President confers top military, civil awards on Pakistan Day

ISLAMABAD, Mar 23 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi Saturday conferred top military and civil awards to various personalities in recognition of their excellent performance in different fields as an annual feature of the Pakistan Day celebrations.
The awards were presented at the investiture ceremony held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr that was also attended by Chairman Senate, federal ministers, parliamentarians, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, diplomats, senior civil and military officials, renowned figures from different fields of life.
In total, the president conferred 58 military and 66 civil awards. The awards in military categories included 45 Hilal-i-Imtiaz (military) and 13 Sitara-i-Basalat (military).
The awards in civil categories included two Nishan-i-Imtiaz, seven Hilal-i-Imtiaz, two Sitara-i-Pakistan, four Sitara-i-Shuja’at, 14 Sitara-i-Imtiaz, seven President’s Award for Pride of Performance, one Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam, 23 Tamgha-i-Shuja’and five Tamgha-i-Imtiaz.
The recipients of civil national awards also included 10 foreign nationals from Germany, Romania, Belgium, Canada, and USA.
The president conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz Military on Lt. General Zahid Hamid, Air Marshal Syed Noman Ali, Air Marshal Muhammad Khalid Dabir, Major General Naeem Naqi, Major General Saleem Ahmad Khan, Major General Tahir Mukhtar, Major General Arshad Mahmood, Major General Tariq Mahmood Satti, Major General Iftikhar Ahmed, Major General Sohail Aziz and Major General Rahat Abbas.
Among other recipients of Hilal-e-Imtiaz Military award included Rear Admiral Syed Asad Karim, Air Vice Marshal Nadeem Tariq, Major General Nauman Ahmed Hashmi, Air Vice Marshal Shahab Shafqat, Air Vice Marshal Salman Ahsan Bokhari, Major General Rizwan Afzal, Major General Azhar Abbas, Major General Amjad Ahmad Butt, Major General Faiz Hamid, Major General Muhammad Aamer, Major General Nadir Khan, Major General Muhammad Chiragh Haider, Rear Admiral Zain Zulfiqar, Rear Admiral Faisal Rasul Lodhi, Rear Admiral Zahid Ilyas, Rear Admiral Mohammad Zubair Shafique, Major General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, Major General Saeed Akhtar and Major General Khalid Javed.
Major General Khalid Zia, Major General Saeed Ahmed Nagra, Major General Amjad Ali Khan Khattak, Major General Azhar Rashid, Major General Ali Amir Awan, Major General Abid Latif Khan, Major General Muhammad Saeed, Major General Akhtar Nawaz, Major General Sardar Hassan Azhar Hayat, Major General Asif Ghafoor, Major General Usman Haq, Major General Tariq Zamir, Rear Admiral Muhammad Shafique, Air Vice Marshal Imran Khalid and Maj Gen Liaquat Ali were also decorated with the award.
The president also awarded 13 military officials with Sitara-i-Basalat including Col Sohail Abid (Shaheed), Major Ali Salman Nasir (Shaheed), Capt Shahid Farooq Rana, Capt Junaid Hafeez (Shaheed), Lt Arslan Alam Satti (Shaheed), Subedar Shoukat Khan (Shaheed), Sepoy Syed Sabtain Haider, Sepoy Kamran Afzaal (Shaheed), Sepoy Aftab Ahmed Khan (Shaheed), Sepoy Fateh Ullah (Shaheed), Sepoy Yahya Khan, CDT-I Mirza Shahzaib Mughal and MGT-I Muhammad Aslam (Shaheed).
The president posthumously conferred Nishan-e-Shuja’at to Naeem Rashid, a Pakistani citizen martyred in the deadly terror attack at two Mosques in New Zealand’s city of Christchurch when he tried to overpower the shooter to save others from getting hurt.
The president conferred Nishan-i-Imtiaz on Shoaib Sultan Khan and Sadruddin Hashwani.
Those who were awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz for their contribution in multiple fields included Zaheer Ayub Baig, Ghulam Asghar, Prof. Dr. Tasawar Hayat, renowned cricketers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, Prof. Abdul Bari Khan and Dr. Michael Jansen from Germany.
Wajiha Haris from Romania and Muhammad Ilyas Khan received Sitara-i-Pakistan while Muhammad Idrees Shaheed, Nawabzada Mir Siraj Khan Raisani, Asad Ali and Mairaj Ahmed Umrani Shaheed were conferred Sitara-i-Shuja’at.
To recognize their performance in their respective fields, President Alvi conferred Sitara-i-Imtiaz on prominent singer Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi, Dr. Inayatullah Padhiar, Syed Abu Ahmad Akif, Pir Muhammad Diwan, top businessman Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, Neelofar Saeed, architect Samar Ali Khan, Dr. Zia ul Hasan, Saima Shahbaz Malik, Shamim Ahmed Sheikh (Canada), Dr. Asif M. Rehman (USA), Steven J. Burian (USA) and Dr. James A. Tebbe (USA).
The recipients of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance included Engr. Dr. Nasir Mahmood Khan, well-know newscaster Ishrat Fatima, renowned film actress Reema Khan, TV anchor Muhammad Arshad Sharif, Luqman Ali Afzal, Sana Ullah Ghumman and Rasheed Masood Khan.
The president awarded Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam to Naveed Ahmed Sherwani (USA) and Wajid Khan while the five recipients of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz included Dr. Ikram Ali Malik, Flight Lieutenant (retd) Muhammad Siddique Sheikh, Sardar Ali Takkar, TV actress Mehwish Hayat and Advisor to PM Malik Amin Aslam Khan.
In recognition of their bravery and courage to save the human lives and maintain peace in the country, the president conferred Tamgha-i-Shuja’at on 23 individuals including Muhammad Hanif Bashir, Imran Aqiq, Qamar Zaman, Muhammad Fayyaz Tipu, Syed Naymatullah, Syed Ghaib Ali Shah, Haji Zahid Khan, Khushal Khan, Brig. Rizwan Afzal, Muhammad Younis, Sajid Hussain, Umer Sajid Shaheed and Dr. Khalid Khan.
Other recipients of Tamgha-i-Shuja’at were Muhammad Numan Zafar, Wajahat Ullah Afridi, Syed Muhammad Omer Mobeen Jillani Shaheed, Subedar Maj (Retd) Allah Ditta Shaheed, Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Fawad Ali Shaheed, Muhib Khan Shaheed, Syed Shahrukh Haider Zaidi, Saim Shafait Shaheed and Akram Khan Shaheed.
The awards of those who were conferred posthumously were received by their next of kin. The president showed affection towards the children of the martyred security personnel as they received awards for their respective late fathers.
The event also provided a great socializing opportunity as people, particularly the youngsters got the opportunity to take selfies with the film and cricket stars as well as the military authorities and the federal ministers.