Founding Editor of Pakistaniat.com, our very own Dr. Adil Najam has just been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan for his contribution and public service in the field of environment and development policy.
Adil is known to all of us as the founder of this blog, but his full time work is as the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy and the Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. At Boston University he also serves as a Professor of International Relations and of Geography and Environment.
A world expert on matters related to environment and development, and specially on global climate change – he was part of the team of authors that wrote the IPCC reports, work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize – for us, he remains the creator of Pakistaniat.com (here, here, here). And we are delighted to see this honor being given to him.
Pakistan’s civil awards are announced by the President of Pakistan every year Independence Day (Aug 14) every year and then awarded on the following Pakistan Day (March 23). Like always, the list of award winners includes Pakistanis and those who have contributed to Pakistan in many areas of expertise. The full list of award winners for this year can be seen here. Some of the interesting and important people who were given Civil Decorations this year, in addition to Adil Najam, include: Bano Qudsia (Hilal-i-Imtiaz), Asma Jahangir (Hilal-i-Imtiaz), Prof. Ayesha Jalal (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Prof. Hasan Askari (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), F.E.Chaudhry (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Jamil Naqsh (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Javed Ahmed Ghamidi (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Prof. Rasul Bakhsh Rais (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Allama Talib Johri (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Hanif Ramay (Sitara-i-Imtiaz), Fehmida Riaz (Literature – Pride of Performance), Masud Mufti (Literature – Pride of Performance), Younus Khan (Cricket – Pride of Performance), Shahid Khan Afridi (Cricket – Pride of Performance), Zakauddin (Hockey – Pride of Performance), and many more.
On behalf of all of our readership, I want to congratulate Adil on this honor. Well done Adil Bhai from all of us!
Congratulations.
Congratulations, Mubariq
Tillykke, Lycka til, F
Heartiest Congratulations !
It is an honour for all Pakistanis
Pakistan recognise him now. I gave him my ” Sitara Imtiaz”
two years ago.
Thank you for your work!
Congratulations Adil Bhai
You’ve made us proud. Keep up the good work.
At Godspeed my friend. You are my albatross.
Congrats Adil: Aunty must have been proud of you:)
Well I am a new reader of his articles but when i studied his profile i got all genius minds come from UET .
Congratulations for your great achievement.
Heartiest congratulations to you Adil Bhai Sahib.
I am sure your family will be as proud of as you as we are.
What wonderful news. Restores my faith in these things. Cannot think of a better person to get such an award on Pakistan’s Independence Day.
I cannot think of any other living Pakistani who gives me more hope and faith in Pakistan than Dr Najam. I do not know his work on environment but I know from this blog that he can talk about even the toughest times and topics and leave one feeling good about Pakistan.
A real Pakistani patriot and someone who does not cover up the problems but speaks from the heart about a country he clearly loves.
Good to see the country acknowledging his contribution.
Mubarak ho, sir!
Congratulations Adil; this is certainly very well-deserved. We hope you will get cited for your humanitarian and journalistic contributions as well.
Congratulations Dr. Adil – Well Deserved.
Congratulations Adil, very well-deserved
Congratulations Dr. Adil Sahib,
Indeed a well deserved award!
Heartiest CONGRATULATIONS Adil. It is a real pride for the whole family. You truely deserved this. May you keep bringing Laurals to Brighten the name of your Family and the country. Ameen.
Excellent. I am even more impressed than I already was.
It is good to see good things happening to good people.
I am quite impressed by the process and company Prof. Najam is in. This is a good selection of people Adil Najam, Javed Ghamdi, Asma Jehangir, Ayesha Jalal.
Excellent. And congratulations to you all.
I think this makes Adil Najam the first Pakistani blogger to get this great honor!
Congratulations to Adil! He is indeed a patriotic Pakistani-American and a volunteer extraordinaire! We can all be proud of his accomplishments and his service to humanity as a member of the Nobel winning IPCC.
Dear Najam Sahib
It is indeed a wonderful news for a person like me who has been striving to see, all along, that there are no sycophants and ‘me-toos’ awarded (it so common to so these prizes being floundered and wasted on no-gooders). I congratulate you on a meritorious achievement. Please keep the pressure full throttle and let us hear more good news soon.
Regards.
Sohail
(a retired technocrat)
Congrats Adil for recognition of your effort for the green environment. Though I doubt that Zardari would have any idea why were you selected.
I wonder how your efforts would be useful for Pakistan?
I’m a reader of your blog for a year now and I have read all your articles but never realized until now when I saw your photograph here that you are actually the one who used to host a great program on Ptv and all of us at home used to watch it regularly.
Well Sir aap ko buhat mubarik ho. You really deserve it.
Adil, you deserved it, congratulations,,,,,,,,,still deserve more awards for keeping Pakitanis spirits alive and live on ATP.
SHABASH
i dont know whether he desreves sitar-e-imtiaz for his professional works but he certainly deserves something bigger than sitara-e-imtiaz for creating this website/forum about Pakistan.
What he needs to be awarded is a Pakistani flag with ‘Thank you Mr. Adil Najam’ written on it.
CONGRATULATION WELL DONE ADILBHAI.MAP
Congratulations Adil! You are such an inspiration for us all.
Hearlty congratulations to Adil Bhai! I am very pleased to learn this. Adil deserves this honour and should be an icon for us Pakistanis abroad.
Congratulations. However, the true measure of your dedication and contribution is not the award by Mr. 10 percent but the acclaim and respect provided by the readers here at Pakistaniat. I was convinced of your contributions when a tough audience of UET Alumni of North America gave you standing ovation for your speech in Washington DC.
Congratulations!
Congratulations
Mubarak and well deserved Professor Najam.
This list has given me a wake-up call, I don’t any have any knowledge of the 96% of the honorees mentioned in bold.
Off to Google now..
Many congratulations on a well deserved recognition of your integrity, patriotism and intellect. Your blog is essential reading for all expatriate Pakistanis.
Congratulations!!!
Adil Sahib,
Congrulations for getting this award.We are all proud of you.
Sincerel
Dr.Daniyal Nagi
Dear Sir Adil,
Congratulations to you! I pray that someday I get to be your student as I am in the field of environmental sciences :-)
This makes me sooooo happy. It shows that the Govt does stumble upon good decisions from time to time.
A very well deserved award to a great son of the soil.
Congrats Dr Adil.
You’re an inspiration sir!
Shah Jee.
Congrats on the tamgha.
I am absolutely delighted to hear this news.
Not just delighted for Adil Najam, but for all of us and for Pakistan.
For me, Dr. Adil Najam is really MR. PAKISTAN. The ultiimate Pakistani. Jinnah’s Pakistani. He embodies all that is good about our country and I cannot imagine a single person today who is a bigger or better role model for other Pakistanis, specially young Pakistanis.
Bt I am even more delighted for all of us and for Pakistan. A nation that honors its giants and honors people like Adil Najam who speak truth in the face of power, that nation will ultimately thrive no matter what. My faith in so many things is restored today.
Congratulations, Dr. Adil Najam.
Mubarak Adil,you have made us all proud,Mamu would have been proud too.Keep up the good work.
Congratulations sir!
congratulation sir :)
we are proud to have such people in our country :)
Congratulations Adil! You truly deserve this award and we’re so proud of you. Keep it up!
Best!
Congratulations Pakistan and Pakistaniat.
Best news I have heard in many days.
I am imrpessed by the list and that intellectuals are being given honors. That speaks about the positive change happening in Pakistan because of civil society.
Congratulations Prof. Najam.
Dr. Adil Najam makes us all proud.
I have followed your career ever since you were a teenager writer for the Muslim and seen you blossom into a global leader and someone who is recognized and respected by anyone who meets you.
The decency and sense of fairness that always comes from what you write here, or when you speak (I have heard you 3-4 times now) in public or on TV is refreshing.
I am also very happy that whoever makes these decisions has made so many good choices this year.
A nation is measured by many things, amongst them by who they honour.
I think by honouring someone like Adil Najam we as a nation have made ourselves proud and for all of us that gives us more confidence and faith.
May all of Pakistan’s sons be as talentend and as principled as Dr. Adil Najam
Heartiest Congratulations Adil!
Great News! I am delighted to hear the news. You make us feel better and proud to be a Pakistani.
You are a true inspiration for all Pakistanis.
I do not know Prof. Najam except through this blog and seeing him a few times on TV. But for some reason reading this makes me feel really good and proud and happy.
To see the country giving awards and accepting the great minds that we have while they still are alive and active rather than shedding crocodile tears after they die is very very good. It makes me have more faith in us.
Congratulations Prof. Adil Najam
Adil Najam is a polymath who has aciheived so much in so many different fields.
I hope he will also be recognized for this website, for being part of the blogging revolution in Pakistan, and most for developing the sense of Pakistaniat in everyone who encounters him.
Keep going Dr. Najam, you are an inspiration for all of us.
Dear all. My gratitude to Owais Mughal for the post and to all of you for your kind wishes and words. My appreciation also to the many who sent messages via the ATP Facebook Page and the even more readers who directly sent messages via email. I am grateful for these sentiments tremendously and the support and appreciation from all of you mean as much as any award itself.
I too am delighted to hear this as if it is my own.
For someone still so young to have acheived so much at a world level in area of importance such as environment is a great achievement for Pakistan.
Also, I am so glad that Pakistan has recognized his talents and achievements without waiting till it was too late like we usually do.
I also take this opportunity to thank Prof. Najam for having created this blog.
Thank you and congratulations.
Adil Sahib Jeenday raho Wasday raho…
Bohat Bohat Mubark ho Adil Bhai :)
Congratulations!!! First, I thought, the award was for founding the ATP, which would have been equally well deserved. The reassuring thing is you are in good company: Asma Jahangir, Prof. Ghamdi, Prof. Hasan Askari, Jamil Naqsh and several others. Whatever the selection process, it seems someone has chosen thoughtfully — mostly.
Congratulations, once again.
Awesome, beautiful. Congratulations!
Humaira has rightly said “For me, Dr. Adil Najam is really MR. PAKISTAN”. A human being like you deserves much more than you have acheived so far in this young age. Your persuation and love for Pakistan has made us more patriotic Pakistanis and conferring this award has given us more confidence in the system of our country.
Long live Pakistan and so do its lovers…………..
Like many others, I feel proud for what you have achieved not only for Pakistan and its people but for the benefit of this World as a whole. Congratulations. Haroon (France).
well deserved adil
keep up the good work
Congratulations. You make us all very proud. You were destined to o great things and I think the best is yet to come.
Congratulations Dr. Najam!
There are some notable names in the list this year!
Congratulations. And keep up with the good work.
Owais, thanks for sharing this fantastic news.
Adil – May Allah continue to bless you with continued success & good luck with your future endeavours
This is something interesting and cheerful.
Congratulations Adil! May Allah bless you.
I’d think that someone of Adil’s statute would have boycotted a medal from this government. Congrats on the medal, you certainly deserve it, but shame on you for accepting it.
Congratulations, Prof. Najam. You are a true Pakistani.
This is a great recognition from your country and I am proud that Pakistan has honored such courageous and honorable Pakistanis as Prof. Adil Najam, Asma Jehangir and Prof. Ayesha Jalal.
Congratulations……
The Genious Adil Najam is a Proud Pakistani & a Beacon of Light for the new generation.
Well Done!
God bless you always.
Congratulations Dr Adil Najam for this Award!
We need great minds like you here in Pakistan in these circumstances your country is facing rather than escaping and contributing your talent to another country.
Please read recent very though provoking two articles by Orya Maqbool Jan on the subject.
http://www.pkcolumns.com/2009/08/03/brain-derain-by-orya-maqbool-jan/
http://www.pkcolumns.com/2009/08/06/seg-zemana-hai-by-orya-maqbool-jan/
The writer of these articles Orya Maqbool Jan is a serving senior bureaucrat and is presently working as Director General Walled City Project in Lahore after having worked as Information Secretary to the Punjab Government. A well known intellectual, playwright and a literary person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orya_Maqbool_Jan
A very well deserved Award. CONGRATS!!
We are really proud of you Sir!
Dear Adil Bhai
You probably don’t realise how much hope you give us Pakistanis… and how much pride.
Heatiest congrats.
:)
Congratulations on winning the award. I have a question though, i have recently been studying symbolism and could not help wonder why this award has an upside down star. It looks very much like a Pentogram, used in devil worship and Illuminati agendas. So i cant help but wonder who designed the award and why no one questions the upside down Star design. ALso why do we have a cresent moon on most mosques. if as Muslims we are not supposed to worship celestial bodies . Can someone , WHO KNOWS!!, explain please?