Pakistani journo decides to return father’s award to Bangladesh

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has decided to return the award conferred on his late father by the Bangladeshi government in 2013.

Mir’s father, Waris Mir was awarded by Bangladesh for raising his voice against the 1971 East Pakistan operation.

Hamid Mir during his show Capital Talk on Thursday said that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina Wajed was bent up deteriorating relations with Pakistan.

He said that Pakistanis were ‘deceived’ by giving the awards and therefore it should be returned. He said the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid is only deliberately deteriorating the relations between the two countries which he, at the time of receiving the award, thought she wouldn’t do.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid conferred “Foreign Friends of Bangladesh Award” on five selected Pakistanis at a ceremony in Dhaka in 2013.

The recipients of awards from Pakistan were mainly those whose fathers had opposed Army action in then East Pakistan. Those who were given away gold-plated silver metallic plaques, bearing replica of the National Memorial of Bangladesh and a citation on silk cloth, include Saleema Hashmi, the daughter of renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz; Asma Jahangir, the daughter of Malik Ghulam Jilani; Hamid Mir, the son of Prof Waris Mir; Hasil Bux Bizenjo, the son of Ghaus Bux Bizenjo and the daughter of Habib Jalib.

Source: Daily Pakistan