LAHORE: Chief Minister Strategic Reform Unit’s (SRU’s) former director general Salman Sufi has been nominated for the prestigious ‘Mother Teresa Award 2018’ in India for his services to women empowerment and the emancipation of the marginalised masses in the country.
It is the only award in the name of Mother Teresa recognised by the Missionaries of Charity, and will be conferred in Mumbai, India on October 21 2018.
Previous recipients of the award include the Dalai Lama, Malala Yousufzai, Priyanka Chopra, Mahathir Mohammed, Bilquis Edhi, Neerja Bhanot, and Abdullah bin Zayed bin Nahyan.
This year’s other nominees are Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Laureate 2003), Tawakkol Karman (Nobel Laureate 2011), Rula Ghani (First Lady of Afghanistan), Yeonmi Park (North Korean refugee), Oby Ezekwesili (founder-Bring Back Our Girls), Nadia Murad (Nobel Laureate, Yazidi Refugee and UN Goodwill Ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking), and Dr Nashwa Al-Ruwaini (CEO and Founder – Pyramedia).
Sufi’s reforms, although massively supported by the previous PML-N government, and especially former chief minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif, have faced a downturn in the current regime as he was asked to leave his post due to his close professional relationship with the former chief minister.
Salman Sufi said that he dedicates this award to all the women in Pakistan who have faced harassment and violence and hoped to continue providing justice to them; crediting the political support of former CM Shahbaz Sharif that made his work possible in the Punjab province.