Ismail Gulgee

Ismail Gulgee - The Gulgeez (October 25, 1926 – December 16, 2007) Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (twice), Hilal-e-Imtiaz, was an award-winning, globally famous Pakistani artist born in Peshawar. He was a qualified engineer in the U.S. and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family. From about 1960 on, he was noted as an abstract painter influenced by the tradition of Islamic calligraphy and by the American "action painting" idiom.

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Posted in: Artist,Misc.

Ghulam Farid Sabri

Ghulam Farid Sabri (1930 - April 5, 1994) was a major Qawwali singer, and a leading member of the Sabri Brothers, a leading qawwali group.

He was born in Kalyana, a village in the district of Rohtak in East Punjab, British India in 1930. His family's musical lineage stretches back several centuries, to the age of the Mughal emperors. His family claims direct descent from Mian Tansen, the legendary musician of the court of Akbar the Great. Mehboob Baksh Ranji Ali Rang, his paternal grandfather, was a master musician of his time;Baqar Hussein Khan, his maternal grandfather, was a unique sitarist. His family belongs to the Sabriyya order of Sufism, hence the surname Sabri.

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Posted in: Misc.,Singer

Aitzaz Hassan awarded Sitara-i-Shujat

On Sunday March 23, 2014, 110 civil awards, awarded to Pakistanis and foreign nationals, recognising their service to the country, including 35 pride of performance awards.

A Sitara-i-Shujat is being bestowed upon Aitzaz Hassan Bangash for tackling a suicide bomber before sacrificing himself to save his schoolmates. 

Click Here to know more about Aitzaz Hassan.

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Aziz Mian Qawwal

 Aziz Mian Qawwal (Urdu: عزیز میاں قوال‎) (April 17, 1942 – December 6, 2000) was one of Pakistan's leading traditional qawwals and also famous for singing ghazals in a unique style of qawwali. Aziz is still one of the most popular qawwals of South Asia. He is responsible for the longest commercially released qawwali, Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga, which runs slightly over 115 minutes.

Early life and background

Aziz Mian was born as Abdul Aziz (Urdu: عبد العزیز) in Delhi, British India. The exclamationMian, which he often used in his qawwalis, became part of his stage name. He began to introduce himself as Aziz Mian Mairthi. The word Mairthi refers to Meerut, a city in northern India, from which he migrated to Pakistan in 1947.

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Posted in: Misc.,Singer

Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan (Urdu: منير احمد خان‎; b. 20 May 1926 – 22 April 1999;), was a Pakistani nuclear engineer, scientist, who served as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1972 to 1991. He is credited along with Zulfikar Bhutto (former Prime minister), on the technical side as the "father of the Pakistan's atomic bomb project", for his role in Pakistan's integrated atomic bomb project; the clandestine Cold war program developed the atomic weapons that ultimately resulted in first successful atomic bomb testing on May 1998 (see Chagai-I and Chagai-II) in Chagai Weapon-testing Laboratories; these tests are considered one of few milestones in Pakistan's history in which, the nuclear devices were developed and produced under a programme of which Khan served its technical director.

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Posted in: Misc.,Scientist

Sadequain

Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi (Urdu: سید صادقین احمد نقوی‎), Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, also often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, was a world-renowned Pakistani artist, best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a painter. He is considered as one of the finest painters and calligraphers Pakistan has ever produced.

Personal life

Sadequain was born in 1930, descending from a family of calligraphers. In late 1940s he joined the Progressive Writers and Artists Movement. His true talent was discovered by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy who brought Sadequain into the limelight He also spent some time in Paris augmenting his skills.Sadequain received much praise for his calligraphic style, which is widely considered iconic by many critics of South Asian art.

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Syed Saleem Shahzad

Syed Saleem Shahzad (Urdu: سید سلیم شھزاد‎, November 3, 1970 – 30 May 2011) was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) and Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI). He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, a day after he was kidnapped. Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Pakistan intelligence services of being behind his killing, and US government officials later announced that they had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that this was the case. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) denied the accusations and called them "totally unfounded."

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Arfa Karim

Arfa Abdul Karim Randhawa (Urdu: ارفع کریم رندهاوا‎‎, 2 February 1995 – 14 January 2012) was a Pakistani student and computer prodigy who in 2004 at the age of nine years became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP). She kept the title until 2008. Arfa represented Pakistan on various international forums including the TechEd Developers Conference. She also received the President’s Award for Pride of Performance. A science park in Lahore, the Arfa Software Technology Park, was named after her. She was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA.

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Aitzaz Hassan

Aitzaz Hasan (Urdu: اعتزاز حسن‎) was a Pakistani school boy from Hangu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who was killed while preventing a suicide bomber from entering his school of 2,000 students at Ibrahimzai village of Hangu, on January 6, 2014.

Aitzaz's action to save his classmates captured the hearts of many in Pakistan, and he was hailed as a national hero. For his act the office of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has advised President Mamnoon Husain to confer Aitziz Hasan with the high civil award of Sitara-e-Shujaat (Star of Bravery) by Government of Pakistan.

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