Staff Reporter
President Dr Arif Alvi Sunday conferred national military awards on 70 officers and soldiers of armed forces in recognition of their meritorious services and valour they had shown to safeguard the national frontiers.
At a special investiture ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadr, the President conferred awards in four categories including Sitara-i-Jurat, Sitara-i-Bisalat, Tamgha-i-Jurat and Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military).
The ceremony was traditionally scheduled on March 23, 2020, but it had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even this time too, due to the social distancing measures, it was bifurcated into two day-event for conferment of military and civil awards respectively with all the participants wearing face masks as per anti-COVID SOPs.
Besides the recipients of the awards, the ceremony was also attended by members of the federal cabinet, services chiefs, family members of the recipients also including of those who martyred in different operations to purge the country of terrorists.
The President conferred Sitara-i-Jurat on Wing Commander Noman Ali Khan, who shot down an Indian aircraft that attempted to invade Pakistan’s airspace on February 27, 2019.
Air Vice Marshal Zafar Aslam and Group Captain Rana Ilyas Hassan were decorated with Sitara-i-Bisalat.
Among others who were also conferred Sitara-i-Bisalat included Wing Commander Umar Chaudhry Shaheed, Lt. Commander Humair Iftikhar, Captain Junaid Irfan Abbasi Shaheed, Subedar Major Munawar Khan Shaheed, Subedar Munir Ahmed Shaheed, Naib Subedar Nazir Ahmed Shaheed, Havaldar Engineer Muhammad Asif Shaheed, Havaldar Abdul Naseer Shaheed, Havaldar Amir Wali Shah Shaheed, Havaldar Abdul Rehman Shaheed, Lance Havaldar Abdul Razzaq Shaheed, Naik Salimullah Shaheed and Lance Naik Nazir Khan Shaheed.
Sepoys Amir Khan Shaheed, Fakhar Abbas Shaheed, Ramz Ali Shaheed, Samiullah Baig Shaheed, Anwar Jan Shaheed, Waris Sha’ban Shaheed, Mir Alam Shaheed and Imdadullah Khan Shaheed were also conferred Sitara-i-Bisalat posthumously.
The president decorated Group Captain Faheem Ahmed Khan and Wing Commander Hassan Mahmood Siddiqui with Tamgha-i-Jurat.
Forty four armed forces officers were conferred Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) including Lt. General Khawar Rehman, Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar, Air Marshal Jawad Saeed, Air Marshal Zahid Mahmood, Major General Naveed Safdar, Major General Tahir Khadim, Major General Aslam Khan, Rear Admiral Imran Ahmed, Major General Ammar Raza Hamdani, Major General Irfan Ali Shaikh, Major General Wasim Ahmed, Major General Imran Afzal, Major General Syed Raza Jafar, Major General Tahir Iqbal, Major General Malik Mohammad Masood and Major General Ayub Hassan Bhatti.
The President also conferred the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) on Air Vice Marshal Ahmad Hassan, Major General Hassan Akhtar Kiani, rear admirals Mohammad Shoaib, Zakaur Rehman, Naveed Ashraf, Awais Ahmed Bilgrami and Abdul Basit Butt, major generals Salman Fiaz Ghani, Zafar Iqbal, Kunwar Irfan Ahmed, Chaudhry Sarfaraz Ali, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Raza Jalil, Tahir Gulzar Malik, Saqib Muhammad Malik, Muhammad Imtiaz Khan, Muhammad Asim Iqbal, Aniqur Rehman Malik, Shahid Mahmood, Asim Malik, Rafiqur Rehman, Inam Haider Malik, Fiaz Hussain Shah, Noman Zakaria, Khalid Saeed, Sarfraz Muhammad and Shahid Nazir, besides Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Zahir Faisal.
