ISLAMABAD - The government has started work on finalising a list of prominent personalities for the highest civil and military awards that will be announced on August 14 this year. "Almost all ministers have forwarded their proposals to the Cabinet Division to nominate citizens, who have outstanding performance in their respective fields and eligible for any civil or military award, a source told TheNation on condition of anonymity here on Tuesday. It further maintained that along with names of persons, the proposals of the ministries also contained detail description of their performance report. He explained that nomination for these awards is a very complicated process, as it is not easy task to choose deserving citizens from so many fields, therefore, like every year this year too, the ministries had started preparing proposals for nominating suitable persons in September. "Although the Cabinet Division always invited recommendation from the ministries in December, however, the ministries started preparing suggestions for next year soon after announcement of awards", the source, replying to a question, said. He further informed that there are not any fixed figures for ministries regarding numbers of names as it depends upon numbers of achievements, the ministries could suggest names according to achievements related to their specific fields. "The Secretaries of all ministries also defend and explain about their proposals in meetings of the Cabinet Division", the source notified. It is pertinent to mention here that last year the President of Pakistan had conferred awards to 155 citizens of Pakistan that also included 17 foreigners for excellence in different fields of life. According to rules citizens of Pakistan are eligible for awards on his Shuja'at, (bravery) Imtiaz and President's awards for Pride of Performance while foreigners could be given civil awards in any order for eminence and outstanding services to Pakistan in a significant field of activity. The awards include Hilal-e-Pakistan, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Pakistan, Sitara-e-Shujaat, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, President's award for Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Tamgha-e-Pakistan, Tamgha-e-Shujaat, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam and Tamgha-e-Khidmat. Every year the process of preparing proposals was started in December as the Cabinet Division invited recommendations from the Miniseries, Divisions and provincial governments. The proposals reached the Cabinet Division by March 1. During May-July these recommendations were received and considered by three Awards Committees. After extensive discussion the committees prepared a concluding summary and forwarded it to the President through the Prime Minister for approval. After the President's approval the announcement of civil awards is generally made once a year on Independence Day, August 14, for which the inaugural ceremony had taken place on Pakistan Day, March 23. It is responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to analyse proposals for foreign awards. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs submits a summary to the President or Prime Minister after widespread discussion and consultation with divisions, ministries concerned and also with the Cabinet Division. The President could present awards to foreign nationalist any time during the year.