BAHAWALPUR: Services of 20 personalities were acknowledged at the Shan-i-Bahawalpur awards ceremony - the first of its kind -- held at the auditorium of Baghdadul Jadid campus of the Islamia University (IUB) here on Monday night. Those awarded had won laurels at national and international level. They were gathered under one roof from all over Pakistan. Awards were conferred on them in recognition of their services.

The ‘Shan-i-Bahawalpur award’ was launched for the first time by the district administration to recognise the services of those belonging to the district.

Among the 20 award recipients were hockey’s former ‘flying horse’ Samiullah Khan, his uncle ex-Olympian (of 1960’s Olympics) Motiullah Khan, his brother Hidayatullah Khan, Pakistan’s first woman pilot Ms. Aisha Farooq, noted ex-parliamentarian, poet and writer, Bushra Rehman, nonagenarian Allah Jiwaya, a watchman at the graveyard of the Royal Abbasi family at Derawar Fort in Cholistan, former chief justice of Lahore High Court Mian Allah Nawaz Khan, two police martyrs Nasir Hanif and Allah Ditta, student Syed Abdullah Tansear, four women international hockey team members Ambreen Arshad, Kalsoom Shehzadi, Sana Allah Ditta and Maira Sabir, former badminton international player Zubair Ahmad, an orthopaedic surgeon, specialised in hand-stitching Dr. Tahseen Cheema and a private veteran medical practitioner of Hasilpur Dr. Abdul Latif (presently in Lahore).

A posthumous award was given to late Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi to pay homage for acceding his Bahawalpur State to Pakistan on the desire of the Quaid-i-Azam, rejecting attractive terms of late Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to join India in 1947.

Nawab’s grandson Sahibzada Usman Daud Abbasi, former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly, received the award.

In his opening remarks, District Coordination Officer Dr. Ehtasham Anwar Mahar shed light on the background of launching the Shan-i-Bahawalpur award and eulogised the services of the recipients.

OBITUARY: Retired Prof Dr. Riaz Ahmad Akhtar, an ENT specialist of Quaid-i-Azam Medical College (QAMC) Bahawalpur, who died on Monday night due to a cardiac arrest, was laid to rest at One-Unit Chowk graveyard on Tuesday.

He is survived by a widow, two sons and three daughters.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2016