Syed Ali Shah Geelani gets Pakistan’s top civilian award

Srinagar: The Pakistani senate on Monday unanimously passed a resolution conferring the country’s highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, on Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, besides proposing an engineering university in his name.

The resolution was moved by Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mustaq Ahmad and passed unanimously with a voice vote. The senate also decided to hold its session in the “legislative assembly” of Muzaffarabad in POK on August 5, which marks the first anniversary of the defanging of Article 370 in J&K.

The resolution lauded Geelani’s “the selfless and relentless struggle and sacrifices” of Geelani for the “right to self-determination” of the people of J&K, and proposed inclusion of the ‘life and struggle’ of Geelani in the country’s academic curriculum.

The development comes less than a month after Geelani quit his Hurriyat faction and named Rawalpindi-based Abdullah Geelani as successor amid speculation that he was doing ISI’s bidding. (ToI)