PESHAWAR: The elderly “jewels of Peshawar” in whose honour a programme was held at Sethi House had to wait for more than two hours for receiving achievement awards. The reason was that Advisor to Chief Minister Amjad Afridi, who came quiet late, kept telling the organisers to wait for him.

The adviser claimed he was stuck in traffic.

The provincial tourism, sports, archaeology, museums and youth affairs department on Wednesday afternoon organised an award giving ceremony in honour of prominent personalities to acknowledge their outstanding performance in various fields.

Adviser to chief minister arrives late at the award giving ceremony

The ceremony was held at Sethi House. The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa staffers kept waiting the participants in Mohallah Sethian, Peshawar City for Adviser to Chief Minister on Tourism, Sports, Archaeology, Museums and Youth Affairs Amjad Afridi. A large number of artists, players, educationists and others were invited to attend the ceremony.

Awards were given to the four legendaries, who were termed ‘jewels of Peshawar’ including Pride of Performance Award-winning Principal of Pakistan College of Arts Tayyaba Aziz, television artist Salahuddin (late), Hockey Olympian Qazi Salahuddin and photographer Fakhar Zaman Azhar (Uncle Toni).

Uncle Toni is the oldest photographer, working since 1965 in Peshawar. He is 77. He was born in Peshawar and has won 105 awards. “Unity of religion” a photo taken by Uncle Toni showing Derwesh Mosque and Catholic Church Peshawar is what he takes pride in.

Tayyaba painter and former chairperson fine arts department, actor Salahuddin and elderly Qazi Salahuddin a former Olympian were awarded for their achievements.

Speaking on the occasion, MD TCKP Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that tourism department would launch new projects to promote tourism activities to present a soft image of the country at national and international levels.

He said that Amjad Afridi had taken various steps for improving performance of the department, which started yielding positive results.

Mr Afridi said on the occasion that the ceremony was a proof to the fact that the provincial government did not ignore the outstanding personalities including players, artists, educationists and others. He said that services of all the legendaries would be acknowledged by giving awards and other facilities for excellence performance in their respective fields.

Chief guest Iftikharuddin, Jamil Khan and others threw light on the life and services of late Salahuddin, who recently passed away. His award was presented to his son Nawazuddin.

Mr Afridi gave away awards to Qazi Salahuddin, Uncle Toni and Tayyaba Aziz.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

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