Dubai expat gets third-highest civilian honour of Pakistan

Dubai resident Dr Zia ul Hasan has been honoured with Pakistan's third-highest civilian award for his contributions towards the community in the fields of health and education over the last decades.
A UAE resident for over 12 years now, Dr Hasan has been honoured with Sitara-i-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, for his services towards the expat community in the UAE as well as in Pakistan.
Dr Hasan was the only UAE resident who has been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz this year. Pakistani expats from the US, Canada and Romania were also conferred different civil and military awards on Saturday, on the eve of Pakistan National Day.
Dr Hasan has been instrumental in organising free medical camps every month at the Pakistan Association Dubai (PAD) for the past 10 years. In addition, he looks after an orphanage school in the Pakistani city of Sawat, called Parwarish.
Prior to moving to the UAE in 2007, Dr Hasan had spent 19 years in the UK. He is currently working as an endocrinologist at a local medical facility in Dubai.
"I thank all my friends and community members for sending their well-wishes. I am honoured by the community and I thank the Pakistan Embassy and the PAD for recommending me for the award. Our main background was the PAD's medical wing.
"We have been running free medical camps since 2009 on a monthly basis," Dr Hasan told Khaleej Times in an interview on Sunday.
"I am also involved in setting up a diabetes care centre in Peshawar for which I have to travel every week in order to help diabetes and hypertension patients in the poor rural areas. We are targeting these areas because people cannot travel to cities and there is a lack of awareness about these diseases in the community," Dr Hasan said.
New medical centre
Highlighting a community project he has led, the doctor said the Pakistan Medical Centre is expected to be operational from August 14, which will cater not just to Pakistanis but also to other communities in the UAE.
"The medical centre will be a gift from the Pakistani community to the UAE," he said.
Dr Hasan thanked the Community Development Authority, Red Crescent and Dar Al Ber Society for their help in this endeavour.
"The main contributor is, of course, the Pakistani community who responded very well to the 'Own a Brick' campaign that allowed us to raise funds for the project. We continue to appeal to the community for 'Own a Brick', as there is a need for more funding for this noble initiative," he added.
Dr Hasan also praised the historic UAE-Pakistan relations that encouraged the Pakistani community to further strengthen their participation in the coming years.
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com