Ansar Abbasi Inimical to Foster Arts & Culture in Pakistan

Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigation at The News, trigged another controversy as he slammed the performing artists and Pakistani government for ‘just’ accentuating arts & culture while ignoring other sectors for the civil awards.

Sitara-e-Imtiaz is considered the third highest honor and civilian award in the State of Pakistan.

More than 80 Pakistani and foreign nationals were conferred civil awards by President Dr Arif Alvi in recognition of their contributions in different fields including medicine, education, social services, fine arts, etc in a ceremony at Aiwan-i-Sadr on Pakistan Day.

Every year, after the awards, a controversy is raised by one or the other person and this year, Ansar Abbasi tried to make civil awards controversial.

Taking to his Twitter handle, Abbasi wrote that the government has been emphasizing to promote education, research, science, and technology on several occasions.

However, he added that none of the aforementioned sectors were given importance in the civil awards while the entertainment industry was recognized at its highest.

کہتے ہیں کہ ہمارا زور تعلیم، ریسرچ، سائنس و ٹیکنالوجی پر ہونا چاہیے۔ کوئی پوچھے زرا یہ تو بتائیں کہ 23 مارچ کو کتنے ایوارڈز تعلیم کے میدان میں اعلی کارکردگی دیکھانے والوں کو اور کتنے ایوارڈ ناچنے گانے والوں کو دیے؟اس سوال کے جواب میں ترجیحات اور “ترقی” کا مطلب سمجھ آ جائے گا۔

— Ansar Abbasi (@AnsarAAbbasi) March 25, 2021

In response to Ansar Abbasi’s tweet, Jameel Khan of Pakistani web series Churails, Omair Rana, shared a list of names of outstanding performers in the field of education and research who have been awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz.

I found these pic.twitter.com/EkQPaQym0I

— Omair Rana (@omairana) March 26, 2021

Dr Nasir Majid, Dr Muhammad Saeed and Dr Noman Ahmed were conferred awards for significant achievements in the field of education.

Moreover, Prof Dr Farhan Saif, Dr Zafar Iqbal, and Dr Naveeda Nasir were awarded the Medal of Distinction for their research in Chemistry.

And the list doesn’t end here, a large number of professionals from different scientific fields were conferred awards for their contributions in their respective fields.

Every society has given importance to arts and culture but sadly, the subject becomes a matter of dissent after a few names are honored.

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