A year ago we had to deal with the fact that former law minister Babar Awan was honoured a Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the president of Pakistan for his ‘scholarly work’ of which the (fake) PhD degree stood as proof.
This year, we have to deal with a lot more than that.
Perhaps the whole country stands united in being flabbergasted at the news of Rehman Malik’s nomination for the prestigious award of the Nishan-i-Imtiaz. Malik, like many others, has been nominated for his services to the public, which so far remain invisible – signing up on twitter doesn’t count. Looking at the dozens and dozens of terror attacks, security lapses and lives lost in target killings while Malik has held office, the biggest public service the interior minister could have done would have been to resign. Anything short of that does not qualify for such an honour.
Malik’s award is not the only announcement that has been receiving flak from the country. Where once former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had refused to allow such honours to adorn her ministers, now we see a fair chunk of Zardari’s favourites on the list of recipients of the prestigious awards. Benazir had issued a notification stating “No minister to be decorated as a policy” – but perhaps as PPP evolves with time, it changes certain policies over time too – even if they were a better part of BB’s legacy.
The list of other recipients included Speaker National Assembly Dr Fahmida Mirza, Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani, Advisor to Sindh CM Sharmila Farooqui, Cabinet Division Secretary Nergis Sethi and former PPP Punjab President Qasim Zia. Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar and Secretary General to President Salman Farooqui were also among those awarded.
Like Malik, all of those mentioned above have been honoured for their services to the public but looking at the list and the lack of achievements the recipients bring to the table, it is pretty obvious that the services being spoken of are for anyone but the public. How does one even make sense of a national civil award of such stature being given to the president’s spokesman? Conveying statements of Zardari to the public does not count as honourary service either! If that were the case then there are a great amount of journalists who have also conveyed the messages and activities of the president to the public – do we qualify too? And when it comes to Sharmila Farooqui, most would agree that the only thing the advisor has excelled in this year is having the most television appearances.
What came as more of a surprise, or actually not so much anymore when it comes to our leaderhip, Nargis Sethi, who presides over the selection process for the awards has herself been nominated for one. Sethi also said that the requirements (regarding the awards) change over time and therefore, it was fine for Benazir’s old policy to be scrapped.
Along with so many other things the government has changed, scrapped and meddled with, sadly the prestige and status of these awards and the message of public service has also been distorted as we see ministers and spokesmen being awarded for the work that is in the line of their duties – are the perks and benefits that come with their jobs not enough?
There are a lot of deserving people in our country who have given many sacrifices and worked very hard for the betterment of this country. The move to distribute these medals so carelessly has once again reminded the nation of what a selfish, short-sighted and shameless lot leads us.
The writer is the Deputy Editor at Dawn.com
