ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani journalist, working for British Broadcasting Corporation’s Urdu and World Service, has been honoured with a prestigious BBC award for best reporting in the region.

Zulfiqar Ali, senior correspondent of BBC in Islamabad, has been declared winner of this year’s BBC News Award of best reporting in the West and Central Asia region. Mr Ali has been given this award for “breaking the news of the US military helicopter crash in Pakistani cantonment city of Abbottabad that turned out to be the raid against Osama bin Laden resulted in his death”.

His credible reporting to the BBC became the foundation of the BBC’s coverage. Director News BBC Helen Boaden said: “This award is a tremendous reflection of how well you are perceived by your colleagues.”

Director BBC World Service Peter Horrocks, in his message, said: “This was a very difficult story to cover and Zulfikar Ali’s impressive journalistic nous and commitment to the story paid dividends for Global News and the BBC as a whole.”

Mr Ali is the first-ever staffer of BBC Urdu Service who has won this prestigious award. “It is a big day for me. It is as though a dream has come true and years of my efforts have borne fruit. I would like to share this honour with my colleagues and friends who have always been supportive, cooperative and helpful,” said Mr Ali.

Mr Ali has been working for BBC for more than a decade. He has remained posted mostly in Muzaffarabad and is currently based in Islamabad. He has also worked for different Pakistani print media outlets, and the Reuters and AFP news agencies.