Civil awards conferred on 10 persons at Governor House

PESHAWAR: Governor Shah Farman on behalf of President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday conferred civil awards on 10 persons from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recognition of their services in their respective fields.

An investiture ceremony was arranged here at the Governor’s House in connection with Pakistan Day.

Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation Muhammad Iqbal Wazir, lawmakers, senior government officials, relatives and well-wishers of the recipients of the awards attended the ceremony.

Dr Raisa Begum Gul, a nurse, Pashto poet and scholar Professor Dr Muslim Shah, commonly known as Abaseen Yousafzai, and late singer Soraiya Khan, who earned fame as Mahjabeen Qazalbash, were given the Pride of Performance Award in acknowledgement of their services. The son of Mahjabeen Qazalbash received the award announced for her mother posthumously.

Seven persons including Dr Yasir Mahmood Yousafzai (medicine), Javed Mansoor Babar (arts drama acting), Pashto singer Fayaz Khan Kheshgi, Prof. Dr Muhammad Ashraf Khan (archaeology), writer Prof. Dr Yar Muhammad Maghmoom Khattak, Prof. Dr. Shahzad Akbar Khan (public service) and late poet Prof. Rahmatullah Dard (literature) were awarded the civil award, Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, in recognition of their achievements in different disciplines.

A number of persons from KP who excelled in different fields received their civil awards from President Arif Alvi at the Aiwan-i-Saddar in Islamabad. They included Dr Ali Kamran (engineering aerospace), Mohammad Suleman Mahsud (service to Pakistan), Zubair Ali (public service), Abdul Majeed Qureshi (social worker), squash player Farhan Mehboob (sports), Naimatullah aka Naimat Sarhadi (film actor).

Celebrated late Urdu poet Ahmad Faraz, who belonged to Kohat, was conferred Nishat-i-Imtiaz. Salma Ataullahjan, an elected politician of Pakistani origin in Canada belonging to Mardan, was awarded Sitara-i-Pakistan for her services to Pakistan.

Our correspondent adds from Haripur: President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi conferred the award of Hilal-i-Imtiaz on Prof Anwar ul Hassan Gilani, vice-chancellor, University of Haripur, for his outstanding contribution in the field of Science (Pharmaceutical Sciences).

According to a press release issued by the office of Deputy Registrar University of Haripur, the award was conferred in a ceremony held at the President House in Islamabad on Tuesday. It is the highest civil award given to any scientist during the last one decade.

Prof. Anwar ul Hassan Gilani is the only serving vice-chancellor who has been conferred three civil awards (Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz and Pride of Performance) in addition to title of Distinguished National Professor and Life-Time Academic Achievement Award by the Government of Pakistan. In the list of the recipients, he was mentioned as having domicile of Sindh.