JK News Today
Jammu, August 14
Pakistan conferred Nishan-e-Pakistan Award upon Hurriyat leader of Jammu and Kashmir Syed Ali Shah Geelani on its Independence Day, August 14.
According to the Geo News “The prestigious award was received by Hurriyat leaders (of Pakistan Chapter” at the Aiwan-e-Sadr (President House) Friday on behalf of Geelani.”
President Dr Arif Alvi presented the highest civil award of the country, to the Kashmiri Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani
Sources close to Geelani said that he was not happy at the way the award was given through his critics and “ideological adversaries.”
Syed Ali Shah Geelani had resigned from Chairmanship of Hurriyat in June this year.
The Nishan-e-Pakistan (Order of Pakistan) is the highest civil award and decoration of Pakistan bestowed by the president for the highest degree of service to the citizens of the country as well as foreign nationals. The award was established on 19 March 1957.
Morarji Desai, who served a two-year stint as India’s first non-Congress prime minister in the immediate aftermath of the Emergency, was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan in 1990.
The award drew the ire of the Congress, but Desai paid no heed to the criticism and accepted the award anyway.
Some of the others who received this award are Queen Elizabeth II in 1960, President Richard Nixon of the United States in 1969 and Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2006.
