ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday decided to award ‘Tamgha-i-Imtiaz’ (posthumously) to the doctors and health workers who were martyred while providing medical treatment and care to the patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was decided that Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (posthumously) would be awarded to 81 doctors from Punjab, 87 from Sindh, 23 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight from Balochistan, four from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and one each from Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad.

Likewise 59 nurses and frontline health workers from across Pakistan would also be honoured with Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (posthumously) for their services and saving lives of people without caring about their lives during the corona pandemic.

The prime minister, in a statement, paid tributes to the doctors and frontline health workers who served the corona patients risking their own lives.

“These sons and daughters of the soil embraced martyrdom from this deadly pandemic while fulfilling their responsibilities” and the whole nation would remain indebted to them, he added.

PM Shehbaz also paid tributes to the family members of the martyred doctors and health workers, saying that they were pride of the nation.