Imran Khan to Surrender Award in Protest

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced on Thursday that he will surrender the Hilal-e-Pakistan award in protest of the government’s decision to confer the national honour upon US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher. “As a holder of the Hilal-e-Pakistan, I feel insulted to see this high national honour being bestowed upon Richard Boucher who has done nothing for Pakistan except pressurising and harassing the state into submitting to US policies, which have resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Pakistanis as well as destruction of FATA,” he said in a statement. Imran said the “murderous policies of the Bush administration”, which Boucher had represented with ‘excessive zeal’ in Pakistan, certainly did not have the merit of getting any award from Pakistan.

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