President Arif Alvi on Saturday conferred top civil and military honours upon various personalities, including 18 foreigners, for their contributions in different fields for excellence in various fields of activities at an investiture ceremony at Aiwan-i-Sadr.

Among those being honoured is a Pakistani victim of last week's terror attack targeting Muslims in Christchurch. Naeem Rashid was dubbed a hero after footage of the attack showed he had tried to tackle the terrorist.

Prominent among those who will be conferred the civil awards are former Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram, former fast bowler Waqar Younis, cricketer Yasir Shah, singers Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi and Sajjad Ali, film actors Babra Sharif, Reema Khan, Mehwish Hayat, Shabbir Jan and Iftikhar Thakur, newscaster Ishrat Fatima, TV anchor Arshad Sharif and businessman Aqeel Karim Dhedhi.

The list, which is usually issued on the country’s Independence Day on August 14 every year, was issued by the cabinet secretariat just two weeks before the Pakistan Day celebrations, as there was no government in the office on the country’s last Independence Day. The name of Naeem Rashid was added after the New Zealand terorr attack.

The Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military), and Sitara-i-Basalat (Military) are being conferred on officers and soldiers belonging to all three services.

Following is a list of the recipients of the awards:

Nishan-i-Imtiaz: Shoaib Sultan Khan (public service).

Hilal-i-Pakistan: Seishiro Eto (Japan); Xu Shaoshi (China) and Ismail Kahraman (Turkey).

Hilal-i-Imtiaz: Zaheer Ayub Baig (Punjab); Ghulam Asghar (Islamabad); Prof Dr Tasawar Hayat (Punjab); Wasim Akram (Punjab); Waqar Younis (Punjab); Prof Dr Recep Akdag (Turkey); Dr Michael Jansen (Germany) and Prof Abdul Bari Khan (Sindh).

Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam: Kong Xuanyou (China); Wang Xiaotao (China) and Hu Xiaolian (China).

Sitara-i-Pakistan: Wajiha Haris (Romania); Mohammad Ilyas Khan (AJK); Long Yuxiang (China) and Lin Yi (China).

Sitara-i-Shujaat: Mohammad Idrees Shaheed; Shaheed Nawabzada Mir Siraj Raisani (Balochistan); Asad Ali (Sindh); Mairaj Ahmed Umrani Shaheed (Balochistan).

Sitara-i-Imtiaz: Mohammad Arshad (Punjab); Dr Imtiaz Ahmed (Sindh); Dr Syed Mohammad Kamran Majeed; Dr Mohammad Zafar-uz-Zaman (Punjab); Lt-Col (retd) Manzoor Ahmad (Punjab); Prof Dr Shahid A. Sami; Dr Pervaiz A. Chaudhary; Dr Prof (retd) M. Lateef Chaudhry; Dr Inayatullah Padhiar; Kaleemullah Lashari (Sindh); Mohammad Ahmed Shah (Sindh); Sajjad Ali (Sindh); Munir Hussain (late) (Punjab); Babra Sharif (Punjab); Kamil Khan Mumtaz (Punjab); Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi; Prof Sahibzada Hameedullah; Yasir Shah (KP); Shamim Ahmed Sheikh (Canada); Dr Asif M. Rehman (US); Dr Ziaul Hasan; Steven J. Burian (US); Dr James A. Tebbe (US); Lou Ronghuai (China); Khawaja Masood Akhtar; Syed Abu Ahmad Akif (Sindh); Pir Mohammad Diwan (Sindh); Mohammad Bashir Farooqui (Sindh); Samar Ali Khan (Sindh); Iqbal Ali Lakhani; Aqeel Karim Dhedhi (Sindh); Younus Tabba; Saima Shahbaz Malik and Nilofer Saeed (Sindh).

Pride of Performance: Hamid Mahmood (Punjab); Mohammad Saeedur Rehman (Punjab); Mohammad Shahid Saleem (Punjab); Arshad Ali (Punjab); Dr Salma Khanam (Punjab); Vaqar Akhtar (KP); Raza Ellahi (KP); Waqaruz Zaman (KP); Mohammad Hasan (Sindh); Engr Dr Nasir Mahmood Khan (Punjab); Prof Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodhi (Sindh); Prof Dr Umbreen Javaid (Punjab); Mohammad Shabbir Jan (Sindh); Iftikhar Ahmad Thakar (Punjab); Ishrat Fatima (Islamabad); Siyani Khatoon (Sindh); Bashir Ahmad (Punjab); Reema Khan (Punjab); Nasir Adeeb; Taj Baloch (Sindh); Sofia Yazdani; Mohammad Arshad Sharif (Punjab); Mohammad Inam Butt (Punjab); Luqman Ali Afzal; Sanaullah Ghuman; Mohammad Ashraf Ali (late) (Gilgit-Baltistan); Rasheed Masood Khan (Balochistan) and Mohammad Aman Ullah Khan (Punjab).

Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam: Naveed Ahmed Sherwani (US).

Tamgha-i-Pakistan: Li Xuedong (China).

Tamgha-i-Shujaat: Mohammad Hanif Bashir (Punjab); Imran Aqiq (Punjab); Qamar Zaman (KP); Mohammad Fayyaz Tipu (KP); Syed Naymatullah (Balochistan); Syed Ghaib Ali Shah (Gilgit-Baltistan); Haji Zahid Khan (KP); Khushhal Khan (KP); Brig Rizwan Afzal (KP); Mohammad Younis (Sindh); Sajid Hussain (Balochistan); Umer Sajid Shaheed (Punjab); Dr Khalid Khan (KP); Mohammad Nouman Zafar (Punjab); Wajahatullah Afridi (KP); Syed Mohammad Omer Mobeen Jillani Shaheed (Punjab); Subaider Major (retd) Allah Ditta Shaheed (Punjab); Muhammad Iqbal (Punjab); Syed Fawad Ali (late) (KP); Muhib Khan (late) (KP); Syed Shahrukh Haider Zaidi (Islamabad); Saim Shafait (late) (AJK) and Akram Khan Shaheed (Punjab).

Tamgha-i-Imtiaz: Mohammad Yousaf Gondal (Punjab); Rana Mohammad Zaeem (Punjab); Dr Mazhar Iqbal (Punjab); Dr Shahzad Alam (Punjab); Dr Uzma Saleem (Gilgit-Baltistan); Dr Ikram Ali Malik (Islamabad); Dr Iftikhar Ahmad (KP); Prof Dr Rukhsana Wamiq Zuberi (Sindh); Syed Sabihuddin Rehmani (Sindh); Syed Ali Abbas (Sindh); Mohammad Rafique Shad (Balochistan); Khawaja Safar Ali (KP); Mehwish Hayat (Sindh); Sardar Ali Takkar (KP); Akhtar Gul (KP);Flt-Lt (retd) Mohammad Siddique Sheikh (Punjab); and Malik Amin Aslam Khan (KP).