended Hayat's name and had always wanted youngsters to be nominated for awards.
"People ask for their names to be recommended for awards," he said, refuting a question on whether Hayat asked him to recommend her name for the award. "So many people do it that there's no limit to it."
He said that the Pakistani actress had been awarded for the business that her films did which he said was more than any other actress.
"We always wanted awards to be given to the toppers in every field," he said. "We enforced this on merit as well."
The Pakistani actress received a lot of flak on social media when she received the award in March last year. Some were of the view that she had not done enough to deserve the away.
President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi conferred Mehwish Hayat with the award during a ceremony in Islamabad.