KARACHI: The Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Monday awarded and honoured 18 “trailblazer women of journalism”, who are also members of the club, for their contribution to the field.

The awards were presented in two categories ‘Award for Excellence’ and ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Rafia Haider, Ghazala Fasih, Soofia Yazdani, Narjis Ara Malik, Khursheed Hyder, Yasmeen Taha, Shireen Jami, Faryal Arif, Razia Fareed, Razia Sultana, Salma Raza, Kiran Khan and Shazia Hasan were presented with the ‘Award for Excellence’ while veteran journalists Zubeida Mustafa, Sheen Farrukh, Safoora Khairi, Shamim Akhtar and Humaira Athar were presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.

MPA Sharmila Farooqi said that she is glad to be presenting the awards to such courageous and multi-talented women. “I myself feel honoured to be awarding them,” she said, while lauding KPC for coming up with the idea of recognising their women members who have and are contributing to journalism.

“In our society it is a big thing when a woman steps out of the house, because she is also told to carry herself well and not bring disrespect to her family in any way, and then when she steps out and achieves so much it is to be applauded and upheld,” she said.

MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi also said that it was great of KPC to be honouring women journalists. “Women have taken over all professions in Pakistan. And like the saying goes ‘climb every mountain’, they are also summiting mountains. So it is great to be recognising the achievements of all, especially the women in the media who cover so many things while even risking their lives,” she said.

KPC’s president Imtiaz Khan Faran and secretary Arman Sabir said that currently the club has some 154 women council members and awarding the high achievers among them was only the beginning. They intend to make it an annual affair.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2020