Pakistan said on Wednesday it was awarding its second highest civil honour, the Star of Pakistan, to 11 French naval engineers killed in a car bomb blast in Karachi in May.Twelve other Frenchmen injured in the explosion would receive the third-ranked honour, the Medal of Pakistan, said Ilyas Khan, the Cabinet department official in charge of awards. The awards, announced on Pakistan’s Independence Day, were ‘‘in recognition of their services to Pakistan,’’ he said.Khan said the proposal for the awards had come from the navy and approved by President Pervez Musharraf. The French technicians had been working on a project for Pakistan’s Navy when they were caught in the explosion outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi on May 8. Khan said the awards would be presented at a special ceremony in Paris.‘‘We did not want the injured and the next of kin of those who lost their lives to go through the trouble and expense of coming all the way to Pakistan for the awards,’’ he said.
