Home » Bill Gates conferred Hilal-e-Pakistan

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has been conferred with Hilal-e-Pakistan, the second highest civilian honour in the country, for his efforts to help eradicate polio in Pakistan, Samaa TV reported.
Gates is on a day-long visit to Pakistan and has met with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He also visited the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) that oversees efforts to curb Covid-19.
The Pak premier’s house hosted a luncheon in honour of the tech billionaire, who was briefed on Pakistan’s efforts about polio eradication and Covid response.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been a major contributor in worldwide polio eradication through Gavi, the vaccine alliance, the report said.
Gates also met Planning and Development Minister and NCOC head Asad Umar and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan.
In a statement, the NCOC said the philanthropist and his delegation attended the forum’s morning session.

“He was informed about the NCOC’s role and methodology, its achievements since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the coronavirus situation in Pakistan as well as the non-pharmaceutical interventions by the forum to control the spread of the disease,” it added.
The delegation was briefed about genome sequencing being carried out in Pakistan and coronavirus variants detected so far.
According to the statement, Bill Gates appreciated Pakistan’s success against Covid-19 despite resource constraints and the initiatives and measures for public health safety.

About Hilal e Pakistan:

Hilal-e-Pakistan is the second-highest civil award (in the hierarchy of “Hilal”) of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The award seeks to recognize those people who have made “meritorious contribution to the national interests of Pakistan, or cultural, social contribution, or other significant public or private endeavors”.
The award is not limited to Pakistani citizens and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be conferred upon foreign nationals.
It is bestowed by the president of Pakistan once a year on the eve of Independence day.

William Henry Gates III(born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist.
He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen.
During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.

Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and donated some of his Microsoft stock in 1994 to create the “William H. Gates Foundation”.
In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations and Gates donated stock valued at $5 billion to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was identified by the Funds for NGOs company in 2013, as the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation, with assets reportedly valued at more than $34.6 billion.
The foundation allows benefactors to access information that shows how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.
Gates, through his foundation, also donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a new building to be named Gates Center for Computer Science which opened in 2009.