A total of 184 Pakistanis and foreigners will receive the awards on March 23rd, 2021
President Dr. Arif Alvi conferred civilian awards to 184 Pakistanis and foreigners on the Independence Day.
The awards were conferred for individuals that provided exceptional services in various fields of work for the country. Among the recipients was Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Ali Baba, who got a Hilal-e-Quaid e Azam for his services for Pakistan. The awards investiture will take place on March 23rd, 2021.
Each year recipients of civilian awards are announced on 14th of August. Among the civil awards conferred by the president on Independence Day included Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Sitarah-e-Pakistan, Sitarah-e-Shujaat and Sitarah-e-Imtiaz. The other categories included Pride of Performance, Sitarah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Sitarah-e-Khidmat, Tamgha-e-Pakistan, Tamgha-e-Shujaat, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam.
Top civilian award for Turkish professor
Among the award recipients is Prof. Celal Soydan, a Turkish professor at the Department of Urdu Language and Literature at Istanbul University. He will receive Sitara-e-Pakistan, the third highest civilian award in the country, for his services for the promotion of Urdu language in Turkey.
Soydan completed his masters in Urdu from the Punjab University in 1993, the first Turk to do so. He also holds a doctorate on Allama Iqbal, which he completed from the Ankara University in 1999. Previously, he was the head of the Department for Urdu Language and Literature at Ankara University. He also co-authored an Urdu Turkish dictionary in 2015 called Urdu-Turkce.
Soydan is delighted at the occasion and said it is a great honor for him. He also said that he was pleased to have contributed into the better relations of the two brotherly nations. “It is a great honor for me,” he said. “Pakistan and Turkey share a long list of religious, cultural, and social similarities. I am happy that I have contributed to further strengthen these bonds.”