President and PM issue Iqbal Day messages, announce year of events

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued separate messages for Iqbal Day, and the prime minister used his to announce a year-long programme of national and international events around Allama Muhammad Iqbal's writing. The 149th birth anniversary of the national poet is observed on November 9.

The Express Tribune reported that the programme opens on November 8 and closes on November 9 next year. It lists international conferences, academic and research seminars, literary festivals, exhibitions, educational competitions and cultural activities.

In his message, President Zardari said Iqbal's words "awakened people to their dignity, their rights and their power to shape their own destiny" and gave intellectual direction to the aspirations of the Muslims of the subcontinent.

The president said the poet's work "also spoke to a wider human struggle: the pursuit of freedom, equality and a life of self-respect". He said Iqbal envisioned a society in which wealth, privilege and inherited status would no longer determine a person's worth or opportunities, and that his poetry upheld the dignity of labour. He urged young people to draw on that verse to develop critical thinking and a spirit of inquiry.

Prime Minister Sharif said Iqbal awakened political consciousness among the Muslims of the subcontinent, and that this "consciousness of a separate identity played a pivotal role in their historic struggle for the creation of an independent homeland".

He paid tribute to Iqbal as the Poet of the East and said the philosopher's thought continues to broaden intellectual horizons and to guide Muslims in their individual and collective lives. The government, he said, is committed to keeping Iqbal's thought part of educational institutions, national discourse and development priorities, and he named intellectual awakening, character building and collective renewal as national objectives.

The Express Tribune carried both leaders' messages and the details of the events programme. The Associated Press of Pakistan carried only the president's remarks urging young people to use Iqbal's poetry to sharpen their spirit of inquiry and critical faculties.