PESHAWAR:Renowned journalist of Pakistan, late Rahimullah Yousafzai is honored posthumously with lifetime achievement award in recognition of his service to the profession and the journalist community.
The award is conferred upon Rahimullah Yousafzai by organizers of Amir Ahmad Siddiqui media awards here at a ceremony held on Tuesday at the Chief Minister House.
The ceremony was held in connection with distribution of sixth Amir Ahmad Siddiqui media award among the media persons of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan was the chief guest on the occasion while Adviser to the CM Barrister Muhammad Saif, Secretary Information Arshad Khan and senior journalists attended the ceremony.
Lala Amir Ahmad Siddiqui was a senior journalist of Peshawar who worked for several decades in news industry and later opened his newspapers distribution agency.
After the death of Amir Ahmad Siddiqui in 2015, his children decided to launch media awards in his name with the objective of promotion of quality journalism among the newsmen of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chief Minister KP appreciated the initiative taken by family members of Lala Amir Ahmad Siddiqui and said it was a remarkable contribution in improving the quality of journalism in the region.
He also lauded the decision of honouring Rahimullah Yousafzai with lifetime achievement award.
On this occasion, the chief minister also announced to name a hospital in Katlang after Rahimullah Yousafzai.
Mahmood Khan, while congratulating the award winning journalists, also announced grant of an additional amount of
Rs 50,000 to be given by the government to the winners.
Earlier, a member of organization committee, Saiful Islam Saifi apprised participants that this is the sixth award distribution ceremony and so far around 60 journalists have been awarded for their best work.
He said this year the award of Best English Report award has been skipped due to some technical issues and a young journalist was given a token award in this category.
Resident Editor of Dawn newspaper and Chairman Judges Committee, Ismail Khan in his speech stressed upon the journalists to concentrate on improving quality of the work.
During evaluation of stories, Ismail Khan said that it was observed that quality of story content was deteriorating due to lack of hard work.
Ismail said he has worked with Rahimullah Yousafzai for 21 years and had learnt from him two qualities, hard work and full concentration.
Peshawar Press Press Club Chairman M. Raiz and Chairman Department of Mass Communication, University of Peshawar, Faiz Ullah Jan also spoke on the occasion.