KARACHI, May 19: As many as 21 persons from all over the country were awarded Millennium Gold Medals in recognition of their services rendered in their respective fields by a galaxy of academicians, judges and economists at a ceremony held here on Saturday.

Their services were recognized at the 12th Star Awards 2001, organized by South Asia Publications in the Bahria auditorium. More than 200 participants from other cities of country also received awards in various categories.

Sindh Ombudsman Haziqul Khairi presided over the inaugural session, followed by a book launching session, which was presided over by the vice chancellor of Karachi University, Dr Zafar Saeed Saify.

The vice chancellors of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Dr A. R Malik, and the NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar, Dr S. Iqbal Shah, jointly presided over the convocation and reception sessions.

During these sessions, they distributed awards to recipients, who performed outstandingly in their respective categories, including the boy and the girl child, the adolescent boys and adolescent girls, men, women and the awards of the man and woman of the year.

The final “Annual Dinner” session was chaired by the president of the First Women Bank, Karachi, Zarine Aziz. She gave away awards, gold medals and the queen of the year award to the recipients.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief guests at the various sessions felicitated the organizers of the Star Awards.

Earlier, the chairman of South Asia Publications, Syed Mohammad Mehmood, said the ceremony opened new vistas of imagination progress and colour of life amid new dynamics of human resource development.

The, institution of ‘Star Awards’ will go a long way in producing ‘Star Laureates’ in the country, he added.

Later, gold medals were given to 21 recipients, including Umair Ilyas and Syeda Kisa-i-Zehra for the Boy and Girl Child, Ghulam Mustafa and Kashif Nawaz for the Adolescent Boys, Ayesha Tajwar and Komal Atta for the Adolescent Girls, Dr Akbar H. Soomro, Dr Badaruddin A. Memon, Dr Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Dr Javed Anwar Aziz, Dr Shamsuddin, Engr Saadat Siddique, Dr Sikandar Hayat and Arsalan Shah for the Men, Dr Haleema Akhtar Hashmi, Dr Nashid Syed, Raheela Shaikh, Dr Sarwar Jehan Abbasi and Suhela Asif for the Women.

The Man of the Year award was given to Federal Minister for Science and Technology Dr Atta-ur-Rehman and the Woman of the Year Award was presented to Dr Fatima Ali Shah in their absence.—PPI