ISLAMABAD: As many as 30 mediapersons and civil society representatives were given Agahi awards at a ceremony held at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Saturday.

The third annual Agahi award distribution ceremony was jointly organised by NGOs, Agahi and Mishal.

Speaking on the occasion, the moderator of the event, Shamoon Hashmi, said since 1947 as many as 90 journalists had sacrificed their lives for the truth. On his request, a one-minute silence was observed in memory of the journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Waleed Tariq of Newsline was given the award in the category of business and economy, Allah Bux from Umerkot in the category of water and food security and Sohail Yousuf from daily Dawn in the category of innovation.

In the category of corporate social responsibility, Imran Malik of PTV got the award. In foreign policy category, the award was bagged by Mubarak Zeb Khan of daily Dawn while Almas Naqvi of daily Dunya got the award in the category of democratic values.

Zahir Shah, a freelance journalist, was awarded in the category of extremism and terrorism for a story he covered for Al Jazeera. Amber Rahim Shamsi of BBC Urdu got the award in the category of law and order. Umer Bin Ajmal from Dawn was awarded in the category of infotainment, Mureeb Mohmand of Express Tribune in the category of human rights and Mansoor Malik from Dawn won the award in the category of curriculum reforms.

Zahid Gishkori of The Express Tribune was awarded in the category of sexual and reproductive health, Riaz Sohail from BBC Urdu in the field of interfaith, Lala Hassan of Dunya TV in the category of journalist safety and Mohammad Atif Sheikh from Express in the category of youth empowerment.

Nadeem Malik of Samaa TV was awarded as the most credible television anchor.

In the category of people’s choice, Mubasher Lucman of ARY was awarded as the most popular male anchor, Meher Bukhari of DawnNews as the most popular female anchor and Geo as the most popular TV channel.

Saleemur Rehman from Tribal Union of Journalists and Irfan Haider were awarded in the anti-corruption category. Naqeebullah Tareen was given the award in the category of sports, Anila Ashraf in the field of judiciary, Saba Aitzaz for his story on children dying in Thar, Khalid Khattak from The News in the field of education and Sehrish Wasif of Express Tribune was awarded in the field of out-of-school children.

Amir Zia of Newsline was awarded as the investigative journalist of the year. Moreover, Syed Babar Ali, Sultan Dogar, Fayaz Ahmed and Abdul Shakoor were also given awards in different categories.

Riaz Ahmed from Bunyad was awarded in the category of development, Musarat Misbah for providing refuge and treatment to women affected by acid attacks and Baela Raza Jamil from Idara Taleem-o-Aagahi in the category of development.

Yasir Khan, a youth from Khyber Agency, played Rubab in memory of the children killed in the terror attack on the Army Public School Peshawar.

All the participants stood up when Master Ayub was called to the stage to give away some of the awards.

Master Ayub, a civil defence official by profession, has been teaching children of slums in a park at Sector F-6 for the last 28 years.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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