By IANS,
Islamabad : A Pakistani woman police officer has won the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2011 instituted by the UN.
Shahzadi Gulfam, a deputy superintendent of police in Punjab province, is the first Pakistani woman officer to receive the prestigious award, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
She is deployed with the UN Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) as the UN Police (UNPOL) team leader posted in the National Police Vulnerable Persons Unit in capital Dili.
Gulfam was selected for the award by the UN Police Division in the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) International Scholarship Committee.
She joined the Punjab police in March 1985.
She was the first Pakistani woman to be deployed with the UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1997 and subsequently served in UN missions in Kosovo in 1999 and Timor-Leste in 2007.
President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday felicitated Gulfam on winning the UN award.
Zardari said it was an honour for all women of Pakistan as well as for the country.
The award, for which there were 12 women candidates from 11 countries serving in UN peace missions worldwide, was presented during the International Association of Women Police annual training conference Aug 21 at Lexington in the US.