ISLAMABAD – Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has rejected the proposal of declaring November 9 named Iqbal Day as a public holiday citing a verse from Allama Iqbal’s ever lasting poetry.
The Joint Secretary Law Salman Qayyum Khan had moved a summary seeking to declare Iqbal day as holiday while quoting that the poet of the east rendered services for the creation of Pakistan and so the new generation should be apprised of his struggle.
The summary mentioned that November 9 was declared a public holiday till 2015 but after that it was discontinued.
As approval of public holiday rests with the decision of Interior Minister so it was forwarded to Ahsan Iqbal, however, the minister rejected the proposal while referring to a poetic verse of Allama Iqbal.
Ahsan who shares part of his name with Allama Muhammad Iqbal wrote :Mayassar Ati Hai Fursat Faqt Ghulamon Ko
Nahin Hai Banda-e-Hur Ke Liye Jahan Mein Faragh
making it clear that there would be no holiday on November 9th.
The verse translates as: The slaves can get repose and rest in world confined by Time and Space;
But men of high and noble birth havenʹt leisure in worldly race.
Allama Muhamamd Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot and breathed his last on 21 April 1938 in Lahore.
He was a companion of Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Allahabad address proved to be the first step towards the struggle for a separate homeland for muslims.
Allama’s son Justice Javed Iqbal served as a senior justice at the Supreme Court of Pakistan and previously as the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
He died in October 2015 and is survived by two sons, Waleed and Munib Iqbal, the former being a office holder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
