LAHORE – Former director general of chief minister’s Strategic Reform Unit (SRU), Salman Sufi has won the ‘Mother Teresa Awards 2018’ based on his extensive services for Women’s empowerment and social uplifting of the marginalized masses in Pakistan.
The award will be conferred in Mumbai India on October 21st, 2018. It is the only award in the name of Mother Teresa recognized by the Missionaries of Charity.
‘This award is for millions of abused women of Pakistan and India who strive to get justice but are denied because unfortunately our priorities have been to strengthen arms race instead of people. It’s time to change that,’ Sufi told a leading daily after being declared the winner.
“It’s time to make women masters of their destiny so the fate of Pakistan and India can change for the better, they hold the key, we ignore them at our own peril,” he added in a conversation with Dawn News.
Sufi joins Dalai Lama, Malala Yousufzai, Priyanka Chopra, Mahathir Mohammed, Bilquis Edhi, Neerja Bhanot, Abdullah bin Zayed bin Nahyan, who have previously received this award for their services to promote peace, harmony and social justice around the world.
According to details, this year’s other nominees were 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 & UN Goodwill Ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking), and Dr Nashwa Al-Ruwaini (CEO & Founder- Pyramedia).
Salman Sufi, former DG of SRU and author of Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act 2016 in Punjab, Pakistan and founder of South Asia’s first survivor centric anti-violence against women centre finally outshined his peers to receive the prestigious Mother Teresa Award 2018.
The Mother Teresa Awards by Harmony Foundation India award to honour individuals and organizations that promote peace, equality and social justice, and aim to encourage the cause of justice and peaceful coexistence, while providing an impetus for society to imbibe these values.
This is an initiative of Harmony Foundation, an organization created by Abraham Mathai in Mumbai.
Sufi’s reforms were widely supported by previous government led by PML-N especially, but have been placed on the back burner by the new administration. He was asked to leave his post due to his close working coordination with former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and his projects which gained worldwide recognition are facing trouble at home in Pakistan.
Salman Sufi said that he dedicates this award to all the women in Pakistan who faced harassment and violence and hoped to continue providing justice to them. He credited the political support of former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif that made his work possible in Punjab.
He has initiated the movement for passage of Pakistan’s first comprehensive women protection legislation which had its own implementation mechanism called Violence Against Women Centers (VAWC).
VAWC is a one-stop survivor centric model which provides police, prosecution, medical, shelter and post-trauma psychological rehabilitation under one roof to survivors of violence. The legislation was passed in 2016 and received fierce criticism from the religious right wing.
