As the names of the recipients winning the various national awards were announced on August 14, the most surprising announcement was that of Nayyar Ali Dada receiving Sitara-i-Imtiaz award for engineering. On the official website of the Pakistan Information Department, the Cabinet Division notification clearly defied any distinction between engineering and architecture.

One always thought that Nayyar Ali Dada was an architect -- architecture being a discipline separate from engineering. But, it appears, the government of Pakistan does not accept the separation of the two that took place formally more than half a century ago, and insists on putting architecture under the head of engineering.

When, in the 19^th century, Kanahiya Lal, Ganga Ram and Bhai Ram Singh were active in building/construction as part of the public works department, architecture was considered to be an engineering discipline. But gradually, with greater specialisation, the design of the building got separated from the actual construction of the building.

By the middle of the 20th century, the label ‘architecture’ started to appear on the horizon and it took a while for the conservative academic establishment to accept it as a separate academic discipline for which a degree could be awarded. From the polytechnic stage, it was elevated to the university level, and accepted as a part of higher education that was not only skill-based, purely on scientific lines, but included innovation and creativity in design in accordance with the other developments taking place in the world of aesthetics and ideas.

It appears the Cabinet Division is still unaware of this division and insists on placing Nayyar Ali Dada as an engineer -- and has rewarded him thus.

As far as music is concerned, the recipients include Ashraf Sharif Khan, who has been carrying the legacy of his father Ustad Sharif Khan. He has persisted with the traditional playing of the sitar despite moving to Europe and playing in various bands and other orchestral arrangements that do not fall strictly under the label of classical music. He has kept in touch during his travels to Pakistan and India, to give a good account of him in various concerts held throughout the subcontinent. Earlier this year, he visited Pakistan and held concerts with the internationally-recognised oud player, Naseer Shamma, and this happened to be Pakistan’s first exposure to the live performance of an instrument that finds its mention in our poetry but has rarely been played on stage or in mehfils here.

It was a good demonstration of oud playing in contemporary times.

Javed Iqbal has been playing the violin for decades now and his name and the Pride of Performance award must have been quite satisfying. Violin is a western instrument but here many maestros adapted it for the melodic rendition for which this string instrument is quite suited.

Javed Iqbal too worked for the radio, once the home of all leading instrumentalists and vocalists, and has accompanied some of the leading performers like Iqbal Bano, Nayyara Noor and Tina Sani. He has been especially adept when working with Arshad Mehmood.

Mohsin Raza, awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz, has worked tirelessly in various capacities in the field of music but has stood out as a composer. His compositions have been both popular and for the initiated. He has composed music for films, television, and radio and also as a freelancer, offering his creative services to many vocalists. Usually the vocalists stand out, and are recognised, but the composers, who do most of the work, stay in the background, and people generally assume the vocalists have also done the composition and the orchestral arrangement.

Now with great advancement in technology, more and more areas are becoming specialisations that add value to sonic configuration.

Humaira Channa has been a leading vocalist of the country. After the top tier comprising Noor Jehan, Iqbal Bano and Fareeda Khanum, the next generation has struggled to meet the high standards established by those divas. Humaira Channa has been moving up the musical scale these couple of decades, maturing all the time, and also taking care that she retains her versatility in a world where audiences are diverse and technological breakthroughs happen in rapid succession -- perhaps diversity has added marks as a sign of goodness and also of longevity. She has been honoured with Pride of Performance award.

Syed Anees ul Hasnain alias Juman Shah was also awarded Pride of Performance. He has been part of the troupe that has performed at the shrine of Shah Lateef in Bhit Shah. This form of singing, wai, and the instrument accompanying it, damboor, are said to have been created by the Shah himself about four centuries ago. It is chanted regularly on his shrine everyday, particularly on Thursdays with greater purpose.

The troupe were taken out of their locale and made to perform on stage all over the world but in Pakistan they became better known when they appeared in Coke Studio. Their contribution to music has been beyond doubt, and one wished they were rewarded when they performed at the shrine with a very distinct musical ang, which has now got urbanised with their appearance on the media. This has been a typical case of the seeker not going to the fountainhead but the fountainhead coming to the doorstep of the seeker. With the explosion of the media whatever is found at our doorstep or on the screen in the bedroom is real; the rest just does not exist.

Usually, awards in Pakistan have been a subject of debate. Many are of the view that pure merit is sacrificed at times at the altar of better social or political credentials. Then there is also a question of popularity and it has always been contested whether popularity can be equated with merit and quality. Certain people place it as the only criteria while many others vouch for pure merit: Popularity rewards itself but merit does not always.

The conferment ceremony takes place on the following March 23, and it is hoped that by then the citation is corrected in the case of Nayyar Ali Dada.