MULTAN, Sept 18: Mukhtar Mai has been nominated for the prestigious ‘Sakharov Prize’ which is awarded every year by the European Parliament (EP) to the exceptional individuals and organizations who fight against intolerance, fanaticism and oppression.
Allegedly subjected to gang-rape on the orders of a panchayat in June, 2002, Mai has emerged as a campaigner against ‘injustice’.
She is among 10 individuals and organizations initially nominated for the ‘Sakharov Prize’ for 2005 carrying a cash award of Euro 50,000. One requires nomination from a political group of the EP or support of its at least 25 members to be considered for the prize. A political group in EP led by Dr Andre’ Brie and Francis Wurtz has nominated Mai for the award.
French association defending freedom of the press worldwide, Reporters Sans Frontiers, is among other nominees of the year for Sakharov. The EP committee on foreign affairs will choose a shortlist of three of the 10 candidates for the prize. The list will later be forwarded to the EP Conference of Presidents, which will select the winner on Oct 26.
The prize will be awarded at a ceremony to be held in Strasbourg on December 10, the day on which the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948. The award was launched in the 1988 in the name of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov.
A nuclear physicist and assumed as founder of the Hydrogen Bomb in former Soviet Union, Sakharov later won laurels for campaigning against nuclear proliferation in the world and close society of his native country under the communist regime.
The communist authorities had become weary of him and were skeptical of his alleged links in the western world. Therefore, he had to face hardships, including confinement and restrictions for his free thinking. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. He died at the age of 68 in Moscow in 1989.
Prominent among the recipients of Sakharov Prize are Nelson Mandela (1988), Aung San Suu Ky (1990), Tasleema Nasreen (1994) and Kofi Annan (2003).