What happened: On February 17, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi conferred the Hilal-e-Pakistan award to Bil Gates in recognition of his support for poverty alleviation and contributions to the health care sector. The special “investiture” ceremony was held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr attended by members of the diplomatic corps and senior officials as it was noted that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation played a critical role in the elimination of polio from Pakistan.
Details: The attendees of the ceremony also included Shibli Faraz, Dr Faisal Sultan, Fawad Chaudhry and others. Whereas, it was announced that “The contribution of Bill Gates for health care in Pakistan shall never be forgotten.” At the same time, his contributions to the eradication of AIDS was noted and applauded.
Reaction: Bill Gates’ visit to Pakistan was met with a hilarious response as Ayaan Siddiqui commented, “200 ka hilal e imtiaz 200 billion dollars lega.” Arsalan Arif wrote, “To compensate for all the pirated copies of Windows our nation has used till date.” While, Saqib Salman wrote, “Not worthy as mehwish hayat also got this award with zero talent and contribution..”
